Tymely News
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:
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