I return for a quick announcement! The story I referenced this January is finally out on RR. It's called Rules of Biomancy:

  (Yes, that is a duck)

  Synopsis:

  Decades of hiding, and decades of surviving unnoticed, all ruined to give two otherworlders a second chance at life.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  For almost half a century, Elijah had kept his Core sealed. It allowed him to stay in the shadows, to run his little alchemy shop on the outskirts of the slums without fear, but it also limited him. It made him weak. And when he finds two people half-dead in an alley, both too young to have had a chance at life, he removes the chains from his magic to help them.

  The time to step into the light, to feel the call of the world, had come once more.

  They had been hiding for long enough.

  If any of you would like to have a look at it, I welcome you to read it here:

  https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/91070/rules-of-biomancy