Update

Hello!

I have been working on The Shadow of Vale this past week. I am taking a different approach now in the third draft, I am trying to create stronger scenes to tell the story rather than just getting the story out. As a result I am still on the first scene after a week. I did get about three scenes in at one point, but came up with a stronger opening scene and started over. I probably wrote about 3,000 words in it, but have only kept 500 or so.

I probably will not be able to update as regularly as I have in the past, I will try to keep you updated and leave some snippets as I go.

-Michelle

Update

I have been rather unsuccessful in setting this book aside. I however, have done nearly nothing that I have wanted to keep.

I made part of an outline for the prequel story, Fall of the Shadow, and then decided it was far too complex and scrapped it. I have been working on ways to roll that story into the main story since I remain unconvinced it is necessary to tell the prequel story in detail.

However, this has left me, again, without a firm idea of where to begin the story. But I am scribbling out different scenes and playing with ideas. I have rewritten a lot of the early scenes between Aila and Zuriel because I don’t believe I built their relationship up well. I have struggled to capture actual human reaction to the chaos that is involved in being brought from earth into a realm of magic.

In short, I am working on it, but I have not reached the point of beginning a third draft. Or an outline frankly.

Thanks for reading! Blessings!

-Michelle

One parting Excerpt before I put it away

Halvar stood and wiped his nose. “I’m going for a walk.”

Zuriel sat up, “Halvar.” He looked with concern at his friend.

Halvar let out a heavy breath and turned back. “Come here.”

“What?”

“Get up, come here.” Halvar said. Zuriel obliged.

Havlar took him in a hug with one arm over Zuriel’s shoulder, the other under his arm. Zuriel hugged him back, feeling his composure begin to crack.

“I love you, Zuriel. You are my family. My brother.” He closed his eyes. I’ll keep her safe. On my life.

Zuriel closed his own eyes and nodded. Halvar pulled away, leaving a hand on Zuriel’s shoulder a moment before he turned away.

Aila watched him go, confused before turning back to Zuriel whose eyes were wet with tears.

“Zuriel? What’s going on?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. Just having a brother moment.”

“I have never seen Halvar cry.” Aila said, looking at Zuriel with alarm and concern.

“Come here.” He opened his arms to her. She welcomed his embrace.

“You better not be saying goodbye. You’re going to beat him.” Aila said, feeling Zuriel trembling.

He pulled back, resting his forehead on hers. “I love you, Aila. With everything that I am.”

“Don’t.” She said, her voice shaking.

“If anything happens to me tomorrow,” he continued.

“Shut up, nothing is going to happen to you.”

“Let Halvar protect you. I’ve asked him to. Please don’t fight him, don’t argue. I need to know you’ll be safe.”

Aila squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking from them as she nodded.

He kissed her and held her close. “I love you.” He whispered again.

News: It’s finished!

This morning I completed the second draft/rewrite of The Shadow of Vale. It is 121,024 words long, much longer than I thought it would be. I am going to shelve it a while, let it rest before revisiting it. Thank you all for following me this far. I’ll see you in a few weeks, maybe months depending on how wrapped up I get in what ever project I do in the mean time.

Blessings,

Michelle

I wrote so much this week

I had so much fun writing this week. I loved writing the new sequence. It was really fun and I think it will be good once its polished up. Reading over it, it reads like its written in fast forward if that makes sense? Everything just happens really quickly without a lot of description or down time. I’ll fix that later.

So this week I added a new high for me. 19,286 words bringing the total to 113,389 words.

I had no idea it was going to be this long. I’m getting close to the end now.

Here’s some highlights from the labors this week:

As a warning, there is death and mourning/loss and suicide discussed in the second scene.

I wanted to share about six more, but it would be really cumbersome post.

“You’re the king? He made you the king?” Halvar demanded, interrupting Zuriel as he spared with Cyrus.

“What?”

“Agur. Agur made you king?”

“Agur made me king?” Zuriel looked at Halvar confused.

“You didn’t know?”

“I knew he was going to name me his successor, he made me king?”

“What do you think it means to be a successor?” Halvar asked, incredulous.

“That when he died, I would step in. Where did you hear that I am king?”

Halvar handed Zuriel the note he had snatched off a messenger. “He sent out messengers with this.”

Zuriel grabbed it and read it over quickly. “The end of the month. I become king in a month.”

“You didn’t tell me you were going to be the king of Vale?”

Cyrus stepped forward, “You’re going to be king?”

“Excuse me, I need to see Agur.”

He made to pass them but ran into a block both of the naims put up before him.

“Oh no you don’t. How long have you known?” Halvar asked, Cyrus stepping beside him.

“I don’t know, maybe a month.”

Halvar opened his mouth in surprise. “A month?”

Zuriel sighed, pushed his hand through his hair. “I needed to decide if I was going to accept or not. It wasn’t a done deal yet. I would have told you before you found out another way if I knew he was planning to tell everyone today.”

“You’re going to be king!” Cyrus said as a cheer, clapping Zuriel on the back.

“Does Agur not want to be king?” Halvar asked.

“He thinks his rule has been undermined by Samael’s deceit. The people already follow me in the north. It might make the transition away from Samael easier if I take over. I am untainted, so to speak.”

“I had to twist your arm to get you to lead the men out against Samael and now you’re willing to accept the crown?”

“I would prefer to fight and get Agur his throne back, yes, but he thinks this is best. I can’t explain it very well, but it made sense.”

“I think it’s a great idea.” Cyrus said with a smile.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t a good idea, I just don’t know what to think of it. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” He gave a short laugh and shook his head. “Well,” he drew his sword and stabbed it into the earth before kneeling. “Just want to officially pledge to serve you.”

“Oh, Jesus. Halvar, get up.”

Cyrus smiled and copied Halvar’s display.

“Guys,” Zuriel shifted uncomfortably. “Get up, I’m not even king yet. He is just announcing the intention to crown me before we march south.”

Halvar rose with a grin, followed by Cyrus.

“Am I free to leave now?”

“You make the rules, majesty.” Halvar said, still smiling.

Zuriel rolled his eyes and turned away.

“Aila?” He called, looking around the empty room. Hearing no reply, he made his way slowly through the house, finally noting the back door standing open. An obvious trail was left in the dust before it.

He found her seated on the ground before a mural of stone. Without a word he sat down beside her. She rested her head on his shoulder.

“When I came here with Kyra and Zelena we came here. We were exploring all the gardens. I had never seen stone gardens before.” Aila said, eyes fixed on the mural before her. “I looked forward to coming here. I thought we could warn them, that they could flee north with us and we could all join Agur and fight Samael.”

Zuriel glanced at her. Her voice was flat and her face expressionless despite the tears that glinted on her cheeks.

“When we got here it was dusk, just like today. We could tell before we reached the city that there was no one here. It was too dark. A nymph city would never be that dark at night. Maybe I should have been happy to see that there was no one. The city was empty, but the nymphs hadn’t been slaughtered. The buildings hadn’t been destroyed.

“But I just felt empty. It was dark. Just like Lux; just like Enid. I desperately wanted to see the light again. I needed to.” She absently wiped a fresh tear that fell. “I was so broken. I stood right here and wanted to die. It wasn’t fair. Leora was dead. My parents. But I was here in this dark city and I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be with my sister.”

Zuriel moved closer to her as her voice shook, wrapping his arms around her.

“Zelena told me that I couldn’t quit.” She smiled, tears dripping from her chin as her eyes remained on the wall before her. “I asked her why. Why did I have to live and she told me because I am the light. I am a nymph and therefore a light bearer and if I want to be in the light, I had to keep going and carry it with me.

“She told me that if I quit, he wins and he doesn’t get to win after what he did.” Her body trembled with the effort of keeping herself composed enough to speak. “Here I am again. Before this same wall, without them.” She broke, allowing herself to cry freely as Zuriel held her, his own eyes watering. He had been so distracted; he forgot the scars she lived with.

Aila sat up and wiped her eyes. After a moment she lifted her eyes and smiled, her lips trembling. “It’s still there.”

Zuriel followed her gaze. The stone which represented the sun in the mural before them, either rising or setting over the mountains, shone faintly with nymph light.

Aila got carefully to her feet, keeping her eyes fixed on the stone. She walked to it and softly touched it, as if afraid she might put it out. With a faint smile she pushed more light into the stone until it shone as it had the day she first infused it with light.

Zuriel stood beside her, taking her hand. “Darkness flees before light.”

Aila nodded, squeezing his hand. “Light is real and the darkness is not.”

Weekly update. Week of May 11th

This week I wrote 6,959 words bringing the total count up to 90,355 words.

I am beginning to feel the structure of it a bit and I seem to be in the final part. All the planning and work that leads them to the final battle is underway.

Since I don’t wish to give too many spoilers, I am going to be a little more careful with the excerpts. They’ll have to be shorter. Not too good at hiding my cards just yet. I’ll have to rework a lot of it in the next draft to make the blatant bits more foreshadowy.

At any rate, here are some snippets:

Zuriel staggered out of Agur’s study on quivering legs. It had been a long discussion. The content of which had left him deeply shaken. He started slowly down the hall then stopped as his stomach pitched again. He had already lost his dinner in Agur’s study. He stood still with eyes closed, taking deep breaths until it passed. He reminded himself that it would not be tomorrow. It was soon, but it was not tomorrow, or the day after. He swallowed hard; he wasn’t ready.

He continued on slowly. Agur had been right about how badly he wanted to tell Aila. She had already suffered so much in her life, the idea of letting this hit her with no warning was loathsome to him. It also meant carrying the crushing weight that had just been laid on him alone. He held his hand out, it was shaking. He closed it into a fist and continued walking.

“I should go. Its late. You need to get to sleep.” She patted his arm, nestling against him affectionately.

“Stay.” He buried his face in her hair. He felt better with her here. If she stayed, he might actually get to sleep.

“Stay?” Aila pulled back. “Zuriel, I can’t stay. I shouldn’t be here this late as it is.”

“I’m not going to try anything. I really need to sleep. I just,” he paused. How much could he say without inviting questions he couldn’t answer? How much of the fear churning through him could he get away with showing her? “I’d feel better if you stayed. Keep my mind from working through the hours I just spent with Agur.”

Aila sighed, placing her hand on his face. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

He took a deep breath, resigning himself to the night ahead. “You’re right.” He forced a smile. “You usually are.”

Aila studied his face a moment. She could feel the fear radiating from him. He was trying to be brave for her. “We’ll talk tomorrow, okay? Maybe find me for lunch. You should probably sleep through breakfast.”

If he fell asleep at all. “Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.” He stood up with her. “I’ll walk you to your room.”

“I’ll be fine. Go to bed.” She said, turning to stop him from following her to the door.

“Good night.” He pressed her hand before she turned and walked quickly to the door leaving him standing alone in the dark room. He walked slowly to the door, turned to lean his back against it and allowed himself to slide to the floor.

“Hm.” He realized suddenly that he had been working out plans under the assumption that he would do as Agur asked. “I think I have.” He gave a tight smile. “No one knows yet.”

“Was I supposed to?”

“Of course. You are half the reason Agur felt it appropriate.” He tightened his grip on her hand slightly. “Do you agree?”

Aila drew in a deep breath. “It’s a lot. I never thought I would be this close to everything. Its not a power or responsibility I would have sought out, but I will face it with you.”

Zuriel stopped walking. Their linked hands caused Aila to stop and turn toward him. “I don’t want to drag you into this, or force this on you. I know this isn’t exactly what you signed up for when I asked you to marry me.”

She looked at him as he stood waiting her response. He looked somehow more open than she had ever seen him. Once again, willing to give her up should it be what was best for her; terrified it would be. Aila stepped toward him, taking his other hand. It was several seconds before she met his eye again.

Though the sorcerers were at first hesitant to engage Aila with any real effort, she quickly showed herself capable, bring more out of them as she laid them out in turn.

Fintan hit the ground for the third time with a grunt. “Ugh!”

“You gotta watch your feet when she links to the earth.” Zuriel teased the sorcerer. Of the four, Zuriel found him to be the most pleasant. He was eager and open to learn.

“She goes so fast.” He said, accepting Zuriel’s hand to regain his feet.

“Its been my job to keep sword men on their toes.” Aila said, rather pleased with herself.

“More like on our asses.” Sulien said with a laugh.

“Same thing.”

“Again.” Cyrus called, bringing them back to their stances.

Weekly progress update

I intentionally slowed down a bit this week. Writing that manically was beginning to have some mental health repercussions.

Even so, I did add 5,672 words this week bringing this draft up to 83,396. It is officially longer than the first draft of this part of the story. I am kind of getting close to starting the ending, but it will probably be over 100k.

I added a new character this week which I have been excitedly planning since I actually gave Zuriel a family.

Here are some highlights:

They found a clearing south of the village and brough the dragons down. In the flight over the place where the village should have been, they caught sight of charred buildings. They dismounted and turned toward Aarav in silence.

The smell reached them before they made their way out of the trees. The small of death; blood and fire. They paused, looking over the scene. Zuriel wondered briefly if they would have saved them had they not taken a month’s rest. He drew his sword and rested it against his shoulder. “Check for survivors.”

They spread out, each picking a building to search. Zuriel approached a small hut, the door of which lay on the ground before it. He stepped over it and into the small space that had been a home once. There was no one inside. He moved on to the next.

The third home he approached, heartsick from the scene in the second, was a long narrow dwelling. He made his way through, grateful that there were no bodies strewn through it. He made his way carefully to the far end and stood looking at an area where a child had obviously played. His throat grew tight as he looked on a doll which was made in the style of a green naima. A little naima had prized that toy once.

Someone coughed. Zuriel spun, looking around the narrow home. There was no one that he could see. “Hello?” He took a cautious step forward. He heard the cough once more. He frowned, it seemed to come from the dining table. He approached the table and stood still a moment. “I am with Agur, I don’t want to hurt you.”

He could hear a very slight movement and realized the long bench on the other side of the table must be empty. He pulled the table as far from the bench as he could and grabbed the edge to open it. Inside lay a nymph woman. Her entire body was slick with sweat, her eyes flickered open for only moments at a time.

Zuriel reached into the compartment and carefully lifted her. She was burning with fever, muttering something he couldn’t quite make out. He laid her on the table. He could see the problem once he laid her down. There was a deep and horribly infected wound on her outer thigh.

“Hey,” He smoothed her damp hair back from her face. “I’m going to try to help you, alright? What’s your name?”

She made a sort of groan but articulated nothing.

He turned his attention back to her wound and tried to think which spell would be most appropriate. He needed some garbi if he could get his hands on it. He glanced at the nymphs pale, contorted face and back at the hideous wound. With his hands just over it he focused himself and spoke “Maken Nadif.” He looked, there was no change in the wound. “Hang in there, alright, I’ll be right back. I’m getting help.”

They walked on in silence a moment. Zia turned and looked at her brother periodically. It was strange to see the striking resemblance to their father, especially given the hair. It was strange to see black hair above a nymph’s face.

“What?” Zuriel finally asked.

“Nothing. I am just pleased to have a brother I can be proud of in so many ways.” She squeezed his arm in hers. “Our parents would be so proud of you, Zuriel.”

Zuriel blinked and pressed his hand over hers. “Thank you. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am to have you here. To have family.”

“It must have been hard on Earth with just Halvar.” Zia looked at him with sympathy.

“Well, no. I got adopted by a great family. They are good people.” He paused. He missed them. “I had a sister there, too.”

“Really? What was her name?” Zia asked. She found she was deeply interested in anything she could learn about her brother.

“Trish. She was always really quiet, but when she did open her mouth, it was worth it.” He smiled.

“You miss them.”

Zuriel took a deep breath and nodded.

“I am glad you had family. I always wondered what had become of you. If you were afraid and alone. When rumors spread that the dueling had returned to Vale, I almost took the chance of heading to Halcyon, but there were too many sorcerers. I wouldn’t have made it.”

“How did they keep you safe for so long?”

Zia gave a short laugh. “That bench you found me in mostly. I didn’t go out except at night. I was only known to a few trusted families. Most of them probably could have been trusted, but if there was any doubt, they took the safe route.” She smiled sadly.

“I wish I could have met them. To thank them for taking care of you.”

Zia pressed her lips to a smile looking at her brother. “Same for your family. They raised a good man.” She looked ahead again as they came to the gate. “I can find my way from here. You should probably go find Aila.”

Zuriel nodded. “Yeah.”

Zia hugged her brother before passing through the gate. Zuriel stood a moment deciding if he should check her chambers of Api first. He made his way along the wall. If she was upset, she would be in the village.

When he entered the village, a glance down the path to the pond revealed Aila sitting on the edge of the water. He walked to her, earning a glance over her shoulder, but no move to uncurl from the position she sat in. Zuriel sat down beside her.

“I’m sorry.” He said after a moment of silence.

“I didn’t even tell you, what made you think you could share it with someone else?” Her eyes stayed fixed on the pond before her.

Zuriel looked at her a moment, then dropped his eyes to study the tiny white flowers in the grass. “I didn’t mean to exactly. I was upset. He just kept going on about how you would have just adjusted and got used to him and be happy and I just kept thinking that you could have died.” He paused. “To be honest, I pushed the blame on him so much because I was happy to take it off of myself. I thought I had almost killed you by dancing.”

Aila looked sideways at him. “That was only part of it.” She sighed and unfolded her arms from her legs, letting them cross before her. “I am not really angry, I am embarrassed. I am ashamed that I was so weak.”

“You are a lot of things Aila, and weak isn’t one of them.”

“I ran recklessly into battle because I was upset about my promise. One that I made.” She shook her head. “Made my own bed and I couldn’t lay in it.”

“You didn’t have all the information when you made the bed.”

“I know what is worthy of despairing over. A husband to protect me is not one of them.” Aila began picking absently at the grass.

This week in The Shadow of Vale

I had another big writing week. added 13,089 words bringing the total word count to 77,724.

Writing this much every week makes it really difficult to select excerpts. Here are some highlights:

Zuriel stood before his mirror with a frown. He raised his arm, allowing the tail of his sleeve to dangle. “I feel like I’m in a color guard. What is with these sleeves? I look like Howl.”

“Vale wasn’t,” Halvar began.

“Always at war,” Zuriel finished. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Peace and fun. You guys love color too. Bright useless uniforms for the useless armies. No wonder Samael started a revolution.”

Halvar suppressed a snicker. “It wasn’t a revolution; it was a coup.”

“Right.” He looked over to Halvar. “For the record, the uniforms being awful does not justify the murder. He’s gonna die for it.”

“Heart through the nose, right?” Halvar smirked.

Zuriel smiled. “Heart through the nose.” He stood back. He seemed to have the silly looking jacket on properly at least. He turned to Halvar. “How do I look?”

“Like you are in a color guard. Which is exactly how you are supposed to look at these things.”

Zuriel took a deep breath, letting the air out nosily through his parted lips. “Alright. Let’s go.”

They arrived at the head of the stairs leading down into the hall where the ball was being held.

“Wow, I have never seen this many people in one place. Well, here anyway.” Zuriel said, looking over the crowd.

“Zuriel and Halvar correct?” A wizard asked as they started down the stairs.

“Yes. Dueilng and Guardian.” Halvar answered.

“Wait, he isn’t,” Zuriel started, but was drowned out by the clear carrying voice of the announcing wizard.

“The Dueling Zuriel and The Guardian Halvar.”

“Uh, they are all going to watch us walk down the stairs.” Zuriel mumbled, feeling rather mortified as the crowd below clapped and turned toward them.

“Dueilng, remember? You are going to be everyone’s business tonight.”

“You are enjoying this aren’t you?”

“A little. It’s fun to watch you squirm.” He shot a winning smile at Zuriel who only glared back at him. “Hey, watch your face, your people are watching.”

Zuriel sighed and set a more relaxed, happy expression on his face as they reached the foot of the stairs. They were greeted by a group through which they had to make their way before they could be seated at the head table. Zuriel was placed beside Michael with Halvar next to him. He was keenly aware of Alia sitting beside Elior at the far end.

Zuriel dismounted as Pyre landed in the courtyard where he typicaly dwelt, the nearest entrance to Aila’s chambers. As he made his way to the door, Elior rushed out, nearly crashing into him. He stood stunned a moment before who Zuriel was holding, registered.

“Aila!” Elior rushed forward, taking the unconscious nymph to himself. “What did you do?” His eyes burned with malice toward Zuriel.

Returning his gaze Zuriel replied, “I saved her. She ran out into the battle and spent herself. I was taking her to her room to heal her burns and let her rest.” He started to reach for her again, but stopped short as Elior turned away.

“I’ll take her to the healers.”

“The healers are going to be swamped with the wounded, most of which are going to be much closer to death than she is.” Zuriel spoke quickly as they reached the first flight of stairs. Elior turned abruptly.

“You call this far from death?” He motioned with his head Aila’s limp body.

“She’s done this before. She is exhausted more than wounded.”

Elior stood seething with rage. “How could you allow her to do this? You encourage this recklessness in her. You’ll get her killed.” He turned and started up the stairs once more. “Not on my watch.”

Zuriel hesitated, torn between a growing desire to punch the man and the need to heal her. The insolence of the man to accuse him of being any danger to her infuriated him. He forced himself to follow the nymphs.

Elior took her to her room and laid her on her bed. “If you insist on being here, you should send for one of the wizards.”

Zuriel approached Aila. “We don’t need one of the wizards.” Elior stepped aside with a frown as Zuriel began looking over her wounds in the light. There were more wounds than he had first thought. A cut on her arm that he had missed concerned him. “I need three blue oak leaves, some rosemary and some aloe.” He looked up to Elior after noting his lack of reaction. “Please?”

“I am not your servant.” Elior stood with his arms crossed.

Zuriel clinched his fists and pressed them into the bed. “Look, I can heal her, but I need a few things. If she means anything to you, you need to work with me.”

Elior uncrossed his arms, looking incredulously at the dueilng. “If she means anything to me?”

“Elior!” Zuriel shouted. Elior snapped his mouth shut, glaring at Zuriel. “Three blue oak leaves, some rosemary and aloe. Now.”

Zuriel could see Elior’s jaw clinch several times before he replied.

“I’ll do it for her. Not you.” He brought out coldly as he turned and marched out the door. Zuriel watched him go. Once he was gone, Zuriel went to her bathroom, gathering towels and water to begin cleaning her wounds. He tied one around her arm to slow the bleeding from the cut there. He glanced continually at her face for signs of consciousness; he saw none. Elior returned with his supplies as he finished preparing her wounds for healing.

Elior handed the basket of supplies to him without a word. Zuriel took them and continued his work. He placed the leaves over the largest wounds, speaking healing spells over them. He mixed the rosemary with some of the aloe, spreading it over her burns with another spoken spell before starting on a simple potion for pain easement.

“I didn’t realize how proficient you were at the healing magics.” Elior said. The anger now gone from his voice.

Zuriel raised his eyes to look at him but said nothing. He finished the potion and lifted her head to pour a few drops into her mouth. Elior jumped up to help. With the potion given, Zuriel began cleaning up the mess he had made.

“Please excuse me for my harsh response. I didn’t realize you could be so advanced in healing magics given how well you use sorcerer magic.”

“I work extremely hard on my magics.” He walked around the bed toward the bathroom. “They matter to me.”

Elior took one of Aila’s hands in his, gazing at her pale face. “It disturbs me that you seem okay with her fighting.”

Zuriel pressed his lips and took a deep breath, pushing back against the anger rising in him again. He turned to the nymph. “She usually doesn’t fight because I asked her not to. I want her safe here as much as you do.”

“Then why send her into battle?”

“She’ll be asleep for a few days probably. I’ll be by the check on her later.” Zuriel said, ignoring the accusation that he had anything to do with her being out there.

“It’s a pity someone in such a prominent position doesn’t understand their own influence.” Elior said, shaking his head.

Zuriel turned and left the room.

Another big week

I ended last week having added 14,119 words bringing the total up to 64,635.

This week’s writing was extremely fun. I think I was able to fix a lot of the issues the first draft of the story had. I have a few ideas for what the next portion needs. Requiring a new character, had no idea I would need so many more.

Excerpt from this week:

Zuriel lay on his couch enjoying the brief pause he had been given. With the campaigns put backseat to training the new recruits and rebuilding roads between the liberated cities and the capital, he found he had more free time. He was reading one of the books Chiron had brought him, a charming adventure story about a naim called Cedric.

When a knock came at the door, Zuriel called for them to enter thinking Halvar would be dropping by as he typically did in the evenings.

“Hi.”

The sound of her voice felt like cold water being thrown on him. He sat up abruptly, setting the book aside. “Aila, hey.”

“I hope I am not disturbing you. I just wanted to talk with you about something.” She stood off away from the seating as she spoke. Ready to leave should he wish it.

“No, no it’s fine. Sit.” The initial shock began to wear off.

“I have been sparring with Halvar. If you talk with Elior, please don’t tell him. He really doesn’t like the idea of me building up my magic like that.”

Zuriel nodded. It crossed his mind to tell her what a poor start to a relationship it was to hide something like that, but thought better of it.

“Anyway, I actually beat him today.”

“Really? Halvar is…wait, you’ve never beat him before? You can totally beat him.”

Aila smiled. “Well, yeah with a sword, but I’m focusing on using my magic as a weapon.”

Zuriel nodded again. It was nice to talk with her. He had forgotten how pleasant it was to be in her company.

“But I, uh, realized something today. I acted kind of foolishly. Remember when you assumed that I was bad with a sword?”

Zuriel playfully hid his face. “Ugh, I know, I’m a jerk.”

Aila chuckled. “Well, I kinda did that when you said you didn’t want me to fight. I thought you didn’t think I could handle myself out there, but I don’t know how I could have thought that. You’ve trusted your life to me before. I get it. You weren’t able to protect me and that freaked all of you out. Luckily, you have Elior on your side so.” She dropped her eyes. Zuriel felt a tinge seeing the sadness in them.

“I know you want to be out there. We just can’t risk something happening to you.”

Aila nodded, her eyes on her hands. After a moment she looked up with a reluctant smile. “I know I kinda let you have it so I wanted to make sure we are still okay.”

Zuriel smiled and nodded. “Yeah.”

Aila got to her feet and opened her arms toward him.

He looked at her a moment before nodding and folding her in his arms. He wondered briefly if it was worse to never touch her or deal with the longing that filled him now.

Pulling back Aila smiled. “Alright, I’ll let you go. I just wanted to tell you that.”

Zuriel wished her good night and watched her leave. When the door closed, he sat on the couch with the heels of his hands on his forehead. He wanted to scream.

He got up abruptly and stood at the end of the couch. She didn’t like Elior. He not only had to watch her marry someone else, she had to marry someone she didn’t even respect. He formed a small sphere of ice and threw it against the stone floor where it shattered, throwing shards of ice around the room that glittered with the light of the fire. He sat on the arm of the couch, sobbing.

“Hey, did Chiron bring…what happened here?” Halvar stopped a few steps in the room as the pieces of melting ice caught his eye.

Zuriel rose and turned away, rubbing his face. “Uh, I just had a moment.”

Halvar took another step forward. “Okay…why?”

He took a deep breath that shook with the emotions that were only just beginning to ebb. “Aila just left.”

Halvar’s shoulders dropped. “Shit, that was my fault. She just looked upset about it and I thought it would help. I’m sorry.”

Zuriel waved his hand as he turned back to the couches and took a seat. “No, its alright. I wanted her to know, I just couldn’t tell her.” He sat back. “That isn’t what the ice is about though.”

Halvar took a seat across from him. “What’s the ice about then.”

“She doesn’t love him. She doesn’t respect him. She is hiding what she wants from him because he refuses to accept that she wants it.” He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands.

“Its not really as bad as that. He cares about her in his own way. They just met.”

Zuriel dropped his hands laughing humorlessly. “This is Samael’s fault. I cannot wait to kill him.”

“Oh, come on. Even if there were more nymphs, she is still the first-born daughter of a royal line.”

“But if there were more nymphs, she would have a better option than someone like that. You keep acting like I think I can marry her; I know that isn’t happening. There is no circumstance where that happens. I get it.”

Weekly greetings!

This week was pretty productive. I realized a while back that Zuriel basically only existed in my mind in the context of Aila, so I have been working on exploring his past and his character so that you can actually root for him instead of wondering why you would care at all what this piece of paper does. It has been a different kind of fun. As a side benefit, a lot of the more minor characters have taken on more color and dimension because they can’t reveal anything about Zuriel if they are also pieces of paper.

As far as actual numbers I wrote 4,558 words this week bringing the total up to 33,524. Because I am filling out a lot of the details I just kinda skipped over in the first draft, I am not approaching the same part of the actual story as I was in this part of the first draft. Which is fine.

For my excerpt this week I have a scene with Michael’s first session training Zuriel in his sorcerer magic. Enjoy.

“Sorcerer magic doesn’t quite work the way naim magic does. A sorcerer’s magic fills their body, not just their mind. It’s a bit of a difficult concept, but you have to pull from your entire body.”

“My entire body?” Zuriel thought a moment. Trying to think of his toes and chest at the same time. He remembered when he had accidentally set the block on fire, he hadn’t done that from his whole body. “I think I did it with just my mind before.”

Michael crossed his arms, looking with interest at Zuriel. “Really? What do you mean? When?”

“Uh, I was training with Halvar, putting a block up and I lit it on fire.”

A slow smile spread on Michael’s face. “Perhaps you are uniquely capable of accessing it through two channels.” He stepped back. “Show me.”

Zuriel hesitated. To do it on purpose and doing it by accident were different things. He thought of the levels Michael had explained and tried water. He took a deep breath and much the same way he formed blocks, he tried to summon water. He succeeded in forming a small orb of water, holding it above his hand. He lifted his eyes past the water to Michael who was frowning. “What?”

“Is that all?”

Zuriel dropped the water which splashed onto the grass at his feet. “Well, I have never done this before, cut me some slack.”

Michael laughed, “No, I mean I have seen young sorcerers summon much more on their first attempts. The naim magic must not be designed to accommodate the elemental magics. Try pulling it from your whole being. See what you can do.”

“Alright.” Zuriel nodded and shook his hands out at his sides. He closed his eyes to focus, imagining the water flowing from his chest out through his limbs. He held his hands out before him from which a stream of water shot.

Michael dodged it, stepping aside with a laugh. “There we go.”

Zuriel stopped the summon abruptly, surprised at the difference between his first attempt and the second. He laughed awkwardly and smiled at Michael.

“Again.”

With less need of preparation, Zuriel repeated the jet of water. He did this several times, each proceeded with Michael’s order to do it again.

“Try to focus it. Aim it at something. Try to feel the level of power, control it.”

He struggled a bit to change the amount of power he fed into it. It was something like driving a car you are unfamiliar with. You want to slow so you push the brake, but it’s more sensitive than you think and it stops abruptly, throwing you forward in the seat. It was all or nothing for the first few attempts. Then he could do a small orb or a powerful stream that touched the far wall. Gradually, he determined how to control the power and could approximate different levels of power.

“There you go.” Michael smiled approvingly. He had trained many sorcerers when he first joined the forces. Few had made such progress on their first day. Agur had explained to him, that Zuriel had the fully formed channels, he only lacked the knowledge. He didn’t have to build up the capability over time like the others he had trained before. He had all of it, he only needed to know how to access it and control it.

Zuriel grinned, he was enjoying this magic more than any of the others. While he did enjoy the naim magic, especially the fact that he actually got to do it rather than learning the basics of it through books or lectures like the others, it was more satisfying to see what he was doing rather than fumbling through like a blind man dealing with a magic he could not see.

“Alright, now I want you to see the max of it.” Michael turned and pointed at the far wall. “I want you to hit that wall, full force. Soak it.”

“Alright.” Zuriel nodded and shook himself out again. He wasn’t sure it had any effect, but it had quickly become part of his process. He raised his hands and unleashed all of the power he could find in himself. He focused it forward, unleashing a jet of water that was not only extremely powerful, more than squarely impacting the far wall, but was rather wide. The water hit the stones hard enough to make the wall tremble, though it was too far away for either Michael or Zuriel to see.

Suddenly aware that he was feeding forward power from a reserve that now held nothing he dropped his hands, cutting off the stream of water. His head spun and he stumbled backward. Michael rushed forward to steady him and led him over to the bench.

“That was good. Sorry, I forgot that you haven’t built up your power yet. That should come in short order. The more you max, the more you will build up.” Michael explained as Zuriel held his head in his hands, trying not to puke.

“Magic Cardio.” He mumbled, a smirk on his face. While he felt like absolute garbage, he was still extremely pleased with sorcerer magic.

Michael laughed. “Yeah, magic cardio.” He watched Zuriel a moment before letting him know that they were done for the day.