Month: November 2019

This is supposed to be Marek day, but I am all but certain I won’t get through a lot of him tonight. Black Friday got me and the Turkey kept me up the previous night, which means I am basically working on two nights without sleep. My brain is slowed and unable to fire out any real creativity.

this is an important lesson about the power of good rest and attention to diet, because Without it I find that I am staring at the page for minutes and unable to field a post that is coherent less or be good.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

“They” say timing is everything, which is why it is so fortuitous that today be Thea day. The mythological Thea was the Goddess of the light who gave birth to the sun. Thanksgiving is meant to be a day that brings the light and joy of family into our lives…

Okay, I’m stretching things here and being quite corny and more than a little quotidian in the way I am trying to draw connections and meaning out of thin air. In truth, Thea is another mystery for me to unravel. I absolutely envisioned her as the love interest for Ikrivain in a basic effort to force a love triangle into this silly little story. One of the things I’ve learned about story is the expectations of the reader. B-stories often revolve around the love interest and the love triangle is a familiar way to bring that to the forefront. As the story went on I found myself thinking a linkage with Esme would be more interesting, but perhaps the most interesting thing would be to actually make a female lead into a fully rounded character and not have her rely upon the male leads in order to have purpose or death. So, here we go.

Thea has been through a great deal more than her sister is aware of. She loves her sister and wants to protect her sister, in spite of being a few minutes older chronologically. It was Thea who agreed to the match between the wealthy man and both sisters. She cared little about the optics and wanted instead to know her sister was safe and that she would be with her forever. Thea has never wanted for much more than to be a part of something. That something has always been this bond with her sister–this familial linkage that manifested as them against the world. When Marek came along and showed Esme what it meant to love, Thea began to worry about herself and her future and what that could look like alone. She joined the military out of love and protectiveness for her sister, but once her sister had someone else in her life, Thea decided that she needed something else as well. Early in the story she is forced to pick between that service and her family and she picks her family, leading the next phase of her story to be about reconciling herself with those feelings, trying to mimic companionship and family with those she comes in contact with (she grows attached to the guide I think), and finally realizing that she has all that she needs inside of herself.

This is my recap day.

So I wrote an outline and not a novel. I did so, because I didn’t have a novel in place which I could work up in 30 days. I suppose I will shelf this until next November and write it out page by page during that Nano session. So, at least I will have the shell done. Now that we are close to the end of the process I decided it is best to spend the last few days getting a deeper understanding of the characters and setting and conflicts. Yes, it is going to stay a fantasy zombie novel. I feel the birth of a lich king is kind of a cool idea. Still, it feels like the prequel to some other story.

I do feel like I have workable characters in the four main characters (plus a guide who I want to add color and flavor to before he is killed off).The one character I mishandled the most is Esme. Heck, I couldn’t even remember her name or anything about her at first. I just knew she operated either a crossbow or a long bow and she was entangled with Marek. Part of me wanted her to end up with Ikrivain at the end, given her transformation.

In terms transformation I didn’t do much for her as a person, because I did not know her as a person. So, lets start getting to know Esme.

She is a twin. While not an identical twin the sisters are very similar in stature and demeanor. Esme is dedicated to the pursuit of a life better than she and her sister fled at home. She was meant to be married off. At one point an arrangement was made for her and her twin to be offered to the same eccentric and wealthy suitor. Rather than wait to see if their parents would do such a deal she and Thea fled.

She is a woodswoman. Her dad taught her hunting and fishing and all of the skills necessary for survival. He did not believe in this idea of women not understanding “men’s work’ instead feeling a woman has a greater burden to understand the roles of both genders and to be able to do as they must when needed. As he had no sons he used his daughters in the fields as much as their mother used them to prepare meals. Their academic education was a casualty of this level of work. Only recently has she shown any faint interest in learning to read or write.

Esme wants to settle down somewhere and have a family. She wants to not have to work so hard in life but realizes that hard work now ought to mean less work later, so she takes on these responsibilities of war as an opportunity to earn enough to settle down while exploring a vast world with her future mate.

This is pretty much it.

Chapter 21

The group rides off towards the border and the chaos is catching steam. They see people running amuck and murdering and they refuse to stop until the horses are too worn to continue. The group talks the entire time and Ikrivain explains what happened or what he thinks happened. He confesses that he didn’t kill him and lies about why–claiming he was unable to reach him.

Esme stares off into the distance and talks about how she can feel them and how she is changed now. He is changed too. The low level magic that infected him when spells were cast is stuck now.

This is the what now moment of the story as they see the chaos this land has wrought. They still need to return home, so they do.

Notes: He is always at that level and he is going to be someone who drains magic from those around him and will be the only one who can destroy the lich king. This is going to be a later story, perhaps twenty years or more.

Part of me wants this power to be realized in this story where he returns home to face the sister and ends up facing that rogue army and his abilities weaken the mage enough for everyone to take him and makes him a hero.

This is the end of the novel. I’ve enjoyed the write and now that it is outlined I want to spend the rest of NanoWrimo working through some of the individual chapters.

Nearing the climax here and the world will never be the same.

Chapter 21

Ikrivain enters the ritual chamber and the guards watching are zoned out. some are dead and others are roaming aimlessly. They lock in on him and attack. He fights back and overwhelms them. Then he goes to the brother and tells him he’s free and he can stop the ritual. The brother refuses to disengage. This confuses him and there is a brief fraught dialogue where he and the brother go back and forth about why the ritual is being cast and now it is clearly about revenge. He pleads with the brother to stop and to let him bring him back to his sister and now he discovers that this is not at all what the brother wants and never what the brother wanted. He has what he wants and he means to kill everything here and control the keep. He means to have power.

This is the moment of choice. Ikrivain has to decide to either leave the ritual to be or to stop this man. he decides to leave the ritual to be, refusing to have the moment where he confesses to killing her brother. He leaves and meets his friends who have waited downstairs for him with horses ready.

The group flees from the area riding on until night.

Note: This has become the birth of the lich king story in many ways. ikrivain’s failure to kill the brother when he had a chance will reverberate in the world for centuries.

So we are in the zombie escape section of the storyline. This is going to be about a lot of self realization and loss moving forward. I just don’t know how it ends…

Chapter 20

Ikrivain is learning how to control his energy and suddenly there is a huge uptick in the magic. A major spell is being cast. He channels that energy and focuses it into one strength strike towards the gate lock. It gives and he and Marek are free. They move to the door to open that as well when Marek and Thea start to feel ill. Esme does not feel it at all. They get out and see the guard outside looks bewildered. They incapacitate him quickly and get the key and weapons. They return to the cell and free the others. Then they start to try and escape but Ikrivain still won’t go. He wants to try for the brother one last time. He’s grown though. He tells Marek and the others to go. They have seemingly grown too. They race off to get horses.

Throughout the castle people are falling ill and acting very strange. He is navigating towards where he remembers the spell room to be and he runs into a pair of guards who seem different. They turn and are raged like the girl and all of the other evil he’s seen on this journey and he realizes then that whatever is the problem originates from here.

He squares up against the guards and uses his power to defeat them. He starts towards the spell room again but with a new intention in mind. He must stop this ritual.

So I’ve been thinking about ways that this all might come together and make more sense. To begin, I want to move towards making this brother be more responsible and by his own choosing, but more of a choice where it is about self preservation and escape. To wit…

Chapter 19

The fight ends because the cell doors open and the brother is shoved in. He is bedraggled and is ushered quietly into a nearby cell. The momentary loss of power slips away and Ikrivain finds himself able to stand again. He is confused and beginning to piece things together.

Immediately he goes to talk to the brother and starts to explain who he is and why he is there. The brother seems really out of it but tries to work up a response. This leads to another argument between Marek and Ikrivain, and Thea shouts out to end the budding fight. They hear the doors again and the guards usher in Esme, seemingly healthy and completely confused and dazed. She is shoved in a cell with her sister and everyone is struck by silence.

When they collect themselves and talk to her they realize that she is healed and whatever was afflicting her started to go away when they got here. Now Ikrivain puts it together. He says, “you.” and tries to tell the brother that he did this. He doesn’t have all the pieces but he recognizes that somehow the brother is responsible for what is happening with people and the spell is doing it.

The guy screams for the guards and asks them to get him out of there and they are wondering why when he starts to mumble about being able to fix it and knowing how to do it now and how to do it the way the master of the keep wants.

Note: Basically, the master of the keep is not an evil man but he is a man who loves his child and she is dying and the spell is meant to bring her back and the problem with that is that he cannot get it to work. However, it worked on Esme and now he thinks he knows how to refocus it–not to heal but to harm and to kill everyone in the place so he can escape.

Chapter ends with the 4 members of the team finally together and wondering how to take the next step.

Chapter 18

Here we begin to see things really fall apart. Marek and Ikrivain are kept together and Thea waits in a separate cell. This prison facility as it is called is not a prison that is actually in use at this time. They appear to be the only prisoners and the sister is nowhere to be found. They ask the guards but there is no reply.

Once the guards leave Ikrivain begins to plot a way out, to finish the mission, but Marek stops him. Marek is pissed and tells him about it. This has always been about the mission and about him winning the heart of the baroness. He tells Ikrivain he is being used and there is no future for him with that woman. He goes on to talk about the sacrifices the others made and Ikrivain spits back that there are sacrifices in war. But this is no war, and you are no commander! We came with you out of friendship and love. We came to see you succeed because you wanted this more than anything I’ve seen a person want but you lost yourself in this. We have failed, and we will likely die. We will die for nothing. We will die because of you.

That is enough to bring these men to blows and they fight with nobody to restrain them and Ikrivain reaches for the magic and he finds it not there and he finds instead it is clawing at him in some strange way and he fears it is the spell being cast and begins to realize something truly terrible is happening in this place.

Once again losing the thread of the thing, or maybe kust becoming a little bored with the one dimensional nature of the story. I think this is another good example of the importance of plotting. It helps you recognize what does not work quickly enough to get to what does.

Chapter 17

Esme (had to go back to day 7 for that name) is down and barely conscious. A sick feeling creeps over the group as they realize that she is possibly dying from the same thing that took their guide. This momentary distraction is enough to allow the forces to regroup and surround them. The unit is captured without incident and brought to see the commander.

They meet with the commander and explain their purpose and what they’ve been sent to give him in exchange for the release. They are taken to the place where the brother is being held though Marek and Thea are primarily concerned with Esme. Those two are refused the chance to see her. They are all angry and distraught and Ikrivain is broken, because he feels as though he’s failed. He is also desperate to salvage this situation.

They find the brother working a ritual. He is a spellcaster and a powerful one, but he looks drained and thin and sunken eyed. he stops and he is fed.He is clearly a prisoner here but he is bargaining for his freedom by working the spell. What is it? They ask, but the question is ignored. It is made clear that they are not going to release him unless another spell caster is drawn to take his place in the ritual.

They are returned to their cells.

Stephen King has always had a thing with the number 19. My step-daughter has a similar fascination with the number 16. Numbers are epic in stories and can mean so much. Though this story has drifted far afield of its humble beginnings (Baroness asks a soldier to cross battle lines to deliver a message) I still think there is a chance to invoke meaning on so many levels, and even in the way things are carried out by chapter. As such I present to you…

Chapter 16

They see the riders approaching with obvious designs to enter the keep. While they know little about these people or their capabilities, Ikrivain instructs the ladies to ready long weapons. He plans to kill these riders and take their mounts and clothes before they ascend the hill to the keep.

They hesitantly make the attack, because it is clear that Ikrivain is far beyond the point of no return and very much not in his right mind. He claims this is the only way to get Thea’s sister to safety and healing. He spouts many lies and doesn’t even feel as though he is lying. The low grade magic is moving through him like a drug and he feels this place as its source. He demands that one of the men be kept alive and learns that they are in fact soldiers and priests here to bless this place for something very terrible must be afoot. They don’t know what but know they were contacted in order to do the blessing. The group kills them nonetheless and steals their clothing. They ride up to the keep and are let in.

They demand to be directed to the prison and demand to be directed to who is in charge. Things are very wrong here and they know it. Yet the power is very strong now. The bubble that pushed out across the world from here has no immediate local effects but people here seem on edge. The chapter ends with them being introduced to the person in charge, their ruse seemingly intact. Ikrivain has used his skills of upbringing and communication to get them this far, but as with all good stories that power he relies upon is about to fail him.

They are in the courtyard and waiting for the man to arrive and as they wait Thea’s sister slumps heavily in the seat of her mount and then falls to the ground.