Tymely News
Work In Progress #8: Troll War #8 (August 12-16)
This is the eighth and final part of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.
You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon.
Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on Troll War, in chronological order:
Coming to an End
I completed the rough draft of Troll War yesterday, so this will be the last post regarding my work on the novel.
For at least the next two weeks, I'll be editing, a much less interesting process, which is not my favorite part of writing, but still exceedingly important. It also wouldn't make for good posts, because it would probably be all one-liners to indicate what percentage of the work is done.
After that, I'll be querying literary agents, which is a process that I really shouldn't publicly post about, at least until I'm done querying agents and have either gotten a publishing deal or given up and set my sights on self-publishing the book. Past experience tells me some agents will take as long as six months to reply (they're being inundated with AI-generated trash that doesn't interest them and it takes longer than ever to sift the wheat from the dross).
So, in short, after this post, you won't hear from me about this project for a while, but I would appreciate the prayers of my fans to help me get an agent and a publishing deal.
How Long Should a Novel Take to Write?
That is a funny question that people tend to ask, which somewhat demonstrates a lack of understanding of the writing process. Are they asking how long, once I sit down to write? Are they asking about the whole process? Do they consider editing to be a part of it? Are brainstorming and advanced thought supposed to be included?
I find it quite a pain to come up with an answer, because I've been working on the plot of this book in the back of my head for about a year, but the plot was also something that was shaped by my characters, who always get a say, because their actions shape it and I can't ignore their personalities without making them less realistic.
Then there's the sticky issue of when did I really start writing? I'm not actually sure. I wrote some journal-style entries for Captain Vendros (Captain of Terror of Vok) sometime last year (2023), just after I had the idea for the novel, because I felt inspired. Some of that material was re-written for Troll War (it became part of his speech in chapter 16) and it also fed back into my planning process.
However, I can say with certainty how long it takes me to complete a rough draft: typically, eight to ten weeks and Troll War was one of the quicker ones. I write about a full chapter each day, which averages 2,500 words and I aim for somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 words. Some days I write more, some days less, but 2500 words is my average, unless inspiration is hitting me particularly hard.
I normally move slowly at first, unless I have a strong image for the opening scenes, because I have to feel out the personalities of new characters or work out how an old character may be dealing with/not dealing with the consequences of previous adventures.
Troll War was a relatively quick starter, a surprise, because the required action lent itself rather well to moving things along, but I still had a lot of slowdowns during the first week or so, because I had to make a lot of decisions about the setting and characters. The prologue wasn't easy to write, though it was fun. It took me two days to write, despite being only 2,200 words.
Once I was past that, however, things really picked up, because the characters are interesting.
I find the crazy, unstoppable nature of trolls fun to write and chapter 1 went quickly, though I've had to go back and edit it to make small changes or additions all throughout the novel, to make the important material there consistent, especially as related to Nepita's son, Prince Yetu.
I love the stubborn, unflinching nature of dwarves and find them easy to write, as well.
Once the conflict between the two got going, I was flying along, just the way I prefer, though there were slow downs with each new main character.
Sadly, I'm no longer flying and I'm to the prickly pineapple of writing: editing and polishing. That typically takes me two weeks, but in this case, I'm going to do that, then hand the novel off to a friend or two to read for a month or so. When they're done, I'll probably take the time for another pass of editing, which I'll likely do at a slower pace, because I'll be in the middle of another novel by then.
So, to answer this question: it takes more than a year, or just a matter of months, depending on the lens you look through.
Statistical Details
I moved faster than my average on this one. The novel is currently 116,072 words and took 8 weeks of work, five days a week, plus one extra day (41 days, not counting weekends), which comes out to 2,831 words per day.
That's a bit longer than I originally planned on (105,000 was an intentional low-ball estimate to give myself extra room), but my first pass of editing will likely cut between one to three thousand words. With careful adjustments, my sentences will get a shorter (my rough draft sentences can often be too wordy).
I usually also have to add material in editing, like a new sentence here and there, expanded descriptions, adding a tie-in to a later plot thread to early chapters, etc.
I expect the novel to end up at around 115,000 words. Lately I've been aiming for 100,000-110,000 words, plus or minus, so this good, but in my high range.
Some Notes on Changes
Chapter 37, 'Bushwhack', the actual climactic chapter, got renumbered to 40, because I kept hitting a wall this past week related to details that needed to be written first, requiring the addition of three chapters I hadn't planned out in my mind.
The chapters I hadn't planned for are 34 (Memorial Vale), 35 (Where No Plan Survives) and 36 (Abomination), which will be covered in the next three sections.
Chapter 34: Memorial Vale
Sureshot's team, minus King Windmaker and his guards, quietly arrives at Memorial Vale, while Anji watches the narrow entrance, ready to fire on intruders.
Privates Price and McBride (the previously unnamed private that volunteered to tend the horses, but which Logan ignored) head into the valley on point, followed by Illa, under cover of a concealment spell that makes them look like rocks, though strangely mobile rocks that are roughly humanoid in shape.
Anji intentionally puts a bullet though the third person's right eye, dropping Illa to the ground. The spell ends (Illa was the source), creating a panic. McBride turns back, just as Sureshot screams for everyone to get moving (it takes a little time for Anji to reload, since her rifle is single-shot and Sureshot knows it).
McBride hesitates too long and takes a bullet through the head, but Logan has the sense to shove the rest of the men through the gap and behind cover, along with Kadrek, leaving only Brosla and Sureshot outside.
Brosla is about to try, but Sureshot tells him to wait. Thirty seconds pass and Illa sits up, complaining about the pain, only to take a bullet through the other eye.
They rush into the valley and into cover.
Kadrek is in dwarven plate armor that can block bullets, so he moves to retrieve his wife, taking a bullet through his shoulder, because there's a weak point there.
Illa is dragged to cover around the time an angry ghost appears. With Illa unconscious, Sureshot is forced to address the issue, drawing her katana, Shaffurukattā. She pours a little magic into it and informs the weapon she's got a ghostly problem to deal with.
As a result, it magically turns the light of the full moon into a ghostly cutting edge, functioning as what's known as a 'moonblade', which has the power to destroy ghosts.
The ghostly queen demands an explanation for their presence, or their immediate retreat.
Sureshot requests safe passage through, but follows up with a threat to exterminate the old queen, who isn't impressed, snapping her fingers. That causes three more ghosts to appear, her sisters.
The newcomers discuss Sureshot and ultimately decide she isn't worth tangling with, because she's got a moonblade and the moon is full, vanishing away.
After Logan takes a potshot at the first ghost with an enchanted, ghost-killing pistol Sureshot loaned him, the old queen runs off, but insists the conflict isn't over (an empty threat, once Illa cxan convince them to back down).
Illa wakes and Kadrek has managed to conceal her injuries form those that don't know she's a troll, so he sells them on the idea she was grazed, twice. She wastes a little magic to make her hand glow for a "healing spell", further selling it. She also heals Kadrek's shoulder.
Illa uses a telepathic shout that's limited to just work on the ghosts of the valley to demand the safety of her friends, including King Windmaker and his men.
While she works, Sureshot loads one of her three Troll-Slayer rounds into her rifle, vowing to kill Anji for harming her men.
In another corner of the valley, Nepita senses Illa's magic, impressed by the nature of it, because she managed to limit the scope of a telepathic shout, which had always been considered impossible in the past.
Yetu is right beside her and he learns the technique, just by observing it being used.
At this point, we finally learn that Nepita fears Illa, because she's so talented with magic, Nepita might not be able to win a fight with her.
Wanting to learn the nature of the message, Nepita demands to speak with the ghosts of the valley, coming face to face with the ghost of Grandmother, or rather the version of her that Nepita left for dead after shattering every bone in her body.
As it turns out, Grandmother's habit of transferring her mind from body to body is a mental cloning process, not a transfer of spirit, so the valley is actually full of copies of the old troll, each with a different face.
Nepita threatens the ghost with a fate worse than undeath (being left a brain-dead spirit, via telepathic magic) to get the information: Illa asked nicely for the safety of her friends, then followed up with the same threat as Nepita. The ghosts depart.
Sureshot uses a telegraph crystal to call King Windmaker in, who imforms his guards the time has come and they rush into the valley with their war-riders, screaming!
Chapter 35: Where No Place Survives
The title of this short chapter is a reference to the fact that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy and this is certainly true in this chapter.
Sureshot's plans are ruined by the fact that the valley if full of trolls and Nepita's plans are ruined by the fact that the battle lines don't get drawn the way she'd likes, because she hadn't counted on the presence of King Windmaker and his personal guard.
Sureshot's team splits up, using the confusion of Windmaker's brazen entrance as a distraction. Sureshot, four soldiers and Brosla head south, while Illa, Kadrek, Logan and three soldiers head north. The intent is to search for the secret door to the palace in a stealthy fashion, while Windmaker does so out in the open.
Anji takes a shot at Windmaker, but the glass of his cockpit has been replaced with an enchanted pane her bullets can't penetrated. He flips her the bird with both hands, though he doesn't know where she is.
Windmaker sees the line drawing of a flower Illa showed him etched all over the back wall of the valley, realizing the trolls learned of the secret entrance and hid it in plain sight, by putting the mark everywhere.
Windmaker notices a company of troll Abominations (though he has no idea what they are) accompanied by the stolen war-rider and orders most of his men to wipe them out. Six of his guards stay to defend him.
Nepita sees Windmaker's entrance to the valley and sets off to face him, ordering Yetu to kill Illa, instructing him to request aid from Anji, if required.
Illa leads her group, but soon discovers the same frustrating fact as Windmaker and laughs hysterically for a time, just before Yetu locates her with echo-location magic tuned only to reflect off of Illa's mind, based on what he learned from Illa's telepathic shout.
Chapter 36: Abomination
This chapter focuses on the ultimate fate of Aketa, who throws herself into battle in the hopes of dying, because she's been telepathically brainwashed by the biomancers to make suicide impossible, despite her daily agony.
As a reminder, Aketa was burned head to toe in Chapter 8 and can't properly regenerate her skin or limbs and she's become the heart of the stolen war-rider, her muscles and tendons directly tied to its control systems.
Captain Stormbreaker (captain of the royal guard) has a nasty time keeping up with her, because she moves far faster than any driver can, because she isn't using handles and levers to drive. He loses a lot of men in the process of learning her capabilities and she even steals his war-rider's ax, demonstrating a level of dexterity that's impossible for any regular driver.
He puts together a team consisting of himself and three others, who seek to come at her from all sides, hoping to use the blind spots of a war-rider to their advantage, but Aketa uses a judo-like throw to hurl Stormbreaker into the machine coming at her from behind, then turns her attention to one side, making rude gestures at another of them (she can move the fingers of her war machines with great precision).
The dwarf she baited charges and the one behind her (a woman dwarf named Fidra) does the same, because the charging fool needs backup against someone so strong. At the last moment, Aketa performs another maneuver that's impossible for a standard war-rider: an leap into the air, including a backwards somersault.
She lands behind the two machines as they slam into each other and skewers both machines with her sword, ruining the steam chamber of the first and putting her sword through the cockpit of the second, forcing Fidra to watch a friend die.
Hauling her sword free, the two machines fall back and she heads off.
Captain Stormbreaker and the other member of the team recover and engage Aketa more cautiously than ever, dancing about the battlefield after a short break to talk, because she wants to tick the dwarves off so badly, they might just beat her. She even insults them by saying they've haven't touched her once and opens her armor to show them how she moves so nimbly.
Stormbreaker is horrified to see the abomination of woman and machine that she's become. She arrogantly (but not suicidally, because she's confident they can't touch her) leaves her armor open.
Fidra frees herself from the wreckage of her war-rider. She's in bad shape and tears her left arm wide open in the process of escaping the wreck with only a throwing ax for a weapon.
She ties a tourniquet on her left arm. Fidra is a champion ax thrower, so she's sure she can do the job, just so long as Aketa is close enough.
To that end, she bloodies her ax to add color and waves it in the air while Aketa's back is turned, catching the eye of her friends, who nod t her; the royal guard are excellent at non-verbal communication, so that's all it takes.
Her friends subtly maneuver Aketa into position, while Fidra hides and waits for her opportunity. It comes and she hurls the ax with all her might, despite her many injuries. Her tourniquet comes loose and she bleeds out, but he ax flies true!
Aketa is struck in the join between her fleshy right shoulder and the machine, ruining her ability to manipulate her right arm, just as she's raised her sword to block a downward chop from Stormbreaker! Her arms falls limp and her sword falls free!
Aketa screams, "Thank you!" just before the ax hits her, destroying her body so badly, she'll never regenerate.
The royal guard clean up the rest of the battle with ease, because the abominations were green troops, with no battle experience.
Stormbreaker has great respect for his fallen opponent, because he finally realizes she was in great pain the whole time and comes to think of her like a sister, because badly-wounded dwarves tend to volunteer for the most intense battles they can, so they can die on their feet, normally taking ten or more enemies down with them.
There's a red flash from the sky (events from Bushwhack and Terror of Vok's Hammer of Vok mode) that nearly blinds everyone.
Stormbreaker realizes the alien threat has arrived and regrets killing Aketa, because she was exceptionally strong and they could have used her against the alien menace.
He leads his men in search of King Windmaker.
Chapter 37: Sharpshooter
Sureshot's team is pinned down by fire from Anji, who kills Private Price. Sureshot gets some idea which way to look and orders everyone to scan the hill, hoping someone might spot Anji.
One of her men gets lucky and points, just in time to take a bullet through the right eye for his trouble! Sureshot sees the muzzle flash and aims, returning fire! Anji's reflexes are on a whole other level, however, and she twists her head to one side, avoiding the shot!
The first Troll-Slayer is wasted.
Unfortunately, taking the shot left Sureshot in the open, just as Anji finishes reloading! Sureshot dives for cover, but takes a graze to her ear!
Sureshot is deeply troubled by the loss of three men, so far, leading to this scene that peaks for itself (FYI, Hale is the most recently killed soldier):
“What’s the plan, Sarge?” Private Everett Holman, a short, bronze-skinned, tank-like man asked.
His words were followed by Private Julius Stevens, who offered his support, “Whatever you need Sarge, I’m up for it.”
The most striking feature about Stevens was his nose, which was longer and more pointed than most, a fact made obvious by being put in sharp profile by the darkness and light of the moon, working together.
Sureshot looked away from Brosla and the corpse of Hale, to instead gaze upon her men, who’d noticed how shaken she was and were subtly doing their best to get her back on task. She smiled at the and realization of the kind of men they were, just the kind she’d always preferred to work with. They were also battle hardened, unlike poor McBride, who’d been a new addition to the squad.
“I hate being on this end of a sharpshooter, but she’s got us pinned down.” Sureshot complained, “If we try to move, we’re dead, but if we stay, she’ll eventually find a position she can reach us from. I’ve done this to others, so I know exactly how deep the crap we’re standing in happens to be.
“I need some kind of distraction,” she hesitated and reluctantly began, “I hate to ask…” She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, because she didn’t care to ask good men to lay down their lives for her.
Stevens grinned in the moonlight, his pearly whites reflecting the dim light better than his skin, “But you need a volunteer to take fire, so you can pinpoint her. I’ll do it, Sarge.”
“No,” Sureshot doubted herself and tried to refuse, “I can’t risk you like-”
“Sure you can, Sarge.” Stevens nodded, “No sharpshooter works alone. You can’t do this without us and you know it!”
“Sarge, since we’re dead either way, why not let us go out being useful to you?” Holman asked.
She hated to admit it, but the men had an excellent point, though she delayed the decision by loading another Troll-Slayer into her rifle with extra care, so she could consider their words.
Sureshot nodded, “Fine, Stevens, you’re up, but,” she hesitated and eventually offered some advice, “move as fast as you can, zigzag your way around, make yourself a hard target and act crazy. Pretend to panic, then do the smart thing, instead. Keep an eye out for spots you can take cover, once you hear a gunshot.” Stevens moved to begin his crazy dash, but Sureshot called out, “Wait! One last thing: good luck.”
Stevens nodded, turned back to Sureshot and winked, before shouting, “I’m not taking this anymore, Sarge! I’m outta here!”
He dashed out from behind his tree, jigging his way back and forth through the dark landscape, moving in and among the trees, fallen logs and rocks, ever ready to take cover.
However, Anji is as good as Sureshot, if not better. She takes the shot and puts a bullet through the man's right eye, just like all the others.
Sureshot uses the opportunity to return fire again, but Anji is already on the move, rolling away and she misses, again!
The second Troll-Slayer is also a waste, leading to this:
Tears streamed from Sureshot’s eyes as she dropped back behind cover, thinking, I missed again and wasted the sacrifice of another man that died to give me the opportunity to return fire! I can’t do this! I’m not cut out to be a sergeant anymore! I’m not the detached monster I used to be! I can’t sacrifice these men to save myself! Her conscience ate her alive over her unit’s losses, McBride, Price, Hale and now Stevens, too! It’s too much! I can’t live with this!
She loaded her last Troll-Slayer and made up her mind to be the final decoy. She’d take the risk on herself, to save Holman. It’s the least I can do.
Holman offered, “I’m ready when you are, Sarge. Just say the word.”
Not on my watch. Sureshot vowed within herself, but nodded, “Okay. Give me a moment to compose myself.”
It’s a good excuse. It’s believable. She took a deep breath to calm herself.
Brosla has been quietly observing Sureshot for months and has been a student of human behavior for decades, on top of being a student of humanoid behavior for thousands of years.
He knows Sureshot's lying and reasons she's broken down again, just in a subtly different way from what happened in the Utros palace. He knows how upset she is over the loos of her men and reasons, correctly, that she's decided to take the risk on herself.
Brosla turns his laser rifle to the lowest setting, on continuous beam,
As she rushes off into the moonlight, Brosa fires his laser and waves it all over the dark hill Anji has been firing from, setting fire to trees, as a sort of distraction, while he charges over and jumps in the way, using a rock to get some extra height, only to catch the bullet meant for Sureshot, taking it in the liver!
He falls and calls out, "Journal: triage!"
Sureshot smiles and aims as Anji tries to roll away, only to realize the bush beside her is on fire! She falls back into her earlier position and Sureshot fires, putting the bullet right down Anji's sights and into her eye.
The last Troll-Slayer does its job to perfection, snuffing out all magic in Anji's body, including the spark of life itself.
Sureshot holds Brosla's hand, because he's in tremendous pain (he's enduring surgery from his journal, which has no idea what anesthesia is), leading to another scene that best speaks for itself:
Trembling with pain, Brosla commented, “You-you do-don’t d-die on,” he took a ragged breath, “m-my wa-tch. Th-that’s a-an order.”
Sureshot was touched by his actions and understanding of something she’d been going though, though she hadn’t vocalized it. She looked down at the strange man from another world, overcome by the oddness of the way it had literally taken an alien to peer into her heart and recognize the turmoil there. In addition, he hadn’t just understood, but intervened to save her life, at great risk to his own.
You just don’t see men like this very often. He’s hero material, after all, but the desperation of this situation is what brought it out. She looked down at him and a strange certainty settled into Sureshot’s mind as the thought struck her: He’s my hero.
Sureshot nodded and leaned down to tenderly kiss Brosla’s forehead, because every hero deserved a kiss when they rescued a distressed damsel, even if that meant saving them from their own foolishness, “Understood.”
He lays on his back, looking at the moon as a pair of blue flashes occur, marking the arrival of a pair of ships dropping out of FTL.
The red flash of laser light happens next and he explains what's happening to Sureshot, though he does so with difficulty, because surgery hurts.
When they both see shooting stars, he tells her they're enemies.
Sureshot looks over to where Anji lies dead, filled with regret, because they could have sued her in the fight against the machines and were going to need the best fighters they could get.
She hands her rifle to Private Holman and instead draws her sword, heading off to find King Windmaker and Nepita, in hopes of preventing them from killing each other.
Chapter 38: Song of Compassion
Illa tries to talk Yetu down, but he's too committed and angry to hear her, leading to a clash of very physical magic in the air as they both materialize large and dangerous hands made of magic, though Yetu's have claws. They end up in a contest of strength, with Yetu slightly stronger than Illa.
At first, she takes a step or two back, just to relieve some of the pressure, but she's soon sliding backwards, unable to hold her ground as Yetu's magic presses her backwards, because he's improved quite a lot in the past few months! She slams into a tree and is pinned against it by the pressure of their conflicting magic.
Yetu surprises her with a third magic hand and she really goes on pure defense, barely able to hold two of them off with one hand, while she continues the contest of strength with the other, though she occasionally gets cut by the claws on Yetu's magic hands.
Fortunately for Illa, Kadrek and the soldiers hid before Yetu appeared and spend the entire duel working their way behind him. The soldiers aim their rifles and Kadrek advances, holding his ax up for a strike, only to whisper in the young troll's ear, "Last chance to surrender or me takes yer head!"
Yetu turns his attention on Kadrek and Illa falls down, confused for a little while and the soldiers take the shot, filling Yetu full of holes. He falls and Kadrek swings, but Yetu gets his concentration back in time for his much shrunken and weakened spell to latch onto Kadrek's ax, leaving them in a contest of strength vs. magic.
Yetu calls out to Anji for help, then does something amazing: he combines regular troll magic with Rage Song, by using a heavy metal style of harmonic growl. He telepathically reaches out, but Anji is already dead.
Illa says this:
“There’s no one coming to help you.” Illa spoke calmly and rose to her feet, walking across the clearing, “Anji is probably dead. Nepita has abandoned you, because she wanted to personally fight King Windmaker, right? You’re completely alone and the soldiers on my side would like nothing better than to kill you. Right now, I’m sure my husband, the dwarf, is pretty angry with you, because you tried to kill me. Why don’t you just surrender?”
Yetu's response:
Yetu looked up at Illa from his upside-down, prone perspective and howled at her, “Traitorous-” he cursed, referring to her as a female dog, before turning the scream into a shout of desperate emotion and rage that took on a life of its own!
Feeling as if he's cornered and refusing to believe Illa's desire to let him surrender peacefully, he uses a Shout of Ruin.
Havng expected this, Illa uses a unique spell of her own:
Illa had been expecting that and she’d been considering a counter to his Shout of Ruin, because after expressing herself through that technique, Illa had totally spent her rage with Nepita. She also had no other suitable source of rage to use, but she had plenty of compassion.
She had compassion for Yetu, because he was so twisted up inside, just like Illa had once been. She had compassion for Nepita, her own dear sister, who raised Illa from an infant and nurtured her magical talents. She cared for the dwarves, who’d never wanted to go to war with their own allies, the trolls. She could also sympathize with the plight of Oswil, which had been dragged into the war against their will. She most certainly understood the trolls and why they refused to back down. She especially felt for Brosla’s people, who’d very nearly been wiped out, with only one ship left, which might not hold enough people for their race to bounce back from the brink of destruction.
She sang a few notes and poured every bit of those feelings into the magic, much the same as she’d mixed rage and magic as one, to form a Shout of Ruin. The magic laid hold of her feelings and carried them aloft, via her throat, filling the air with a great sense of peace.
There's a brief conflict in the air between the Shout of Ruin and the Song of Compassion, but the song wins, hand over fist, because peace is more powerful than war and Illa's compassion is far stronger than her anger ever was.
Yetu finally believes her, because the song doesn't harm him at all. He rushes to her and sobs out the feelings that have been pent up inside for three years.
I went back to chapter one around this point to add a scene with Illa and Yetu in her quarters, alone, when she'd been ordered to test Yetu for magic talent. In this scene, Illa treated him with love and kindess, because she's his aunt and that was something he'd badly wanted his whole life.
The real reason he'd been upset with Illa wasn't a matter of betraying Nepita, the kingdom or the trolls, but rathee the fact that Illa left and abandoned him in a palace full of women that hate him and his mother, who, while she does love him, also uses him like a tool. Illa was the only one that had no expectations and offered unconditional love.
He cries as the battle in orbit occurs, producing the red flash that lights up the landscape. Illa recognizes the threat and gets everyone on the move with the intent of finding Nepita and King Windmaker, hoping they haven't killed each other.
Chapter 39: Royal Rage
Nepita sneaks up on King Windmaker and his few men.
We learn something interesting about runic enchantments that hasn't previously been explained: any user of magic can pour their energy into them, to make them stronger. This is because such magic items are normally powered by mythril, which when left to its own devices will produce random, spell-like surges of magic. Runic enchantments are normally designed to gobble up all the magic they can, to prevent the mythril from getting out of control.
As Nepita comes up on the a war-rider from behind, she pours magic into All-biter, extending the cutting edge far beyond the mere blade, then slashed upward, cutting the machines in half, including the dwarf guardsman!
Steam fills the are with a fog-like mist as the machine falls to either side, preventing me form having to describe what was left of the dwarf as Nepita gets covered in blood.
Another slash (using blind-fighting training from Anji) cuts the feet off four more of the machines, causing them to fall. The last of Windmaker's men still in a useful war machine draws attention to himself in a foolish way, getting cut in half, much like the first.
When the fog clears, Nepita swings sideways with both weapons at the four dwarves that charge to attack her. On her left, one loses the top of his skull, while the one next to him has his torso sliced in half along a diagonal path. To her right, one dwarf screams and dies from spider venom, while the last dies from a fear of choking to death, based on a childhood experience that traumatized him.
Windmaker is naturally enraged by the death of his men, but confronts Nepita by name and title. She had been planning to torture him for weeks on end, for the fun of it, but she's frustrated to learn he knows about troll women, in her mind ensuring his swift doom, though she still plans to toy with him.
Windmaker swings his ax down at Nepita as she sheaths her swords. As their maker, Windmaker is immune to their magic and doesn't care to explore their limits.
Using Rage Song to enhance her body's durability and strength, she catches the massive ax blade with her hand, getting only a little cut! Windmaker hauls back, trying to retrieve the ax, but Nepita increases her body density with the same magic, keeping it trapped as she refuses to let go.
Eventually, she does let go and Windmaker's war-rider falls. He perform the acrobatic stand that's unqie to his war machine, impressing Nepita.
She claps, then compliments and insults him in the same sentence.
Windmaker asks to talk face to face, ruler to ruler and she agrees.
He asks for peace, over and over, but she refuses and presses for details on why he wanted to capture Fort Freybell, which has previously been a point of contention, due to her paranoia, even though Fort Freybell isn't really important to Windmaker.
They argue about the reasons for the war, getting nowhere, and Windmaker brings the coming conflict with the machines into the discussion, but Nepita demands proof, just as she did with Brosla, through Shengis.
The battle is back on, but face to face and we learn Windmaker forged an ax specifically to kill Nepita, composing the runes for 'death', 'troll' and 'royalty' in one work. The ax is named Utrocide, because it can kill a troll royal with a mere touch.
It's the very ax in his hand, but as Nepita charges in with a Rage Song punch, he can't bring himself to use it, because he needs her alive and stong, to fight the machines.
Instead, he blocks with his shield, which she shatters. He tumbles away, due to the force of the blow and realizes she's toying with him.
Again, he asks to talk and she's annoyed, but relents. He holds the ax up for her to read, but she admits she can't read dwarf runes.
He tells her the truth and Nepita realizes he really is telling the truth about his desire for peace.
They have more discussion about the subject and eventually decide to settle the war with a bare knuckle brawl until one of them admits defeat or passes out, a match with no weapons, no armor and no magic. The loser will become a tributary monarch to the other and regardless of what happens, the winner will make sure the other is healed. They also make plans to get down to the real reasons for the war, together. This way, both of them remain strong and if there really is a threat from the stars, Windmaker hopes they'll face it together.
Before they begin, they discuss the matter of how he learned about troll women and how important it is for him to keep his mouth shut. He's tells her he's already sworn to take it to his grave, a promise he made to Illa.
He tells Nepita Illa is his daughter-in-law and they're amused by the discovery they've become family, something Windmaker hadn't considered before.
They brawl for ten minutes and Windmaker ends up badly bruised, more or less all over, because Nepita punches like an eastern martial artist. He decides to switch to wrestling, so he can choke Nepita out, because punching is getting him nowhere.
He gets her into the choke hold from behind, just as he desires, but at a terrible cost: she reaches behind herself and grabs him by the family jewels, crushing them in her hand!
Windmaker is in so much pain, he can't even cry out and just whimpers, but he locks the hold in and begins choking her, though he's a hair away from barfing all over her.
The red flash of the battle in orbit happens and they let go of each other.
“There’s yer proof.” Windmaker squeaks.
Nepita heals Windmaker fairly slowly, since she isn't very good at it, starting with his crotch.
Chapter 41: Severing War
Sureshot is the first to find the royals and makes the assumption Nepita is brainwashing Windmaker, so she comes up from behind and just about takes the troll's head off with her sword, which flares up for the job.
Windmaker asks her not to kill the Queen and Nepita delivers a fun line:
“We’re allies now,” Nepita growled, turned and looked Sureshot in the eye with barely restrained rage, “but if you don’t get that flaming sword out of my face, I promise you’ll spend the rest of your pathetically short life with it shoved all the way up your-” she used a curse word for the buttocks.
Sureshot backs down and there's some discussion of the situation, leading Nepita speak, starting this amusing exchange:
“We’ve got to stop the war, before we lose anymore good fighters. I just hope Anji is still with us. She can train…everyone…” She noted Sureshot cringing and asked, “What did you do?”
Sureshot looked down, sheepishly, “She killed several of my men, so I might have…possibly…put a Troll-Slayer through her head.”
Nepita looked really angry, but to her credit, she let it go, “We were at war just five minutes ago and what’s done is done, but it isn’t easy to stop a battle once it’s started. Any bright ideas? I’ve never needed to stop a battle before.”
Illa shows up, offering to super-charge her Song of Compassion to blanket the entire mountain, but it will need some kind of opening to get into people's heads, something to stop the actual fighting.
Windmaker tells Nepita a dangerous truth about All-biter, that is may be capable of cutting more than just physical objects. In the hands of a powerful magic user, it might be able to sever anything, including war.
While Nepita meditates to gather magic and produce an image in her mind of war, so she can cut it, Yetu and Sureshot pu=our their magic into Illa, until the trolls pass out and Sureshot's body aches all over, but the Song of Compassion is suitably supercharged.
Nepita then stands and slashes downward as she imagines war like a beast with millions of tentacles that touch soldiers on both sides of the war. She slashes the tentacles in her mind and a wave of incredibly powerful magic washes over Utros, leaving a sense of peace it its wake.
General Hendrix is at the front lines in the canyon leading up to Whitewall and the canyon is drenched in troll blood, because they've been firing artillery up the canyon to push Utros back. They've only moved 300 feet in a week's time and the canyon is miles long, while the trolls just stand and take it, because they have to hold the line.
He badly wants an alternative and his prayers are answered in the form of a rift in the ground forming between both sides, which is too wide and too deep to cross.
Kina is busy leading a mission to break past the Oswil blockade, because Utros is nearly out of .45-70 rounds, since Oswil stopped selling them to Utros. She intends to meet up with their underhanded supplier, who works for Lord Rolar, once her men leave the kingdom, but just as she's about to order her men to silently kill the Oswil soldiers blocking their way, a landslide forces them to return to the cave they just emerged from, which gets totally blocked, forcing them to turn around.
The third scene is a little hint of the next book, with a group of four gnomes in a mythril-tipped digging machine as they make their way to the Utros palace, a task they've been working at for more than a decade, all in the name of revenge for the actions of Shengis (actually Nepita).
There's a huge collapse ahead of them, which leaves their tunnel exposed to moonlight. The foreman and driver gets out and looks down, deciding the chasm is too deep and wide to bypass and their shoe-string budget isn't enough for building bridges, so it's time to give up and go home.
His men get the machine going again and start off without him, forcing him to run to catch up.
Epilogue
The opening of the epilogue is a series of short scenes covering the perspective of minor characters as they see or hear about the red flash in the sky, followed by the shooting stars, including General Warmaul, the jerky vendor from Wind Hammer (Bokhal Jadetoe), Kadrek's mine foreman, the mayor of Ruby Canyon, Lady Gunn and Lord Rolar. I forgot to include the faires (Lord Shadowfang and Lady Lovelymint), but I'll add them in editing, along with other minor characters I missed.
The point of these scenes is to add weight to the climax, showing how far away it was seen (the entire night side of the planet, though I also need to eventually cover the perspective of someone watching dawn or dusk at the time). I'm sure I'll find the right balance in editing. I'll have to do more of the same in the prologue of Machine War, which is the unwritten sequel to Troll War.
The next scene covers the impact of Scout 3455C4B1 with the ground. Its almost completely shutdown, due to a thermal overload of its nuclear power unit, because emergency atmospheric entry forced it to power down. T?he only systems working are all automatic, resulting in the thing bursting it's egg-like entry capsule, followed by blowing gasses out of its joints, to keep the melted plastic of the capsule clear of them. Last of all is a blast of coolant to help the remaining plastic harden as an extra layer of armor.
It will remain dormant for possibly as long as a week, because it needs time to cool.
The last scene of the novel is several days later, bringing Lord Rolar and Lady Gunn back together in the very same tavern/pub in which the novel started, because they've been summoned via mysterious telegrams.
Just after they settle at a table, King Windmaker, King Shengis, Sureshot and Queen Nepita (though they don't recognize her and she isn't mentioned by name, only description) step into the place, followed by an unusual mixture of Utros, Fortune Fields and Oswil soldiers.
Windmaker sidled over to the table and drew a chair over, loudly dragging it across the floor to put it beside Lady Gunn, while Shengis did the same thing, dragging a chair beside Lord Rolar. Stanton dragged her own chair to the table, turning it backwards so she could straddle it and set her chin on the back. Windmaker put an arm around Gunn’s shoulders, while Shengis did the same with Rolar.
Stanton smiled. It wasn’t a friendly expression. She pulled a very familiar pair of journals from her coat pocket and dropped them on the table.
“We had an interesting time going over these with a fine-toothed comb, just a few days ago, and you know conclusion we came to?” Stanton asked.
The two nobles said nothing.
“They’re fake.” Stanton declared, “Very well made, but there’s no evidence in either kingdom that they’re anything more than fiction.” Shengis and Windmaker both chucked, leaving the two nobles trembling with fear.
Stanton went on, “King Joshua has found you both guilty of treason, based on the evidence and sworn testimony of the victims, alone,” she paused for dramatic effect, “but you see, there’s a little problem with that.”
Windmaker squeezed the shoulders of Lady Gunn, while Shengis did the same to Lord Rolar, speaking in unison, “Extradition!”
“Exactly.” Stanton’s smile became all the more wicked and evil-looking, like that of a trickster god, “Now, you two have a choice: you can accept execution by firing squad here, between the three kingdoms, or you can accept extradition to the nation of your choice.”
Shengis offer a very long life in Utros as his guests. The implication is that they'll be kept alive as long as possible, as they're tortured for as long they last. Based on Nepita's prior threats, that would involve occasional healing magic, to prolong their suffering.
Windmaker offers them a chance to survive, with a daily stay of execution based on their ability to fight for their lives, implying anything but a peaceful existence.
Lord Rolar tries to cast a spell, but Shengis stabs him in a lung with a hidden dagger, preventing him from doing anything.
Sureshot gives them one final alternative: life in prison in Oswil, with hard labor, but only if Lady Gunn rolls on her very corrupt family and gives up every detail on their underhanded dealings. The deal is only on the table if the information pans out, so she has to give up something really good.
Ulitamtely, they take Sureshot's deal.
Conclusion
This is the end of my series on Troll War, but likely not the end of my work in progress series, which will continue to be posted on this blog.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my writing process. I know I enjoyed writing these log entries, though I'm going to have to find better way to do this, because it takes too much time on a Saturday. Perhaps I'll write the entries on each chapter throughout the week in the future.
Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war