#itsots

Chapter 12 of In The Shadow Of The Serpent in the year of our lord 2026?????

YES! Your eyes don't deceive you! It is here! Read it now on the Archive and Wattpad

Some Snippets!

There was a time, in Sebastian’s younger years, when the idea of entering the Hogs Head was enticing, a spot where adults would tell him not to go, that the people there were dangerous, shady at best. And that had enticed him to duck inside once or twice, certain he belonged there, among danger and mischief, surrounded by pipe smoke. However, now weathered beyond his childhood years, the thought of entering filled him with dread. The sign above the door was crooked and worn, the same as it had been long ago. Sebastian skirted along the edge of the alley, his shoulders hunched slightly, shielding the parcel from the prying eyes of others. He was almost finished, then he could return to the growing familiarity of the antiques.

Her face changed all at once from shock to confusion, then some fragile mix of relief and anger. “Anne’s going to hex me if I bring you by,” she laughs under her breath, a slight quiver to her voice. “But she’ll kill us both if I don’t.”

But I cannot get over the picture of these two rulers meeting to discuss peace - young Ederne all angry and scared and grit-teeth and carrying a whole father’s worth of emotional baggage; Ularon probably the exact age of her father, full of experience and calm but unused to hope - both of them feeling that they are more alike than different, that they are each other’s only chance to speak to another person as equal.

Hector is a burly and oftentimes quite frightening knight with a brooding mien, known to some as the Prince’s Right Hand or the Prince’s Omen, but known by Prince Dionny himself to be a gentle, reserved and wholeheartedly kind man. Fiercely loyal but demands loyalty and respect in return.

The son of a retired knight and a queen’s lady-inwaiting, Hector was born and raised in Goelithe’s capital of Fellbrink, where he followed in his father’s footsteps, learning to wield a sword to become a Knight of Goelithe.

It was on the royal training grounds in which he became acquainted with the king’s son – Prince Dionny – and quite quickly found themselves to be good friends. And they remained good friends for decades to come, despite the prince’s often spoiled and selfish nature. Members of the court and public alike often joke that Hector is the prince’s rationality and sensibility. His kindly shadow. His better half.

Would certainly be a shame if he lost that.

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Shared a snippet of Hector's backstory on my ko-fi for you guys to read :] Hopefully the first of many stories to come from this world.

You can read it at: https://ko-fi.com/post/Hectors-Story-I2I51TJKI0

The Remaining Gods has a truly horrifying number of complete drafts. It's due for yet another one before it goes back to beta-reading. It's nice to reread the old drafts and see how the story has changed.

In The Shadow of the Sun has yet to get even one complete draft, which is more interesting. Because I know every beat of this story by heart. There are three acts, shaped around the two major shifts in the main character's priorities. I know Idir will betray her, I know Eli will come to remind her of their father, Jordha will never quite abandon her, Yorin will always support her but in the end it will be out of guilt, her old warhorse will be put down too soon because the vets can't safely treat him. She spends the entire book trying to balance morality with duty and I know that in the end she'll trade both for her brother's life.

I haven't written any of those things! I've written easily 200,000 words but the story covers thirty years of war! I'm only human. The world building alone is nearly insurmountable. It's a story about the culture and politics of an empire that I have no real point of reference for! I made a conlang just so I could name stuff. There's maps and laws and history and family trees, merciful god spare me the family trees.