A Long Road Chapter 16 up on AO3

A Long Road chapter 16, At the Sharp End, is now up on Archive of Our Own!

A State of the Writer: Ker-Flop and WIPs

Okay, after long weeks of only being able to work on it in fits and starts, chapter 16 of Long Road is finally roughed out. With luck I’ll get to print that today so I can do revisions, edits, nitpicks, etc. (Augh thump flop.)

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – Healers are Scary

Talia raised a hand to mock-shield her whisper. “I thought it was just the ones we trained in Haven. Do all Healers learn to be this scary?”

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – Getting into the Flow

Talia traced a finger over two sketched outlines of a body, each veined with odd lines, with a few characters of Jianghu script to the side. “Does this mean what I think it does?”

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – Ashkevrons

Nie Huaisang shook his head, as if the icy wind had been a glancing blow. “What.”

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – Making it Work

Wrapped up against the frosty morning, Mina leaned against one of Rabbit Hole’s new paddock fences, offering a dried apple slice to entice one particularly canny buckskin mare over for a good look. She might have been Haven-raised but she was an Ashkevron. You didn’t survive family get-togethers without knowing something about good horses. “I like your brother already. He picked solid horses.”

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – Well Warned

“MindHealer Crathach, and yes,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “I know, no one wants to involve strangers in sect matters. But the Heralds are already involved with your sect. They may not know cultivation, but they know enough about how their Gifts work to draw some obvious conclusions.

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – High Hopes

Nie brooded. Nie clung to their vengeance, solid as a mountain.

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – Triage

“Ouch!”

Wen Qing tried not to roll her eyes, concentrating on placing the next silver needle in the right acupuncture point to redirect lingering resentful energy away from the core of the Nie heir seated on her examining table. The energy was stubborn. But then, so was Nie Huaisang. “I’d think you were a wuss, but I notice you only yelp if you see the needle coming. Wei Wuxian fakes it better.”

A Long Road Chapter 16 Ficbit – Different Paths

Looking back, most of what had happened by the river had gone contrary to orthodox cultivation techniques. And on sober reflection… he was not unhappy with that result.