GHOST IN THE MASK progress update – 20 chapters down, 9 to go

Two-thirds of the way through! (Well, 68%, to be precise.)

Let’s have an excerpt:

Caina frowned, remembering the history she had read. “The most powerful members of the Magisterium gathered in Caer Magia, their stronghold. They wanted to cast some sort of spell, something that would destroy their enemies at a stroke. But the spell went amiss, and killed them all…along with the hundred thousand people living in Caer Magia. The Magisterium was decimated. Its most powerful and skilled members had been killed, and the remaining magi made peace with Emperor, and the Emperor resumed governance of the Empire.” Caina shook her head. “But to this day…Caer Magia is desolate. Whatever the high magi of old did is still active. Anyone who enters the walls of Caer Magia dies within a few moments.”

“After exactly seven hundred and seventy-seven heartbeats, to be precise,” said Halfdan.

“That is remarkably specific,” said Corvalis.

“The magi have done quiet experiments,” said Halfdan. “The magi of the Fourth Empire left a great deal of valuable things in Caer Magia. Weapons of sorcerous power, books holding their arcane secrets. The contemporary Magisterium would dearly love to get its hands upon those treasures. But they can’t. Anyone who sets foot within Caer Magia dies within seven hundred and seventy-seven heartbeats. Which for a calm man, comes to less than a quarter of an hour. For a man who is panicked, much less time, and since various undead creatures lurk within the ruins of Caer Magia, a man entering the city will become quickly panicked, might not even live out his remaining seven hundred and seventy-seven heartbeats. No one can live long enough to enter Caer Magia and retrieve anything from within the ruins.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“Until,” said Caina, “today.”

-JM