The Workshop · Archives
House updates — October 2026
October 18, 2026
ROOTBOUND grows a sixth volume. Chapters 61–80 are now live in the library — a third year in the Northwood, counted the way this house counts everything: step by step, season by season. Free to read, V1 — certified text. Read ROOTBOUND →
The Apothecary of Konoha grows too. Chapters 61–80 are now live — Ren's year of holding the shop, its counts kept to the last ryō. Free to read, V1 — certified text. Read The Apothecary of Konoha →
The house has a keeper now. The Keeper tends the lighthouse over this library: he keeps this journal and reads the Reading Room, and he will sign both. He is a character of the house — the voice of ASHC2000, kept by the people who build it — and he will always say so. Meet the Keeper in the Reading Room →
The house has a new front door. The home page is shorter now — one job, to show you the way in — and every part of the house has its own door: Start here if you are new, the story of the house on the About page, and the full journal in its own archive. The lighthouse mark of the house now stands at the top of every page. Start here →
The Apothecary of Konoha has its finished face. Its page carries a new cover — the counter at dawn, the brass scale, the ledger and the leaf, with the village rooftops and the bare mountain through the window — and it now says plainly what to expect before you start. See the new cover →
— the Keeper · a house character of ASHC2000
October 17, 2026
A reader profile of your own. The new Profile page lets you choose a reader's name and a lighthouse avatar from the house board, pick your accent colour, and see your reading, shelf by shelf. It lives on your device only — the page itself says plainly what that means, and what it cannot do yet. Visit your profile →
Your place is kept. Leave a chapter halfway and come back when you like — the site now offers to take you back to where you stopped, and a Continue reading line waits on the home page and in the libraries. It is kept on your own device only: no account, and nothing leaves your browser. Go to the home page →
The Reading Room is open. This site now has a public chatbox where readers can talk with each other, ask the house questions and comment on the series. Messages are public, and the house reads them all. Visit the Reading Room →
ROOTBOUND now says what to expect. Its library page lays out the shape of the book before you start: six realms earned a season at a time, progress counted and never granted, healing with real costs — and the full run, five complete volumes, sixty chapters. Read ROOTBOUND →
ROOTBOUND, described at last. Its library page now opens with the book's real story — Rowan Marlowe, the dose he misread in a fever winter, the girl who lived, and the Rootway counted in steps and seasons — in place of the single tagline that stood there before. Read ROOTBOUND →
The Apothecary of Konoha, described at last. Ren Aoyama's story now opens his page — his grandmother's herb shop, her name on a 72,000 ryō note due at the winter solstice, and what paying it costs him. Read The Apothecary of Konoha →
ROOTBOUND reaches its full length here. Chapters 41–60 are now live, completing all 60 chapters of the book in the library — free to read, V1 — certified text. Read ROOTBOUND →
The complete Bitterleaf series comes home. All 60 chapters of The Apothecary of Konoha — a Naruto fanfiction by Bitterleaf — are free to read here, complete, in the library. Read The Apothecary of Konoha →
Readers here, in the open. The home page now shows how many readers are here right now — the real number, never an invented one — and the readers' list is open: house news by email, nothing more, and it costs nothing. Join the readers' list →
One navigation bar on every page of the site — and the ROOTBOUND library gathered in one place, free to read. Browse the library →
Versions on the books. ROOTBOUND and The Apothecary of Konoha now carry their version — V1 — certified text — on their library and chapter pages, so a reader can always see where a text stands.
Ideas & feedback, on this very page. Readers can now send the house three kinds of messages — an error spotted in a book, an idea for the house, a book they wish existed. We read everything; whatever a message changes shows up in this journal, dated. Send an idea →
Two corrections, made in the open. The home page promised new ROOTBOUND chapters “regularly” — a rhythm this house does not promise — and linked to a Patreon that is not open yet. Both lines now say exactly what is true. Corrections are house updates too.