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