I'm having a great time when im slaying mobs in dungeons (when not backtracking which is a lot unfortunatly) but my biggest issue with rift farming dungeons is what im forced to do every time i complete one and wanna go to the next one.
tp out - channeling + loading screen
sell items
apply a new nightmare sigil
open map and find the dungeon it applied to
teleport to closest waypoint (loading screen)
run 20 miles if unlucky on a bugged horsie that wants to do anything but run and then loading screen again.
I mean i get its not the end of the world but it sure as hell is a lot of time. Why not let us have the option of teleporting outside of the dungeon when applying the nightmare sigil? Would be saving me 3 minutes every single dungeon..

Hi :) I am not entirely sure if I am doing this correctly because I have never used reddit before. I have written a little under half of an adult fantasy novel, and I am looking for feedback. I will take any and all feedback, but I am mostly looking for unbiased parties to tell me if I have an potential at all with this story/as a writer. Honestly I am mainly looking for peers/friends. I am happy to read your work in return (though I am mostly only familiar with fiction/fantasy work)! If you are interested, comment below or chat me (IDK how that works but I shall figure it out hehe).
Content warnings: So far the story is not spicy but I do intend to take it there. I am 22 and the characters are around 20 so I am looking for older readers, not minors. I wouldn't be comfortable discussing that sort of things with younger readers though you are still ofc welcome to read it! There is very minor violence but nothing too grim. There is also some LGBTQ+ rep so bigots stay away!
Disclaimer the first chapter is only one of the main characters, but I do have to say, once they meet there is some wonderful witty banter so I swear it gets more intriguing.
First chapter:
Chapter 1: Bearnas The innate driving force of human nature is vengeance. This was a certitude I had come to realize from a young age, and it was a concept I relied on as I got older. Vengeance was the primary motivator for my people. It was our currency. The way we managed to survive. I didn’t stop to consider the morality of this outlook. I didn’t like to contemplate the state of my existence. Found that to be a waste of time. I focused on the here-and-now. The mutable present. It was simply the way the world was, so I had to deal with it like a man should. This was an ideal my father had instilled in me since the time of my birth. I was the son of a victorious warrior. Osgar Nieva was a well-respected war lieutenant during the Great Slaughtering. He never let me forget that I had a legacy to uphold. I knew my father hated me. I figured his disappointment began from the moment I received my name. In Dolag, tradition dictates that the father names their son. Names were believed to be prophetic. Osgar had a strong name-befitting of a warrior. His name meant “divine spear.” My grandfather claimed he could sense that Osgar would be a brave warrior from the moment he was born. So he was prophesied to be graced by the luck of God in battles. Typically, women were only allowed to name the baby if it was a girl. I was the exception. The process of my birth brought my Mother to her deathbed. The doctor was certain that she wouldn’t recover. As she lovingly admired the newborn baby boy in her arms, her attention was drawn by a bird pecking gently on the window. Tears streamed out of her eyes as it took off soundlessly into the winter dawn. “Wren.” She’d muttered softly, still gazing peacefully out the window. The room of family members and midwives stood in puzzled silence. The world seemed to pause in wait for her next words. She turned her head back to meet Osgar’s eyes. “He shall be named Wren. He will be gentle. Beautiful. Free.” She reached down to caress her baby’s face. “And he will be loved.” Despite my Father’s protests, the council voted to accept the name. The wishes of the dying outweighed naming traditions. Only my Mother never died. Doctors considered her survival a miracle. She returned back to full health only a few months later. She and I have paid for her decision every day since. Osgar refused to call me Wren. Anyone who referred to me as such, other than my Mother, was punished accordingly. To the rest of the world, I became known as Bearnas Nieva. Bearnas was the name Osgar would have chosen for his son if he had been given the opportunity. Bearnas. Meaning bringer of victory. My father did everything in his power to ensure that I would fulfill this destiny, whether it was the result of prophetic nomenclature or resolute determination. The story of my name was all I could think about as I prepared for my sendoff. I was tightening my last bootstring when a small hand clapped me on the back with a force intended to knock me off balance. “The famed Bear Nieva preparing for his grand expedition. What luck I must possess to witness you in all your glory.” I was grateful for El’s arrival, despite the copious amount of sarcasm she brought with her. My sister's presence was probably the only thing that could pull me out of my thoughts right now. “Using mockery as a mechanism to cover up your total despair about my departure, I assume.” I tried to keep my tone light, but in truth it was myself I was worried about. El held the chief role in keeping me sane throughout the later part of my life. She was my only tether to my true self. I worried about how I would stay grounded on my Hunt without her there to tease my worries away. El flopped on my bed with feigned anguish. “Yes, whatever will I do without my idiot older brother around to hog all the scrambled eggs at breakfast. Oh, how I will miss the putrid scent you plague the house with after training all day. Your constant nagging about my lack of tidiness will be missed most ardently.” I swatted her gently with my leather gloves. “Speaking of, get your disgusting outdoor shoes out of my clean bed immediately.” I shooed her out of my room, and chased her towards the door, nearly colliding with my father as a result. “This isn’t befitting behavior for a man about to begin his First Hunt” Osgar admonished. “Elowen, go to the kitchen and help your Mother tidy up before we head to town.” El skirted around our father into the hallway. Safely out of his eyeline, she directed one last mocking tongue in my direction before slinking away. “Are you ready to go?” He raked his disapproving gaze over my gear, searching for any flaw he could call attention to. “Yes, sir.” I responded. I did feel ready. This was the moment I had been preparing for my whole life. My body was honed by years of workouts and my skills were unquestioned. I had graduated top of my class in my training group. I was certainly ready to leave the house, as I wanted nothing more than independence. Besides my Mother and sister, I had nothing keeping me here. Not anymore. So I grabbed my bag and walked out the door. When my family was all ready, we began the walk to the edge of town where the sendoff was taking place. There we would eat, drink, dance and say our goodbyes. I spent my time standing on the outskirts of the group, hoping my stern face would signal everyone to leave me alone. I didn’t have any desire to get my ego fluffed by a bunch of people who just wanted to get in the good graces of my Father. I just wanted to leave. The one person I actually wished had come to bid me farewell had decided not to show up, not that I could blame him. Eleven other men would be sent off at the same time as me. We were all being sent in different directions, but we were all given the same instruction: go kill a witch. That is exactly what I intended to do. Success rates had been much lower over the past few years. After the Great Slaughter fifty years prior, there were only so many witches left to kill. In fact a witch hadn’t been successfully hunted in around 4 years. Most hunters came back many months after their departure unable to track any down. The people of Dolag figured the warriors of the Great Slaughter had ushered the witches into near extinction. The only evidence we had that they weren’t entirely eradicated were the cases of the men who never returned. Every once in a while, there was a man who was assumed to have met his demise at the hands of one of the remaining witches. So the Hunts continued on. After a few hours of festivities, it was time for us to set off. I was ready to say my goodbyes. I knelt down so El could wrap her arms around my neck. Her hot tears dampened the fabric covering my shoulders. “Promise me you will come back,” she said. I squeezed her a little tighter. “Don’t worry, you’ll get a few months of the stench free, scrambled-egg-filled, only-child experience and then I will be right back to boss you around.” El released me from her grip in order to look me in the eyes. “I’m not kidding around Bear.” Her piercing gaze mirrored the intensity of her voice. “Promise me.” Even though I knew it wasn’t something I could realistically guarantee, I hugged her once more and said “I promise, Elly.” After a moment, I stood up and ruffled my little sister’s hair. Then I turned to my Mother, who watched with watery eyes. The hair that had escaped from her tight bun was wisping around her face in the gentle breeze. The sun shining behind her produced an effect reminiscent of a halo. She embraced me with a level of care only a Mother could deliver. “I love you, Wren. You will always be my darling songbird,” she whispered into my ear. I released myself from the hug, and smiled one last time at my adoring Mother. I nodded once before forcing myself to turn to my Father. “Don’t disappoint me, son.” He stuck out his calloused hand and I shook it begrudgingly. It felt like cold leather in my grip. That was it. That was my final farewell from my Father. ‘Don’t disappoint’. No good luck, no I love you, nothing of the sort. Only a damn handshake. I knew I shouldn’t have expected anything different, but it still put me in a sour mood. What a great start to my expedition. I looked one last time at my sister and Mother in an effort to preserve some positive thoughts about my home. When I cemented this image in my mind, I omitted the withering glare of my Father beside them. I spun around and started down the path towards Deirtalamh. I marched towards witch country without so much as a glance over my shoulder. I was days into my trek when I came across the cabin. Being the son of Osgar Nieva gave me claim to the most promising Hunt. My journey was actually mapped to this location, whereas the rest of my group had to resort to aimless meandering. I heard the gentle melody of a person humming drifting out from within the house. How odd. My superiors swore it was a witch that lived here. A hunter from a few years prior reported catching a glimpse of a cabin before he was suddenly lost in the woods. Who could be humming so pleasantly within this peaceful home so deep into witch territory? I maneuvered my head to look through the open window and saw the source of the cheerful noise. She appeared like the sun incarnate. Her dark skin contrasted beautifully against the pale yellow of her clothes. Her hair curled unbound around her face. She stirred a pot of stew as she swayed softly to her own music, the fabric of her dress swishing mesmerizingly around her thighs. Beautiful suddenly seemed like an insufficient word to describe someone of her standing. I knew she was not the witch I had come to hunt. Of course I was no fool, I was aware that witches could glamor themselves to be beautiful. But their false beauty was always like that of a succubus, unnatural and deadly. No witch would have been able to conjure up the effortless and soft beauty of the woman in front of me. I was sure of it. Never mind the fact that if she were a witch, I would most certainly be dead. She would have sensed me coming from the moment I stepped foot onto her land, and she would have been ready to strike. If I had let myself get distracted for this long in the presence of a witch, I would have paid for my mistake in blood. I wondered how she had come to live in Deirtalamh. I’d heard tales of villagers who’d tried their luck here out of desperation, choosing to brave the dangers of witch territory rather than living in the impoverished slums of Dolag. I’d also heard of extreme cases where dangerous criminals were exiled here. This woman looked neither criminal in nature nor desperate to survive. She looked content. Regardless, I must get her to safety. I walked briskly over to the door and entered the cabin.

Hi!
This is the first week of The Star Stable Community Voice! I know, it was planned to be posted on Thursdays but I was sick yesterday and decided to post it today.
I interviewed Tania Goldborn on the new Ui and the Rainbow Festival.
Question: What were you expecting from the new Ui?
Tania: I was expecting more…pink? That sounds weird but I prefer if SSO is kept in the genre of the game so the UI would fit. For example people really wanted the horseshoe still for the map. I’d agree I just thought they were gonna make it silver and the horseshoe more realistic but they completely removed that from the community. Other than that, I wish they added color-blind mode or at least give us full customization to the UI like, “Show player’s face (yes) (no)” – “Show horse’s face (yes) no)” – “What colour would you want the Player’s EXP bar (color options)” – Something like that-
Question: What do you think of the new UI?
Tania: The new UI is something I completely understand. We have used the same one since 2012 and it could have been causing intense lag for us, for being an old interactive overlay.
Question: Is there anything you would change on the new UI, and what would that be?
Tania: Back to my first comment, I really think they should have given us a color-blind option and not have many buttons to click just to dismount as an example. in my opinion it feels like SSO forgot they have disabled players playing.
Question: What is your opinon about the new rainbow festival horses?
Tania: Its horses, who can really hate them? Since SSO keeps releasing new horses every month I kinda stopped caring about the frequency. All I say is the quality matters not the quantity. But they did choose 2 horses the community extremely likes so that's a plus for them.
Question: Do you like the fact that they were designed by players?
Tania: Of course. I think SSO in general needs to do this more, even back in the day think 2013 they did a contest for shirts. I think they should keep being interactive as such. Keeps the community happy and gives us the interactions we want.
Question: What do you think about the new rainbow pets?
Tania: Pets isn't my cake to take, some people are gonna be happy and others are gonna be upset due to the cost. In my opinion pets shouldn't be the price of a cheap pony.
Question: What is your opinion on the fact that players have to do multiple quests to enjoy the colours?
Tania: Its grindy for sure, If the quest aren't hard to understand then it should be fine. Example I think was last halloween that was too much to grind even when I Was extremely active I couldn't unlock everything. If its anything like last year's Rainbow Festival I didn't understand what it was asking.
Question: Was there anything else you were hoping from the rainbow festival?
Tania: Not really, I am exploring kind of person. I would love more map if that was an option. I still want to go to the cloud castle.
That's it for today! I really hope you guys enjoyed the first Star Stable Community Voice and a massive thank you to Tania Goldborn for being brave enough to be the first to get interviewed by me.
Have a great weekend, Sookie.

Heyo, I was wondering if anyone could point me towards resources (or explain in your own words) related to the following:

• US dollar devaluation / inflation in the 20th century
• federal reserve banking
• JFK's attempt to move away from fed. res. banking (?)

I have surface-level knowledge but I'd like to solidify and deepen my perspective on these topics bc they seem to be very important to some of the reactionaries or "undecideds" that I engage with.

I woke up this morning a little shaky, I’m assuming because it was very hot in my room and the heat just fucking messed with me. I’ve had that happen before, I get shaky when my body isn’t reacting well to temperature. does that happen to you guys?
anyway, I stood up and I just had this horrible wave of nausea so i sat in the bathroom for a bit. went back to my room to chill and just recuperate, my mom called me to the living room to talk to me about something and as I was standing I was nauseous again but 10x worse. i was dizzy and shaky, and I felt like I was going to faint.
I am a fainter occasionally, when I first developed POTs it was an all the time occurrence and now it only happens rarely.
But now I’m afraid to get up because I don’t want to deal with the nausea again, I would usually drink some electrolytes but we don’t have any water bottles atm for my liquid iv packets and I can’t use tap water, my mom doesn’t allow us to because we have hard water and our filter broke.
Unrelated to this specific topic but I’ve been thinking about mobility aids, maybe a cane or something. especially when summer is here and it’ll be hot and I’ll be doing various activities but I don’t know how my mom will feel about that. she doesn’t really take this illness seriously and will probably think I’m attention seeking.

With the addition of the Belobog History And Culture Museum, I wonder what else they'll expand on existing maps with more areas for us to explore. I imagine the Landau estate is far from the Admin zone. I really enjoy the semi-open world and world-building of the game, and I want to speculate with you guys on what other safe zone areas (they literally have a couple of invisible walls or arbitrary blocks in the map) they would expand on. With Jarilo I would not be surprised if they would take it into an SCP/Lovecraftian storyline hiding in the icy wastes since the flavor of that planet is literally a homage to the horror and supernatural genre.
Personally, I would like to clear new areas in some colony-building side missions where you'll make a dangerous area into a safe zone so it would make us feel like we, as Trailblazers, are literally changing the fate of planets. This is similar to how games like the Witcher would have villages repopulated after clearing a monster nest; maybe a start would be some aesthetic changes in Rivet Town, where guards are starting to patrol the area with WF or more people restarting the economy. They did it with the Space Station arc, so would really like to speculate on it.

Hi all.
I have had a grumbling gallbladder for 2 years. Finally got diagnosed last month Via US. It's full with lots of tiny stones. Saw surgeon earlier this week for an exam. I felt fine then, but since the exam have felt worse with an attack over the last three days. He did prob my gallbladder area a lot. Pain is manageble at home knowing I'm on the waiting list for surgery. Now this morning I woke up with a bad headache, temperature, dizziness and mild nausea. Could my gallbladder be infected? At what point do I need to consider it serious? Last thing I want is a trip to A & E on a weekend!
My gallbladder pain isn't that bad and I'm not throwing up.

Hei all,
I have 100 hours in the game and I managed to do several things with a friend, but I still feel pretty lost in the game, especially when it comes with "advanced" stuff. So I have a couple of questions for you here:

1. I have a main base in "Cleve Hub (Eravate)". It's just coincidental. It's a random place we picked. It served us, and served us well - time to move. Where would you recommend going?
   
2. I know Exobiology is great for money. We followed some guides and managed to get to 100CRs, however I wonder: do you people keep on doing this for hours across various (already mapped) planets? Is this how you got to 5 billions? :D
   

2b. I read several times that you can be the "first" mapping out a planet and that you seem to refer to "outside the bubble" as an area to go to. What is this bubble? And would you recommend going there for someone who still feels pretty noob?

1. Odyssey missions seem to be often bugged. We had a "kill 17 rats in some settlement" mission and when we got there, the settlement was empty. Another time we took a "protect the cargo" mission but the mission never triggered. In both cases we lost two evenings trying to make things work. Should we just give up on them?
   
2. I have a Krait MK2 with 2 beam lasers + 3 multi cannons. Shields go down like butter but I do 0 dmg to the hull. Time for engineering, I guess? Is this a good set of hardpoints to do some PVE? I tried with Plasma Accelerators but I can't hit a ship for my life unless it's standing still in front of me.
   
3. Conflict Zones: I go there, I pick a faction (usually randomly) and then I win the battle. I get maybe 400k in bounty for 1h+ fighting.. but what's that for? I mean, ok, I made a faction win but how do I understand what I am actually doing?
   
4. Mining Resource points: Those are the best ones for PVE - you jump in there and wait for storms of pirates to show up and then you get quite some juicy money - but again, is this the right way for some fun PVE? How do you consistently find those areas within the game? Does Inara helps here?
   
5. I read about Massacre Missions but still couldn't figure out exactly what they are (I read it pays well). I noticed in one system that there are plenty of missions in the same places - are these "bundles" the one I should look forward to?
   
6. Trading -is this basically just going from station to station to buy & sell items non-stop following Inara's advices?
   
7. Targoids - when is it the right time to start thinking about them and their guardian beauties?
   

Final question: what is the right plan to properly enjoy the game in two people? Right now we did some passenger missions (separated), we did some engineering (we finished the Farseer one) and collected materials together. We go scan plants together, but as far as "missions" we don't seem to be able to do anything together.
I am so sorry for the massive wall of text, I tried to collect my top 10 questions and I utterly appreciate your help <3

This is concluding thoughts for both WoR and WoK so its going to be a long one.
Epilogue
That is so true, but when something gets popular, how does one balance expectations?
There she is. Jasnah is alive.
Initially I thought that Wit was in Warbreaker as the god kings wit. Then i couldnt find him. Then I thought i must just misremembering Way Of Kings with Warbreaker. Now I’ve found Ch 32, I get why.
Skim-Thoughts.
10 comes up a lot. Pg 475 (Part II) “10 kingdoms, 10 orders, ten people” and i thought Mistborn had 10 powers as well. And isnt there planned to be 10 books? Is that 5 split into 2, or 10 split into 2?
Rereading the prologues and interludes, I still dont understand a word. I’ve completely forgotten them but catching up before Edgedancer
“The ten of them had decided upon it before the battle.” Kalak: “You’re broken too” Syl referred to the Stormfather as broken as well. Hmm Yeah Ten Hearlds. Opening of WoK. One missing. Forgot this entirely.
Moments that stuck out to me (Both Way Of Kings And Words Of Radiance) Kaladin changing tactics only to get everyone killed. When he finally miraculously saves everyone. The way the storm hanging was described. Just epic how he survived it. Hard to pull off wirhout just feeling convinient. I’m probably just listing the the ends of each Act, but I notice that although theres a lot of good character interactions in between, Brando Sando’s biggest strength is his anticipation. His books can be as long as they are because he spends a lot of time baiting, teasing, developing, and ENSURING that the payoffs really really payoff. So when those moments hit, I’ve spent chapters upon chapters that I’ll forget individually looking forward to them and then getting this memorable merge of “oh finally” and “OH thats what he meant!” Surprising yet inevitable, but memorable for how much my brain has built it up in my head and then been thrown off so positively that I really have to pay attention
Shallan honestly didnt grab me at first. Her arc was still fine, but I think her main conflict being ‘eventually steal a thing’ made it a slow burn and although they made it clear she was doing it because her family was poor, I don’t remember any chapters delving into just how bad it was. (Though apparently a lot of them blatantly did.) Book 2 was when they suddenly started revealing in droves a) how abusive it was, b) how Shallan finally resolved it, and c) that her father never actually did the initial thing he was accused of and so she blames herself for that abuse. As interesting as that was to unfold over time, for me that created a distance where until then I didnt fully invest in why she was doing it; she was trying to do something slightly dodgy for a slightly difficult externally Third Party sitauation and once she was out of the passive shadow (she was active in interacting with Jasnah, but being almost poisoned and having to steal the fabrial felt externally forced upon her) in book 2, it was like the story really started going “oh theres more to it, heres what shes Actually wrestling with” as well as “here’s what Shallan can be when she lets loose.” In a way, book 2 implies Veil is the real Shallan and I like the conflict between Shallan and Veil much more than I liked Shallan on the surface. Its not bad, more like, good to great. And yeah she was good when she was dealing with Jasnah, but she was great once she was more directly interacting with the main plot around her.
The moment where Sadeas betrays everyone, and Dalinar charges in or goes back or something that made Kaladin go “oh. I think he’s one of the good ones... alright, time to save a lighteyes I guess.” And Dalinar pays that back by rescuong everyone from Sadeas.
Its possibly also just that I didnt know what was going on and Way Of Kings hits you with a lot where as Words Of Radiance can hit the ground running with people I’m already familiar with, which is telling when I skim over Way Of Kings and cant remember a whole bunch of smaller details, or entire character chunks like the opening prologue, but its also probably that it was info overloard book 1 and book 2 i started taking notes. Either way, Words Of Radiance is my favourite by far, with Way Of Kings being just as good just more setup and confusion whereas by Words Of Radiance I was able to trust the stuff I liked in Way Of Kings to advance what I liked and update me on things I’d forgotten. (I.e. I’d forgotten that Sadeas Shardblade was the one Dalinar gave him, but the book recalls freeing the slaves and Adolin telling Dalinar to give the blade back and I went “oh yeah” so Way Of Kings I get a some great moments of surprise, but in Words Of Radiance, I get surprise development on those surprises, familiarity as I already know what theyre referring to, and I get to relive the initial book all at once, theres just more triple whammy in a sequel that is just as good. In a way I’m worried I’ve got a 1-2 punch where the third will be disappointing just because of the weird threequelitis problem. 1 is good, 2 is great, 3 is unreasonable expectations that can't be met (which the book ends in warning me against, ironically).
Over time they’ll naturally blend together and I’ll forget which was which, but some arcs:
Kaladin: Book 1, he thinks he is purposeless, but accepts that he has the power to save people and even some lighteyes are worth saving. Book 2, he thinks becoming a radiant is repulsive but eventually accepts that protecting everyone, even the people he hates, is the right thing to do and only becoming a radiant can achieve that. (Weirdly I cant see where Kaladins arc goes next, I assume something to do with someone dying and the radient powers not being enough, or Moash coming back and making things difficult, but Kalladin seems to have accepted his core potential and overcome his core wound so ... I dunno, unless Tien comes back to life or something I dunno what his next stage is.)
Shallan: Book 1, Shallan accepts... see I forget, I was a bit confused by it, she ended up in 2D world and it was very abstract and I didnt entirely understand it. I feel like I was just overwhelmed and it wasn't the books fault, I didnt know what to look for and I accidentally skim when I get close to the end. Book 2, she believes she is still the weak girl who lived in an abusive home, but starts to accept what she has done to escape it and what she is capable of when changing her image of herself (though she is yet to fully accept that image or integrate it so I figure thats where its going, she needs to either become Veil entirely, realize she was Veil all along, or realize Veil is a double edged sword and integrate the good while shedding the bad.)
Adolin ... He’s an interesting one. I really really REALLY thought Sadeas would be a big part of book 3, given its named after his blade, but Adolin very abruptly saw book 2's pages running out and put an end to it. So ... I mean, I figure this is exactly what Sando said in his lecture “In RomComs, They’re going to get together, you KNOW they’re going to get together, but they’re going in the wrong direction and oops the other person they’re with has now done something that makes it harder to root for.”
I’m massively paraphrasing but I watched it earlier today and he described the rom com thing verbatim how I see Shallan/Adolin and Kaladin playing out, where Shallan and Adolin work well enough but everything I know about Adolin and everything Sando’s telling us increasingly blatantly about how Kaladin and Shallan see each other, that at some point “Adolin = good enough” is going to break and “person I didnt consider before” is the inevitable direction secretly promised underneath. Adolin hated Sadeas to begin with, so the tradjectory of Dalinar saying he cant convince Adolin he needs to trust Sadeas, Sadeas betraying Dalinar and confirming Adolins worst impulses, Adolin being a womanizer but trying to reign it in for Shallan though Adolin himself insisting "it never lasts", its all there as little red flags and killing Sadeas (although justified in terms of character plot, I don’t blame him one bit, someone had to do it) is the final camel straw. SO illegal and unjustifiable that Adolin knew he had to hide it. So dark that he’ll likely start derailing and pushing Shallan away as a result. Works, meet spanner.
But interestingly it wont necessarily be the thing that breaks them, Secrecy shouldnt necessarily bother Shallan, she functions on lies. And the murder itself; Shallan killed both her parents, and Tyn, she’s actually the most likely to understand his situation. But the deception it will require, the damage it might do to Adolin internally in pulling that off, getting away with it or potentially being caught, and the complications when Kaladin finds out who did it, its more of a question of what will it take for Adolin to confess or go blaze of glory to never get caught, under what state and circumstance, and will Kaladin be towards Adolin how he was towards Moash when the king was threatened?
Theres a lot of factors to keep it unpredictable but Kaladin in Book 1 would have leapt to help Adolin kill Sadeas or Amaram, but how he defended the king, against his own friend, on pure 'golden rule morality' might indicate a refusal to let Adolin do anything of the sort – which will then drive a wedge between both of them and Shallan. Would Adolin try to kill Kaladin if he found out? Would Shallan side with Kaladin if Kaladin had to take Adolin down? What would Dalinar do? Adolins one rash choice is entirely in line with everything I assumed would go wrong with him, but the TIMING of it and the sudden impulse has really, I think, fundamentally sabotaged him in the process. It'll be a really hard thing to come back from.
Comparing him to Moash of all people, Moash at least had it planned out, honestly discussed it with Kaladin before hand, and even seemed regretful when he punched Kaladin “too hard.” Yeah it was out of revenge and he was ultimately willing to kill and betray Kaladin with his own blade – so in a way, Moash was as bad as Amaram, but Adolin was so mad at Sadeas betraying Dalinar, so mad at Sadeas for outsmarting him then dodging their duel, that he had no plan, no discussion, no consideration, just killed him in cold blood and instantly hid the evidence. Like I get Adolin wanting Sadeas dead, but he couldn’t even own it. He’s Moash without the regret (at least within that moment) and it was AFTER it was clear Kaladin was fundamentally against taking life of any kind, not before when Moash still thought it was 50/50.
Its not to say Adolin is corrupt as a person, but that in that moment he showed less restraint, more brutality, and more cowardice than Amaram, Sadeas or Moash, and that decision may begin a spiral that makes him Kaladins... no EVERYONE'S no.1 target, and arc wise to me it seems a narratively natural way to start distancing him from Shallan and Kaladin in a way that pushes them together.
Now, they narratively dont HAVE to get together although I personally feel the story started pushing that pretty blatantly while always having an air of denial about it down to Shall saying “Adolin didnt HAVE to be brilliant...or whatever Kaladin was. So there.” Like shes trying to prove something to us and defend a position Sando knew we would take, ironically protesting in a very wink wink nudge nudge way. But for me the question isnt “Will Shallan and Kaladin get together?” so much as IF thats the plan, then will they survive the journey and how will they develop from triangle to couple? Adolin killing Sadeas really seems to trigger exactly that journey, but for me its now a big question of What Becomes Of Adolin when its all said and done?
Especially if Adolin kept losing to Sadeas then to Szeth and then he watches two radiants go on without him together, he’s really at risk of being left behind and I dont know where he would draw the line Because Of His Choice To Kill Sadeas if he gets desperate enough to prevent that or catch up. Oh hell, even RENARIN is a radiant now, the weakest link, who sat doing nothing during their duel, now has more honour and power than him. Like Adolin is in the WORST narrative place anyone could be, I feel so bad for him. In DBZ terms, he’s kind of Yamcha. Loses the girl, once was a strong fighter but now gets constantly owned. Renarin is I guess Krillin in that sense (odd theres literally already a Tien in the story) but when you’re giving more power and screen time and skill to Krillin over Yamcha... yeesh.
Dalinar is an interesting one. All signs pointed to the king dying; Moash was going to assassinate him, Kaladin was officially out of options for the first time ever, everyone else was gone, and that comment from Sando about a war hero having to be king made me think Dalinar was garunteed kinglyhood just to end up going “oh no wait, im just a soldier, i dont know how to king” in the next book (maybe I misremember the context and he was referencing Game Of Thrones or something) so the king surviving, Sadeas NOT surviving, and Dalinar going “hey god, so... all the main characters got to be radiant. Even Renarin for storms sakes. I’m the leader here, I think I deserve to be one!” “Okay! But im not really god so good luck with that!" was not at all the ending I was expecting. Pretty much all the Kaladin / Moash / Shallan / Adolin feels right on course character wise, but the implications are very hard towards Has To Get Darker Before It Gets Lighter and Adolins one decision is like a house of cards for the rest of them. That blatant flip where they all actually won and then Sadeas just abruptly doesnt get to make any sort of comeback completely threw me. If not for how Oh God Adolin No! It felt, techincally everyone succeeded and nothing went wrong in that final battle. It was a complete victory if not for the slippery slope feeling about it. I was not at all predicting a complete victory, I figured the god would continue to be a threat and Sadeas would come back in a big way to sabotage them and the king would be the cost expense of surviving the rest of it. Like it would be bitter sweet if anything. And its far better for it; this way its like “theyre all radiants now... but at what cost?” For Adolin, he’s left out and now in hiding. For Dalinar, I figure him not being allowed a blade and the god not being a useful god thing is gonna... even the start of Way Of Kings mentions how its strange the parshendi are all acting the way they do. We dont fully understand the real threat, Dalinar still doesnt understand the vision and so I feel like the next dread is ... what did he really sign up to? Whats the cost of having such a storm deity who “wont come when callled” as a spren, especially when Dalinar humiliated Amaram, but he didnt suffer much consequence, and now Dalinar wont be able to defend himself.
Amaram ... dunno what he’s up to, but he was keen to find Urithiru and Dalinar stopped him so ... all I know is where I thought Sadeas was a key threat, I now think Amaram is.
Elhokar... He went from Kaladin wanting him dead to Kaladin defending him in front of Moash. While Drunk. Its weird cause I know they're fictional but also narratively... Elhokar better clean up his act and start being a good king or I may start feeling like Moash was in the right and Moash/Kaladin broke up for nothing. I know morally its more that Moash purely wanted revenge and Kaladin is saving life for life’s sake, so they're fundamentally at conflict no matter what Elhokar is doing, but if Elhokar turns around and imprisons kaladin again or starts being petty and making things difficult, it’ll be hard to respect him as a character: it'll rob his apology, his self-aware weakness, of any sincerity and render him useless and annoying, and useless annoying characters who actively ignore their own useless and annoying traits often create unfun contrived conflict “oh no, Elhokar was an idiot again, whatever shall we do?” "How about not write him that way". So yeah I hope something is paid off with Elhokar at least wanting to TRY being a more useful king.
Lopen developing radiant powers. Looking forward to that.
Rock, just keep being you buddy.
It's another example of how with Way Of Kings I was still taking everything in, so I didnt really keep track of the bridge crew beyond Moash cause I knew the name. But with Words Of Radiance, I was more familiar and so learned who the bridgecrew were a bit more this time around.
Rlain knows far more than he’s letting on. He knew what the song meant, he knows about the rhythms, he noticed a difference in whatshername. I feel like the Parshendi was being foreshadowed as completely innocent and something is controlling them and Rlain has gone from “i wont betray my people” to “well theyre already doomed then, please stop them even if it means murdering them” but really needs to share what he knows so that the Radiants dont just wipe them out assuming they’re all evil – which seems to be what Shallan currently thinks they should do.
God I cant stop thinking about Adolin stabbing Sadeas in the eye, that has really stuck with me. What a horrible thing that I was rooting for plot wise but horrified by as if it actually happened and I wish I hadnt seen it. The way Sanderson described it put a vivid image in my mind and I can't unsee that.
Can't wait to get to Oathbringer, but I'm on to Arcanum, slipped on reading (helps my sleep routine but sleep routine is also priority if i dont get time) and so I think the plan is to read but take a break posting in case theres not much to say, read up to the mistborn section, read Era 2 between arcanum, finish arcanum, and then read Oathbringer.
Also, how did Sanderson go from whatever he was on before, to 50% finished with stormlight 5. I need to write more. And what happened to his hair.

About us; This project has started recently. A team with individually experienced players. IGL has experience building a team that went into ESEA Intermediate and reached some finals. We're currently looking to rebuild the team as the previous one fell apart. Our plan is to build a team until we're satisfied with the line-up, we're planning on doing a lot of practice and tournaments until Source 2 comes out, this way we will be consistent, in top shape and have a wide stratbook going into Source 2 and we then just need to adapt the gameplans to the new mechanics. We then play other leagues such as ESEA, SCL, etc... We currently also have an organisation backing us that will fund mostly all entry fee's, social media coverage, casters for matches, etc...
IGL Vision; - most of the times you will be given a position in the T and CT defaults, this is due to the IGL believing certain roles should play certain positions in general - T vision; map control, spacing & trading - CT vision; rotation, re-aggression & info plays
We've achieved in the past months; - Volpid Series Semi-Finals - FlyHigh Finals - Authority Semi-Finals - Top #100 RMR qualifiers - SCL Intermediate (+ play-offs) - SCL Masters - ESEA Play-offs 2x
Players; ajax - 3400 elo, 2x ESEA Intermediate, 3x SCL Intermediate, 1x SCL Masters, Finalist in several leagues. paradise - 3000 elo, 3x ESEA Play-offs, 1x SCL Intermediate, won ESEA Open and Intermediate division cup, reached the ESEA Main division cup, went 9-0 in Open until first loss.
Available Roles: (we don't want PUG players, we want people able to work together in a system!) - AWPer: T: in general we want a supportive / stable AWPer instead of a "star" AWPer. someone capable of doing the boring stuff such as holding angles for the riflers to give them space into taking map control, but also getting picks if he has a good spawn or read. CT: going for entries, mostly only fighting Riflers early with AWP, avoiding fights with the enemies AWPer unless we have a good counter against him. - Second Entry: T: play as support early in rounds so that you can survive to entry late round, in set-strats you will be the first entry as the IGL is the main entry but prefers to throw utility in set-strats so that he can get a better read for future rounds. in default rounds he will be the first entry. CT: preferably rotation but anchor is also fine. - Star Rifler: T: basically just help take map control / maintain map control, late round responsibility is throwing utility for the execute or going in as the third/fourth player entering a site. CT: you will be ending up playing as many Star Rifle positions as possible, there could be situations where we will swap it up if it's not working out but other wise we will try and stick towards the positions given based on the role. - Lurker: T: you will be second caller considering you are on the opposite side of the map compared to the rest of the team meaning you can have amazing reads. you will have decent amount of freedom but still will have to work with structure and protocols. CT: preferably an anchor but rotation is also fine.
Requirements; - Faceit 2500 elo - Active Duty map knowledge - Calm & likeable personality - Decent at speaking English - Availability starting from 7pm CET or earlier until at least 12am
What you can expect from us; - 5-6x practice a week - International line-up - Dedicated players - Goal orientated practice
Apply Here, we will add you on Discord if we are interested in you. Need more information? DM me in Discord ajax#3685
Pease do not add me on Steam, just DM me on Discord instead. If you have no questions then just wait for us to add you, we will add you on Discord if we are interested.

Previous Chapter - Read 10 weeks ahead on Patreon - Read the story so far on Royal Road
*
Chapter Thirteen - Bridge Over Swift Water (Part II)
​
The cottage beside the mill was not large, and its low ceilings were packed with all manner of cupboards, shelves, chairs and tables, pressed in against the walls in a maze of well-worn clutter. The result was a rather overcrowded space, and Ren was forced to take more care than usual so as not to bump into anything when they entered, but the hearth was broad, and the smell of cooking filled the air, so it did not take long to settle into a comfortable lull of pleasant talk around the table whilst they waited for their lunch. Ted's wife, a young, slender woman with dark, smiling eyes and shoulder-length fair hair, hurried about the fire busily, stirring and seasoning her pots with a methodical efficiency. A mug arrived for each of them (water for the boys, something stronger for Ted), and they talked for a time of small things, of the weather and the harvest, hoping for a mild winter, idle talk for idle minds. Even Trin seemed to have relaxed in the lazy firelight, though he was more quiet than usual. Ren thought of how scared he had been of the miller as a boy, remembering the fearsome man with his scarred neck and deep voice that had raked their dinner table at the farm with his dark eyes. It was a memory that fit the man beside him about as well as a child’s boot might fit its fathers. He started to feel a little guilty for avoiding him, whenever he visited the farm.
‘Heard you were heading to Overwood, last week.’
Ren blinked, looking up from the fire to find Ted watching him over his mug. He swallowed.
‘Took a cart to the market with grandfather.’
‘How is the old goat?’
Ren hesitated. ‘He’s… he’s well.’
Ted took a swig of his ale, not a little wistfully. ‘Used to live up there, you know. Overwood, I mean. After the soldiering, when the Black Breath took my Da. Coughed up his own lungs, ‘fore it got ‘im. Always was a scrapper. Not easy, losing someone like that.’
Ren swallowed, looking away, and the miller’s eyes softened.
‘Your Ma, too, boy, I know. Damn shame.’ he said apologetically, and Ren decided not to correct him. ‘Long time before I came out here, anyways.’
‘You fought in the war?’ Trin asked tentatively.
‘I fought in the rebellion, boy.’ Ted corrected him. ‘Was only one King, back then.’
Trin swallowed, looking at the floor.
‘But that was a long time ago now. Afore you were born, I reckon. Not a lot of work for soldiers in peacetime. Must have dug half the privies in Overwood before I earned the coin to up sticks.'
‘Earned?’ Werla snorted from beside the fire, cheeks dimpling. ‘Swindled, more like.’
Ren looked over at her. He had always thought her a little young for the old miller. He was well past forty, and with his weathered brow and ugly scar he was hardly an obvious match for a pretty young girl not long from twenty when they had wed a couple of summers back. He wondered, not for the first time, how they had fallen in together to begin with.
‘Now, don't be giving our guests the wrong idea.’ Ted told her, grinning, and the scar on his neck knotted. He turned back to the boys, holding up his hands earnestly. ‘An honest game of chance, I swear it. Northerner, he was, didn't know dice from a pebble.’
Ren and Trin both nodded sagely at his explanation, neither of them knowing one jot about dice, or gambling, or Northerners, for that matter. Werla swept to their rescue, appearing at the miller's shoulder and planting a kiss on his cheek.
‘Swindled.’ she said pointedly.
Ted smiled in spite of himself, shooing her away. She chuckled and turned back to the stew, humming softly to herself.
‘I hear there’s a lot of new folk in town.’ Ted said, turning back to the boys. ‘From up in the Stonelands.’
‘Enough to notice.’ Ren replied, thinking of the unpleasantness on the road. He frowned. ‘Unfriendly types.’
‘Been a while since I made it over that way. Couple of winters back, now.’ He frowned thoughtfully, then smiled in Werla’s direction. ‘A lot can change in two years, though.’
Werla looked up, flashing him a smile, then went back to her stew pot again, humming. The miller paused, scratching at his scar, then gave the boys a curious look. ‘So, then. What brings you out this far?’
Ren lowered his eyes, and Trin shifted uncomfortably beside him. Ted laughed, weathered face creasing into a smile.
‘Come now.’ he told them. ‘Can’t hardly turn you over to your grandfather from here, can I?’
Ren swallowed. ‘We were just out for a ride…’
‘Mister Derin told us never to cross the bridge.’ Trin finished for him, scowling. ‘He said it was too far from the farm. Not safe, he said. So of course that’s exactly where Ren has to go. We’ll be in for it when we get back!’
‘You didn't have to come, Trin.’ Ren told his friend patiently. He thought of his grandfather’s old map, carved with rivers and mountains and cities in dark ink. The Swiftwater wasn’t even big enough to merit a line, and the distance they’d travelled this morning wouldn’t be more than a nails-breadth.
‘Well you didn't tell me where we were going.’ Trin replied, fidgeting nervously. His fingers twisted around a stray tear in his shirt, tugging at it. ‘And besides... Hardly going to let you go running off on your own. Too risky. It's not safe this far from the farm, for you most of all, so they says.’
‘Who’s they?’ Ren asked, scowling.
‘Hector. Your grandfather. And Ma, too! Everyone!’
‘Your Ma doesn’t know everything, Trin.’
‘Still a damn sight more than you!’
‘Easy, boys.’ Ted was smiling, and his scarred neck twisted. ‘I wager the north side of the river is much the same as this one.’
Trin lowered his eyes, and his cheeks reddened. Ren thought of the shadows moving in the trees over the bridge, the way he had fallen when Ted had found him, and started to feel very foolish indeed. His thoughts had been dark, unpredictable, these past few days, since the trip to Overwood. He never had been a good sleeper, but his nights had been more restless than usual, too, his dreams a little thicker with shadows. Shadows with faces, and a hunchback with gold eyes to give them voice. Turning every doorway to the gloom of the fortuneteller’s tent, every flame the silver light of his brazier. He frowned at himself. Just rhymes and empty words. Best not to dwell on it.
‘Food's ready!’ Werla said suddenly from the fire, and a few moments later they had steaming bowls of fragrant brown stew sitting in front of them on the table. Ted carved up some slices of soft, pale bread for them to soak, and they set to eating it all in relative quiet for a time, content with good food and the soft warmth of the fire, and it was not long before all thoughts of the bridge, and the shadows beyond it, had gone entirely from Ren's mind. He found himself staring wearily into his cup, watching idly as the clear water rocked and rolled against the rim, listening to the rumble of the river outside.
‘Won’t turn to ale just by looking at it.’ Ted told him, and he looked up to find the miller looking at him curiously, taking another mouthful of bread. Trin was still quite engaged in his food, and Werla was sipping her mug contentedly, pale hair brushed back behind her ears.
‘What?’
‘Come, now, boy. What’s got you twisted?’ Ted asked, taking sip of his drink.
Ren hesitated. ‘I was thinking about the market.’ He said after a moment, looking up. It was true enough.
‘Ah. Town ain't what it used to be.’ Ted looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then began rubbing his thumb around the rim of his mug, staring at it. His young wife watched him with a slight frown. ‘All these unsavoury types arriving. You hear the talk, even out here. City folk, some of them, and worse. Heard… there’s talk of Brothers abroad, up in the Westmere. Out in the open, again, like.’ He pressed harder against the mug, thumb turning white. Werla reached out and pulled his hand away, folding it in her own and meeting his eye. Ted frowned, squeezing her hand, and the ugly scar on his neck gleamed. Trin had stopped eating.
‘But the Westmere’s a long way from here, and I ain’t one to be complaining. Got a good roof over my head, and a good living. A good woman, too, and might have a son of my own by next winter, Makers willing.’ He grinned at Werla, putting a hand to her belly, and she smiled, pulling it to her mouth and kissing it softly. ‘Reckon I’m a lucky man.’
Ren smiled at them both, lowering his eyes.
‘Say hello to your folks, for me, boy. Tell your old man I better see his arse over here before the snows.’
Some words of thanks, warm, earnest ones, and one or two more for goodbye, then they were homeward bound again, ponies snorting in the afternoon sun, promises of a return visit ringing in their ears. Ren was left with the distinct feeling that he had misjudged the old miller, scar and all. But it wasn’t long before his thoughts turned towards the rumours he had imparted from the Westmere, his white knuckles pressed against his mug. To Hector’s words in the shadow of the farm hill. To the ugly fortuneteller and his tent of oddities and silver fire. Words whispered in the dark. He’d not mentioned the encounter in the tent to anyone. Not even his grandfather. In truth, he’d been doing his best not to think about it at all, without much success. He frowned, hunching over his saddle.
A mask on fire.
Neither of them spoke for a long while. Trin, for his part, was busy trying to subtly feed Pol the stash of small treats he had smuggled away from the cottage, glancing over at Ren occasionally to make sure he hadn’t noticed. He had, of course, but there was little use in pointing it out.
‘Trin.’ Ren said once they had crested the hill, looking back towards the river-bound cottage in the distance. Trin started and stuck his hand quickly back into his pocket, hiding a scrap of bread.
‘What?'’
‘You heard what Ted said?’ Ren asked. ‘About Brothers?’
Trin frowned. ‘Suppose so.’
Ren was still looking back the way they had come. 'What do you make of it?'
‘Reckon he’s right.’ Trin shrugged. ‘Westmere’s a long way away.’
He hesitated, frowning.
‘But Hector’s been saying it for years. Overwood’s not what it used to be. Strange folk coming and going by night. No safe place for good folk that side of the Swiftwater. Brothers or no.’
‘Grandad says there haven’t been Black Hand this far south in years.’ Ren murmured, still looking back towards the river. ‘Not since we were born, at least.’
‘Wouldn’t pay it any mind. Plenty to worry about without them.’ Trin told him, giving him a serious look. ‘You’ve been acting up more, these past few weeks. Ever since the old man came calling.’
‘Have I?’ Ren scowled, shooting his friend a sideways glance.
‘You know what I think about him.’ Trin told him seriously. ‘Can’t be trusted, that one. And you can’t be taking so many risks. Not with your… Well, you know.’
‘Your ma tell you that, too?’
‘Don’t make it wrong.’ Trin grumbled, turning away in his saddle and trotting off south over the crest of the hill. Ren waited a moment longer, frowning to himself, then followed him reluctantly. The sound of the river was long gone behind him, but he caught one final glimpse the gleaming water before he shook the reins and disappeared finally over the brow of the hill, bound for home.

Read the story so far on Royal Road - Series Page - Read 10 weeks ahead on Patreon
*
Chapter Thirteen - Bridge Over Swift Water (Part II)
The cottage beside the mill was not large, and its low ceilings were packed with all manner of cupboards, shelves, chairs and tables, pressed in against the walls in a maze of well-worn clutter. The result was a rather overcrowded space, and Ren was forced to take more care than usual so as not to bump into anything when they entered, but the hearth was broad, and the smell of cooking filled the air, so it did not take long to settle into a comfortable lull of pleasant talk around the ta-ble whilst they waited for their lunch. Ted's wife, a young, slender woman with dark, smiling eyes and shoulder-length fair hair, hurried about the fire busily, stirring and seasoning her pots with a methodical efficiency. A mug arrived for each of them (water for the boys, some-thing stronger for Ted), and they talked for a time of small things, of the weather and the harvest, hoping for a mild winter, idle talk for idle minds. Even Trin seemed to have relaxed in the lazy firelight, though he was more quiet than usual. Ren thought of how scared he had been of the miller as a boy, remembering the fearsome man with his scarred neck and deep voice that had raked their dinner table at the farm with his dark eyes. It was a memory that fit the man beside him about as well as a child’s boot might fit its fathers. He started to feel a little guilty for avoiding him, whenever he visited the farm.
‘Heard you were heading to Overwood, last week.’
Ren blinked, looking up from the fire to find Ted watching him over his mug. He swallowed.
‘Took a cart to the market with grandfather.’
‘How is the old goat?’
Ren hesitated. ‘He’s… he’s well.’
Ted took a swig of his ale, not a little wistfully. ‘Used to live up there, you know. Overwood, I mean. After the soldiering, when the Black Breath took my Da. Coughed up his own lungs, ‘fore it got ‘im. Always was a scrapper. Not easy, losing someone like that.’
Ren swallowed, looking away, and the miller’s eyes softened.
‘Your Ma, too, boy, I know. Damn shame.’ he said apologetically, and Ren decided not to correct him. ‘Long time before I came out here, anyways.’
‘You fought in the war?’ Trin asked tentatively.
‘I fought in the rebellion, boy.’ Ted corrected him. ‘Was only one King, back then.’
Trin swallowed, looking at the floor.
‘But that was a long time ago now. Afore you were born, I reckon. Not a lot of work for soldiers in peacetime. Must have dug half the privies in Overwood before I earned the coin to up sticks.'
‘Earned?’ Werla snorted from beside the fire, cheeks dimpling. ‘Swindled, more like.’
Ren looked over at her. He had always thought her a little young for the old miller. He was well past forty, and with his weathered brow and ugly scar he was hardly an obvious match for a pretty young girl not long from twenty when they had wed a couple of summers back. He wondered, not for the first time, how they had fallen in together to begin with.
‘Now, don't be giving our guests the wrong idea.’ Ted told her, grin-ning, and the scar on his neck knotted. He turned back to the boys, holding up his hands earnestly. ‘An honest game of chance, I swear it. Northerner, he was, didn't know dice from a pebble.’
Ren and Trin both nodded sagely at his explanation, neither of them knowing one jot about dice, or gambling, or Northerners, for that mat-ter. Werla swept to their rescue, appearing at the miller's shoulder and planting a kiss on his cheek.
‘Swindled.’ she said pointedly.
Ted smiled in spite of himself, shooing her away. She chuckled and turned back to the stew, humming softly to herself.
‘I hear there’s a lot of new folk in town.’ Ted said, turning back to the boys. ‘From up in the Stonelands.’
‘Enough to notice.’ Ren replied, thinking of the unpleasantness on the road. He frowned. ‘Unfriendly types.’
‘Been a while since I made it over that way. Couple of winters back, now.’ He frowned thoughtfully, then smiled in Werla’s direction. ‘A lot can change in two years, though.’
Werla looked up, flashing him a smile, then went back to her stew pot again, humming. The miller paused, scratching at his scar, then gave the boys a curious look. ‘So, then. What brings you out this far?’
Ren lowered his eyes, and Trin shifted uncomfortably beside him. Ted laughed, weathered face creasing into a smile.
‘Come now.’ he told them. ‘Can’t hardly turn you over to your grandfather from here, can I?’
Ren swallowed. ‘We were just out for a ride…’
‘Mister Derin told us never to cross the bridge.’ Trin finished for him, scowling. ‘He said it was too far from the farm. Not safe, he said. So of course that’s exactly where Ren has to go. We’ll be in for it when we get back!’
‘You didn't have to come, Trin.’ Ren told his friend patiently. He thought of his grandfather’s old map, carved with rivers and mountains and cities in dark ink. The Swiftwater wasn’t even big enough to merit a line, and the distance they’d travelled this morning wouldn’t be more than a nails-breadth.
‘Well you didn't tell me where we were going.’ Trin replied, fidget-ing nervously. His fingers twisted around a stray tear in his shirt, tug-ging at it. ‘And besides... Hardly going to let you go running off on your own. Too risky. It's not safe this far from the farm, for you most of all, so they says.’
‘Who’s they?’ Ren asked, scowling.
‘Hector. Your grandfather. And Ma, too! Everyone!’
‘Your Ma doesn’t know everything, Trin.’
‘Still a damn sight more than you!’
‘Easy, boys.’ Ted was smiling, and his scarred neck twisted. ‘I wa-ger the north side of the river is much the same as this one.’
Trin lowered his eyes, and his cheeks reddened. Ren thought of the shadows moving in the trees over the bridge, the way he had fallen when Ted had found him, and started to feel very foolish indeed. His thoughts had been dark, unpredictable, these past few days, since the trip to Overwood. He never had been a good sleeper, but his nights had been more restless than usual, too, his dreams a little thicker with shad-ows. Shadows with faces, and a hunchback with gold eyes to give them voice. Turning every doorway to the gloom of the fortuneteller’s tent, every flame the silver light of his brazier. He frowned at himself. Just rhymes and empty words. Best not to dwell on it.
‘Food's ready!’ Werla said suddenly from the fire, and a few mo-ments later they had steaming bowls of fragrant brown stew sitting in front of them on the table. Ted carved up some slices of soft, pale bread for them to soak, and they set to eating it all in relative quiet for a time, content with good food and the soft warmth of the fire, and it was not long before all thoughts of the bridge, and the shadows beyond it, had gone entirely from Ren's mind. He found himself staring wearily into his cup, watching idly as the clear water rocked and rolled against the rim, listening to the rumble of the river outside.
‘Won’t turn to ale just by looking at it.’ Ted told him, and he looked up to find the miller looking at him curiously, taking another mouthful of bread. Trin was still quite engaged in his food, and Werla was sip-ping her mug contentedly, pale hair brushed back behind her ears.
‘What?’
‘Come, now, boy. What’s got you twisted?’ Ted asked, taking sip of his drink.
Ren hesitated. ‘I was thinking about the market.’ He said after a moment, looking up. It was true enough.
‘Ah. Town ain't what it used to be.’ Ted looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then began rubbing his thumb around the rim of his mug, staring at it. His young wife watched him with a slight frown. ‘All these unsavoury types arriving. You hear the talk, even out here. City folk, some of them, and worse. Heard… there’s talk of Brothers abroad, up in the Westmere. Out in the open, again, like.’ He pressed harder against the mug, thumb turning white. Werla reached out and pulled his hand away, folding it in her own and meeting his eye. Ted frowned, squeezing her hand, and the ugly scar on his neck gleamed. Trin had stopped eating.
‘But the Westmere’s a long way from here, and I ain’t one to be complaining. Got a good roof over my head, and a good living. A good woman, too, and might have a son of my own by next winter, Makers willing.’ He grinned at Werla, putting a hand to her belly, and she smiled, pulling it to her mouth and kissing it softly. ‘Reckon I’m a lucky man.’
Ren smiled at them both, lowering his eyes.
‘Say hello to your folks, for me, boy. Tell your old man I better see his arse over here before the snows.’
Some words of thanks, warm, earnest ones, and one or two more for goodbye, then they were homeward bound again, ponies snorting in the afternoon sun, promises of a return visit ringing in their ears. Ren was left with the distinct feeling that he had misjudged the old miller, scar and all. But it wasn’t long before his thoughts turned towards the ru-mours he had imparted from the Westmere, his white knuckles pressed against his mug. To Hector’s words in the shadow of the farm hill. To the ugly fortuneteller and his tent of oddities and silver fire. Words whispered in the dark. He’d not mentioned the encounter in the tent to anyone. Not even his grandfather. In truth, he’d been doing his best not to think about it at all, without much success. He frowned, hunching over his saddle.
A mask on fire.
Neither of them spoke for a long while. Trin, for his part, was busy trying to subtly feed Pol the stash of small treats he had smuggled away from the cottage, glancing over at Ren occasionally to make sure he hadn’t noticed. He had, of course, but there was little use in pointing it out.
‘Trin.’ Ren said once they had crested the hill, looking back towards the river-bound cottage in the distance. Trin started and stuck his hand quickly back into his pocket, hiding a scrap of bread.
‘What?'’
‘You heard what Ted said?’ Ren asked. ‘About Brothers?’
Trin frowned. ‘Suppose so.’
Ren was still looking back the way they had come. 'What do you make of it?'
‘Reckon he’s right.’ Trin shrugged. ‘Westmere’s a long way away.’
He hesitated, frowning.
‘But Hector’s been saying it for years. Overwood’s not what it used to be. Strange folk coming and going by night. No safe place for good folk that side of the Swiftwater. Brothers or no.’
‘Grandad says there haven’t been Black Hand this far south in years.’ Ren murmured, still looking back towards the river. ‘Not since we were born, at least.’
‘Wouldn’t pay it any mind. Plenty to worry about without them.’ Trin told him, giving him a serious look. ‘You’ve been acting up more, these past few weeks. Ever since the old man came calling.’
‘Have I?’ Ren scowled, shooting his friend a sideways glance.
‘You know what I think about him.’ Trin told him seriously. ‘Can’t be trusted, that one. And you can’t be taking so many risks. Not with your… Well, you know.’
‘Your ma tell you that, too?’
‘Don’t make it wrong.’ Trin grumbled, turning away in his saddle and trotting off south over the crest of the hill. Ren waited a moment longer, frowning to himself, then followed him reluctantly. The sound of the river was long gone behind him, but he caught one final glimpse the gleaming water before he shook the reins and disappeared finally over the brow of the hill, bound for home.

I condensed and validated instructions for setting up an OSDCloud USB Key or ISO to deploy any Windows version to a physical device or VM joined to Intune with an autopilot profile in your tenant without using group tags or manual hashing (I suggest using dynamic device groups based upon group tag -or- name prefix in the device profile since this process does not create a group tag)
I hope you all find this helpful. This avoids having to manually hash a device and its nice for wiping and fresh installing many pieces of hardware or VMs with different autopilot profiles.
Build a USB Key and Install Windows + Custom Drivers
Works with Dell, HP, Lenovo, MS Surface
(64/128GB USB Drive Recommended)
Install OSDCloud

1. Make sure your using a Windows 11 22h2 Computer to build the USB key
2. Run powershell as admin
3. Run commands:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force
Install-Module OSD -Force
Install-Module AzureAD –Force
Install-Module WindowsAutopilotIntune -Force
Install-Module Microsoft.Graph.Intune -Force

1. Install the Windows 11 ADK components below and install with default options

a. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2196127
i. Only install “deployment tools” checkbox

1. Install the Windows PE Add-on for the Windows ADK

a. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2196224
i. Use all default options

1. Install the Microsoft Deployment Tolkit(MDT) x64

a. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=54259
i. Install the x64 version
ii. Use all default options

1. Run powershell as admin
   
2. Run command:
   

New-OSDCloudTemplate
Download AutoPilot Profile JSONs and Copy to Folder

1. Run powershell as admin
2. Run commands:

Connect-MSGraph
$AutopilotProfiles = Get-AutopilotProfile
Foreach ($AutopilotProfile in $AutopilotProfiles) {
$TempPath = "C:\ProgramData\OSDCloud\Config\AutopilotJSON\"
if (!(Test-Path $TempPath)) {
New-Item -Path $TempPath -ItemType Directory -Force
}
$name = $AutopilotProfile.displayName
$ExportPath = $TempPath + $name + "_AutopilotConfigurationFile.json"
$AutopilotProfile ConvertTo-AutopilotConfigurationJSON Out-File $ExportPath -Encoding ASCII
}
$AutopilotProfiles = Get-AutopilotProfile
Foreach ($AutopilotProfile in $AutopilotProfiles) {
$TempPath = "C:\ProgramData\OSDCloud\Media\OSDCloud\Automate\"
if (!(Test-Path $TempPath)) {
New-Item -Path $TempPath -ItemType Directory -Force
}
$name = $AutopilotProfile.displayName
$ExportPath = $TempPath + $name + "_AutopilotConfigurationFile.json"
$AutopilotProfile ConvertTo-AutopilotConfigurationJSON Out-File $ExportPath -Encoding ASCII
}
Create OSDCloud Workspace

1. Run commands:

New-OSDCloudWorkspace
Edit-OSDCloudWinPE -StartOSDCloudGUI
Create OSDCloud USB (for physical device deployment from cloud)

1. Run command:

New-OSDCloudUSB

1. Select USB Drive
   
2. Run command
   

Add Drivers and OS Distros for Offline Deployment
Update-OSDCloudUSB –DriverPack *

1. Select required driver packs for Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft device models needed.
   
2. Run command:
   

Update-OSDCloudUSB -OSName 'Windows 11 22H2' -OSLanguage en-us -OSActivation Volume
Select your OS from Business Edition: (Windows 11 22H2 x64) (Pro) (en-us) (volume)
OR (Use “Update-OSDCloudUSB -OS” to add whatever other OS version you want)
Create OSDCloud ISO (for VM deployment)

1. ISO can be used from workspace located here to create VM

a. Run command:
New-OSDCloudISO
b. Obtain from: C:\OSDCloud\OSDCloud_NoPrompt.iso
Install Windows from USB to Physical Device

1. Boot from USB with ethernet connection or without if using previously downloaded windows/drivers
2. OSDCloudGUI will start automatically
3. Select autopilot JSON from dropdown menu
4. Select Driver Pack based upon hardware model
5. Select OS (Windows 11 22H2 x64) (Pro) (en-us) (volume) is our standard
6. From Microsoft Update Catalog Menu select “Update System Firmware”
7. Press OK
8. Windows and drivers will install from internet or from offline USB if no internet available and they have been preloaded during USB creation
9. Restart Laptop when complete and make sure internet is connected upon boot and logon with user account that will be using the laptop at welcome to companyname screen
10. Automatic device provisioning will finish and log in as user. Wait at least a couple hours for all configurations and applications not apply and bitlocker to turn on and encrypt the drive
11. Validate the device is compliant on Intune dashboard:

a. Windows - Microsoft Intune admin center
Reference Documents:
About - OSDCloud.com
OSDCloud #1 – Basics – Ákos Bakos (akosbakos.ch)
About - OSDCloud.com
Configuration Files - OSDCloud.com
Create bootable USB w. Windows 11 incl. Autopilot JSON file – SIMSEN blog
​

Hi all,
on Dec 19th I launched DataAnalyst.com - this is the fifth (May) update of hopefully many more to come.
Want to make sure I document the journey, and keep myself honest, so each month I will be making a post about the statistics, progress, some thoughts and what are the next steps I want to be focusing on.
While the main purpose for the post is to bring everyone along on the journey, I do think that members of SideProject might benefit from the site, especially those looking to start their first online project.
If it's not something that belong here, have absolutely no issues to take the post down and / or keep the updates to a different subreddit.
So, just a reminder that early stages vision is to become the #1 job board for data analysts - hand-picking interesting data analyst job opportunities across industries.
Let's dive right in:  

Statistics update

-	January	February	March	April	May
Number of jobs posted	Total: 208 (US)	Total: 212 (US)	Total: 207 (US)	Total: 153 (US)	Total: 140 (US)
Paid posts	0	0	0	0	0
Visitors	795	3,267	3,003	4,892	5,203
Apply now clicks	634	2,354	2,898	4,051	4,476
Avg. session duration	3min 52sec	3min 53sec	3min 39sec	3min 44sec	3min 10sec
Pageviews	4100	16,300	15,449	26,291	28,755
Avg. time on page	1min 35sec	1min 46sec	1min 45sec	1min 39sec	1min 26sec
Returning visitors	17.7%	22.4%	23.9%	23.8%	22.2%
Google Impressions	503	5,500	9,430	28,300	45,900
Google Clicks	47	355	337	1,880	2,070
Newsletter subs (total)	205	416	600	918	1,239
Newsletter open rate (48hrs)	61%	67%	56%	56%	50%

1. General Observations

Stats

DataAnalyst.com has been online for just over 5 months and we've brought over 1,250 hand curated data analyst jobs onto the site - all of them including a salary range.
There's now 1,200+ people subscribed to the newsletter, and I can't thank you enough for your support and for joining us on the journey.
While in April the site grew to just over 5,000 monthly visitors across 26,000 pageviews, in May we've been able to cross the 5,000 visitors yet again, with over 28,000 pageviews - not only that, we registered approximately 4,500 data analyst applications being started from the site!
Additionally, I've also had multiple people reaching out, both in comment section of my previous updates, but also in DMs, sharing that they have found the site to be extremely useful in their job search, and that they were able to get interviews and onboard new roles through the site - I absolutely love this, and even if the venture doesn't end up being commercially successful, I'm super happy to hear that it has indeed helped people when needed.
Google impressions are over 50% up, albeit the amount of people clicking through to the site remained flat.
On the positive note - the site has finally ranking for all the major target keywords:
"data analyst jobs / data analyst job / data analyst / data analytics jobs"
Pumped about this, as having multiple channels is crucial to long term growth and protecting the site and traffic from algorithm updates.

Things that happened

a) Expired Listings - There's feedback regarding some of the jobs on the site already expiring and leading to non-existing listings. I am trying to come up with a solution where visitors would be able to upvote/downvote and thus highlighting status for everyone else. For now, I went through job listings and marked those roles no longer open as "Expired".
b) Product Hunt launch - Early last month I decided to share DataAnalyst on Product Hunt. The idea wasn't necessarily to try and rank up to the top, but mainly get the site out there, and gain a backlink from ProduntHunt that's going to help the site's authority. Overall the voting process is extremely cumbersome, but we did end up with 36 upvotes which was more than I expected.

Expecting a summer slump

With summer, there's typically very little hiring happening / it's extremely slow as people are taking well deserved time off. I'm expecting activity on the site to decrease, and my main goal for this period is getting together a plan of action to start reaching out to companies in Q4 and Q1, educate them about the site, the value proposition and hopefully get a few partnerships on the books.
What that will look like, I honestly have no idea, but experiment, iterate and go again.
Some of you may have noticed that I've also recently launched BusinessAnalyst.com - where I'm looking to replicate step by step what I've done over the last 5 months with DataAnalyst. The overall idea is to create a network of sites, benefiting from the same infastructure, serving and helping different career paths, and making a collaboration with organisations much more appealing (afterall, most companies who hire for data analysts also look for business analysts and vice versa). Arguably, this might not make much sense seeing that DA still hasn't brought any revenue in, but on the other hand, I can reuse the whole tech stack and structures already in place, halve my cost per project, while doubling the surface area to catch me some luck. Anyways, how this will work out is a case study for another time.

2. The Salary Guide

On a monthly basis, we've been utilising the data available to developing and sharing Market Insights - a deep dive into the data analyst job market, where we can have a look at the job openings and provide you all with insights on the latest hiring trends in the United States.
With these insights I'm trying to bring answers to questions such as: Which industries are hiring the most? Are we seeing any salary increases? And what about the remote working trend?
With that in mind, I'm excited to share that the first five months of insights were consolidated, and the Salary Guide has now been published.
The data analyst salary guide provides the overview of salaries in various industries - and now also shows a more detailed view on each industry page, with a deep dive into how much entry level, senior and lead data analysts can earn depending on their experience.
This is only based on job opportunities on the site, and no external data sources are utilised. The plan is to have it updated quarterly, with the next update in September.
For the US, we've also released the May edition of Market Insights, you can see the full report here.

3. "Day in the Life" - a series of interviews with data analysts sharing their experience, thoughts and advice.

The third interview from our series has been published. In these interviews, we aim to share stories and experiences about the route to becoming a data analyst, keeping up with the skillset, recommendations to aspiring data analysts and much more.
Tisha, who is a data analyst at Tesla, has shared some fantastic insights, and I'd love to highlight couple of my favourite quotes from the interview.
On what she loves about being a data analyst:
"For me, the most exciting aspect of being a data analyst is the opportunity to unlock meaningful insights from vast amounts of data. I enjoy the challenge of uncovering patterns, identifying trends, and translating complex data into actionable recommendations. The ability to make a tangible impact on business outcomes and help organizations drive growth is incredibly rewarding."
On her advice for those aspiring to enter the industry, she shares 6 points that everyone should focus on:

1. Acquire a strong foundation in SQL. This is an essential tool for data analysis and manipulation.
2. Familiarize yourself with data analytics tools like Tableau, Power BI, or Alteryx. Demonstrating proficiency in these tools can enhance your employability.
3. Seek out internships, projects, or volunteer opportunities where you can gain hands-on experience with real-world datasets and analytical challenges.
4. Continuously enhance your skills by staying updated with the latest trends and best practices in the field. Online courses, webinars, and industry conferences can be valuable resources.
5. Showcase your skills and projects through a portfolio or personal website. This allows potential employers to see your capabilities and the impact you can make.
6. Network with professionals in the data industry through events, online communities, and LinkedIn. Building connections can lead to valuable opportunities and mentorship.

We've also touched upon the Question of the Year: Is AI/Chat GPT a threat to data analysts?
Highly recommend reading the full interview.

Things in the pipeline

• New data analyst jobs, added daily
• Actually launching the weekly newsletter with the pick of best jobs directly to your inbox (yes, I know....)
• Monthly US data analyst market insights
• Improving the overall site experience (this one is a never ending activity)
• Continuing to bring you Data Analysts across their experience levels, to share tips, tricks and their thoughts
• Keep breaking a feature that would allow visitors to report an expired job posting

3 ways you could help

1. Looking for a new challenge? Check out the website - I'm adding new jobs daily
   
2. Looking to hire a data analyst to your team? Do you know anyone looking to hire? Shoot me a message on Reddit (or [email protected]) and I'll upgrade your first listing for free!
   
3. As I mentioned, we have an ongoing "Day of a Data Analyst" series. For those of you who are open to do an email based interview about your data analyst career journey, please just send me a message and we'll organise something - would love to get you featured and share your experience with our readers!
   

If you have any questions, concerns, come across glitches - please just reach out, happy to chat.
Thank you all again, and see you in a month.
Alex

I'd like to start by letting everyone know that the genre is Fantasy Epic, and that this is a long prologue at 6,414 words. This prologue serves a purpose as it takes care of a lot of my setting and plot setup. It also gives the reader a fair bit of worldbuilding without making it too much of an info dump (talking to you Robert Jordan ;P).
I've had several people beta read this for me and gotten a lot of positive feedback. The prolbem for me is that these were all people I know very well on a personal level. Several have made comparisons to Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings as far as how well the full book is written. The problem is, friends and family can often have a bias and make things seem better than they really are. So, now I want to do a test run in the real world and see what people who don't know me think. Is it as engaging and compelling as they have made me hope that it is?
I'm basically wanting to take a page from a couple authors I admire and follow the ABC rule for critiquing. Please let me know of any point where you thought it was Awesome, Boring or Confusing. I know prologues aren't everyone's favorite thing, but this has basically been written like a novella for the main story as it foreshadows a lot of things leading all the way into book four.
————————————————————————————
PROLOGUE
ARCHIVE INFINITUM
October 14, 844 (Alt-Future)
"Welcome back to the Archive, Master Jonathan."
"Thank you, Charles. It's good to be back. Have you noticed anything interesting in the Physical Realm?"
"I have not, sir. Do you require any assistance today?"
"Thank you, but no. I'm only here to revisit a passage within the history of the Order. Shortly after, I'll depart for the reunion at the Tower."
"Excellent, sir. I'll leave you to it."
Jonathan emerged from the ether and walked through the Archive doors. Inhaling deeply, he breathed in the familiar scents of dusty cleanliness that can only truly be found in a place of learning. The lights reflected off the floor's white marble surface, casting a glow that evenly lit every corner of the large chamber. Even so, the room still felt cavernous to him, as if he were a galleon amidst the vastness of the ocean.
Jonathan appeared to be in his early to mid forties. Though, with the way he carried himself and the spring in his step, he seemed closer to his late twenties. His hair was shoulder length and dark gray. He wore bifocals though he hadn't needed them since his ascension, and dressed with a refined sense of style.
His gray eyes were by far his most interesting feature, though. They were the only hint of how old he truly was and the many adventures and travesties he'd witnessed. Regardless, how old he was didn't matter as age had long since lost its meaning for him. After all, being an immortal tended to give a man new priorities in life.
As he strolled across the room, a lift descended from the tower's heights. The square platform had waist high rails around its perimeter. It floated through the air showing no sign of a suspension system to raise or lower it. This was accomplished by a magical enchantment that allowed it to levitate and dart about the room at mind numbing speeds. As he stepped up onto the platform's dais, it landed on the floor in front of him. He took a position at its center, then, after folding his arms behind his back, mentally willed it to take him to floor eight hundred forty four.
It rose off the ground, gradually gaining speed until it was a hundred or so feet in the air. At that point, the platform took off like a rocket. The thought of what these speeds would do to him if this were outside the Realm of Intellect crossed his mind, making him chuckle nervously. He knew he had to be moving close to six hundred miles per hour.
Now, let me tell you a bit about Jonathan's pet project, The Archive Infinitum. The Archive is a magical structure he'd designed shortly after the cataclysm that nearly wiped out the human race. An event most of you now refer to as the Night of Burning Skies. That same event is also what gave us the powers we now refer to as magic.
Shortly after obtaining his ascension, he learned that science's multiverse theories were close to how reality really worked. There are an infinite number of parallel universes, or branching timelines, that coexist simultaneously. What was different is that each universe shared a common six realm structure. The Physical Realm, the Realm of Intellect, the Dominion of Shadows, the Plane of Enlightenment, the Land of the Forgotten, and the Ether.
He built the Archive within the Realm of Intellect so it wouldn't be bound by the laws of physics or time as we know them. Once the structure was anchored in place, he could set most of those parameters himself. What he didn't realize was that making it here would have an unintended, though not unwelcome, side effect. The structure's size, shape, and architectural style could change by anyone who entered it.
When someone enters the Archive, it ascertains their strength of mind and will. Suppose the individual's mental fortitude is deemed stronger than that of the other occupants. In that case, the appearance will adjust to one that best serves and appeals to that individual. This could become unsettling for the occupants already inside the first few times it happened. That being said, it has no effect on the contents atop the shelves or where you're located within the structure. For Jonathan, it shared an uncanny resemblance to the George Peabody Library, though on a much grander scale.
The lift stopped after a brief ride, and Jonathan stepped off. He resumed his stride, passing row after row of the cherry wood bookcases. There were hundreds of rows and thousands of tomes and scrolls in each. As a scholar, he'd spent most of his existence here. But, even so, he knew there would always be something more to be gleaned from their pages.
Today was a day of remembrance. Of celebration. Of mourning. It was the anniversary of the end of a war that had lasted ten thousand years. With the death of one individual, a light of hope was given to many. For others, it was a bittersweet victory that left a void in their hearts. He'd come here today to revisit a passage that would return him to that fateful day. Reliving the event which granted them this peace, and once again, paying his respects to a dear friend.
"Ah, yes, yes, yes. Here we go."
The plaque on the side of the bookcase read, Row DD, Column 15. Now that he'd found the right one, he began scanning the shelves. It wasn't long before his hand landed on the tome he sought.
"Here it is." He pulled it down from the shelf. "My word. Has it truly been fifteen hundred years since I glanced through these pages?"
Looking at the cover, he chuckled. The combined magic of the Archive and the Realm had created a thin layer of dust. Giving it the feeling of something ancient and lost to time. Raising it to his lips, he blew the dust away, causing the magic to dissipate as it fell to the floor. He pulled open the cover and rifled through the pages. The section he stopped at contained the account of Rexinon the Prophet's final words.
Summoning his divine magics, he channeled a spell into the tome. The words that once filled the passages began to fade away, leaving only the blank pages, which now bled a blueish gray smoke. The soft glow of the lights against the floor diminished as the smoke spread. As the darkness grew more substantial, luminescent spheres and arcs of brilliant blues and crimson could be seen dancing about its surface like lightning.
The ground trembled beneath his feet, and the smokey haze took on a more stormlike appearance. All around him, the air started to feel heavy, and the taste of dust and sea salt filled his mouth. A gentle rain began to fall, and the room's remaining lights winked out. If not for the increasing flashes of lightning, he would've been left in total darkness. But even this was not a comfort, as those flashes cast shadows against the storm's ever swirling walls. Many of which appeared to be dark things that should never be seen in the light.
The storm's intensity grew, bringing disorienting cracks of thunder and wind whipping around him. It assaulted his senses and seemed to have an almost vengeful purpose. That meant he had to constantly focus on the spell, bracing himself against the onslaught. If he failed, it would kill him without question.
Some of the shadows began to take on a physical form with details beyond what the walls could offer them. He watched as an hourglass tumbled end over end, circling him before it returned to the storm. A moment later, a blazing fireplace and mantle emerged but produced neither light nor heat. Finally, a door engraved with the crest of the Order appeared. These images were ones he'd expected to see for this particular passage, and so came as no surprise. However, when a fourth image appeared, he was caught off guard.
Although it was normal for three images to accompany this spell, an occasional fourth spoke of prophecy. He focused intently on this final image. It showed twelve people standing in a circle; one of them was coated in blood. Two others were bound by chains. One a man, the other a woman.
He looked closer at the man and realized it was Godric. His eyes opened wide as he tried to decipher the meaning behind the image. Only a few moments passed while he speculated, but it was a few moments too many. Disaster struck, and too late, he realized his mistake. He'd lost focus, and now the storm would surely take him.
Hurricane force winds and debris tore at his clothes, quickly turning them into rags. One powerful gust slammed into his side as if he'd been struck by a car, knocking him off his feet. The storm swelled with even greater ferocity. It threatened to consume him this time, and he wondered if it would finally cost him.
Rain and hail pelted his face and body, while dust and sand stung his eyes. As he wiped away the grit, a bolt of lightning struck before him, temporarily blinding him. He got to his hands and knees, gasping for breath as the storm continued to beat him relentlessly.
Steeling himself against the pain, he rose to his feet. As fast as he could manage, he began casting mental defenses and barriers to protect his mind from the horrific assault. He bellowed in defiance of the storm, "I will not let it end this way! I refuse!" One defense after another was laid upon his person, until finally, he succeeded. The winds died to a breeze as the rain became little more than a summer misting.
He heard the sound of a quill scratching against paper over the storm's remnants, and the air behind his back grew hot as a crackling fire joined the room's ambiance. The sickly sweet smell of incense filled his nostrils, reminding him of days spent in his master's study. Another fond memory.
The storm wall vanished as the tremors subsided, making the room visible through a misty haze. The light of the fireplace cast his shadow across the now rough cut gray stone floor. Half a dozen tapestries hung around the room, and a liquor cabinet stood at the room's far corner. The main entry door remained closed to his left, and the doorway to the study's balcony lay to his right. At the room's center sat Rexinon at his desk, writing furiously on a piece of parchment.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although he'd done this countless times, the journey into the pages of history was always filled with peril. But, blessedly, the most intense part of the spell was complete. And while he could now relax in that fact, that fourth image still concerned him.
He stood in the familiar square room, clothing restored to its original state. The evening's air flowed through the open windows, making the ambient temperature quite cozy. Crossing the room, he paused at the desk and listened as Rexinon started muttering. "What I wouldn't give for a typewriter, much less a computer. Would make this so much faster."
Jonathan couldn't help but crack a smile. "Oh, but how many times have I thought the same thing, old friend?" He remarked, though he knew Rexinon couldn't hear him.
He stepped up to the desk and leaned over it. Looking down at the paper Rexinon was writing on, he frowned. Like so many times before, it appeared as little more than black scribbles on a page. Those words had to be important, but there was no way to know.
This was one of the spell's critical weaknesses. The details within the vision were only as precise as what was written in the tome. Most of the books in the Archive were magically transcribed. The benefits of this were completed histories free of victor and writer biases. Although, it wasn't flawless.
Throughout history, there have been individuals or events that the spell couldn't see. The most well known examples of these blips in time were the United States presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945 and the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Michael Durham, from 2063 to 2065. All that is known about them was their lives before office and the accounts written by those around them. These gaps in history were generally the result of one of two things. In these two cases, a place or individual with a strong connection to the Dominion of Shadows.
Sighing, he pushed off the desk and crossed the room to the liquor cabinet. He opened the glass doors, pulling several bottles and a glass from the shelves. He made a drink consisting of three parts Red Adders Bite and one part Dry Amorian Blood Wine, then added a lime wedge to the rim of the glass. The others wouldn't arrive for another half hour, leaving him time to kill.
He walked around the room with his drink in hand and studied the various tapestries, several of which he'd been a part of. Each one depicted an accomplishment or tragedy facilitated by the Order. All save one, which showed a scene from the event that started it all.
The one to the left of the cabinet showed the Order's founding. In the background stood a grand tower of black and white marble. Its four sides were engraved with the Mark of Hellyrr, which glowed with a magical light. In front of it stood a man facing a gathered crowd, his arms swept wide in triumph. They looked up at him and the structure with reverence and awe.
He continued to move in a counterclockwise manner around the room. Above the main entry door hung another tapestry. One he was even depicted in. It showed the aftermath of a massacre. Six figures stood amidst the bodies of hundreds. The earth around them was scorched by flame, and the blood of the fallen had stained it red. The cloud covered sky glowed a deep crimson with gold outlines from the fires below. It had come to be known as the Cleansing of Elysian, in which the entirety of the planet's second continent had been annihilated to preserve the world.
"I wish it had never come to this. Why can't we all just get along? Instead of thriving in the prosperity of our two lands, they plotted and began planning to bring war to our own people. To rape, pillage, and enslave them. Even with all my vast knowledge and wisdom, I can't understand why they felt the need to dominate and control the world." He looked back up at the tapestry. "Even now, most of the land is still uninhabitable."
He turned around and looked at the tapestry above the balcony door. This one would appear out of place with the others to all but a few handfuls of people. Even for those who learned the truth behind it, it looked like little more than an artist's vision of what a beautiful landscape at sunset should look like. The sky is dotted with hundreds of stars as shades of red, orange, and yellow dance across the land's horizon. The artist's point of view appears to be looking down from a hillside. Down the hill's slope, you can see a pond teaming with wildlife along its edge. The remaining landscape is filled with miles of forest stretching toward the horizon.
For the few who survived this event and still remained, they knew it depicted the final moments of their world before all of humanity was nearly lost.
Jonathan fixated on this tapestry more than he had on the others. The longer he stared, the more distant his expression grew. Over time, his breathing quickened, and his grip on the glass slipped. It shattered as it hit the floor, causing the rug to stain from the liquid. The sound jerked him out of the trance like state, making him feel ill.
He could still recall the memory of that long ago day like it were yesterday. The thought of how close humanity had come to extinction made his legs weak, and he stumbled back against the wall behind him. He slid down the stones' cool surface and noticed his hands were now trembling. Through shuddering breaths, he uttered the words of a broken man. "So much death. So many lives were lost that day. So many. Oh, Sonia. Even after all this time, I still miss you."
The main entry door slammed open, crashing against the wall with a loud bang. Jonathan jerked as one of them collided mere inches from where he sat. The startling sound had been enough to pull him from his stupor, but it still took a moment for him to gather himself. A man in the doorway lowered his foot from where he'd obviously kicked the unlocked door in.
"Knock, knock, Rex. Seems you've done it now."
"Seth. I'll never understand the animosity you held for Rexinon," Jonathan said wearily as he got to his feet.
Seth stood just shy of five foot eight inches and had slick black hair that he kept combed back. He wore black jeans and a beige dress shirt with mother of pearl buttons, which had seen far too much polish in recent days. A malevolent grin displayed his perfect teeth and careless eyes. He strode into the room, dragging a chair behind him, and placed it on the rug by the fireplace.
"Was kicking the door in really necessary, Seth?"
A second man stepped into the room, obviously annoyed by the unnecessary use of force. He wore a navy blue business suit and towered over everyone else in the room, and that was saying something considering Jonathan was six foot. As he still held to the standards of a marine, he kept his hair high and tight and his face clean shaven. He stood at the rug's edge out of respect for the Order so as not to mar the embroidered Mark of Hellyrr. A respect Seth clearly lacked.
"Godric Gibbs. This day changed you. Hell, it changed all of us, but few as much as you," Jonathan said. He looked back at the door as the third and final man entered. "Assassin."
This man was of a height with Jonathan and wore all black from head to toe. His outfit looked like something out of a TV show. Almost like a cross between Gi Joe's Snake Eyes, and CW Arrow's League of Assassins. After ten thousand years, all they knew about him was his previous occupation as a contract killer. It wasn't long before they'd taken to calling him Assassin, as they had no other name to go by. Any time he was asked a question regarding his past, he either remained silent or dodged it outright. He took a position to Godric's left and, like Godric, took care of where he stood on the rug.
The three men stood in silence and watched as Rexinon continued to write. Godric and Assassin seemed content to wait until he addressed them. On the other hand, Seth seemed to grow more agitated as the minutes passed. Jonathan chuckled in spite of himself.
About twenty minutes later, Rexinon spoke, "Reverend Seth Jones, Colonel Godric Gibbs, and Assassin. To what do I owe the pleasure?" His tone plainly indicated that he already knew.
Seth spoke first. "Oh, cut the crap, Rex. You already know why we're here. This cult thing of yours has gone on long enough."
"Well, there's the pot calling the kettle black," Jonathan muttered sarcastically.
Godric rolled his eyes. Everyone in the room knew about Seth's past as a cult leader. They also knew his anger was more at being forced to wait in silence than anything to do with Rexinon or the Order.
"Calm yourself, Seth. There's no need for such hostilities." Godric looked at Rexinon apologetically. "I'm sorry to have to do this, old friend, but my hands are tied. Rexinon the Prophet, Headmaster of the Hellyrrian Order, you've been charged with conspiracy to overthrow the governments of Aurelia and seize control for the Order.
"As we speak, the leaders of the Hellyrrian Order are being gathered for execution. Furthermore, your towers and all their artifacts will be destroyed, and any remnants of the Order's existence is to be wiped from the face of history. As of 0813 this morning, you have been sentenced to death. How do you plead?"
Rexinon continued to write at an incredible rate. He knew why they'd come. He'd known this was coming for months. After all, his gift was the gift of prophecy. The evidence for the charges against him was both substantial and ethereal, depending on what light was shown on it.
Two centuries ago, the Order had tracked the activities of an unknown number of individuals who'd been subtly manipulating several of the Aurelian governing bodies. They'd spread like a poison, corrupting them and turning once prosperous kingdoms which knew few hardships, into lands where the people had to fight just to survive. The problem was that whoever that force had been, always seemed to be just one step ahead of them. Now, not only was it check, but checkmate. The Order had lost.
"I believe the Righteous Twelve to be ill advised. I believe you've been manipulated by the same corrupted governing body which we've spent so long trying to purify—." Seth grunted. "—But," he said at length, "I accept all charges against me, save one. Neither myself nor anyone else of the Order has ever sought to rule Aurelia, as the charges would imply. The Cleansing of Elysian should've been proof enough to show that to be true."
Rexinon penned the final words of his letter and placed the pen back in its stand. Pulling the top off a jar, he dusted the page with a thin layer of sand to soak up any excess ink. After dumping the sand back into another jar to be cleaned, he pushed away from his desk and stood to look at his guests for the first time. After nudging his stool back under, he addressed Godric directly.
"Will you join me on the balcony one last time?"
Godric nodded his head and gestured towards the balcony doorway. As they stepped outside, Jonathan followed.
Rexinon leaned against the railing and looked out over the city, his gaze fixed on the setting sun. Godric joined him and looked down to the tower's base, some five hundred feet below. Although he was not afraid of heights, it gave him respect for the sturdily mounted railing at the balcony's edge.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Rexinon said. Godric looked at him, confused. "The way the world has turned out since that day? Ten thousand years of watching as civilization was rebuilt and destroyed time and time again by a senseless war. Watching them evolve into something more as they learned how to use these gifts we were given. In some ways, we're greater than we ever were. In other ways, we're inferior. If I have any regrets, it's that I couldn't do more to leave the people better prepared for this new age."
"Well spoken. If it's any consolation, I believe this is wrong. I even spoke out against the council for a different outcome. For my efforts, though, I was threatened with execution if I didn't cease my objections."
Rexinon's tone grew heated after hearing of the council's reaction. "You should know better than anyone why I fought so hard against them, then. I'm not against governance. I'm against corrupt governance. We had far too many corrupt politicians and warlords in our own time for me to ever want to allow it again."
Godric nodded his head. "Yes. The problem is you played too heavy a hand too quickly. Instead of accepting that they'd been beaten, they cheated by playing with an ace they had hidden up their collective sleeves."
Rexinon sighed, knowing his words were true. "Indeed. I've accepted my fate. I won't run. Won't even make it difficult for y'all. I have no need to. I would like to make one final request to ease your conscience, though."
Rexinon leaned toward Godric conspiratorially. As he did this, the world around them began to shimmer and distort. Almost like the motion blurring you'd see on a TV. Likewise, their conversation was masked by the sound of white noise and the sound of hushed incoherent whispers.
This was the second hurdle the scrying spells had to deal with. Individuals with divine magic could conceal their conversations or even the events they were a part of. Rexinon had concealed this conversation, and to this day, Godric has never spoken of what was said.
Jonathan returned to the study with a resigned sigh. There was nothing more he could learn from their conversation. Assassin stood in the same spot he'd been when he first entered the room and looked as if he hadn't so much as twitched. Seth, however, was rummaging through the desk's drawers. He'd tried to figure out what he was looking for in the past, but nothing seemed obvious.
The shards of glass from when he'd dropped his cup earlier had vanished, along with the stain on the rug from the liquor. As expected, the glass had returned to the cabinet, and the bottles had refilled to where they were before he'd arrived. This was yet another reminder that this was a magically induced vision of an event that had long since passed. It could be too easy to forget that this wasn't real and that if he spent too much time here, it would have consequences in the real world for him.
He knew they'd be out there a while. In previous visits, he'd occasionally spent this time combing through the room, similar to what Seth was doing. Having cataloged everything centuries ago, there was nothing left to do but wait. So, he walked around the desk and sat squarely within the Mark of Hellyrr embroidered on the rug. There, for the next hour or so, he would remain, arms folded, legs crossed, and eyes shut. Freeing his mind of all unnecessary thoughts and emotions. At least, that was the plan.
About forty minutes in, Seth started to grumble and complain, forcing Jonathan to give up on his meditation. "… I know he's one of the humblest among our kind, but lord, does he have to be so dull? I can't find anything interesting anywhere. Even his liquor cabinet is dull." Seth walked from behind the desk to the liquor cabinet, pulled a few bottles out at random, and read the labels aloud. "Red Adders Bite, Amorian Blood Wine. Christ, he's even got Athester's Sweet Malt. This crap might as well be water." He pulled another bottle down and said, "At least he's got the taste to have at least one bottle of Nordic Berserker."
"Some of us prefer the simpler things in life. You might find life more enjoyable when you aren't always looking for the rare and exotic," Assassin said with a disinterested, almost dismissive tone.
Seth clicked his tongue. "Hell, even this letter he was so focused on when we arrived makes no sense." Seth thrust the letter towards Assassin, who took it nonchalantly. "Look at this."
Jonathan studied Assassin intently, hoping for any sign that would reveal the letter's contents. It was no use, though; for all the emotion he showed, Jonathan would've thought it no more important than a grocery list. But, if that were the case, why obscure it from the eyes of the scrying spell? The frustration caused by such a simple sheet of paper was baffling.
Jonathan got to his feet as Rexinon and Godric returned. As Rexinon walked to stand at the center of the rug, Jonathan moved behind the desk. Godric walked toward Assassin and conversed with him for a few minutes. Once again, the sound of white noise shrouded what was said. This time, it was Godric who masked his words from the spell. When Assassin nodded, Godric moved beside him and faced Rexinon.
Rexinon looked at each tapestry and seemed to relive each as he did so. They all knew those accomplishments and tragedies would stand the test of time. Any efforts to change that would fall flat. The Order had played too significant a role in shaping this new world. Finally, he turned to Godric, kneeling as he met his regret filled eyes.
Assassin pulled an infamous rod from his side, dubbed the Executioner's Handle. Forged in the Dominion of Shadow by Assassin some three thousand years ago. It was one and a half feet long of shadow infused steel and bound with his own divine essence. Ominous black tendrils crawled along Assassin's hand like something alive and flowed into the handle. The shaft elongated, and an axe head formed at its end.
Though he had accepted his fate, seeing that axe form made Rexinon's heart stop momentarily. He looked at Godric questioningly. Godric knew what that look meant and nodded his head in assent. Agreeing to this had allowed them both to right several wrongs this night by asking one simple question. "Do you have any final words or requests?"
"I have two, if you'll grant them. The first, allow me to disband the Order formally as my final act as headmaster."
Seth started to protest, but Assassin lowered the axehead in his direction as a silent threat. Seth glared at Assassin with seething hatred. Godric nodded to Rexinon. "Proceed."
As the headmaster of the Hellyrrian Order, he had a mental connection with every member. Without hesitation, Rexinon's eyes began to glow with a brilliant purple hue. This would be Rexinon's final order, and Godric knew it would save thousands.
"My brothers and sisters, hear me now and heed my words. Abandon the Order and save yourselves. Flee to the hills and never look back to what we once were. With my dying breath, the Hellyrrian Order is no more. The governments of Aurelia have played a hand we can't stand against. Anyone who disregards this command will be hunted down and executed without mercy. To the leaders and guild masters of the Order, I charge you with dismantling everything relating to the Order and turning over every artifact and document you can to Godric the Just, Jonathan the Wise, or Assassin the Watcher. I also ask that you help calm those who feel outraged and betrayed by this night. Do not blame the Twelve, as they were little more than pawns in this corrupt game of politics. Farewell, my friends. My family. May the peace we have fought for be found in the coming days."
The glow faded, and he slumped forward onto his hands, his breathing labored. A few moments passed, and he managed to catch his breath but still looked towards the ground.
"The second request I have is that anyone who would heed that warning be spared. The ruling factions wanted me. As long as no one else causes trouble, we know they won't cause too much fuss over it."
His voice took on a much sharper edge as he looked back up. "You call us a cult, though you know we are nothing of the sort. On the contrary, our Order has stood for nearly five thousand years for the betterment of the entire world. How they treated you should tell you that what I said and what we were doing was justified."
"Shut your mouth, Rex!" Seth spat venomously.
Godric glared at Seth. His own anger with this situation was at the point of breaking free. "Be silent! I don't know what kind of grudge you have, but I, for one, don't give a damn what the council said. Rexinon doesn't deserve death for the crimes he's being accused of. Unfortunately, the ruling factions in almost every nation are corrupted and working towards being as corrupt as they were back in our day." Godric sighed. "Regrettably, my hands are tied, though. The law is the law, and I have been overruled on this matter. Regardless of what my conscience thinks, I will abide by the rules of the land."
Rexinon nodded, understanding Godric's situation perfectly. Godric had become the divine embodiment of law and justice at his ascension. While those two things work hand in hand, they are far from the same, and one must often walk a fine line to serve them both. In this case, the choices were clear. In the end, it didn't matter what he chose; he would inevitably betray one virtue or the other. Unfortunately, there was no good way for him to handle this, and Rexinon could see how this was affecting him.
"The majority of the Order will heed my warning. As for the leaders, if any are still alive, they will follow that command to the letter. They'll even aid you in handling any hotheads who resist," Rexinon said.
"The good news is that no one has yet been executed this evening. I'll personally see to it that those who abide by that order are given a chance to live long, productive lives within society. If all goes well, you will be the only casualty of this idiocy."
Rexinon gave the faintest sign of a smile with a halfhearted chuckle as he said, "Godric, one thing I'll not allow is any of the Order's work ending up in the hands of one of those tyrants. Therefore, I demand that Jonathan be given every document, scroll, and tome held within our strongholds for safekeeping." Rexinon felt exhausted. The spell to warn his Order took more out of him than anticipated.
"You're in no position to be making demands of us," Seth said. Godric finally snapped and struck him so hard that he slammed back into the wall beside the fireplace, cracking it. He got back to his feet a moment later, fixed his shirt, and looked down at the blood he'd wiped from his lip. Godric looked back at Rexinon.
"As you were saying."
"Assassin, I'd ask that you secure all our relics and artifacts, regardless of their magical significance. I don't need to tell you what all we have housed around Aurelia."
"No, you don't. The nukes of our time were nothing compared to some of those items," Assassin replied.
"We'll see to it that it's done. There are things within these walls that were never meant for untrained mortal hands," Godric added.
"Thank you."
"As for the texts, Jonathan will have a field day going through everything. There is far too much the council doesn't understand within these walls that we can't afford to lose."
"Godric was right, Rex. I still have everything. Much of which has been quite useful over the centuries,"
Godric turned his head away, no longer able to look Rexinon in the eye. "I no longer deserve the right to call you a friend, but is there anything else you would ask of me?"
Rexinon looked at Godric for a long time and couldn't help but smile. Not at his pain or suffering in following the orders given to him, but knowing that if anyone here had ever been a friend to him, Godric certainly was. With his final words, he left Godric with a warning.
"No, but I'll leave you with this. Be wary of those among you, for one will betray you all. My friend."
Godric nodded, accepting these as Rexinon's final words as a tear ran down his cheek. Rexinon lowered his head, and Assassin enveloped his axe's blade in a purple aura.
"Woah, Assassin, what's with the new color? Never seen that before," Seth asked.
Ignoring the question, Assassin swung the axe, severing Rexinon's head cleanly.
That night, the cries of the Order were heard in every city across Aurelia. All mourning the death of the Order's first, and last, headmaster.
Jonathan fought back tears of his own as he watched the axe's head vanish. Assassin secured the handle on his belt as he walked towards the desk. Godric looked as though he was going to be sick.
"Did you do as I asked?" Godric asked shakily.
"Of course. I may be a trained killer, but even I know this was bullshit, mate."
Seth walked over and picked up Rexinon's severed head by the hair. He held it up before him, a mischievous grin on his face. Then he whispered something into Rexinon's ear.
Assassin's eyes locked on Seth. As he let go of the head, he used one of his abilities, known as shadow step, to cross the distance to where Seth stood. Before Rexinon's head hit the ground, Assassin snatched it out of the air and punched Seth so hard that it sent him flying into the same section of the wall he'd hit earlier. He bounced off it, but the force of the impact sent several of the stones flying into the next room. Seth crumpled to the floor, where he lay unmoving for several seconds. After a while, his head snapped upright, and he began to laugh. He stood up as if nothing had happened and headed out the door. Godric, now seething with anger, watched as Assassin started to go after him. "Leave him. He's not worth your time."
Jonathan paced around the room, waiting for the spell to wear off. His heart ached, and his own anger toward Seth at that moment made him wish he could destroy the man. But that was Seth's way, and they'd all learned to let it go in time. The world began to blur and vanish, reverting to the Archive once again.
He closed the cover, placing the tome back on the shelf with a heavy sigh. His fingers lingered on the binding as he read the inscription, A Complete History of the Hellyrrian Order, Volume 666. Finally, Jonathan let his hand fall to the side as he walked away with his shoulders slumped.
As if speaking to an old friend, he lamented, "Damn you, Rex. Why couldn't you have just left well enough alone?"
As Jonathan walked away, he shed a tear at the loss of one of his closest friends.

Hi all,
on Dec 19th I launched DataAnalyst.com - this is the fifth (May) update of hopefully many more to come.
Want to make sure I document the journey, and keep myself honest, so each month I will be making a post about the statistics, progress, some thoughts and what are the next steps I want to be focusing on.
While the main purpose for the post is to bring everyone along on the journey, I do think that members of juststart might benefit from the site, especially those looking to start their first online project.
If it's not something that belong here, have absolutely no issues to take the post down and / or keep the updates to a different subreddit.
So, just a reminder that early stages vision is to become the #1 job board for data analysts - hand-picking interesting data analyst job opportunities across industries.
Let's dive right in:  

Statistics update

-	January	February	March	April	May
Number of jobs posted	Total: 208 (US)	Total: 212 (US)	Total: 207 (US)	Total: 153 (US)	Total: 140 (US)
Paid posts	0	0	0	0	0
Visitors	795	3,267	3,003	4,892	5,203
Apply now clicks	634	2,354	2,898	4,051	4,476
Avg. session duration	3min 52sec	3min 53sec	3min 39sec	3min 44sec	3min 10sec
Pageviews	4100	16,300	15,449	26,291	28,755
Avg. time on page	1min 35sec	1min 46sec	1min 45sec	1min 39sec	1min 26sec
Returning visitors	17.7%	22.4%	23.9%	23.8%	22.2%
Google Impressions	503	5,500	9,430	28,300	45,900
Google Clicks	47	355	337	1,880	2,070
Newsletter subs (total)	205	416	600	918	1,239
Newsletter open rate (48hrs)	61%	67%	56%	56%	50%

1. General Observations

Stats

DataAnalyst.com has been online for just over 5 months and we've brought over 1,250 hand curated data analyst jobs onto the site - all of them including a salary range.
There's now 1,200+ people subscribed to the newsletter, and I can't thank you enough for your support and for joining us on the journey.
While in April the site grew to just over 5,000 monthly visitors across 26,000 pageviews, in May we've been able to cross the 5,000 visitors yet again, with over 28,000 pageviews - not only that, we registered approximately 4,500 data analyst applications being started from the site!
Additionally, I've also had multiple people reaching out, both in comment section of my previous updates, but also in DMs, sharing that they have found the site to be extremely useful in their job search, and that they were able to get interviews and onboard new roles through the site - I absolutely love this, and even if the venture doesn't end up being commercially successful, I'm super happy to hear that it has indeed helped people when needed.
Google impressions are over 50% up, albeit the amount of people clicking through to the site remained flat.
On the positive note - the site has finally ranking for all the major target keywords:
"data analyst jobs / data analyst job / data analyst / data analytics jobs"
Pumped about this, as having multiple channels is crucial to long term growth and protecting the site and traffic from algorithm updates.

Things that happened

a) Expired Listings - There's feedback regarding some of the jobs on the site already expiring and leading to non-existing listings. I am trying to come up with a solution where visitors would be able to upvote/downvote and thus highlighting status for everyone else. For now, I went through job listings and marked those roles no longer open as "Expired".
b) Product Hunt launch - Early last month I decided to share DataAnalyst on Product Hunt. The idea wasn't necessarily to try and rank up to the top, but mainly get the site out there, and gain a backlink from ProduntHunt that's going to help the site's authority. Overall the voting process is extremely cumbersome, but we did end up with 36 upvotes which was more than I expected.

Expecting a summer slump

With summer, there's typically very little hiring happening / it's extremely slow as people are taking well deserved time off. I'm expecting activity on the site to decrease, and my main goal for this period is getting together a plan of action to start reaching out to companies in Q4 and Q1, educate them about the site, the value proposition and hopefully get a few partnerships on the books.
What that will look like, I honestly have no idea, but experiment, iterate and go again.
Some of you may have noticed that I've also recently launched BusinessAnalyst.com - where I'm looking to replicate step by step what I've done over the last 5 months with DataAnalyst. The overall idea is to create a network of sites, benefiting from the same infastructure, serving and helping different career paths, and making a collaboration with organisations much more appealing (afterall, most companies who hire for data analysts also look for business analysts and vice versa). Arguably, this might not make much sense seeing that DA still hasn't brought any revenue in, but on the other hand, I can reuse the whole tech stack and structures already in place, halve my cost per project, while doubling the surface area to catch me some luck. Anyways, how this will work out is a case study for another time.

2. The Salary Guide

On a monthly basis, we've been utilising the data available to developing and sharing Market Insights - a deep dive into the data analyst job market, where we can have a look at the job openings and provide you all with insights on the latest hiring trends in the United States.
With these insights I'm trying to bring answers to questions such as: Which industries are hiring the most? Are we seeing any salary increases? And what about the remote working trend?
With that in mind, I'm excited to share that the first five months of insights were consolidated, and the Salary Guide has now been published.
The data analyst salary guide provides the overview of salaries in various industries - and now also shows a more detailed view on each industry page, with a deep dive into how much entry level, senior and lead data analysts can earn depending on their experience.
This is only based on job opportunities on the site, and no external data sources are utilised. The plan is to have it updated quarterly, with the next update in September.
For the US, we've also released the May edition of Market Insights, you can see the full report here.

3. "Day in the Life" - a series of interviews with data analysts sharing their experience, thoughts and advice.

The third interview from our series has been published. In these interviews, we aim to share stories and experiences about the route to becoming a data analyst, keeping up with the skillset, recommendations to aspiring data analysts and much more.
Tisha, who is a data analyst at Tesla, has shared some fantastic insights, and I'd love to highlight couple of my favourite quotes from the interview.
On what she loves about being a data analyst:
"For me, the most exciting aspect of being a data analyst is the opportunity to unlock meaningful insights from vast amounts of data. I enjoy the challenge of uncovering patterns, identifying trends, and translating complex data into actionable recommendations. The ability to make a tangible impact on business outcomes and help organizations drive growth is incredibly rewarding."
On her advice for those aspiring to enter the industry, she shares 6 points that everyone should focus on:

1. Acquire a strong foundation in SQL. This is an essential tool for data analysis and manipulation.
2. Familiarize yourself with data analytics tools like Tableau, Power BI, or Alteryx. Demonstrating proficiency in these tools can enhance your employability.
3. Seek out internships, projects, or volunteer opportunities where you can gain hands-on experience with real-world datasets and analytical challenges.
4. Continuously enhance your skills by staying updated with the latest trends and best practices in the field. Online courses, webinars, and industry conferences can be valuable resources.
5. Showcase your skills and projects through a portfolio or personal website. This allows potential employers to see your capabilities and the impact you can make.
6. Network with professionals in the data industry through events, online communities, and LinkedIn. Building connections can lead to valuable opportunities and mentorship.

We've also touched upon the Question of the Year: Is AI/Chat GPT a threat to data analysts?
Highly recommend reading the full interview.

Things in the pipeline

• New data analyst jobs, added daily
• Actually launching the weekly newsletter with the pick of best jobs directly to your inbox (yes, I know....)
• Monthly US data analyst market insights
• Improving the overall site experience (this one is a never ending activity)
• Continuing to bring you Data Analysts across their experience levels, to share tips, tricks and their thoughts
• Keep breaking a feature that would allow visitors to report an expired job posting

3 ways you could help

1. Looking for a new challenge? Check out the website - I'm adding new jobs daily
   
2. Looking to hire a data analyst to your team? Do you know anyone looking to hire? Shoot me a message on Reddit (or [email protected]) and I'll upgrade your first listing for free!
   
3. As I mentioned, we have an ongoing "Day of a Data Analyst" series. For those of you who are open to do an email based interview about your data analyst career journey, please just send me a message and we'll organise something - would love to get you featured and share your experience with our readers!
   

If you have any questions, concerns, come across glitches - please just reach out, happy to chat.
Thank you all again, and see you in a month.
Alex