Rowley's Roar #7

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.

Biding Time

Hey, itches.

I felt the album needed something between The Book of Newts and the song to follow, which will be detailed next.

This is a little instrumental piece that was originally supposed to be a variation of my stunning song, but which mutated into something else, which works well as an interlude.

After the Dead Queen defeated the Blackwell sisters, my ship, Glass House, spent several days in the docking bay of Foundation Stone, during which my crew feverishly worked to restore her to functionality. It was mostly a matter of patching up the hull with repair spells, though we had to entirely replace the rocket nozzles.

During that time, I entertained myself by watching the drama unfold via remote-viewing spells. I really must say, the Dead Queen was a vicious monster. She decided to consume the souls of both Marta and Iris Blackwell, but she found Amelia's magic so weak, she decided to "throw the fish back", ordering her zombies to dump the young woman in her ship, alone, but not before they'd drained its fuel tanks.

However, the Queen failed to notice some vitally-important details:

• Amelia's star ship was infested with Brownies
• The Book of Newts was still on board
• Amelia is a rare genius of phenomenal talent
• Despite her lack of power, she's also exceptionally skilled with magic

It was amazing to see, but the brownies patched up most of the damage to the ship, leaving only one of the four masts still broken, which was the one my warning shot had nearly cut off, the bulk of which got left behind when they ran from the Queen. It would seem brownies can't fix what's missing.

Then Amelia began to follow, using the waste magic left in the wake of the Queen's ship to power her light sails. No ordinary witch could have done that, which is what tells me Amelia is something special, with great sensitivity to magic. If she had the raw power of one of her sisters, she would be utterly terrifying with magic, able to cast spells only the witches of legend could master.

When the Queen entered Kryenna orbit, Amelia surprised me by going for a polar orbit, at ninety degrees to that of Foundation Stone. She left the monolith's wake and lost that potent energy, but it was clear she'd done so with great precision.

I didn't understand her plan at the time, but looking back, I'm shocked by the bold and crazy scale of it, which I'll get into for the next song...

For the moment, please enjoy the interlude, Biding Time.

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

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

Mouse With a Gonne

So, trying to puzzle out what Amelia was up to, I watched everything she did, at least when I was awake, but when she put on a pressure suit, to extend how long she could breathe, I knew she was down to the final stretch and getting desperate.

Then she cast a weak atmospheric seal spell similar to the sort spell-cores use for emergencies. With that strange action complete, she left her ship and opened an exterior cargo hatch, finally illuminating a hidden compartment my remote-viewing spells had been blind to, due to a lack of light. Inside was a steel-shod, horseless, steam-powered wagon with rubber tires, which was most certainly a weapon of war, based on the weapons mounted to it. She spent a fair amount of time working a manual wench to flip the wagon over. I'm amazed the Queen never ordered the ship searched, but she always was arrogant.

The presence of the wagon explained the seal spell: she was trying to avoid blowing the tires in the vacuum of space.

With that done, she resealed the compartment, leaving the wagon in the perfect position to be driven right out of the ship.

After that, she entered her ship and hunkered down for the final bit of waiting.

I still didn't get it, but Amelia was clearly planning to use her armored war wagon, which meant she planned to board Foundation Stone.

I waited until the time came for Amelia's course to cross that of Foundation Stone and what I witnessed shook me to my core: that weak witch got within range of the monolith and began greedily gobbling up its waste magic at a suicidal pace, far outstripping the average witch's capacity. She used more magic than even I could have, at least without mana burning myself. The only witch with greater capacity that I've seen is the Dead Queen, who artificially achieved that ability by consuming the souls of other witches.

As the magic peaked, Amelia's eyes glowed blue, which is not normal! That marks her as something extraordinary: a primordial witch. If it weren't for her strange inability to draw magic at her true capacity, she would have been the greatest witch to ever live, bar none. She had some help from The Book of Newts, which I later learned is intelligent, but I couldn't tell you what it did for her.

There's only one other witch I ever met whose eyes glowed when feeling something intense. She was also a primordial witch, but that's a story for another song... Ugh, yeah, definitely a story for another song.

Anyway, Amelia used that massive surge of magic to enact a gravity-manipulation spell she used to change her orbital inclination by ninety degrees! That is the most expensive of orbital adjustments, requiring a ridiculous amount of thrust, and she did it over a very short time!

She then turned her ship to face Foundation Stone, engines first, using the tiny amount of fuel she had to physically blast out the massive window of the bridge, landing her little ship backwards! That girl is the very best at mathematics I've ever seen, rivaling the most talented of Newt Witches! She did all of the calculations ahead of time, in her head, plotting her attack run days in advance, because that was the only way she could have.

Unfortunately, the Queen escaped the blast, though her bridge crew was sucked into space. Then Amelia closed the hull breach with her atmospheric seal spell, allowing her to unload her war wagon and drive off.

She soon caught up to the Queen and drove right over her, without a second thought! You should have heard me laugh, because I nearly coughed up a lung!

From that point, the Queen's zombie rottweiler took off, chasing after her. It was touch and go for a bit, with that death dog ripping into the steel of the wagon with his bare teeth, but Amelia eventually got far ahead of him, following a tracking spell to her sisters.

When she reached her oldest sister, Marta, the dog was right on her tail again and Amelia screamed for help, only for the woman to wake up and tell the dog to stop. Turns out, the Queen had already been feeding on Marta's soul, which had created a link between them, leaving the dog confused about who she was, seeing her as his master.

After that, Amelia drove over the Queen a second time, on their way to steal the ship's spell-core, and once they'd done that, they headed for their ship, ending up in a face-to-face duel with the Queen.

They lost the wagon, but won the fight, which I hadn't thought possible. Seemed as if Marta had become the Queen's magical equal, due to the link between their souls.

They beat the pirate Queen on her own ship and flew off, leaving Foundation Stone adrift, which was surprising wonderful to see. Of course, that was going to cause the sisters no end of trouble, but that is a subject for other songs...

The second song for today is named Mouse With a Gonne, in honor of the six-shooter hand-gonne Amelia assembled to defend herself with, during her desperate boarding action.

Lyrics

I warned you of Black Wells,
Now hear what came of the Queen,
Who put two of them in cells,
Thought magic of third too lean!

Released that one for the sport,
A mouse for the cat to play,
Gave no fuel of any sort,
Expecting the void to slay!

Chorus:
No mouse could Amelia be,
Except with hand-gonne she aim!
No way would mouse ever flee,
Before older sisters gain!

She desperate or barmy,
Or just have no other choice?
One against the Queen's army?
Yet she's hoping to rejoice!

Girl crashed into the Queen's bridge,
The zombies sucked into space,
With her fuel only a smidge!
Then Queen's dog begins to chase!

(Chorus)

She drives armored war wagon,
Over the Queen without thought!
The loyal old dog hunts on,
That he might erase the blot!

It's death dog versus young witch,
Wagon of war isn't enough!
Teeth rip steel, is it a glitch?
That monster is no cream puff!

(Chorus)

The sisters Black Well are saved,
And Amelia isn't dog chow!
With the death dog well behaved,
I really must say, "Wow!"

For reprise: steal the spell-core,
And the Queen confront the witch!
She seeks to settle the score,
But sisters leave her to twitch!

(Chorus)

(Chorus)

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

Mouse With a Gonne 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