Available for Pre-Order: The Inverted Glass

The Ebook of the fifth and final volume of The Wizard's Scion is now available for pre-order and will be released on December 13. Sadly, it took far longer than I originally planned for, but better late than never, I suppose.

In the bad news column, I'm now lacking the services of a professional artist, though I'm waiting on a reply from another I contacted. In the neutral column, I made this cover myself, by heavily leaning into metaphors for the plot. I used public domain vector art and a nice nebula image from the James Webb Space Telescope, if I remember correctly. Someday, the art may be replaced with something better. In the good news column, the advantage of this new approach is that you'll be seeing my novels published far faster than in the past.

The wraparound cover for the print edition of The Inverted Glass is my next side project, which I'll probably be able to finish tomorrow.

The omnibus edition of The Wizard's Scion should also be coming soon, but I have to assemble a set of metaphors that work with the art available to me with my admittedly not-great art creations skills. I'm primarily a cut and paste artist, but I've got a good eye for both visual metaphors and art in general, so it's just a matter of time before I find something that works.

I hope to get through the majority of my backlog of novels in the next couple of months. In particular, I'll be starting final editing of the prequel series, Sky Children, later this week, since I already have the artwork done for the first two books. The second book will follow shortly after. The third book will have to wait until later, because it's still badly in need of a total rewrite.

In short, keep your eyes peeled and hang onto your seat, because things are about to significantly speed up.

Without further adieu, I present to you:

The Inverted Glass

Buy This Book The Steel Wizard, Captain Levi Jacobs, is woken in the night by his pregnant wife, with happy news their child is coming, but joy becomes tragedy as she dies in childbirth. Reeling from this loss, he vows to raise their daughter to be a strong hero, just like her mother, but even that fleeting comfort is stolen from the bittersweet moment as the poor infant struggles to breathe and dies in his arms!

Reeling at the loss, he staggers from one defeat to the next, slowly losing everything else he cares about.

Finally, after a particularly traumatic defeat at the hands of a new enemy, followed by a prolonged kidnapping involving the forced administration of narcotics to make him complaint, he lies in the infirmary of his ship, grief-stricken and struggling with addiction withdrawal. Just when he’s at an all-time low, he’s offered a ray of unusual hope, reminded that he once witnessed his future self travel through time.

Armed with this memory, he focuses to unlock the secrets of temporal magic, intent on undoing months of terrible events, only to find it’s not so easy, because he has to fight to gain the approval of the Moirai, better known as the Three Fates and speaking with them is no easy task.

Can Levi change history or will all that he loves remain forever lost in the past?

The cover of the novel has multiple meanings:

First, a certain troll swordswoman is back, in the form of both a summoned ghost and an inadvertently summoned demon, one good, the other evil. That's what the figures in the hourglass are about.

Meanwhile, the good one is deeply concerned about the final destination of her soul, because the necromancer, Cha'da, summoned her away from the afterlife during her personal judgment day, just as her heart was being weighed against a feather.

Second, the protagonist, Levi, has a harrowing time trying to get back everything he's lost, using time travel. The hourglass also serves as a reference to that. This last of Levi's adventures reveals how he's judged by the Three Fates, all because he tried to change history without first asking permission. In the end, he somehow has to balance the scales and justify his actions in order to change history.

Both character go through some very rough times along the way, but I find the ending of this one to be the most emotionally satisfying of the series.

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have.

Tags: writing, publishing, the-wizards-scion

Work In Progress #20: Starwitch #3

"Do not test me, ladies. I am the very best war witch this country has ever produced. I would find it particularly easy to blow this entire house to splinters, followed by telekinetically dragging the three of you away."

  – Captain Scarth Denholm, an excerpt from Starwitch.

Starwitch is a novel about space-faring witches that I plan to release first as a web series, then for sale in online stores.

You can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon.

Here's a list of previous blog entries on this work in progress novel, in order from oldest to newest:

• Starwitch #1
• Starwitch #2

Chapter 8: Parting Ways

Amelia lies in her bed, aching all over. She's resting to heal, but her mind is quite busy. She still has no option for cushioning wheels, but an alternative has occurred to her: an airship.

The only trouble with that is her best bet for lifting an airship into the air is 'metal phlogiston', which is better known in the modern world as hydrogen, but she's concerned about the explosive qualities of the gas.

After a knock at the door, Mrs. Maccle enters. She expresses her concern for Amelia's health, but when Amelia tells her it's just bruises, her expression doesn't change.

Mrs. Maccle explains that Amelia has been accused of witchcraft. The older woman also reveals that she's a witch, though even weaker than Amelia. This admission earns the older woman even greater trust from Amelia. As it turns out, the mayor's wife has been subtly guiding the locals toward greater tolerant, but this backfired with Amelia, because it was too much, too soon.

Mrs. Maccle says she'll delay things as much as she can and her husband will investigate the accusation, but ultimately find Amelia and her sisters innocent, though they both know that won't be enough. However, it will be plenty of time for the Blackwell family to pack up and leave, before a mob can take action.

Mrs. Maccle tells Amelia of a far off country to the west, beyond the ominously named mountain range known as 'The Burning Slopes', which is presumably volcanically active.

Dugaria, as the nation is named, is (in)famous for publicly accepting witches, though she knows nothing more about it. The journey will take months if they cross the volcanic range or as much as a year, if they go around.

Mrs. Maccle wishes there was more she could do for them and Amelia smiles, because she's gotten an idea, suggesting the mayor's wife can help them some more by buying a bit more time.

In the next scene, Marta is on the roof of Amelia's warehouse/workshop, surreptitiously watching a mob that's gathered by the front door to protest the presence of an accused witch.

Marta heads back inside after reading their signs and hearing them shout about burning witches. She joins Amelia, Iris, their Father and Mrs. Maccle in working on a crude airship that's little more than a big, flat platform with a railing and a building in the middle, though there's enough room for the family's vehicles at either end.

The whole thing is on wheels and has a steam engine that can drive it on the ground or run a pair of propellors.

They finish structurally reinforcing it and Amelia asks Mrs. Maccle to open the back doors.

The ship is rolled outside and Iris ties it off to prepared stakes, while Amelia gets the process of filling the gas bag started. Marta and their father prepare to catch the bag as it unfolds, to avoid punctures, since they've only got one shot at this.

Mrs. Maccle heads off to join her husband, the sheriff and eight of his largest men on the other side of the building.

To serve as a distraction, the sheriff approaches the mob and demands to see their permit for the public gathering. The conversation with the leader of the mob (a lawyer, by the way) implies they don't have one and as they go back and forth about the current situation, people from the mob begin sneaking away.

They argue the merits of whether Amelia is a witch or not, because "Oh my, she flew!" The mayor tosses a paper airplane (they would probably call it a paper bird) through the air and makes a rather logical argument that what Amelia did was a scaled up version of the same. He even insists there was no magic, just science.

There's more arguing as, in the background, the gas bag inflates and Amelia does some work on the control fins attached to it, though the mob is fortunately to distracted to notice.

Again, the matter of the permit is raised by the sheriff, including a threat to arrest everyone. More of the crowd peels off, while the sheriff's men start circling the crowd.

The leader of the mob accuses the mayor and the sheriff of a conspiracy to help a witch (amusingly, this is quite true), but he makes the mistake of jabbing the sheriff with a finger.

She sheriff turns that finger into a serious point of pain and arrests the man for a variety of charges: assaulting an officer of the watch, disturbing the peace, incitement to riot and conspiracy to murder an innocent woman, a circumvention of justice.

The sheriff's men arrest what little remains of the mob.

Meanwhile, the airship takes to the air, flying west. The mayor asks his wife if she knows where they're headed. She tells him they're going to Dugaria, where they hope they'll be accepted, and he groans.

Mrs. Maccle loses some confidence as she asks, "Witches are accepted in Dugaria, aren't they?"

Her husband's response is chilling: "Only because the government uses them as weapons!"

Sadly, Mrs. Maccle hadn't heard that part of the rumors.

Unfortunately, it's far too late to warn the Blackwell family.

Chapter 9: Burning Slopes

Amelia's airship, Airwitch, has been in the air for about two and a half days and with Amelia at the helm at dawn, she finally spots The Burning Slopes, which live up to their name.

The mountain range is a line of volcanoes, which are currently not violently erupting, though lava pours down the sides of some. I think of this similar to the volcanoes of Hawaii, which have been mildly active for generations.

Amelia is concerned about the danger of going over them in an airship that's lifted by explosive hydrogen gas, though the alternative of going around will take at least a month, if not longer, because they'll have to fight against the west-blowing prevailing wind they've been riding so far, if they turn.

They have a family meeting in which Amelia explains her concerns and calls for a vote. She votes to go around the mountains.

Their father abstains from voting, to avoid a potential tie. As a male born to a family of witches, Tim is quite used to letting the women in his life take charge.

Marta votes to go over, because their map shows no civilization anywhere nearby (too many volcanoes, which can be far more active on the moon of a gas giant, compared to Earth) and they only have a month's rations.

Iris agrees, because while they could theoretically forage for food, their mother trained them in a totally different kind of terrain than they've been flying over.

Amelia doesn't like the decision, but accepts it and pushes the engine to maximum power, because she wants to get over the volcanoes as fast as possible, even at the cost of wasting water. She aims them between a pair of volcanoes that seem less active than the others, to maximize safety.

As Airwitch passes between a pair of volcanoes, one of them begins to erupt, but it's too late for Amelia to turn aside, lest she crash the airship into one of them!

Lava pours down the side and pools in the valley beneath Airwitch, producing a powerful updraft that carries them to a dangerous altitude that threatens to make the gas bag brittle enough to burst, because it's only cotton fabric coated and sealed with rubber.

Iris takes the helm, while Marta starts climbing a knotted rope to reach the top of the gas bag, where an emergency valve can be used to release some of the hydrogen, which would reduce their buoyancy. Amelia heads inside, in preparation to refill the gas bag, once they're out of danger.

As it turns out, their father, Tim, hasn't been taking a turn at the helm, because he's scared of all the controls, too nervous to ever touch them. Amelia has been taking his turns, despite the fact she has so much work to do on the ship.

Due to this fact, the system designed to re-compress the hydrogen for later reuse isn't done, forcing this crazy emergency procedure. Thus, he feels responsible.

Tim punches Marta, leaving her lying on the deck with a dislocated jaw (Tim doesn't know his own strength and that was definitely unintended). He climbs in her place and releases some of the hydrogen, while Iris shouts to direct him, though she thinks she's talking to Marta. They lose most of their altitude, until they're just hundreds of feet above the treetops of a jungle.

During his climb back down, Iris and Amelia begin refilling the gas bag and the sudden change in acceleration causes Tim loses his grip on the rope! As he falls to his death, he says a final prayer to the Gods for the safety of his daughters, feeling content his final act in life was saving their lives.

Amelia emerges from the interior, finding Marta lying on the deck, unable to speak. Amelia takes the place of Iris at the helm and Iris treats Marta's injury with a mixture of doctoring and a healing potion. Naturally, putting Marta's jaw back in place produces a scream of agony.

Marta explains what happened and Amelia despairs, because she knows the fall wasn't survivable.

Iris runs to the back of the ship and looks the way they came, hoping to see her father, desperate for a chance to rescue him, but the volcano's eruption has gotten worse and the jungle is aflame. It would not be safe to go back, forcing them to leave their father behind.

Iris collapses and sobs. Marta scoops Iris up in her arms (remember, she's a big woman, built like a lumberjack) and carries her to the front of Airwitch, where the sisters mourn together.

Chapter 10: The Welcome Village

After a day's travel and almost 700 miles crossed, the sisters come to a small village and tether Airwitch to some trees, via a grappling hook.

The villagers stare up as Amelia looks down and one of them asks, "Are you a witch?"

She initially says "No, I'm an engineer!", but the man's wife says they like witches and when Amelia's sisters join her at the railing, they vote to be honest and Amelia admits they're witches.

The villagers were initially nervous about the airship, but the moment Amelia admits she's a witch, they go back to their business, as if women flying around in airships was normal.

They're invited to a lunch of fish and something akin to spinach in the tiny hovel that serves as the couple's home. The man is named Davit and he's the village administrator. He turns out to be very friendly and eager to convince the sisters to settle in the village, because they've been looking for a witch for years.

He shows them the house the villagers have built for their future witch and it turns out to be a rather wonderful home, a small mansion, in fact. His people have been living as paupers, so they can afford to make some lucky witch exceptionally comfortable.

He claims the "humble home" is the best they can do, but it's larger than the one the sisters grew up in!

Amelia questions him about this and he claims the sisters are likely to find far better living arrangements in a larger city.

They ask why Davit's people would put themselves out for a witch like this and he explains:

"When a witch is needed, but there isn't one available, people suffer. Witches heal and brew potions. They help others, because that’s what witches do." Davit bowed his head, "With a witch in the village, we would prosper and know great peace. Witches are a blessing from the Gods."

After a few days to relax and mourn the loss of their father, Amelia and her sisters move on, intent on traveling Dugaria to find a good place to settle down (the village is nice, but too poor for their liking).

Davit gives them a map of the nation to help them on their way.

Chapter 11: A New Home

Six months later, Amelia wakes and walks the halls of the mansion she bought in Rimestar, the capitol of Dugaria. Servants greet her in the halls and she has breakfast with her sisters, while waited on by their butler.

Amelia had no need for such a large house, but bought it for the 40 aches of fenced yard and the location, outside the city, though still within easy reach.

She also had no need for servants, but their salaries (aside from the gardeners) are paid for by the city, as an added incentive for witches to settle in the city.

Her sisters have been working in a local hospital, as doctors/healers. There was a big accident and tending to the injured kept them up all night, so once they're done eating, they head off to bed, for some long-overdue sleep.

Amelia heads out to her workshop, which is on the land she bought. She checks over the construction work taking place at one end. The place is ready to be used, but not finished, since Amelia wants enough room to work on rockets intended to get her to orbit.

She briefly checks on her apprentices, who work on small devices intended for sale in the local market, then heads for the corner dedicated to her current project: Blackbird II. The aircraft is nearly finished and the custom tires arrived the night before.

Vulcanized rubber is the big innovation of Dugaria, something Amelia has been studying, though she's not quite up to the level of the local craftsman that made the tires for her plane.

She cracks open the crate holding the tires and checks them over, quite pleased. She begins working mount them.

Amelia is happy and content to be accepted and beloved by the locals. She's also happy to have so many amazing resources available to her. She reflects on the fact her sisters are also doing well, both of whom have been getting attention from men.

Amelia has also been catching the eye of hopeful young men, but she's always too lost in thought to notice.

However, despite how much Amelia loves Dugaria, she's been cautious about her greatest secrets, including runic enchantments, though that's is mostly a matter of her life-long habit of hiding her magic.

Amelia's work is interrupted by Hobard, the chief butler, who informs her that she and her sisters have guests that insisted on seeing all three of them.

Chapter 12: Assignments

Amelia goes with Hobard and is led to the sitting room.

One of the couches is occupied by a woman in a dark green army uniform and a matching pointed hat, marking her as both a soldier and a witch. Her collar bears a captain's insignia, with the addition of a little, pointed hat, because a witch always has greater authority than any non-witch of the same rank.

Seated opposite the woman are Iris and Marta, who were woken for the meeting. Amelia sits between them.

The military witch introduces herself as Captain Scarth Denholm. She goes on to tell them Dugaria is now at war. By law and declaration of the King, all citizen witches have been conscripted into the army.

Iris objects, saying they've taken a vow of non-violence.

Amelia claims they never agreed to that and the Captain hands her a copy of the constitution of Dugaria. Amelaia reads and learns that they automatically became citizens when they became home/land owners. This is the reason Dugaria gives free homes and land to witches. Amelia reads further, learning the King does have the right to conscript witches, whenever needed for the protection of Dugaria.

Marta demands to know what happens if they refuse, leading to a scene that speaks for itself:

The military woman leaned forward and her hat produced a looming shadow over her face as her eyes glowed like those of a demon, a deep, red shade, like glowing blood, "Do not test me, ladies." Her icy tone was heavy with the promise of dangerous icebergs that could sink a ship, "I am the very best war witch this country has ever produced. I would find it particularly easy to blow this entire house to splinters, followed by telekinetically dragging the three of you away." Her eyes stopped glowing and she leaned back in the couch, "However, that would be tedious," she glanced around herself, eyeing the fine furniture and the many paintings on the walls, "and an insult to the many witches that lived in this house before the three of you.

"Oh, and even if you think you might be able to overpower me with your combined magic, keep this little tidbit in mind: outside, the other six witches of my coven stand ready to support me and each of them is at least two-thirds as powerful as I am, all of them military trained for battle. No little hedge witch could possibly win such a fight, and three would fare no better."

Amelia's eyes narrowed with anger, "So we're to be dogs of the military, whether we like it or not?"

The captain sighed, "Ladies, this isn't much different from the men of this country, many of whom are having a similar conversation, right now, though that's determined by random chance. To make up for the fact that all witches are being conscripted, the King is offering commensurate rewards. The pay is excellent and you'll have whatever materials you desire for personal magical research. Just about anything can be within reach for a military witch. We have but to ask, especially since we're going to war."

"But we have to be the King's magical assassins, right?" Iris glared, her voice filling with contempt.

"If that's where your talents lie." Captain Denholm stood and went on, "So, ladies, what will it be? Do you come quietly, or do we brawl?" Again, her eyes glowed and she smiled, revealing a wild expression that hinted the woman was secretly hoping for a fight.

Waves of murderous intent carried by magic charged the air and the men behind her took a couple steps back.

Marta stood and hung her head, "It would seem we have no choice."

"What about our vow of non-violence?" Iris also stood, but remained slightly defiant.

Denholm shrugged, "Another casualty of war, I suppose, but you'll serve, either way. Go quietly and you won’t have to wear chains."

In the end, the sisters go quietly, because it's obvious they're no match for Captain Denholm. She leads them to Fort Stand, a military post just outside the city, where their magical talents will be tested and they'll receive their assignments.

While the sisters are busy being tested, Captain Denholm returns to their property and Hobard is revealed to be a secret military spy, as are the rest of the house servants.

Hobard leads her to Amelia's airship, inside the workshop, and it's taken away, for study and to ensure the main characters don't fly away. Little does Denholm know, the steam engines have all been removed to power the machines of the workshop (Denholm doesn't even know what a steam engine is) and the canisters of hydrogen have been emptied for the sake of safety, making it totally useless.

The sisters finish testing totally soaked in sweat, because they were pushed to their absolute limits. They're lined up along with six other witches, to hear the results and receive assignments.

Marta's greatest magical talents lie in Fire and Earth magic. Her assignment is to become a front-line Artillery Witch.

Iris has talents for long-range Sensory and Communication magic. Her assignment can't be spoken publicly, implying she'll be doing something secretive, perhaps intelligence work. The other witches glare at Iris with envy, because whatever her assignment will be, they think it's going to be a cushy one.

Amelia is declared to basically have no particular talent for magic and lacks power, a fact she already knew.

Denholm doesn't quite know what to do with her and asks, "What talents besides magic do you possess?"

Amelia answers honestly, by saying she's an engineer, a builder of machines, particularly vehicles, like her airship.

Denholm is shocked by this and briefly loses her composure.

They discuss her airship and Amelia points out the fact she used science to make it fly, rather than magic.

The Captain is quiet for a time, before she assigns Amelia to the basic physical training every War Witch receives, saying she'll have to discuss Amelia's final assignment with her superiors.

Amelia quietly makes up her mind to escape Dugaria, but since they're in the center of the country and will surely be watched, that will not be easy. She hopes to distract people with technobabble and accomplish her true goals behind the backs of those watching her.

Current Progress

Starwitch is about one-quarter finished, with the first three episodes of material in a rough draft state. So far, I'm averaging about one episode a week. I've written about 33,000 words, so far.

This piece will probably end up at 120,000 words or less. Early chapters were heavy with descriptive detail and I was forced to write longer chapters (3,000+ words), due to how intricate everything Amelia builds is, but now that things are starting to move along with more action and slightly less science/engineering, the chapters are slimming down to my more typical average (2,000-2,500 words).

Future Plans

Episode four will begin with a five year skip forward, during which the sisters have been working for the army. My intent with the episode is to produce a lot of character growth for the main characters.

Marta and Iris will get their own chapters dedicated to them, to show how much they've changed and how difficult their circumstances are.

Marta will be shown in the field, using her magic to destroy entire fortifications, while her conscience stings her for harming others with magic.

Iris will be seen using scrying magic (think CIA remote-viewing programs, only far more effective) to get instant results from distant battlefields, so her superiors can make better decisions. I will probably end that chapter with Iris' superiors using her unit of black-ops witches to assassinate high-ranking officers of the enemy army, with extreme-range magic.

Meanwhile, in her own chapter, Amelia will be seen squirreling away resources for a secret project, while Hobard tries very hard to find out what she's up to. During the skip forward, she'll have been working as a government contractor, tasked with designing a horseless, armored "war wagon", a project Amelia has been delaying for years, intentionally detonating prototype after prototype, with the explanation that "steam engines are very hard to stabilize, a design flaw I hope to fix, soon."

The last chapter of the episode will bring them back together, because Amelia insists she needs her sisters on hand, claiming Iris is the best driver and Marta's magic is strong enough to control the blast if the prototype explodes.

They'll drive the new war wagon and go on the run across Amelia's land, toward a tower she's built, while Captain Denholm gives chase, via broomstick. When they arrive, Marta will hold off the other War Witch, while Amelia and Iris blow one whole side off the tower, revealing the hidden shape of Starwitch, while the other half of the tower serves as the rocket's support gantry.

Marta will lose her fight with Denholm, but will have bought just enough time for her sisters to load the war wagon inside the base of the rocket and the three of them will blast off. Denholm will probably try to follow, but she'll be unable to chase them out of the atmosphere.

After that, all future episodes will take place in space.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, starwitch

Work In Progress #19: Starwitch #2

"I declare to all: if any of you ever harms so much as one hair on the heads of my daughters, I will return as a vengeful spirit, with bloody intention to wipe out this entire village, guilty and innocent alike, because evil triumphs when good men do nothing!"

  – Erika Blackwell, the mother of Amelia, an Excerpt from Starwitch.

Starwitch is a novel about space-faring witches that I plan to release first as a web series, then for sale in online stores.

You can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon.

Here's a list of previous blog entries on this work in progress novel, in order from oldest to newest:

• Starwitch #1

Chapter 3: Steam Without Flame

Most of this chapter was descriptive details on Amelia's projects, to slowly demonstrate what she can do, despite her primitive surroundings.

Amelia is 14 in this chapter and now has a small shack to work in. She pays for things by making and selling high-quality steel ingots to the village smith.

She's working on parts for a steam engine that lacks a firebox, a series of metal plates she's chiseling runes into, including the runes for 'metal', 'boil' and 'water'.

She finishes her work, assembles the plates with some rods to form something reminiscent of a heat sink, though with larger gaps between the plate. She pours some water on it, which boils off as if the metal was hot, though it's cool to the touch.

I imagine the runes to be the written form of the language of magic, which just about anyone can use, though they need the right knowledge to make use of it: only runes marking metal and stone will work, because metal and stone act as mediums in which magic condenses.

Any previously living material, like wood or paper, will fail, because dead things strive to live again and use up the magic in that attempt. Effectively, this means dead wood is very slightly zombie (maybe about 0.001%).

Marta (Amelia's oldest sister) joins her, curious to see what she's working on and they have a brief discussion of runes covering the above information. It's stated that Marta's husband died around the time Amelia was four years old. She's 12 years older than Amelia. Marta is a rather large woman and built like a lumberjack, but she's not unattractive.

After they're done talking, Amelia puts the enchanted device inside the little engine's steam chamber and seals it. She fills it with water and the belt wheel on the side spins, demonstrating that it works. Thus, Amelia is capable of making extremely compact steam engines with a level of power that rivals that of a modern gasoline engine.

Marta asks what's next and Amelia says she needs a carriage. Marta is confused, because they don't even own a horse, but Amelia insists she needs only the carriage.

In the next scene, months have passed and Amelia has heavily modified a carriage into a horseless carriage and her sisters help her mount a heavy, magic-powered steam engine to the frame.

Amelia's Sister, Iris, is described. She's a little taller than their mother, who's average height. She's also exceptionally beautiful. Her personal history is briefly illuminated as part of her description.

She'd been engaged to the mayor's son, but just days after they announced this to the whole village, he was murdered. It isn't entirely clear how he died, though he was tied to a tree and wolves got him. It isn't stated whether the wolves killed him or just ate him.

Iris has been very sad for the past three years, due to losing her betrothed.

With the work done, their mother gives them a picnic basket of food and the three of them head off for a test drive, with Iris in the driver's seat. She turns out to be a crazy speed-demon and smiles for the first time in years.

Unknown to our main characters, the local smith and his son, both named Rolf Mossflaw (senior and junior, to be clear), were sneaking onto their land while they drove off. The two of them witness the horseless carriage and Rolf senior concludes that it's witchcraft, despite multiple attempts to justify it as non-magical.

Eventually, the lack of smoke from the steam engine's firebox (it doesn't even have one, but he doesn't know that) forces him to accept the idea it's magic.

The smith and his son head back to the village, to "do the right thing" and tell the mayor, even though they don't want to.

Chapter 4: A Terrible Choice

Erika, Amelia's mother, is at home, working to prepare ingredients for potions, since healing potions are how the family made their money before Amelia started making steel.

Her husband, Tim, is a woodcutter, but it's a weekend and he's taken a day off to spend time with his wife, though he's fallen asleep in a rocking chair.

There's a heavy knock on the door, far too loud to be a social visit and Erika concludes the mayor is back to accuse her of being a witch, for the sixteenth time, even though it has been more than a decade since he last accused her.

The mayor once witnessed her using magic while he was drunk and has never let the subject go.

Tim wakes and offers to beat the man, but Erika decides another round of intellectual jousting will be enough to take care of the problem, so he sits down again. In other words, she decides to handle it herself, since the mayor is an idiot and she normally runs mental circles around him.

She opens the door and Mayor Godfrey Rumblecleaver points the accusatory finger, saying, "She's a witch! I've seen it with my own eyes! This woman, Erika Blackwell, has had congress with the devil! I saw her dance in the forest, naked, alongside a demon!"

He has an entire lynch mob with him, including his deputy. The mayor is, by ignorant and stupid tradition (according to Erika's internal monologue) also sheriff and judge, though he's bound by law to follow certain procedures.

This involves giving the accused witch a chance to refute his claims.

As an avid reader, Amelia has both read and understood the village's entire law book, having committed it to memory, consequently making the mayor look like a fool once already. She also taught her mother something: the law book says accusations require two or three witnesses.

Erika points this out, so the mayor provides another witness: the village moonshiner and local drunkard, who claims he saw Erika dance naked with a goat-horned demon!

Erika remembers the only occasion she saw him that week, in which he was drunk off his butt and likely hallucinating, so she isn't surprised he imagined her naked and a passing goat as a demon.

She asks the crowd to raise their hands if they believe the man to be a reliable witness when he's drunk, which is basically whenever he's awake. No one raises a hand.

Likewise, she refutes the mayor's claim, because everyone knows how drunk he was the night in question, which was when Erika was 15. She's now 42.

The incident took place during a harvest festival and moonshine had been freely available. The young man that later became the mayor had been drinking heavily, despite the fact he'd never had any alcohol before.

The smith, Rolf, steps up next, reluctantly telling the tale of seeing Erika's daughters drive a bewitched carriage. They argue for a time and he presents his irrefutable, expert opinion that it could only have been magically-powered.

Erika demands a second witness and Rolf junior confirms the story.

Seeing he's caught Erika in a situation she can't talk her way out of, the mayor offers a pair of awful alternatives: either Erika's daughters burn as witches, or she does in their place, because the law says a parent can pay for the crimes of a child.

He even goes on to call it a good bargain. Meanwhile, his face is full of sick glee, because he's finally caught the witch he's chased most of his life. If Erika agrees, then all she has to do is say out loud that she's a witch.

She says, "I'm a witch" so softly, no one but Tim hears and he rushes to attack the mayor, only to get shot in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt from the deputy.

Erika patches him up and he passes out.

Absolutely reveling in her torment, the mayor says he didn't hear her and she needs to speak up.

Erika speaks louder, but he still isn't satisfied, demanding that she speak loud enough for everyone to hear.

Finally, she shouts her true feelings to the world, including how proud she is to be a witch, making a verbal list of all the good things she's done for the villagers, much of it with secret magic.

She finishes by saying magic isn't evil, but the mayor is, having persecuted her over nothing, for decades.

As her hands are bound by the deputy, she considers torching her accusers with magic, but remembers her grandmother's words on the matter, which were basically, "Do no harm with magic."

She follows the vow of pacifism she made to her grandmother, going quietly to the pile of wood and the stake, to be tied to it, while moonshine is dumped all over the wood to make it burn better.

Before she's lit aflame, the mayor whispers to her, "I had to kill my own son, because one of your whore-of-the-devil daughters bewitched him, just like I did with that poor fool that married Marta! I'm glad I finally get to see you burn for what you took from me!"

Finally seeing the depth of the man's depravity, Erika speaks her final words:

She spoke at a volume comparable to a megaphone, her voice magically enhanced to ensure all ears present would take notice, "Know this day, Mayor Godfrey Rumblecleaver, that your sins will follow you to your very last day, while the gates of the infernal realm gape open and ready to take your soul!

"I declare to all: if any of you ever harms so much as one hair on the heads of my daughters, I will return as a vengeful spirit, with bloody intention to wipe out this entire village, guilty and innocent alike, because evil triumphs when good men do nothing!" Erika gave Rolf and his son a particularly scathing glare, before she looked once more at the now cowering mayor, to speak so softly only he should have heard her final words, though the magic still took them far and wide, "With my last, dying breath, I curse you to never know peace!"

All of that was just words to mess with everyone's heads, but who knows, maybe the last words of a witch have power beyond mere magic?

Erika uses magic to light the pyre herself, to take control out of his hands of the mob and steal from the mayor the option to believe he killed her.

Shortly after, her daughters arrive, just as a wagon full of men departs. Marta is driving, barely managing to stop the carriage before succumbing to a numb and helpless silence, while Amelia sputters.

Iris, on the other hand, rushes to the aid of their mother, using magic to part the flame and loosen the ropes, so she can haul Erika free of the blaze, but it's all for naught, because she's already dead.

Chapter 5: Salt in the Wound

While Amelia's family are reeling at the loss of their wife/mother, a few days pass and the town crier shows up with a proclamation from the mayor: all property of the confessed witch is to be forfeit to the village and auctioned to pay for the firewood used.

The auction is scheduled for the next day at dawn, though they will have four full days to actually willingly give up the land or make arguments that they should be allowed to keep it.

Amelia's father produces a stack of old wills from her ancestors and she reads them all, discovering that every one of the Blackwell women for the past few centuries has used the same wording in their last will and testament.

The essence of it is that the home and land were given to a specific individual, but everything else became the collective property of their female progeny.

In essence, they foresaw the issue of being discovered as witches and had a strong legal defense in mind to dodge the seizure of property. They would have done the same with the land and house, but local law forbids joint ownership of real estate, to prevent family arguments from spilling into court.

Amelia attends the auction and makes an attempt to buy their land back, but the mayor out-bids her, paying double the actual value of the land. Amelia make herself publicly weep by thinking about her mother, but smiles on her way out of the courthouse, because the auction went just the way she planned.

Over the next few days, wagon loads of salt, alchemical waste and lye arrive at the Blackwell family home and their father directs the work of poisoning the land, to make it worthless to the mayor. At night, the sisters use magic to summon rains storms, so the contamination will sink into the soil.

Their last day on the land, they pack up their belongings and Iris uses fire magic to burn the house's thatch, followed by Marta employing earth magic to make the mortar and stones of the walls crumble. Last of all, Amelia jams the pressure relief valves of a small steam engine and activates it inside her workshop, before they all run away to avoid the explosion.

Effectively, there's nothing of value left behind. They stay in a tent that night, but no one can sleep and their father goes out.

He visits the village smith and brow-beats the man into joining him. They gather others that hate the mayor.

Together, the group throws a blanket over the mayor's head and haul him out of his house for the beating of his life, but before they get going, they tell him why, including among the accusation both everything they know and suspect. He's warned that if he ever twists the law again, they'll come back to seek vengeance for the three people he's killed (Erika, his own son Conrad, and Marta's husband, Zayne).

In the morning, the mayor fails to show up for the deed to the Blackwell family's land and the subject of where their father went in the night is raised. He admits nothing, but promises the man is still alive, followed by this little gem: "On those cold, winter nights, I imagine his knee will really ache and I hope he'll be reminded of all the bad things he’s done."

The sisters decide they can live with that and, in fact, it makes them feel slightly better.

They leave the deed to the land under a rock and depart for what they hope will be a land without persecution and prejudice.

Chapter 6: The Stuff of Dreams

After two years of off-and-on travel, Amelia and her family are near the city of Macclesfield, a prosperous farming community, where they've been camping long-term, to rest from their travels.

Amelia has built herself a horseless portable workshop in a wagon/shack similar to the one Mr. Pinewater lived in. Inside, she's built herself a lathe that she's been using to make table legs, because no one in the city has ever seen the results of a lathe before.

Her table legs are all the rage in town with wealthy ladies, even though Amelia thinks the existing legs are better, but she's not going to argue with wealthy people giving her their money to do a job.

Amelia is depressed, because she wants a more permanent home and a much larger workshop, but most towns won't let them buy real estate, because they're outsiders. Even worse, in the few towns that did, rumor reached all the way from the prejudice-filled village they left behind, causing them to flee for their lives, lest the Blackwell sisters be burned at the stake.

As she works on an order, Amelia reflects that she has wealth, but what she may actually need is influence, to change a few minds, that she might buy land, since she believes she's now beyond the reach of the rumors; it's been eight months since she last heard rumors about her family.

She finishes work and heads for town.

While she's there, she waives her fees in exchange for the the wives of the three members of the city council speaking to their husbands on her behalf, to make an exception to city law, so she can buy land.

It works and she even becomes friends with the mayor's wife, Mrs. Maccle, who has very forward-thinking views of women and thinks Amelia will be just the thing she needs to shake things up, in a good way. It's never quite stated that way, but Mrs. Maccle is a feminist.

In the next scene, Amelia is shown a huge, disused warehouse, one option among many properties she might buy and she's soon seeing all the possibilities the place holds for her. It even has an office area that could easily be converted into a comfortable home for her family, solving both issues.

She's soon lost in imaginary visions of what could be, eventually seeing in her mind not just the flying machines she been wanting to experiment with, but airships and eventually, a steel tower rising through the air on a column of super-heated steam!

The tower pierces the heavens and then turns at the apogee of it's flight, producing another burst of steam that carries if forward, until it's falling all the way around the world, always dropping, but never hitting ground, an orbit.

The word 'orbit' sticks in her mind, because she's never heard it before and she realizes the imaginary vision she just had wasn't her own.

She haggles over the price and buys the warehouse, before heading back to her little workshop, where she looks at The Book of Newts and asks, "What are you?"

The book flips of its own accord to the last page, which is blank. Next, it flips to a page showing a diagram of the solar system. Finally, it shows her star charts, and she finally realizes the sun the gas giant her little moon orbits is one star among many thousands of named stars, which are mapped in meticulous detail in the book.

She doesn't understand what it's telling her, but she feels exhausted, because the book has been manipulating the magic her body produces to flip it's pages, a feat that has left her with a headache, because her magic is rather weak. It isn't able to finish what it was telling her, because she doesn't have the magic required for it to finish.

She recognizes the book has some kind of dream or desire, which mostly lines up with her own dreams, though it clearly thinks on a larger scale than she does. She questions whether she should trust the book, since that was so very strange. It has never harmed her, so she decides to continue on her current path.

She also reasons that perhaps she owes it something for the knowledge shared, deciding to try and fulfill the book's dream of flying to the stars.

At this point, I finally named the gas giant Amelia's moon orbits: Junas. Amelia believes it's the home of her world's gods, a much bigger world for giant, divine people. By the way, it looks a lot like Jupiter, but let me make it clear: it isn't. Junas is orbited by many worlds the size of Earth, plus lots of little ice moons.

Chapter 7: Wings

Amelia and her sisters work to haul her first full-size flying machine out of Macclesfield, while townsfolk look on, in wonder.

Blackbird, as Amelia named it, is a fixed-wing aircraft with a single propellor, using another of her enchanted steam engines. Amelia jokingly refers to the cockpit as a 'the witchpit', which is where the term was originally coined. The aircraft is black and Amelia compares it to a raven.

It's winter and the ground is covered in snow, because Amelia hasn't yet learned about vulcanized rubber and didn't want to deal with metal or wood wheels at such high velocity, thinking the ride would be dangerously bumpy.

Marta drives the plane out into a farm field using another of Amelia's recent inventions, a steam-powered vehicle designed for heavy hauling, a tractor.

When they're ready, Amelia and Iris act as pilot and co-pilot, taking Blackbird into the air! It's an exhilarating moment as they lift off the ground and Amelia cautiously gets them some altitude in a slow circle around the city, before turning control over to Iris, who does some crazy dives and sharp turns, until Amelia is sick.

Amelia takes them down for a landing, which is the part she's most nervous about, because she expects to crash the first time.

The landing goes smoothly, right up to the point they hit a boulder hidden by the snow! Since everything is white, Amelia never saw it.

The prop smashes on it, then the engine hits it, producing a spray of hot water and steam, followed by the belly of Blackbird getting torn to shreds on it, while one of the skis is torn right off. They're briefly forced back into the air, because the boulder somewhat acts like a ramp.

When they come back down, the left wing dips into the snow, due to the missing ski, lurching them to the side, until the wing rips off. Next, the right wing does much the same, a whiplash-inducing sudden shift from twisting one direction to the other!

The wing also tears off, then the other ski breaks, leaving snow, ice and dirt spraying all over them through the torn bottom of the witchpit.

Amelia pukes, while Iris laughs hysterically and sobs at the same time.

Marta drives up to check on them, but fortunately, the only injuries they've got are lots of bruises and Amelia is motion sick.

There's some discussion of what went wrong and Amelia decides wheels are a must, after all, so she'll be seeking a way to cushion them.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, starwitch

Work In Progress #18: Starwitch #1

"Needs must, when evil, dead witches drive…"

  – Excerpt from Starwitch.

Starwitch is a novel about space-faring witches that I plan to release first as a web series, then for sale in online stores.

You can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon.

About Starwitch

Starwitch is about three sisters that launch themselves into space with magic. The novel has been named for their ship. The setting will be primarily fantasy, though with some minor scientific elements, mostly in the form of mathematics, orbital dynamics and steam-powered machines.

I intend to publish this first as an episodic web series, then as a novel, so keep an eye on the webpage for Starwitch for more details.

Chapter 1: Lonely

The light sail ship, Starwitch, is sixty meters in length, with a tube-like hull similar to a rocket, though each side has aerodynamic lines that come to a peak and the tail includes control fins for atmospheric flight.

Out of those peaks, as well as the top and bottom, four masts can be extended and various types of spells can be strung between them for any purpose a witch could imagine. Most often, they'll be used for a light sail that catches light to produce thrust from the solar wind of a star.

The side masts can also be extended and magically enhanced to function as wings during atmospheric flight.

Most of the interior is taken up by water tanks, both for drinking water and use as reaction mass for maneuvering thrusters, though the water can also be used as rocket propellant in combination with magic to heat it, since there's something akin to rocket nozzles at the back.

The entire ship is mechanical in nature, with the most complex non-magical device on board being a clock. Everything else is based on enchantments or the magic of the witches that fly the ship.

Starwitch has to be flown entirely manually, with a set of winches inside the 'witchpit' (cockpit) used to control the angle of the four masts.

As the story begins, the youngest of the sisters, Amelia, is alone and she's had only two hours sleep in three days. She's hot on the heels of a far larger ship owned by the infamous pirate, the Dead Queen. The other ship is a massive block of granite floating in space, which Amelia refers to as a monolith, since it's all one piece of rock.

Starwitch was attacked by the monolith and the Dead Queen stole the enchanted mythril spell-core of Starwitch that allows even a weak witch like Amelia to perform high-intensity magic. The Queen also kidnapped Amelia's sisters, to consume their magic and their souls, that she might extend her undead existence.

Amelia was intentionally left for dead, with just enough resources to follow the monolith, but not enough to reach safety, a sort of sport the Dead Queen has engaged in for centuries, just to see what a desperate and weak witch might do.

Amelia watches the monolith entering orbit of an icy moon, presumably to take on water for propellant, and she takes a somewhat different path, heading for a polar orbit.

She intends to meet the monolith on the other side of the moon, where she'll attack.

As she awaits her moment, which is days away, Amelia looks back on her memories with regret. It all started so innocently, with a book...

Chapter 2: The Book of Newts

Amelia is ten years old and practically vibrates with excitement. She's read every book available in the house and her mother has promised her that when Mr. Pinewater next visits, she'll get a book of her very own.

The old man comes to visit her family and in exchange for a healing potion from Amelia's mother, Mr. Pinewater allows Amelia to select a book from the collection he keeps in his wagon, which is basically a shack on wheels.

While the old guy digs for books on magic to entice her with, Amelia is asked to temporarily hold an old tome titled The Book of Newts. Initially, it appears to be a book all about the water-dwelling amphibians, but for one brief instant, it shows its true nature to her. The title is actually 'Newton's Mechanics'. She blinks and it goes back to being The Book of Newts.

The old guy tries to get her to look at the books on magic, but Amelia decides she'd rather have a magical book, than a book about magic. In fact, she insists, despite his every attempt to guide her to one of his books on magic, mimicking a very witchy tone of command her mother uses (Amelia's mother is also a witch).

She leaves the wagon/shack and the old guy drops his illusion. He's still old, but no longer disheveled and his clothes become the fine, black robes of a wizard, while his hat turns pointy and black.

For a time, he worries he's done the wrong thing, because the book will raise Amelia to the stars, where a dangerous enemy lurks, but having seen the girl's insatiable thirst for knowledge, he decides it would be far more cruel to stifle the girl's potential, because he considers her a prodigy. After all, she's already smarter than he is.

He's confident the child will succeed where he failed, though he's uncomfortable about the path he's set her on.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, starwitch

Work In Progress #17: She Seeks Peace #9 (November 4-7)

As soon as her head was down, she was snoring and Artemis smiled, because Verda had finally found somewhere she could sleep soundly. It wasn't a permanent solution to her battle with post-traumatic stress, but it was hard to make progress without decent rest.

  – Excerpt from She Seeks Peace.

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13
2. September 16-20
3. September 23-26
4. September 30-October 4
5. October 7-11
6. October 14-18
7. October 21-25
8. October 28-November 1

Chapter 42: Pale Imitations

This chapter opens with Lara entering the mine Wrath is using as his base on Earth. She uses Mashu'ra's nose to smell out the situation, realizing all seven arch-demons are inside.

She asks, "You ready to go down in a blaze of glory, Masher? I don’t think we’ll survive the day, but I’m game if you are."

Mashu'ra's response is straight to the point: "They took the boss. She’s always been a key part of Vogerath’s plan to open a portal to Hell, because he can’t stabilize it without a half-demon. So, this is bigger than us. I’d sacrifice myself to save the world, any day of the week, because that’s what the boss would do."

With that confirmation of commitment, Lara heads deeper into the mine.

Meanwhile, Insanity is happy to be free of the Hunter's head, with a physical body of her own. She feels a little short on energy, but looks around at the seven arches, seeing the equivalent of a buffet.

As he backs away, Insanity screams, "I’m The Eighth Deadly Sin, Willful Insanity! All of you demons are pale imitations of me, because people would have to be crazy to sin! You have one chance to survive: bow down to me and pledge your eternal servitude or I’ll eat you all!"

Wrath is about to put the cursed wedding band made by Lust on Insanity's finger, but she points out the fact she's not in a binding circle. Wrath looses his cool and real terror crosses his face!

One of the three bodies Pride showed up in changes form to a little garden snake and sneaks off, while Lust and Greed make their way toward the exit. The other arches stand together, as a unified front, because they've all been challenged, though Sloth yawns.

Insanity considers Sogliun, the moon demon, to be the only real threat in the room, but he chickens out and flows downward, into the floor, while no one is looking.

Pride speaks for all: "We won’t serve you, but might be persuaded to allow you to join our ranks. Though a few examples of the eighth arch demon have existed in the past, each was a dangerous, rogue element, definitely not a team player. Will you be the same, or will you join us?"

Insanity's answer is to head-butt Wrath, while she impales both of Pride's bodies on her claws. Wrath is hit so hard, his head goes rolling away. Insanity eats both of Pride's bodies, somewhat refilling her energy reserves.

Still conscious, Wrath's head rolls to a stop near the third copy of Pride.

Wrath asks for help and Pride eats him, which was according to Pride's plan, all along, because he intends to eat all of the arches and then eat their boss, the Void.

Alice looks on as Insanity deals with the arches, bothered by the fact that the Hunter seems to be dying. After some magical analysis, she realizes the Hunter is missing human genetics that she requires to survive on her own and with the demon separated from her mind and body, she can't gather the magic she'd been using to sustain herself.

Alice clasps the Hunter's forearm and begins feeding her magic, though it's only a stop-gap measure, that will buy half an hour.

Envy tries to escape, but Insanity crushes her to death with the thrown corpse of Wrath.

Gluttony is scared, rightly afraid she's about to be eaten, while her bodyguards abandon her, aside from one.

Her last bodyguard turns out to be a regular fairy that's been bound to serve Gluttony by some bargain the two of them made. He takes the form of a humanoid turtle made of diamond. Gluttony is smashed with the body of her last bodyguard, thrown like a projectile. I just wanted to do a little foreshadowing for a later book.

Insanity turns her attention on Lust and Greed. There's a brief argument and Insanity decides to slay Lust, but can't, stopping a fraction of an inch from the kill. She tries again, but same results.

Lust reiterates the bargain she made with the Hunter in the previous book: She must protect Lust and Lust will answer any question the Hunter asks. Insanity was part of the Hunter at the time, so she's bound by the agreement.

Insanity screams in her face, "There’s nothing I want to ask!"

Insanity kills Greed and his guards, then grabs Lust. She warns the arch-demon that she'll keep her 'safe' and 'alive', but that Lust may not like her definition of those words, if she presses her luck.

Turning to Sloth, Insanity asks, "What about you, Sticky?" I like this little nickname, because Sloth is a living goo monster.

Sloth just wants to go home, without a fight.

Insanity punches him, splattering him all over the walls.

She thinks he's dead and turns away, but he speaks again, "It isn’t that easy."

Sloth tries sleep magic, because he's famed for it, and everyone present falls asleep, except himself and Insanity, because "Madness never sleeps."

She tries to swallow Sloth whole, but Sloth explodes into mist. She thinks it's a self-destruct spell designed to prevent him from being eaten, but Sloth was never truly there. He only showed up by dream-walking, more or less a variation of astral projection.

Insanity looks on Alice and the Hunter and decides to eat them, since with the Hunter out of her head, she no longer has any sense of fair play.

Alice wakes in time to see the gaping maw of Insanity and has just enough time to manifest the torn mushroom cap that allows her to grow larger, cramming the whole thing in her mouth!

At the same time, Lara arrives, just in time to see, but not understand the resulting explosion, as Alice grows so fast, she smashes her way through the roof of the cave!

Chapter 43: Remorse of Conscience

Alice's transformation leaves her standing in a hole in the ceiling, as the light of dawn filters through her dress, bathing the room in blue light. Each of her feet (in boots, of course) is six feet long!

During the collapse cause by Alice's actions, Insanity rushed to the side of Lust, to deflect falling boulders.

Alice bellows, "How dare you try to kill our sister?"

Alice steps back (the ground shakes as she walks) and peers down into the hole. She reaches to pick up the Hunter, to keep her safe, but Insanity screams, "She's mine!"

Insanity attack's Alice's hand with her claws and Alice tries to punch her, much the way a human might try to smash a mouse! Insanity flops on her back and accepts the strick, so she can use all four sets of claws, latching onto Alice's hand!

Alice hauls her hand back out of the hole, taking Insanity away, though she stumbles off, causing another quake.

Lara drops her invisibility spell and rushes to the Hunter's side, asking what happened.

Lust actually takes responsibility, actually in tears over the guilt she feels. She even apologizes.

Lust explains everything, including why she did it (revenge), but now she feels awful about it.

Lara turns her into a Tommy gun and points it right in Lust's face, to demand, "Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you right here and now!"

Lust explains what needs to happen to reintegrate the Hunter: her three personalities need to willingly merge. Alternatively, the giant can eat Insanity, then merge.

Lust begins to feel remorse for every single wrong thing she's ever done, which isn't a short list, with sins darker and more bloody than the worst serial killer, because her conscience is finally working properly, as a result of her recent religious reading habits.

Lara decides to let Lust live, but only of she signs an unconditional contract to answer Lara's questions. Lara hands over a sheet of paper and Lust writes, 'I promise to answer the questions of Lara Simmons.' She bites her thumb and stamps the page with her bloody fingerprint, sealing the bargain.

The Hunter calls attention to herself, because she's a hair away from death, so Lara uses a little magic to transfer Mashu'ra into the girl's body. Mashu'ra gets her back on her feet and in fighting form, at the cost of great pain, but the Hunter reasons a little pain is a small price to pay to save the world.

After all, with Insanity running loose, every human in the world is in danger.

Lara returns her hat and asks, "You ready to rock and roll?"

The Hunter nods, so Lara turns into an M1911 pistol, which the Hunter catches out of the air.

She steps over to Lust and points it right in her face. For a tense moment, Lust believes she's about to die, based on the idea of the Hunter pointing the gun as a mere threat, while the imp (Mashu'ra) pulls the trigger. She closes her eyes and accepts her fate.

The Hunter fires, putting a bullet through Lust's ear, because she's beyond pissed. Lust opens her eyes just in time to be pistol-whipped!

Lara orders her to stay put and threatens a fate worse than death if she isn't there when they come back, claiming she just put a tracking curse on Lust, with that bullet.

The Hunter screams in Lust's face, then flies out of the hole in the ceiling.

Chapter 44: Rock and Roll

Alice struggles with Insanity, discovering her giant size has some serious disadvantages: it slows her regenerative powers and makes her a big target, despite giving her incredible strength.

Meanwhile, Insanity winds her way up and around Alice's arm, cutting her all the way to the bone! Alice tries to scrape her off, but Insanity dodges.

Getting desperate, Alice calls DRINK ME into her hand and downs the entire bottle! She explosively shrinks down to the size of an ant and brags hold of Insanity's fur, with the intent of reaching the ear, where such a tiny figure might do some serious damage.

The Hunter flies into the air, seeing Insanity fall as Alice vanishes.

Lara turns into a Barret M107 anti-material rifle and the Hunter puts a round through Insanity's head, causing it to explode!

Meanwhile, Alice has reached the spot between Insanity's shoulder blades, where she decided to take a short breather. She's really grateful she took the breather, because otherwise, she might have been hit.

Unfortunately, Insanity is beyond the power of the average demon and manages to regenerate her head, a feat no other demon can match!

Alice continues her climb.

Knowing the situation is too hot for Lara, who might easily be killed in the mayhem, the Hunter leaves her behind and charges into battle.

Lara is upset by this, but decides to find a hiding place, so she can still contribute, by sniping.

The Hunter and Insanity roll through the Outback like a pair of angry, giant cats, but while the hunter gets stronger the more damage she takes, she also gets more stupid, the same issue Simmons always dealt with in cat-man form!

She lets go and kicks Insanity away, so she can think. She concludes brute strength is not the answer and none of her armored forms would work, either.

She wants to try grenades, but realizes she can't reach any of her gear inside her hat, without her demon powers.

She's also somewhat worried her mother's magic isn't protecting her, but her mother's power was split three ways and she's become ineffectual as a result.

She has Wood, Water, Air and Fire magic, so she combines the first three to rapidly grow trees to snare Insanity in a web of wood. Insanity is so strong, however, that she immediately starts to break free, so the Hunter adds some Fire magic, using the wood for fuel, while she produces pure oxygen with Air magic! The flame gets so hot, it burns blue!

Meanwhile, Alice is in Insanity's ear and worries she's about to be burned to death. She magically produces the mushroom cap and eats the whole thing in one bite!

Alice violently explodes out of Insanity's head, then starts punching the demon with her full, gigantic strength!

Insanity produces a painful telepathic scream of rage that sends Alice stumbling away, before she falls to the ground, causing an earthquake! Likewise, the Hunter is stunned, while Insanity gets back to her feet!

Lara opens fire, once again exploding the demon's head!

We switch to the perspective of Lust, who's guilt in this matter stirs her to action, because she can sense our heroes are losing the fight.

She feels she must help, so she flies out to join them.

Meanwhile, Lara empties her magazine, repeatedly blowing Insanity's head off, though she grows back faster each time. On the other hand, Lara has always laced her rounds with either poison or disease and Insanity does slow down a bit.

Once Lara's all out of ammunition (it takes her a while to magically produce .50-cal rounds, since they're so large), Insanity picks up the Hunter, in preparation to eat her, once and for all.

Lust arrives and pours on every bit of charm magic she can, slowing Insanity down with multiple tempting offers that match Lust's nature. Her words make Alice and the Hunter both blush.

While Insanity is distracted, the Metal Spirit, which killed Simmons, shows up and whispers to the Hunter. As usual, it does so in poetic rhymes of four lines.

It uses flowery words to apologize for killing Simmons, then explains its nature as having been forged from earth using fire, air and water, hinting that it's a child of all four of the basic elements. The rhyme also implies that humanity made it what it is. I like this as an explanation for why it's so strong, probably the most powerful elemental spirit, aside from Life and the Void.

Therefore, it decides to serve the Hunter willingly, that she might save humanity.

There's a brief scene inside the Hunter's head, in which it bows to her, offers up a token (a cast-iron and steel bracelet) and the Hunter collars it, much like she did with the Water and Air spirits in previous books.

Coming back to the real world, Insanity once more picks up the Hunter, then opens her mouth extra wide, to eat her. The Hunter hears Vogerath/Pride screaming, amused by the sound.

The chapter comes to a close as the Hunter focuses her mind to use Metal magic for the first time, while the bracelet tinkles on her wrist, since those tokens are both metaphors and real objects.

Chapter 45: (Re)forging Bonds

Insanity snaps her jaws shut on the Hunter, only to break some of her teeth! Letting go and stepping back, she sees the Hunter's clothes have produced metal plates, just like a suit of armor!

This metal-shrouded transformation is much like the iron wood armor she got from subjugating the Jungle Spirit, but instead of some rather heavy wood, the metal spirit has given her armor plates composed of layered titanium and tungsten, producing something with properties of both.

Insanity throws a temper tantrum, slamming her fists into the ground, producing brief earthquakes!

In the background, Alice drinks her potion, returning to normal size, mostly so she can heal.

The Hunter looks Insanity in the eye and raises a hand, then pretends with the other she's turning a crack attached to the first, seemingly resulting in her middle finger popping up.

Insanity is actually amused, saying, "I like that gesture. It fits the Robocop thing you've got going."

But having seen her greatest desire frustrated, Insanity is done with the fight and decides to walk away, though she promises to return to eat the Hunter, followed by every one of her sheep (meaning the human race). She plans to force the Hunter to watch as she wipes out everyone.

The Hunter screams at her, but Insanity ignores her.

Working with Mashu'ra, the Hunter produces a wall of fire to block Insanity's way, which curves around all three of them, in a huge circle.

Insanity turns back to point out the futility of continuing to fight, while the symbols required to bind a demon begin appearing in the flames, thanks to Mashu'ra, while seven more fiery binding circles forming.

When the first circle closes, Mashu'ra is significantly weakened, but the Hunter picks up the slack and maintains the magic long enough for Mashu'ra to finish shaping all the binding symbols. He falls unconscious and ends up on her shoulder.

Having lost Mashu'ra's power, the Hunter collapses, but gives the demon double middle fingers, before she falls over.

Insanity screams and charges, but runs out of power before she reaches the Hunter, because her demonic powers have been sealed. She scrabbles to get closer, but lacks the strength to move and throws another temper-tantrum, demonstrating how immature she is, without the Hunter.

She's horribly upset and complaining about how 'unfair' the situation is.

Aliget gets up, bites into her mushroom cap and grows back to giant size. She picks up the helpless demon and eats her, though she does say something soothing, to try and make Insanity feel slightly better about it.

Alice takes a swig of DRINK ME and returns to normal size. She lays down next to the Hunter and asks, "Can we be friends?"

As far as the Hunter is concerned, they already are, and even better, they're sisters, so she nods agreement.

Alice vanishes, re-absorbed by the Hunter.

The Hunter puts Mashu'ra in her hat.

The hunter enters her mindscape, finding Alice has made a little corner of it her own, with a small patch of gigantic grass, a tiny little sun for some light and a huge mushroom, on which Alice sits. Beside that are a record player producing psychedelic rock and a little apple tree with grenades instead of apples.

Alice is smoking form the Caterpillar's hookah, while the Caterpillar has been put in a specialized straight-jacket designed to keep it's very many arms under control. It's mouth is gagged, but it soon gets that loose and growls in the voice of Insanity.

“Quit harshing my buzz and relax for once!” Alice complains and shoves the stem of the hookah in the demon’s mouth.

Insanity inhales, but doesn't like it, spitting it out, before another torrent of complaints come form the Caterpillar's mouth.

The response of Alice is to slap Insanity, followed by telling her to shut up.

The Hunter falls over laughing, because this is something hilarious she never expected to see!

Lara finds the Hunter rolling in the dirt, laughing until she cries. Concerned, she calls the Hunter by name, calling her Artemis.

She stops laughing and considers that name, which was given by Simmons. She still sad she's lost him, but she's ready to accept that name as part of moving forward. From this point on, she starts referring to herself as Artemis.

Lara helps her up and together, they seek out Lust, finding her stuck in the dirt, unable to free herself, because she hit the ground that hard, when Insanity backhanded her.

They help her out and Lara thinks her for helping. Lust doesn't accept her gratitude, because she doesn't feel she deserves it and apologizes to Artemis for everything she's done wrong.

Lara asks Artemis if she can handle transportation and she puts Lust in her hat. Lara turns into a pistol, for ease of carrying, and Artemis vanishes into a puff of smoke.

Chapter 46: Hemming the Fray

Artemis reappears far above The Cauldron of the Elements (Macie's home valley).

She enjoys the view as she falls, in Australia, dawn was just over, but here, dusk is about to begin.

And yes, that does finally pin down the timezone of the place, likely putting it somewhere in the Appalachian mountain range, but I'm not going any further than that. It's a fictional place, so don't go looking for it. And now that I've started a conspiracy theory, let's get back to the story.

From above, it looks desolate and dead, because the interior is masked by an illusion spell, to keep it safe. Artemis passes through this, revealing the forest and blue lake.

She takes control of her fall and flies down to Macie's house, where she knocks on the door, then flies out of sight three times, messing with Macie's head as she answers.

Lara ends the game by speaking and Macie invites them in.

Hours later, James and Lara have fallen asleep on the couch, leaving a lovely scene of mother and son.

Artemis and Macie sneak out quietly, to avoid waking them, and head for the old amphitheater and stage. There, Macie begins teaching Artemis to dance and juggle, which are both important components of The Dance of Fire and Autumn.

Decades earlier, when Artemis met the Fire Spirit, it promised to willingly serve her, if she could subjugate the Metal Spirit, then summon the Fire Spirit via the dance. Having gotten the Metal Spirit under control, thanks to Simmons, she now wishes to summon the Fire Spirit, because she's convinced it will be useful in combat.

Artemis has trouble with dancing, tripping over her own feet, but picks up juggling fairly quickly.

Epilogue

Lust is back in a cell, reflecting on how much she's changed and how far she has to go. Lara and Verda just finished an interrogation session, which Lust fully cooperated with.

Cooperation has led to improvements in Lust's living arrangements, including a soft bed and a chair for her to relax in, as well as more choice in food selection, but Lust doesn't think she deserves any of it.

Each such session leaves her wanting to die, because she's wracked with guilt for her many, many dark deeds, but she staves off such thoughts by reading The Book of Mormon.

After reading for a time, she prays. She isn't certain if God is real or not, but knows that praying certainly makes her feel better.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with Lust's journey, but I'm planning to span it over the course of several more novels. However, part of it is clear: Lust's journey to redemption demonstrates the fact that the "demons" aren't actually what they claim to be, further emphasizing the fact they're dark fairies, because they can change.

Switching to Artemis, we find her putting James in his crib after a meal and some cartoons, because he fell asleep on the couch and she's been babysitting for Lara.

Lara and Verda enter the apartment. Lara starts a meal, while Verda sits on the couch and Artemis sit opposite her, in a chair. They acknowledge each other, before Verda falls asleep on the couch.

After all, with both Lara and Artemis in the place, who have both defeated Wrath, Verda feels totally safe and can sleep peacefully. It isn't a permanent solution to her post-traumatic stress, but quality rest is required for proper mental healing.

Artemis reflects on the fact they had been grieving the loss of Simmons separately, but ironically, Wrath somehow managed to bring them together.

She also reflects on the valuable lesson Evie and Simmons taught her: Artemis will always value the time she has with her friends, short though it may be. However, she will never stop fighting to keep them safe.

The Editing Process

With the Epilogue finished, I've completed the rough draft of She Seeks Peace.

This work-in-progress log will pause until I begin a new project, so I can do a pass of editing on She Seeks Peace. With the way I've been using text to speech software for my daily editing, I've been finding my typos and spelling mistakes earlier on, so I'm likely to only do one editing pass, mostly a matter of looking at the plot. I'll do more when it comes time to publish, but I'm eager to get to my next project.

I'm likely to add some scenes in which the Metal Spirit comes to Artemis/the Hunter, looking to apologize, because its appearance at the end was a bit abrupt. That will give me the opportunity to add a couple of funny places our heroine can seek peace.

One of the scenes I had in mind, but never used, was to have her hide among a herd of black and white cows. Her magic clothes will give her camouflage, to fit in with them. My thinking is there will be lots of metal fencing near the cows, justifying the presence of the Metal Spirit.

I think I need to come up with two more little scenes like that, just to subtly introduce the idea of it's presence for the final fight, though I need to be careful about when and where I insert them. I think they would work best early on in the novel.

I mentally justify its presence in Australia with the fact the final battle took place near an old, abandoned mine (it wasn't quite as played-out as the owner thought), on top of the fact Australia exports a lot of mined metals. Perhaps I need to throw another four line block into its rhymes, to serve as a sort of explanation:

Metal, Metal everywhere,
Under feet, here and there.
Metal made from Metal ore,
Man ever digs, such a chore.

That would also fit with previous appearances, because it usually makes reference to metal Artemis didn't realize was present.

Other than that, the only other thing I'll need to do is add some descriptive details, which I always do during editing.

What's Next?

There's two possibilities looming for my next project, the first a short story, the other a novel.

The Recruit (Working Title)

The Recruit will be a short story centering around Detective Shime Yasu, who readers may recall from Demon for President!

You might remember that she was given a special card to use, which had a number for her to call when she's "ready to open her eyes". The story will begin with Yasuy lying awake, unable to sleep, because her mind is too busy with the bizarre things she saw in the body cam videos of Ulmoch and Artemis in action.

She'll call the number and the story will show a glimpse into the recruiting and training process for the Order of Ash and Smoke. Artemis, Lara and Verda will work together for training.

Yasu will be one among many local recruits, but the story will center around disabusing the group of all misconceptions about demons, because all of them brought weapons they thought would be effective, including crosses, holy water and some dumb fool got confused, so he brought a wooden stake.

It will be a simple story, in which Artemis captures a demon for training purposes, while Lara tests all of the things the recruits brought, once more hammering home the point that they're not actually demons, because the crosses do nothing, the holy water just gets him wet and hammering the stake into his heart just gets him to make creepy comments (Ulmoch has always been a masochist, so he enjoys people hurting him).

Finally, Yasu will ask, "So, what does work?"

Lara will transform into an M1911 and Artemis will shoot Ulmoch in the head, while Lara delivers the punchline: ".45 rounds are good."

Yep, the whole story is just setup for a joke, though I think ending it with Yasu sleeping soundly would be a nice touch.

I've had this story in mind since I wrote the bits involving Detective Yasu, but had to get past She Seeks Peace to know the mental state of my characters, since the ending of Demon for President! was a big, dangling plot thread.

Star Witch

The other project I'm eager to get to is tentatively titled Star Witch. This will be about a trio of witches and sisters that used magic to launch themselves into space.

The story will focus on one of the sisters, who's named Amelia. She's the enchanter and engineer that built the light-sail ship, named Star Witch, but lacks talent for other forms of magic, barely able to operate the ship on her own power.

Most of the details are foggy to me, but I know it begins with Amelia alone aboard Star Witch, aside from the house brownies that serve as the ship's repair crew, though she's never seen them.

Amelia is extremely exhausted at this point, because she's been operating the ship around the clock with minimal breaks for sleep, when it was designed to be operated in shifts or left to its own devices for long periods of time.

Amelia's sisters were kidnapped several days earlier and Star Witch was left badly damaged, all by order of the villain, the Dead Queen.

Amelia has been following the Dead Queen's monolith (a huge, granite slab with tunnels cut through it, which serves as her star ship), using the bigger ship's wake of waste magic to barely keep her own light sails functional.

My plan is to do a series of flashbacks on the lives of the three sisters building and launching Star Witch, followed by docking at a space station, where they'll hear tales of the Dead Queen, a powerful witch that drains the life and magic from other witches, to extend her own life.

Eventually, the story will culminate in the monolith moving into parking orbit above an icy moon in the present (they've stopped to take on water, which is required for various processes aboard the big ship, despite the crew being undead), while Amelia goes around the moon the other way.

Amelia's intent is to surprise the monolith from the front, rather than attacking from behind, the last thing the Dead Queen might expect. Amelia has no other choice: she's dead without either the stolen mythril core of her ship or the backup of her sisters; she's the weakest of the three witches, barely able to get Star Witch moving on her own.

The truth is, the Dead Queen setup the entire situation for the sake of entertainment, a sort of sport she's played with smaller ships for centuries. She takes the strongest witches to extend her life and leaves the very weakest with a barely functional vessel, eager to learn what a desperate witch might do.

However, she didn't know and didn't count on Star Witch being full of house brownies, which can repair the ship, even in the absence of proper supplies, nor did she count on Amelia's exceptional skill with mathematics and engineering, which will be the lesser witch's greatest weapons.

I'm not entirely sure how Amelia will get her sisters back, but I do know she'll intentionally crash Star Witch into the monolith, so she can board the pirate vessel. This might involve crashing into a docking bay, but thinking about it, the bridge would be far more fun, a combination of destroying command and control functionality, followed by a desperate rescue mission, while the house brownies hold the line against the Dead Queen's soldiers.

I'm going to use Amelia's lonely tale as a framing story for the novel, to add tension and foreshadowing for the climax, coming back to it at the start and close of each part of the novel.

Thank You!

Thank you for following along as I write.

I don't get much feedback about these work-in-progress posts, but people like and boost them on Mastodon, which is encouraging.

Have a great day! You'll probably see my next post in this series the week after next.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Demon for President!

Today, November 5, 2024, is a very special and strange day, at least in the United States, where I live. The current election and division between the Republicans and Democrats really inspired me to pay attention during the first republican debate, last year.

I've never voted, since politics has always literally given me a splitting headache, because there's too many lies to really uncover the truth. Cynically, I sometimes wonder if there's any truth to be found, at all.

Still, I wasn't paying attention to the politics, but rather to the behavior of political candidates, because I'd had a bizarre, fun and timely idea for a novel: what would happen if a demon ran for President of the United States?

So, I watched and continually found material that could be twisted into political satire, all the while unsure if I had the skill to make the novel work. I got it published in June, just in time for the current election to really heat up.

With voting happening today, I've been thinking about that novel, which is titled Demon for President!

I ran the election and potential twists through my head many times during the writing process, but never did I expect so many parallels between fiction and the real world.

In my novel, the demonic villain, Otto Vogerath, was shot at by a sniper while cutting the ribbon for a store. On July 13, Former President Trump became the target of a sniper, an event that chilled me to the bone, because reality became eerily like something I'd written.

For another example, I wrote about the President bowing out of the election to make way for another candidate, so it really caught my attention when that happened!

There are other parallels, but none so shocking as those two, or which I would care to discuss, because I'm not here to draw connections between real people and fictional characters that really aren't connected.

I wrote the novel early this year and published it in June, before these events took place, but all I can think is this: art imitates life and life imitates art. There is truth to that old adage, after all.

I found the experience of writing political satire to be fun, educational and even intellectually stimulating, but at the same time, it made me nervous to see my fiction come true in such unsettling ways. I can't say I found that part of the experience enjoyable, which may be why I haven't discussed this novel as much as others.

I meant it all in fun, as a way to point out how silly and funny politicians can be, but I think I cut this piece too close to reality. It surprises me, the things I see without comprehending, which can so easily become a part of my work.

So much of my writing process is a subconscious black box, which I don't even pretend to understand, a gift that must be fed for me to retain it, but which sometimes produces things that leave me speechless for the most unusual reasons.

I'm not sure I can take any more parallels with my novel, but hopefully, our next president won't open a portal to Hell, so endless legions of demons can march forth to conquer the Earth. That would be one bit of straw too many for this particular camel.

Still, once the dust of this election clears, why not read about what could have been, if we'd gotten a Demon for President?

Tags: ashen-blades, writing

Work In Progress #16: She Seeks Peace #8 (October 28-November 1)

"She felt very strange, as if her memories weren't her own, because they were a swarm of ants crawling around inside her skull, their skittering feet tickling her every synapse, making her laugh out loud, her voice echoing around her.

She wasn't sure what her name was, but knew it definitely wasn't 'The Hunter'. It most certainly wasn't 'The Eighth Deadly Sin, Willful Insanity', either."

  – Excerpt from She Seeks Peace.

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13
2. September 16-20
3. September 23-26
4. September 30-October 4
5. October 7-11
6. October 14-18
7. October 21-25

Chapter 38: Letting Go

Evie spends all morning and afternoon speaking with the spirits of her dead friends. It gets pretty emotional for her, because she's doing her best to let them go, so they can pass on.

The Hunter holds her hand and Evie squeezes it pretty hard with each tearful goodbye. She grows a little older with each, until she's about thirty years old.

Last of all, she talks with her grandmother, but Evelyn asks to speak with the Hunter and Evie makes her visible.

Evelyn explains that she watched the world with magic for a very long time, looking for a champion to take Evie to her family. She'd heard of the Hunter, but couldn't see her, because the hunter is effectively invisible to most forms of detection magic.

In August (around the same time the Hunter went back in time, during the previous book), the Fates appeared to her in a vision, telling her the Hunter was on the way, to take Evie to family.

She asks if the Fates can be trusted and the Hunter somewhat reluctantly agrees, because she at least trusts them to help her against Vogerath. That reassures Evelyn she did the right thing and she passes on, vanishing from sight.

The Hunter comforts Evie for a time, before the rapidly-aging woman says she's tired and lonely. The Hunter pats her back and Riley steps in, for a group hug.

He reminds Evie, "You're not alone."

After that, Evie asks to be left alone, for a nap. She also corrects her accent mid-sentence, finally figuring out how to pronounce the letter L, promising to make Simmons visible, once she's rested.

As Riley and the Hunter leave the bedroom, Riley expresses his worry that Evie might not stop growing older, because she's now in her mid-forties!

There's a brief scene in which Evie is alone with her thoughts and she briefly considers suicide, that she might be with her friends. The first of the monks that died was a woman with depression issues, who took her own life, though Evie hadn't understood that at the time. Having seen how that didn't solve anything, she decides against suicide.

She doesn't realize it, but she's growing older by the moment and she's already rapidly headed toward a death by natural causes, though her aging slows as she falls asleep.

Some time later, Evie calls out for help. Riley and the Hunter rush in, finding Evie on the floor: she fell out of bed and can't get up, because she's now over ninety years old!

They help her back into bed. She offers to make Simmons visible and the Hunter prepares by hauling Mashu'ra out of her hat.

Simmons appears and thanks Mashu'ra for giving him the chance to fight demons. Next, he tells them both he loves them and admits this is going to be goodbye for a long time, though he'll wait until the end of time to see the Hunter again, if required.

He also discusses the fact that he knows neither of them will let go of life until the demon threat is permanently solved.

Finally, he addresses the elephant in the room, asking the Hunter to let him go, because she's been dragging him through life like a boat anchor. He isn't angry, because she had no idea her magic had responded to her emotions by binding his spirit to her, but he is upset that he can't pass on.

Last of all he says: "Go ahead and treasure the time we had together, but don’t hold onto me so tight."

The Hunter enters her internal mindscape, like the way she fought Sogliun, seeking the deepest, darkest corner of her mind, where she buries things she doesn't want to deal with.

This turns out to be a steel-lined corridor, along which hangs paintings, each of which is a different traumatic memory. Two examples are the death of her parents and Reggie's death. She takes the painting of Reggie's final moments off the wall and puts it under her arm as she goes deeper, seeking the darkest corner of the place.

She ends up at a dead end dominated by a piece of raw canvas that's been riveted to the wall, which displays the death of Simmons on an eternal loop.

She goes off somewhere else for a ladder and drill of the old hand-cranked variety. She sets up the ladder and manually drills out every last rivet, taking the canvas down, though that leaves the wall bleeding. She rolls up the canvas and carries it away.

She returns to the usual corner of her mindscape and as an experiment, she sets the painting of Reggie's final moments on fire, with magic. It turns into smoke that fills the shadows surrounding her, which are actually her memories. The return of that buried memory is painful, but it brings with it a flood of good memories that she'd been forced to bury with it, because they were connected. She's finally able to look back on her time with Reggie, feeling joy.

She next lights the bloody canvas aflame, releasing the full pain of loss into her mind. It really hurts, but she's ready to really deal with it and find a way forward.

Her inner demon (The Eighth Deadly Sin, Willful Insanity, or Insanity for short) hugs her in a surprising turn of events, because Insanity was born from the Hunter's Id, which is all about emotion.

Back in the real world, she tries to say, "I love you", though it comes out as "It's a secret."

Simmons responds, "I love you, too."

Mashu'ra also says goodbye and Simmons fades away.

Meanwhile, Evie has grown translucent, because she's also fading!

Riley is upset, because he basically gained a daughter and now she's dying, in less than a day's time.

Evie tells them what she just realized: She didn't understand it at the time, but she's been dead for a great many years. When she faced the demon that killed the monks, she blasted him with such a potent burst of life magic, she erased the demon magic in both her own body and that of the demon, killing them both.

Due to the nature of fairies (which is technically what the beings calling themselves demons in these novels are), Evie rose again in the same way Lara did in the previous book.

In the end, it hardly made a difference, because she'd never understood, until that morning, and the nature of her Spirit powers allowed her to freely cross the divide between the living and dead.

With her attachment to life fading, Evie is now ready to pass on.

Before she goes, she tells Riley something Evelyn told her: the woman he's been carrying a torch for feels the same, so he should marry her and have lots of kids. He promised he'll soon have a daughter again.

He thanks her for that message.

The Hunter is sad, of course, because she'd been looking forward to visiting Evie from time to time, thinking they would be friends for thousands of years to come.

She tries and fails to express herself, saying, "It's a secret."

Evie smiles and slips back into her Chinese accent, "I ruv you, too."

She fades from sight, leaving a set of empty clothes behind.

After a scene break, the Hunter steps outside, in tears, mourning both Simmons and Evie, finally understanding the meaning of 'bittersweet'. Looking back on her time with Reggie, however, she feels nothing but joy at having known him and the pain is gone, giving her confidence that she'll someday feel the same about Simmons.

Too distracted to pay attention, she bumps into a huge man in a biker's leather jacket and looks up at a squirrel's head!

Part Four: Grounded

Chapter 38 marks the end of Part Three and Chapter 39 will begin Part Four.

This part will cover the climax, in which the Hunter will face Ulmoch, leading to her capture, followed by a battle with Wrath and his arch demon wedding guests.

Chapter 39: Chasing the Rabbit

Ulmoch starts to tell the Hunter he's set a bomb on a timer, which will go off if she doesn't face him, only to realize, mid-sentence, he forgot to set the timer. He tries to excuse himself, to go set it.

Naturally, the Hunter cuts his head off with her sword, intending to threaten him until he tells her where to find the bomb, but she's momentarily forgotten the fact such a wound won't disable Ulmoch's body (on her personal timeline, the last time she fought him was a couple years ago).

Ulmoch catches his head and runs off, while the Hunter gives chase. He briefly trips on a bicycle (his head was facing the wrong way, because he was too busy talking), but loses no momentum, rolling down the sidewalk for a time. Once his head is reattached, he leaps from one residential roof to another, while the Hunter flies after him.

Ulmoch uses hairpin turns to avoid her, while subtly navigating his way toward a low-rent area of Alice Springs. He's more dexterous than she is and able to stay out of reach. She tries using fire magic from her hands to turn better and starts to catch up, only for Ulmoch to accelerate, as if he's intentionally staying just out of reach.

Finally, he goes in a straight line and the Hunter thinks she's got him, only for him to drop between houses and enter one. She overshoots and smashes her way in through the front window, sending a hail of sharp fragments into Ulmoch!

He rolls sideways and ends up next to an old, hand-cranked record player, which is ready to go. He starts it up and it crackles in the background as the Hunter catches him by the neck and slams him into the wall, putting her sword very near his eye.

She's so angry, her eyes glow an intense, blue shade.

Ulmoch surrenders and says he'll show her where the bomb is, if she'll let go of him.

She puts him down and he instead reaches into his jacket at high speed, yelling, "Psych!"

He produces the jar of liquid he's been saying he got as a present for her and throws it at the ceiling, where it smashes, causing the liquid to spatter down on the both of them! It's LSD, by the way. Nearly a whole pint of the stuff.

While Ulmoch sort of just accepts the high with pleasure, the Hunter stumbles around as the room becomes more colorful and spins around her, as if her head were mounted on a swivel.

She mutters, "It's a secret?" followed by her inner demon using her lips, "What the-" she finishes by cursing.

The next scene is inside the Hunters mindscape, where rainbows pieces the perpetual smoky shadows, chasing them away, while the sun shines from under the feet of the Hunter and Insanity.

Years of carefully maintained self-control by the Hunter erodes under the onslaught of the drugs, forcefully drawing her two halves together, where they splash and merge, like droplets of molten metal, reforming as a single individual.

Meanwhile, Sogliun has been watching the house from the other side of the street and is really surprised to see it melting like wax, while every color of light shines from within. He analyzes the magic of the air, finding nearly every form of it he recognizes, though Void and Life magic are most prevalent.

He growls, "Ulmoch, what did you do?"

We switch back to the young woman having her first drug experience, but I pointedly don't refer to her as the Hunter. In fact, she struggles with the very question of who she is.

She stands in a sunny field of grass and flowers, with rainbows flying like birds, surrounded by a landscape that's singing along to the song White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane. The flowers sing soprano, the sun and rainbows are tenors, the stars of the sky sing alto and the ground itself produces a pleasant bass. She initially thinks the cartoonish landscape is beautiful.

The song refers to Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and she comes to believe her name is Alice and the story her mother read to her as a child is her own story, while the memories that crawl around inside her skull, like ants, obviously are not her own (memories of the Hunter and Insanity). That's a little hint that Alice is a brand-new personality, brought on by a drug overdose.

Having solved the identity issue, she looks at her magic clothes, which have gone absolutely berserk in response to her thoughts and feelings, unable to settle on a style or color.

She says, "Stop that" and her clothes settle on a long, blue dress with a white apron, a pair of fingerless, elbow-length gloves and a blue, silk top hat, while her hair turns blond and hangs loose.

She finally notices a pair of items in either hand, including a bit torn from a white mushroom cap and a bottle of dark liquid, labeled, 'DRINK ME'.

Feeling an urge to eat, Alice goes with the flow and bites into the mushroom. As a result, she grows quite large.

From Sogliun's perspective, the house explodes into melted droplets as Alice shoots through the roof and the reality-warping power she's manifested rolls outward, spreading her reality-warping physical hallucination to the neighborhood!

Humans run in every direction and even Sogliun seeks distance, because he doesn't want to be caught up in it.

Naturally, he blames Ulmoch.

Alice decides she doesn't like being large and takes a swig of 'DRINK ME'. It tastes mostly of fruit, but she can pick out a little turkey dinner mixed in. She shrinks just as fast as she grew, ending up shorter than the grass, beside a caterpillar smoking from a hookah.

The Ulmoch-become-caterpillar asks, "How high am I? This is like nothing I've ever seen! Is this real or is reality as high I am?"

Realizing she overshot, Alice nibbles on the mushroom and returns to approximately normal size, finding herself standing beside a small apple tree covered in green apples, with a golden one near the top.

The dream-like beauty fades as the landscape turns hostile (the LSD is finally getting through her skin and her trip is turning bad, as a result) and the flowers grow fangs, trying to bite her ankles, though that doesn't matter, because she's wearing boots.

The rainbows, on the other hand, become a deadly problem as they swoop at her, their edges cutting her like razor blades! Seeking to defend herself, she calls up the Hunter's wakizashi and deflects them.

As she fights, the landscape changes to a chess board on which a battle between the red and white armies takes place! She realizes the rainbows were actually the men fighting and they only cut her by mistake.

The Red Queen screams, "Off with their heads!" to encourage her men and Alice, being in a drug-induced suggestible state, swings her sword as she spins like a ballerina.

The Ulmoch/caterpillar has apparently changed size along with her and loses his head to her twirl, complaining, "Oh, come on! I thought we were finally getting along!"

She grabs Ulmoch's caterpillar head out of the air before he can catch it and hauls it out of reach.

The song reaches the last line and she takes it as an instruction. Looking on the severed caterpillar head, she finds herself looking into the eyes of her own severed head. She grabs the golden apple from the tree and forcefully rams it into the head's mouth, incidentally shattering teeth in the process. With the stem facing toward her, she plucks it off and hurls the head away, because instinct tells her something energetic is about to happen.

Ulmoch's head sails out of the reality distortion and returns to normal. So does the high-explosive anti-personnel grenade she called up from the Hunter's arsenal, which is inside his mouth. It explodes and Ulmoch is sent home, where it takes him weeks to heal properly. It was such a bad trip for him, he stays sober for three full months.

Feeling sick, Alice pukes, while the LSD dribbles form her clothes as they magically self-clean. She finally lays down, to sleep off the high.

Solgiun notes the unreality bubble reversing course and it eventually vanishes, leaving most everything as it was before it appeared. He reluctantly enters the house and finds Wrath's intended out cold, so he calls for pickup, quite surprised that Ulmoch actually succeeded in knocking her out.

Chapter 40: Final Preparations

Alice is captured by Wrath's minions, but in the process of getting her on a pallet with a binding circle on it, her hat falls off. One of the demons tries to pick it up. The hat eats them, both as the means to defend itself, but also to gain some extra energy.

Under normal circumstances, the Hunter's father, Jake, gets the energy he needs to maintain the pocket dimension inside the hat from the Hunter, but when the hat is separated from her, he's on his own, so he uses the traces of demonic magic available to him to consume any demon that dares to touch it.

He needs the extra energy, lest he be forced to start discarding things stored inside, as he once did in 1972, throwing out dinner rolls to maintain sufficient energy.

In the next scene, Lara arrives at Riley's home, who tells her the Hunter left an hour earlier.

Lara summons Mashu'ra and he directs her toward the hat.

Alice arrives (still unconscious and captured) at Wrath's abandoned mine base, where Lust gets to work positioning the pallet holding her, in preparation to separate her human and demon sides.

In the background, Gluttony prepares the wedding feast (summoned imps), while a trussed-up justice of the peace awaits being of service, probably followed by being eaten.

Wrath makes arrangements for the other arches to be summoned and the wedding dress is brought in. Lust tries to remove Alice's clothes, but fails, complaining that they must be glued on. Wrath gives it a go, literally trying to tear them off her, but only tears a small portion, which rapidly repairs itself.

Seeing the magic clothes at work, Lust suggests leaving them be (magic clothes aren't easy to make and can be very useful). Wrath asks her to put the wedding dress on Alice over them.

Wrath heads off to get dressed and get his hair done, for the first time, ever.

Meanwhile, Lara arrives at the old wrecked house and puts on the Hunter's hat, surprised by the fact it has turned blue.

She uses the tracking curse Verda put on the Hunter and her hat in 1972 to learn the direction and distance to Alice. Next, Lara grows bat wings and flies off (with Mashu'ra in her body, the animal forms she can use are limited to mammals).

Chapter 41: Three for the Price of Two

Alice finally wakes and looks around at the room, which has all seven arch demons in it. She tries to leave, because it isn't her kind of scene, only to burn herself on the interior of the one-way force field produced by the binding circle.

She looks down and sees the wedding dress, but doesn't quite make the connection that she's the bride. She's a little slow on the uptake, like a stoner normally is.

She notes the tuxedo Wrath is wearing and finally realizes she's at a wedding. She looks down again and realizes she's supposed to be the bride. The arches laugh at her exclamation of frustration.

She tries to escape with magic, but she's unable to accomplish anything.

Wrath orders her to hold out her left hand and she reasons she can't win, so she goes with the flow and obeys.

Wrath puts the enchanted engagement ring Lust made on her finger, resulting in Alice exploding into a cloud of black smoke.

Switching to Lust's perspective, she's surprised to see not two figures forming from the smoke, but three. She's also somewhat bothered by her slowly-growing conscience, because she helped put her jailer (the Hunter/Alice) in this position.

Her calculations are all wrong and with three personalities instead of two, none of them will end up inside a binding circle. She decides that with the plan so far off the rails, it's time to leave, but as she heads toward the exit, Gluttony sends three of her bodyguards after Lust, presumably to kill her.

Seeing no better option for survival, Lust plays into the desires of Greed, who's always had a thing for her, and buddies up to him, using a considerable share of charm magic to wrap him around her little finger. It's a game she doesn't want to play, but it's better than the alternatives; Greed wishes to possess her, but the others likely want her dead for political reasons.

Nonetheless, manipulating the feelings of a man doesn't sit well with her, because she actually feels guilty about it.

The three figures solidify at the corners of a triangle, free, rather than on the two binding circle pallets that stood ready to catch them.

One is the mutated cat form of Insanity at full-strength, wearing the wedding dress, as planned. The Hunter's human form is next, but she immediately collapses. The last is Alice.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #15: She Seeks Peace #7 (October 21-25)

“I don’t get it.” Evie’s big brown eyes wobbled with doubt and glistened with imminent tears, “You say my friends are gone, but they’re right there!” She pointed at empty space, then adjusted her pointing finger to some empty air beside the Hunter, “You say Crayton is gone, but he’s here, too!”

  – Excerpt from She Seeks Peace.

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13
2. September 16-20
3. September 23-26
4. September 30-October 4
5. October 7-11
6. October 14-18

Chapter 32: No Sanctuary

The upstairs portion of the The Last Sanctuary turns out to be nothing but mummified corpses and they head downstairs, finding the great hall a little different.

First, the fire is much smaller and there's a sort of nest of orange monk robes laid out, where someone has been sleeping. That's surrounded by little, hand-carved wood figures that are very artistic.

The bear statue has had a pair of glasses drawn on with charcoal and one whole wall is covered in charcoal drawings. They start primitive at one end and slowly transition to being very well made, hinting at a progression over time.

The incense is all gone, presumably all used up. The weapons and tools are rusty, but still serviceable, with sings someone has been looking after them.

Near the tree is a chopping block with an ax and carving knife (it's a magic tree that rapidly grows back, by the way, providing limitless wood for the fire).

The room smells of a child. The Hunter moves closer and sniffs the nest, confirming they sleep there.

They're surprised to hear a child ask, from behind, "What are you doing?"

The Hunter turns to look, but no one's there.

The child points out, from behind, "I'm not there."

Whirling again only causes the kid to giggle from all directions.

Yet again from behind: "Who are you and what’s that rittle furry thing on your shourder?"

Note the spelling. The kid pronounces L's as R's, using a Chinese accent.

The Hunter turns Mashu'ra around on her shoulder, so he can watch her back.

“You just gonna ignore me?” The child asks from every direction at once.

Tiring of the game, the Hunter closes her eyes, focusing her mind entirely on smell and magic. As it turns out, the kid is using a technique very similar to the Hunter's shadow-stepping spell, but instead of a mix of Smoke and Void magic, to make shadow, the kid uses Void mixed with Life, forming a ghost-walking spell.

The Hunter gets an idea where the child is next to appear, based on smell and magic, grabbing their clothes. The result is four years old, with brown eyes and a shaved head, in a child-sized orange robe.

Introductions reveal her name is Evie and it soon becomes clear the girl can see spirits and doesn't realize they're dead, because she asks "Who's the man in the gray suit?" and points at empty space.

They don't know, so she asks him and says he's "Crayton Simmons." The Hunter is shocked by the revelation that Simmons is so very close, yet so far away.

Evie points all over the room at people her guests can't see, naming them, including a mixture of Western,m Chinese and Russian names, though the name 'Will' turned into 'Wirr', which will probably confuse, not that it matters.

Eventually, Evie asks why they're there and Mashu'ra tells her they're supposed to take her to her family. She gets excited about it finally being time for "her adventure".

Like a child with a short attention span, she looks at the Hunter and asks if she ever speaks.

The Hunter nods and an amusing exchange happens, in which the Hunter intentionally baits Evie with the only phrase she can say, until she's annoyed the girl, getting her to ask, "Is that the only thing you can say?"

The Hunter nods and Evie grumbles, "That's annoying. You're annoying!"

The Hunter is quite pleased at this outcome, because she tries very hard to be so.

Evie briefly tries to erase the Hunter's curse, but fails, because it's "rearry strong".

Chapter 33: A New Lens

The Hunter leaves the Sanctuary with Evie in two, surprised to see that the courtyard hasn't changed, but the scene across from it has.

The rope bridge now crosses a creek instead of a deep chasm. The Hunter doesn't know it, but the Sanctuary connected them with an area near Alice Springs, Australia, because the magic of the Sanctuary sensed that was vaguely near where they needed to go.

The Hunter leaves the courtyard and steps onto the sandy bank of the Todd River. The background is desert scrub brush, including sparse grass, low brush and hardy trees.

She looks back, but the Sanctuary and rope bridge are gone, leaving her in a very short panic, thinking she's lost Evie.

Evie steps out of thin air beside her, amazed by everything she sees. After asking lots of questions, she wishes she could draw it, even though she left her "drawing warr" behind.

The Hunter gives her a clipboard with some paper and a box of crayons that came form the hat.

Evie draws the most violently-rainbow variation of the landscape, using every color she can, because she's never had colors to draw with before (she's used to charcoal).

After that, she draws it again, using more appropriate colors, and produces an image like unto a photograph, despite using only crayon. She makes a gift of it to the Hunter.

She wonders aloud what's next and Mashu'ra is forced to admit he's not sure, so Evie asks her grandmother, reveling the fact that the spirits of the monks followed.

After a pause (our heroes can't hear Evenlyn speaking), Evie says, "Yeah? I can do that."

She raises her arms and pours a mixture of Spirit and Void magic into the air, causing the landscape first to waver like a heat haze, then melt into a puddle like overheated crayons!

Mashu'ra and the Hunter get violently sick and she retches. Rolling on her back, she looks up at some monks, Evenlyn included, plus Simmons, standing over her and discussing her illness.

The magic reverses and the melted landscape flows upward, into the shape and form of a hill they're now on top of, which give them a nice view of Alice Springs (though they still don't know where they are).

There's a brief conversation in which Mashu'ra asks Evie to warn them before she does that again.

Evie settles in to draw, while the Hunter starts to cry, because seeing Simmons ripped her half-healed wounds open again. Evie notices her sobbing and hugs her (the Hunter's protective spells curiously don't stop that, indicating her mother refused to intervene).

Evie starts a discussion about the Hunter's tears and Mashu'ra tries to explain that she just lost a friend. Evie doesn't understand and they begin a long conversation about death, but the Hunter suspects Evie will not understand, because unlike everyone else, she doesn't perceive the divide between the living and the dead.

Chapter 34: No Home

Close to an hour late, Mashu'ra has made no progress getting Evie to understand the concept of death and he tries saying, "Ghosts can’t be touched by the living."

Evie proves him wrong by shaking the hand of the unseen ghost of Simmons, though she unknowingly uses a little magic to pull that off.

Mashur'a gives up, "You’ll understand when you’re older."

They decide to enter the city, but just as Mashu'ra is saying he'll be fairly quiet, he vanishes, whisked away by Lara summoning him.

Evie gets an explanation from one of the ghosts haunting them, most likely Simmons, though the Hunter only hears half the conversation.

The girl leads the way into the city, following directions given by her grandmother.

They arrive at a brick house and Evie knocks. A gruff-looking man answers, but smiles at Evie.

She asks if his surname is "Warrace".

He corrects her by saying "Wallace" and says yes.

Evie hugs his legs and says, "I ruv you, cousin!"

I've had a lot of fun with Evie's Chinese accent, so far, because it makes some of her words amusing and this struck me as one of the cutest things she's said so far.

The man pries her off and looks to the Hunter for an explanation, but Evie explains, "She can’t say much of anything, due to a magic curse."

The poor man looks at the both of them like they're insane and slowly back into his house, before shutting the door and presumably calling the police.

The Hunter grabs Evie's hand and takes here away from the place, while Evie asks if she did something wrong.

In the hunter's mind, it's more a matter of what she hadn't done wrong.

Again, one of the spirits explains, but this leaves the Hunter vaguely disquieted, because she isn't sure what they're telling the girl.

Meanwhile, Lara is in the New York branch office of the Order, helping with the cleanup and moving operation, while she waits.

She steps into Verda's office, noting the woman's bloodshot eyes, because she's hardly slept since Wrath exploded in her face.

They discuss Verda's fresh case of PTSD for a short while and Lara offers a little advice: Verda should go out and kill some weak demons, to do some good and reassure herself that she's not useless.

Verda agrees to try it.

There's also a brief internal momologue from Lara about her own experiences with PTSD (after she was rescued from Hell by her husband) and the way that very specifically didn't happen after she died and was transformed into a vengeful fey spirit, because fey don't get traumatized by death and instead seek revenge.

Verda asks if Lara has heard from Mashu'ra. The answer is no, so Verda suggests Lara try summoning him again, even though only three hours have passed; she wishes Artemis were around. That's a little hint that Verda would feel safe if Artemis were present, because she once killed Wrath.

Lara summons Mashu'ra into her body and relays recent events to Verda, who is very interested in The Last Sanctuary, which has been effectively sealed from the inside for 200 years.

Verda speaks of sending witches in through the "back entrance" to assess the place and get it running again.

Lara tells Mashu'ra she's on her way to Australia and releases him.

The scene ends with Verda asking if Lara needs a flight arranged.

Lara decides against it: “Nah. Shooting Wrath into space gave me an idea I’ve been looking for an excuse to try…”

What she's referring to will be revealed, later.

Getting back to the hunter and Evie, they've tried three more distant relatives of the Wallace bloodline, who (sadly) want nothing to do with her, though they were polite about it and her childish enthusiasm is starting to fade and she grows slightly older (I mean this literally, not figuratively) with each rejection.

They bump into a young woman in the street that's eager to talk to them, because they're obviously foreigners.

Evie learns a few new words/phrases, including 'American', 'Australia' and 'the world', each requiring explanation and the Hunter produces a globe from her hat as a visual aid.

This leads the woman to make a joke, "You the magician or the little one’s lovely assistant?"

Amused, the hunter leans into the idea and pulls Mashu'ra from her hat, grateful he's back, because she doesn't entirely trust the ghosts to give Evie current and correct information, even though Evelyn, at least, is oddly up to date on where her family is.

She does a ventriloquist-like act, allowing Mashu'ra to talk in her place, which actually works a little too well, drawing attention.

Meanwhile, Evie is confused, thinking the world and the globe are the same thing.

After an explanation of the difference, Evie shakes the globe and is very much relieved when it doesn't result in an earthquake.

The Hunter grows uncomfortable with the crowd she's accidentally drawn and leads Evie away.

When they're alone, Mashu'ra asks if they'd had any luck and Evie bursts into tears, because she feels like she has nowhere to belong.

The Hunter hugs the girl and finally realizes she's grown attached, much to her frustration. She'd intended to get the job of delivering Evie to family done, without emotional involvement.

Mashu'a comforts Evie. The Hunter also cries.

Chapter 35: Family

Evie and the Hunter are guided to several more homes of distant relatives by the ghost of Evelyn, but none of them works out, because the people in question have no room in their life for a random relative they didn't know existed.

They decide to quit for the night and Evie is directed by the ghost of Simmons to the local branch office of the Order.

They meet Riley Wallace, the man in charge of the place. On hearing his name, Evie runs to him and after a short explanation, he hugs her. Riley admits he saw Evelyn in a dream, months earlier, in which she asked him to look after a girl.

He wasn't sure about the dream, but his own grandmother (a witch) advised him to do as he was told, so he prepared a room in his home for her.

It's a rather emotional moment when he tells Evie she has a home. Evie is so happy, she cries profusely and thanks him.

Chapter 36: Brekky

Lara is on a sub-orbital spaceflight, in the form of a missile, the quickest option she knows to get to Australia.

At the apogee of her flight, she admires the incredible view of both the Earth and the stars.

She falls back into the atmosphere and changes form, to give herself a heat shield, sacrificing some skin to handle the friction of re-entry. Lara survives the friction burns and turns back into a missile for a while, performing a retrograde burn (reverse thrust) to slow herself down.

When the conditions are right, she turns into an eagle and flies to the ground, where she re-takes human form.

Her arms are badly burned and she's low on energy, so she lays down to relax and accidentally falls asleep.

Three aborigine men find her, two you fellows and one old guy. They saw her come down like a shooting star and even watched her change shape.

The first hypothesis floated is that she's an angel, like some catholic guys once mentioned to them.

Next, they consider the possibility that she's a monster.

The old guy eventually decides that no angel or monster would look English and finally settles on a correct answer: she's a witch, a kind of magic foreigner woman.

They still debate what they should do, but ultimately decide to help her, because she's less likely to harm helpful people, on top of it being the neighborly thing to do. They gather herbs and treat her wounds.

When she wakes, she's fully healed (mixture of medicinal herbs and her own regenerative magic). The local men have gotten a fire going and they sit on the opposite side of it, eyeing her. Not stated, but they put the fire between themselves and her as an extra measure of protection.

She thanks them and gets up to go, but her stomach growls and they kindly offer her brekky (Aussie slang for breakfast).

She's given a handful of live bugs to eat, including a fat caterpillar. Not wanting to be rude, she actually eats everything, though it all tastes disgusting.

The two young guys roll on the ground with laughter, while the old one produces a can of beans, a small cooking pot and a can opener, which he's been hiding behind himself.

He asks, “Would ya like some beans, mate? After what ya just ate, I can imagine ya’d like something normal to help ya forget.”

Lara can't help but laugh at their practical joke, while the old guy opens the can and dumps it in the pot.

Chapter 37: Home at Last

The Hunter waits for Evie to wake as morning arrives. Evie sleeps in a bedroom setup by Riley, wearing pajamas that feature a little, black-furred, helicopter pilot kitty, flying through a sky filled with violently-colorful stars and rainbows that offend and wound the Hunter's sense of fashion.

Evie goes from having the body of a prepubescent twelve year old to that of a fifteen year old, having matured a bit more in the instant before she wakes.

The Hunter helps her dress, because she needs assistance with certain feminine undergarments that hadn't previously been necessary. Riley stocked the closet of the bedroom with clothing ranging in age from infant to adult, because he didn't know the age of the girl he was to care for.

They step out of the bedroom, where Riley makes breakfast in the form of fried eggs. Evie tries an egg and pukes ten minutes later, demonstrating her digestive tract is setup the same as the Hunter's.

Riley and Evie talk and the Hunter gets up to leave, because she's finally certain Evie will be safe and secure. As the Hunter waves and opens the door to go, Evie finally comes to understand loss, in the form of losing a friend.

She begs the Hunter not to go and even offers to let her see Simmons if she'll stay, an obvious attempt at emotional manipulation.

A bargain is struck through gesture: the Hunter will stay for one day, then she leaves, regardless.

The spirits brow-beat Evie for her behavior and she apologizes to the Hunter for manipulating her feelings.

Eventually, Evie brings up the subject of death, because she wants to understand.

To address the subject, Riley takes them to a cemetery and the grave of his parents, who died in a car accident the year before.

He explains that their bodies are buried there and why (mostly cleanliness).

As a result of the conversation, he mentions "passing on" and Evie asks for an explanation of that concept.

Riley explains his views of the afterlife and a primitive variation of eternal joy vs. eternal punishment.

Evie asks why her friends haven't passed on and Riley suggests she ask them.

Riley and the Hunter step back, while Evie does exactly that, for quite some time. Evie begins to cry at what she learns from them.

She returns to her living companions with a guilty expression and explains they haven't passed on, because she won't let them (it's a mixture of their own unfinished business, needing to see Evie safe and happy, plus her magic anchoring them to the living world).

She's deeply troubled by the idea of letting go of her friends.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #14: She Seeks Peace #6 (October 14-18)

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13
2. September 16-20
3. September 23-26
4. September 30-October 4
5. October 7-11

Chapter 26: …in the Depths

The Hunter stirs from her recollections as a single-engine prop plane fights to climb above Everest, only for the door to be kicked open with demonic strength, allowing Ulmoch to jump out, while the plane crashes into the side of the mountain, causing an avalanche that consumes several climbers!

Naturally, the Hunter is furious and finally angry enough to kill him, but Everest isn't a good place for her to fight (too little energy), so she vanishes into a puff of smoke, shadow-stepping away.

Ulmoch and Sogliun have a conversation about the "gift" Ulmoch got for the Hunter and it's revealed to be a mason jar full of clear liquid, though Ulmoch won't explain any further.

Sogliun asks, "Do you have any idea how annoying you are?"

Ulmoch grins.

Sogliun laments, "I hate you."

After a scene change and a very long fall, the hunter touches down at the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench. She was forced to kill a giant squid along the way, because it tried to eat her. She also saw an angler fish.

Her clothes have become a thick wetsuit, to keep her warm, and she uses the power of the Air Spirit to oxygenate her blood, since there's no air to breathe and the pressure is too high for a helmet.

Touching the sea floor produces a cloud of muck, so she chooses to swim.

She sees a hydrothermal vent in the distance and swims that direction, finding warmer water, a carpet of microorganisms and an occasional crab, plus some very unconventional fish.

She sees flowers in the distance and rushes over, discovering they're not actually flowers, but tube worms, with red at the top and white tubes they can withdrawn into, when threatened.

Staring at the tube worms, she settles on a boulder and stares at them as her mind wanders backwards, to a time and place full of red flowers.

Chapter 27: Plain Sight

Returning to the Hunter's flashback on her time in Canada with Simmons, they stand in a field of red daisies.

Simmons is lost and has been for hours, but has been refusing to admit it, while the Hunter finds it funny, because he keeps turning his map at new angles. He ends her amusement by finally saying it and asks if her nose tells her anything.

She takes a deep whiff and picks up the scent of smoke on the wind.

She leads them to a cabin between a dirt road and a forest, where a man chops wood.

Simmons introduces himself and the man says his name is Brady Roberts.

Simmons asks for directions back to civilization and the guy points to the south, saying, "About a hundred miles that way."

Seeing his expression and knowing they're on foot, Brady offers to get on the radio about their situation.

He spends about ten minutes inside and comes back out, saying he's spoken with their friends, who will be along tomorrow, because they had car trouble.

He passes along a message: "The abominable Snowman is still at large."

The Hunter recognizes the code name for the demon they're hunting, which means the monster evaded all nine teams, four of which had witches that were experts at tracking demon magic.

The Hunter's internal monologue reminds the reader of the peculiar demons from the summer camp incident (during events of the novella She Goes to Summer Camp), who were masked by magic that made them dang near impossible to detect with magic, even allowing them to pass the Hunter's sniff test.

Some few of those frog demons born on Earth were able to survive their mother's death, but only the very strongest, hinting that their quarry may be one of them.

Brady offers to put them up for the night.

Brady says "we" several times during the conversation, which will become an important point (he doesn't live alone).

They all go inside and Brady chatters away as if he's lonely (he is), giving them both some coffee.

The Hunter initially suspects Brady of being a magically masked demon and sniffs the coffee for poison, but finds it safe.

While Simmons and Brady talk, she decides she likes the smell of it and drinks some, as an experiment. It makes her anxious and paranoid, with bloodshot eyes.

The Hunter eyes Brady with suspicion, thinking he's subconsciously tracing demonic symbols on his knee, then when he puts his head in his hand, she thinks his idle finger movements are designed to control some spell.

In essence, her imagination fills in the blanks on how his every action could be demonic.

Eventually, Brady comments on the way she's giving him the stink eye. Simmons notices the way she's acting and the empty coffee mug, surprised she drank it.

He apologizes by pointing out the fact she's never had coffee before and Brady goes back to being generally friendly and good-humored, blowing it off as something like his own first mug at the age of 12 (up all night).

The Hunter turns a little introspective on the matter and decides she doesn't like coffee, vowing never to drink it again.

She also realizes it enhanced her natural paranoia (demons try to kill her quite often), until she found a human to be suspicious.

Brady's co-worker, Elijah, arrives and says, "The last of the seeds are-"

Brady interrupts, saying their guests don't need to know the boring details.

Elijah turns his head and stares at the Hunter with terror for a brief instant, but she chooses to ignore it, thinking it's another bit of coffee-induced paranoia.

She continually chooses to ignore warning signs from Elijah, until the man says it's time for bed (the light from outside is fading).

He gets a pair of sleeping bags from his room.

They say their good nights and our heroes bed down on the floor, while the Hunter pretends to sleep.

She focuses her mind (the coffee is helpful for keeping her mind on task) and pays close attention to her senses, just in case the things she's been seeing were real.

She assumes if one of their hosts is a demon, they'll attack in the night.

Hours pass in sheer boredom.

The Hunter is vindicated when Elijah exits his room in frog demon form and opens his mouth extra wide, to swallow her whole.

She swings her sword sideways, out of the sleeping bag, and puts the tip to the soft bits at the roof of the frog demon's mouth, just below his brain.

She wakes Simmons and an interrogation session begins.

The demon initially refuses to cooperate, so the Hunter cuts his arms off. They don't evaporate like usual, by the way.

He blubbers and begs, agreeing to answer.

Unfortunately, just as he starts an explanation, he drops dead. Like his arms, he doesn't evaporate, because he's a leftover frog demon from She Goes to Summer Camp, which were spawned on Earth and have much more physical/less magical forms than the garden variety of demon.

Brady walks in, having been woken by the commotion, screaming at the sight of the corpse, asking if it's an alien.

The Hunter drags the dead demon outside, while Simmons explains, being honest.

The Hunter buries the body in the woods.

Chapter 28: Perspective

Lara has setup camp, including a tent, camp chair and a steel barrel with a fire in it, but the odd part is where she is: the underside of the Whitestone bridge, in New York City.

She used a spell to made the underside of the bridge attract things, similar to gravity, so she hangs upside-down, above the East River.

Unable to sleep, she decides to enjoy the fire and roast some marshmallows.

To that end, she uses her shape-changing magic to turn her finger into a a long, steel wire, similar to that of a roasting fork.

She impales three marshmallows on it and roasts them, only for Ulmoch to interrupt, saying, "Neat trick!"

Naturally, she turns her arms into Tommy guns and opens fire as Ulmoch leaps her direction!

He dodges her bullets until he reaches the attraction spell, losing his balance!

Ulmoch is riddled full of holes until he starts moaning with pleasure about how good it feels, causing Lara to stop, bothered by his masochism.

He reveals the existence of the bounties on both her head and that of the Hunter. He even tells her that Wrath is "in love" with the Hunter.

He spits out bullets several times along the way, especially when he laughs, because his lungs are full of them.

Laura kills him, collects her things and flies off, letting the corpse fall into the East River.

Sogliun watches Lara fly off, feeling suspicious about Ulmoch's motives. After all, he works for Pride and he only paid Sogliun to find Lara once, rather than a long-term deal like he negotiated to find the Hunter.

The smoky demon can't help but wonder what's really going on...

Meanwhile, Lara sets down in an alley and summons Mashu'ra, demanding to know where the Hunter is. He tells her the truth: bottom of the ocean, meaning she's out of reach (Mashu'ra can't survive where she is).

Mashu'ra offers to deliver a message, once he can safely pop out of the hat.

Lara explains everything she just learned, though it's left as a trailing sentence, to avoid repetition and loss of reader interest.

Chapter 29: …in Meditation

The Hunter's private thoughts are interrupted by the roar of a great cat, despite being at the bottom of the Pacific, and her mind is filled with the sound of animals of every shape and size.

By entering a place only inhabited by animals, she's drawn the attention of the Animal Spirit, which wishes to punish her for holding its siblings captive.

The Hunter puts out her light and shadow-steps away.

In the next scene, she's high in the mountains, fighting a blizzard. She's undeterred, because she enjoys the challenge. This is the third mountain she's searched for a place she heard about in rumor, in the halls of the New York branch office of the Order, which is supposed to be very quiet and peaceful.

She turns a corner of the mountain and sees the broken rope bridge leading to her destination. She doesn't give up and flies.

The wind nearly knocks her form the air several times, because the blizzard is that intense, but she reaches the walled courtyard of an ancient temple, setting down in the crunching snow.

In an instant, the weather is clear and the mounds of snow covering the place are gone. She looks with confusion at the intact rope bridge.

Her senses tell her that the fading magic she feels was an Illusion she just pierced.

The temple doors open and orange-robed, bald monks invite her to enter.

Inside, the tile floor depicts the elements of witch magic in grand fashion: air, earth, fire, water, smoke, metal, wood, animal, life and the void. It even has some small, nearly missed symbols representing the void-touched elements: vacuum, shadow, the all-consuming (ultraviolet) flame, poison, ash, bone, ice and blood.

She's welcomed to The Last Sanctuary and told she's been expected for some time.

She's surprised, because no one was told she was coming, though the monks are Ashen Blades.

The monk says, "The Master of the sanctuary would like to speak with you, but she’s very old and currently sleeping. We will inform you when she’s ready. For now, relax. Meditate on the peace and comfort you seek.”

The Hunter is curious to learn more, but for once, she's willing to be patient, because she has her own issues to focus on. She settles in by the fire and stares into it, letting her mind wander to the past.

Chapter 30: Questioning

The Hunter returns to the cabin as Simmons puts some fresh logs into the wood stove. (purely there for another cinematic fade)

Simmons questions Brady, because he has his doubts about the man being human, but isn't convinced he's a demon, either.

He reasons for a time about Brady, tallying points of evidence in his mind as they talk about the dead demon.

After a while, Simmons settles on an approach that occurred to him just before the last frog demon he hunted revealed themselves.

He claims he needs more information about Brady for his records and begins a formal interview over Brady's identity, eventually dovetailing into a psychological questionnaire, during which he asks Brady to close his eyes and say the first thing that comes to mind.

Eventually, Simmons throws in this question: "How long have you been on Earth?"

Brady answers, "Seven years."

Even Brady realizes what Simmons just did, though he's too late to take it back and drops the illusion of humanity, reveling himself to be a huge, muscular frog demon, much larger than average (all that wood chopping must have paid off). I like to think of Brady as a lumber-jack demon.

At the same time, Simmons mutters, "Mashu'ra!"

The two of them explode out the side of the cabin! Incidentally, this scares a moose that wandered by the cabin.

They end up lying prone as Simmons sinks the claws of his hands in and rakes with his back feet!

The frog takes the worst of it and begs for his life, bringing the fight to a close. He's been halfway disemboweled and is quite helpless for the time being.

Simmons gets some answers: the demons were spreading their offspring (the demon pretending to be Elijah was female) in nearby lakes and rivers and Brady was the strongest of them, having taken over the hivemind, after the death of their mother.

As the demon begs for his life, Simmons crushes his head with a foot.

Simmons drags the body into the woods, for burial, while the Hunter watches him go, glad she accepted human companionship and grateful Simmons is so strong and smart, more or less the perfect partner for her work.

She reasons he'll never die by anything other than natural causes and that fate is surely thousands of years away.

She's content that with him by her side, she'll always be happy.

Chapter 31: …Anywhere

The Hunter is stirred from her memories by Mashu'ra appearing on her shoulder, to deliver news of the things Lara learned.

The Hunter is disgusted by the idea than Wrath wants to marry her, making fake retching noises.

The kitten demon asks if she'd be willing to stand beside Lara, to face the bounty hunters together and she agrees.

As she holds Mashu'ra and pets him, she concludes she's done wandering, ready to face her grief with a friend by her side.

She still doesn't know how to cope with the idea of eventually losing all of her human friends, but she's ready to look for that path forward.

One of the monks politely interrupts and tells her, "The Master of the Sanctuary will see you now."

He leads the way toward the spiral stairs around the central column of the room (I did some editing to add it).

I like the implication of that column and its stairs: the way up (enlightenment) requires walking the path of life.

Part 3: Losing Buoyancy

The end of chapter 31 marks the end of Part 2.

Part 1, Untethered, was about Reggie and setting the stage with Wrath.

Part 2, Tossed on the Wind, was about Simmons and the Hunter's journey as she learns to grieve, instead of stuffing her feelings.

Part 3 will focus on her journey toward acceptance of loss as part of the cycle of life as she cares for a young child.

Part 4, Grounded, will focus specifically on the climax and conclusion of the conflict with Wrath. It will also bring the Hunter and Lara back together, with a stronger bond than ever.

The names of each part evoke the journey of a balloon and the grief of a child at losing it, as a metaphor for loss. The balloon represents Simmons and the child represents the Hunter.

First the balloon is accidentally released, leading to a crying fit, then the child watches their toy as it's buffeted by the wind and blown away, though they still feel the loss. Eventually, the balloon loses helium and starts to come down, while the child moves on with their life. Finally, the balloon comes back down to the ground, but by that point, the child has usually either forgotten their balloon or accepted the idea they'll never get it back.

Chapter 32: No Sanctuary

Mashu'ra and the Hunter are led to the old witch in charge, Evelyn Wallace, who speaks with an Australian accent.

She tells them a little about The Last Sanctuary: it's a magical place like The Cauldron of the Elements, but unlike that place of nature, it's a made thing, made by witches. It's also a pocket dimension, accessible from anywhere.

Evenlyn tells them a tale about an Ashen Blade witch that fought a war against a demon that sought to oust Pride from his throne, by destroying the world before Pride's circuitous portal-to-hell plan could be realized.

Eventually, this witch sought more power, that she might win, and summoned Pride/Vogerath, reasoning that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." She made a deal with him and became a demon witch, but part of the bargain was that she would bear a child.

Internally, she vowed to never do so. After all, in her era, women were not well respected as they are now and she hated them. She was also very head-strong, as witches tend to be, too much so to accept a man. Ironically, her personal pride may have been her downfall.

She won her war against her personal nemesis, but was rejected by the Ashen Blades, for having willingly become a demon.

She wandered and sought solace in strong drink. At one point, she lay drunk in the street and was raped, leading to pregnancy and birth of a daughter.

Determined to keep the baby safe, she sought The Last Sanctuary, but not for herself. In truth, the place cannot be found by a demon, though it will become apparent there is still one way they can find their way in, through the human heart.

She couldn't find the way, but her infant pointed the way and she reached the threshold. Evelyn met her there and refused entry.

The witch explained how she'd gotten there. Evelyn accepted the child and started to ask the witch to leave, but she'd already turned away.

Evelyn admits, through tears, that she turned her own daughter away, implying the half-demon infant was her granddaughter.

Mashu'ra asks how long ago the child was born and is told, "After your old master freed Pride to return to Earth, but before your current master was born."

Mashu'ra doesn't believe her, because that would make Evelyn far older than the Hunter, who was born 126 years earlier!

Evenlyn says, "Aren’t you a clever little imp?"

The Hunter blinks involuntarily and the room goes dark.

When she gets a magic light going, she looks on the corpse of Evelyn, who's clearly been dead for decades, if not centuries. The room is also full of cobwebs, which incidentally block the way out.

The ghost of Evelyn touches their minds, saying, "Take my granddaughter to my family, in Australia. It’s time she finally grew up a little."

They explore the place, finding many more bodies, all with signs of violence, ranging from blade wounds, to teeth and claws.

Mashu'ra investigates one of them, concluding it's the work of a fairly unique demon that goes by the name Muglon, who had a way of getting into any human head, because he didn't favor any given sin.

Worse, Muglon was/is able to jump from body to body, possessing humans with ease, not even requiring them to fully succumb to their sins, in order for him to fully possess them.

He was a generalist. It isn't stated, but Muglon was actually using the insanity basis of sin as the means into the human mind, so any sin at all was a doorway for him.

It's implied that one of the monks committed some sin that brought Muglon to the sanctuary and that was their downfall, leading to fighting.

This chapter isn't done, but I'll continue it on Monday.

Future Plans

The final elements of the novel are now fairly sharp in my mind and I have a strong idea of how the climax will shape up, but as ever and demonstrated by Chapter 32, all things are subject to change.

The Child

I'd originally planned to saddle the Hunter with a totally human child, but now know she'll be dealing with a half-demon girl, who's much like her.

This child has potent abilities, with a particular focus on Life magic. She's most talented with Spirit magic. The reason the Hunter initially saw the Sanctuary as it appeared in the past is because the child was the one to kill the demon and she was left alone, so she summoned the spirits of her fallen friends, to keep her company. With so many strong ghosts around, reality was warped to make the present appear like the past, up until Mashu'ra pierced the illusion with cold logic.

Since she's mentally three or four years old, when asked about the demon, the girl's explanation will be, "I made it go away."

The real truth will be that she either ate it or hit it with such a potent blast of pure life magic, it was unmade. Ironically, while demons use Life magic to enter the human mind, it's also antithetical to their core nature and can be quite dangerous to them. Ironically, if Verda knew that (she doesn't), she'd blast away.

The Hunter will take the child to Australia and over the course of days, they'll search for her still-living family, while the child grows older, the more she learns.

Half-demons don't mature at the usual pace of humans and their outward appearance changes to match their internal state. That's why the Hunter has grown mature so slowly, but in sharp spurts. It's also why she'll probably always look like a teen; if I have any say in the matter, she will never lose her childish nature, which will keep her young.

By the time they find the girl's family, she'll be an adult. She'll spend a few hours with them, then rapidly grow older, until she's a withered, old woman. She'll die happy and content. The reason for this is that her Spirit magic gives her a very strong connection to and understanding of spirits and with her final desire in life complete, she's ready to face the great beyond.

My intent in this is that the Hunter will slowly grow to love this girl, thinking she'll be a friend she can keep forever, only to see her hopes dashed, but in seeing her friend pass on, she'll come to realize that life isn't about the destination, but rather the journey along the way.

She'll come away from the experience with an acceptance of that journey and view her friends in a new light: she'll value the limited time she has with them, rather than worrying about the pain of losing them.

She'll also fully accept the name Simmons gave her in the previous book, coming to think of herself as Artemis Watson. She hasn't been using it, because it's been a painful reminder that he's gone.

The Climax

The final events of the novel will happen quickly, once the half-demon child is gone. The Hunter will be in some city of Australia, where Ulmoch will catch up to her. He'll lead her on a merry chase, until she bursts into a place he's prepared to fight her.

As she bursts in, he'll open her "present", which is a jar with at least a pint of LSD in it, splashing it all over the both of them. He hopes the massive dose will mess her up so badly, that she'll either pass out or try to sleep off the hallucinations.

I don't want to spoil the outcome, just yet, but it both will and won't go according to plan. He'll be killed, of course, but that doesn't matter very much.

She'll eventually lay down to sleep it off and that's when Wrath's people will capture her. They'll take her to Wrath and he'll summon the guests (the other arch demons).

Lust's plan to split the Hunter in two will work, but not quite as expected, due to a recent change in her mental landscape, ruining all of Lust's calculations about her final position(s) and the Hunter won't appear in the binding circles Lust prepared.

Lara will show up about the same time and all heck will break loose. The Hunter's inner demon and Lara will form a brief alliance, in which they cut loose at full strength on both Wrath and the arches, enjoying the target-rich environment.

Incidentally, Wrath will get his head punched off by the demon, landing far away, in the outback. As he lays there, helpless, Pride will come along. Wrath will request help (he can't move his body without his head attached) and Pride will eat him.

Meanwhile the Hunter's human side will be far too sick to function, because she lacks some vital (human) DNA and cellular machinery that had been replaced by her demon side.

Then comes the part I haven't quite figured out, yet: how will the Hunter be put back together? The demon will resist, because it wants to be free, and Lara will be smacked aside, once they reach that disagreement.

The Hunter will probably be forced to fight the demon, sick or not. The power of the elemental spirits in her head will help (they stayed with her human half, because they despise the demon, based on the way she once ate the Water Spirit).

It will probably take the combined efforts of Lara, Mashu'ra, the Hunter, her parents and a character I don't want to spoil coming together, as a team, with each of them holding one piece of the puzzle. It will probably have to happen inside the Hunter's hat.

The Ending

Lara and the Hunter will go home together, each vowing to be more sensitive to the feelings of the other. I think the epilogue might involve the Hunter learning to care for Lara's son, James, so she can serve as his babysitter and give Lara a break from time to time.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #13: She Seeks Peace #5 (October 7-11)

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13
2. September 16-20
3. September 23-26
4. September 30-October 4

Chapter 19: Confluence of Sin

I continued this chapter from where I left off, last week.

After seeing the 1000 soul bounty posted for the Hunter's capture, Ulmoch contacts Pride to ask permission to accept the contract. Pride says yes, but also requires him to do exactly as he says...

I intentionally left his instructions to the imagination, but they'll become apparent during the climax.

From there, I did wedding invitations:

Gluttony

Gluttony is in her throne room, which she's combined with a corporate conference room, for modern times, all decorated with obsidian and gold, with a boardroom style table at the center.

She's slimmed down for modern times and wears a gray business suit with a skirt. Corporate overspending and waste are the modern equivalent to eating too much.

Her modernization started with a conspiracy between light bulb manufacturers making their products disposable, but that spread to making everything disposable, with plastic being a huge part of that. In her internal monologue, the oil tycoons were wasteful on their own, needing little demonic push.

She sits at her huge table, which has been set with a meal consisting of three live imps, in the form of a boar, a turkey and a piglet, all tied up.

Each has been condemned to death by Gluttony for refusing to be her meal (that's what they were raised for). Ironically, the outcome is the same.

Just as she raises the piglet to bite, an illusion of Sergeant Thilvod (the stag demon Sogliun spoke with to get an appointment with Wrath) appears.

He invites Gluttony to Wrath's wedding. There's some discussion of catering (Wrath hasn't done this yet) and Gluttony offers to provide the food, mostly so she can avoid Wrath dumping a box of MREs on the food table, which is exactly what he would have done, if left to his own devices.

I have plans for Gluttony in a later book, so this serves as a bit of foreshadowing.

Greed

Greed is in his own throne room, which is also his treasury. He dresses somewhat like a street-level member of a gang, but with far more expensive clothes, including a pistol in his waistband and some gold chains. The only odd bit is his tricorn hat, a fond left-over from the days he was a pirate.

He's busy using a laptop from the human world, which is connected to the internet via a gremlin-possessed DSL modem.

His plans involve pouring magic into the internet, but it isn't explained. Again, I'm doing a little foreshadowing for a later book.

He's also interrupted by Sergeant Thilvod inviting him to the wedding.

Envy

Envy is next, but I carefully pointed out to the reader that Envy is actually one of Pride's bodies in disguise, because he ate her in 1972, during the second book.

He/she wears a ring that blocks that particular body from being tracked by the Thaumavore, a unique trinket he can't reproduce.

Sergeant Thilvod appears and invites Envy to the wedding.

Sloth

Sloth is woken by a servant. He appears as a puddle of foul, black slime at the center of a circular room lined with shelves. Those hold crystals that change shape and color over time, because they're physical manifestations of the dreams of humanity.

Sloth manipulates humans through their dreams, mostly in a for-hire fashion, the most famous example of which are Lust's succubi.

Sloth himself, on the other hand, favors driving men mad in their dreams. He admits to himself that he recognizes the existence of the eighth deadly sin, willful insanity, because he uses it in his work.

Thilvod has appeared to invite Sloth to the wedding. Sloth is happy to hear the news, because he and Wrath are friends; when people go mad, they often start killing, so he and Wrath work hand in hand on those cases.

With the invitation extended, the image of Thilvod vanishes and Sloth yells for lots of coffee, because he doesn't want to sleep through Wrath's summons, when the time comes.

Pride

When Thilvod appears to Pride, he smugly interrupts, "Of course I’ll go to my old friend’s wedding, just so long as it’s on Earth. I’m not returning to Hell until the Thaumavore is dead. When and where?"

Thilvod tells him, "The Australian Outback. I’ll provide more exact coordinates when the time is right."

Chapter 20: …in the Rainforest

The Hunter's thoughts are interrupted by the crazed cry of Ulmoch, who was brought to Giza by Sogliun. As it turns out, Sogliun can track the very distinctive feel of her life energy, which he's more sensitive to than any other demon.

She's not in the mood, so she flies off, while Ulmoch tries to taunt her into a fight.

In the next scene, the Hunter slashes her way through the Amazon rainforest, comparing it to the jungles of Vietnam.

She stumbles on an ancient, Aztec city, which includes a pyramid, a fact that amuses her, because she thought she'd left pyramids behind, in Egypt.

She climbs on the roof of the temple at the top and sits on the corner, admiring the view, because she can see pretty far, including the Amazon river as it winds back and forth.

Her mind is drawn to the past, to her time with Simmons in the jungles of Vietnam.

Between this and the opening of the next chapter, this would make for a nice cinematic dissolve, were it done in a TV show or movie, transitioning from a view of the rainforest to a view of the jungle.

Chapter 21: The Last China Shop

The Hunter and Simmons are in the jungles of Vietnam, in 1973, on their last search and destroy mission in the country, accompanied by Staff Sergeant Greer and his men, the long-range patrol that stayed with them while they were there.

She sniffs out a demon nest Verda located on a map with magic.

There's a brief disagreement between Simmons and the Hunter over who goes inside first, since the cave entrance is only wide enough for one at a time, so they decide to settle it with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

However, Simmons (correctly) accuses her of cheating; she's been using her extremely-fast mind and reflexes to read his muscles before he moves, so she can choose a winning move, every time. It only worked because she's known him for thirty years, demonstrating how well she reads him.

Simmons insists they both close their eyes to make the game fair and the Hunter reluctantly obeys. She chooses scissors and Simmons goes with rock, so he gets to go first. Naturally, she's very annoyed, since she's always been a sore loser, but she lets it go, because it's Simmons.

They enter the cave, while Simmons unwisely uses a flashlight (tunnel rats didn't use flashlights unless they had to, because the Viet Cong were used to working in total darkness, so a light would give the enemy the advantage).

Simmons takes full-auto AK-47 fire from three demons, but isn't permanently affected, spitting out some slugs, while the rest fall off his magic suit, which can shrug off small arms fire. He goes total ape-crap on one demon (the pain forced him into a berserk fit), while the Hunter dispatches the other two with a bit of swordplay.

They head deeper inside, while the Hunter considers how happy she is to have such an indestructible partner.

When they emerge from the cave, they're informed it's time to head back to the world (Army slang for home/out of the war), because Verda says they've wiped out the last nest they can reasonably reach.

The Hunter considers the meaning of 'home', realizing she was never homesick in Vietnam, because she'll always feel at home with Simmons by her side.

Chapter 22: Rescue

Wrath rescues Lust and takes her to the abandoned mine that serves as his current base in the Australian Outback.

They discuss what he wants from his relationship with the Hunter, coming to some conclusions:

• She will never be willing and would rather kill him.
• He wants a long-term relationship, not a single night.

Lust forms a plan accordingly, which consists of an enchanted engagement ring that will force the Hunter to split in half by forcing the activation of the power she stole by eating Pride during previous books.

The ring will cause the Hunter to split into her human and demon halves, each of them pure and unsullied by the other.

The next half of Lust's plan involves an enchanted wedding band that will bind the demon's will to Wrath, so he can order her to love him.

Before Wrath leaves to obtain the required supplies, Lust's stomach growls, so he asks Thilvod to bring her a meal, a living human being.

At the end of the previous book, Lust was given a copy of the Book of Mormon, which she's been reading a bit here and there in this book. She reached 3 Nephi 11 at the start of the chapter and felt something powerful as a result (the presence of the Holy Ghost).

Seeing her "meal", Lust is disgusted by the thought of killing and eating the man. She refuses, claiming she's gotten used to the taste of beef during her incarceration (a half-truth), though she picks her words very carefully, lest Thilvod suspect her of feeling compassion, which demons have been known to kill each other over.

Thivold takes the man away and returns with some MREs that feature beef. Lust eats while working on calculations related to her enchanting work.

Chapter 23: …on Top of the World

The Hunter's thoughts are once more interrupted by the voice of Ulmoch, causing her to groan as he leaps from the trees to the roof the the temple she's sitting on.

She immediately flies off, while he tells her he got her an expensive present, which required killing a lot of "guys he liked" to obtain.

Her response is to go super-sonic.

In the next scene, the Hunter climbs Everest, hoping the remote location will keep everyone away from her.

She sits at the peak and stares at the horizon as the chapter ends.

Chapter 24: Airdrop

Were this a movie, I imagine a dissolve from one horizon to another, though with a military plane in the air (the kind used for airdrops).

It's 1989 and the Hunter is in a military plane in the air above Canada, preparing to parachute to the ground, because there's a demon hiding somewhere in a remote and snowy mountain range.

Naturally, the Hunter is sick and on her fifth barf bag, since the combination of low life energy and the motion of a plane get her every time.

Simmons gleefully jumps out of the plane with a whoop of delight, because being indestructible has made him adventurous.

The Hunter nervously steps up to jump, but hesitates, because her last drop from a plane went badly. The plane hits some turbulence and she loses her balance, falling out of the plane before she's ready! She screams and panics, forgetting what she's supposed to do!

She passes Simmons on the way down, since he's got his limbs wide, to slow down, so he angles himself through the air (he's gone skydiving many times before) to catch up to her, yelling for her to calm down.

They link up in the air and Simmons pulls her ripcord for her, ensuring her safety.

As he turns to look back down, he realizes he's too late to pull his own ripcord and screams, "Mashu'ra!"

He hits the ground mid-transformation to his cat-man form, but that's enough to save his life.

The Hunter lands and rolls back to her feet in one fluid movement, only to get hit in the face by her parachute, which pulls her off her feet and drags her on the wind!

She cuts herself free with her sword.

She follows her nose to Simmons, finding him groaning at the bottom of a small crater in the snow, with all four limbs badly broken. She helps him by lining his bones up, while Mashu'ra's power heals him.

When he's done healing, he releases Mashu'ra and returns to normal size.

The Hunter can't smell any trace of demon and they conclude they're in the wrong place. There were eight other teams being dropped all over the range, so no big deal.

Simmons produces a map and leads the way.

Chapter 25: Safe and Secure

Lara enters the Cauldron of the Elements, the same remote valley the Hunter sought some peace and quiet in.

Lara is worried that Wrath is coming to kill her and came to the valley, because she can think of no safer place to leave her son.

She bumps into Ignacio Greer, who settled there after the events of She Goes to Summer Camp.

They discuss current events, including Artemis (another name for the Hunter) being missing and Greer explains that Macie saw her in the valley, seemingly looking for some peace and quiet.

Lara explains her current situation and her worries, asking Greer and Macie to care her son.

Greer accepts and assures her that James will be looked after (Greer helped his Mom care for three younger brothers).

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #12: She Seeks Peace #4 (September 30-October 4)

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13
2. September 16-20
3. September 23-26

Part 2: Tossed on the Wind

At some point, I went back and added a heading for part one between the prologue and chapter one, titled 'Untethered'. I continued that trend by inserting the beginning of part two between chapters 10 and 11, allowing Moonshot to serve as the climax of the first part.

These part titles allude to a balloon, which I'll continue to reference in further parts. Part three will probably be 'Losing Buoyancy' or 'Coming Down', and part four will be 'Grounded'. Part four will be short compared to the rest, largely consisting of just the climax.

Having had a little inspiration for a chapter naming theme for part two, chapter 11 was renamed from 'Unthinking Concern' to 'No Peace…'

The intent is to use a series of short chapters describing where the Hunter is seeking peace, each named like so '…in/on/doing X', with X being her location or activity. Between each such chapter, there will be a chapter detailing a flashback to her earliest days with Simmons.

Chapter 12: …in Paradise

The Hunter arrives at a deserted tropical island, which is a beautiful, peaceful place, allowing her to settle in for some deep, emotional thought. She thinks back on her first case with Simmons.

Meanwhile, a shark demon spots her swimming to the island and approaches from downwind, so she can't smell him…

Chapter 13: Simmons

This chapter centers around introducing Simmons to the story, at the very start of the first case he and the Hunter ever worked together.

He sits in Reggie's old office, feeling like he's wearing another man's drawers (in more modern terms, that would be underwear).

Another detective agency has taken Reggie's caseload, to give Simmons the chance to ease into the work.

He reviews a case file given to him by the other agency, one they selected to show him the ropes, which is the bread and butter of detective agencies: a client needs proof of their unfaithful spouse's infidelity.

After reviewing the file, he decides a little photographic evidence would be just the thing, so Simmons asks the Hunter if Reggie had a camera. She leads him to a filing cabinet with one tucked inside, including film that's ready to use.

Simmons likes the look of the Robot II, a German-made camera that was first made in 1938, which makes it an unusual specimen in 1942 New York, but its nature as a clockwork device that can take photos in rapid succession made it perfect for detective work and too hard to resist putting in the novel.

He takes it into the bathroom and loads some film in the dark.

With the camera loaded, he winds it and steps out, aims at the Hunter and requests, "Say 'cheese'."

Quite naturally, she flips him off, since she can't say the word.

He apologizes and tries again, "Can I get a smile?"

She gives him a terrible rictus of a grin, as a mockery of his request. Knowing he won't get her real cooperation, because he annoyed her, he snaps the shot.

Chapter 14: …Underground

The Hunter is approached from behind by the shark demon, but the wind changes and she smells him coming before he can attack, which may or may not have been her mother manipulating random chance. She cuts him in half and, her peace lost, she gets back into the water, swimming down, for the dark depths.

In the next scene, she's in Carlsbad Cavern, stepping from one shadow to another, to avoid tourists.

The Hunter uses the natural cave entrance to enter, bothered by the smell of bird crap, since they gather there.

She shadow-steps to avoid the tourists and go deeper, surprised by the reverential hush of the people, mentally comparing the cave to a sacred place.

She does a little sight-seeing, then goes deeper, to find a dark place to think, reflecting on her first real adventure with Simmons.

Chapter 15: Private Eye

Simmons and the Hunter lurk on a rooftop, peering through a window into an apartment.

The Hunter is bored, because she doesn't care that much about the case, and is just there to make sure Simmons survives, in case of trouble.

Simmons snaps photos of their client's cheating husband and the other woman, his face turning red as they enter the bedroom.

Having obtained more than enough evidence for their client to pursue a divorce, Simmons stops taking pictures.

The Hunter points at his red face, asking, "A?"

Simmons puzzles out that she's asking him why his face is red and he follows up by asking if she knows what the people they've been following were doing.

She shakes her head and Simmons carefully embarks on the subject of the birds and bees, feeling a stinging embarrassment like no other in his life.

He concludes Reggie was a coward to not address the subject, considering the nature of their work.

Simmons is bothered by the sudden realization of responsibilities that Reggie dodged and accepts his role with the Hunter going forward will be more like a father figure than a mere friend.

Chapter 16: Reentry

Wrath slams into the ground after orbiting the Earth and moon for weeks. He howls with rage at maximum volume, literally turning the forest around him into kindling with his voice. The sound is so loud, it echoes over the whole Earth (much like some nukes and meteor strikes), but only Lara is able to comprehend the words, who decides to go into hiding.

Wrath summons Sogliun and puts a bounty on Lara's head, because he wants her as dead as possible. He also places a bounty on the Hunter's head, because he wants her captured and delivered to his fortified position in the Australian Outback.

Originally, the chapter ended like so:

Last of all, he pays Sogliun to track down Lust again.

In the mean time, Wrath is headed for Australia, to make arrangement for the wedding.

He's got to find a justice of the peace to force into pronouncing them married, threaten a caterer into providing food, invite guests and find a wedding dress that will fit his intended, which will be a pain, because she's only 5'1" and rather slender.

However, on Friday, I cut that portion to use in a later chapter and instead, Wrath sent Sogliun back to Hell with a single punch, while Solgiun made himself more physical.

The cut portion will become a part of Chapter 19, on Monday.

Chapter 17: …in the Desert

The Hunter's thoughts are interrupted by the Earth Spirit waking and noticing she has three of its kin trapped in her mind. The cave itself starts to quake.

In retrospect, she realizes going deep underground wasn't the smartest of choices, so she shadow-steps away, reappearing at airline altitude above Cairo, Egypt, at night.

She's nearly sucked into the jet engine of a passing airliner and flies to lower altitude, struck by the similarities and differences between New York City and Cairo.

The nighttime photos of Cairo I used for research material were stunning, to say the least, especially the orbital shots taken form the ISS. It surprised me, but the Nile was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Originally, the Hunter located the great pyramid by its dark silhouette against the stars, setting down on top of it, but then I remembered the pyramids are lit at night, so I looked up some photos on the internet and just fixed the text.

The Hunter settles in for some serious thought and can't help but grieve as she looks back on the bittersweet memories of Simmons, who was her best friend.

She's once more struck by the awful realization she may never see him again, because she has no idea when or even if she'll ever die.

Ironically, her own potential immortality has been twisted into her greatest weakness, likely to leave her with countless emotional scars.

Her mind drifts to the past, carried by memory.

Chapter 18: Confrontation

I think this scene about sums things up for the start of this chapter:

Mrs. Turner politely shook the hand of Simmons as she sat opposite him and started the conversation, “You said over the phone you’ve completed your investigation.”

“I have,” Simmons sighed, “but you’re not going to like it.” He opened the envelope that contained the photos he’d taken and set the first on the desk, in front of his client.

Mrs. Turner squirmed with discomfort in her seat and shook her head, “Maybe they’re just old friends? My husband can be a very affectionate man, after all.”

Simmons silently produced the next photo, which the disbelieving woman accepted with a grimace and a bit of embarrassed blushing, saying, “Well, that is…some very passionate kissing, but I’m sure Kyle would never…”

“I’m afraid he would.” Simmons shook his head and slid another photo over.

Their client’s brow furrowed as she looked on it and lied to herself again, “Well, at least they’re not completely naked. I think we might be able to work things out…” She spoke doubtfully.

Simmons hung his head and slid over the last of the four photos he’d selected for the discussion, the one the Hunter knew he didn’t want to use.

Mrs. Turner’s face went bright red as she turned the photo one way, then another, with horror, before Simmons supplied, “You’ve got it upside-down.”

The soon-to-be-divorced-and-former Mrs. Turner turned the photo the right way up and understanding of the scene she looked upon finally settled in, obviously shattering her illusions. She quivered with rage.

After the “birds and the bees” talk from Simmons, the Hunter finally grasped why married people got so angry when looking at pictures of their spouse in bed with someone else. The in-bed thing that he’d called – what was it? Oh right, sex – was supposed to be special, only to be shared between married couples, so when someone did that with another, it was a huge betrayal.

“I’m going to kill him!” Mrs. Turner stood and headed for the door.

The Hunter blocks the way and redirects Mrs. Turner back to her seat for a discussion of payment, then Simmons asks:

“Do you need us with you when you confront your husband and demand a divorce? Will you be safe? Would you like us to find you a safe place to stay, that’s out of your husband’s reach? I’d rather not leave you on your own with this, but I’m sure we can work out some kind of payment plan if money is an issue.”

She finally breaks down, cries and asks, "What should I do?"

Simmons reassures her they'll be there for her.

In the next scene, weeks have passed and the three of them are heading for the woman's old apartment, so she can personally deliver the divorce paperwork, because she wants to face her husband one last time.

The Hunter smells demon inside and Simmons gets their client to go home.

The Hunter bursts into the apartment and confronts two demons, including one in Mr. Turner's skin and the other in the skin of the other woman.

Simmons shuts the door and lets her work, but the room is oddly silent (muffling magic). After thirty seconds, she opens the door and invites him in. The demons are dead and evaporating, as they tend to do.

Simmons is about to call for a clean-up team, but the Hunter snaps her fingers, turning the two corpses into the kind of short-lived shadow creature that was demonstrated in the opening scene of the first book, her standard approach to dealing with situations requiring clean-up.

This scene puts a little more detail into this process, somewhat showing that the Hunter's shadow creatures can be fairly solid, but they need the leftover essence of a dead demon to give them shape and memories, though a hard strike will still disperse them, because they're nothing more than solidified smoke and shadow matter.

The female shadow creature begins cleaning up, while the male signs the divorce paperwork (it retains some knowledge, though the lights aren't all on, upstairs).

Simmons thinks they're creepy and possibly undead, even though he's quite far off-base.

They leave and head out to get a meal, because Simmons is hungry.

Chapter 19: Confluence of Sin

Pride/Vogerath's right hand man, Ulmoch, walks the streets of Castigation City and considers recent events.

Pride has become persona non grata in Hell, because no one wants to be near him, since he's being hunted by the Thaumavore, who has been extremely indiscriminate about how he kills his target, wiping out whole neighborhoods of demons to reach Pride.

Pride's plans are all on the back burner and he's mostly abandoned Hell, in favor of Earth. Therefore, Ulmoch has little assigned work, so he's taken to bounty hunting.

He heads for a business named 'Dead or Deader' in the Wrath district, which is a place where bounties are posted.

Sogliun is seen there, but not named, talking with the office manager, though he soon departs.

T?he office manager hangs a new poster, displaying the bounty on Lara's head, which is now 300 souls.

The next bounty he posts is for the Hunter, very specifically wanted captured and delivered to the Outback of Australia, at a price of 1000 souls.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #11: She Seeks Peace #3 (September 23-26)

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13
2. September 16-20

Chapter 8: Infatuation

To my surprise, I moved on to a new chapter on Monday, when I'd originally planned to expand what I wrote the Friday before.

Sogliun (the moon demon) ends up in Castigation City, in Hell, which has changed quite a lot in the past 3,000 years. He's bothered by the differences and surprised all seven arch demons have taken residence there.

Most of the chapter was spent on descriptive detail as Sogliun seeks something familiar, passing through the districts ruled by Pride, Greed, Envy, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth, in turn, bothered by how unfamiliar the city has become and how modern the demons within it are.

Pride's home, Pride of Place, displays banners on the outside with the face of a Pride Sogliun doesn't recognize.

Greed's Grotto is at the very edge of a dirty, unkempt district (Greed refuses to spend money on improving his district, so his minions are left to their own devices). Very near Greed's Grotto is Envy's Escape, in a far cleaner district, decorated with glass that sparkles, as if it has something to prove. Sogliun reasons the two arch-demons must be allies, since their homes are so close together.

Lust's Lot is naturally and unsurprisingly in the middle of a red-light district, but Sogliun is disturbed by the skyscrapers containing the houses of ill repute.

He reaches the Gluttony district, which is dominated by restaurants and bar and feels almost comfortable, thinking, "at least gluttony hasn't changes", right up until he reaches the center, discovering gray skyscrapers and streets filled with slender demons in business suits and skirts, all carrying briefcases. He doesn't understand, but it's explained to the reader that in modern times, corporate waste and over-spending have become big business and Gluttony's primary concerns. Bothered by the lawyers on the streets, Sogliun moves on.

He reaches the Sloth district, a sleepy little berg of apartment buildings, with very few demons moving around, who all look half asleep. Sogliun quickly leaves, lest he fall asleep for a hundred years or more.

Sogliun eventually seeks out Wrath, because Wrath doesn't change and Sogliun used to work for him. In fact, Castigation City used to be entirely Wrath's territory, a prison that he conscripted corrupted human souls from, to increase the size of Hell's armies.

Wrath is happy to see him and not angry the moon mission failed, which surprises Sogliun! Wrath isn't angry, because his mind is too busy with romance.

As they talk, Sogliun finds out Wrath is infatuated with the Hunter, because she beat him in a fair fight in the previous book, when she let her dark half to the surface. Wrath still wants marry her, but doesn't know how to woo her.

Sogliun suggests speaking with Lust, but she's unavailable, in the human world.

Sogliun offers to track Lust down, in exchange for a favor owed, and they make a contract to that effect, because Sogliun believes he can track Lust's magic back to the source, based on the things he learned on the moon.

Chapter 9: Visiting Hours

Verda Bagley, the most power witch in the world, head of the Order of Ash and Smoke, is at her desk in the New York branch office of the Order, dealing with a particularly nasty foe she needs to slay: the Order's annual budget.

She idly wishes for some excitement, but soon comes to regret her wish...

Verda's concentration is interrupted by an emergency alarm, indicating the underground bunker is under attack!

Rushing into the hall, she's told a demon is attacking the munitions factory over their heads, which serves as the cover story for the base.

She joins thirty men at the main elevator, which the demon is headed for. They wait for the demon to ride the elevator down, only for Wrath to smash right through the elevator's roof! Seeing a foe they have no hope of defeatng, Verda orders the men to run, promising to hold the line!

Wrath's face is well-known to the Order, because the Australian Ashen Blades regularly see him in the Outback, but the Order has never beaten him, despite throwing every form of military hardware at him, shy of actual nukes!

In fact, the only one to ever beat him is the Hunter, who isn't available.

Therefore, Verda has effectively decided to abandon the base and will hold Wrath off, while the men escape.

Wrath pulls a metallic, black war hammer out of his body using a mixture of metal and blood magic to shape his own blood into a weapon.

He swings it at Verda, smashing through the wall to an office. Verda ducked in time, but she's shocked by the fragments of the wall going through a desk and wall like pellets from a huge shotgun, glowing from the air friction!

Verda uses water magic to break the sprinkler system, so she'll have plenty of water to fight with.

Wrath tries a downward swing, leaving a crater in the floor!

Verda dumps a plastic bag of seeds from an ironwood tree into the dirt exposed by Wrath's most recent attack and strikes back with rapidly-growing trees that are as strong as steel!

She briefly manages to hold him in place with the trees, caught by his head and limbs, while his backside is exposed.

She hits him full force with a number of water blade attacks, only to see him explode!

The explosion puts her halfway through a concrete wall, leaving her concussed, with many broken ribs!

Before Verda passes out, due to her awful head injury, she tries a little magic, but isn't able to do anything, because she can't stay awake.

Wrath reforms, unharmed, but doesn't even bother to kill her, because he doesn't care, making his way to the cell Lust is kept in, who was captured by the Hunter in the previous novel.

He asks Lust for help with his romance issues and Lust demands to be set free, as payment. Wrath produces a contract to that effect, gives it a bloody thumbprint, then hands it over.

Chapter 10: Moonshot

Having received an automated phone call indicating HQ is under attack, the widow of Simmons shows up.

Lara floats down the elevator shaft using fairy magic to give herself wings.

She steps through the water and wreckage, coming across Verda. She's incredibly angry and the rage with demon-kind that she found in the previous book comes back to her.

Her rage immediately cools again, because Verda says one word: "Wrath."

Wrath is beyond dangerous, with a well-earned reputation, and Lara decides she has to be super-cautious.

She somewhat heals Verda and after a discussion, they determine that Wrath is there for Lust, either to rescue or assassinate her.

On the way, Lara forms a plan in her mind, asking Verda to bond with her as witch and familiar, causing Verda to put her hand on Lara's back, to perform the magic required.

After that, Lara speaks Mashu'ra's true name, summoning him into her body.

Lara takes on noticeably feline characteristics as the little imp possesses her body.

Lara asks both of them to give her everything they've got, when the right time comes.

They round a corner and spot Wrath at the periphery of Lust's cage.

Lara transforms into a Barret M107 anti-material rifle. Due to the presence of Mashu'ra in her body, the rifle ends up with a furry, black cover for the butt, a pair of cat ears on the scope and a set of whiskers on the muzzle-break. Verda shoots Wrath in the back with Lara. The bullet does nothing more than bruise the demon's back as it pancakes, causing him to turn his blood into armor as he whirls around!

Lara takes the form a cheetah to sprint down the hall, though she has to become a black one, due to Mashu'ra's influence over her powers.

As Lara charges to the attack, Verda and Mashu'ra super-charge her with all the power they can spare/produce and Lara finally realizes her personality is fully compatible with the imp, meaning she can safely use the humanoid cat form her late husband used to use.

Lara leaps and transforms into orange sparkles that surround Wrath! She uses her excess power to punch a hole through the ceiling and out the roof of the factory above as her body becomes a huge, electromagnetic railgun!

Before Wrath can react, she activates and shoots him into the air, using his extremely iron-rich armor as the means to launch him! Wrath flies so fast, he bursts into flame, at least until he hits space. From there, he hurtles away, taken out of the story for at least a couple weeks.

Wrath is on a course similar to that of Apollo 13. He'll slingshot around the moon and eventually come down from orbit, very, very angry, but hardly hurt.

At that point, he'll make his next move on his path toward stalking the Hunter, but for the time being, he's busy waiting for his free-return trajectory to pan out.

Chapter 11: Unthinking Concern

The Hunter walks the woods of the remote valley in which she once attended summer camp, back in 1986, deep in thought, considering the implications that every human friend she makes will die.

Her thoughts are interrupted by the voice of Macie Weber-Greer calling out to her, the local witch that looks after the magic valley, one of the Ashen Blades. Her calm disturbed, the Hunter vanishes into a shadow between some trees.

Next, she sits on the dam that holds the valley's lake in, watching water spill into the dark canyon, below.

Just as she gets her mind right and settles in to consider, Macie's voice again interrupts her grieving process. The Hunter leaps off the dam, into the shadows.

Around sunset, the Hunter's next spot is the small dock across the lake from the main buildings. She's taken her boots off and dangled her toes in the water, to think as she peers into the murky depths.

Macie approaches in a canoe, inviting the Hunter to dinner, who runs off into the woods.

Finally, night has fallen and the Hunter (incorrectly) assumes Macie has gone to bed. She settles in at the lakeside amphitheater for some deep thought, just as Macie steps up.

This time, the Hunter loses her temper and her sword appears in hand! She rushes to Macie and holds the tip of it to the woman's throat for a time, only to feel ashamed of herself. Her sword vanishes.

Angered by her actions, the magic valley wakes! Macie was shocked, but knows the Hunter well enough to know she'd never harm a human, but the magic suffusing the valley, which makes it semi-sentient, doesn't know that.

The ground shakes, the wind stirs, the water of the lake mounds up at the center and an asteroid hits the atmosphere overhead as the valley stirs up all four of the primary elements of magic!

Macie suggests the Hunter make a show of how sorry she is, so the Hunter kneels and bows her head to Macie, who loudly declares she forgives the Hunter.

The hostility of the valley ends as the earth stops quaking, the wind grows calm, the lake returns to normal and the shooting star harmlessly burns up.

Macie apologizes for misreading the situation, because she wanted some company, having finally realized the Hunter came for some peace and quiet. Macie leaves.

The Hunter sits down to think, but can't settle down, because she can feel the valley watching her. She vanishes into some shadows.

Future Plans

Due to how busy and exhausted I've been, I've had a hard time fully envisioning the Hunter's near-future part in the main story lately. I know what will be happening with Wrath, once he falls back to Earth (stalking the Hunter in all the worst ways).

Wrath

When Wrath gets back to Earth, he'll summon Sogliun and charge him with tracking down Lust again. Wrath will bust into another Ashen Blades base and release Lust, who will offer up some advice on wooing the Hunter's inner demon, suggesting that Wrath separate the human and demon halves of the girl, because the one thing the girl's inner demon has never really been free. Lust will also provide him with some magic trinket to do the job.

My aim for the climax is for the Hunter to be knocked cold and captured by Wrath. She'll wake up in a demon binding circle, in a wedding dress. Wrath will have a justice of the peace on hand, to marry them, but first, he'll use Lust's trinket. Naturally, everything will go wrong for him, because the two halves of the girl will be too busy fighting each other to pay any attention to him.

The trouble I'm having, however, is what will happen to the Hunter while Wrath is in space? Sending her to Macie's valley was funny, but it hardly moved the plot, though it did illuminate the Hunter's inner struggle, putting the focus of her grief on the idea her every human friend will leave her, by dying.

The Hunted Child

However, I did come up with a good plot element for late stages of the novel, something that happens just before the climax, to mostly resolve her inner turmoil and conflict.

She's going to end up taking care of a human child, three to four years old. She'll meet a retired Ashen Blade woman and her child, who are being hunter by a demon obsessed with revenge, out to kill the whole family. The Hunter will fail to save the mother, whose dying action will be asking the Hunter to deliver the kid to their father.

The Hunter will be bound and determined to not get attached, but she loves children, because they're totally innocent and immune to demon possession through sin.

They'll be together for several days and the Hunter will grow to love the child. When she gives the kid to their father, she'll feel stung with sadness, because she's unlikely to see them again, but she's also happy they met. In the end, having a brief time caring for a human kid will help the Hunter to value the brief time she has with her friends, rather than worrying the whole time about how she'll lose them.

Caring for the child will help her to look back on her time with both Reggie and Simmons with joy, remembering the good men they were. She may never see them again, since the only correct way into the afterlife would involve dying, but she can still be happy they enriched her life. In the end, she'll come to realize that so long as she remembers them, they'll never truly be gone.

Seeking Peace

Still, I need a fair few chapters between then and now. I think I may continue with the trend I set in Macie's valley, sending the Hunter from place to place, seeking peace and quiet that will be interrupted by demons at every turn, each chapter taking her a tiny step forward in her meditations.

I could push things along in her mind with a flashback on her time with Simmons as she travels, but I'd need a story I haven't covered in previous books. It would have to be something from their earliest days together, perhaps a case that caused them to bond as partners?

Of course, whenever she arrives and settles in for some serious meditation, she'll smell prey and be forced to kill a demon, once again ruining her calm, causing her to move on.

Each remote place I send her to could end up as part of a framing story to go around the flashbacks, similar to what I did with her time spend on the moon's surface, showing where she is and what she's doing between flashbacks. She should go from one extreme of nature to another, until she reaches the bottom of the ocean.

After failing to find peace in nature, I think an ill-fated visit to a Buddhist monastery would be in order, but naturally, there's a demon hiding among the monks, ruining the experience. Her violent extermination of the demon may result in the monks demanding she leave.

Places/activities the Hunter could use to seek peace:

• Deserted island/Carribean
• Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico
• Egypt
  • Top of great pyramid
• Sahara desert?
• Amazon Rainforest
• Climbing Everest
• Antarctica
  • McMurdo Station
  • Probably not enough life to sustain her
• Bottom of the ocean
  • Marianna Trench?
• Buddhist monastery
  • Remote place, for preference
  • Isn't there a famous one in the mountains of Tibet?

After that, she'll end up caring for the previously mentioned child and the kid's father (perhaps an Aussie?) could suggest a Walkabout in the Australian Outback, which would propel her right into Wrath's plans.

I could really amp up the stalking aspect of things by having Wrath's minions be the ones to interrupt the Hunter's calm at every turn, because they've been out searching for her.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #10: She Seeks Peace #2 (September 16-20)

She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:

1. September 12-13

Chapter 3: The Dollar Owed

Reggie steps into his dark office and sits down, pouring two glasses of cheap whiskey (prohibition is on, so the stuff he can get is garbage quality). He pushes one glass across his desk and offers it to Silver Dollar, who he's certain is in the room.

Silver Dollar sits down, but refuses the drink.

They discuss his reasons for killing her men and he drops the name of his client's father. Johan Mitchell was beaten nearly to death by one of Silver Dollar's street-level enforcers and Reggie was hired by Mitchell's son to get the demon-mobster to pay the medical bills.

Silver Dollar refuses and backs away into darkness, just as expected, so Reggie screams, "Now!"

The Hunter enters and shadow-steps behind Silver Dollar, swinging a baseball bat at maximum strength, while Reggie opens fire! Silver Dollar's head more or less ends up all over the room and the Hunter's bat shatters (the reason she doesn't use one in battle, ever again).

Reggie drops six demons with precise shots to the head, in just seconds, but then comes across a big problem: the next customer is bulletproof, with an insect's armored exoskeleton! He's actually a scarab beetle demon.

The Hunter hurls a 180 MPH fastball at the demon's head, concussing it, though her baseball explodes from extreme conditions it wasn't designed for.

The Hunter tackles the insect demon, since it fell down, and tries to kill it with bare hands and demonic strength, while Reggie ducks a demon diving for him, resulting in the attacker going out the window.

That leaves three demons still in the room, who are busy trying to sneak out, since their boss is headless, on the floor.

Reggie offers the three a rare chance to survive, if one of them will lead him to Silver Dollar's money stash (his client needs the cash for those medical bills).

All three volunteer. Reggie needs only one, so he tells them to sort it out among themselves and they scuffle for dominance, fighting for the chance to stay in the human world a little longer.

Meanwhile, the Hunter can't hurt the demon, because its armor is too thick! It gets up with her latched onto its knee, which she's hammers with her fists, trying to bust the kneecap. Having failed to harm her with punches and kicks, due to the protective spell surrounding her, it tries to bite her.

She looks up, sees the open mouth and Reggie's stolen pistol appears in her hands! She fires three shots into the unarmored interior of its mouth!

The brute falls over, badly hurt, but not killed, so the Hunter fires two more shots in each eye, finishing it off.

The scuffling demons finish sorting out the pecking order, so Reggie shoots the losers, promising the winner he won't kill them if they leads the way to Silver Dollar's money.

Reggie takes a moment to call HQ, using code phrases based on 1920's slang to arrange for a cleanup crew and inform them he's headed out. The codes are necessary, because telephone operators of the time were notorious for eavesdropping.

Before they leave, the demon that went out the window attacks, flying in the window. The Hunter uses the last round in the pistol she stole from Reggie to put it down, so Reggie gives her a full box of ammunition.

The captured demon takes them to Silver Dollar's brothel, which is full of demon prostitutes, most of whom run away.

He leads them to the main office and the money safe.

Reggie asks the Hunter to "do the honors" and the demon protests about the fact they had a deal.

Reggie reminds their prisoner the deal was that Reggie wouldn't kill them, having never said anything about the girl not killing them.

The Hunter kills the demon and smashes the safe open, before going out to get the demonic prostitutes.

The cash Reggie's client needs is delivered in the morning, while Reggie takes a little for expenses and the rest is given to the Order of Ash and Smoke, to fund their war on demon-kind.

Chapter 4: Lunar Night

The Hunter pauses the recall of happy memories with sadness, because she can't think about Reggie without pain. She's never really dealt with her feelings, but looking up at the Earth, she's surprised she has no issue with being on the moon.

It turns out that life energy from the Earth pools on the moon during the lunar night.

As she considers how much she loved Reggie and how wrong she'd been about how unstoppable he was (he died off-screen at the beginning of the series), she finds her mind drawn to the day he died.

Meanwhile, a demon races across the surface of the moon, collecting the pooling life energy to sustain himself.

He's been there for about three-thousand years, as a result of a failed mission to establish a demon outpost on the moon.

They used the moon energy to open a portal, but it didn't last very long, stranding them there. The demon ate his men to survive, then adapted to living off the energy pooling on the moon.

The demon has become little more than a black mist that senses the disturbance in the life energy field produced by the Hunter and rushes toward her.

He hopes to hitch a ride off the moon, just like it tried with Apollo 17, the astronauts of which ran away from him, then left the moon, never to return.

He crests a hill and sees the Hunter from behind, considering himself lucky she's facing away from him.

Chapter 5: The Hounds

It's 1942 and the Hunter now looks fifteen years old. She's wearing a long, black coat that was a gift from Reggie to mark twenty years as partners.

Reggie and the Hunter are on their last case together, a kidnapping. The Hunter approaches an old house with a suitcase full of money, intending to use it as a trap to make an opportunity for a rescue.

There's some argument from the thugs in the front yard, then she's allowed in, to meet Otto Vogerath, the demon-monster that kidnapped the client's daughter.

Vogerath is the Hunter's demonic arch-nemesis, though she didn't know that at the time.

He arranged the meeting as part of his overall plans, which are explained in previous books. His goal for the day is testing some magic he thinks will allow his minions to get past the spell protecting the Hunter from harm.

He admits to violating the kidnapped girl until he got bored, followed by eating her. The Hunter tries to shoot him, but he dodges dang fast (rattlesnake speed).

Vogerath is surrounded by hell hounds, which are juvenile demons (imps), summoned into the bodies of rottweilers, making them more vicious and stronger than ever. They're also atypically loyal for demons, which is the reason he used to favor them.

He orders, "Get her!"

The hounds rush the Hunter, but instead of meeting their doom by altered probability, they're cooked alive. Annmarie, the Hunter's mother, was a powerful fire witch in life and now lives on as a protective spell surrounding the Hunter. With probability magic blocked, she uses her old standby: high-intensity fire magic.

This feat is all the more spectacular, because hell hounds are normally quite resistant to heat and fire.

Three hounds die on the spot, two are scorched and one is blinded by its eyeballs getting fried.

The blind one seeks help from Vogerath, who kicks the injured hound in the face and reminds it of its orders. The hound is angry and lays into Vogerath with its teeth, grabbing him by the ankle, only to shake him back and forth by it!

The Hunter laughs at this so hard, she doesn't even try to kill them and lets the other hounds escape into the back yard, which is fenced.

The thugs from the front yard burst in, so the hunter crushes the guns of the two humans, while the others try to shoot her, resulting in their weapons melting!

She shoots the demons and leaves the terrified humans alone, then sneaks past the hound tearing his master to shreds, to deal with the others.

She finds them stupidly milling around and concludes dogs never were that bright, shooting them to make sure they harm no one.

She's about to end the demon and his not-so-loyal hound, only to hear Reggie shout, "Not today, boys!"

She forgets the demon and rushes to one side of the house, leaping to see over the fence, while her partner takes on too many thugs!

The Hunter leaps to his aid, going from the back yard to the sidewalk in a single bound, but she isn't fast enough and Reggie is shot in the chest, putting a pair of holes in one of his lungs!

The Hunter's eyes glow blue and she loses herself to a berserk rage, blacking out!

When she comes to her senses, the demons are all dead and their blood flows through the street, while the human thugs run away.

This isn't explained in the novel, but the Hunter lost her marbles from seeing her best friend shot and her inner demon managed to exert greater influence over her than ever before.

That's the first hint of the struggle for dominance with her inner demon/second personality in this novel, which was a major plot element of the previous two stories.

Looking at Reggie, she wishes she'd learned first aid, but puts pressure on his wound, to slow the bleeding.

Reggie pushes her hands away and says, "Too late", because he knows he's a goner.

She tries to express herself, but the curse gets in the way, though Reggie seems to understand, saying, "I…love…you…too."

Reggie dies and the Hunter yowls like a cat for nearly two minutes straight, at a volume that leaves the neighbors terrified.

She breathes and looks at her blood-soaked hands, then yowls even louder and longer, causing the neighbors to vow they're moving in the morning.

The Hunter sees cop cars crest a hill and bolts, because she really hates cops, leaving only a trail of tears in her wake.

After running for a long time, she pauses to discard her new coat, because the sleeves are soaked in Reggie's blood and she doesn't ever want to see it again, first using it to wipe her hands clean.

Within a few weeks, she starts wearing gloves all the time, because every time she looks at her bare hands, she sees Reggie's blood, settling on a pair of finger-less, black opera gloves.

The observant reader of the previous books will note that she's almost never been seen without a pair of gloves and this explains why.

Switching back to the perspective of Vogerath, he limps away, having just finished off his hound. He's flees the scene for similar reasons, not wanting to deal with the complication of police.

As he walks into the night, he vows, "No more hounds!"

This explains why we never see him use hell hounds again, despite the fact he used to heavily favor them for minions.

Chapter 6: Two's Company

With Reggie's story complete, the Hunter realizes she never mourned him properly, because she stuffed her feelings and moved on with a new detective, like one might buy a kitten immediately after losing a much-loved cat. It wasn't healthy and she's finally ready to face that fact.

Just when she's starting to deal with the facts and consider how what she's learned applies to Simmons, she hears a strange voice in her mind, asking for help.

She turns and looks on the moon demon, unsure what it is. She initially tries sniffing it, only to remember there's no air on the moon.

She uses the demon-locator spell she's seen Verda use many times, reasoning that even with her lack of skill for witch magic, she should be able to locate a demon that's right in front of her.

She forms a necklace with a quartz crystal on the end from solid shadow and tries the spell out.

Amusingly enough, the necklace is initially drawn like a magnet to her own body, the closest demon.

She tries again, making allowances for her own presence, and the necklace is drawn to the moon demon.

Having confirmed the creature is a demon, she leaps to the attack, accidentally launching herself into the sky, because she's very strong and the moon's gravity is weak.

She tumbles for a while, trying a few forms of magic to slow herself down, before settling on air magic, using it like a set of thrusters in her hands and feet, like Iron Man.

The demon keeps up with her the whole time, still asking for help she refuses to give, though it does start making threats.

She hurls her sword at it, but nothing happens. Realizing its ghost-like nature, she reasons it may be immune to the very physical things the living spell protecting her can do.

She tries burning it with ultraviolet flame, her unique combination of witch fire and demon magic, but it has no effect.

In the end, she decides to deal with it like an elemental spirit.

She ends her tumble through the sky with a shadow-step to the surface, then shoots off a bunch of fire magic, like fireworks, to draw the demon to her new location, while she braces to mentally attack it, though she needs it to speak to her telepathically to make her plan work!

The demon attacks and bites her, saying how tasty her blood is, though it doesn't finish the sentence, because the Hunter hauls it inside her subconscious mind.

Inside, we switch to the demon's perspective, who hears a girl's voice calling out in a creepy fashion as he runs around the shadowed void that represents the Hunter's mind.

After playing with the demon for a little bit, the Hunter and her other personality, the Eighth Deadly Sin, Willful Insanity, corner the demon.

Insanity holds it, while the Hunter kills it with her wakizashi.

Back in the real world, the demon explodes into mist that's drawn away by the vacuum of space, leaving a two-inch hole in her space suit!

She desperately tries to patch it with magic, while her air and blood vent into space, incidentally sending her rolling around the landscape like a spinning flower firework! Her patch fails and her magic clothes can't fix it fast enough!

She'd shadow-step away, but with her mind in turmoil, that could send her anywhere in the universe.

In the end, she opts to enter the pocket dimension inside her top hat, which is currently in the shape of her space helmet.

Her body and clothes vanish as a black mist that flows into her helmet, while it turns back to it's usual form.

The hat ends up rolling for a while, before coming to a stop.

Chapter 7: Three's a Crowd

The hunter spends a short time in her hat, healing from her injury, while her little friend, the kitten demon Mashu'ra, and the ghost of her father, Jake Watson, ask why she ran away from home.

She wanted to be alone, which she clearly won't get in her hat, so she departs as soon as she's able.

Insanity steps from the shadows at the edge of the hat's interior and tells them, "She’s just trying to think things through. If you fools had left her alone, she could have have done that here, but you had to go and make demands of her time and energy."

They both apologize.

This chapter isn't over, but I ran out of time on Friday, so I'll continue on Monday.

Future Plans

Monday will start with a chapter back at the New York City HQ for the Order of Ash and Smoke, where the head of the Order, Verda, will end up dealing with an intruder. As the Order's best witch, she takes them on with magic.

Wrath, one of the seven arch-demons, will break in, smash his way through every defense the Ashen Blades can muster, even besting Verda in a magical duel, leaving her so exhausted, she passes out. Ironically, he doesn't finish anyone off, because he doesn't care about the Ashen Blades or the war with humanity anymore.

He'll break into the room that houses Lust (another arch-demon), who was captured in the previous book. He wants advice on romance, because he's infatuated with the Hunter, who was the first to ever beat him in a fair fight.

She hears his story (taking twenty to thirty minutes) and requests being freed from her cell in exchange for her advice.

Wrath will agree, just as Verda comes to and charges into the room, hitting the demon with every bit of energy she can muster for a telekinetic punch based on air magic, probably with the backup of Lara (the wife of Simmons). Wrath will end up in a decaying, elliptical orbit for a fair chunk of the book, unable to get himself down. I'll have to do some research on orbital periods to get the timing right, but I think his orbit will take him past the moon, for something akin to a gravitational slingshot back to Earth.

Meanwhile, Lust will be moved to a location that hasn't been compromised.

Eventually, Wrath will hit the atmosphere like a shooting star (though totally unharmed) and seek out Lust, because he still needs her advice.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #9: She Seeks Peace #1 (September 12-13)

The next novel I'll be keeping a log on is She Seeks Peace, volume 4 of Ashen Blades.

Why the Long Delay?

It was a long month, working on editing Troll War and getting it ready for the process of querying literary agents.

Editing took longer than I would have liked. Some kind person on Mastodon suggested I use software to read the book to me, because it will read exactly what it finds. That was a third pass of editing I hadn't planned for, but dang, the results were worth it.

I was a little embarrassed to hear my typos read aloud, but I'm going to do all of my final editing this way from now on, because it catches stuff I never will on my own.

Then I got bogged down writing a basic query letter to modify for each agent, including back cover text and a synopsis of the novel.

Changes to My Process

Now that my computer is all setup for reading to me in a fairly pleasant fashion, I'll be listening to the previous day's material at the start of each work session. I tried it out with the prologue and chapter 1 this week and found some nasty typos I couldn't see on my own, so this is definitely something essential for the future.

For the curious, here's the combination of software I'm using:

• Linux Mint - The Linux distribution I use for my operating system
• LibreOffice - Word processor
• ReadText - Extension for LibreOffice
• Speech Dispatcher - Default text to speech system on Linux Mint
• Piper - AI voiced text-to-speech
• Pied - Software to connect Piper to Speech Dispatcher
• Bash - I wrote some shell scripts to customize my experience with ReadText, to ensure pauses between sentences

I've really grown to love Piper, which is a real-time text-to-speech system that uses an AI voice to speak in a rather clear and understandable fashion, which was trained on ethically-sourced voice samples. I've been using the libritts model, which I find to be pleasant to listen to.

Piper only produces 22 KHz audio (half CD quality), so not the best, but it is fast, more or less perfect for reading during the editing process.

Prologue

I actually wrote the prologue during my work on Demon for President!, because writing it was the only way I could get the scene out of my head. Sometimes, I just have to write things out of order, to appease the inspiration.

The novel begins with the Hunter on the dark surface of the moon, picking up where the previous book left off.

She sits on the abandoned lunar rover from Apollo 17, considering the loss of her best friend, Simmons, who died at the end of the previous book.

Simmons was the biggest thing that made her want to save the world, but with him gone, she worries she'll lose her humanity.

Her mind is inevitably drawn to thoughts of Reggie Stewart, the detective she worked with before Simmons, because she holds herself responsible for his death, just the same as Simmons. She's wrong on both counts, of course, but she's has a guilt complex similar to Spider-Man, the reasons for which I'll make apparent through flashbacks on her personal history.

She looks back with longing and sadness, remembering how she met Reggie.

Chapter 1: Reggie

Chapter 1 takes place on May 5, 1922. I looked through historical records and found a sufficiently rainy day for my purposes. The Extreme Weather Watch website has been very helpful for looking up historical weather for Ashen Blades.

Reggie runs through the rain, pistols drawn (twin M1911s), considering how he got into the mess he's in, while his body aches, because he isn't as young as he used to be (48) and his old injuries act up in humid conditions.

He bumped into a demon in the rain, while looking to get a hot meal.

The demon grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air, explaining:

"The boss ain’t happy with you, mister. The boss is tired of you killing his guys."

As it turns out, Reggie has been killing demon mobsters that work for a particular demon, who's human name is Michele Popwell, while her criminal persona is 'Silver Dollar'. She got the nickname for her tendency to mark her kills by putting a silver dollar in the mouth of the corpse, as a warning to others.

The "his" in the demon's dialog is intentional. All of Silver Dollar's minions refer to her as "he", to throw investigators off the mark.

Silver Dollar is quite angry to have lost so many flunkies, who are now out for blood.

Reggie shoots the brute in the testicles, then the heart. The demon stumbles away and Reggie aims both pistols at their head as he makes an offer:

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Either you go tell Popwell I want a meeting, or I shoot you in the head a few times, then pin that nice suit of yours to her door, just like I’ve done with the last twenty of her men. It’s your choice, of course.".

Caught between a rock (Reggie) and a hard place (Silver Dollar will be angry at his failure), the demon opts to run, presumably in the hopes of healing and coming at Reggie again.

Reggie reluctantly gives chase.

Meanwhile, the Hunter sits on the edge of a rooftop, enjoying the rain, because while it's pouring, she can hardly smell demons. She's taking the rare chance to relax.

She appears ten years old, though she's really quite short for that age, at 3'11".

Despite the rain, she smells a demon and looks down, seeing Reggie chasing the it, amused to see a little role-reversal between the sheep (her internal monologue term for humans) and prey (her internal term for demons).

She leaps down and scares the demon into turning, because all demons in town know about her, scared crap-less by her existence and strength, because thye have no idea what she is.

She repeats this several times, using shadow steps (she teleports from one shadow to another), giving Reggie a chance to catch up.

Reggie turns one final corner and runs into the backside of the demon, who's finally stopped, leading to this scene:

Reggie charged round another corner and practically barreled right into the demon’s back, who blubbered, “Please, don’t kill me!”

Reggie put one pistol to the brute’s back and the other to the back of his skull, before answering, “Just deliver my message and I’ll let you live.”

“Okay, okay! Whatever you want two want!” The demon raised his hands in surrender!

“Two?” Reggie asked, surprised.

He was further surprised to hear insane, girlish giggling from the other side of the monster, so he peered around the demon, without moving his weapons.

There was a small girl there, with eyes so blue, they practically glowed! She had an elderly butcher’s knife in hand and it finally dawned on Reggie that it wasn’t him the demon was most scared of. The top hat she wore was far too large for her.

The girl launched herself into the air with inhuman strength, slashing the demon’s neck as part of a twirl! When she finished a complete revolution, she turned it into a forward thrust, ramming the knife into the demon’s eye so hard, the tip cracked through the back of its skull, before her body weight hauled it right back out! Reggie was hit by a splatter of demon blood, which quickly washed away in the rain, then evaporated.

Meanwhile, the girl lightly landed on her feet and took several steps backwards, allowing the demon to splash down into the water at her feet. Reggie met the crazed girl’s gaze, unsure what to do, because she was clearly a demon, though she’d just killed one of her own.

Reggie demands why she killed the other demon.

Naturally, she responds, "It's a secret", the only phrase she can speak, due to the curse she lives with.

Not accepting that, Reggie angrily asks more questions and she flips him the bird, but since he won't let it go, the Hunter produces Mashu'ra from her hat, the kitten demon that lives there.

He explains that she's cursed and the two of them hate demons.

Reggie doesn't believe him, but Mashu'ra also explains that the Hunter is a half-demon, not a pure demon.

He complains about the rain and the Hunter puts him away as he gives a final warning:

"If you’ll take a bit of advice, you should stop pointin’ guns at her, because nothin’ good will come of it."

Reggie reasons any spawn of evil is evil, even if they're partially human, and presses his luck by trying to shoot the Hunter, only for his pistol to repeatedly malfunction.

Getting annoyed, the Hunter decides to take his pistols away and shadow steps high into the air, above him.

She kicks him in the head, knocking him to the ground, while his pistols clatter away. She goes for one, while he goes for the other and they both come up pointing a gun.

There's a long, quiet moment in which neither fires and Reggie lowers his pistol. She does the same.

He was trying to trick her and raises it again, only to see her do the same. He soon realizes she's only mimicking him, with no intention of firing, basically playing a game.

He holsters his pistol in the hopes she'll drop hers, but she instead puts it in her hat, forcing Reggie to conclude:

"Clearly, I’m never getting that back."

She nods agreement.

He explains that she's gotten in the way of his plans for Silver Dollar and his need to send a message. She shrugs and grins sheepishly, the closest she can get to an apology.

Reggie decides (aloud) to go find another of Silver Dollar's minions and walks off, into the rain, having given up on getting a hot meal.

Thinking the sheep (Reggie) is mad to tangle with demons, the Hunter decides to follow him, because she likes him and he's going to need help from the only shepherd available (herself).

Chapter 2: The Assignment

Reggie is followed around by the Hunter for weeks on end. He initially tries to ditch her, but she shadow-steps to keep up, treating it like a game.

After a few days, he calls his boss in the Order of Ash and Smoke, Master Lagrow, telling him everything.

Lagrow acts as if he already knew about the girl and assigns Reggie to keep an eye on her. Reggie doesn't like it, bothered by the unspoken facts.

The Hunter initially won't go into buildings (she lives outside and gets claustrophobic at the idea of heavy concrete over her head) and Reggie pays street kids to watch her, discovering she never sleeps.

After a while, he accepts her as his perpetual shadow and gets back to work.

After a long day of killing demons to tick off Silver Dollar, in the hopes of arranging a face to face meeting, he heads back to his detective agency office to look at his notes on the case.

When they arrive at the building, the Hunter smells demon and growls.

She follows him inside and even rides an elevator with him, though she does have a panic attack, resulting in a half-crushed railing, because the sense of motion terrified her.

Getting out, they walk the hall to his office, the stink of demon getting stronger, because there's at least ten of them inside.

After a brief discussion that confirms the Hunter's opinion of Reggie (totally insane), he goes in alone, because he wants to try talking, before violence.

Future Plans

Next week will being with Chapter 3, 'The Dollar Owed'. That little play on words amuses me. Reggie will end up surrounded by demons and finally come face to face with Silver Dollar, who's so incensed, she's lost all rationality.

There will be some discussion, which will end with Silver Dollar ordering Reggie's death, at which point the Hunter will enter the dark office by shadow step, wielding a baseball bat.

Silver Dollar will take a full-strength hit to the back of her skull, which will destroy both Silver Dollar's head and the bat (this is the reason readers have never seen her wield one, before). After that, Reggie and the Hunter will fight back to back in a scene that will demonstrate the fact they're two peas in a pod (they're both totally insane and love a fight).

The chapter after that will take place twenty years later, though I might try the textual equivalent of a montage, so I can show a few happy memories along the way.

This will show their final mission together, which ultimately resulted in Reggie's death. While parts of that were shown in the prologue of She Hunts Demons, to help establish why the Hunter wouldn't let Simmons go into battle, I plan to show the entire scene, including an amusing bit where one of Vogerath's Hell Hounds bites him in the foot, leading him to stop using them as minions. Readers of the previous three books will definitely remember Vogerath, the Hunter's arch-nemesis.

Once that sad scene is done and Reggie is no more, we'll return to the Hunter on the moon, where she'll encounter a demon that's been living there since the Apollo 17 mission, surviving on the life energy that emanates from the Earth and pools on the surface during the lunar night (incidentally, the same way the Hunter can survive up there). That fight will prompt the Hunter to leave the moon, because it no longer feels like a peaceful place to her.

That will become the theme of the novel: the hunter seeks a place for quiet contemplation, but always finds more demons, wandering from one place to another, until she ends up in the Australian Outback on a walkabout, which is where she'll run into the arch-demon, Wrath, for the climax.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades

Work In Progress #8: Troll War #8 (August 12-16)

This is the eighth and final part of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon.

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on Troll War, in chronological order:

1. June 21-28
2. July 1-5
3. July 8-12
4. July 15-19
5. July 22-27
6. July 29-August 2
7. August 5-9

Coming to an End

I completed the rough draft of Troll War yesterday, so this will be the last post regarding my work on the novel.

For at least the next two weeks, I'll be editing, a much less interesting process, which is not my favorite part of writing, but still exceedingly important. It also wouldn't make for good posts, because it would probably be all one-liners to indicate what percentage of the work is done.

After that, I'll be querying literary agents, which is a process that I really shouldn't publicly post about, at least until I'm done querying agents and have either gotten a publishing deal or given up and set my sights on self-publishing the book. Past experience tells me some agents will take as long as six months to reply (they're being inundated with AI-generated trash that doesn't interest them and it takes longer than ever to sift the wheat from the dross).

So, in short, after this post, you won't hear from me about this project for a while, but I would appreciate the prayers of my fans to help me get an agent and a publishing deal.

How Long Should a Novel Take to Write?

That is a funny question that people tend to ask, which somewhat demonstrates a lack of understanding of the writing process. Are they asking how long, once I sit down to write? Are they asking about the whole process? Do they consider editing to be a part of it? Are brainstorming and advanced thought supposed to be included?

I find it quite a pain to come up with an answer, because I've been working on the plot of this book in the back of my head for about a year, but the plot was also something that was shaped by my characters, who always get a say, because their actions shape it and I can't ignore their personalities without making them less realistic.

Then there's the sticky issue of when did I really start writing? I'm not actually sure. I wrote some journal-style entries for Captain Vendros (Captain of Terror of Vok) sometime last year (2023), just after I had the idea for the novel, because I felt inspired. Some of that material was re-written for Troll War (it became part of his speech in chapter 16) and it also fed back into my planning process.

However, I can say with certainty how long it takes me to complete a rough draft: typically, eight to ten weeks and Troll War was one of the quicker ones. I write about a full chapter each day, which averages 2,500 words and I aim for somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 words. Some days I write more, some days less, but 2500 words is my average, unless inspiration is hitting me particularly hard.

I normally move slowly at first, unless I have a strong image for the opening scenes, because I have to feel out the personalities of new characters or work out how an old character may be dealing with/not dealing with the consequences of previous adventures.

Troll War was a relatively quick starter, a surprise, because the required action lent itself rather well to moving things along, but I still had a lot of slowdowns during the first week or so, because I had to make a lot of decisions about the setting and characters. The prologue wasn't easy to write, though it was fun. It took me two days to write, despite being only 2,200 words.

Once I was past that, however, things really picked up, because the characters are interesting.

I find the crazy, unstoppable nature of trolls fun to write and chapter 1 went quickly, though I've had to go back and edit it to make small changes or additions all throughout the novel, to make the important material there consistent, especially as related to Nepita's son, Prince Yetu.

I love the stubborn, unflinching nature of dwarves and find them easy to write, as well.

Once the conflict between the two got going, I was flying along, just the way I prefer, though there were slow downs with each new main character.

Sadly, I'm no longer flying and I'm to the prickly pineapple of writing: editing and polishing. That typically takes me two weeks, but in this case, I'm going to do that, then hand the novel off to a friend or two to read for a month or so. When they're done, I'll probably take the time for another pass of editing, which I'll likely do at a slower pace, because I'll be in the middle of another novel by then.

So, to answer this question: it takes more than a year, or just a matter of months, depending on the lens you look through.

Statistical Details

I moved faster than my average on this one. The novel is currently 116,072 words and took 8 weeks of work, five days a week, plus one extra day (41 days, not counting weekends), which comes out to 2,831 words per day.

That's a bit longer than I originally planned on (105,000 was an intentional low-ball estimate to give myself extra room), but my first pass of editing will likely cut between one to three thousand words. With careful adjustments, my sentences will get a shorter (my rough draft sentences can often be too wordy).

I usually also have to add material in editing, like a new sentence here and there, expanded descriptions, adding a tie-in to a later plot thread to early chapters, etc.

I expect the novel to end up at around 115,000 words. Lately I've been aiming for 100,000-110,000 words, plus or minus, so this good, but in my high range.

Some Notes on Changes

Chapter 37, 'Bushwhack', the actual climactic chapter, got renumbered to 40, because I kept hitting a wall this past week related to details that needed to be written first, requiring the addition of three chapters I hadn't planned out in my mind.

The chapters I hadn't planned for are 34 (Memorial Vale), 35 (Where No Plan Survives) and 36 (Abomination), which will be covered in the next three sections.

Chapter 34: Memorial Vale

Sureshot's team, minus King Windmaker and his guards, quietly arrives at Memorial Vale, while Anji watches the narrow entrance, ready to fire on intruders.

Privates Price and McBride (the previously unnamed private that volunteered to tend the horses, but which Logan ignored) head into the valley on point, followed by Illa, under cover of a concealment spell that makes them look like rocks, though strangely mobile rocks that are roughly humanoid in shape.

Anji intentionally puts a bullet though the third person's right eye, dropping Illa to the ground. The spell ends (Illa was the source), creating a panic. McBride turns back, just as Sureshot screams for everyone to get moving (it takes a little time for Anji to reload, since her rifle is single-shot and Sureshot knows it).

McBride hesitates too long and takes a bullet through the head, but Logan has the sense to shove the rest of the men through the gap and behind cover, along with Kadrek, leaving only Brosla and Sureshot outside.

Brosla is about to try, but Sureshot tells him to wait. Thirty seconds pass and Illa sits up, complaining about the pain, only to take a bullet through the other eye.

They rush into the valley and into cover.

Kadrek is in dwarven plate armor that can block bullets, so he moves to retrieve his wife, taking a bullet through his shoulder, because there's a weak point there.

Illa is dragged to cover around the time an angry ghost appears. With Illa unconscious, Sureshot is forced to address the issue, drawing her katana, Shaffurukattā. She pours a little magic into it and informs the weapon she's got a ghostly problem to deal with.

As a result, it magically turns the light of the full moon into a ghostly cutting edge, functioning as what's known as a 'moonblade', which has the power to destroy ghosts.

The ghostly queen demands an explanation for their presence, or their immediate retreat.

Sureshot requests safe passage through, but follows up with a threat to exterminate the old queen, who isn't impressed, snapping her fingers. That causes three more ghosts to appear, her sisters.

The newcomers discuss Sureshot and ultimately decide she isn't worth tangling with, because she's got a moonblade and the moon is full, vanishing away.

After Logan takes a potshot at the first ghost with an enchanted, ghost-killing pistol Sureshot loaned him, the old queen runs off, but insists the conflict isn't over (an empty threat, once Illa cxan convince them to back down).

Illa wakes and Kadrek has managed to conceal her injuries form those that don't know she's a troll, so he sells them on the idea she was grazed, twice. She wastes a little magic to make her hand glow for a "healing spell", further selling it. She also heals Kadrek's shoulder.

Illa uses a telepathic shout that's limited to just work on the ghosts of the valley to demand the safety of her friends, including King Windmaker and his men.

While she works, Sureshot loads one of her three Troll-Slayer rounds into her rifle, vowing to kill Anji for harming her men.

In another corner of the valley, Nepita senses Illa's magic, impressed by the nature of it, because she managed to limit the scope of a telepathic shout, which had always been considered impossible in the past.

Yetu is right beside her and he learns the technique, just by observing it being used.

At this point, we finally learn that Nepita fears Illa, because she's so talented with magic, Nepita might not be able to win a fight with her.

Wanting to learn the nature of the message, Nepita demands to speak with the ghosts of the valley, coming face to face with the ghost of Grandmother, or rather the version of her that Nepita left for dead after shattering every bone in her body.

As it turns out, Grandmother's habit of transferring her mind from body to body is a mental cloning process, not a transfer of spirit, so the valley is actually full of copies of the old troll, each with a different face.

Nepita threatens the ghost with a fate worse than undeath (being left a brain-dead spirit, via telepathic magic) to get the information: Illa asked nicely for the safety of her friends, then followed up with the same threat as Nepita. The ghosts depart.

Sureshot uses a telegraph crystal to call King Windmaker in, who imforms his guards the time has come and they rush into the valley with their war-riders, screaming!

Chapter 35: Where No Place Survives

The title of this short chapter is a reference to the fact that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy and this is certainly true in this chapter.

Sureshot's plans are ruined by the fact that the valley if full of trolls and Nepita's plans are ruined by the fact that the battle lines don't get drawn the way she'd likes, because she hadn't counted on the presence of King Windmaker and his personal guard.

Sureshot's team splits up, using the confusion of Windmaker's brazen entrance as a distraction. Sureshot, four soldiers and Brosla head south, while Illa, Kadrek, Logan and three soldiers head north. The intent is to search for the secret door to the palace in a stealthy fashion, while Windmaker does so out in the open.

Anji takes a shot at Windmaker, but the glass of his cockpit has been replaced with an enchanted pane her bullets can't penetrated. He flips her the bird with both hands, though he doesn't know where she is.

Windmaker sees the line drawing of a flower Illa showed him etched all over the back wall of the valley, realizing the trolls learned of the secret entrance and hid it in plain sight, by putting the mark everywhere.

Windmaker notices a company of troll Abominations (though he has no idea what they are) accompanied by the stolen war-rider and orders most of his men to wipe them out. Six of his guards stay to defend him.

Nepita sees Windmaker's entrance to the valley and sets off to face him, ordering Yetu to kill Illa, instructing him to request aid from Anji, if required.

Illa leads her group, but soon discovers the same frustrating fact as Windmaker and laughs hysterically for a time, just before Yetu locates her with echo-location magic tuned only to reflect off of Illa's mind, based on what he learned from Illa's telepathic shout.

Chapter 36: Abomination

This chapter focuses on the ultimate fate of Aketa, who throws herself into battle in the hopes of dying, because she's been telepathically brainwashed by the biomancers to make suicide impossible, despite her daily agony.

As a reminder, Aketa was burned head to toe in Chapter 8 and can't properly regenerate her skin or limbs and she's become the heart of the stolen war-rider, her muscles and tendons directly tied to its control systems.

Captain Stormbreaker (captain of the royal guard) has a nasty time keeping up with her, because she moves far faster than any driver can, because she isn't using handles and levers to drive. He loses a lot of men in the process of learning her capabilities and she even steals his war-rider's ax, demonstrating a level of dexterity that's impossible for any regular driver.

He puts together a team consisting of himself and three others, who seek to come at her from all sides, hoping to use the blind spots of a war-rider to their advantage, but Aketa uses a judo-like throw to hurl Stormbreaker into the machine coming at her from behind, then turns her attention to one side, making rude gestures at another of them (she can move the fingers of her war machines with great precision).

The dwarf she baited charges and the one behind her (a woman dwarf named Fidra) does the same, because the charging fool needs backup against someone so strong. At the last moment, Aketa performs another maneuver that's impossible for a standard war-rider: an leap into the air, including a backwards somersault.

She lands behind the two machines as they slam into each other and skewers both machines with her sword, ruining the steam chamber of the first and putting her sword through the cockpit of the second, forcing Fidra to watch a friend die.

Hauling her sword free, the two machines fall back and she heads off.

Captain Stormbreaker and the other member of the team recover and engage Aketa more cautiously than ever, dancing about the battlefield after a short break to talk, because she wants to tick the dwarves off so badly, they might just beat her. She even insults them by saying they've haven't touched her once and opens her armor to show them how she moves so nimbly.

Stormbreaker is horrified to see the abomination of woman and machine that she's become. She arrogantly (but not suicidally, because she's confident they can't touch her) leaves her armor open.

Fidra frees herself from the wreckage of her war-rider. She's in bad shape and tears her left arm wide open in the process of escaping the wreck with only a throwing ax for a weapon.

She ties a tourniquet on her left arm. Fidra is a champion ax thrower, so she's sure she can do the job, just so long as Aketa is close enough.

To that end, she bloodies her ax to add color and waves it in the air while Aketa's back is turned, catching the eye of her friends, who nod t her; the royal guard are excellent at non-verbal communication, so that's all it takes.

Her friends subtly maneuver Aketa into position, while Fidra hides and waits for her opportunity. It comes and she hurls the ax with all her might, despite her many injuries. Her tourniquet comes loose and she bleeds out, but he ax flies true!

Aketa is struck in the join between her fleshy right shoulder and the machine, ruining her ability to manipulate her right arm, just as she's raised her sword to block a downward chop from Stormbreaker! Her arms falls limp and her sword falls free!

Aketa screams, "Thank you!" just before the ax hits her, destroying her body so badly, she'll never regenerate.

The royal guard clean up the rest of the battle with ease, because the abominations were green troops, with no battle experience.

Stormbreaker has great respect for his fallen opponent, because he finally realizes she was in great pain the whole time and comes to think of her like a sister, because badly-wounded dwarves tend to volunteer for the most intense battles they can, so they can die on their feet, normally taking ten or more enemies down with them.

There's a red flash from the sky (events from Bushwhack and Terror of Vok's Hammer of Vok mode) that nearly blinds everyone.

Stormbreaker realizes the alien threat has arrived and regrets killing Aketa, because she was exceptionally strong and they could have used her against the alien menace.

He leads his men in search of King Windmaker.

Chapter 37: Sharpshooter

Sureshot's team is pinned down by fire from Anji, who kills Private Price. Sureshot gets some idea which way to look and orders everyone to scan the hill, hoping someone might spot Anji.

One of her men gets lucky and points, just in time to take a bullet through the right eye for his trouble! Sureshot sees the muzzle flash and aims, returning fire! Anji's reflexes are on a whole other level, however, and she twists her head to one side, avoiding the shot!

The first Troll-Slayer is wasted.

Unfortunately, taking the shot left Sureshot in the open, just as Anji finishes reloading! Sureshot dives for cover, but takes a graze to her ear!

Sureshot is deeply troubled by the loss of three men, so far, leading to this scene that peaks for itself (FYI, Hale is the most recently killed soldier):

“What’s the plan, Sarge?” Private Everett Holman, a short, bronze-skinned, tank-like man asked.

His words were followed by Private Julius Stevens, who offered his support, “Whatever you need Sarge, I’m up for it.”

The most striking feature about Stevens was his nose, which was longer and more pointed than most, a fact made obvious by being put in sharp profile by the darkness and light of the moon, working together.

Sureshot looked away from Brosla and the corpse of Hale, to instead gaze upon her men, who’d noticed how shaken she was and were subtly doing their best to get her back on task. She smiled at the and realization of the kind of men they were, just the kind she’d always preferred to work with. They were also battle hardened, unlike poor McBride, who’d been a new addition to the squad.

“I hate being on this end of a sharpshooter, but she’s got us pinned down.” Sureshot complained, “If we try to move, we’re dead, but if we stay, she’ll eventually find a position she can reach us from. I’ve done this to others, so I know exactly how deep the crap we’re standing in happens to be.

“I need some kind of distraction,” she hesitated and reluctantly began, “I hate to ask…” She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, because she didn’t care to ask good men to lay down their lives for her.

Stevens grinned in the moonlight, his pearly whites reflecting the dim light better than his skin, “But you need a volunteer to take fire, so you can pinpoint her. I’ll do it, Sarge.”

“No,” Sureshot doubted herself and tried to refuse, “I can’t risk you like-”

“Sure you can, Sarge.” Stevens nodded, “No sharpshooter works alone. You can’t do this without us and you know it!”

“Sarge, since we’re dead either way, why not let us go out being useful to you?” Holman asked.

She hated to admit it, but the men had an excellent point, though she delayed the decision by loading another Troll-Slayer into her rifle with extra care, so she could consider their words.

Sureshot nodded, “Fine, Stevens, you’re up, but,” she hesitated and eventually offered some advice, “move as fast as you can, zigzag your way around, make yourself a hard target and act crazy. Pretend to panic, then do the smart thing, instead. Keep an eye out for spots you can take cover, once you hear a gunshot.” Stevens moved to begin his crazy dash, but Sureshot called out, “Wait! One last thing: good luck.”

Stevens nodded, turned back to Sureshot and winked, before shouting, “I’m not taking this anymore, Sarge! I’m outta here!”

He dashed out from behind his tree, jigging his way back and forth through the dark landscape, moving in and among the trees, fallen logs and rocks, ever ready to take cover.

However, Anji is as good as Sureshot, if not better. She takes the shot and puts a bullet through the man's right eye, just like all the others.

Sureshot uses the opportunity to return fire again, but Anji is already on the move, rolling away and she misses, again!

The second Troll-Slayer is also a waste, leading to this:

Tears streamed from Sureshot’s eyes as she dropped back behind cover, thinking, I missed again and wasted the sacrifice of another man that died to give me the opportunity to return fire! I can’t do this! I’m not cut out to be a sergeant anymore! I’m not the detached monster I used to be! I can’t sacrifice these men to save myself! Her conscience ate her alive over her unit’s losses, McBride, Price, Hale and now Stevens, too! It’s too much! I can’t live with this!

She loaded her last Troll-Slayer and made up her mind to be the final decoy. She’d take the risk on herself, to save Holman. It’s the least I can do.

Holman offered, “I’m ready when you are, Sarge. Just say the word.”

Not on my watch. Sureshot vowed within herself, but nodded, “Okay. Give me a moment to compose myself.”

It’s a good excuse. It’s believable. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

Brosla has been quietly observing Sureshot for months and has been a student of human behavior for decades, on top of being a student of humanoid behavior for thousands of years.

He knows Sureshot's lying and reasons she's broken down again, just in a subtly different way from what happened in the Utros palace. He knows how upset she is over the loos of her men and reasons, correctly, that she's decided to take the risk on herself.

Brosla turns his laser rifle to the lowest setting, on continuous beam,

As she rushes off into the moonlight, Brosa fires his laser and waves it all over the dark hill Anji has been firing from, setting fire to trees, as a sort of distraction, while he charges over and jumps in the way, using a rock to get some extra height, only to catch the bullet meant for Sureshot, taking it in the liver!

He falls and calls out, "Journal: triage!"

Sureshot smiles and aims as Anji tries to roll away, only to realize the bush beside her is on fire! She falls back into her earlier position and Sureshot fires, putting the bullet right down Anji's sights and into her eye.

The last Troll-Slayer does its job to perfection, snuffing out all magic in Anji's body, including the spark of life itself.

Sureshot holds Brosla's hand, because he's in tremendous pain (he's enduring surgery from his journal, which has no idea what anesthesia is), leading to another scene that best speaks for itself:

Trembling with pain, Brosla commented, “You-you do-don’t d-die on,” he took a ragged breath, “m-my wa-tch. Th-that’s a-an order.”

Sureshot was touched by his actions and understanding of something she’d been going though, though she hadn’t vocalized it. She looked down at the strange man from another world, overcome by the oddness of the way it had literally taken an alien to peer into her heart and recognize the turmoil there. In addition, he hadn’t just understood, but intervened to save her life, at great risk to his own.

You just don’t see men like this very often. He’s hero material, after all, but the desperation of this situation is what brought it out. She looked down at him and a strange certainty settled into Sureshot’s mind as the thought struck her: He’s my hero.

Sureshot nodded and leaned down to tenderly kiss Brosla’s forehead, because every hero deserved a kiss when they rescued a distressed damsel, even if that meant saving them from their own foolishness, “Understood.”

He lays on his back, looking at the moon as a pair of blue flashes occur, marking the arrival of a pair of ships dropping out of FTL.

The red flash of laser light happens next and he explains what's happening to Sureshot, though he does so with difficulty, because surgery hurts.

When they both see shooting stars, he tells her they're enemies.

Sureshot looks over to where Anji lies dead, filled with regret, because they could have sued her in the fight against the machines and were going to need the best fighters they could get.

She hands her rifle to Private Holman and instead draws her sword, heading off to find King Windmaker and Nepita, in hopes of preventing them from killing each other.

Chapter 38: Song of Compassion

Illa tries to talk Yetu down, but he's too committed and angry to hear her, leading to a clash of very physical magic in the air as they both materialize large and dangerous hands made of magic, though Yetu's have claws. They end up in a contest of strength, with Yetu slightly stronger than Illa.

At first, she takes a step or two back, just to relieve some of the pressure, but she's soon sliding backwards, unable to hold her ground as Yetu's magic presses her backwards, because he's improved quite a lot in the past few months! She slams into a tree and is pinned against it by the pressure of their conflicting magic.

Yetu surprises her with a third magic hand and she really goes on pure defense, barely able to hold two of them off with one hand, while she continues the contest of strength with the other, though she occasionally gets cut by the claws on Yetu's magic hands.

Fortunately for Illa, Kadrek and the soldiers hid before Yetu appeared and spend the entire duel working their way behind him. The soldiers aim their rifles and Kadrek advances, holding his ax up for a strike, only to whisper in the young troll's ear, "Last chance to surrender or me takes yer head!"

Yetu turns his attention on Kadrek and Illa falls down, confused for a little while and the soldiers take the shot, filling Yetu full of holes. He falls and Kadrek swings, but Yetu gets his concentration back in time for his much shrunken and weakened spell to latch onto Kadrek's ax, leaving them in a contest of strength vs. magic.

Yetu calls out to Anji for help, then does something amazing: he combines regular troll magic with Rage Song, by using a heavy metal style of harmonic growl. He telepathically reaches out, but Anji is already dead.

Illa says this:

“There’s no one coming to help you.” Illa spoke calmly and rose to her feet, walking across the clearing, “Anji is probably dead. Nepita has abandoned you, because she wanted to personally fight King Windmaker, right? You’re completely alone and the soldiers on my side would like nothing better than to kill you. Right now, I’m sure my husband, the dwarf, is pretty angry with you, because you tried to kill me. Why don’t you just surrender?”

Yetu's response:

Yetu looked up at Illa from his upside-down, prone perspective and howled at her, “Traitorous-” he cursed, referring to her as a female dog, before turning the scream into a shout of desperate emotion and rage that took on a life of its own!

Feeling as if he's cornered and refusing to believe Illa's desire to let him surrender peacefully, he uses a Shout of Ruin.

Havng expected this, Illa uses a unique spell of her own:

Illa had been expecting that and she’d been considering a counter to his Shout of Ruin, because after expressing herself through that technique, Illa had totally spent her rage with Nepita. She also had no other suitable source of rage to use, but she had plenty of compassion.

She had compassion for Yetu, because he was so twisted up inside, just like Illa had once been. She had compassion for Nepita, her own dear sister, who raised Illa from an infant and nurtured her magical talents. She cared for the dwarves, who’d never wanted to go to war with their own allies, the trolls. She could also sympathize with the plight of Oswil, which had been dragged into the war against their will. She most certainly understood the trolls and why they refused to back down. She especially felt for Brosla’s people, who’d very nearly been wiped out, with only one ship left, which might not hold enough people for their race to bounce back from the brink of destruction.

She sang a few notes and poured every bit of those feelings into the magic, much the same as she’d mixed rage and magic as one, to form a Shout of Ruin. The magic laid hold of her feelings and carried them aloft, via her throat, filling the air with a great sense of peace.

There's a brief conflict in the air between the Shout of Ruin and the Song of Compassion, but the song wins, hand over fist, because peace is more powerful than war and Illa's compassion is far stronger than her anger ever was.

Yetu finally believes her, because the song doesn't harm him at all. He rushes to her and sobs out the feelings that have been pent up inside for three years.

I went back to chapter one around this point to add a scene with Illa and Yetu in her quarters, alone, when she'd been ordered to test Yetu for magic talent. In this scene, Illa treated him with love and kindess, because she's his aunt and that was something he'd badly wanted his whole life.

The real reason he'd been upset with Illa wasn't a matter of betraying Nepita, the kingdom or the trolls, but rathee the fact that Illa left and abandoned him in a palace full of women that hate him and his mother, who, while she does love him, also uses him like a tool. Illa was the only one that had no expectations and offered unconditional love.

He cries as the battle in orbit occurs, producing the red flash that lights up the landscape. Illa recognizes the threat and gets everyone on the move with the intent of finding Nepita and King Windmaker, hoping they haven't killed each other.

Chapter 39: Royal Rage

Nepita sneaks up on King Windmaker and his few men.

We learn something interesting about runic enchantments that hasn't previously been explained: any user of magic can pour their energy into them, to make them stronger. This is because such magic items are normally powered by mythril, which when left to its own devices will produce random, spell-like surges of magic. Runic enchantments are normally designed to gobble up all the magic they can, to prevent the mythril from getting out of control.

As Nepita comes up on the a war-rider from behind, she pours magic into All-biter, extending the cutting edge far beyond the mere blade, then slashed upward, cutting the machines in half, including the dwarf guardsman!

Steam fills the are with a fog-like mist as the machine falls to either side, preventing me form having to describe what was left of the dwarf as Nepita gets covered in blood.

Another slash (using blind-fighting training from Anji) cuts the feet off four more of the machines, causing them to fall. The last of Windmaker's men still in a useful war machine draws attention to himself in a foolish way, getting cut in half, much like the first.

When the fog clears, Nepita swings sideways with both weapons at the four dwarves that charge to attack her. On her left, one loses the top of his skull, while the one next to him has his torso sliced in half along a diagonal path. To her right, one dwarf screams and dies from spider venom, while the last dies from a fear of choking to death, based on a childhood experience that traumatized him.

Windmaker is naturally enraged by the death of his men, but confronts Nepita by name and title. She had been planning to torture him for weeks on end, for the fun of it, but she's frustrated to learn he knows about troll women, in her mind ensuring his swift doom, though she still plans to toy with him.

Windmaker swings his ax down at Nepita as she sheaths her swords. As their maker, Windmaker is immune to their magic and doesn't care to explore their limits.

Using Rage Song to enhance her body's durability and strength, she catches the massive ax blade with her hand, getting only a little cut! Windmaker hauls back, trying to retrieve the ax, but Nepita increases her body density with the same magic, keeping it trapped as she refuses to let go.

Eventually, she does let go and Windmaker's war-rider falls. He perform the acrobatic stand that's unqie to his war machine, impressing Nepita.

She claps, then compliments and insults him in the same sentence.

Windmaker asks to talk face to face, ruler to ruler and she agrees.

He asks for peace, over and over, but she refuses and presses for details on why he wanted to capture Fort Freybell, which has previously been a point of contention, due to her paranoia, even though Fort Freybell isn't really important to Windmaker.

They argue about the reasons for the war, getting nowhere, and Windmaker brings the coming conflict with the machines into the discussion, but Nepita demands proof, just as she did with Brosla, through Shengis.

The battle is back on, but face to face and we learn Windmaker forged an ax specifically to kill Nepita, composing the runes for 'death', 'troll' and 'royalty' in one work. The ax is named Utrocide, because it can kill a troll royal with a mere touch.

It's the very ax in his hand, but as Nepita charges in with a Rage Song punch, he can't bring himself to use it, because he needs her alive and stong, to fight the machines.

Instead, he blocks with his shield, which she shatters. He tumbles away, due to the force of the blow and realizes she's toying with him.

Again, he asks to talk and she's annoyed, but relents. He holds the ax up for her to read, but she admits she can't read dwarf runes.

He tells her the truth and Nepita realizes he really is telling the truth about his desire for peace.

They have more discussion about the subject and eventually decide to settle the war with a bare knuckle brawl until one of them admits defeat or passes out, a match with no weapons, no armor and no magic. The loser will become a tributary monarch to the other and regardless of what happens, the winner will make sure the other is healed. They also make plans to get down to the real reasons for the war, together. This way, both of them remain strong and if there really is a threat from the stars, Windmaker hopes they'll face it together.

Before they begin, they discuss the matter of how he learned about troll women and how important it is for him to keep his mouth shut. He's tells her he's already sworn to take it to his grave, a promise he made to Illa.

He tells Nepita Illa is his daughter-in-law and they're amused by the discovery they've become family, something Windmaker hadn't considered before.

They brawl for ten minutes and Windmaker ends up badly bruised, more or less all over, because Nepita punches like an eastern martial artist. He decides to switch to wrestling, so he can choke Nepita out, because punching is getting him nowhere.

He gets her into the choke hold from behind, just as he desires, but at a terrible cost: she reaches behind herself and grabs him by the family jewels, crushing them in her hand!

Windmaker is in so much pain, he can't even cry out and just whimpers, but he locks the hold in and begins choking her, though he's a hair away from barfing all over her.

The red flash of the battle in orbit happens and they let go of each other.

“There’s yer proof.” Windmaker squeaks.

Nepita heals Windmaker fairly slowly, since she isn't very good at it, starting with his crotch.

Chapter 41: Severing War

Sureshot is the first to find the royals and makes the assumption Nepita is brainwashing Windmaker, so she comes up from behind and just about takes the troll's head off with her sword, which flares up for the job.

Windmaker asks her not to kill the Queen and Nepita delivers a fun line:

“We’re allies now,” Nepita growled, turned and looked Sureshot in the eye with barely restrained rage, “but if you don’t get that flaming sword out of my face, I promise you’ll spend the rest of your pathetically short life with it shoved all the way up your-” she used a curse word for the buttocks.

Sureshot backs down and there's some discussion of the situation, leading Nepita speak, starting this amusing exchange:

“We’ve got to stop the war, before we lose anymore good fighters. I just hope Anji is still with us. She can train…everyone…” She noted Sureshot cringing and asked, “What did you do?”

Sureshot looked down, sheepishly, “She killed several of my men, so I might have…possibly…put a Troll-Slayer through her head.”

Nepita looked really angry, but to her credit, she let it go, “We were at war just five minutes ago and what’s done is done, but it isn’t easy to stop a battle once it’s started. Any bright ideas? I’ve never needed to stop a battle before.”

Illa shows up, offering to super-charge her Song of Compassion to blanket the entire mountain, but it will need some kind of opening to get into people's heads, something to stop the actual fighting.

Windmaker tells Nepita a dangerous truth about All-biter, that is may be capable of cutting more than just physical objects. In the hands of a powerful magic user, it might be able to sever anything, including war.

While Nepita meditates to gather magic and produce an image in her mind of war, so she can cut it, Yetu and Sureshot pu=our their magic into Illa, until the trolls pass out and Sureshot's body aches all over, but the Song of Compassion is suitably supercharged.

Nepita then stands and slashes downward as she imagines war like a beast with millions of tentacles that touch soldiers on both sides of the war. She slashes the tentacles in her mind and a wave of incredibly powerful magic washes over Utros, leaving a sense of peace it its wake.

General Hendrix is at the front lines in the canyon leading up to Whitewall and the canyon is drenched in troll blood, because they've been firing artillery up the canyon to push Utros back. They've only moved 300 feet in a week's time and the canyon is miles long, while the trolls just stand and take it, because they have to hold the line.

He badly wants an alternative and his prayers are answered in the form of a rift in the ground forming between both sides, which is too wide and too deep to cross.

Kina is busy leading a mission to break past the Oswil blockade, because Utros is nearly out of .45-70 rounds, since Oswil stopped selling them to Utros. She intends to meet up with their underhanded supplier, who works for Lord Rolar, once her men leave the kingdom, but just as she's about to order her men to silently kill the Oswil soldiers blocking their way, a landslide forces them to return to the cave they just emerged from, which gets totally blocked, forcing them to turn around.

The third scene is a little hint of the next book, with a group of four gnomes in a mythril-tipped digging machine as they make their way to the Utros palace, a task they've been working at for more than a decade, all in the name of revenge for the actions of Shengis (actually Nepita).

There's a huge collapse ahead of them, which leaves their tunnel exposed to moonlight. The foreman and driver gets out and looks down, deciding the chasm is too deep and wide to bypass and their shoe-string budget isn't enough for building bridges, so it's time to give up and go home.

His men get the machine going again and start off without him, forcing him to run to catch up.

Epilogue

The opening of the epilogue is a series of short scenes covering the perspective of minor characters as they see or hear about the red flash in the sky, followed by the shooting stars, including General Warmaul, the jerky vendor from Wind Hammer (Bokhal Jadetoe), Kadrek's mine foreman, the mayor of Ruby Canyon, Lady Gunn and Lord Rolar. I forgot to include the faires (Lord Shadowfang and Lady Lovelymint), but I'll add them in editing, along with other minor characters I missed.

The point of these scenes is to add weight to the climax, showing how far away it was seen (the entire night side of the planet, though I also need to eventually cover the perspective of someone watching dawn or dusk at the time). I'm sure I'll find the right balance in editing. I'll have to do more of the same in the prologue of Machine War, which is the unwritten sequel to Troll War.

The next scene covers the impact of Scout 3455C4B1 with the ground. Its almost completely shutdown, due to a thermal overload of its nuclear power unit, because emergency atmospheric entry forced it to power down. T?he only systems working are all automatic, resulting in the thing bursting it's egg-like entry capsule, followed by blowing gasses out of its joints, to keep the melted plastic of the capsule clear of them. Last of all is a blast of coolant to help the remaining plastic harden as an extra layer of armor.

It will remain dormant for possibly as long as a week, because it needs time to cool.

The last scene of the novel is several days later, bringing Lord Rolar and Lady Gunn back together in the very same tavern/pub in which the novel started, because they've been summoned via mysterious telegrams.

Just after they settle at a table, King Windmaker, King Shengis, Sureshot and Queen Nepita (though they don't recognize her and she isn't mentioned by name, only description) step into the place, followed by an unusual mixture of Utros, Fortune Fields and Oswil soldiers.

Windmaker sidled over to the table and drew a chair over, loudly dragging it across the floor to put it beside Lady Gunn, while Shengis did the same thing, dragging a chair beside Lord Rolar. Stanton dragged her own chair to the table, turning it backwards so she could straddle it and set her chin on the back. Windmaker put an arm around Gunn’s shoulders, while Shengis did the same with Rolar.

Stanton smiled. It wasn’t a friendly expression. She pulled a very familiar pair of journals from her coat pocket and dropped them on the table.

“We had an interesting time going over these with a fine-toothed comb, just a few days ago, and you know conclusion we came to?” Stanton asked.

The two nobles said nothing.

“They’re fake.” Stanton declared, “Very well made, but there’s no evidence in either kingdom that they’re anything more than fiction.” Shengis and Windmaker both chucked, leaving the two nobles trembling with fear.

Stanton went on, “King Joshua has found you both guilty of treason, based on the evidence and sworn testimony of the victims, alone,” she paused for dramatic effect, “but you see, there’s a little problem with that.”

Windmaker squeezed the shoulders of Lady Gunn, while Shengis did the same to Lord Rolar, speaking in unison, “Extradition!”

“Exactly.” Stanton’s smile became all the more wicked and evil-looking, like that of a trickster god, “Now, you two have a choice: you can accept execution by firing squad here, between the three kingdoms, or you can accept extradition to the nation of your choice.”

Shengis offer a very long life in Utros as his guests. The implication is that they'll be kept alive as long as possible, as they're tortured for as long they last. Based on Nepita's prior threats, that would involve occasional healing magic, to prolong their suffering.

Windmaker offers them a chance to survive, with a daily stay of execution based on their ability to fight for their lives, implying anything but a peaceful existence.

Lord Rolar tries to cast a spell, but Shengis stabs him in a lung with a hidden dagger, preventing him from doing anything.

Sureshot gives them one final alternative: life in prison in Oswil, with hard labor, but only if Lady Gunn rolls on her very corrupt family and gives up every detail on their underhanded dealings. The deal is only on the table if the information pans out, so she has to give up something really good.

Ulitamtely, they take Sureshot's deal.

Conclusion

This is the end of my series on Troll War, but likely not the end of my work in progress series, which will continue to be posted on this blog.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my writing process. I know I enjoyed writing these log entries, though I'm going to have to find better way to do this, because it takes too much time on a Saturday. Perhaps I'll write the entries on each chapter throughout the week in the future.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

Work In Progress #7: Troll War #7 (August 5-9)

This is part seven of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon.

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on Troll War, in chronological order:

1. June 21-28
2. July 1-5
3. July 8-12
4. July 15-19
5. July 22-27
6. July 29-August 2

Slowing Down a Bit

Learn More

I've been extremely busy in the past week, because I'll be publishing another installment in The Wizard's Scion relatively soon. This will be Dark Moon, which is actually my favorite book in the series, because it introduces Cha'da, the not-exactly-evil-or-particularly-good necromancer. I've always had fun writing her, because she has rather good reasons for all the bad stuff does, which once people hear them, they go, "Oh, I can understand that and I might have done the same." She and Levi become rivals, because he doesn't approve of necromancy.

My artist friend recently finished the cover art and all that's left for me to do is get my final pass of editing done, so I've been putting a little less time into new writing and using a lot of my free time to work on that. I'm about half done, so probably another week of work and then I'll need to set the release date far enough into the future that Draft2Digital's systems can get their ducks in a row, so it will probably be available for purchase in two weeks time.

Chapter 29: The Ember Throne

Sureshot takes her team into Unseelie territory and I switched to Brosla's perspective, because he needed some attention and character development.

He sees movement in the woods, which are far more dense than any forest has a right to be, with trees that have grown together, so their leaves block out most of the light, making the forest dark and gloomy, even during the day.

All the movement seems to be coming from the trees and he sees a creepy face in the bark of one of them.

He pulls his laser rifle off his back as he comes to the conclusion they're being watched.

He raises his concerns with Sureshot, who brushes them off, because she knows for a fact they're being watched by a dryad:

“That face in the bark of a tree I saw you frowning at was the dryad’s, just sticking out of the tree. She wanted us to see her, as a friendly warning to stay on our best behavior. She’s been moving branches around, probably because she noticed the way it bothers you and the soldiers. Dryads are normally a lot more…still.” Sureshot finished with a wry smile, “Just don’t take it personally.”

Shortly after, she declares they're gone far enough and orders the men to make camp, but not get comfortable.

Corporal logan refines her order with additional (screamed) instructions: no campfire, bedrolls only, no tents.

Half of King Windmaker's company of guards take the opportunity to pop their hatches, for some fresh air.

Sureshot lays back against a tree and closes her eyes, leading to this scene:

“Aren’t you afraid?” Brosla asked.

“Me?” Sureshot chucked, “No. I’ve dealt with The Ember Throne before. That’s the name of this country, by the way. The local fey are dangerous and unpredictable, but they’re not stupid enough to kill a special envoy from Oswil.” She said the last theatrically loudly, as if she wanted the dryad to hear her, “Isn’t that right, Matron Blueleaf?”

Brosla fearfully took a few steps back as the face he’d seen earlier appeared in the bark of the tree, above Sureshot’s head.

“My, but you’re a cheeky one…Special Envoy From Oswil, daring to lean on one of my trees, without permission.” The face spoke and looked down at Sureshot with mild amusement, “Is that you, Corporal Stanton?”

“Yes, but I’m a Staff Sergeant, now.” Sureshot answered, her eyes still closed.

“Ah. Always…moving up in the world, you are. I can hardly keep up with the pace at which your kind live. It seems like just…yesterday that I observed you swinging from the branches of one of my sisters, far to the northeast, in that little human…kingdom of yours.” The dryad’s head fully emerged from the tree and leaves sprouted from the bark of her scalp, like hair.

She was rather attractive, for a woman made of wood.

“Really?” Sureshot sounded unimpressed, despite the Dryad’s implication she’d been watching Sureshot grow up, “You have a sister in Oswil?”

“Every forest in the world has a dryad attached to it and we…talk. You’ve been of…particular interest.”

Brosla shuddered, disturbed by the thought of being watched by every tree on the planet.

“Is Lord Shadowfang available?” Sureshot finally got to the point.

“I’m afraid not. He’s being…difficult of late and does not wish to have visitors. The ruler of Utros has…upset him quite badly.”

“That’s a shame, but give him my best, nonetheless. Will you at least pass along a message?”

“No.” The dryad laughed, maliciously, “You leaned against my tree without permission, so I’ll do nothing of the sort.”

“Okay, then you can be the one to inform Lord Shadowfang that he’s missed a perfect opportunity to strike back at Utros, without getting his hands dirty.” Sureshot rose back to her feet and shouted as she strode toward her horse, “Strike camp! We head out in five minutes, back the way we came!”

The dryad loses the undeclared contest of wit with Sureshot, because Sureshot has just put her in the position of giving the fey Lord bad news, so she passes along a request for an audience, then passes the replay back:

Matron Blueleaf spoke with great resignation, “Well played, Staff Sergeant Stanton. Lord Shadowfang will see you…presently, but only one of your party, who will be…required to submit to a…little duel, to obtain an audience. Win the battle and you’ll have your…meeting, plus a personal boon owed by the loser to the winner. Lose and the life of your representative will be…forfeit.”

Sureshot asks for a volunteer and King Windmaker is first to speak, because he's always wanted to fight a fairy, but Sureshot ignores him, because he's too important to risk.

She asks for other volunteers and Brosla eventually speaks. He's nervous as can be, because he's always been a man of peace, but as a null, he knows he'll be immune to fairy magic, giving him the advantage.

Sureshot agrees and the dryad objects, but ultimately agrees:

“Surely you jest! Your imaginary friend can’t accept this challenge!” The dryad’s voice turned angry as she stepped more fully out of the tree, revealing a feminine form made from bark, wearing a dress composed of woven leaves, though her backside was still halfway inside the tree.

Sureshot laughed, “Oh, he’s hardly imaginary.” She stepped back over to the tree-woman, until her face was inches away from the bark of the dryad’s face, hissing, “He’s a null.”

“Ah, that explains the horse that directs itself. I cannot see or hear this…friend of yours, because I use magic to see. Lord Shadowfang will be…furious, but I won’t let on until after the…game is over, because he…disrespected me a few centuries ago.”

Brosla continues on alone, until he comes to a large, cave-like chamber in the forest, filled with wood-sprites, which are two feet tall, made of wood and since they're Unseelie, have whittled their tree branch fingers into claws, with dirk clinging to their roots/feet, which they walk upon, though they clearly root themselves from time to time. They look on Brosla with hunger, because they prefer flesh and blood for fertilizer.

The chamber is lit by flowing fairies with insectile features that fly around over head.

I intentionally went with scary and ugly fairies, because the Unseelie are the dark fey. All the pretty ones are Seelie/light fey. In my works involving fairies, they're often shape shifters and their prevailing mood tends to set their appearance. Whether any particular fey is Seelie or Unseelie depends on how they feel and their appearance reflects their nature, unless they concentrate on a particular form.

Three fairies step into the chamber, a huge, six armed spider fairy, a beautiful female fairy with perfect bodily proportions that would make even a supermodel jealous (her hands are bound, which should give a hint about which side she's on) and finally, one that looks like a vampire, who wears a crown of living wood, with amber jewels set into it, the biggest of which has a spider inside.

Brosla introduces himself politely and earns an immediate measure of respect for having good manners.

The one with the crown introduces himself as Skylad Shadowfang, ruler of The Ember Throne and the Unseelie Court. The spider fey is Trevan Spidercliff and the woman is Lady Posey Lovelymint, who's been his "guest" for the past five-hundred years, because he caught her spying on behalf of the Seelie Court.

There's a brief discussion between the fairies regarding Brosla and Lovelymint makes a gamble on the outcome of the coming fight: if Shadowfang wins, then she'll tell him anything he likes, but if Brosla wins, then she goes free. Shadowfang accepts the bet, because he has great confidence in his abilities to defeat a mortal.

Brosla is asked if he will take up challenge, but he has questions, first seeking clarification on the nature of the boon he will earn if he wins, which is explained as being a favor owed, which Shadowfang will repay with anything that's in his power, upon request.

Next, the alien asks about the nature of the coming duel and is praised for his wisdom, because he seeks clear knowledge, before committing himself.

Brosla and Shadowfang are to fight until one of them dies, loses consciousness or admits defeat. If Brosla survives, he'll become Shadowfang's slave.

He's offered the chance to suggest rules of his own, but he refuses, preferring to keep things simple.

The fairies consider him to have won a battle of wits, because he asked questions and then suggested no rules. If he'd asked for more rules, then Shadowfang would have insisted on a rule of his own devising for each Brosla desired, seeking to hobble his opponent.

Even Shadowfang treats Brosla with great respect, considering it a shame that he's about to die.

Brosla is given a moment to prepare and the battle will begin when he's ready.

Chapter 30: Humility

Brosla takes his rifle off his back and turns the power all the way up.

Shadowfang is curious to know what the device is, but Brosla insists that he'll demonstrate it in battle. Still, the fey Lord presses on, demanding to know what it is, leading to this conversation:

Lady Lovelymint looked amused as she spoke an obvious verbal barb, “Did you think him fool enough to reveal all, just because you desire it? His mystique may be the best weapon he has, yet you would rob him of it? Let a mortal surprise you for once, or are you a coward?”

Spidercliff chuckled, “Indeed! If your power is as great as you claim, then you need not fear what any mortal can do, no matter the weapon used.”

Shadowfang looked frustrated, “Of course, you both make an excellent point.”

Brosla declares his readiness and takes aim.

Lord Shadowfang employs brainwashing magic, which has no effect on Brosla, who shoots him through the chest, burning a hole right through the fairy's lung, causing him to fall over!

Feeling more confident, because his plan seems to be working, Brosla kindly offers Shadowfang the chance to surrender, that he might avoid further pain.

Shadowfang wheezes, "What is that thing?"

The conversation to follow was fun to write:

“An LM-20377 laser rifle,” Brosla answered with confidence, because he’d finally seen some evidence that his plans might actually play out the way they had in his mind, “which has been modified with top of the line heat sinks, the highest quality synthetic diamond lenses, so they’ll never scratch, modern power cells that hold five times the power of the original and last of all, the variable-strength beam emitter was customized to use the excess power in the cells at greater efficiency than it was originally tuned for. This weapon may very well be the most powerful hand-held laser in existence.”

“How can it do so much without magic?” The fey balked as he held a glowing hand over his wound.

Brosla reasoned he was healing himself with magic, because he wasn’t wheezing anymore.

Lady Lovelymint chuckled at the Unseelie fey Lord’s discomfort, which caused him to shout, “Well, what are you waiting for, Spidercliff? Kill this wretch!”

The spider fey shook his head, “Fight your own battles, my Lord, because I’m more interested in seeing how this will play out without my interference, especially since I’ve never been able to wound you. Besides, that weapon of his is fascinating.”

Shadowfang tries an invisibility spell, which also fails against Brosla's immunity to magic, so Brosla shoots Shadowfang in the foot as he tries to sneak around. While he hops around on one foot, Brosla shoots him in the shoulder, once more knocking him down.

“This is most interesting!” Spiderfang commented, “Never before has Lord Shadowfang taken a fall, but in one battle, he’s now fallen twice!” Lovelymint clapped her hands and mocked, “Twice in one day, my Lord? Can he make it three?”

“Concede your defeat, Lord Shadowfang.” Brosla spoke with calm confidence, “I do not wish to embarrass you further.”

“How dare you speak to me with such impudence, mortal?” Shadowfang screamed as he rose from a prone position to standing, without bothering to use his limbs, clearly a feat of magic.

Shadowfang is so angry, black liquid pours from every orifice of his body, flowing over his skin, an outward reflection of his shift in mood. His finger and toe nails lengthen into razor sharp claws and his body glows red, as a reflection of his rage as he charges at Brosla!

Knowing her fate hangs on the outcome, Lovelymint promises Brosla a boon from her if he wins, to keep him motivated.

Brosla switches his laser into continuous beam mode (equivalent to full auto on a modern assault rifle) and lays into the fairy with everything he's got, because he's afraid he's going to die!

Five full seconds of fire later, the rifle runs out of power and the fairy goes for a flying tackle, claws at the lead! Brosla is impaled through his chest and gut, but as they're falling, he kicks the fey lord in the family jewels, causing Shadowfang to cross his eyes and pass out, because it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Brosla has won, but only if he survives. He coughs up blood and manages to speak just long enough to say, "Journal: triage!"

His journal flies out of his pocket as a metallic sphere, which does a scan and then falls on him as a liquid, which flows into his wounds, to begin surgery. Unfortunately, the triage function was a last-minute addition and it has no information on anesthesia. I felt it was important to make sure Brosla doesn't rely on his journal to fix injuries, except when he has to, so I thought that would be a good consequence to using it.

He passes out from the pain, eventually waking up with his head in Lovelymint's lap. His journal is still at work, but the pain his lessened.

They discuss what he wants for his boon and he shares his story, though he's surprised she's already aware he's a Vokosian, claiming she was once friend with his god, Vok. She even occasionally visited the Vokisian homeworld (until her capture), to keep a promise she made to Vok that involves prodding the Vokosians toward peace and enlightenment.

Brosla requests her assistance fighting against the coming machine swarm (even going so far as to request assistance with a total genocide, since it's the machines or everyone else) and she agrees to do all she can, but insists that has not used up the boon, because what he's asked is in her own best interest. She promises to inform the Seelie Queen and do all she can to make peace on the planet.

Normally, most fey would jump at the chance to discharge the favor so easily, but Lovelymint respects Brosla too much to cheat him.

Brosla doesn't know what else to ask for, so she gives him a magic token (a wooden comb from her heair) he can discard as a sign he wishes to see her, claiming it will find its way back to her and then tell her where he is.

She vanishes (teleports away) to get to work, because time is of the essence. The outcome of this will be a matter of most kingdoms of the world coming together for the crisis, because the Seelie are well-known to only intervene in mortal affairs when requested to or when the situation is dire. However, that won't become important until book two.

Brosla steps over to where Lord Shadowfang literally sits in the corner, crying in the form of a child, because that's what he is. He's only seven-hundred years old, which is the equivalent of a seven-year old, when it comes to emotional maturity, though fairies mature intellectually much faster.

As it turns out, he's the son of the Seelie Queen and he ran away at the age of two-hundred, because she tried to discipline him (he was in the middle of the terrible two-hundreds, after all). Lady Lovelymint (his babysitter) was sent to keep an eye on him, but he outwitted her and made her his prisoner.

Brosla apologizes for hurting the fey Lord's feelings and that makes a lot of difference. He was able to handle the pain of getting injured, but since he's just a boy, he'd never been kicked in the balls before and was totally unprepared for that, on top of everything else.

The experience was very humbling for him.

Brosla requests of the fey Lord that he help fight the coming machine invasion, again asking for genocide of the machines. Shadowfang promises to do all he can, but like Lovelymint, he has too much respect for Brosla to cheat him, since doing as the alien has asked is in his own best interest.

He also gives Brosla a token (the spider jewel from his crown), telling him to crush it when he wishes to speak.

Sureshot arrives for the meeting (the Dryad passed word along) and she makes her request for safe passage through the forest, so she might attack the trolls from behind.

Shadowfang agrees and then comments that he's sometimes his own worst enemy, because if he'd only listened, he would have gotten what he wanted (he hates the trolls, because they beat his people in war), without owing someone a boon.

The thing I love about this chapter is that Brosla succeeded where no one else in history ever has: he's gotten the Seelie and the Unseelie on the same page, because they face an enemy the likes of which the galaxy has never seen.

Chapter 31: Crazy Iz’eol

Based on the suspicions of the science officer that another ship is hiding in the FTL engine wake of Terror of Vok (the only blind spot the ship has), Captain Vendros orders a Crazy Izeol (pronounced like "is-wall").

This involves dropping out of FTL space to turn in place. Further, feeling particularly paranoid, he orders them to open fire the instant they finish the turn, regardless of what's there.

They have time to prepare, so he orders all non-essential personnel to board escape pods carrying only what they need to survive, just in case.

The High Priestess enters her assigned pod carrying her religious vestments, because she reasons being able to comfort the survivors will increase their chances.

The others in the pod are initially angry to see her, but when they see the clothing she carries, they feel ashamed for judging her. The woman next to her recognizes the crisis of faith their only priest has been suffering through alone and offers her sympathy, because she once had a crisis of faith, herself, but hadn't ever considered the possibility a priest might have one.

The priestess is asked to lead them in prayer and they link hands as she begins for this scene (the High Preistess is named Et’aell):

They all bowed their heads as Et’aell spoke for all, “O, Great God Vok, hear us in our time of need-”

Her words were interrupted by a sudden, savage sideways twist that had several of them groaning with discomfort!

Et’aell’s voice filled with great fervor, her dormant faith coming back to her, because she was afraid she was about to die, “-and bless the hands that fight this battle, that we may-”

The ship stopped turning and there was a tremendously loud sound produced by the combination of every single cannon on the right side of the ship firing simultaneously, along with nearly a hundred missile launches!

“-survive the day! Deliver us from-”

Another volley of missiles was fired, producing a great wooshing sound as the missile thrusters interacted with the hull, causing sympathetic vibrations!

“-evil! Amen!”

There was a murmur of Amens from the others.

This takes the High Priestess another few step closer to once more embracing her faith.

Returning to the perspective of Captain Vendros, on the bridge, he's pleased to see the pursuing ship FTL space, right in the midst of the field of lasers and missiles that blanket the area, like a minefield.

The enemy ship made big mistake and returns to normal space that's occupied. The lasers and missiles end up inside the ship's hull., doing severe damage to nearly every system. In particular, the FTL drive was not fully disengaged, resulting in feedback to the main reactor, which can't handle the sudden reversal of current and it goes off like a bomb, vaporizing the whole ship.

The bridge crew of Terror of Vok cheer, but Vendros asks a very sobering question: did the enemy send a signal?

The science officer has no answer for him, so he tells them to assume it did and they get back into FTL space.

As it turns out, the enemy did send a final signal and two more warships are assigned to destroy Terror of Vok. That's how the machines do war: when any ship fails, it's replaced by two more, until that tactic proves to be ineffective, leading to the task being brought to the attention of the swarm's leader: Omega.

Omega is considered a god by the other machines of the swarm, because he made them.

Delaying a Chapter

Three days in a row, I planned to write a particular chapter, which will be titled 'Sharpshooter'. I sat down to write it each day and then felt inspired to write something else, including chapters 32, 33 and 37.

The first was because the overly shouty and generally awful nature of Corporal Logan (the Corporal assigned to Sureshot) needed to be addressed before going into the final battle, so I wrote Chapter 32 to address that on Tuesday.

I thought Chapter 33 would be Sharpshooter, but it turned into a chapter that helps lay out how the ground battles of the next few chapters will take place, revealing the plans of both sides (funny how the plan never resembles the actual battle), which I wrote on Thursday.

Then on Friday, I sat down to write Sharpshooter and finally realized the penultimate chapter needed to be written first, because the battle in orbit will literally hang over the rest of the climax, which is tentatively numbered 37.

Chapter 32: The Corporal's Core

In this chapter, Sureshot finally gets fed up with Corporal Logan's needlessly nasty treatment of his squad and requests a word in private as they make camp in the woods near the border of Utros.

I got stuck at the very beginning of this scene and then ran off to speak with a friend, because I've no experience with a Sergeant dressing-down a Corporal, but my friend was a Sergeant in the U.S. Army and he ran me through all the options a Sergeant might take. Armed with that knowledge, I ran home and finished the chapter.

As always, research is everything to my writing. I can't write what I don't know and I've never been in the military, so I have to lean on the knowledge of others, though my friend says I do this rather well with the information he imparts.

I'm reminded of writing She Goes to War, which was a novel my friend talked my into writing, because he wanted to talk about his time fighting the Vietnam War, ahem, Police Action (as he always calls it, with a wry smile on his face).

Sureshot starts by asking Logan why, leading to this scene:

“I know my men.” Logan gave her a defiant look, “They’re a lazy lot that need a harsh hand, which I give them.”

“I doubt that very much.” Sureshot used a deceptively calm tone, “If they’re defiant, then it’s because you’re too harsh, so let me rephrase: Corporal Logan, you will treat the men with common decency and respect. That’s an order.”

“With all due respect, Sarge, I’ve been with this squad a long time and I know-”

“Are you defying my direct order, Corporal?” Sureshot was amazed the man was being so stubborn.

“No, I’m just-”

“That was a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, Corporal.” Sureshot used a tone of warning, much like a glacier might produce a cracking sound, just before dropping one into a crevasse.

“I just think you need to hear my-”

Sureshot sighed and muttered to herself, “Well, don’t say you didn’t ask for it…”

She moved with the sudden speed and precision of a rattlesnake, punching Logan right in the eye! The man hit the forest floor like a sack of potatoes, but soon rose with the crazed, evil smile of a berserker, because he loved a good bare-knuckle brawl!

Meanwhile, Brosla and the soldiers speculate a bout what's happening.

Brosla asks the reason for the man's behavior, leading to this scene that I'll let speak for itself (the names you won't recognize belong to other members of the squad, while the 'younger private' referenced is a young man Brosla was trying to befriend):

The ironically black-haired Private Perry Snow grinned and joked, “Yeah, just the spiky stick rammed up his-” he cursed and the soldiers shared a rare moment of levity.

Brosla found the coarseness of the man’s words unnecessary, but it was nothing he hadn’t come to expect from career soldiers.

“Do any of you know what might have made him such a sour man? I was thinking I might try having a word with him about it.

“Please don’t.” Snow waved his hands in warning, “You’ll only make him worse. The only one that might make a difference-”

There was a distant, but very masculine cry of pain. It could have been Corporal Logan.

“-seems to be doing so, right now.” Snow smiled.

“You think so?” Austin asked.

There was another scream, much louder than the last, modulated to a higher pitch halfway through by whatever was going on becoming more intense.

“Oh yeah.” Snow chucked, “Sarge is almost definitely giving him what for.”

“What makes you think that?” Brosla asked.

Snow explained, making air quotes with his fingers at the appropriate time, “Three other sergeants have tried to ‘have a word’ with the Corp and not one of them stayed our sergeant afterward.”

The younger private nodded, “And the last was balling his eyes out like a little-” he cursed, “-when they came back.”

“But Sarge? She’s a fighter.” Snow chipped in, “She was in the 108th. You don’t mess with the 108th unless you got a death wish, but the Corp is so bull-headed, I bet he picked the fight. I bet he was spoiling for it, so he could try his luck and see how he measures up. He normally likes his odds against most anyone.”

Brosla shrugged. He didn’t understand the military mindset very well, because he’d always been a man of peace.

Illa stepped over and posited, “I think things will be getting better for you soldiers. Jane, Staff Sergeant Stanton to you, is an excellent leader and Logan isn’t her first Corporal. She once told me a story about straightening out another.”

“What happened to him?” Snow looked very curious.

“According to rumor, he learned a few lessons about challenging a master of far eastern martial arts. According to your sergeant, they just had a quiet discussion, until he saw the light and changed his ways. I’m sure-”

There was a third scream from Corporal Logan.

“-Logan will also see the light.” Illa finished her sentence without missing a beat, smiling as she turned to walk back to her husband.

Snow laughed, “I think he’s seeing it, right now!”

We finally get a scene from Corporal Logan's perspective as Sureshot holds him pinned, face down, in the dirt as she lectures him on both when to obey orders and when not to, including the nature of how badly he's screwed up, because he refused a direct order.

He has a flashback all the way to his childhood, starting with the loss of his parents, who were crushed by barrels of cheap booze that broke loose from the wagon carrying them, followed by his life in an orphanage.

He had a particularly rough day with a nobleman's son grinding his face into the dirt one day, resulting in his clothes being torn and bloodied (the other boy really messed up his face).

He went home expecting a little love and a healing touch (magic), only for the super-strict nun-like sister in charge to berate him for "playing so hard he ruined his clothes". She lectured him for a full hour before finally healing his face.

She calls him "Lazy and in need of harsh treatment", which mirrors his words about his men, though he isn't introspective enough to see that parallel.

He learned some harsh lessons form that day, leading him to believe three things: other boys are awful, compassion is never found where it should be and he more or less decides women are evil.

He eventually got old enough that he was kicked out of the orphanage and then drifted from job to job, because his temper always got the better of him. Eventually, his temper landed him a job as a bouncer at a pub, but he was a little too vicious.

One day he beat an Army Captain, a nobleman, so badly he permanently maimed him, beyond the power of healing magic. That landed him before a judge, but the judge saw something in him that might be usefully directed to the kingdom's good, let alone his own, giving him a choice between ten yearshard labor in prison, or Army service.

For a time, he believed he'd found his proper place in life and found pride in serving his king. Within six months, was promoted to Corporal, a decision multiple sergeants came to regret.

The troubles that landed him in the Army soon returned and from his perspective, "because sergeants just didn’t know when to shut up and listen to him, with women sergeants being the worst in that regard."

Coming back to the present, he focuses all of his significant hatred on Sureshot, but he finds he also has a measure of respect he's had for no other sergeant, because she beat him in a fight and did so with ease.

Staff Sergeant Stanton spoke softly in an educational tone of voice like a school teacher, “Now, tell me: what are you going to do from this day forward?”

Logan suggested she procreate with herself for the second time, laughing as the last of his fire held on for dear life.

Stanton hauled back on his arm, perfectly shifting it back into the valley agony she’d been expertly working it in and out of, producing a third cry of pain! She pushed it just that little bit further than she’d done before, until tears dripped from his eyes!

“Say the words, Corporal.” Stanton calmly demanded, still holding his arm with precision, as if she tortured men for a living.

Tired of the pain and sick of her weight on his back, Corporal Logan finally broke and said the words, “I’ll follow orders, yours in particular. I won’t argue.”

And when I say jump?”

“I’ll ask, ‘How high?’ ”

“Good.” Stanton released his arm and stepped off of him.

She treats him kindly and help[s him up, because she's no angry at all (just doing an unpleasant, but necessary job) and that leaves him somewhat confused.

He still hates her, but his feelings keep going in circles, from anger to resignation and even just a hint of admiration, before going back to the start, due to his wounded pride.

They return to camp, leading to this little gem (Alethis is the name of the planet):

Watching as Corporal Logan and Sureshot returned, Brosla was surprised the Corporal had a black eye, a real nasty-looking shiner, as the people of Alethis tended to call them.

Private Snow called out, “Hey Corp, what happened to your eye?” Brosla reflected that Snow seemed to be the bravest of the soldiers, because he was more or less poking a wounded bear.

Logan glared at the man with menace just shy of that require to kill with a look, only to incongruously respond in a quiet, embarrassed tone of voice, “I fell down.”

Brosla didn’t believe that for even one second, unless he’d fallen as a result of Sureshot knocking him down.

Sureshot gives Logan an order to test his behavior and even uses the word "please" to make a subtle point. He interacts with the men without his former shouting and nastiness.

Chapter 33: Snake in the Grass

Sureshot leads her team in a mission briefing in the dark of the night, while Illa uses a moonbeam peeking through the trees to highlight visual aids. She's given them the same lecture every day along the way.

I'm told by my friend, the former sergeant, this is the proper military way, though I wasn't surprised, because I arrived at this on my own, thinking it just made sense to cover the details until they're memorized.

The summary of their plan go as follows: Sureshot and her small squad, plus Brosla, Illa and Kadrek go first. Illa calms the ghosts of Memorial Vale and then Sureshot will use a telegraph crystal to notify King Windmaker she's ready, just by rapidly tapping it.

They'll locate the secret door to the palace (Illa holds up a line drawing of a flower, which she long ago cut into the stone slab with magic). Then either Illa uses magic to move the slab or one of the war-riders will do the job.

Once inside the palace, orders are to cause as much chaos as possible and ultimately, make way to the troll front lines from behind, so the siege can be broken.

The last item of business is Nepita (Illa holds up a drawing of her face). Sureshot reminds them NO ONE is to engage in combat with Nepita, aside frm herself, Brosla and King Windmaker. She doesn't tell them the real reasons (most of them have no idea Nepita is Queen of Utros), but does remind them of the insane power of the woman's swords, as an excuse to get them to run from her. She explains that Windmaker is immune to their magic, because he forged them, Brosla is immune to magic in general and Sureshot intends to put her down with a single shot, the instant she sees her.

They set out to begin their mission.

Switching to Anji's perspective, who happens to be hidden in Memorial Vale, she looks out at the desert scrub brush between the two kingdoms, scanning for invaders. Grandmother has said Memorial vale is vulnerable to infiltration, but Anji doesn't buy the idea of climbing the cliff wall at the back of the valley as a special vulnerability, vowing to search the palace for a secret exit.

She catches a strange snippet of sound drifting on the wind: the sound of whistling rocks. Anji recognizes it as the only outward sign of a concealment spell that Illa taught Kina (demonstrated in Chapter 6).

She sings to contact Nepita's mind, since she's also in the valley, informing her what she's heard.

Switching off to Nepita's perspective, she heads back inside the palace via the secret door (she recently found it), but does an unusual thing along the way: she growls, producing a red glow around her body as she physically lifts the stone slab out of the way! She's spent the past three months studying Rage Song and discovered a powerful strength enhancing spell.

She enters Illa's old room, where Yetu lives:

“Yetu, I’ve finally found an excuse to set you free.” Nepita announced.

Yetu bowed his head and spoke loyally, “Your will is my command, as from the beginning, my Queen.”

Nepita smiled, because her son was so bright, it was a real shame he couldn’t be her heir. He would have made an excellent Queen, if only he hadn’t been male, and if Nepita had a daughter with such potential, she would have willingly stepped down to allow them to replace her, but Yetu wasn’t female and that could never happen.

“I will publicly pardon your crime and even approve your use of Rage Song, but to sell it to the court, I’ll need your help to accomplish something I’m not sure even I can do alone: kill Illa. We’ll work as a team to overwhelm her. I’ll use physical attacks, while you overwhelm her with magic, then give you most of the credit. There’s no way the little-” Nepita cursed, referring to Illa as a female dog, “-can stand up to both of us.” She spoke confidently, despite her own reservations.

Yetu looked up and met his mother’s gaze with the kind of blood-lust she’d seen in the mirror when extremely angry and an unsettling smile, to match. He growled a little and his eyes glowed red. He chuckled softly at first, before launching into the full-blown, insane laughter of a man that had lost his marbles as a result of a suppressed and frustrated rage finally finding an outlet.

The laugh stopped suddenly and his eyes returned to normal as he eagerly nodded, “It will be done with great pleasure, my Queen! Thank you for giving me this chance to prove my loyalty! I’ll make you proud, Mother!”

Nepita beamed with pride, because not only was Yetu smart, but he’d finally come to the intensity of emotion that marked a good troll leader and it really was a shame he wasn’t female, because he had the perfect temperament.

“You already have.” Nepita smiled at her son and gestured to the secret door, “Let’s go kill your Aunt, before she leads the dwarves to this secret door, because I’m certain she knows it’s here.”

If they win, then Nepita plans to raise Yetu in rank until he's third in the kingdom, after herself and Anji. If they win, then he'll never again need fear the court, because he'll be in a position of power, able to kill them at will if they cross him.

Nonetheless, Nepita isn't sure of herself, for once, with no idea if she can defeat Illa or not, because she's the most powerful troll witch the kingdom has ever seen. She even considers calling on Anji for backup, if Yetu and Nepita aren't quite enough.

What I Skipped

Chapter 34 will be 'Sharpshooter', in which Anji and Sureshot finally have the sniper vs. sniper battle I've been foreshadowing since chapter 14.

Chapter 35 will detail Illa's magical duel with Yetu.

Chapter 36 will finally bring King Windmaker face to face with Nepita, while Aketa and her abominations keep the King's personal guard busy, in the background, though I may give Aketa and the abominations some limelight for a chapter of their own as they fight the royal guard.

These three or four chapters will be written next week, plus the Epilogue.

Chapter 37: Bushwhack

The chapter begins with one of the machine warships assigned to destroy Terror of Vok, Pursuer 72D5E639, which has arrived at Alethis ahead of Captain Vendros.

It begins scan of the planet, trying to determine why Vendros is running to the 'miracle' world, as it's referred to in records stolen form the Vokosians.

It doesn't finish it's scans, interrupted by a radiation surge marking the emergence of a star ship from FTL space, which it assumes is the early arrival of its target.

We switch to Vendros and his bridge crew as he makes preparations to exit FTL space. He's still in a paranoid mood, so he orders battle stations and sends non-essential personnel to escape pods, once again. He also orders the pilot to exit FTL space using OBSS, which is sort for Olgun’s Bait and Switch Sequence.

OBSS involves completely shutting the FTL drive off in an instant, rather than a more gradual shutdown. This slightly distorts space inside the ship, which can be dangerous, but before it can do any real harm, the drive is activated again for a brief instant, causing the ship to very nearly exit FTL space in one location, before actually emerging into normal space somewhere else, along the ship's current course. This creates a radiation surge at the first spot almost exactly like a ship that's about to appear, confusing sensor readings.

Vendos gives a speech/pep talk:

“Today we may die, but if this is our time, then we’re-” Vendros cursed, “-well taking our attacker down with us! I will do whatever it takes to defend the galaxy and I will gladly lay down my life to protect our last miracle and safely deliver our families to their new home! Men, are you with me on this?”

Everyone stopped their work for a moment and raised their fists, a gesture Vok was famed for using, though he normally did it with his hammer in hand, promising his readiness to fight. The gesture silently indicated their support, approval and willingness to die for their cause.

“For the galaxy, for our families and for Vok!” Vendros raised his hand, including himself in the gesture.

His bridge crew shouted the ceremonial refrain, “Our hearts and minds for Vok! Our lives for the cause! May Vok give our souls rest!”

Tears streamed from the eyes of Vendros as pride filled his heart. It was strange to hear his crew speak so religiously, but in a most unusual turn of events, he and his crew had rediscovered their faith through the High Priestess coming to doubt her own and he wondered if he’d seen the hand of Vok in that matter.

As his crew got back to work, he was left to his own thoughts, wondering about his own relationship with his god, as a still and calm voice entered his mind, I have always known the important destiny of your soul and never doubted your calling. I chose you before you were formed in the womb, for only you could do the things you have and will do. You became a pirate, because you needed the strength to defy an empire, that you might save the last of my people. My hand is upon your actions. Go now and wield my hammer in faith.

Vendros knew it had been the Voice of Vok and wept with the knowledge, overcome by powerful spirituality and the certain knowledge he was going to die, because Vok only spoke so clearly to men who were sure to lose their lives, that they might accomplish some final task he desired of them. He wasn’t afraid, because he was following Vok’s plan and that meant his soul was assured a place of peace and security in Vok’s heavenly hosts.

The bridge crew briefly looked at him with tears in their eyes and he knew Vok had also spoken to them, before turning back to their work with great fervor and certainty.

I particularly love how the plot thread of the High Priestess losing her faith was the direct cause of many others rediscovering their own. Her doubts more or less saved the souls of a bunch of hardened, atheistic pirates that had turned their backs on their god. I didn't expect that until I wrote that bit yesterday. I really wonder if that detail was somewhere in my subconscious, just waiting for the right time, or if it was inspired. I'll probably never know, at least in this life.

The High Priestess hears the order to report to the escape pods, but feels a powerful need to first put on her religious vestments, so she applies a quick makeup mask and then dons her robes, before running to the pod.

When she arrives, everyone there is comforted to see the way she's dressed and she leads them in prayer as the escape pod launches.

Out the back window, she looks on as Terror of Vok unleashes a blast from its most powerful weapons, a pair of huge, fixed-mount laser cannons, hitting the enemy warship from behind, though it soon begins spinning to face the other ship.

She prays for the crew of the ship with great faith, because she's finally come full-circle and embraced the faith she lost, likely stronger for the experience.

She prays quite fervently as the pod noses down into the atmosphere and loses sight of the battle. She also realizes she's now become the leader of the last group of living Vokosians, because Terror of Vok and her crew are extremely unlikely to survive the battle.

That's the last time the High Priestess will appear in the novel, but hjer story isn't over. In the next volume, she'll be an important character, probably a main character.

I'll just quote the entire next scene, because it's short:

“OBSS successful and we got real lucky!” The science officer reported, “We’re directly behind a Pursuer! Looks like they tried to take a page from our playbook, to destroy us as we exit FTL space.

The pilot completed a one-hundred-eighty degree turn and there was a shudder as he fired the main cannon!

“We’re ineffective, sir!” The first officer screamed, “It will take us hours to cut through their hull at this power level, the armor is so thick!”

“We have incoming drones and the enemy is coming about!” One of the gunners shouted!

“Jam all frequencies and activate Hammer of Vok Mode!” Vendros screamed, “Don’t let them get a word out!”

Hammer of Vok Mode was another of Olgun’s genius enhancements to the ship, based on his accidental discovery that the ship’s main reactors could handle running at two-hundred-fifty percent power for a few moments without sustaining damage. Having read the engineer’s report on the matter, Vendros had gone to the man and together, they designed the ship’s ultimate weapon and last surprise, a mode in which all available power was routed to the main cannons, to produce a beam so intense, it was hypothetically capable of boring a hole straight through a planet. It had never been tested, because it would certainly destroy the cannons, if not the whole ship, but Vendros and his crew had always been the kind to go down fighting. The software involved had been designed such that if the damage was catastrophic, then all reactor safeties would disengage, turning the ship into a flying bomb, in the hopes their death would take the enemy with them.

“Emergency power engaged!” Olgun’s voice came over the intercom, “Backup reactors coming online! Rerouting power from non-essential systems!”

The lights cut out and most of the workstations on the bridge died, except for the pilot’s controls, which were necessary to aim and fire the main cannons.

“Cutting life-support and gravity!”

Everyone was suddenly weightless and a few loose items floated around as the pilot lined them up for a more precise shot, because he knew exactly where the main computer of the enemy ship was, which was effectively its brain.

He waited for just a moment for his shot to line up and and then pulled the trigger on one of his control sticks, producing a blinding flash of red light that poured in though the window of the bridge!

As distant portions of the ship began to explode, because all of the main power conduits had been overloaded, Vendros knew the final measure of Hammer of Vok mode would activate and he just wished he could hear the thoughts of the enemy warship as it realized how screwed it was.

“It’s been a pleasure serving with you, my fiends.” Vendros spoke with emotion, getting murmurs of agreement in turn, before he raised his hand and shouted, “All hail Vok!”

His men matched his gesture and shouted in unison, “All hail Vok!”

Pursuer 72D5E639 is left effectively brain dead, without even having alerted its superior unit it had been killed, which will buy a little time before more ships are dispatched.

The next scene follows Scout 3455C4B1, a ground unit that sleeps in the hull of one of the few relatively intact portions of the destroyed ship. It's woken by automated systems and knowledge of the current mission is dumped into its mind.

It's coated in high temperature plastic, which forms an egg-like shape around it, the outside of which is cooled with chilled nitrogen gas, leaving it at a liquid center surrounded by a heavy shell of solid, ablative plastic. Explosive bolts blow an outer hull panel off and another explosion launches it from the hidden chamber. After a moment, a thruster pack (outside the entry capsule) comes to life, angling it downward toward the planet, just as the narrative reveals there's hundreds more, just like it, because they're falling in formation.

That scene marks the end of the last chapter of the book, but there will be an Epilogue that comes after it, to cap things off properly.

Future Plans

Next week should mark the end of the rough draft.

All I have left to write are chapters 34-36 and then the Epilogue.

The Epilogue should consist of briefly covering the perspectives of every major and minor surviving character in the book as they look up at the sky as the battle between star ships comes to a spectacular end and debris streams down into the atmosphere.

Some of the falling objects are Vokosian escape pods, several hundred are machine swarm ground troops in various configurations from small scout drones, to autonomous weapons, on up to leaders. I should probably add some new characters too. The Queen of the Seelie, for example, would be a good choice, because she'll be important in later books.

It's quite likely I'll accidentally leave some characters out of this in the rough draft, but I'll probably make myself a list and then check that as I'm editing, so I can add missing characters.

After that startling event changes Nepita's mind, King Windmaker will suggest a pact of peace and the two will discuss how to stop their people from fighting. They'll end up using All-biter to literally cut the war in half, because it's capable of cutting through even metaphors, at least with Windmaker coaching Nepita on how to use it.

The very last pair of scenes of the book will mirror each other, involving Lady Gunn and Lord Rolar coming to visit the dwarves and the trolls, respectively. Each ill be shown the forged journals provided to the opposite side and Lord Rolar will meet have a grisly death at the hands of the trolls, while Lady Gunn will be clapped in irons and held for questioning, because Oswil has a lot of questions for the traitorous woman.

Editing of this novel is likely to be delayed, however, because I've got to finish editing Dark Moon first and I'm not doing two editing projects simultaneously.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

Work In Progress #6: Troll War #6 (July 29-August 2)

This is part six of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon.

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on Troll War, in chronological order:

1. June 21-28
2. July 1-5
3. July 8-12
4. July 15-19
5. July 22-27

Part Three: The Drama

The week began with the start of Part Three, which is the final part. The intent now is to get my main characters together for one last climactic battle, just in time for the star ship Terror of Vok (the ship of Captain Vendros) and a warship from the machine swarm to show up in orbit, producing a brilliant pyrotechnic display in the night sky, because they'll be pulling no punches.

That should be just enough proof to finally sway the Queen of Utros, Nepita, into finally making peace, but as always, any plans I make are tentative, because my characters often do things I don't expect.

It's ironic, because you'd think I'd know what's going to happen, but once I set a character's personality, I have to honor that or the story would totally lose the suspension of disbelief, for violating a character's internal thought processes.

It's a lot of fun for me, though, because I find out, chapter by chapter. I may not know the overall plot and climax until I've fully cemented character personalities in my mind, giving me some measure of ability to predict their actions, but they often do the very last thing I would have predicted, once I sit down to write.

There was an example of this in my writing this week, in Chapter 25, that played into some dangling plot threads I setup in chapter 1, which I hadn't known how to make use of until then. I'll explain more, below.

Chapter 25: Shout of Ruin

The recently formed Oswil-Fortune Fields Alliance, which I like to refer to as OFFA, has blockaded the trolls in their own lands on their east and north borders, while they also have other enemies to the south and west, which are currently too frightened of Nepita's ten-for-one vengeance policy to attack. These would be the gnomes (probably to the south, but won't matter until the next book), goblins (south-west, most likely) and the dark fairies (definitely to the west, which will become important next week).

OFFA has strengthened their defenses around Fort Freybell, which became a point of contention between Fortune Fields and Utros during the recent failed peace talks.

In particular, the local portion of the blockade features dwarves on the front line, because they have more experience with melee combat, including a unit of demon-riders powered by tamed fire elementals.

Behind them, there's Oswil soldiers with rifles, since they're better shots than dwarves.

The third line back is composed of cannons and Gibson-guns (very much like a Gattling-gun; since this is a fantasy world with parallels to our own, I've chosen to replace the names of firearm manufacturers with names that start with the same letter, so things will be somewhat familiar, without every detail needing to be exactly the same) serve as artillery.

The back line is composed of Oswil battle-mages, who happen to be elves. These are also Oswil Army.

Fort Freybell is somewhat behind the blockade line, set on a hill. It's more or less an old, medieval-style castle of dwarf construction that the dwarves abandoned when the local mine petered out. It has some minor strategic value, but only because it's on the trade road between Fortune Fields and Utros.

Illa stands on a hill behind OFFA lines, with Kadrek beside her, wearing heavy armor and carrying a huge tower shield, so he had protect them both from bullets. Illa's intent is to counter the magic of the trolls, because she has the greatest knowledge of how it works, leaving everyone else free to retaliate.

Hidden among the trees of another hill, some distance away, are Sureshot, Brosla and her men. She's got her old rifle back (turns out the one Corporal Logan offered her is the very same she used in the 108th) and has decided to face her demons head on, now that she knows the root cause of her battle fatigue (an old term for PTSD). Her orders are to shoot the troll leaders as soon as the battle begins.

Trolls march toward their position with the intent of breaking through, to kill the battle-mages before they really get going. Prince Yetu (Nepita's son), Anji and several other trolls climb a hill opposite Illa's hill, just as the battle begins.

Sureshot has a brief conversation with Brosla about Anji, because she knows she shot the woman in the temple, a wound that should have killed her. Brosla looks though a pair of binoculars he obtained form his ship, confirming what she sees. She concludes the woman is a female troll and so is Illa, who she only knows as Leona Conway, which she now considers an assumed name. She vows to have a word with Illa, just as soon as she can, because she's angry.

The demon-riders are finally demonstrated in battle, covering themselves and their weapons in jets of flame as they wade into the troll lines, decimating them as they go. Cannons fire grapeshot (cannon balls linked by chain) into the troll lines, while the Gibson-guns produce a hail of bullets. Initially, things go badly for the trolls.

Sureshot shoots Anji between the eyes and Yetu freaks out, because the troll woman's presence makes him feel safe. At his lowest moment, Illa uses her magic to touch his mind, offering him the chance to surrender, with the promise he won't be harmed.

Coming to realize she's become a traitor (he recognizes her voice in his mind), Yetu allows himself to feel a deep-seated rage against troll women for the first time in his life, directing all of it at Illa.

He screams, "Get out of me head!"

His magic rages out of control and latches onto his vocal cords as he subconsciously uses a forbidden spell that female trolls have been murdering male troll wizards over, since the world was seeded with life by the gods.

His raging magic births an invisible, sentient spell known as a Shout of Ruin, which kills with sonic strikes. It inherits his hatred of Illa and crosses the battlefield, shattering metal objects, just to test its power, destroying weapons on both sides of the battle, though it gets stringer with each group it hits. It cracks the armor of the demon-riders, ruins troll and OFFA rifles, alike, but when it reaches the Gibson-guns, they explode into shrapnel. When it passes by Kadrek, his armor and weapons explode, badly injuring him!

It finally comes face to face with Illa, who's studied the Shout of Ruin, because she'd once considered it her best option for revenge on Nepita, though she hadn't been able to produce one, having not realized the spell was effectively alive.

However, having been in telepathic contact with Yetu's mind as he produced it, she learns the technique and counters the deadly spell with one of her own, using her rage against Nepita to produce it.

There's a tremendous clash of sound as the two sentient spells battle for dominance and try to consume each other. The eardrums of the trolls burst and the beeswax in the ears of OFFA soldiers (a precaution to counter the mental magic the trolls have been using since the beginning of the war), begins to melt, so they clasp their hands over their ears, to keep it in. The ground begins to quake and a distant mountainside produces an avalanche.

Sureshot is far enough away that she's not in any real danger, though she's in tremendous pain as she aims and fires on Yetu, convinced his scream is somehow the source of the magical sound.

Yetu's Shout of Ruin notices the rifle slug's approach and turns its full attention to vaporizing it, because protecting its master is one of its primary motives. This gives Illa's Shout the opportunity to consume it.

There's a brief moment in which Illa expects her victorious Shout to kill Yetu, but it doesn't happen. Instead, it focuses on the goal of killing Nepita, beginning a long journey to the Utros Palace, the results of which are covered in the next chapter.

Illa uses telekinetic magic to turn the broken fragments of Kadrek's armor into high-velocity, spinning blades, launching them at Yetu in a pattern like a shotgun. One of the fragments punctures a lung and the young troll goes down, totally unable to speak or scream, preventing him from producing another Shout.

Anji sits up and orders her men to retreat, because a second troll army is on the way. The intent was always to rotate though troll armies, giving them time to regenerate between battle, while the defenders are slowly whittled down. She has high hopes they'll soon break through the OFFA lines.

She notes the fact that Yetu used forbidden magic without knowing it, but in so doing, he also demonstrated his loyalty. Anji hopes to appease Nepita and prevent the young wizard's death, though his fate is currently unknown, even to me.

The Shout of Ruin was the element that I totally hadn't been expecting in this chapter, totally catching me by surprise and which neatly tucks into the dangling plot threads established in Chapter 1. The specific threads I'm referring to are Prince Yetu having magic talent and Yera (who has the mind of Nepita's Grandmother in her head) waiting for an opportunity to strike against Nepita.

Chapter 26: Weakness

Nepita arrives at the Abomination Barracks with Yera right on her heels, to have a word with Aketa about her unit's battle readiness. She watches Aketa eating a fried chicken, briefly amused, because the burn-scarred troll has been made an integral part of the war-rider captured during Part One, with her muscles and tendons attached to the control systems of the war machine, giving her extremely fine control over it.

Aketa and her men are eager for battle, because Aketa claims they desire to prove themselves. The real truth, however, is that Aketa wishes to throw herself into battle in the hopes of finally dying, because she has no desire to live the life of suffering she's enduring, all because Nepita selfishly refused to allow her to die.

Nepita steps out of Aketa's quarters and senses incredible magic. She concentrates to be able to see it, observing a ball of magic that's headed right for her, though she's surprised it isn't Yera's spell.

She produces a mental echo-location burst and discovers the attacking spell has a mind of its own, so she immediately mentally attacks it, just barely managing to stop it dead in its tracks, while it claims, Illa sends her regards!

Yera laughs and claps, because Nepita is now vulnerable. Being a villain of the classic, gloating type, she monologues, calling Nepita weak, then reveals who she really is (Grandmother) and how she came to inhabit Yera's body: her personal attendant offered up her body after Grandmother's body was damaged so badly even troll regeneration would likely fail to repair it. Grandmother wiped the woman's brain and then telepathically moved her mind into the new body, a technique she's been using for a very long time, since she's been around as long as Utros (hundreds of years).

Meanwhile, the other rush to aid Nepita, since Aketa and the abominations are loyal, but Aketa's body obeys the woman's commands and the rest are stopped with a mere snap of Grandmother's fingers, the fire-retardant coating on the abominations turning as hard as steel. When she enhanced their bodies with magic, as it turns out, she made sure they were open to being influenced by the very smallest of her spells.

Grandmother claims to have allowed Nepita to win their fight, so she could play the long game and steal the throne back during a moment of weakness. She goes on to make a list of Nepita's personal failings and then finally makes a simple offer: swear eternal fealty and let Grandmother retake the throne or she'll dump even more magic into the Shout of Ruin, so it can kill Nepita.

Nepita suggests that Grandmother procreate with herself and Grandmother follows through on her threat.

As death looms ever nearer, Nepita's life flashes before her eyes, revealing to her the murky details of the first time a woman of the court tried to assassinate her, just after she was taken out of the Play Room. She'd been pinned to a wall as the older, stronger woman strangled her, but because she wanted to hear Nepita beg for mercy, she let the child breathe, a huge mistake.

In the moment of white-hot rage, Nepita subconsciously tapped into Rage Song, the magic of male trolls. She screamed with fury and the magic enhanced her vocal cords, producing a sound capable of shattering bone. It wasn't a Shout of Ruin, which requires years of repressed feelings, but it was still forbidden, male magic.

With the woman's face mere inches from Nepita's mouth, her skull more or less exploded, just as Nepita's eardrums burst, because she'd lacked fine control over her magic, at the time.

The experience had been so traumatic, she suppressed the memory, but with it clear in her mind, she knew she had one chance to save he life, switching from telepathy to a magical scream!

Fortunately for her, Illa's Shout of Ruin was low on power and Grandmother had been too busy savoring her imminent victory, she hadn't quite fed it enough to overcome Nepita's scream! Her magic cancels out the sound of the Shout, killing it, while the eardrums of everyone but herself burst!

Despite damage to her inner ear, due to the tremendous volume, Nepita is on Granmother before she can recover, her enchanted swords crossed against the old troll's neck.

There's a long, tense moment as Nepita waits for Grandmother to heal and then says this:

When Nepita was certain Grandmother could hear her, she smiled, “Thank you for your presence making me paranoid. I’ve been so focused on the threat you pose, I’ve beaten back my rivals and stayed strong, but this wasn’t your day and you won’t get another chance like this.” She crouched without moving her blades, until their faces were six inches apart, speaking so softly only they could have heard, “I am not weak, but neither am I perfect.” She switched back to a more regular volume, “Thank you for your constructive criticism. I’ll give your words some reflection, Grandmother.” She straightened up, withdrew her swords, sheathed them and then barked an order to Aketa, “You and your men are on standby, until I can have a strategy meeting with the court. Grandmother has given me much food for thought.”

Nepita leaves Granmother's neck scarred by the touch of Nemesis and exits the room in high spirits, because she found the experience invigorating. She actually whistles as she walks the halls, with Grandmother trailing behind her.

The implication is that Grandmother can come at her as often as she likes, but Nepita will only be made stronger by the constant paranoia, just as it has strengthened her against other court intrigue.

There's a brief scene from the perspective of General Hendrix, who's on the wall of Fort Freybell, watching the movements of the trolls, who have three armies in play, each the size of a regiment. The first is nearly healed, the second just finished a stint in battle and the third is moving in to attack. He finally realizes the trolls intend to wear them down over time, using their regenerative abilities to their advantage and calls for reinforcements, because their battle lines are already weak, due to the previous two battles.

In the next scene, Sureshot climbs Illa's hill, because it's too dark for her to work with a rifle at such long range. She confronts the woman about what she is and Illa comes clean, telling her a short version of her tale. Sureshot does seem to forgive her for the subterfuge, once she realizes how dangerous knowledge of female trolls can be.

However, she still takes the information to King Windmaker and General Hendrix, because they've been making long-term war plans without vital information.

The discussion eventually reveals that Sureshot has seen Nepita's face, because she describes what the woman's weapons did to her.

The General orders Sureshot to be the core of the team they're planning to send to end the war, by killing Nepita, and she accepts.

Meanwhile, Anji arrives in the Utros palace during a strategy meeting, which is being led by both Nepita and Yera (Grandmother, though Anji doesn't know that yet).

Anji gets the Queen alone, telling her Illa has become a traitor and Yetu has used a Shout of Ruin. If I had to hazard a guess, Nepita has spared Yetu's life, but can't help but imprison him as a result. He will probably be seen again during the climax.

Musings on Vokosian Concepts of Time

Every chapter I write that takes place on the star ship Terror of Vok forces me to consider the implications of an alien culture. For example, during Cahpter 23, The Broken Priestess, I was forced to flesh out their religion.

Chapter 27 (see below), forced me to take a moment to consider their use of time. I had previously settled on a 'year-tenth' as the Vokosian equivalent to a month (used in chapter 13) and I settled on 'ten-day' as the equivalent to a week. There are of course better words for these terms in their own language, but I'm using somewhat literal English translations for the reader, to emphasize the difference in culture.

The invention of the term ten-day got me thinking of time in Vokosian units, which are decimalized, but keep in mind the comparison I'm making in the following table is analogous, not equivalent, so our terms and theirs don't refer to exactly the same amount of time:

Our Time	Vokosian Time	True Vokosian Meaning
Second	Day-Thousandth	1/1000th of a day
Minute	Day-Hundredth	1/100th of a day
Hour	Day-Tenth	1/10th of a day
Day	Day	1 rotation of their home world*
Week	Ten-Day	10 days
Month	Year-Tenth or Hundred-Day	100 days
Year	Year	1000 days**

This approach to accounting for the passage of time should make the Vokosians feel alien, without making it hard to relate to their perspective, while allowing some simple math to work out the details, because one hour is 1.6 day-tenths.

Now that I've set the Vokosian calendar in my mind, I was forced to go back to chapters 13 and 16, to fix some time figures, so instead of Terror of Vok arriving in three year-tenths, it has become one and a half, to keep my three month timetable accurate, but that's what editing is for. I'm always going back to add small details to match the clearer picture of the plot that I get in later stages of writing a novel.

Chapter 27: The Living Bone

The scene begins with the High Priestess of Vok (named Et'aell, by the way) alone in her quarters aboard Terror of Vok. She's unable to get alcohol of any kind, after the public spectacle she made of herself and when people pass her in the halls, they either make signs to ward off evil or tell her to repent.

She's spend the majority of a ten-day alone, aside from going out to get food from the galley.

She's still unable to cope with the shattering of her faith, because she's come to believe that Vok is dead, based on the way most of their species has been wiped out.

The doorbell rings and she shouts for them to go away, but it just keeps ringing. Eventually, it becomes knocks and finally, the door is opened by a security override.

Captain Vendros and his first officer step in, leading to this exchange:

“What do you want?” Et’aell demanded, half angry and half despairing. The Captain surveyed the untidy room, which reflected Et’aell’s internal state quite well, then settled on her unkempt hair and rumpled clothes, because she hadn’t done anything to groom herself in days. He sniffed the air and it was obvious her unwashed odor offended him.

Captain Vendros spoke with determination, despite what he’d just seen and smelled, “You have two choices, High Priestess. First, you can continue to wallow in misery over your broken faith or you can do something good, because the crew needs you.”

“No one needs me.” Et’aell gave the Captain a defiant look and then started to cry again.

The first officer shook his head, “You have no idea how wrong you are.”

“Have you forgotten what day it is?” Vendros asked.

“It doesn’t matter what day it is, because Vok is dead!” Et’aell despaired, “No day is more holy than another, because there is no more holiness and all we have left is just a matter of staving off our eternal punishment for just one more day! We’re doomed to burn in Xercil’s crematory and there’s nothing I can do about that!”

Captain Vendros spoke softly, “That may be what you believe, but there’s a whole crew of people on this ship that believe otherwise, who’ve gathered for a Ten-day Service that only you can lead. They still have their faith. They still believe. They still need you. Will you abandon them, just as you seem to believe you’ve been abandoned by Vok?”

His words were like a slap to the face. Vok may have abandoned his people by dying, but a sense of duty welled up within her as tears poured more freely from her eyes than ever before, because she was ashamed by her own, selfish actions.

“I don’t believe anymore,” she admitted, “but you have a point: I don’t matter. My calling was never about me and whether my faith is living or dead, the least I can do is go through the motions in our last days, to give the people of Vok what comfort I can, before their souls are given to Xercil.

“I’ll serve as this ship’s priestess and say the words they need to hear, but I don’t think I’ll ever find my faith again.”

“I’m sorry. I should never have told you the truth.” Vendros bowed his head with grief.

“You did nothing wrong and if Vok were still among the living, he would agree. Give me a little time to prepare, then I’ll lead the crew in a Ten-day Service.”

Roused from her depression by duty, the Priestess cleans herself up, cleans and dons her vestment, then applies her ceremonial makeup, going off to lead the service, only to discover that in her absence, the crew have cleaned the chapel, top to bottom, and they've filled the pews, with more standing at the back.

She doesn't know it, but Captain Vendros took a personal hand in all of this, ordering the crew to clean the room and then show up.

While she believes herself to merely be going through the motions, she delivers a sermon and leads the service, leaving not one eye in the room dry.

With the morning service complete, she attends to hearing the crew speak their minds to her, in private, again doing what's expected of her, but not for her own sake.

When evening comes, she leads a second service for those that were on duty during the morning shift, again without a single dry eye.

With a day spent in service to others, fulfilling her calling, she heads back to her quarters, questioning her own lack of faith, because she could see that Vok still lives on in the hearts and minds of her flock.

She isn't over the blow to her faith, but she has perhaps started to heal.

I'm enjoying this character and the internal conflict in her heart. I plan to use her as the leader of the survivors of the Vokosians in the second book, though I think her story will also make the sacrifice of Vendros and his crew during the climax more poignant.

Chapter 28: Pushing Back

Two and a half months after the near continuous battle for Freybell began, King Windmaker and General Hendrix stand on the wall of the fort, observing the battlefield as good men die to hold the line, more or less by the skin of their teeth.

Hendrix looks north, while Windmaker looks east, each hoping to see reinforcements, because King Joshua has pulled all but the minimum of soldiers from the borders of Oswil, promising thirteen whole regiments, while Windmaker hopes to see more of his war machines, because they've done without for far too long.

Hendix didn't expect to see anything, thinking he's too early, but he's happy to see cavalry approaching at a gallop, having moved faster than the rest of the army!

Windmaker is happy to announce a unit of war machines are on the way and they're truly relieved for just one moment, but as they look at the battlefield, they're still upset to see good men dying.

Later on, as ten regiments from Oswil arrive at the battlefield (the other three went out to strengthen the blockade), causing the trolls to flee, Sureshot is more than happy.

However, it won't be easy to assault Utros, because the narrow canyon leading to Whitewall and the Utros palace is small enough a dedicated force of a hundred trolls could easily hold it, for as long as food holds out.

Sureshot begins a discussion with her team about their upcoming mission to assassinate Nepita and General Hendrix presents her with three enchanted bullets, Troll-Slayer rounds that are sized for her rifle, ordering her to make each one count, because the Scott and Walcott Firearms Company refuse to make any more, for fear of what the trolls might do to them. Officially, those rounds don't exist and S&W will deny all knowledge of the fact they made them.

Sureshot discusses her plan to approach the Utros palace from behind (from the west), followed by climbing a sheer cliff wall, so she can summit the mountain and then drop down on the other side, to enter.

Illa suggests an alternative, using a secret passage the dwarves don't know about that leads to her old quarters, which used to belong to her Grandmother, then insists she has to go with, because the valley the secret door opens on is a graveyard for fallen troll royals, who never died peacefully and are therefore restless. She claims they won't harm troll royalty or anyone under their protection. Kadrek insists on going if his wife is going.

Sureshot initially refuses to bring the couple, because they died in her vision of the future, but Brosla manages to convince her that he'll keep all three of them safe.

King Windmaker challenges his ability to do so, but Sureshot informs the King Brosla is a null and therefore able to defy fate. Hearing this, King Windmaker volunteers to join them for their suicide mission, because he wouldn't miss seeing a null in action for all the gold in the world.

He promises to bring his personal war-rider and a company of his royal guardsmen, because the secret door is large enough to get such large war machines through. The plan becomes causing as much chaos as possible in the palace with the war machines, while Sureshot works to locate and kill Nepita.

There's also some discussion of the threat Weapon Master Anji poses to the team, based on her previous marksmanship, so Sureshot essentially vows one of her Troll-Slayer rounds will be used to put the Weapon Master down for good.

Sureshot's team get horses from the stable, while the war-riders are prepared for a long journey by bolting cylinders of enchanted coal to the area of their buttocks, making them look like giant dwarves with bedrolls strapped to their behinds. This is something adapted from my time studying the Vietnam War for another novel; the U.S. soldiers that fought the war kept what little they needed in the field in a small butt-pack that hung from their belt.

They head north, where they'll turn west on the main road, until they reach the territory of the dark fairies. Once there, they'll cross into fey land with the intention of making contact with the fey lords. They plan to tell the truth, that they intend to kill the ruler of the trolls, and hope this fact will assure their safe passage.

Future Plans

I'll likely write Sureshot's encounter with the fey on Monday.

I need to write at least two more chapters from the perspective of the High Priestess, as well, so I may write one of those on Monday, to further her character growth and the revitalization of her faith.

Regardless, the last bit of her story will be in the midst of the climax, when all non-essential personnel will be ordered off the ship, just as the battle begins.

Down on the ground, all heck will break loose as Sureshot's team and Anji's best soldiers meet in Memorial Vale (the haunted valley). That's when the sniper vs. sniper contest I've been foreshadowing will finally happen, with each of them gunning for the other, while Illa and King Windmaker go on without her. That battle will probably start with the death of several of Corporal Logan's men, who have always been intended to serve as a plot device to demonstrate when the crap has hit the fan.

I hope to complete the rough draft next week, but all plans are tentative, especially considering the fact I also need to get the editing on Dark Moon (Book 4 of The Wizard's Scion) finished, since my artist just finished the cover art.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

Work In Progress #5: Troll War #5 (July 22-27)

This is part five of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon. This series can be read via this link, though it will be in reverse chronological order, from newest to oldest.

Chapter 19: Diplomatic Impunity

I started the week's work by finishing this chapter.

After Illa's bombshell revelation about the trolls having used nothing but cloned shock troops for three years, just to soften the dwarves up (covered in the previous installment of this series), King Windmaker requests aid from Oswil.

Sureshot uses a telegraph crystal she brought with her to contact King Joshua. While they wait for a reply, they chat idly about Lady Gunn and it's revealed that she and her family have been under investigation for years, due to their underhanded business practices.

King Windmaker is just about to reveal that Lady Gunn was the one to tell him trolls invaded his land at the start of the war, when the reply comes through, requiring Sureshot's attention. It was funny to me, dangling the truth so close to Sureshot, only to whip it away, without her knowledge.

King Joshus immediately sends an entire regiment, with two more promised for the future. He also orders Sureshot to make an alliance with Fortune Fields.

Windmaker and Sureshot start making plans for future battles with the trolls, in case they don't accept peace.

Brosla contacts Captain Vendros, who shares his message again, giving the dwarves extra incentive to make peace and King Windmaker shows a lot of curiosity about the alien machines.

Chapter 20: Ceasefire

Prince Yetu (son of Nepita, pronounced as 'ee-too') brings a message from the front lines to Queen Nepita, in her throne room. He's so excited, he forgets his place and speaks out of turn, endangering his life. Nepita publicly chastises him to appease the court, then winks at him while they're all looking at him, because in the past three years, she's grown even more fond of him.

In an internal monologue from Nepita, we learn that Yetu was born under circumstances similar to Illa, slightly early, with his mind open to magic, though not to the same degree. As it turned out, he took to magic like a frog to water, soon learning to use physical magic the way Illa did, though without her around to teach him, he's had to pick that up through book learning. He was also given Illa's quarters, since he's the only one available that can use the same magical techniques she could.

However, he still lacks the respect a female troll commands and his duties mostly involve all the worst tasks the women of the court can think of to dump on him, because they hate him.

Nepita has been visiting him in the evenings, to help with his magical training, but also just to talk, because she loves him in a way a troll woman normally wouldn't feel for a male child.

Still, she's planning to soon send him into battle, because his magical talents will be useful when the invasion of Fortune Fields begins.

Yetu reports that Oswil soldiers have taken position between Utros and Fortune Fields, putting a stop to the war.

Nepita is so angry, she clenches her teeth hard enough to crack one of them. The sound snaps her out of her anger and it begins to heal.

Yetu tells her the reason the Oswil soldiers gave Angi: a battle was fought between dwarves and trolls on Oswil soil.

She turns to the court and demands, “Which of you stupid fools authorized that?”

The women of the court take a few steps back, leaving one of their own at the center of an open circle. Nepita murders the woman on the spot for her costly mistake.

Yetu tells her the dwarves have committed to peace and are now requesting a ceasefire, as relayed via the Oswil army.

Nepita strongly believes it's all a trick. Based on the fact that she fell back to give the dwarves the impression they were winning, she believes an outpost they recently captured, Fort Freybell, contained some hidden artifact the dwarfs were after. Having obtained what they were after on her lands, all along, she believes they're using Oswil as an excuse to get away with it. She's being needlessly paranoid and is totally wrong, but paranoia is a survival trait for trolls.

Nepita reluctantly decides to allow the attempt at diplomacy, because Oswil has forced her hand.

Chapter 21: The Olive Branch

Sureshot, Brosla and Prince Gorgo Windmaker, the 11th (Kadrek's brother), arrive at the Utros palace for peace talks. At Gorgo's insistence, they're unarmed, aside from Sureshot, who brought a pair of hidden knives and a derringer, because she's not fool enough to walk into troll lands without weapons.

Before they set out, Illa placed a protective spell on Sureshot, mysteriously commenting, "That should keep your thoughts safe."

Shengis stares them down for a few minutes, which is standard procedure. Outsiders think it's designed to make visitors uncomfortable, but the real truth is that he's waiting for Nepita to enter his mind, to take over for the negotiations.

Without her sword or pistols, Sureshot is extremely on edge, heightening her senses to the point she picks up on Nepita's magic as it enters the mind of Shengis. She has no idea what it means, however.

The peace talks begin with introductions and statements of intent, but things soon go south: Nepita is obsessed with Fort Freybell and its meaning to the dwarves, insisting Gorog tell her what they wanted with the little outpost. Naturally, he has no idea what she's talking about, but she doesn't believe him, threatening to make an example of him, to demonstrate what happens to those that lie.

Sureshot confirms their story that they came to make peace and takes the opportunity to share her king's perspective, handing over a letter of introduction to lend weight to her words.

Nepita more or less ends the peace talks by telling Sureshot, "You may be telling the truth, but I don’t have any reason to trust the dwarves and if your countries are allies, then Oswil is also my enemy."

Brosla makes one final attempt at peace by calling Captain Vendros, who tells his tale. Nepita listens with amusement, but ultimately calls Brosla a charlatan and illusionist.

Brosla is angry at her words, but Nepita demands proof of his claims. He admits he has none other than what he's given.

Sureshot hisses to the others, “Get ready to run!”

Nepita orders Gorgo shaved and stripped, then orders the others thrown in the dungeon, saying they'll be guests of the palace for the remainder of their short lives. Nepita's magic releases Shengis, leaving him to his own devices.

The guards in the room approach the trio with hostile intent, so Sureshot whips out her derringer, pointing it right at Shengis, insisting the gun is loaded with a Troll-slayer bullet. Slayer bullets are expensive, enchanted rounds designed to kill a particular species on impact,

She's bluffing, but Shengis orders the guards to stop. However, they don't listen, because they know their orders came from Nepita, not Shengis.

Sureshot decides not to waste her only round and shouts, "Run!"

Chapter 22: Escape

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, because it involved some good character development, fun action and a very unique scene with natural humor mixed in.

Gorgo is out the door right off the bat, but Brosla hesitates, because no one has ever pointed a gun at him! Sureshot slaps him, shoves him toward the door and then follows him out, while bullets zip past. Fortunately, the trolls are new to firearms and they're terrible shots (aside from Angi, but that will come much later on).

Out in the hall, Gorgo tackles and punches out a troll, tossing a captured rifle to Sureshot. She whirls around and fires on one of the chasing trolls, putting a bullet between his eyes! That action triggers her PTSD (she calls it battle fatigue), causing her vision to restrict so badly, she feels like she's looking down the scope of her old rifle!

She's nearly blind, so Gorgo grabs her elbow and drags her along, taking several turns, until he ditches their pursuers and then opens a secret door. Once they're hidden inside, two groups of guards, coming from opposite directions, meet by the hidden door.

There's a short argument about who lost the fugitives and the troll in charge decides the other team are traitors, sending them off to the dungeon for interrogation, which is the result of troll paranoia at work.

When they're gone, Gorgo demands to know what happened and Sureshot explains she can't use a rifle without getting tunnel vision, a result of battle fatigue (an old west/civil war term for PTSD).

Sureshot asks how Gorgo knows so much about the Utros palace and he explains that the dwarves were the ones to carve it from the bedrock in exchange for gold. In doing so, they added many secret passages to the design, just in case they ever went to war with Utros.

They discuss their available weapons and Sureshot offers Gorgo a knife. He refuses, deciding to stick with his fists, which he's named 'Nasty' (right) and 'Tricksy' (left).

She offers the knife to Brosla, who still looks shell-shocked. There's a short discussion of making a plan in his mind, ahead of time, to deal with the stress of combat and Brosla takes the knife.

Gorgo leads the way, but informs them getting out of the palace will involve going through the front doors (the only exit he's aware of).

Switching to Nepita's perspective, she shouts at Anji for losing the prisoners. Ultimately, she decides to add the women of the court to the search parties, so they can use telepathic magic to echo-locate minds and she personally joins the search, enthusiastic about the task, because she hasn't had time to go hunting since the war started.

Back in the secret tunnels, the fugitives hear singing, so Gorgo produces a small bottle of beeswax, insisting they plug their ears, so the song magic the Sanguine Sisterhood uses won't affect them (he has no idea that organization of assassins are the troll women from Utros).

Brosla refuses, because he's immune to magic, a fact that makes Gorgo a little jealous. Sureshot also refuses, believing Illa's spell will protect her, but Gorgo plugs his ears.

The troll women pass by them without noticing the minds of the fugitives, sweeping through the halls until they head outside.

The fugitives eventually reach the last secret door before the exit and make a plan to silently take down the pair of guards they saw stationed there on the way in. The plan is for Sureshot to handle one, while the other two focus on the other, with Gorgo tackling and Brosla cutting the troll's throat.

The door is opened and Sureshot uses her rifle to choke one guard, then snaps his neck. Gorgo tackles the other, according to plan, but Brosla hesitates and then chokes the guard out with his shin, instead of cutting his throat, because he just can't do it. When they're done, Sureshot snaps the second guard's neck, because such severe injuries take a lot of time for a troll to heal.

Gorgo is disappointed with Brosla, who hands the knife back to Sureshot.

Knowing the doors lead to a small, one room fort, Sureshot makes the next plan, asking the men to open the door, while she prepares to shoot every troll beyond them, from the cover of a corner.

The doors are opened and she sees Anji, holding a rifle very much like the one she used to favor, plus six troll men. She puts a bullet through the woman's temple, putting her down, then proceeds to wipe out the others, systematically. Again, the poor marksmanship of the trolls is their advantage.

Nearly blind again, Brosla takes Sureshot's hand, while Gorgo leads the way. They weave their way through the city, past many a witness, ending up at an alley with no obvious exit. The dwarf pops open another secret hatch and they squeeze through.

Nepita arrives at the alley on short order (citizens of the city pointed the way), but not in time to catch them. She investigates for a time, even going so far as to climb a building, but concludes there was no way they could have escaped without a secret door.

She kicks the ground for a time, looking for a different sound, but finds nothing. She draws her sword, All-biter (said to be able to cut anything), and taps the wall with the hilt, listening for something unusual. She finds nothing and slashes the wall in frustration, cutting right through the hidden hatch, which pops open as a result.

She scrambles inside, finding a natural cave that the dwarves modified, to make a trough down the center as it goes downhill. There's water dripping into the trough, which is wet enough to serve as a water slide.

She lays down and slides away as a scream echoing up the tunnel soon confirms her suspicions.

The fugitives are sliding down the tunnel, Gorgo at the lead, Brosla center and Sureshot last. She's scared by their speed.

I found the resulting exchange rather fun:

Sureshot: "Are you sure this is safe?"

Gorgo: "No, me’s sure it isn’t!"

Brosla (panicking): "What?"

Gorgo: "We should eventually end up in the underground river, but the trouble is, me don’t think there’s enough water in it to cushion our fall!"

Sureshot (angry and screaming): "What, pray tell, are you planning to do about that?"

Gorgo: "Me hadn’t really thought it through, but uncertain death is better than certain death!"

Brosla: "Can we slow down, before we hit the bottom?"

Gorgo: "Aye, that’s a good idea!"

Gorgo uses his knees to slow them down (he's wearing plate armor) and they end up in an amusing pile-up, sitting on each other's shoulders.

Nepita arrives on the scene, screaming, "I've got you now, you little-" she finishes the sentence by referring to them as fatherless children.

Sureshot calls for more speed, while she starts trying to shoot Nepita from her awkward, laying-down position. At the same time, Nepita tries to sing, but the ride is so bumpy, she can't stay on tune.

Sureshot wastes two rounds, but hits Nepita in the eye with the third, which only ticks her off (crazy sometimes just doesn't know when to quit)!

Nepita responds by swinging her second sword, Nemesis, which has the power to hit each individual with their own, personal weaknesses. She isn't close enough to physically strike Sureshot, but the sword produces an incredibly powerful wave of mental magic, which blows right past Illa's protective spell.

Chapter 23: The Broken Priestess

This was originally chapter 24, but after writing the two chapters, I switched their order to let the tension stew.

Captain Vendros has been lying to his crew for weeks, just to keep their morale high. Most of them have no idea that their ship holds the last of the Vokosian race, aside from Brosla, and that lie has been eating him up inside.

He decides to visit the High Priestess of Vok, that he might unburden himself in the appropriate way. She just happened to be among the group of refugees that ran toward his ship when the machines attacked.

I enjoyed detailing the religion of the Vokosians, which was necessary to properly describe the Priestess. They believe their god, Vok, is a skeleton and actually believe their own skeletons, inside their bodies, are extensions of him. Literally, they believe they carry their god inside their bodies, everywhere they go.

Xercil is another mythological figure from their religion and he's very analogous to the Devil. Xercil runs a crematorium, where he burns all the bones he can, specifically to spit in the eye of Vok. Vokosians that sin enough believe their souls will belong to Xercil when thy die, who will punish them by using them as fuel to burn bones, for eternity.

An interesting point is that the ultimate punishment for criminals in Vokosian culture involves execution followed by cremation, which supposedly ensures Xercil will obtain their soul.

Captain Vendros realizes he's interrupted the High Priestess' evening meal, but she doesn't mind. She asks him to wait a moment, so she can dress properly for the ritual he seeks to use.

When she returns, she's dressed all in white, with her face painted like a skull, so she can more reasonably serve as a stand-in for Vok. That is the true purpose of the priests of their religion, who are there to listen to whatever is on the mind of whoever sought them out. The duty of the priest is to listen and then take the secrets to the grave, because people sometimes need to unburden themselves. They listen to confessions of sin, difficult life experiences, good life experiences and more or less anything that might be on a person's mind. When they're done, the priests offer spiritual advice based on scripture and life experience, if appropriate.

Captain Vendros tells all, sparing no details, and she tells him he acted appropriately, with proper concern for his crew, because if they break down, because they're depressed, they many not fight as hard when the machines catch up to them.

He leaves feeling much better, but the Priestess starts to cry, wipes her makeup off on her sleeve, gulps down the alcohol she had with her meal and then heads off to find the ship's bar.

The next evening, Vendros arrives at the bar, finding the High Priestess drunk as can be. He confronts her about her public drunkenness (priests are allowed to drink, but never to the point of intoxication, because they might let secrets slip if they get inebriated) and she says, "Thank you for showing me the truth." To the whole room, she shouts, "Vok has abandoned us! We’re all going straight to the blazes of Xercil’s crematory!"

That deeply offends the entire room and most everyone steps out. The bartender cuts her off and tells her she's not welcome in his bar anymore.

She leaves, but collapses just outside.

The Captain picks her up with the help of his first officer and she pukes on their shoes. They take her back to her quarters, clean her up and put her to bed.

Captain Vendros heads for his quarters, feeling just as bad, if not worse, than he had before he spoke with her, because he never intended to destroy her faith.

I'm planning to add scenes between Captain Vendros and the Priestess from time to time, to keep the people in space relevant, since they're paramount to the climax and events of the next book. These will center mostly around the slow journey of the Priestess back to her faith, prodded there by Vendros. She will become the leader of the survivors that get off the ship at the start of the climactic battle that will overshadow events on the ground.

Chapter 24: Trauma

The opening scene of the chapter shows Sureshot on a mountainside, aiming her old rifle at the door of a log cabin a mile and a half away.

The door opens and a provocatively dressed woman steps to the threshold. She pauses to blow a kiss inside, then steps out. She's not Sureshot's target.

A man steps into the doorway and Sureshot smiles, because she has her target in her sights. She aims for the heart and pulls the trigger. She's at such extreme range, her shot is slightly off, but the man goes down, bleeding heavily, because she hit an artery, not his heart. She reloads and considers putting a second bullet in the man to finish him off, a little mercy.

She thinks on the man's crimes and decides letting him die a little slower is appropriate, because on top of his crimes against the crown, he also raped and murdered close to fifty women.

She's unbothered by his last-minute struggles, until a little girl runs to his side and takes his hand, soon followed by the woman. They give what comfort they can in his final moments and then the woman picks up the girl, leaving.

As it turned out, the monster had a daughter and Sureshot had killed him right in front of her. None of the preliminary work on the mission had turned up that all-important detail (she was sick and in bed, where she wasn't visible from outside the cabin), which would have entirely changed her team's plans.

The after-action inquiry finds no fault with Sureshot, but instead lays what little blame there is on the rest of her team. Nonetheless, Sureshot can't forget and can't forgive herself for her actions.

That's the event that broke the Army's best sharpshooter and forced her into early retirement, just over a year earlier.

Switching to the perspective of Brosla, Sureshot drops her rifle and starts crying about how sorry she is.

Gorgo complains, "Ye picked a fine time for a bout of battle fatigue!"

Nepita slashes Nemesis in the air again, but it has no effect on Brosla and leads her to adopt an expression of confusion.

Brosla is more or less left as the one to deal with Nepita, because Gorgo is focused on how soon they'll be landing in the chamber they're hurtling toward, asking Brosla to stop the assassin in the tunnel.

Brosla considers for a time and then orders his journal to form a network link with Terror of Vok, the ship of Captain Vendros. He orders it to use the ship's computer to calculate a new form as an 'area-suppression tangle-pistol', leading to another humorous exchange:

Journal (sing-song voice): "Working…"

Journal (chirping): "Please wait!"

Gorgo (worried): "Is that gonna work?"

Brosla: (testy tone): "I don't know!"

Journal (chirping): "Please wait!"

Gorgo (screaming): "Here’s comes the drop!"

Journal (chirping): "Task complete."

They fall free as the journal changes shape into a metallic pistol. Brosla raises it and fires, shooting a web-like blast of gooey stands that blocks the tunnel opening they fell from. He's just in time to catch Nepita, who's snared so badly, she can't move and the strands start constricting, preventing her from singing, due to the pressure.

They hit the floor pretty hard and Gorgo dislocates a shoulder. Brosla pops it back in place with the help of his journal's scanners and some holographic instructions on treatment.

Their rifles are wrecked, since they landed on them.

Sureshot is physically fine, but unconscious, twitching as if she's having a nightmare.

Gorgo wishes he had a rifle so he can put Nepita out of their misery, to which she responds in a wheeze:

Trust me, Prince Gorgo, I won’t soon forget what you’ve done to me. I will find you on the battlefield, all three of you! I'll catch you and then cut little bits off, an inch at a time, with the dullest, rustiest knife I can find. Then, once you’re nothing but a pathetic torso, I'll have a healer regrow your limbs and start all over again! I'll spent the next thirty years killing you, but you’ll die of old age before I'll ever let you-

Brosla adjusts his new journal-pistol to fine a more confined shot and then shoots Nepita in the mouth, webbing it shut.

They joke about how nice it is that she can't speak and then look down at Sureshot with concern.

Meanwhile, Sureshot is having an emotionally difficult nightmare, in which she's on trial for mass murder, with King Joshua as judge, the gallery filled with all of her victims and their families. Even worse, she has no lawyer, because no one in the land would defend her and there's five prosecutors, who intend to take turns interviewing witnesses, because they have a list that's hundreds long.

The first witness in Callie Blackwell, the daughter of the last man she shot during her army career. The prosecutor asks a leading question designed to paint Sureshot as a vile serial killer, so she objects, but is overruled and ordered to remain silent, on pain of being sent straight to the noose, ore or less setting the impression in the reader's mind that she's being railroaded.

With no choice, Sureshot is forced to listen as Callie says, "She killed my daddy! She killed my daddy! She shot him right in front of me!"

As the girl leaves the witness stand, she passes by the defense table and leans over to whisper, "You’re going down-" and finishes with a word so foul, no little girl should have known it.

Hours pass as the prosecutors question every single one of Sureshot's victims, who start sharing their opinions on just about everything related to Sureshot, especially her lack of a love life. They're out of line, but she dare not object.

Last of all, the prosecutors call a final witness: Staff Sergeant Jane Stanton. It's totally wrong in every way for the prosecutor to call the defendant to the stand, but no one argues, not even Sureshot, who's will has mostly been broken by the events in court.

Her short stay on the witness stand went as follows:

Prosecutor: "How did killing all of those people make you feel?"

[Long silence as Sureshot thinks]

King Joshua (angry): Answer the question, Sergeant!

Sureshot: "I-I enjoyed it. I was killing enemies of the crown and I took great satisfaction from seeing each fall, for the sake of my king."

King Joshua (growling): Are you actually trying to shift the blame to me?

Sureshot (crying): "No. I take full responsibility. I lost sight of why I was taking those shots and I started to enjoy it. I didn't realize I’d lost my way, until I saw Callie hold her dying father’s hand. I didn't realize I’d become a mass murderer in my heart, until I’d killed a man in front of his own child."

Prosecutor: "Are you guilty of the crimes you’ve been accused of?"

Sureshot: "I am and any punishment would be just."

[Sureshot returns to her seat]

King Joshua (raps gavel): I find the defendant guilty of all charges and I’m so disgusted by her mere existence, I order her execution to take place, immediately. Take her to the firing squad.

She's taken outside, chained to a fence and a line of women with rifles just like the one she once favored step out. They remove their executioner's hoods, revealing their faces are the same as Sureshot's.

"Ready!"

Sureshot decides her death would be justice and hopes it will relieve her of the burden of guilt she carries.

"Aim!"

She relaxes and an eerie calm takes her, because she's going to die and she can't do a thing about it. Even worse, she doesn't want to.

She accepts her fate and stares down the barrel of the very rifle she took so many lives with.

"Fire!"

Sureshot wakes to Gorgo slapping her with all of his strength, because he and Brosla have tried just about everything else. He just about dislocates her jaw in the process, but she does wake.

She looks up, seeing a peculiar mixture of hallucination, sleep and death magic, which she's almost certain was perfectly customized to her own psyche, designed to destroy her from the inside. She only survived because Illa's magic and Gorgo's fist worked together to haul her out of the deadly dream.

Oddly, she now knows the root cause of her battle fatigue: she enjoyed her job a little more than she should have, something she vows to reflect upon, once she has the time.

Gorgo leads the way and they follow the path of the underground river, which flows through the cave they're in. Eventually, they reach the point where the river flows into the canyon that leads to the Utros capitol. They're above the canyon, so they stay out of sight of the patrols, down below, and eventually climb down, near the bottom. From there, they make their way to the safety of the line held by the Oswil army.

Part Three: The Drama

The end of chapter 24 marks the end of Part Two, because peace will not be made in the near future and the real war will soon begin, with Oswil and Fortune Fields working together.

The first chapter of Part Three will likely involve the new alliance holding the line against the trolls, who will finally get serious, pulling out all of the stops. They'll start rotating their troops in and out of battle, so the alliance will continuously face fresh troops, while the trolls relax and heal between stints at the front lines.

Yetu will make his first appearance in battle, supporting his side with magic. Illa is likely to counter him and a magical duel will happen against the background of the battle. The duel will probably end in a draw; Yetu hasn't got Illa's talent, but he does have physical endurance she lacks, allowing him to cast spells longer, so they're more or less an even match.

Months will pass between chapters as similar events take place, over and over, with the line moving very little, if at all. The dwarves and humans will slowly be worn down and just when they're about to fail, fresh soldiers from Oswil will arrive to save the day.

From that point on, the war will turn against the trolls and a team of experts will be formed with the mission of deposing the ruler of the trolls. That's the point at which Illa will finally come clean to Sureshot and redirect their focus from Shengis to Nepita, because Illa believes that so long as her sister lives, there will never be peace.

The rest of part three will follow that team's cavalry charge behind enemy lines, on a search and destroy mission that has only one target: Nepita, the Queen of the Trolls.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

Work In Progress #4: Troll War #4 (July 15-19)

This is part four of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon. This series can be read via this link, though it will be in reverse chronological order, from newest to oldest.

Rewrites of Chapters 13 through 15

Inspiration struck me on Monday and I more or less started the week's work by rewriting Chapters 13 and 14.

Chapter 13 more or less got gutted and was renamed 'Dire Warning', removing the content of the message Brosla received from space, to make use of that info later on (Chapter 16), when he meets the king. Additionally, I added a little scene in which Brosla looks up at the stars and weeps, because he knows his race is nearly extinct. He vows to defend his new home world, even if it costs him his life.

Chapter 14 was lengthened by adding a scene in which Sureshot visits the telegraph office in Ruby Canyon, that she might send a message to the royal palace of Oswil. There's some argument about her authority to do so, but she reveals to the people in the office she used to be a Staff Sergeant in the 108th Phantom Recon, a unit that's notorious for being the King's personal problem solvers. Most everyone thinks of them as assassins and they're not wrong. This is the first major hint at Sureshot's troubled past, with more to come in later chapters.

T/he description of telegraph crystals was moved into Chapter 14 to match this new arrangement.

The reply is an order to return to the palace at a gallop and fresh horses are arranged at every city along her chosen route.

Chapter 15: Royal Decree

Sureshot arrives at the palace sore as can be from riding for about twenty hours straight, at a gallop. Fortunately, General Hendrix, the King's right hand man, arranged a hot bath in an enchanted, healing bathtub, to take care of that. She dozes for a short time as the magic does its work and is woken by a palace maid, that she might dress and tell her tale in detail.

She's led to the throne room, where she meets with King Joshua Wood, who's a ghost that's been dead for about four-hundred years. As the last of his bloodline, when he died, he was unable to pass on, because his death would have resulted in a civil war, due to the power vacuum. Oswil accepted a ghost for king and as a result, the kingdom is extremely stable compared to all others.

It's also very progressive, with a level of unparalleled freedom. For example, King Joshua gave women equal rights about a hundred years into his rule, because he felt it would improve the kingdom. His actions resulted in neighboring kingdoms doing the same, just to prevent their women from running off to live in Oswil.

Sureshot doesn't like being in her King's presence, due to his supernatural aura, but that had always been a part of her duties, before she retired from the Army.

She gives him a full report on the battle fought in Ruby Canyon and the King reactivates her in the Army, that she might lead a peace mission to confront both the dwarves and trolls about what they've done. He worries the war may turn into a three-way brawl between nations, but accepts the notion that may be unavoidable.

Sureshot is angry at being forced back into the Army, but has no choice, because the King invokes wartime rules that allow retired soldiers to be reactivated. She protests that they're not at war, but he explains that with a battle being fought on Oswil soil, the nation is at war, though one final attempt at diplomacy is called for.

To calm her, the King acknowledges Sureshot's mercenary existence as a gunfighter and offers her ten-thousand crowns for completion of the mission. Instead, she asks for regular Army pay, five-hundred crowns for completion and an unspecified favor from the King, regardless of the outcome. He reluctantly agrees, because he needs her.

Brosla was next in line to see the King and was watching the scene from the background. Seeing Sureshot heading off and believing his best chance to fulfill his orders lies with assisting her, he blurts out, "I have information pertinent to this discussion!"

Chapter 16: One Last Miracle

Brosla tells the King he's from the stars and as an aid to understanding, he reluctantly says he's from the heavens.

The King asks, "Are you an angel or a god?"

He explains how he's a mortal from another world that revolves around a distant star, further explaining that the stars are distant suns, very much like the local one. He makes sure to tell them he's just as mortal as they are.

He tells them dangerous creatures are on the way to their world, with the intent of consuming every natural resource, comparing them to an infectious disease.

Ultimately, the King doesn't believe him, even calling him a charlatan. Sureshot also refuses to believe his words.

To convince them, Brosla uses his mimetic journal like a communications device, initiating a holographic call to the star ship captain that sent him the message in the night, who agrees to help.

It's noted at this point that Sureshot has some minimal magical training and she could have become a weak wizard, but she got little further than learning to sense magic. She uses that ability, sensing no magic at all from Brosla or his shape-shifting journal.

The captain introduces himself as Turloth Vendros and the tale that was originally placed in chapter 13 is related, albeit in heavily modified form, with technological terms dumbed down for his primitive audience. In particular, there's an interruption to explain what a galaxy is and he refers to the computer virus as "a disease-like mental contagion that only affects machines".

Vendros ends his tale with a plea for assistance, begging that the people of the world do their best to make peace and then turn their minds to preparing for war with the machines. He also begs the King to teach his people about magic.

When he's finally done, the King believes the tale, because it's far too crazy to not be true. He promises to make an attempt at peace, because that was already his goal. He also promises to pass the request to learn magic to the wizards, but says it will be up to them. Failing that, if the dwarves can be convinced to stop fighting, he'll ask them to teach Vendros and his people about runic enchantments.

The call is ended and Sureshot asks, "Okay, but how does all of this relate to my mission? Either way, I’m going to make peace between the dwarves and trolls."

Brosla offers to go with her, because peace is now his mission. He thinks he has little to contribute, but still offers to do all he can to aid her.

She reluctantly accepts him ad they head off to speak with General Hendrix about the details, before getting a night's rest.

Chapter 17: Heroism

In the morning, they have a brief conversation about the "spark of magic", which is a trait necessary for someone to become a wizard or witch. Sureshot explains the spark as follows:

Life itself is magic. Some have a bit more of it in them, allowing them to exert their will to produce miraculous results. Those that have that ability are said to have the spark of magic.

Feeling the need for guidance, Sureshot takes Brosla to see her mother, who happens to be a fortune-telling witch.

They enter a pitch-dark room. There's a sudden, pink light from the inside of a crystal ball, which illuminates a small, round table and the hands of an old woman.

Sureshot takes offense at her mother's pointless showmanship, since they both know there is no need for theatrics to use magic.

Her mother sourly lights some candles with a snap of her fingers and there's a short argument about Sureshot's cynicism and the fact that her mother was wearing a long, pointed false nose with a wart on it.

The old witch (Vera) offers Sureshot the only other seat in the room and Brosla requests a chair for himself.

Vera turns her head in surprise, because she normally uses foresight magic to see just moments into the future, since her eyes are in such bad shape, she's nearly blind.

She's absolutely shocked, because she hadn't seen him coming and he's totally invisible to her magic!

She concludes that Brosla is a "Null-Magic Receptacle", or a "null", for short. She explains that nulls are living beings born with zero magic. No one knows how that can be, since life itself is magic, but it does happen about once in every generation. She further explains that nulls are invisible to fate and therefore have the power to defy fate. They normally die at a time of their own choosing and those that realize what they are tend to become the greatest of heroes, because they're such difficult forces to stop.

This will become important to the plot in later chapters and books. Most likely, Brosla will slowly become the primary protagonist of the series.

With that surprise out of the way, Vera asks Sureshot to take her hand and uses that connection to send her daughter's mind flitting to the future.

Sureshot experiences a flash of one possible future, minus Brosla, of course. She's surrounded by corpses of military men, a dwarf named Kadrek and a woman with snow-white hair, all shot in the right eye, specifically.

She unknowingly led them into a trap set by the troll sharpshooter (probably Anji), getting them all killed. She blames herself, because she refused to touch a rifle.

Sureshot draws her sword (named Shaffurukattā, which roughly translates as Shuffle Cutter) and whispers to it for a moment, then concentrates magic in her hands. Shaffurukattā drinks deeply of her magic and she slashes the air, producing a wormhole-like tear in space. The tear leads her behind the sharpshooter and she slashes right through the woman, producing another spatial tear, neatly cutting them in half, right down the middle. Her opponent was a troll, but not even a troll can regenerate from that, at least not without help.

She steps back through the tear to her dead friends and despairs, only to be surprised by the white-haired woman waking up, despite having a hole clean though her skull! The woman complains about the pain.

Sureshot asks, "What are you?"

The woman smiles and answers, "A housewife."

Then she looks around, sees Kadrek's dead and then bursts into tears.

The vision ends, but the details fade away like a dream, leaving Sureshot with a few impressions: the name Kadrek sticks in her mind (she knows a dwarf named Kadrek), there was lots of blood and she felt regret at not having a rifle, which bothers her, because she's sworn to never use one again.

Before they leave, Vera asks Brosla to protect Sureshot, because with a null standing between her daughter and fate, she hopes her daughter will survive their dangerous mission.

Chapter 18: Reluctance

Sureshot, Brosla and a unit of soldiers are riding through a forest, while she's deep in thought about the way she met Corporal Logan, the man in charge of the men assigned to her.

Logan offered her a rifle kitted out the way she always preferred, back when she'd been in the army, but the mere sight of it brought back hundreds of deaths that she'd seen through the scope of her rifle, because she'd been among the best sharpshooters in the kingdom.

The memories are painful and the very personal way in which she looked just about every one of those she killed in the eye before shooting them was troubling. She'd only killed enemies of the crown, but in the process, human life had become cheap and unimportant.

That realization had led directly to her retirement a little over a year before and her work as a gunfighter. She specifically been seeking jobs with a very human element, in which she helps people with their troubles, as the means to get her soul back.

She refused the rifle and Logan kept it for himself. Logan is hated by the men under his command, because he always shouts and insults them, never letting up. Sureshot is concerned for the men, but chooses to do nothing, because she won't be their Sergeant for long, knowing that if she intervenes, Logan is likely to take it out on the men, just as soon as she's out of their lives.

I'm setting up Logan to be a point of contentions later on, but he isn't all bad. He's a good soldier that happens to have some faults.

He had many reasons for offering Sureshot the rifle, including a little bit of desire to suck-up, a genuine understanding of Sureshot's reputation and some knowledge of the emotional trauma a good sharpshooter endures. In his own small way, he's trying to force her to confront her own demons, knowing that their best chance of success in battle will be with a rifle cradled in Sureshot's arms.

Knowing her own, vague regrets from the vision, she didn't argue with Logan bringing the customized rifle. She more or less hates herself for admitting it, but she may need it.

They arrive at the home of Kadrek and Illa. Sureshot tries to convince Kadrek to get her an audience with King Windmaker. As a result of the work she did for the dwarf, she knows there's royal guardsmen from Fortune Fields watching the dwarf's every move, though she doesn't understand why.

Kadrek initially refuses, but Sureshot doesn't back down, so he tell her who she is and then takes her to the guards. They refuse to help, because they can't leave their post.

Kadrek decides accompany Sureshot and Illa offers her assistance with the trolls, claiming she once lived among them. That leads to a bit of disbelief that Illa could know anything at all about trolls, causing Illa to reveal her magic powers, as a show of strength.

Sureshot agrees.

Chapter 19: Diplomatic Impunity

Kadrek, Illa, Sureshot, Logan and the men are hauled in front of King Windmaker, in chains, because they crossed the border with Kadrek, who is well known for having been banished.

King Windmaker is conflicted, outwardly angry, but despairing on the inside, because Kadrek's presence forces his hand. He shouts for his son and his wife to be taken to the dungeon.

Sureshot screams, "Diplomatic immunity!" and then demands that the chains be removed from her entire team, including Kadrek and Illa. She only allowed her team to be shackled, because it was the fastest way to get to King Windmaker.

Her letter of introduction is inspected and the King orders the chains removed. He's relieved to have a way out of jailing his own son.

However, while the chains are being removed, he starts a bit of a staring contest with Sureshot, as the means to judge her tenacity. She meets his gaze for ten minutes straight and the King blinks, with his eyes burning. When he opens his eyes, she's still staring.

She says, "Never try to out-stare a sharpshooter from the 108th."

The King recognizes the unit number and gets the implied threat. King Joshua sent an assassin to make peace, implying that if he doesn't agree to her reasonable demands, then she's was quite likely authorized to kill him.

Despite this fact, he quite likes her, because she's more tenacious than a dwarf and audacious enough to order him around in his own throne room. This is a little nod to the chapter title, Diplomatic Impunity.

Sureshot explains the events that brought her there and the King apologizes for the actions of his men. Sureshot explains that she's on a mission of peace.

The King promises to remain at peace with Oswil, promising his men will never cross the border without permission, ever again.

Sureshot counters that she didn't come for peace between Fortune Fields and Oswil. She came to make peace between the dwarves and the trolls. If he doesn't agree, then the consequence will be making an enemy of Oswil and fighting a war on two fronts.

The King explains how the war began and his inability to make peace, despite trying. He eventually mentions having captured many trolls, but they act as though they were born yesterday, knowing little to nothing.

Illa counters, "That’s because they were born yesterday, metaphorically speaking."

She explains that the trolls have largely been fighting the war with cloned shock troops, a strategy designed to soften Fortune Fields up for a real invasion.

The King is frustrated to learn this, because he's lost ninety-percent of his soldiers in the past three years.

Ill informs him, "That was the point. The real invasion will be starting any day now."

He laments not hearing her out three years before and that's as far as I got on Friday, before I had to head off to work.

I'll probably finish the chapter (on Monday) with an emotional plea for peace from Captain Vendros, via Brosla's mimetic journal.

Future Plans

The overall plot-line has started coming into focus for me, but as always, everything is tentative until the final draft.

Finishing Part Two

I"ll likely wrap up part two next week, the rest of which should revolve around attempts to force a cease-fire, for the sake of peace talks. With Fortune Fields so worn down, but willing to commit to peace, Oswil will get involved, sending an army to occupy the land between the two nations.

Nepita isn't stupid enough to start a war with Oswil while she's already in a war with Fortune Fields, so the cease-fire will briefly happen. The dwarves will send another envoy (Kadrek's brother), but Nepita will treat him the same as Kadrek, shaving and stripping him as her response, because she wants to continue fighting the dwarves (she's having fun).

Part two should conclude with the King of Oswil committing to aiding the dwarves, since they can't stand on their own after all they've endured.

Part Three

Part three will focus on the invasion of Utros and Sureshot's team will lead the charge, accompanied by King Windmaker. Their intent is to force the trolls to accept peace as they look down the barrel of a loaded gun, but it won't be so easy and Nepita will pull out all the stops to fight back.

I want to keep the situation in space relevant to the story, so Brosla will get occasional updates from Captain Vendros. During the climax, his ship will arrive in geosynchronous orbit with an enemy warship right on his heels.

As the battle on the ground rages (probably at night), there will be incredible pyrotechnics in the sky, leading to debris falling into the atmosphere like a meteor shower, because the two ships won't be pulling any punches, literally blasting each other to bits.

I want the battle in space to become the reason Nepita finally backs down and sees reason, but it's nearly impossible to stop a battle once started and the two rulers will have to work together to end it.

The novel should end with everyone from all over the region watching debris fall form the sky, including major and minor characters introduced throughout the book.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

Work In Progress #3: Troll War #3 (July 8-12)

This is part three of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon. This series can be read via this link, though it will be in reverse chronological order, from newest to oldest.

Writing this week revolved around completion of Part One, 'Setting the Stage', and the start of Part Two, 'The Players'.

Chapter 10: Discovery

I renamed this chapter and the old title, 'Exile' was used for chapter 10.

As Illa and Kadrek spend the day out on the town for the first time since their stay in the hospital, King Windmaker marches his personal guards and a full regiment of soldiers back into the city of Wind Hammer, with the recently captured trolls as prisoners of war. The intent is to house them in a prison inside the city.

The King and his personal guard break off and march their war-riders back into the palace, leaving one of the great doors to the palace open, symbolizing the fact the King is in, but the kingdom is still at war.

Meanwhile, the captured trolls are marched through the city, right past Illa and Kadrek. They see Illa and call out to her, begging her to save them, but their guards mistake their cries for prayers to a troll god. Kadrek, on the other hand, takes note of where they were all looking, right at Illa.

She comes clean and even fights past the instinct to keep the ancient secret of the trolls, telling him she's a troll woman. She apologizes for lying to him, having kept it going so long only because she feared for her life. He forgives her on the spot. Next, he asks her to promise she'll never lie to him again and in exchange, he promises to always stand beside her.

Chapter 11: Exile

Illa agrees to Kadrek's reasonable demand and gives him her word.

Kadrek does what he feels is right, taking her straight to the King, that she might offer information of value in exchange for her life.

The throne room is cleared of even the King's personal guard and Illa starts by prostrating herself before the King, saying she's a female troll, once more struggling with instinct just to speak. The King doesn't believe her, so he orders her to look him in the eye as she speaks.

He doesn't believe her, because everyone on their world knows the troll race was literally last in line when looks were handed out.

Getting angry, Illa introduces herself properly and a hint of her old pride rises to the surface, that she might speak with the tone of royalty. She explains her lineage and relationship to the current Queen of the trolls, her sister, Nepita.

Next, she tells the secret tale of Segawa, the Goddess of Beauty, who's always depicted veiled, because she's said to be so beautiful that any who looked upon her would instantly die, even other gods. Unknown to mortals, Segawa was married to the blind troll god, Benni. Unable to see his wife, he was safe to spend extended periods in her company, unaffected by her power.

Coming upon the scene of the newly-made trolls and seeing their ugliness, a result of the other gods selfishly giving all of their beauty to their own mortal creations, on top of noting the terrible curse the gods had placed on the trolls because their mere appearance offended them (trolls burn as easily as dry wood), she took pity on the first female troll, gifting the ugly creature with her own, divine beauty. In turn, she took the troll's ugliness for her own.

Angry with the other gods, Segawa threw off her veil and showed them her face for the first time, using it to shame them for their selfish actions. Ashamed at what they'd done, they kept the secret to themselves. Bothered by her own appearance, Segawa put her veil back on and told only the high priests of her church, though the trolls also knew everything.

King Windmaker asks for proof and Illa cuts her own finger off, allowing the King to watch her grow a replacement.

Convinced, the King asks where her loyalties lie and she says her loyalty is to Kadrek, promising to tell all, if the King will spare her life and allow her to stay by Kadrek's side.

The King is silent for a long time, deep in thought, so Illa begins totll more, but the King silences her, because he realizes her secrets will do the opposite of what she intends. Instead of giving the dwarves an advantage, if word got back to the trolls that they knew the deepest secrets of troll-kind, the war will become a holy war.

He wants the information, but not at the price of upsetting the trolls so badly that they'll never stop fighting until one kingdom or the other is destroyed. After all, the standing policy of the trolls was to kill anyone that learned the facts about their women, which had been the case so long it was actually instinct.

The rest of the court is brought back in and the three of them portray a bit of theater. The King pretends to believe nothing Illa has said and also pretends he's infuriated to have caught her in a lie. The guards try to seize her, but Kadrek stands in their way, shouting that he'll spit in his father's eye and fight the royal guard, armed with only a pocket knife.

The King gives Kadrek the choice to stay in the kingdom or be banished with Illa. Kadrek decides to go with her, so the King offers to marry them first, because it's the only way he might witness the event. They agree, so he has his dead wife's ring resized for Illa and does the same with the old wedding band from his own finger, for Kadrek. He marries them on the spot, then gives Kadrek a pouch of gold and two hours to purchase supplies for the road, suggesting they travel north, to Oswil, because they'll be welcome there.

When they're gone, the King orders the room cleared again, so he can be alone with his grief.

Chapter 12: Upping the Ante

Queen Nepita receives a message from King Windmaker, delivered by a captured troll he released to carry it.

The message is simple: for every dwarf that dies by a troll's hand, one-hundred trolls will burn to death.

Nepita is amused by his bravado and vows to show her counterpart what happens to brave men in her kingdom.

She walks to the work room of the biomancers, where abominations are being surgically assembled from parts obtained from troll men. The current subject is a bloated, three armed troll, who's in the process of having a fourth arm grafted onto his body, a difficult process that requires four surgeons working in unison. He's not bloated with fat, but with transplanted muscle.

Nepita demands a status report and they tell her fifty-seven abominations are ready.

This was done in editing an earlier chapter, but I went back and added a scene were Kina and Aketa reported to Nepita. For Aketa's failures, she was assigned to become an abomination.

The biomancers inform Nepita that Aketa has requested to have her body implanted inside the captured war-rider, that she might become an abomination of steel, rather than flesh. Nepita agrees and they inform her that Yera (The attendant of Nepita's Grandmother) has offered to enchant the war-rider to be self-heating, so it will never need fuel, claiming she's unlocked the secrets of dwarf runes.

Nepita is surprised, because Yera hasn't spoken in more than a decade, but she sees the utility of such work and agrees.

A new scene begins with King Windmaker standing on the wall of an abandoned castle far to the south of his kingdom, where a prosperous human farming kingdom once was. The land was abandoned, due to a volcanic eruption, which has steadily continued from time to time for more than a hundred years.

Opposite him, on the other side of the castle's gate, the lieutenant of a squad of fresh soldiers stands. Both of them hold enchanted lassos woven from mythril wire.

Down in the castle courtyard, most of the squad waits, mounted on fire-dogs. Fire-dogs are four-legged, steam powered machines that serve Fortune Fields much like firetrucks in modern times. Each has a big water tank on its back, while the soldiers sit on the neck, controlling the movements of the dogs with stirrup-like controls, while the ears of the dogs are handles to control the direction their heads point. There's an elbow-activated button on the water tank, behind the driver, which activated the water pump, allowing the dog to spray water from its mouth.

Another soldier on fire-dog comes into view over the horizon, screaming and cursing, because an angry fire elemental is hot on his heels! It's shaped like a stag, with blue flames for head and body and orange flame for legs and antlers.

The fleeing soldier passes through the ruined castle walls and out the back, while the King and Lietenant whirl their lassos, each getting a good hold of an antler! The elemental is held in place, while the fire-dogs spray it, shrinking it until it's only six inches tall!

The fleeing soldier comes around to face its backside and all of the fire-dogs are used to effectively pen the beast in with walls of splattering water.

The dwarf that lured the creature hops down and pulls an enchanted, mythril jar from his coat, complete with a screw-top lid. The lassos are released and the stag frees itself, while the dwarf sets the jar on it's side, saying, “Me brought ye some coal to eat!”

The elemental, desperate for any fuel it might use to regain its former size, enters the jar and the lid is screwed on, capturing it.

The King accepts the jar and looks through the air holes in the top, pleased the crazy plan worked.

The elemental will be handed off to dwarves with good animal skills, for taming, and will eventually be used as the power source for a new type of war-rider, a fire-breathing demon-rider.

One weapon isn't enough, however, so there's many more elementals to capture...

Part Two: The Players

Chapter 12 marks the end of Part One, which was all about setting the war in motion.

Part Two is about setting the rest of the story's plot in motion, starting with introducing some new characters (adventurers) and giving the human/elf kingdom of Oswil a reason to involve itself in the war.

The idea is to introduce a group of adventurers and then send them to both sides of the war, to make peace. This will consist of an alien anthropologist that has his own reasons to make peace (odd-ball with unusual abilities), a gunfighter/retired army sergeant (leader), Illa (glass-cannon/witch), Kadrek (fighter and negotiator) and an Oswil Army corporal.

There will also be a squad of soldiers, but their purpose in the story will be to die and demonstrate when the crap has hit the fan.

Three years pass between parts, giving the simmering war time to reach a full boil...

Chapter 13: One Last Miracle

This chapter introduces Brosla Ghinead, an alien anthropologist living on the planet, who's been studying magic for thirty years. He looks at least vaguely human, but a little on the tall side, with skin just a little too red (like a sunburn) and overly-sharp teeth, which he hides with something akin to dentures. He's a Vokosian, a technologically advanced, space-faring race with a a large empire.

He's woken in the night by a message from space that came marked with government codes at the highest level of authority. The source of the message is the captain of the last remaining ship, coming from a man that claims to have been the commander of Vokosian Empire's military.

The message details a war that happened in Brosla's absence, in which a machine intelligence became a self-replicating scourge on the galaxy. The galaxy fought back and managed to press the machines back to their own system, at which point the captain tried to make peace.

He laments the fact the galaxy needed a butcher and he chose to be a peacemaker.

The machines backed down and they eventually made trade agreements, to share scientific progress, but that was just a ploy. The machines got the Vokosians to replace all of their reactors with safer models that included safety features. No sign of trickery was found and the new design got used everywhere.

They only discovered the trick when a radiation pulse from the machines shut down every reactor in the empire, aside from more antiquated designs, resulting in more than a thousand worlds falling in a single day!

The lone captain escaped in his antique, personal ship and ran. Eventually he found records of Brosla's research on the strange planet and set a course, thinking magic might be the miracle his people desperately need.

The captain urges Brosla to get the locals organized to defend their world, because the machines will come, sooner or later. He also claims he will arrive at the planet in a little over three months time.

Brosla gathers his things and heads out, intent on speaking with the King of Oswil as soon as possible.

The intent of this character is that he'll become a part of the adventuring party

Chapter 14: Rock and a Hard Place

Jane "Sureshot" Stanton is a retired Oswil Army Sergeant and sharpshooter. She has a very old west, gunfighter look to her, since that's the theme I'm associating with Oswil.

She wears a long, leather coat, cowboy hat and cowboy boots.

She wears an enchanted katana on her back (she's the world's equivalent to half-Japanese), which is an old family heirloom.

On her hips are a pair of Scott and Walcott copies of the Cobb Single Action Army revolver. Even better, S&W employ a dwarf smith, who enhances some of their work with dwarf runes, so her pistols are enchanted.

I'm intentionally drawing parallels to Smith and Wesson, plus Colt, since named firearm manufacturers are very much a part of the old west. I don't want to use the real world names, because the world I'm writing isn't our world, at all, though it does have many similarities, especially among humans.

Sureshot is at a remote town on the frontier, near Utros, named Ruby Canyon. The town is half in and half out of the canyon mouth.

As she walks the town and talks with the mayor about the job she came to do, involving shooting a bunch of goblins, she notices an excess of dwarves around the place, counting seventeen at a glance.

She raises her concern with the mayor, who also finds it odd.

Getting a nasty suspicion, she asks when they last saw a goblin. He tells her four days.

She tells him her honest opinion: Ruby Canyon is caught between dwarf and troll armies, but she's interrupted by the sound of gunfire.

Hours pass and the battle ends with a town full of dead dwarves and a handful of dwarves burning trolls, to make sure they won't regenerate. Many of the dwarves were killed with extremely precise shots to the right eye, because the trolls had a sharpshooter with them that was showing off. This is a little foreshadowing for later chapters, in which I intend to pit Sureshot against the troll responsible, in a contest of sniper vs. sniper. The troll sniper is probably Anji, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

Sureshot demands to speak with the commanding officer of the dwarf soldiers, but he's dead and so are the rest of their leaders.

Chapter 15: Royal Decree

Sureshot sends word to the King of Oswil via telegraph crystal, a one-inch, flat, square variation of a crystal ball coated in a magical, moss-derived chemical that glows when tapped or when hit by the same frequency of light it emits. Such devices come in linked pairs that glow at both ends when tapped. They're used for long-range communication in Oswil, using Moss Code, which is their name for their equivalent to Morse Code.

The King responds with a request for her immediate presence, so she rides as fast as she can for the capitol.

Sadly, that's as far as I got, but my plan for the rest of the chapter is for Surshot to report to the King, while Brosla waits for his turn to speak. Hearing the King's decree that men will be sent to seek peace between the dwarves and trolls, Brosla will probably reveal himself as an alien, telll his tale and volunteer to go on the peace mission. The king will assign a squad of soldiers and temporarily reactivate Sureshot's rank as Sergeant (likely against her will), so she can take command.

There might be a visit to a fortune-telling witch on the way out of town, who will cryptically prod them to go visit Kadrek and Illa, because they're essential to the success of the mission, on top of being main characters.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

On the Nature of Magic

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

We gaze with wonder at the stars of the night sky and most everyone has no idea the effect they're having, just by looking.

Quantum physics includes some peculiar concepts that most people never manage to wrap their brains around: Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle and the Observer Effect.

The following summary is probably a little off, but should serve to help me make my point. To the physicists reading my words: sorry, but I'm not one of you and my understanding is certainly flawed. Please forgive my errors.

To summarize, the state of any given particle is undefined until measured and the only conclusions that can be drawn without measurement are all a matter of what the particle is most likely to be doing, but until that measurement is made, the particle is actually doing all of the things it could possibly be doing, at the same time. When the particle is measured, it stops doing all that freaky, simultaneous stuff and suddenly pretends it was following one path all along, but only so long as it's being measured.

I take it on faith that the mathematics say it's true and I've seen some tricky little experiments that prove it. Look up a Youtube video on the double-slit experiment if you want your mind blown.

That's the Observer Effect at work: as far as I'm aware, in quantum physics, any form of intelligence (seems to require life, as well) simply looking at the environment around it causes the universe to change, setting itself down a particular path and all things are in flux until we look at them.

Nothing is concrete until we make it so, just by using our senses. I once read that astronomers observing the stars with ever finer instruments have hypothetically shortened their lifespans, simply by forcing them to take on a particular state. That's why I say people have no idea what they're doing to the stars.

However, please don't feel bad about it. That's just the nature of life and the universe.

What About the Magic?

Ah, the question has finally arisen in your mind, yes? Why did I bring this up and what does it have to do with magic?

I've never gotten a clear explanation of the Observer Effect and its cause. As far as I know, no one understands why it happens, only knowing that it does.

So, deep down, at a fundamental level, the universe does this mysterious, dare I say it, magical thing, which has no explanation. The very foundation of reality and everything in it stands on this strange thing that happens, just because an observer shapes the universe merely by existing.

Arthur C. Clark spoke well when he said this: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

I daresay that reality itself is magic and science may be an illusion the universe made up on the fly, just because we were looking too close.

The trouble in all of this is that we can't even arrive at a concrete, definitive explanation of what intelligence actually is, except in self-referential terms. So it also is with life. These concepts go round in circles, referring only to themselves and each other. At the end of the day, all we can really and truly say is that we know them when we see them.

Please trust me when I say this, because I studied both subjects in college, discovering a deep, philosophical hole in our knowledge that has no concrete answer.

To my mind, anything that cannot be defined or explained is magic. Period. Plain and simple. Perhaps this is not your definition, but it is mine.

To summarize, here's the magical things we've covered so far: quantum physics, observers, intelligence and perhaps even the spark of life itself.

All of science stands on these inexplicable, magical things, so in a way, science is also magic.

Science Fiction

No matter how obsessed the writer may be with scientific accuracy, sooner or later, every science fiction story comes down to the same issue, right at the level of the story's bones: the tale can't be told without relying on magic.

Ah, but in my mind I can hear a thousand sci-fi fans screaming the same thing at me: the defining quality of sci-fi that sets it apart from fantasy is that there is no magic!

Unpopular though my opinion may be, I've got to break it to you: rubber science, no matter how concrete and well-researched, is based on the same leap of faith that magic is, because it is fundamentally the same thing.

Again, science is magic.

Fantasy

Fantasy, on the other hand, embraces that bendy, wobbly concept and thrusts it to the forefront. Some writers use it a lot and some use it a little, but at the end of the day, you can't have fantasy without at least a pinch of magic.

A Writer's Definition of Magic

So, let's look at the two sides of this coin in terms of definitions, like a dictionary, but let's do so from the perspective of a writer.

• Rubber Science: A plot device
• Magic: A plot device

So, if both come out to equal the same thing, it implies they really are the same thing, does it not? Everything else is just window dressing and descriptive detail.

Science Fantasy

In the end, I've chosen to boldly go where few choose to tread: I freely mix science fiction and fantasy in what I call 'science fantasy'. I like to pit the usual elements of the two against each other, because it makes for a striking and new take on the older genres. I find the combination fresh with endless possibilities.

To me, this is extremely freeing and my imagination runs where it chooses, resulting in wizards and witches with magic blaster guns, flying around in star ships that have the usual kind of rubber-science bells and whistles like force fields and teleporters, but instead of hand-waving the science, a wizard did it by integrating his love of magic and technology into one convenient package.

I just don't comprehend the purpose of putting some rigid, unbending line down the center of my brain, arbitrarily deciding that fantasy and science fiction are separate, never the twain shall meet. I balk at the limitation, because they're the same, dang thing!

However, I'm not alone in this. Other writers have done it, but most of the time, they insist their work is science fiction.

The most prominent example I can think of is Star Wars. George Lucas used a sci-fi theme to tell fantasy stories and successfully sold that little, white lie to millions (maybe billions?) under the heading of science-fiction. The science in Star Wars is heavily hand-waved and rubber as can be. The Force is just magic with a sci-fi themed wrapper (psychic powers!) and just like fantasy, there's a lot of sword fighting, even though perfectly reasonable laser-like guns exist. Robots replace golems, aliens replace monsters and crystal balls become computers to make something that would normally be called fantasy, if there weren't space ships in it. Heck, even laser guns are analogous to a wizard's magic wand.

Why is space travel almost exclusively pigeonholed as sci-fi? Hasn't anyone heard of Spelljammer?

What Changed Me?

I used to play Dungeons and Dragons a lot and as a Dungeon Master, I was always drawn to unique settings and adventures to run. The unusual is what I craved.

Two particular publications caught my eye: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and Tale of the Comet.

I never had a chance to run the first in a serious fashion, just because it was too old and my access to it at the time was limited, since my brother owned and somewhat jealously guarded it. The second was my own discovery, just sitting on the shelf of a party supplies store that I entered in search of unnaturally large balloons for a college class (3 footers).

Tale of the Comet captured my attention in a way that nothing in Dungeons and Dragons ever had before. Magic vs. technology, wizards fighting robots, an AI scourge on the galaxy that needed to be put down and an opportunity for magic to save the day where technology had failed. It also captured the imagination of my players and every time I used it, the gaming table was electrified with excitement.

In short, it was a magical experience for us, especially me. Everyone saw how unique the setting was and wanted to see more.

It didn't happen consciously, but that's when I finally realized science fiction and fantasy were the same, a pair of twins separated at birth and raised without knowledge of each other, though they got along famously when they finally met.

Tale of the Comet changed me forever and is responsible for the writer I am today. Without it, I would probably never have had the audacity to unchain my imagination. Without that setting showing me the possibilities, I might never have written about an electrical engineer crash-landing on a planet that gave him magic powers, nor would I have written about his son, Levi Jacobs.

Conclusion

Magic is real.

It's found in the heart of the laws of physics, the very core of the human brain and inside every living thing. Seeing anything is magic, because the mere act of observing changes everything.

I'm in awe of the grand design of the universe and our place in it as the observers and shapers of all we touch, taste, smell, hear and see.

I'm grateful my eyes are open to this fact, glad to know science and magic are so much alike. It fills my mind with ever-changing possibilities.

Who knows if the magic underpinning the universe will ever be understood? I, for one, hope that mystery is never revealed by science, because if it is, it will destroy that last bit of wonder and leave people thinking our own existence is nothing but a cheap trick. It would be like pulling the curtain back, only to reveal everything was based on a bunch of squirrels running on a hamster wheel; novel and amusing perhaps, but mundane.

Without a little magic, there is no imagination. Without something we can't understand, there would be no striving for something new. Without the touch of mystery pervading the entire universe, it would be a cheap, boring existence, gray and lifeless to the core.

I need to stare at the stars in awe. I need the mysteries to excite my mind with their possibilities. I need the magic of existence.

Magic is all around us and the best magic of all is the human mind.

Tags: writing

Work in Progress #2: Troll War #2 (July 1-5)

This is part two of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon. This series can be read via this link, though it will be in reverse chronological order, from newest to oldest.

Writing was fun this week, with a fair amount of action as the fighting between the dwarves and trolls heated up, followed by the start of a little romantic subplot that will be rather important to later chapters. I also planted some important seeds for later plot points.

Chapter 5: The Bleeding Mother

I renamed Chapter 5 based on what I wrote on Monday (July 1).

Anji, the troll Weapon Master, and Nepita's sister, Illa, a powerful witch, lurk in the forest on the other side of Razorpoint Ridge, while Illa practices an ancient troll song, titled Flowing Stone. The song is extremely complex, but holds the power to wake the earth itself. She completes the work and masters the difficult pronunciation.

As dawn comes, the trolls prepare to attack and Illa starts the magical song. It normally requires a soprano, an alto and a tenor, all working together, taking turns to sing the song, but Illa is able to sing all of it, except the deepest notes at the very beginning. Anji, as a natural tenor, helps her sing that portion and then leads the army to attack Razorpoint Refuge.

The song describes the earth as a pregnant mother, giving birth to her child (ash and smoke), effectively comparing lava to blood. The song-based spell causes lava to pour into the deep coal mines of the dwarf fort, effectively filling it up from the inside, while frightened dwarves flee, most of them killed by the catastrophe!

King Windmaker, of the dwarves, is horrified to see his fears come to fruition as the seemingly impregnable fortress falls to magic, just as a screaming army of trolls comes around the ridge to attack!

At the same time, Illa passes out, because she misjudged the energy requirements of the spell, having gone far beyond her personal limits. Fortunately, that means that instead of turning the whole mountain into an active volcano, it stops at just producing a large pool of lava spilling out of the fort's front gates.

Chapter 6: Withermine

Chapter 7 was actually written first, because inspiration struck me regarding the conclusion of the conflict at Razorpoint Refuge, but I often switch back and forth to different locations in my writing and I'll try to keep things simple on this blog by going in story order, here.

Most of the chapter follows Captain Shatterhand, the female dwarf officer in charge of the war-riders headed for Withermine.

Her unit is lost in fog that's settled in around the remote mining village and she's convinced they've been going in circles for hours on end.

There's a brief internal monologue about the swamp, which is filled with mythril deposits. This section is designed to aid the reader's understanding of dwarven enchantment techniques and why mythril is so important to them.

Mythril acts as a natural magical purifier/concentrator, taking in the raw magic of the air, only to release it in a more pure and reactive form. Magic effectively pools around it, building up over time until someone comes near, at which point the magic responds to their thoughts, producing randomized, chaotic spell-like bursts the dwarves call 'mythril surges'.

Dwarven enchantments normally consist of a small amount of mythril (an ounce or two) to serve as a power source for the magic, combined with dwarven runes, which act like an analog to an electrical circuit, transforming the raw magic the mythril produces into a more controlled, useful form. Dwarven runes are effectively another form of natural magic, but they require the skill of an exceptional smith to do anything on their own. An exceptional smith working with mythril can produce very powerful results, that var in direct proportion to how much mythril is used.

Shatterhand wishes their compasses would work, but one of the natural side effects of uncontrolled mythril makes compass needles spin.

She stops at some trees to determine north from the moss on the trunks, but there's moss on all sides. However, she does see a wither-like blight in the leaves of the tree, marking their proximity to Withermine, because the trees are sick with toxic mythril poisoning.

One of her men, who has an excellent sense of direction, volunteers his opinion they should take a sharp turn left. For lack of any better idea, she puts the dwarf in the lead.

Meanwhile, the trolls waiting to ambush Withermine have been camping on a large island near their target. Their leader, Aketa, hears the dwarven war-riders approaching, because the legs of them splash rather loudly.

She wakes her sister, Kina, ordering the woman to mask their presence with an illusion, while the trolls all press themselves into the rocks of the island. Aketa takes position on a high rock, to give herself a good view, while Kina sings, causing them to visually meld into the rocks, masked with mental trickery. Her singing comes to resemble a natural wind blowing through rocks, but since there's no wind, it sounds eerie and ghost-like.

Hearing the song and mistaking it for something caused by a mythril surge, Shatterhand advises her men to keep their thoughts focused on the mundane, to avoid danger, because the form of a surge is only limited by the imagination.

Shatterhand spots the island and cautiously marches her men and their war-riders onto it, finding some half-rotted bedding scattered about (the bedding of just the troll leaders, because most of the men have been doing without). After a brief discussion, the dwarves conclude some adventurers likely got lost in the swamp and used the island as a temporary refuge, before dying off to the dangers of the place.

Shatterhand orders her men to inspect their war-riders for damage, while she spends her time tying to use the island to figure out which way north is, because though the island is on her map, she still isn't sure which way to go.

Kina turns her song into a lullaby, putting the dwarves to sleep, while Aketa stalks Shatterhand. There's a brief fight in which Shatterhand refuses to back down and Aketa cuts the dwarf's throat. While Shatterhand struggles to breathe in her dying moments, Aketa telepathically enters her mind, stealing knowledge of both Shatterhand's orders and how to drive a war-rider.

Withermine is wiped out with ease (off-screen, so to speak, since it doesn't really matter) and the trolls decide to use the war-riders to fool King Windmaker into trusting them. They head off to Flintbrook, where the dwarves are planning to rendezvous before heading into troll lands, to assault the Utros palace.

Chapter 7: Hired Assassin

The battle at Razorpoint Ridge is short, but intense.

King Windmaker initially struggles against the trolls, because there's thousands of them that swarm him en-masse, trying to climb all over his war-rider! He spins in place, flinging them off, just in time for Anji to land on top of his war machine. He tries to swat her with his war-rider's ax, but she's too fast, using her sickles to hook the sides of the rear hatch.

She uses her weapons to cut through the latch holding it closed and then flips her way onto the hatch like a ninja! At the same time, King Windmaker snatches an ax off the wall of the cockpit and whirls around, aiming to cut her down! Her wickedly-sharp sickles cut the head of the ax free, followed by cutting the handle from the shaft, leaving the king effectively unarmed.

She places her weapons to his throat and the king feigns surrender. He knows what she doesn't, however: her sickles are dwarf made and in fact, his very own creations, which he gave to the troll king as a gesture of peace. Dwarf made enchanted weapons normally will not harm the smith that made them, nor will they harm the king of the dwarves, so he punches Anji as hard as he can, shattering her nose!

She reacts by trying to cut his throat, but the sickles lose their sharpness, unable to do more than merely bruise him! Anji starts to fall back, but the King refuses to let her escape, grabbing both of her wrists, using them to haul her in close, for a devastating head-butt that cracks her skull!

The King thinks Anji is a hired assassin, based on her attire and figure. She wears blood-red clothing and armor, which marks her as a member of the Sanguine Sisterhood, a notorious band of supposedly human women that work as expensive hired killers. However, he doesn't know the full truth; the Sanguine Sisterhood have always been troll women.

He decides to offer her payment, putting a bounty on the head of the troll king, Shengis, literally offering both a hefty sum of gold and enchanted weaponry to the assassin that produces the troll's head.

Anji agrees and King Windmaker tosses her broken body to the ground, with little expectation she'll survive her wounds, because he thinks she's human.

The battle is finished, with the troll army wiped out, but the victory is pyrrhic, since no one from the fort survived the melee.

Anji drags herself home, discovering along the way that the dwarves have found and captured Illa, though they actually think she was a prisoner of the trolls that were guarding her in her sleep.

Chapter 8: False Riders

King Windmaker and his men lurk in the ruins of Flinrbrook, horrified by the message the trolls left him, spelled out with dwarf corpses: THE PRICE IS TEN-FOLD!

He knows the troll policy of responding with ten-fold force to any offense and even has no issue with it, knowing the enemies of Utros to the west, consisting of goblins and dark fairies, need a harsh hand, just to bring them to the negotiating table.

However, he doesn't understand the message, because he knows of no offense deserving of troll retribution, convinced the war began as a misunderstanding, though he knows it's already too late to stop the fighting.

As he's puzzled about the message, Aketa's troll-driven war-riders arrive, marching as if on parade in a city, rather than a more natural marching gait useful for crossing the wilderness, which makes no sense. In addition, their leader is singing a dwarven song of triumph, leaving him wondering if they're drunk.

Putting the pieces together in his mind, he screams for his men to plug their ears and attack, leading to a desperate melee between war machines!

King Windomaker seeks the enemy leader in the midst of the brawl, eventually spotting the silver decorations of Captain Shatterhand's personal war-rider.

He shield-rushes her from behind, damaging her escape hatch and they both go down. Getting a war-rider on its feet after a fall isn't easy and King Windmaker is the only one to have mastered performing an acrobatic stand in one, getting his war machine back on its feet nearly instantly, while Aketa is forced to move more slowly.

Halfway through raising her war-rider's torso, the king's ax smashes through her window, while she dodges, inside her cockpit! The ax smashes through the cockpit and into the steam chamber, below, releasing super-heated steam that burns every inch of Aketa's body!

Knowing she'll never heal properly, due to the weakness of trolls to being burned, she goes all-in on a suicide attack, using the King's backward yank of his ax to free it as the means to launch herself at his cockpit window, aiming her sword for his eye!

She smashes through the glass, but her weapon betrays her, pulling to one side of its own accord! She lands on the King, who head-butts her, cracking her skull, before he grabs her sword and beheads her!

He kicks her body out the window and then sets his war-rider to slowly turn in place, holding Aketa's head up for all to see as he shows the trolls he's taken their leader's head and demands their surrender.

They back down and the battle is won.

Kina watches the battle via a telescope while she hides with the remainder of the troll forces (there weren't enough war-riders for all of them).

While the dwarves are distracted with their prisoners, Kina retrieves her sister and holds the head in place, so Aketa doesn't actually die. In wasn't sisterly love that motivated her, but rather duty to the Queen.

Aketa is carried back by the men and Kina drives their only remaining war-rider back to the Utros mountains, so they can report on the unexpected capabilities of the dwarves and give her the captured war machine, for study.

Chapter 9: The Icy Maiden

Illa wakes in a dwarf hospital in the palace of their capital city, Wind Hammer. Kadrek is in the bed beside her own and is totally infatuated with her, because she's very attractive.

Knowing she's too weak to get home on her own, she plays the femme fatale and leans into his attraction, pretending to be the daughter of a human gunsmith, who was killed by the trolls. She hopes to recover her strength and then magically brainwash Kadrek, that he might carry supplies for her on the way home, ultimately planning to give him to Nepita as a hostage.

The dwarf reminds Illa of her first love, who was murdered by Nepita for being a rather out-spoken male (at great risk to his life, he pursued Illa, rather than the other way around).

Over the course of days, they speak at length, the friendship between them grows and Illa starts to lose herself to the role she's taken on, because Kadrek really has grown to love her and she's begun to feel the same.

Kadrek has the healers take them to the surface in wheelchairs and there, he gets on his feet. It's obvious that standing on his injured feet is like walking on daggers for him. He flexes his muscles in the sun and Illa's heart beats faster!

Illa mentally reminds herself in a somewhat shaky fashion, He’s a means to an end. He’s a means to an end! My gosh, he’s an attractive means to an end!

Seeing her expression, he winks and flexes his bicep, showing off. She finds her will weakening, but dredges up some pride in her trollish heritage to fight back with, reminding herself that she's of royal blood, sister to the Queen and the greatest witch Utros has seen in five-hundred years.

Kadrek asks her if she wants to dance and Illa is overcome by the romance of it: he's in serious pain, but still wants to dance with her!

In one final attempt to cling to her cold, icy heart, she (truthfully) tells him she's too weak to stand.

He offers to support both their weight and the last of the ice in Illa's heart melts, allowing a metaphorical avalanche of released ice and water to bury her trollish pride, once and for all, falling head over heels for the charming dwarf.

She agrees and Kadrek picks her up, supporting her weight, despite his injured feet, seemingly oblivious to the pain, because he's holding the woman he loves as he slowly bobs from foot to foot.

Illa makes up her mind to tell him the truth, but knows the time isn't right. She fears it's too soon and she'll be killed for who she really is. She leans into her feelings and pushes their relationship forward by kissing Kadrek as passionately as she knows how, because she needs him to fall head over heels for her.

Chapter 10: Exile

Finally well enough to leave the hospital, Illa is put in a cottage on the palace grounds set aside for elf visitors. The interior is decorated with wood furniture carved with leafy patterns. The bed has green sheets and pillows. Light streams in through a colorful, stained-glass window.

She sits on the edge of the bed, wearing a blue, silk dress the same shade as her eyes, which was originally made for a dwarf, though it was expertly cut down to fit her very slender frame by the palace seamstress. Her legs are a little long for it, leaving it hanging at mid-calf height, but that's just fine, because that's the current fashion among human women. Her hair is tied back with a matching scarf.

Kadrek arrives, dressed in a red tunic and matching felt hat, with a shiny, mythril belt buckle that emanates heavy magic.

The plan is for the two of them to spend a day walking around town, because they're both finally well enough for it.

That's as far as I got for the week, but I know how the chapter will end. The King has returned to the city with troll prisoners, who will recognize Illa and try to get her to help them, blowing her cover.

Kadrek will defend Illa with his life, taking up arms against the King's men. The two of them will be captured and hauled before the King, who will hear their stories. Illa will finally come clean and Kadrek will continue to stand with her.

Unable to bring himself to kill his son's beloved, the King will instead disown Kadrek, marry them on the spot, then exile them from the kingdom, likely giving Kadrek the parting gift of a fat purse filled with gold, that they might make their way to Oswil, where they're sure to be accepted.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

Work in Progress #1: Troll War #1 (June 21-28)

Eight days ago, I started work on one of my many planned novels, Troll War

For a while now, I've been thinking it might be fun to write a little something about each day's writing, as a sort of journal of my work in progress.

I'll be doing this on Mastodon for daily posts and on this blog for more in-depth information every weekend.

To start the ball rolling, I've been posting my daily updates on Mastodon all week: https://mastodon.social/@OwenTyme/112672253855096568

These are each short, normally detailing one chapter, because that's roughly my minimum average output. From time to time I may post twice in a day, if I've done things that need to be broken up.

The rest of this post will be my first weekly update.

Basics of the Setting

Troll War takes place in a galaxy not unlike our own, on a world similar to Earth, though with the addition of magic. It won't play too big a part in the novel, but there's a whole galaxy of sci-fi wonders out there, including an AI species that's consuming the resources of the galaxy to spread like a plague, but that won't become a big part of the story until book 2, AI War.

The series is titled Rumors of War.

This as yet unnamed world (the inhabitants probably call their planet some uncreative translation of the word 'dirt', just like we do) includes a variety of fantasy races. So far, I've only mentioned humans, elves, dwarves, trolls, gnomes, goblins and dark fairies (but this implies the inclusion of light fairies). The other races will likely play a part in book 3, Magic War.

As for technological level, I'm intentionally breaking with tradition and not using a medieval setting, placing the people of the various races collectively somewhat beyond the Victorian-era of technology, with a fantastic flare, but only when considered as a homogeneous people, which they most certainly are not.

Dwarves

The dwarves have advanced steam technology and metallurgy, including vehicles and trains of all kind, but have stuck by their old melee weapons, shields and armor, because the best firearms they've managed on their own are muskets, though they don't know the secret to making black powder or gunpowder, getting that from humans. Their axes do include one-shot muskets, however, in place of the ax handle.

Dwarves don't use magic directly, but their best craftsmen are somewhat mysteriously able to craft magic items and their magic is always of the best quality. They do this by starting with magical materials they've dug from the ground, such as mythril.

Humans

The humans are most advanced in firearms and the family of Lady Gunn (see below) are the principle inventors of guns. In particular, repeating pistols and rifles will play a part in battle later in the book, once things really get going.

Elves

Elves mostly eschew technology in favor of magic, but they have nothing against purchasing technological items from other races, if they find them useful. This may change over time or it may not. I'm undecided, but the local elves in the book are very much linked to the humans, since they're governed by the same king.

Trolls

Trolls are surprisingly advanced in medicine, because they have the advantage of being able to experiment with bodies that rapidly regenerate and the real truth is that their doctors (if you could call them that!) are able to produce frightening abominations of biology that would terrify even modern men, shaping the bodies of trolls until they become something new and horrifying.

It isn't uncommon for a troll to reattach severed limbs and with the assistance of another, they can reattach a severed head.

It isn't obvious to an outsider, but troll women look just like human women, aside from being exceptionally attractive, with starkly-white hair.

Troll women are all effectively witches, with a style of music-based magic unique to them. They prefer, but are not limited to mental magic, with a heavy emphasis on telepathy. Illusions come almost as easy to them.

Trolls strongly believe that might makes right. They're secretly ruled by their women, because their magic makes them believe they're superior to men and the men have never been strong enough to resist.

Notable Kingdoms

Oswil is the human/elf kingdom, to the north of the main trade road. The southern end of the kingdom is human land and the north end is elf land, though they all live under the rule of a human king.

To the southwest of Oswil is Utros, the troll kingdom, which is outwardly ruled by King Shengis, though he's actually a puppet of the troll Queen, Nepita. Utros is mostly in the mountains and the land is rich with iron.

To the southeast of Oswil is Fortune Fields, the dwarf kingdom, which is mostly a large, open plain, though there are swamps and mountains on the western edge. The land is rich with copper, iron, silver and gold.

The three kingdoms form the primary setting of Troll War.

Prologue

The majority of the prologue was written as a result of some inspiration about five months ago and on Friday of last week (the 21st), I did some clean-up work and then finished it.

This initial scene takes place in a tavern on the southern outskirts of the human kingdom of Oswil, which hosts bare knuckle matches with very few rules.

On this particular day, a human noblewoman, Lady Gunn, has been invited to join another noble, an elf wizard named Lord Rolar. Lady Gunn isn't pleased by how dirty the tavern is, but she's pleased by the fine wine her companion offers her and a match between a dwarf and a troll begins.

Dwarves are well-known for how sturdy they are, on top of being incredibly stubborn. Their fighting spirit is second to none and getting a dwarf to back down is next to impossible. This particular dwarf is used to slowly wearing his opponents down by having far greater endurance, on top of being able to punch like a fully-loaded mine cart.

Trolls, on the other hand, have the wondrous power to regenerate from most any wound, a power they use to out-last most any opponent they might face in battle. This particular troll is used to taking hits and growing back, outlasting his opponents though masochism and an incredible tolerance for pain.

Lady Gunn is soon drawn into the fight, selecting the dwarf as her choice of champion to cheer for.

The one-on-one fight rages for six hours, until the dwarf is exhausted, but still standing and the troll is on his feet, but he's begun to exhaust his body's resources useful for regeneration, starting to lose his edge though hunger.

The tiny thought I had in the back of my mind for this is that each time a troll heals, they become slightly more hungry. While they're able to recycle damaged cells and restore their bodies, there's a lasting cost in the form of a metabolic price that must be paid to activate the magic used for this.

Both combatants are at the end of their rope, breathing heavily and the troll isn't regenerating anymore, because he's too hungry. They nod to each other with mutual respect.

The dwarf asks, "Shall we end this by putting everything we've got into one last exchange?"

The troll agrees and they both abandon defense, charging each other for one, final strike! The troll dies as a result and the dwarf is briefly praised as the winner, but just as he starts a speech about his victory, he falls dead, min-sentence.

Seeing the results, Lord Rolar asks, "To the south of Oswil, we have two nations, Fortune Fields and Utros, ruled by dwarves and trolls, respectively. After this evening's spectacle, can you imagine what might happen if circumstances conspired to send them to war?"

Lady Gunn proposes they settle the question with their usual bet at stake: thirty silver pieces.

Chapter 1: Don't Kill the Messenger!

Nepita, Queen of the Trolls sits upon her throne in the great hall of Utros, surrounded by the women of her court, feeling bored.

He thoughts are interrupted by a nervous boy entering the room, carrying a message from the troll king, Shengis, claiming an elf has been captured entering the kingdom.

Nepita invited the boy to come closer and realizes she's looking at her own son, who she handed off to her mate to raise, once he was weaned. She feels a strangely sudden sense of attachment to the fourteen year old boy and grants him the title of 'Prince', similar to the way she granted her mate the title of 'King'. She orders her right-hand woman, Anji, the Weapon Master, to take the boy away for training, then orders her sister, Illa, to test the boy for magic potential, which flies in the face of tradition.

Nepita silences the resulting argument with a thunderous shout and then orders the room cleared. She may have a sentimental side, but Nepita is also unpredictable and beyond deadly. She respected by the entire court due to the way she broke every bone in her grandmother's body, to gain the throne. She's also well-known for revisiting any offense ten-fold, which is her standing international policy.

Raising her voice in song, Nepita touches the mind of her mate, Shengis, that she might use him like a puppet.

Through his eyes, she observes the elf prisoner, who explains his presence by offering up a journal taken from an ill-fated party of dwarves that had been on a spying mission inside troll lands.

It is hinted, but not spelled out that this elf is Lord Rolar, last seenin the prologue.

Nepita speed-reads the journal and is both furious with the dwarves and eager for war, because it will interrupt her boredom.

Disconnecting her mind from Shengis, she calls Anji back into the room, giving orders for the coming conflict.

Chapter 2: Disturbing the Peace

King Gorgo Windmaker, the Tenth, King of the kingdom of Fortune Fields, receives a guest.

Lady Gunn hands over a journal she claims was captured from trolls, which details their spying operation and observations of the dwarf kingdom.

King Windmaker values his profitable business relationship and even friendship with the trolls, despite their obvious differences, but he can't ignore the journal, so he sends his son, Prince Kadrek, as an envoy to Utros, to seek a peaceful conclusion to the conflict.

The price has an eerie journey up the canyon leading to the palace of Utros, until he hears singing that absolutely entrances him, drawing him every forward, until he lays eyes on four troll women. He stares at them in a trace as his men are slaughtered, but just as he's about to be killed, their leader, Anji, recognizes him, having sen the Prince though her mate's eyes.

She orders the prince stripped, shaved and his memory of troll women wiped, then sends him on ahead, for interrogation. The Prince is put to sleep by a magic lullaby.

Chapter 3: Declaration of War

When Kadrek wakes, he faces Shengis and Nepita looks on him through her mate's eyes.

He explains his presence and begs for peace, but neither of the troll rulers believes him, thinking his father sent him under false pretenses.

They hear him out, then give him an ultimatum to deliver, before giving him the night to rest, because eh it's a long, naked, barefoot run back to the palace of Fortune Fields, which he should make sure he hurries to complete, because he has limited time to warn his father before two more villages are destroyed (he's informed of the plan to destroy Flintbrook; see next paragraph).

While the prince sleeps, Anji and her army arrive at the smallest dwarf village along the border to Utros, Flintbrook. They slaughter every dwarf they find, not even sparing the children, and arrange the bodies to spell out a horrifying message: THE PRICE IS TEN-FOLD! They leave no stone of the village standing on another, using bursts of magic to level every structure they find.

At dawn, the prince is released and he runs the entire way, leaving his feet a bleeding mess. He collapses in the throne room and tells his father he must immediately respond with his acceptance of the destruction of Flintbrook or be prepared to lose Withermine and Razorpoint Refuge, followed by all-out war.

Last of all, he warns his father the soldiers should plug their ears and not listen to the singing, before he passes out.

Chapter 4: War Machine

Furious, King Windmaker shouts, "By Nobris, ye don't shave a dwarf's beard!"

Here's a helpful quote from what I've written, to explain:

Nobris was the god of dwarves, industry and beards, who was widely believed to have gifted the dwarf race with their talent for mining and crafting. According to legend, he’d also given them their beards, which grew thicker and longer than the hair of women. To a dwarf, their very beard was a sacred, god-given gift and shaving it off was said to be an affront to Nobris, whom they praised more than any other god. In short, the trolls hadn’t just shamed the prince, but they’d also insulted Nobris.

Kadrek is carried off by the healers, while the King erupts in orders to prepare his kingdom for war. In particular, he orders his war-riders gathered at the west gate, then makes his way to the back of a statue set behind his throne, climbing a ladder to the platform, which allows access to the interior of the statue, which is filled with buttons, levers and other controls. He opens the shutters covering the windshield of the definitely-not-a-statue, allowing more light in, then shuts the back hatch.

He activates the steam engine in the belly of his war-rider, which is actually a huge, steam-powered mech shaped like a giant dwarf armed with an ax and shield. Likewise, the war-riders occupied by his royal guardsmen come to life and they march down the hall, though a huge pair of brass-shod doors.

They emerge on the main street of the royal city and every dwarf witnesses the huge machines in motion, coming to the same conclusion: the kingdom is at war. The workers on their way home from work turn around to volunteer for another shift, while the busy streets are soon cleared, as every man, woman and child among the dwarves sets out to contribute to the war effort, as one lone street vendor, who used to be a royal guardsman sheds a tear for the looming future and the loss of peace, likely with the only joy being the joy of fighting.

Chapter 5: Bloody Razor

I didn't get very far on this chapter, doing little more than writing descriptions as King Windmaker's war-riders gather, then set out, one two companies off to Withermine, while he takes another two off to Razorpoint Refuge.

Razonpoint Refuge is a fort built at the deepest portion of a crescent-shaped mountain named Razorpoint Ridge. The interior of Razorpoint Ridge faces into Fortune Fields and is topped with razor-sharp obsidian, while the prevailing wind blows right into it. The top is high enough that it touches and shaves the bottom off of clouds, causing the land beneath to often fill with fog, incidentally watering the crops for the dwarves living there.

Not only is it fruitful land, but also extremely defensible, so the King's father built a fort there, using the excuse of defending the nearby trade road, to the north, to justify putting a fort so close to troll lands.

King Windmaker splits his force in two, placing them near each tip of the crescent, that they might use a pincer attack when the trolls inevitably come.

Depite the fact backup is on the way, the King worries: Razorpoint Refuge is an impenetrable fortress, impossible to take by force, and yet, the trolls openly declared it as one of their first targets in the war, as if it were a place of weakness. He can't help but wonder what they know that he doesn't.

The answer will become clear on Monday, when I resume writing, but I'm leaning toward it being a matter of troll women and their magic. On the other hand, the trolls have no idea the dwarven war-riders even exist, so it should be a really fun opening battle for the war, with unexpected outcomes on both sides. However, unless I change the chapter title, the battle is going to be bloody.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war

More Short Stories

After spending an inordinate amount of time fiddling with the details, including small adjustments to CSS files to allow for the posting of properly-formatted prose on my website, I've posted a pair of my old short stories from the days when I put my work up on Wattpad.

The first of these is Community Service Fairy Godmother and the second is Sweet Surrender, which will become the next two entries in my Short of Tyme series. You can find links to their pages there or click on the titles, below.

Neither has cover art at the moment, because I don't wish to re-use their old AI-generated cover art. They'll get another pass of editing sometime before they get new covers illustrated by Ryan Johnson, the artist I work with. As soon as both tasks are done, they'll be published in the usual fashion.

I should soon be posting more stories, because I have more to share, but for now, I hope you'll enjoy these little gems.

Community Service Fairy Godmother

Seeing systemic injustice in the laws established by the Queen of the Fairies, may she reign forever, Sophorica breaks them to draw attention to their absurdity, literally painting New York City red. After all, if the only crime is to be caught and any offense can be forgiven simply by being sneaky, then the law itself can only be considered a cruel joke.

Her crime is expunged from history and the human race is none the wiser, but the Queen, may she reign forever, sentences Sophorica to perform one act of community service in the human realm for each human witness. This service takes the form of granting wishes to human children as their fairy godmother, until they're happy.

However, the awful truth is that granting wishes rarely brings happiness, forcing Sophorica to learn as much as she can about her charges, that she might get them to wish for what they really need, rather than what they want.

Will Sophorica find a way to free herself from the twisted, unjust punishment wrought by the Queen, may she reign forever, successfully demonstrating the flaws in fairy law or will she be forever banished to the human world as a Fairy Godmother?

Sweet Surrender

In this trio of linked tales, learn what happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object.

In the first tale, a priestess to the god of empathy never wanted to involve herself in politics, but when her king seeks riches from the kingdom at the expense of the common man, she's forced to put herself directly in the path of the King's armies, who are under strict orders to turn her away, even if it means killing her. Unfortunately for them, they didn't count on the pain they inflict on her reflecting back!

In the second tale, nobles discuss Aaron Kozinski, an amazing guard that never fails in his duty, no matter how bleak the situation, all in exchange for a little money, that he might eat and pay rent. He stands guard in horrendous weather and even repels assassins, preventing them from coming anywhere near his employer, all without complaint.

In the concluding tale, the two are manipulated into conflict by a mysterious man that hopes they'll destroy each other.

Will the priestess learn enough about Aaron to ease his pain or will she be overwhelmed by his hopelessly broken heart?

Tags: short-story, writing, publishing

Fresh Release: She Hunts Demons

She Hunts Demons is the first volume of a new series titled Ashen Blades. It's heavy with action, magic, demons, witches, gunplay, conspiracies, a demon's plot to rule the world and an extra helping of wild and woolly weirdness, all in a Film-Noir inspired setting.

I enjoyed writing the dialog, which uses 1940's idioms. I also played around with many Film-Noir tropes, which is why I wanted a mostly black and white cover.

It was a challenging piece to write, but it was also immensely fun, because the protagonist is functionally mute, speaking largely though actions rather than words. She's also the most cocky character I've ever written, so it's probably a good thing she couldn't voice her absurdly stubborn level of self-confidence, which sometimes borders on the insane.

I apologize to those that were anticipating the next volume of The Wizard's Scion, but the third book of this new series, Demon for President! (which I'm in the middle of writing), takes place on the backdrop of the current presidential election, so I'm pressed for time and working to get this new series established so I can publish that piece in a timely fashion, probably in April.

The next book published should be Ashen Blades volume 2, She Goes to War.

You can rest assured: The Wizard's Scion will be published in its entirety, but for now it must wait on the back burner. Again, I'm sorry, but please take a look at She Hunts Demons. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Buy This Book

The half-demon girl who calls herself the Hunter never really considered why she wanted all demons dead, but when she’s presented with the one responsible for killing her parents, she loses all rationality, going on the warpath.

It started with a crying widow and a stack of letters, leading the Hunter’s private detective partner, Clayton Simmons, to investigate a series of financial crimes. These threads all lead to the mysterious Otto Vogerath, who’s rumored to be a mobster.

At the same time, the Hunter’s earliest memories begin coming into focus, giving her clarity about the death of her parents at the hands of the very same, because Vogerath isn’t just a mobster: he’s also a demon that claims to be the serpent from the Garden of Eden.

The duo and their allies are soon caught in a complex spider’s web of mystery, involving conspiracies, murders, atom bombs and the demon’s plot to tear a massive hole in reality, all of which revolves around the life of the Hunter. Worse still, the demon requires the Hunter’s cooperation for his plans to succeed and will do almost anything to get it, repeatedly proving to her that everyone she cares for is in danger, so long as she stands in the way of what he wants.

Will Simmons and the Hunter save the world or will the serpent succeed in opening a portal to Hell, so legions of demons can march forth to conquer the world? The answers lay within this book, but only for those brave enough to buy it!

Tags: ashen-blades, novel, writing, publishing

The Smashwords Sale Has Begun

Troll Song and Forgotten Legends are 50% off on Smashwords until January 1st.

Buy on Smashwords

Buy on Smashwords

Tags: writing, publishing, sale, the-wizards-scion

Emergent Consequences

This is something for those of you that are sitting on the fence about my novels: a short story to whet your appetite and my free gift to you, to help you decide if you want to spend a little money on my novels, so you can do so with your eyes wide open.

It's also my favorite of the short stories I've written.

Merry Christmas and I hope you laugh as hard as I did, writing it!

Free Story

The painter of the universe, known as Life, just wanted to fulfill her reason for being, by creating a universe full of beautiful wonders and living things, but her twin brother, Death, exists solely to destroy her work, leading to an intractable argument about whose work should prevail.

Eventually, Life partially wins the argument and is allowed to make a universe without seeing it immediately destroyed, but she doesn't know well enough to leave things be, leading to emergent consequences as she continually interferes, adding new creations to fix the problems she created, only to see everything balloon out of control, while Death laughs at everything she does…

Emergent Consequences is a short tale that takes a light hearted view of the follies of human nature, as seen through the lens of a pair of extremely fallible creators, whose universe fortunately isn't our own, holding up the mirror of satire, so we can laugh at ourselves.

Come read about their journey and hopefully learn a little about human nature along the way.

Tags: short-story, writing, publishing

50% Off on Smashwords!

I’m excited to announce my Ebooks, Troll Song and Forgotten Legends, will be 50% off on Smashwords as part of their 2023 End of Year Sale starting on December 15! Be sure to follow me for more updates and links to the promotion for my books and many more!

Buy on Smashwords

Lyra never intended to cause the extinction of the troll race, but when she uses the power of troll song to read the mind of a dwarf, she's forced to compare her life of abuse to that of a loving family.

Acting for the good of the world, she betrays her family and her race by revealing the secrets of the trolls. For the sake of the dwarves, Lyra kills her oldest sister, creating an opportunity for the dwarves to defeat a disorganized army composed of their brothers.

The middle sister, Lyra's childhood nemesis and personal tormentor, Nicole, is furious beyond all rationality over her youngest sister's actions, determined to make Lyra pay, no matter the cost! Death would be too good for Lyra, so Nicole seeks to telepathically destroy her mind, instead!

Luring her sister into a trap, Lyra drops an entire mountain of ice on their heads, intent on ending Nicole at the expense of her own life!

They wake from their frozen sleep thousands of years later in a world of wonders both scientific and magical. As Nicole escapes, the contest begins anew and she gains control of a powerful star ship, intending to use it as a platform for her vengeance!

Meanwhile, Lyra gains modern allies, including the influential family and friends of a young wizard, Levi Jacobs.

Will Lyra defeat her murderous sister or will Nicole destroy Lyra's mind to fulfill her vow of vengeance? Will Lyra end the troll threat or will Nicole become a scourge on the entire world, raiding and pillaging as she sees fit?

Buy on Smashwords

Levi hated the monster from under the bed as a child, but when he meets the creature as a young adult, he quickly learns nothing will be the same in his life, ever again. The creature of darkness pleads for his aid in a coming war and the young wizard reluctantly agrees, making it his familiar.

Levi's family and friends are soon caught up in a galaxy-wide war to decide the fate of humanity and continually come face to face with monsters straight out of myth and legend, including the dreaded Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! The old gods and monsters humanity revered before the rise of science and reason are angry over being ignored and seek to force humanity to believe in them once more!

The young wizard's allies find themselves in a unique position to fight the supernatural creatures, since they're gifted with magical powers of their own, soon sparking a wave of resistance from the governments of the galaxy, as they take the fight to the legends!

However, the battle isn't easy, because the forgotten legends weren't idle over the millennia, having built an impressive manufacturing facility that draws matter straight from a star to build warships at an incredible rate, churning them out faster than humanity can deal with! Worse yet, these ships have the very best in weaponry that both magic and science can produce.

Will Levi and his family overcome the endless waves of disposable warships or will the governments of the galaxy be crushed by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, beginning an era of slavery under the heel of their own forgotten legends?

Tags: writing, publishing, sale, the-wizards-scion

Smashwords Sale!

I’m excited to announce my Ebooks, Troll Song and Forgotten Legends, will be promoted on Smashwords as part of their 2023 End of Year Sale starting on December 15! Be sure to follow me on social media or this blog for more updates and links to the promotion for my books and many more!

You can find Troll Song here.

You can find Forgotten Legends here.

Tags: writing, publishing, sale, the-wizards-scion

Author Copies of Forgotten Legends

Today I got my hands on the author copies of Forgotten Legends I ordered.

Just like Troll Song, it's a joy to see something I wrote in print and again, the camera in my phone just doesn't do the art justice.

Oh, and by the way, the Ebook sale is over at the end of today, so if you want to grab a copy of one of my books at a discount, you better move fast!

Tags: writing, publishing, novel, sale

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale

The Ebooks of my novels go on sale for Black Friday through Cyber Monday, starting tomorrow.

Troll Song will be 99 cents!

Forgotten Legends will be $1.99!

Tags: writing, publishing, sale

On Sale, Now!

To celebrate my novels being featured in the local newspaper, the Ebook versions of my novels are on sale until the end of Monday!

Troll Song is currently a dollar off, at $1.99. https://books2read.com/b/TrollSong

Forgotten Legends is two dollars off, at $2.99. https://books2read.com/b/ForgottenLegends

Hurry and buy them, before it's too late!

Tags: writing, publishing, sale, the-wizards-scion

Apparently, I'm News

On Monday morning a reporter for the local newspaper (The Leader & Times) interviewed me and today, the article was posted online.

I know I was a nervous wreck, but she did a good job of turning my ramblings into a coherent news article. Never once did I consider the possibility that I might be interviewed by a reporter, but hopefully, this will get the word out to locals, at least. I know I can definitely use the extra sales and it stands to reason, those that read newspapers are more likely to read books.

Tags: writing, publishing, news, interviews

Available for Pre-Order: Forgotten Legends!

The second volume of The Wizard's Scion series, titled Forgotten Legends, is now available for pre-order as an Ebook. The print edition should follow, soon.

Forgotten Legends releases on November 13, 2023.

Levi hated the monster from under the bed as a child, but when he meets the creature as a young adult, he quickly learns nothing will be the same in his life, ever again. The creature of darkness pleads for his aid in a coming war and the young wizard reluctantly agrees, making it his familiar.

Levi’s family and friends are soon caught up in a galaxy-wide war to decide the fate of humanity and continually come face to face with monsters straight out of myth and legend, including the dreaded Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! The old gods and monsters humanity revered before the rise of science and reason are angry over being ignored and seek to force humanity to believe in them once more!

The young wizard’s allies find themselves in a unique position to fight the supernatural creatures, since they’re gifted with magical powers of their own, soon sparking a wave of resistance from the governments of the galaxy, as they take the fight to the legends!

However, the battle isn’t easy, because the forgotten legends weren’t idle over the millennia, having built an impressive manufacturing facility that draws matter straight from a star to build warships at an incredible rate, churning them out faster than humanity can deal with! Worse yet, these ships have the very best in weaponry that both magic and science can produce.

Will Levi and his family overcome the endless waves of disposable warships or will the governments of the galaxy be crushed by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, beginning an era of slavery under the heel of their own forgotten legends? The answers lay within this book, but you’ll never know unless you buy it!

Tags: the-wizards-scion, novel, writing, publishing

Coming Soon: Forgotten Legends

The artwork for the next volume of The Wizard's Scion is nearly complete, so I'm back in full edit mode, to give the text one final pass of polishing before publishing, since Ryan (the artist) moved far faster than I expected, this time.

Forgotten Legends will likely be released as an Ebook in the next week or two. The print edition should follow on a short delay, as I intend to upload files and complete the work for both on the same day, this time.

This is really exciting to me, because Forgotten Legends is my favorite of the five books in the series, with lots of fun things related to monsters and mythology.

It also has some mild horror elements written from the perspective of the monsters, which is not within my usual writing wheelhouse, but I'm particularly proud of the first and second chapters, as well as the chapter involving Strangers.

Then there's the chapter involving a Kaiju vs. giant robot fight. That's just all-around fun and shows the far-reaching consequences of the war.

I also love the book for the chance it gives the protagonist to really grow up. In Troll Song, Levi was introduced as an immature teen. In Forgotten Legends, he's forced to face the the harsh realities of war and he'll never be the same, again.

I also love the lasting consequences of the novel, because it perfectly sets the stage for the three to follow, directly leading to the rise of old enemies in the Third Wish, the unexpected redemption of a villain in Dark Moon and the capstone of the series, The Inverted Glass, where Levi faces the greatest of challenges on the path to mastering his wizardly powers, with the fate of everyone he loves at stake.

Tags: writing, publishing

Troll Song Author Copies!

I finally got my author copies of Troll Song, today.

I wish I had a better camera in my phone, because these look way better than this in real life.

You can get a copy of Troll Song for yourself here: https://books2read.com/b/TrollSong

Tags: writing, publishing