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