Hey, everyone.  I’m trying to get a sequel together for another book I wrote much earlier.  I have a place, a time, some scene in mind and (a first for me!) how to end it so that it dovetails into another book that I had an idea for, but nixed it when I felt it was getting a little too close to a comic book I saw (not that it’s stopped me completely, but it certainly gave me time to pause.

The sequel is called “Daughter of the Mountain” and it deals with the aftermath of Anya and Rhona deciding to run off together (they’re kinda hitched, but that’s a long story to be worked on later).  It starts a few days after the end of The Quietest Heart with Anya being a little mopey.  I’m sure no one reading it is going to understand.  She gets to bed a hot elven chick (“I’m twenty and she looks like that.  When I’m eighty…she’s still going to look like that.”) and it’s their honeymoon.  From Rhona’s point of view — this is great.  She has a companion that’s not going to take any sort of advantage over her or rob her and leave her in a ditch for dead.  Life could not be better.

Anya has issues because she has no idea what to do.  From when she was little, it was hammered into her tiny little head that her only joy in life would be to rise through the Circles, gain rank and eventually take the Scholar’s Seat to run her particular school and guide the nation of Tarjen to a prosperous new age.  What no one counted on was her falling in love with not only an elf (there are no half-breeds), but a female elf (human do not wield magic, and the elves aren’t about to help these simple humans with their fertility problems).  Now her well mapped route through her life is in shambles.  her coping mechanism (drinking and fighting for her School) aren’t going to be of any use.  Why?  Read on.

I have this wonderful little fantasy world, and in it there is an island called Ozur-Soren.  The way I described it Mardi Gras, Vegas and Ibiza all came together on an island the size of Louisville, KY (400 square miles).  On Ozur-Soren is the ruling monarch of the realms — Tarjen, Solvig, Daergal, Imre and all the other places pay their respects (or protection money — however you want to look at it) to Ozur-Soren.  This is important because Tarjen’s price is two things: iron ore (which they are famous for) and fighters.  Every year during what the Tarjens call the Day of The Iron Price, the Scholars send twenty of their best students to act as bodyguards for the monarch, as well as several tons of iron ore.  While one would think that the students would jump at the chance of a year’s vacation…the harsh reality is that these students spend a year away from duels to improve their rank.  Imagine if you were sent to work for another company, but everything you did over there didn’t count for anything on either side.  Anya’s predicament is similar to the soon-to-be-bodyguards — anything she does now isn’t going to be for her benefit among the Scholars of her school.  In fact, she’s lost some standing among her own School.  She’s the one that skipped out of duty and tradition because (in the eyes of the Scholarship) she wanted to get laid more than she wanted to fight.

When are they arriving at Ozur-Soren?  At the beginning of Harvest.  The next weeks are filled with incoming tributes from the various other nation-states.  Including Tarjen.  So, not only is Anya adrift without any of the underpinnings of her society to guide her, but the Scholarship she served will be coming alongside her.  The whole week is going to be reminders of what she’s given up.  Is this a great honeymoon or what?

But, I can say in the end that Anya gets her head right.  What happens in between landing on the shores of the Fabled White Towers and catching the next boat to the port of Daergal on the mainland?  I will save that for another time, but I will leave you with this saying from Don Henley:

Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge.

Hope y’all have a good week.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Where was I? Oh, yeah – tormenting poor Danny going down the stairs.

OK – Danny heads down the hall to the common room where some people are still passed out. He turns the corner, intent on trying to get into someone’s head, and comes upon a pack of wraiths sniffing around the unconscious. Danny ducks back behind a corner and watches what happens. Some of the people who are still conscious don’t pay attention to what’s happening (remember, they can’t see the wraiths) and some of the people who are unconscious are getting shoved out of their bodies by some of the less feral wraiths, while the more feral ones fall upon the separated spirits. Danny turns to run back to Ronda’s room, but he hears growling close to him. He tries to back through the wall to hide – unfortunately, the wall is too thin and he backs right into the common room, where the wraiths have gathered. He turns around to have one wraith land on him and snapping at his neck. Danny fights back, trying to wrestle himself away from the wraith and get to Ronda. He kicks it away and staggers to his feet. Danny rushes to one unconscious man and draws his knife – realizing that the knife is going to be next to useless…then he tries something out of desperation. He grips the knife and tries to mentally touch it, like he’s trying to put himself into it. The knife gets a small glimmer along the edge. The wraith jumps at Danny. Danny throws his arm out and stabs at the wraith half-heartedly. The knife sinks into the wraith – who is just as shocked at Danny and staggers away clutching his stomach. The other wraiths jump on the wounded one, tearing into him and temporarily ignoring Danny. Danny takes this opportunity to run for the room.

Running through the door, Danny reaches out and tries to shake Ronda awake. As he reaches out to touch Ronda, something shocks him. Danny feels pain (a biting) and remembers that Ronda is warded while she is asleep. He looks to the door, hearing the wraiths prowling around right outside. He touches the bed, hoping to get pulled back in like before. This time, he’s still in the room. He hears a scratching and a sniffing at the door. Danny tries to sink into the chair, but the knife stops him from doing so completely. He slides the knife under the bed and gets into the chair as the doorknob turns. While he’s in the chair, he gets limited information – mostly impressions and sounds. One wraith comes close to the chair, sniffing and growling. Danny hears them getting close to Ronda. He wants to yell out some sort of warning, but he’s worried that he would give away his location. He decides that he can get away from them and hide in another horse. He gets ready to hop up and run, but a squeal of pain serves as a reminder that Ronda his been doing this for a while and she can take care of herself. The wraiths sniff around a little bit longer, finally coming to the conclusion that there is nothing there for them to chew on. Danny stays in the chair for a few minutes until the coast is clear. Getting out, he gets the knife from under the bed and walks out into the common room. The room has some spirit remains – which makes Danny a little queasy because one of spirits seems to be conscious and ripped to shreds. Danny goes back to Ronda’s room, closing the door and locking it and bracing the chair against the door. He sits down next to the bed with the knife tightly gripped in his hands. The morning is long in coming for Danny.

Ronda (should we have a perspective change? Should we have a new POV?) finally stirs and looks down at Danny, who is still shivering from fright and still very wired from what happened. She asks what happened overnight. Danny spills everything – the attack, the knife and the attempt to get back into Ronda’s mind. Ronda congratulates him on surviving and figuring out how to make the knife able to wound spirits. She recommends that he should hang onto the knife for the time being. Danny asks about the spirit in the common room that’s been torn up and still conscious. Ronda follows Danny to the common room. She gets some ale and from behind the mug she says there’s nothing that they can really do to heal him. Her best bet is for Danny to try to take that spirit into himself, with that he can gain a little more power. Danny balks (and understandably) at the idea – that’s a man, not a hunk of meat to be cooked and eaten. She tells him that that’s the only way to end his suffering. She’d do it, but it would look odd for her to kneel down and talk while making scooping motions…besides, he needs more power than she does. Danny approaches the spirit and asks how he is going to do that. Ronda holds up her mug and while giving Danny a hard look ‘just pour it in me’. Danny sighs and kneels down before the spirit. The spirit – a teamster – holds up his hand for help. Danny takes it and apologizes. He brings up a memory of his mother pouring him some lemonade. The teamster cries out, begs for release and struggles. Danny holds on to the teamster’s hand, frowning and trying to hold on to the memory – now the teamster’s memories start to intrude…lemonade becomes whiskey and the mother morphs into a serving girl. He fights through both the intrusion of the new memories and his increasing guilt. The cries taper off and become silent. Danny is shaking again. He looks up at Ronda and says that he never wants to do this. Ronda finishes her drink and says that she needs to get going. Danny misunderstands this as that she doesn’t care and flips out. She pays for the drink and leaves, telling the publican that she’s got a long ride ahead of her. Danny continues along, following her to the stables. Ronda looks behind her and finally tells Danny directly that he needs to grow a pair. It is a hard life and if he wants to get back to his own body, he’s going to need to do hard things. What would have been crueler would to leave that spirit laying on the floor until the stars fall out of the sky and not doing anything. She gets on the horse and says either he can come along and do what he’s gotta do to get his body back, or he can stay there and suffer. She doesn’t have time to hold his hand. Danny looks at the travelhouse. She starts to ride out and Danny follows, saying that once he gets his body back, she’s free to do whatever she wants, including leaving. Ronda looked over her shoulder and says that he didn’t need his permission. They continue on, heading for where they think the body is.

OK – this is the end of this chapter. The act is going to continue on for another couple of chapters. Any critiques? Feel free to comment. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

OK – we last left off which Danny trying to learn how to sit (he succeeds in pretending there is a quilt over what he wants to sit on) and Ronda falling asleep. After a few tries, he manages to sit down without sinking into the chair and learning that it takes a special person to exist in a chair for anything longer than a few minutes. He experiments with stepping into the knives, the pitcher and some other minor things – Danny learns that when he’s inside the object, he’s still cognizant of what is going on around him and if he concentrates long enough, he can feel weaknesses and flaws – Ronda’s knife is developing a crack in the metal, the chair is starting to crack under the weight of the various people who have sat in it. He gets out of the chair and walks to the bed. He reaches down and touches to bed…and gets sucked down into the bed rather than passing into it.

Startled, he looks around – this isn’t the cramped confines of the bed, but he’s standing in a field next to a brook. Sitting on a rocky over hang is Ronda, a fishing line dangling on her hand. She looks up at Danny sits next to her. She is surprised about this – she’s asleep and Danny has managed to get around her mental defenses to get to her little area of peace. She says that Danny managed to do something that no one else has been able to do. She says she’s not mad, but startled and quickly sets some ground rules: don’t do this again unless asked. Don’t take anything – it’s not the principle of theft that she’s adverse to, but the notion that someone has come in and changed her mindscape. She also warns him that it’s a two way street – she knows what’s going on in his head, too. She pulls the line back up and lays on him a painful truth. Village Cutie isn’t interested in him – she’s just using him to get under Brock’s skin when she’s mad at him for whatever. Danny sighs and scratches his head – he doesn’t want to admit it, but deep down he knows she’s right. She also says that he needs to get a backbone and stand up to Brock, Old Man Ebenezer (the old man who runs the counting house) and most of the other people see him as a squishy accountant type. Danny shrugs his shoulders and asks how he’s going to go about it. Ronda smiles and says that by the time they’re done, he’s gonna jack Brock’s jaw just for looking at him funny. She stands up and pulls Danny to his feet. He asks why she’s helping him out. One: she feels sorry for the guy a little – no one deserves to get treated like that. Two: she knows Brock professionally and he deserves to get taken down a peg or three. Danny asks what the first lesson of the day is going to be. She says you’re doing it now – learning to get into someone’s head (literally) and soon he’ll be better able to control someone. He asks what the difference between getting into someone’s body and getting into someone’s head is. Getting into someone’s head will keep them alive, but it’s trickier to control them and make them move around. Getting into their body makes it easier to control them, but will kill them. Danny says he wants to work on that – especially the not killing aspect of it. Ronda tells him that they will start in the morning, right now – out he goes.

And out he is tossed from the bed and onto the floor. It is still late at night and quiet. Danny stands up and decides to poke around. Experimentally, he walks through the door and out into the hallway of the travel house.

Thoughts? Comments? All are welcome. I’ve got to go shower and get ready for work. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I am plunging ahead with the notes for the Nanowrimo novel, which is looking like something that might not be completed in the timeframe – but I will be able to get at least halfway through it when November 30^th rolls around. Anyhow, we’re in Act 3, where the stakes are raised a little bit.

When we left our pair, they were riding off in the direction of Danny’s body-hijacker. Ronda tells Danny that he’s going to have to start pulling a little more of his own weight other than killing horses. Danny asks what he can do if he can barely pick up objects. Ronda tells him that when he enters objects he can affect them – not to the great way that such legendary objects like Skein’s-Glow, Wandersfar and Everthirst, but he can do little things…like what he did with Black Bart’s guns. Danny said he did that out of desperation and doesn’t remember how he did that other than wanting Black Bart’s guns to break before he shot Ronda. Ronda tells him to keep that though in mind if he’s grabbing guns or anything else. She’s also slightly impressed that he could do that. Most people at this point would have just given up and resigned themselves to becoming a wraith. Danny says he has little choice on this matter – his body is roaming around doing Prophet’s-know-what. Ronda tells him not to worry – whoever took him isn’t whoring and drinking it up (also she says that doing that might be the first order of business for him when he’s back). If she knew who it was, she’d have a better idea as to what they were going for. Danny asks if she has friends in the Rahsaya. She says she has a few that do what she does and sometimes they’ll help each other out, but as one of the Touched, she runs into polite indifference among the full-on ones. Danny asks if they’re family and Ronda nods and gooses the horse into a canter. Danny comments that’s not how family should treat family. Ronda points out that life isn’t all sunshine and apple tarts outside his village. Danny mentions that he’s discovering that and suggests that he should slip into the horse to help make it travel faster. Ronda says no, the second he pops out of the horse it’ll die and they’re way to far between towns to get a new horse quickly. Ronda also suggests that when they bed down for the night to try to put himself into different things like rocks, the knife anything but the horse or her guns.

They ride through the night and find themselves at a waytown. Ronda gets a room for the evening and they go upstairs. She tells him that the best thing to do is to stay in the room – her natural ward will make it safe for him and there are enough objects around for him to try to practice stepping into them. Without so much of a warning, she starts stripping and pouring the rosewater for a quick bath. Danny blushes and looks away. Ronda catches him blushing and laughs – she’s not as hung up on nudity as most people are (another point of Rahsaya culture – there is no cultural concept of nudity). She tells him that it’s no problem that he looks at her. She’s had worse. Danny continues to blush and looks away, focusing on a chair. He tries to sit down in a chair and finds himself melding into it. He asks how he can prevent himself from melding into everything. Ronda – clad only in undergarments – walks over and pulls him out of the chair. Lesson one: how to keep from sinking into something. The best way to keep from sinking into something is to remind yourself that you and the object are separate. Don’t think of sitting in a chair, imagine that there is something between you and the chair – like a cushion or a blanket, something that you can see clearly in your head. He asks why he doesn’t sink into the horse when he rides it. She responds that you’re thinking that you’re sitting on a saddle when you’re sitting on the horse. If you rode bareback ost of your life, then you’d sink into the horse like the chair. His exercise for tonight is to practice going from sitting in a chair to sitting on the bed and back again until he can sit down without sinking into it, then to try to get up and meld with her knife, then get out and sit in the chair. He asks what she’s going to do in the meantime. She says sleep and pulls the covers up to her and blows out the lantern.

Act Three is going to be a bit long, so settle in. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

OK – now that we are out of Act Two and stumbling into Act Three, it is time to tip the frying pan towards the fire below. Our duo links up outside the town limits (poor Black Bart, he had such promise…just kidding – he got what he deserved) and Danny asks if Ronda can find his body. Ronda says yes, but it is going to take some time to search them out. What could speed that along is something personal – cloth, or a favorite thing. Danny asks if they have the time to go back to his village. Ronda says more than likely not, but she can let him step into her, and some that she can get a better sense of him. Danny asks how he is going to do that if she’s warded. She says that she’s warded against unwanted intrusion and holds out her hand. “Don’t worry – I’ll be gentle.” She says and Danny takes her hand. She tells him to close his eyes and think about home. Danny closes his eyes and starts to think about home, calling to mind the parlor and the table with his brother Bruce. His mind wanders out of the home and into the square. Village Cutie comes by, looking a little saucy for Danny/Ronda – which Ronda comments on and says ‘yeah, she’s not into you’ with a bit of a brutal language. Danny asks her how this is going to get her closer to his body. She says that he just needs to walk around for a few more minutes in his head. We get a tour of his life: he goes into the counting house and sits down to work on one of the books. Ronda comments that she’s surprised he’s alive – this sort of boring life would kill a lesser being. She now has enough to get a fix on his body and she breaks contact. As she is breaking contact (which Danny likens to a kiss that is awkwardly ended), Danny gets a quick glimpse of Ronda’s life – a rough and tumble existence with a neglectful and somewhat resenting mother on one side and a father who is trying to mold the daughter into the son he wanted. Danny comments on her life and she says that she has little regrets about it. It made her the person that she is and there’s no use for crying about it – it’s in the pass.

Now that she has a good idea of what to look for, she can start searching. She hops on the horse and Danny asks if he needs to get into the horse. She says yes, at least that way they can travel faster. He’s not as squeamish about stepping into the horse as he was earlier, but he still has some reservations about it – mostly about killing the horse when he steps out. He asks if he can step into something else, like a boot or a pistol. Ronda holds out a knife and says he can step into this – it should be easier than getting into the horse since it’s been around her long enough to pick up a trace of her power. He puts his hand on it and thinks about pushing himself in – he almost falls into the knife it’s so easy. She sheathes the knife and Danny wonders if she can hear him think. She says yes, and that he should try to sleep. He asks if he needs sleep since he doesn’t feel tired. She says it’s not to rest, but to give her some quiet for a change. Danny closes his eyes (or at least thinks about it) and tries to sleep. Danny doesn’t sleep per se, he falls into a meditative state that brings him to a location near the mountains and he is watching his body moving around and getting into a fight with a man-like…thing that seems to have more mouth and very, very sharp teeth than face. Danny-in-the-flesh looks over to Danny-in-the-spirit and says if he’s going to bring help, it would be better to catch up with them here and he points to a weathered, twisted tree. As he raises his hand up to point, the thing with the mouth bites through (through!) his arm, breaking it off in a ragged stump. Danny-in-the-flesh looks down at the stump as it is spurting blood and comments that the help had better hurry. If the Maw gets a hold of the Artifice and clay, then there is no saving the world. Danny comes around with Ronda yelling at him to get up – his distress is causing a couple of wraiths to come sniffing around. The horse skitters as one wraith draws uncomfortably close. Danny is a little freaked out, thinking that they’re going to rip up the horse. Ronda tells him to be calm and let her ride on. Danny can’t be calm – those things almost ripped him apart the last time he got this close. Ronda tells him to close his eyes and count coins – anything else to get his mind off of his fear. Danny flips out and the wraiths attack them and the horse…

… and this is where I am going to end it since I need to make lunch, shower, get gas and try to get along with my day. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Now – I’m still working on the NanoWrimo novel here and when last I left you, Faithful Reader, Ronda and Danny were about to chase off after Black Bart (and to remind everyone, these are place names – I am going to have much better names for everyone before this goes to press). Danny asks how Ronda knows where Black Bart is and she says that one of her little talents that she got from her mother was that she can leave her body and look around. She uses that to find the people that she’s hunting for. Danny asks why she doesn’t have wraiths trying to get into her when she’s out. She unlaces the top of her shirt and shows another set of scars that trace the top of her chest. To Danny, they sparkle with rainbow light – after he realizes that if his eyes drop down a little lower, he’s going to get the full show, he blushes and looks away. Ronda laughs and says she doesn’t mind the looks – she used to fight in the circuit where all she wore was a bikini top and loin cloth. She tells him that the scars are an old spell that ‘locks’ her body away when she’s not in it. They ride along, with Danny asking some more questions about what he can do when he’s out and about without a body. She says that she can do the obvious and knock other people out of their bodies and take theirs. If he’s willing, he can learn to inhabit other things – making himself into a minor magical relic. The longer he’s out of his body, the more time he is going to have to learn how to do more… but Danny would much rather be back in his body chasing after Village Cutie.

With Danny in the horse, they can run it a lot farther – even through the night, which is what they do. Thanks to Ronda’s being Touched (she’s a lot hardier than the normal person – think of her having 1 dot in Potence and Fortitude for all you V:tM players out there), she doesn’t need sleep often. Thanks to Danny being in the horse he doesn’t need sleep at all. The horse itself? Well, someone had to draw the short end of the straw. They travel at a steady clip for a full day and night until Ronda tells him to slow down. They’re getting close to Black Bart’s camp. She tells Danny to stay in the horse until nightfall – their best time to grab him is when his guard is down. They hatch a plan: at night, Danny will sneak into Black Bart’s body, displacing him (but he’s a bad guy and deserves whatever he gets) and walking back to the nearest town to get the bounty. When all is said and done, Danny can step out of the body and rejoin Ronda out at the town limits. Danny asks why Black Bart should die. He’s a bad guy, sure – but they weren’t hired to be judge, jury and executioner. Ronda says that she’s not here to discuss the merits of rough-and-tumble justice versus the rule of law. She’s there to collect Black Bart and the money he’s going to pull down – he’s there to help get the cash they’re going to need until they can find whoever hijacked his body. He can either be a help or get out of the horse and take his chances. He agrees to help, but wants to give Black Bart a chance to tag along as a spirit so that when Danny pops out, Black Bart can still face the justice he richly deserves. Ronda agrees and tells him to stay in the horse until nightfall. She closes her eyes and falls asleep.

Night falls like and the pair gets ready to assault the camp. Danny makes the horse lie down and he steps out. Ronda (who can still see him) tells him to go to the camp and step inside. If there are any wraiths, give her a whistle and she can fight them off until he can get in. Danny runs for the camp – thankfully there are no wraiths nearby. He gets ready to jump into Black Bart… and skips off of him like a stone skipping off a pond. He shouts to Ronda that he can’t get in. Black Bart stirs and stands up – looking around for Danny who dove into a rock – yelling for whatever ghost is trying to take him on to show himself. Ronda approaches Black Bart and tells him that he’s now bound by the King’s justice. Black Bart refutes her claim by shooting. Ronda takes cover and Danny pops his head up to ask why he couldn’t step into him as easily as a horse. Ronda (in between blasts from her pistol) tells him that he must have some sort of ward on him – look for something sparkling on him like her scars. Danny rushes him, thinking that Black Bart can’t see him. Black Bart sees him and swats at him…and he makes contact, sending Danny sprawling to one side. Ronda curses and tells Danny to look at his wrists – he must have some clay on him. Danny looks at him and spies a pair of white bracelets on him. Ronda curses again and tells Danny that they have to get the bracelets off of him in order for their plan to work. Danny asks how he’s supposed to do that if Black Bart can see him and touch him. Ronda says for him to figure it out on his own – she’s busy dodging bullets. Danny looks around for something to use. He finds a rock and reaches for it. His hand passes through it – then he remembers that he can inhabit or affect inanimate objects. On a hunch, he waits until Black Bart is focused on Ronda. When that happens, he rushes at Black Bart from his flank and grabs one gun. He mentally makes a wish – I just wish you’d break.

Black Bart squeezes the trigger and the hammer makes a breaking sound and the gun fails to go off. Danny grins…and gets a fistful of Bart in his teeth. Ronda takes advantage of his distracted state to come in and hit him hard enough to knock him to the ground. Black Bart tries to swing his good gun up to shoot her, but Ronda breaks his arm with absolutely no mercy. While he’s writhing in pain, Ronda breaks both bracelets with stomps of her booted feet, and then gives him a kick in the stomach just out of principle. Ronda asks if Danny is OK. He says yes, and now he’s ready to take over Black Bart – and he steps into him. The Black Bart spirit popping out of him tries to get back in, but is stopped by Ronda, who tells Danny to pick up one of the larger clay shards and keep it on his person as it will keep him in Black Bart’s body if attacked. Black Bart says that he’s going to follow them and they’d better make sure that he isn’t anywhere around when Danny steps out because he knows how to hurt the both of them badly – and making an insinuation of rape. Danny says that they should get going, as they want to strike out of the town after sundown so that Black Bart has a chance to ‘ripen’ before the judge finds them. Ronda and Danny hop on Black Bart’s horse. They say their farewells and head off to the town to turn in Black Bart, get the money and let him expire with nary a twinge on their conscience.

With the pair riding off into the distance ends the second act. How is it so far? Let me know with a comment.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Where were we? Oh, yeah – Danny and Ronda riding off into the distance to chase down Black Bart (reminder: placeholder names). While they’re off bounding towards their payday, this is a good time for our characters to learn a little more about each other, don’t you think? We find out (through a glance at fortunately exposed skin) that Ronda was a pit fighter – we see the scar for one of the cities on her shoulder. Danny asks about that and she says that she did the circuit for a few years, got all the way to the top and quit – there was nothing left to prove. Danny asks why didn’t she retire with the money she earned? “What money? After paying for the managers, the ring-geld and the apothecary, I had enough to either get myself a few days in a wayhouse or a really good meal.” “Which did you take?” “It was a good meal.” It wasn’t that Ronda was a bad manager of money; it’s just that a lot of people got ahead of her and her money. Now she’s here, but she’s not upset about it. She likes what she does for a living – she’s bringing in the worst of the worse and getting paid pretty good for the effort. Danny asks about her parents – surely they could put her up for a few days, or at least let her borrow some money when times get lean. Ronda shakes her head – Dad’s barely getting by on his own as a teamster and her mother was Rahsaya-ridden, which is why she is one of the Touched and didn’t really hang around all that much – Ronda pretty much raised herself until she was put in one of the fight houses. Ronda is doing well for herself – she doesn’t go hungry, she can get a decent room or pay for a good lay when she wants it. Life isn’t all that bad.

Danny says his life was quiet – his brother is a Warden (that’s Bruce for all you home-gamers) and he works in a counting house – and he just tries to get by. Ronda looks at him with a little bit of contempt and pity. “Getting by and living are two different things, and one is definitely not the way to live.” As they ride it starts getting dark and Ronda says that they’ll have to camp out and try to get the jump on Black Bart. She gets out her sleeping roll and ties the horse off to a tree. Danny asks what he can do. Ronda points to the horse and tells him to get in – he’ll be safe from any roaming wraiths and can keep an eye on her while she sleeps. Danny asks what will happen when he falls asleep – he’s not going to sleep since he’s a spirit and the horse will be safe. What if a wraith gets a hold of the horse’s spirit? Well, it’s a horse and easily replaced so long as a certain someone stays in the horse until she has ridden away on the good one. “Sorry, but I saw my body.” Ronda settled down for sleep. Danny settles down for watching everything from the inside of a horse. The night creeps along and while Danny doesn’t get sleepy, he does get bored and he lets his attention wander around. He can’t go anywhere since the horse is tied to the tree. He could slip out of the horse, but that would leave him vulnerable to the wraiths. So, he looks around, and out of the corner of his (or rather, the horse’s) eye, he sees a rainbow flash.

Ronda’s spirit – a multicolored strobe of lights – is rising out of her own body. It hovers over her for a second before shooting up into the air. Danny is dumbstruck by the sight, Danny barely notices the wraith as it creeps up to Ronda’s body. When he does see it, he rushes right out of the horse’s body and kicks him hard in the chin. Danny has about a second to realize that he did something brave, and then he remembers that he also did something stupid, as in getting out from under the cover of the horse. As he turns to run back, the wraith jumps on him and starts to eat him. Danny tries his best to get back inside the safety of the beast, but the wraith is not letting him go for anything. It clamps down on his arm and tries to pull him off balance. Danny hits it, but it is ineffective – remember, the wraiths or anything in the spirit world don’t feel pain – so he now just tries to get out from under it.

The multi-colored ball swoops back down, surrounding the wraith and dragging it off him. The wraith crumples and dissolves away into a pile of ash and wraith-flakes (just add milk!). The multicolored gas goes back into Ronda and she sits up. Danny asks what that was. Ronda says it’s one of her talents from being Touched – the Raysaya part of her can leave her body for extended periods of time and she was scouting out where Black Bart was holing up. She spotted him and was on her way back down to rest when she saw Danny doing his impression of a wraith chew-toy. She lies back down – she doesn’t do it that often, since it is fatiguing. She rolls over onto her side and thanks him for watching over her. Danny steps back into the horse and continues his vigil until the morning, but every now and then he steals a glance at her. In spite of the numerous scars, both trophies and occupational hazard-types, there is something pleasingly rough about her. She’s friendly, if a little uncouth for his tastes. Maybe it’s the circumstances he finds himself in…who knows?

OK – we’re still up to our hips in Act 2, but we’re at least getting to the halfway point of capturing Black Bart. If you have any questions, suggestions or cash – feel free to leave a comment.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

When last we left off (or when last I left off. I don’t know if you, Good and Gentle Reader, are still reading this), Ronda (reminder: all names here are place names. You know I am better than this for names) and Danny had met while Danny’s body had been hijacked by Auntie. Ronda strikes a deal with the discorporate Danny: she’ll help him get his body back if he helps her track down and grab Black Bart – notorious highwayman menacing the Trade Roads between two major cities. Danny agrees to it and the pair head off in the direction that Black Bart was last seen. Ronda tells Danny to get inside the horse for the trip, stating that she can get another one in town. Danny approaches the horse and puts his hand on it. The horse rears and Danny backs off. Ronda tells him not to be gentle – he’s stepping into an animal, not try to get between a woman’s legs (we’re trying to paint Ronda as someone who has little time for the trappings of society). Danny pushes harder, getting his hand inside the beast and he’s pulled in.

Now inside the animal, he sees the horse’s soul looking around rather confused. Ronda tells Danny to get moving; otherwise the horse will wise up and try to nudge him out. Danny starts walking and Ronda nudges him in the ribs: he needs to get moving if he’s going to both get away from the horse that’s seen him and get her to Black Bart. Danny starts jogging and comments that there is something odd about her voice – there’s some sort of echo to it that he didn’t notice before. She mentions that’s it part of her Touched heritage, in the other world (what Ronda calls ‘over there’) she has a presence that marks her as being different. The upside is that the other Rahsaya can recognize her and a majority of them are at least kind enough to not try to take over her body (she also knows how to defend herself from the minority that aren’t). Some of them are even considered friends – one of them might be able to help Danny out. They travel to a small town and Ronda tells Danny to stay inside the horse while she gets a new one. While Danny waits for the pair to haggle over what’s going to soon be a major part of the dinner menu, Danny sees several wraiths prowling about… and he sees his body buying a horse. He tries to move to knock his body off of the horse, but he’s tied to the hitching post. So, Danny leaps out of the horse and chases down his body just seconds before Ronda and the man shake on the deal… and the horse falls over dead and the deal is cancelled. Danny attracts the attention of the wraiths as he’s yelling at that thing to get out of his body. Ronda curses and tries to get Danny to calm down (keep in mind she’s the only one who can see Danny). She gets a horse (a little miffed that she is going to have to pay out of the pocket for this one) and chases after Danny who is chasing after the horse with his body on it… who is in turn being chased by the wraiths.

Ronda rides down a couple of wraiths and picks up Danny, putting him on the saddle. She slows down while Danny complains that his body is getting away. She turns around and smacks him a couple of times – telling him that chasing after him like some dog is not going to get him his body back any sooner. If they’re going to do this and do it right – they need to take him when he’s not looking or being chased. Now – she puts an ultimatum to him: either follow with her, help her and when all is said and done, she’ll help out with getting his body back, or he can hop off the horse and become wraith chow. Danny looks over his options and goes with the former. Ronda says good and now they head off to catch Black Bart.

At this point we’re about halfway through the second act, I am going to keep spitballing this thing here until it’s done, or someone says enough.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

OK – I have quit the outline for the new novel. I’m sorry, but it’s just not working now. I can’t explain it but the story is just petering out as I am trying to write it. Actually, I can explain it – there was no sense of personal danger for the main character. So, I wrote in nice big, red letters – Do It Again From The Second Act.

I am just going to work this out here on the blog. I figure y’all should get what you pay for – wait, this is free? Dammit…

Anyway, what I’m not changing is everything up to Danny (all names here are place names) getting tossed out of the village ten miles away from his body. I am still going to introduce the wraiths – people who got tossed out of their bodies and never got back to them in time, so they’re just roaming around the world. Danny is immediately set upon by these wraiths and is almost torn apart, but one wraith fights them back and tosses him into a horse (yes, you read that right) where he can hide until the worst has passed. When he gets the all clear from the friendly wraith, he steps out of the horse and it falls over. The wraith explains what happens – when Danny steps into a body, he displaces the soul…just like what the Rahsaya do. When he steps out of that creature and the soul is nearby, it goes back into the body. If it’s not, the body falls over dead. Danny asks what happened to the horse’s soul. The friendly wraith says that the horse’s soul was consumed by the other wraiths to keep from fading away into oblivion. Danny is naturally horrified over what he did – he’s not a murderer. The wraith tells him to either get over it, or offer himself up to the nearest wraith (him) and get consumed. Danny gets the first big lesson of life outside the village – you’re either predator or prey. Danny asks why the wraith is helping him. The wraith says that he (Danny) feels new to all of this, and he’s doing this as a good favor for whatever is on the other side. Danny asks what he should do now. The wraith says do whatever, just remember that the best way to hide is jump into a body and possess it; also to never try to possess a dead body, if you do that you will never get out of it until it rots away completely. Danny asks where he is, and the wraith says he’s about 20 miles from his home village. Danny asks for some more advice and the wraith says run and hide.

Now, this is different because we have the main character in immediate peril. He has to find his way back and avoid becoming wraith chow – to top it off; he has the clock to worry about as well. Right now, his body is getting further and further away to do who-knows-what. This is the second act: the introduction of the conflict. He’s got to get his body or face something far worse than death. So, he starts running.

He discovers two things: one, he doesn’t suffer from any physical sense of fatigue. Two, those wraths are everywhere. Danny manages to duck around several packs, and finds that he can pick up natural objects (this is the realm of Plato’s Ideals) and has to defend himself every now and then. We’re seeing that Danny is actually a better fighter than we were led to believe in the confrontation with Brock. As he fights his way towards the village, he comes across Ronda. Up to this point, he’s been ignored by the people but seen by the wraiths. Ronda acknowledges him as a person and asks how threw him out. He just says that something bumped into him last night and ever since then, he’s been on the outside looking in as it were. Ronda tells him about the Rasayah and what they do – they inhabit people the same way people would get dressed. They don’t really care about the ones they displace…well, a majority of them don’t. Some try to be ‘stand-up people’ as it were. She knows about them because she was ‘touched’ by one – born to one and shares some of their lesser powers. She can sense them, can speak to them directly and can’t be taken over by them. Danny asks for help in this matter. Ronda says that she can help him, but there it isn’t going to be a free ride. She’s trying to bring someone in and could use the help – in return, she is going to try to help him at least to hide better in an object or a person – so long as he agrees to return the body to the owner when he’s done with it.

So – what do you think? I am going to add more to it tomorrow and build the story. Feedback is always appreciated.

Sincerely

Seething Apathy