Rowley's Roar #6

For today's blog post, one of the fictional characters from my novels will be sharing a few messages. No, I'm not going crazy. I'm just having a little fun with writing from the perspective of one of my characters, to explain her music.

Without further adieu, please once again welcome Captain Edwina "Roaring" Rowley, who shall be taking a moment to explain another song from an album we're compiling.

The Book of Newts

Little itches, when it rains, it pours and that's how I feel about events after my defeat at the hands of the Blackwell sisters. I was about as low as I could feel when I acted on prior orders and contacted the Dead Queen regarding my defeat.

That's when I finally learned exactly how powerful she was, because she somehow managed to cast a spatial translocation spell to instantly move her ship from Nuva orbit all the way to Taneas orbit!

Keep in mind that Taneas is moon number 73, while Nuva is 37. Most witches can't even manage to extend a bone transduction between two moons in close alignment and moving matter such a vast distance is unimaginable, especially considering the fact spatial translocation is beyond dangerous to learn in the first place. Most that try end up with half body ending up at the target location, while the rest remains at the origin point. For that very reason, The Order of Newts made such spells a forbidden technique and the only two witches I'm aware of that know it are the Dead Queen and Matron Talbot.

It's utterly unthinkable to imagine moving an entire mountain of granite through space like that, but that's exactly what the Queen did.

After picking up my ship, she chased the Blackwell sisters, who pulled out all the stops. They failed and the Queen took them prisoner...but I'm getting ahead of myself and the rest of that tale will have to wait for other songs.

Anyway, during my report on my failure, the Queen puzzled out the fact I was after The Book of Newts, which was in Amelia Blackwell's possession. Without any worry at all, the Queen offered to give me The Book once she captured the Blackwells and informed me she was the witch that stole it from The Order of Newts in the first place.

She even went on to explain what the book held: not the powerful spells I craved to kill the Queen with, but more scientific data than I would ever be able to fathom.

That truly was the worst day of my life to that point: my pride was shattered, the Queen made me eat crow, then idly offered me the thing I'd been dreaming of possessing in the hope of freedom, only to twist the knife by pointing out what it really contained.

I hated her so much for that, but I was forced to be polite, lest she consume my soul. I was forced to eat her sh...crappy words, which was the very worst part of that day and withing my own heart, I vowed to find a way to make her pay for her disrespect, though I doubted I ever would, because she'd so easily defeated the trio of witches that had so skillfully beaten me.

I initially had hopes they might do for her as they'd done for me, but that was not the day of her defeat. That day is the subject of another song, which I hinted at in earlier "posts".

Anyway, today's song is The Book of Newts:

Here's a link to the MP3 file, if you'd like to download it.

Ripe for the Taking is copyright 2026, Owen Tyme, all rights reserved, but free for your personal enjoyment. Lyrics by Owen Tyme, music generated by ACE-Step 1.5. E-mail me if you want to use it for something else.

Tags: audio, music, roaring-rowley