Paksworld

Sleep helped.   I had other things to do yesterday afternoon but slept about four hours and about seven more overnight.   Looking at my attempt to start on the last revision puzzle yesterday…I should’ve waited until after the sleep.

However, it’s a puzzle that some of you may find interesting, and I hope to keep it spoiler-free.

One of the old mysteries, from Paks & before, is what really happened to Kieri and his mother when she was killed and he was kidnapped.    She was a full elf, daughter of the Lady of the Ladysforest, with elven powers of her own and fully trained in them.   With her taig sense, she should have been alert to danger on the journey…and for that matter,  what happened to her escort if she had any?   She was also a formidable fighter, with an elven sword at her side (albeit it was really Kieri’s, but she could use it as it had not yet been sealed to him.)

Someone knows.   At this moment, the writer does not know who Someone is, only that Someone must have existed (and probably still exists, as that would be really convenient for the storyteller…!)    If we assume that Someone knows, and is still alive, then the reappearance of Kieri as king of Lyonya is almost certainly undesirable.

(I’m not writing the kind of story in which the only way to get Kieri to the throne is to have him kidnapped, maltreated for years, and then spend decades unrecognized…no, if he hadn’t been kidnapped and has grown up after a good childhood and education, he’d have succeeded his father and everyone’s life would have been easier.   The Someone or Someones who saw to it that his mother died and he was taken had bad things in mind, not good ones.)

There are some obvious possibilities for Someone or Someones, and over the years I’ve thought about this, putting up one set of pictures on my mental wall and then another.   Who…and how…and why?    I was never sure that the answers would even be needed for another book, but it still tickled my brain periodically.   Now I know that I do need to know who Someone is, what Someone’s motivation is, and also whether Someone is trying to frame someone else, now that discovery suddenly looks possible.

(Warning note:  I’m not asking for suggestions.  I don’t WANT suggestions.  The book will tell me what it needs.   So please don’t make suggestions.)

Since I don’t know who Someone is yet, I also don’t know how much suspicion-rope to mete out to readers….what clues to lay, what vital facts not to reveal.    Kieri, who’s been through various intrigues in Tsaia and Aarenis, and who is now face to face with his past, can’t help wondering about it, but he also doesn’t know who Someone is.    So far what he can find out doesn’t add up to a name or a motive.

However…someone who might become a suspect,  whether or not that someone is the Someone,  has acted erratically with unfortunate results.    The person’s attempt at contrition and reparation, occurring as it does near the end of the book,  was deemed too sudden and not sufficiently settled for reader satisfaction.    How much more to suggest, though?  Especially since I don’t know myself if this is  the Someone and not just someone.    More than one person has acted erratically.

Hence the discussion with Editor yesterday.   I now know how much to hint of what I know (what I don’t know is still hanging out there in the bushes somewhere, waiting for me to find it.)   And I know (I think) how to set up the scene so it works better than yesterday’s version.

(I will admit to the tease, but did I skid past without spoilers??)