The Black Craft Saga Week 19 Dispatch
— From the War Mode Office. Two women on opposite sides of distant realms face the same truth: once power chooses you, neither fear nor captivity can free you from its consequences.
🪶 This Week’s Movements:
Both Marissa and Dareya find themselves stripped of agency, thrust into the hands of forces far greater than themselves—one by witches who claim her bloodline, the other by an Order that now fears what she has become. Each woman tries to step away from the path laid before her, yet their worlds close in
Power binds. Destiny hunts. And those who seek to escape their fate often collide with it in its most merciless form.
In Slices of Midnight, Marissa’s determination to abandon witchcraft falters the moment she returns to Dowling, where fear has overtaken the village and Grobbins manipulates the distressed crowd with a calculated display of horror. Darkened eyes and approving smiles from corrupted strangers reveal just how deeply Muriel and Morgan’s reach extends—and how tightly Marissa is already woven into their schemes. When she finds her father soulless and Waurista waiting in Muriel’s stead, the revelation of the legendary witch’s return shatters any illusion of escape. Waurista’s effortless command of the Orb of Myceen, her reshaping of the trapped souls, and her disappearance with Marissa’s father leave Marissa standing in the echo of green sorcery and thunder, forced to confront the truth: her fate is no longer her own to reject.
In Ashborn, Dareya’s return to the Order is marked not by welcome but by chains, suspicion, and a brutal containment protocol reserved for the corrupted. Lieutenant Varaine wrestles with the cruelty he’s ordered to enforce, yet he obeys, confining Dareya to isolation where pain and silence become her only companions. Her strength lies in the barely-there bond with Veyrakh, a psychic tether she protects even as it is strained to breaking. Across the continent, Veyrakh feels her suffering and holds back the storm of his wrath, knowing a single reckless move would condemn them both. Yet each pulse of her pain erodes his restraint. As Dareya endures and Veyrakh prepares in secret, the inevitability of confrontation crystallizes: the Order believes they have caged a broken Rider, but they have instead ignited the fury of a dragon waiting for the moment the sky is his to unleash.
For two trapped figures, watched, judged, helpless. Pushed toward transformations neither fully understands. And destinies they can’t outrun.
🕯️🕷️👑 Infamy’s Daughters:
The Seventeenth Chapter of Slices of Midnight will drop on Tuesday Morning, December 9 at 10 am EST to Infamy’s Daughters for paid subscribers.
The Twelfth Chapter of Slices of Midnight will unlock on Tuesday Morning, December 9 after 10 am EST to Infamy’s Daughters for all readers.
Marissa resolves to abandon witchcraft after Isaac’s prophecy leaves her fearing damnation and the wrath of the High Council. Yet upon reaching Dowling, she finds the village consumed by hysteria. Grobbins, hidden in human guise, manipulates the terrified crowd and displays Delwort’s corpse to stoke fear, while several villagers—strangers and locals alike—regard Marissa with unsettling, corrupted admiration. Their darkened eyes reveal that Muriel and Morgan’s influence has already spread far across the Isle, making clear that severing ties with them will be far more dangerous than she imagined.
At the Jolly Grubb, Marissa discovers her father’s soul stolen and is confronted not by Muriel, but by Waurista—Muriel’s legendary mother and a witch thought long dead. Waurista effortlessly claims the Orb of Myceen and demonstrates terrifying power, altering the souls within and unleashing green soulfire inside the tavern. She orders Marissa to find Muriel before vanishing with Marissa’s father in a thunderous burst of magic. As chaos erupts in the village outside, Marissa is left with a single, chilling truth: she is already entangled in a destiny from which she may no longer be able to escape.
📖 Read Chapter 17 - Available December 9, 2025
🌞🜚✨The Shadow Lineage:
The Twenty-first chapter of Ashborn arrives for paid readers on Thursday Morning, December 11, at 10 am EST in The Shadow Lineage.
The Twentieth chapter of Ashborn unlocks for all readers on Thursday Morning, December 11, at 10 am EST in The Shadow Lineage.
Dareya is transported back to the Order in chains, treated not as a survivor but as a contaminated traitor. Lieutenant Varaine follows strict containment protocols despite privately questioning the Order’s harshness; Dareya, bruised and exhausted, senses every ounce of suspicion directed at her. Confined without medical aid or debriefing, she endures isolation in a stark Delta Three cell, relying only on the faint pulse of her bond with Veyrakh to keep her anchored. Through that thread, she pushes back fear with endurance, knowing any misstep could justify her execution.
Far across the continent, Veyrakh feels her suffering through the bond—muted, strained, but unbroken. Held in check by the danger of sparking a war, he restrains his instinct to tear into human territory and reclaim her by force. Every flare of her pain fractures his control, yet Dareya’s silent warnings stay his wings. As he prepares the Courts in secret and listens for the moment the Order falters, the truth becomes inevitable: Dareya will survive until he can move, and when she does, the full force of dragonkind will descend, and the Order will face the sky’s wrath.
Read Ashborn Chapter 21 - Available December 11, 2025
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Stay Sharp. Stay Strange. Be Wise.
—The War Mode Office
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