Dead Kings

Hello fellow writers and readers! This is #septemberauthorwipchallenge Day 22 – Equinox: seasonal celebrations in your WIP.

Day 15 of the #septemberauthorwipchallenge – WIP Aesthetic time!

This is a day I personally have been waiting, because now I get to show this beautiful Aesthetic for Dead Kings: King of No One! This portrays some elements of the world as well as our MCs, Ravi Zahne (face Luke Powell), Adrian Jäger (face Joe Alwyn) and the Golden Emperess (face Theresa Fractale).

Day 10 of the #septemberauthorwipchallenge - WIP trivia!

We’re dying to share way more than 3 facts about Dead Kings: King of No One, but lets save the gold for release 😂

✨Our story is about a race of immortals called Ahos. They are very powerful and definitely NOT good, so we could say our story is actually about “villains”.

✨Ahos are soulless. There are individuals whose soul is compatible with their body (soulmates of sorts) and they can bond in ritual to share said soul. These are called Shehrats.

✨Of all three kingdoms of Iynen’s Peninsula, only in Andor the Ahos ruled as kings. Sol’as Zahne, Ravi’s father, was the last of the Ahos kings in Andor.

Day 9 of the #septemberauthorwipchallenge - #onelinewednesday

So, of course we would post a line from our WIP, Dead Kings: King of No One. That one ressonates a lot with our MC Ravi, and you’ll have to read it to know why hahahah

A polemical day 8 of the #septemberauthorwipchallenge : Fictional crush confession! We are very much alike and as such, our crushes had to be morally gray 😂

Mandy’s lover is Lestat, from the Vampire Chronicles ‘cause she has a thing for charming sassy rebels (even though he’s totally gay - Blood Canticle never happened)

Lory’s boy is Maven Calore, from The Red Queen series and it’s a flaw that she just can’t deal with broken boys that bend fire 😢

Day 3 of the #septemberauthorwipchallenge – Profiling our MCs!

So, although I love Myers-Briggs for personal profiling (personality tests enthusiast here, guilty as charged!), I find them too analytical for characters and actually prefer Enneagram for them.

First off, our perfectionist and manipulative former Prince, Ravi Zahne. Ravi is a Type 6 (The Skeptic) with a great deal of Type 1 (The Perfectionist) in him (duh).

Sixes are defined by a deep uncertainty and mistrust of the world. These uncertainties are often difficult for Sixes to understand and describe, and they might give up on any attempt to verbalize them and instead succumb to worries. Some might call sixes neurotic, and there’s certainly a propensity towards anxiety and self-doubt.

And next, our arrogant and undaunted immortal, Adrian Jäger. Adrian is a Type 8 (The Challenger) with splatters of Type 3 (The Achiever) and 4 (The Individualist).

Eights are motivated by the desire to be independent and to take charge of themselves and others. They are assertive personalities and passionate about life, which they approach with vigor and confidence. Eights know how to look after themselves. They are action people that pursue their own destiny, preferring to “do” rather than conceptualize, and they are ready to make the difficult decisions and accept the consequences if things go wrong.

“As soon as all formal introductions were made, Ravi was left alone with the Duchess’ eldest son, Adrian, who was roughly his age. The young Ahos studied him in silence, hands behind his back, head slightly tilted making his sleek blond hair fall softly over his eyes. Ravi felt uncomfortable, suffocated under all those absurd layers of vareanian clothes. Shirt, vest, jacket, cape... Why did it have to be so many? And still he was hopelessly cold under all that thick fabric. His face, however, maintained calm and indecipherable at all times. He should never show weakness, this his father, King Sol’as, has taught him well. Still, Adrian’s piercing blue eyes bothered him, even more than the cold.

– It’s rude to stare like that. – The young prince grumbled at last. Adrian blinked swiftly and smiled.

– I’m sorry. – The blond boy answered in a careless tone that gave away the exact opposite of what he was saying. – When mother told me we were fostering the Andorian Prince, I imagined meeting a rough barbarian, not a scrawny lad, pale as a ghost with an exotic red eye. I mean, look at you, you look like a little bunny! – He gave a soft laugh, with a derisive smirk just large enough to show bits of his perfect white teeth. Ravi was a prince, no one dared to speak to him that way in Andor. It was unnerving. And yet he felt mesmerized as if Adrian’s smile could light up the entire hall.

– Don’t call me that. – He hissed plainly, eyes narrowed at the blond youngling.

– Sure. – Adrian scoffed with a small shrug. – Come, bunny, I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Happy Easter to you all!

“Is this all there is to immortality? Being left behind as the world twirls and changes around me, forgetting completely who I am? I refuse to believe it. I refuse to accept it. And if the world insists on scourging me and my kind, I will carve my place into it. Whatever it takes.

I’m tired of hiding, tired of being no one. Tired of being alone.

I will stand this no more.”

“I’ve been back in Varean for some months now, after decades of self-exile. I figured if I’ve kept away long enough it just wouldn’t matter anymore. How wrong I was. Seeing the ruins of Virden brought me a considerable amount of pain. Broken columns and shattered shards of stained glass. Decadent as it is I can still picture myself walking those halls, too young, too audacious, too oblivious to the fate that would follow. And all the others as well.

My mother, imperious and beautiful, a force of nature on her own. How much I owe her? Until this day I cannot tell. I miss her embrace, her lessons, even her punishment. I’ve stood at the very place where they killed her, even though not a single spot marks the ground. As if it never happened. As if the people who lived there existed only in my head. 

My father, absent and stern, my brother, slick and envious. With those two I have barely spared a thought. The world is certainly a better place without them. 

And Ravi. All the moments we spent together, in those golden years of youth. I could see us walking down the hallways, sparring at the yard, reading at the library. Loving each other on my bed. How brief it was, how much more could I have appreciated it, if I had known it would end this way. 

Beings like me should not be able to feel so much, not without a soul. 

And my soul is long dead and gone, by its own hand...”

“How long has it been since I started writing these pages? Even I don’t know. Centuries, certainly. I suppose if I had bothered myself to keep the journals I have written in all those years, the pages would fill entire galleries, ground to ceiling. I could’ve had a library replenished with only the story of my life. The thought is as appealing as it is bleak. Those pages are nothing but day after day of meaningless narratives of escape and loneliness. A pitiful tale of the Ahos who survived in a world that has cast him away. 

It’s empty, and it’s pointless. But it keeps me sane.