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

November 08, 2024 — Owen Tyme

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:

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

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