I do swear
To serve Lovequest
With the sharpest edge of my mind, , , , ,With the softest tenderness of my heart
With the holiest courage of my soul, , , , ,With the last endurance of my flesh,
With understanding,
Or if necessary, without.
Where I cease to love Creation , , , , ,May I cease to love myself
--The Lovequest Vow of the Tilián
Original version
 

 

Table of Contents



(Please note:  This is a serial, not a single novel.  Don't kill yourself trying to read it all at once!  Space it out the way you would a television series running for years.  That's how I wrote it.)


Book I: WELCOME TO THE CHARADOC! ***

Book II:  TESTS OF BLOOD AND FIRE ***

Book III:  RESPONSIBILITY ***   

Book IV: BRAIDED PATHS *** 

Book V: SHARING INSANITY ***

Book VI  THE RIFT  ***

Book VII:  THE BURNING ***


I.  WELCOME TO THE CHARADOC!
  
1: An Agent's Debriefing ***


FEBRUARY, 2708


2:  Sargeddohl Harbor ***

3:  Driving ***

4.  In the Mansion of Soskia Peshawr ***

5. Special Preparations ***

6.  Chinese New Year, Charadocian Style ***

7.  Hostage ***

8.  The Children of Cyran ***

9.  Necessary Measures  ***

10.  The People Unseen ***

11.  Far from Civilization ***

12.  The Art of the Gun ***

13.  Watching and Witnessing ***


MARCH, 2708


14.  Rosary ***

15.  On Weeds and Wild Things ***

16.  Uncomfortable Necessities ***

17.  Jonathan's Confession ***

18.  Learning ***

19.  Aspirations ***

 20.  Innocence and Realism ***

21.  Hard Mercies ***

22.  Thoughts Unbearable ***

23.  The New Normal ***

24.  Mitigation ***

25.  Morsels in the Dirt ***

26.  Granny Shtara and the Magic Jar ***

27.  Special Occasions ***

28.  Holy Days ***

29.  Breaking Points ***


APRIL, 2708


30.  Pushing On Anyway ***

31.  Just When Things Seem Most Desperate ***

32.  Long Night into Dawn ***

33.  The Ruins ***

34.  Not bad, for Slavery ***

35.  Wounds ***

36.  Political Dilemmas ***

37.  Matters of Trust ***

38.  Points of View ***

39.  Mercy Unromanticized ***

40.  The Things We Need ***

41.  Awake, Asleep, and In-Between ***

42.  Fruitfulness and Decay ***

43.  Dreams and Visions ***

44.  Frenemies  ***

45.  Mischa ***

46.  Reunion  ***

47.  The Policy of Til ***


Book II:  TESTS OF FIRE AND BLOOD


APRIL, 2708, continued


1.  Malcolm deGroot  ***

2.  Who We Could Become ***

3.  Egalitarian Initiation ***

4.  Party, Rebel-Style ***

5  Morning After, Rebel-Style ***

6.  Nursing.  ***

7.  Mother Memories ***

8.  At Work in the Cornfield ***

9.  Confessions ***

10.  Healing on the Sabbath ***

11.  A Meeting of Officers ***

12.  Night-March ***

13.  The Test of Blood ***

14.  Samurai's Song ***

15.  Real.  ***

16.  Shelter From the Storm ***

17.  Earthquake Country  ***

18.  Battle of the Tanks ***

19.  Karol's Interrogation ***

20.  Screams in the Night ***


MAY, 2708

21,  A Little Bit of Smoldering ***

22.  The Weak Totter On Anyway ***

23.  The Sorcerer's Gun *** 

24.  A Dark Enchantment *** 

25.  Creatures of the Woods ***

26.  Lucinda's Band *** 

27.  The Power of Information *** 

28.  The Wild and the Civilized *** 

29.  Girls Like a Little Fun ***

30.  Out on the Town ***

31.  Secrets in the Dark ***

32.  What Matters ***

33.  Tumblebugs ***

34  No Homesickness Allowed ***

35.  The Convent of St. Teresa ***

36.  The Sacred and the Profane *** 

37.  Taxi-Ride ***

38.  Smoke ***

39.  Aunt Soskia's Warehouses *** 

40.  Madame's Happy House ***

41.  Madame's Way ***

42.  What Teofilo Wants ***

43.  Moving Teofilo ***

44.  Escape from Sargeddohl ***

45.  When It All Catches Up With You ***

46.  The Road Gives You Too Much Time to Think ***

47.  How to Die ***

48.  Shame.  ***

49.  Sanctuary ***

50.  The Secret Lore of the Debriefer's Guild ***



MAY/JUNE, 2708

51.  Layers of Past and Future ***


JUNE, 2708

52.  Just Kids ***

53.  Entertainment ***

54.  Some Must Leave and Some Must Stay ***


Book III:  RESPONSIBILITY


June, 2708, continued


1.  Catching Breath ***

2.  The Road to Tumblebugs ***

3.  A Reunion of Almost All ***

4.  Approved Education and Forbidden Thoughts ***

5.  Kief in Charge ***

6.  Mind Games ***

7.  The Laying of Traps ***

8.  What the Young Ones Want ***

9.  Invitations to Destruction ***

10.  Change is Life, Change is Death ***

11.  Hungry.  ***

12.  A Trembling Balance Before Tipping ***

13.  Enough Fooling Around ***

14.  The Battle of Cumenci ***

15.  Feast.  ***

16.  The Rituals That Must Be Kept ***

17.  Flight from Cumenci ***

18.  A Time for Extreme Measures ***

19.  Biocost.  ***

20.  A Vacation is Just a State of Mind.  ***

21.  Greenfire Ash ***

22.  The Unforeseeable Path ***

23.  Points of Culture ***

24.  The Hunting Lodge ***

25.  Cyran's Mountain Camp ***

26.  Of Men and Women ***

27.  Marching Orders ***

28.  Life Between Battles ***

29.  The Bridge ***

30.  Twin Pines ***

31.  Interactions ***


JULY, 2708

32.  Brother Branko ***

33.  The Heart Heeds No Scandal ***

34.  A Gift from Gaziley ***

35.  Out of Control ***

36.  For the Sake of the Young ***

37.  The Travails of Women Warriors ***

38.  The Ecstasy of Sacrifice ***

39.  The Gardener Mage ***

40.  One Two Three ***

41.  Blood in the Snow ***

42.  Entering Hamalla ***

43.  In the House of the Don ***

44.  Lessons on the Art of Being Human ***

45.  Flying. ***

46. O My Charadoc! ***

47.  Lessons Learned ***

48.  An Alternate Route ***

49.  An Icy View ***

50.  The Serpent of Koboros ***

51  New Journeys ***

52.  The Battle of Mountain Maiden's Knees ***


JULY/AUGUST, 2708

53.  Guests of the Abojans ***


AUGUST, 2708

54.  The Chapel of St. Teresa ***

55.  The Faithful on the Front ***

56.  Friendclan Memories ***

57.  Joy in the Face of Danger ***

58.  Mountain Melancholy ***

59.  A Fleeting Taste of Berries ***

60.  Waiting for the Enemy ***

61.  The Raid ***

62.  Party, Courtesy of Stovak ***

63.  On the Brink ***

64.  The Defense of Abojan Pass  ***

65.  After the Battle  ***


Book IV: BRAIDED PATHS


AUGUST, 2708, continued.

1.  A Penitent's Last Refuge ***

2.  A Change of Route ***

3.  No Illusions Allowed ***

4.  Overlapping Perspectives ***

5.  Meetings and Separations ***

6.  Assessing the Situation ***

7.  Magic and Misdirection ***

8.  The Devil's Road ***

9.  Memory and its Vagaries ***

10.  Dark Initiation ***

11.  The Precariousness of Sacred Space ***

12.  Overlap ***

13.  Return to Koboros ***

14.  Rest and Refuge ***

15.  Obtaining the Needful ***


AUGUST/SEPTEMBER, 2708

16.  Leaving Koboros ***


SEPTEMBER, 2708

17.  Soldier Musings ***

18.  Kiril's Detour ***

19.  Parallel Marches ***

20.  Pranks ***

21.  Your Presence is Known ***

22.  The Pranking Gets Serious ***

23.  Breathe ***

24.  Lyanfa ***

25.  In the House of Rosebud ***

26.  Bittersweet.  ***

27.  A Split Infinity ***

28.  Bugs and Fireworks ***

29. The Care of Children in Time of War ***

30.  The Big One. ***


OCTOBER, 2708


31.  Rip  ***

32.  The New Reality ***

33.  Songs. Stories, and Other Truths ***

34.  Beliefs and Traditions ***

35. Medical Attention ***

36.  Accommodations and Understandings ***

37.  Sweet-Bits ***

38.  Clues and Dreams of Fear ***

39.  The Messenger ***

40.  Covert Operations ***

41.  Impact ***

42.  Braintangle ***

43.  The Dairy Farm ***

44. Generosity ***

45.  To Change the World ***

46.  Birthday Party ***

47.  Not Actually a Party ***

48.  Brainstorms ***

49.  The Guilty Treasure of Crespus Inglorius ***

50.  A Question of Competence ***

51.  Why They Do It ***

52.  Whatever Rest One Can Find ***

53.  Good People ***

54.  O the Burning Night! ***

55.  The Joys and Terrors of the Next Level ***

56.  The Vices of Our Aspirations ***

57.  The Quest for Normal ***


Book V: SHARING INSANITY


OCTOBER, 2708, continued.

1.  No Land for the Innocent ***

2.  An Easing of Tensions ***

3.  The Bitter Truth ***

4.  Blue Shoe ***


NOVEMBER, 2708

5.  Secret Ingredient ***

6.  Day of the Dead... ***

7.  ...Night of the Dead ***

8.  ...And the Aftermath ***

9.  Haunted ***

10.  Placating Ghosts ***

11.  The Forbidden Feminine ***

12.   New Friends ***

13.  Gauging Trust ***  

14.  Reeling to Congruity ***

15.  Sacrifices ***

16.  A Merry Meeting ***

17.  On the Trail of Fear ***

18.  Wake Up! ***

19.  What we Can and Cannot Handle ***

20.  The Cynics and the Naifs  ***

21.  Rough Night ***

22.  Care for the Suffering ***

23.  Improvising.  ***

24.  What Is and Is Not Food ***

25.  Dangerous Lessons ***

26.  Innocence as a Casualty of War ***

27.  The Collaborator ***

28.  Playing the Role ***

29.  Threads and Bandages ***

30.  Eyes in the Shadows ***

31.  The Fall of the God of Freedom ***

32.  Day of Rest ***

33,  Facing Changes  ***

34.  Stopgap Measures ***

35.  Damnation ***

36.  The Damned Carry On ***

37.  Witchery ***

38.  What Are We?  ***

\39.  What Are We Part Two ***

40.  On the Road to a Rendezvous ***

41.  The Orphan School ***

42.  Plotting ***

43.  Terrorism ***

44.  Recuperation ***


DECEMBER, 2708


45.  For Lufti ***

46.  More Than Madness ***

47.  Insomnia.  ***

48.  Down the Thorny Path ***

49.  The Burning.  ***

50.  A Proper Burial ***

51.  Blurring Boundaries ***

52.  No Time for Subtlety ***

53.  Kiril Takes Charge ***

54.  Turning Point ***

55.  Irrevocably Sacrificial ***

56.  The Victory of Kiril ***

57.  The Spoils of War ***

58.  Wreckage of the Aftermath ***

59.  The Power of Words ***

60.  Orders ***

61.  A Day's Work Done ***


VI.  THE RIFT


DECEMBER, 2708, continued


1.  The Return Trip Begins ***

2. A General Indeed ***

3,  Loved Ones ***

4.  Care for the Sick ***

5.  Lost and Found ***

6.  A Conversation with Sanzio D'Arco ***

7.  On the Move  ***

8.  The Servant's Cave ***

9.  Sharing Cigarettes ***

10.  Micah's Gap ***

11.  We Burn! ***

12.  Growing Up in Ishkal ***

13.  Everything Must Change ***

14.  The Christmas Eve Feast ***

15.  Christmas at Midnight ***

16.  Dance ***

17.  A Christmas Birth ***

18.  The Joys of Flight ***

19.  A Game of Traps ***

20.  Reports ***

21.  Aftershocks ***

22.  The Burden of Flight ***

23.  New Year's Eve ***


JANUARY, 2709


24.  The Changing of the Year ***

25.  Truth ***

26.  Fractures ***

27.  The Black Advamce  ***

28.  Savagery and Civility ***

29.  The Agony of Flight ***

30.  Greenfire ***

31.  Penance ***

32.  Gathering ***

33.  Insubordination ***

34.  Lessons on Mayhem ***

35.  A Song of Koboros ***


JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 2709


36.  Martial Madness ***


FEBRUARY, 2709


37.  Back to Home Base ***

38.  Merchant Caverns ***

39.  Futures Never Born ***

40.  Mykolas Bobola ***

41.  Robbie's Tale ***

42.  The Ghost Road ***

43.  Reconnaisance ***

44,  Fury ***

45: Think Like a Conqueror ***

46.  Laying the Groundwork.  ***

47.  The Final Push  ***

48.  Touching Base  ***

49.  Anticipation  ***

50.  We Meet at Abojan Pass  ***

51.  General Layne Estelle Aliso  ***

52.  After the Battle ***

53.  Last Rites ***

54.  Welcome Home! ***

55.  Phoenix of the Vanities  ***

56.  Down ***

57.  Color ***

58.  Trade and Transactions ***


FEBRUARY/MARCH, 2709


59.  Confessions  ***


MARCH, 2709


60.  Days, Days, Days ***

61.  Battles in the Bloodstream ***

62.  The Limousine ***

VII  THE BURNING

MARCH, 2709, CONTINUED

1.  This Weapon, Deirdre Keller ***

2.  Influence on the Young ***

3.  Into the Unknown ***

4.  Of Failure and Success ***

5.  The Gift of Mercy ***

6.  Bullets and Communion ***

7.  Little Sacrifices ***

8.  Forever Blazoned into Song ***

9.  Land of the Dead ***

10.  Prayer  ***


APRIL, 2709


11.  What's Sanity Anyway?  ***

12.  Welcomes  ***

13.  Our Past and Future Ghosts  ***

14.  Memories of the Dead ***

15.  Getting the Lay of the Land ***

16. Red River ***

17.  Interpersonal Relations ***

18.  Holy Week ***

19.  The Homelike Church ***

20.  Master Barrahab  ***

21.  Abundance, Need and Illusion ***

22.  Feelings ***

23.  Taking Responsibility ***

24.  Children of the Heart ***

25.  Seeking Shelter ***

26.  A Smaller Band ***

27.  The Pangs of Faith ***

28.    Limping Along ***  

29.  Unforgettable ***  

30.  Frailties of the Mind *** 

31.  How Not To Treat Children  *** 

32.  At It Again ***

33.  Truth Hurts ***

34.  The Things that One Gets Used to  *** 

35.  All Our Ghosts  *** 

36.  Confrontations with Truth ***

37.  Chastening ***

38.  Contagions of the Mind *** 

39.  Invalids *** 

40.  The Sleep of the Dead *** 

41.  An Interval of Peace *** 



May, 2709


42.  The Newest Recruit *** 

43.  Regrets *** 

44.  Crash *** 

45.  Making the Best of the Mess *** 

46.  Home Sweet Home*** 

47.  Unexpected Applications of Gift*** 

48.  Fire Out of Bounds*** 

49.  Going Back*** 

50.  Family*** 

51.  Light and Darkness*** 

52.  Appalling Powers*** 

53.  Hearts on Fire*** 

54.  Medical Necessities*** 

55.  Traveling*** 

56.  Doctoring*** 

57.  Morning Care*** 

58.  Revelations of the Unwell*** 

Return to the General Index.
  
Want to discuss these tales with others?
Then check out my DISCUSSION GROUP
at Google.


  
Send Dreamdeer a message.
(Please begin your subject line with "TIL-"
so that I won't mistake it for spam.)
You need not read an entire series
before offering feedback,
positive or negative.


Caution: Some have found these tales disturbing.

Parental guidance suggested.

For those who wish to learn how to write from dreams, or to study-dream-based fiction, every story has a "dream notes" button
at the bottom of every chapter.

WARNING! Do not download any program purportedly from this site!
This site does not require flash or any other special programs.