About three days ago,\u00a0 one of those ideas hit me that could be really good, sort of interesting, or not at all the right move.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s very spoiler-full, so here’s your first spoiler warning…if you don’t like spoilers, skip this post.<\/p>\n
Still here?\u00a0\u00a0 Even so I’m going to give another spoiler warning, just in case you thought “Oh, she’s not really going to show us a spoiler.”<\/p>\n
But I am, largely because of something two alpha readers said.<\/p>\n
It starts here.\u00a0 For those of you experienced in the Deed<\/em>,\u00a0 you’ll remember that the Count of Andressat, as seen by Paks in the campaign against Siniava, was a fussy older man, very proud of his ancestry and condescending to the Duke.\u00a0\u00a0 Her view of him, as a private in a mercenary company, was necessarily limited and shallow.<\/p>\n The Count of Andressat has always been dry, precise, punctilious; he was trained as a scholar and inherited after the death of an older brother.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 However, he was also trained in leadership and governance, and to his credit his domain has always prospered, even when hard times came for others.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s hard-working, intelligent, honest, and though he can be severe (esp. if he feels his honor threatened) he’s not ever cruel.\u00a0 He has brought up his children (he has both sons and daughters, and now grandchildren in early adulthood)\u00a0 to have a sense of responsibility for those they rule, rigorous honesty, etc.\u00a0 A good man, in other words, with a weakness (as have we all.)<\/p>\n On one point he has always been very stiff, and that’s bloodlines–first, that no member of the family, legitimate or not, be abandoned without good cause, and second, that gratitude is owed for family protection.\u00a0\u00a0 In K-I (final spoiler warning–here it comes),\u00a0 readers find out that Burek, one of Arcolin’s new junior captains, is the Count’s illegitimate grandson, banished from Andressat for conduct unbecoming and ingratitude for the post he was offered.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But Burek is an honorable man, as readers see through his behavior in K-I.<\/p>\n In K-II,\u00a0 the Count of Andressat is being heavily pressured by Alured the Black, now Duke of Immer, to become his vassal and (more importantly for the moment) to give Alured access to the Count’s archives,\u00a0 where Alured hopes to find proof that he is the rightful king of all he surveys.\u00a0\u00a0 The Count refuses…he has been searching for the opposite reason, to disprove Alured’s claim, and has found materials that he knows will inflame Alured (while not proving his right) …and materials that prove his own vaunted ancestry is not what he always thought it was.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But he knows he can’t hold off Alured forever, not with his small army and the stranglehold that the Immerhoft Sea pirates (now more active again) have on his trade.<\/p>\n In disguise, then, he flees to the north, to tell the one person he thinks might raise an army and take on Alured, saving Aarenis (and his own realm.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He does not get the aid he seeks, but does at least warn the north that Alured appears to have ambitions that span the continent and maybe beyond.\u00a0 The journey takes much longer than he thought it would; he worries about what’s happening back home, and he hates the northern climate (it’s not just fussiness–he’s an old man by now and he’s never felt such cold or so much dampness.) \u00a0 He knows Alured’s spies are after him–he’s been traveling incognito, but Alured’s had time to figure that out and send assassins on his trail.<\/p>\n In a last bid to get home safely, he’s with a squad of Phelani soldiers he’s hired, and Burek is their commander.\u00a0\u00a0 Everything goes well at first, but they’re attacked right on the northern border of Andressat itself.\u00a0\u00a0 The way it’s written now,\u00a0 the ambush nearly succeeds–the Count\u00a0 is unhurt, but one of the escort dies, and others, including Burek who has a badly injured arm, are wounded.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Count has already seen that his bastard grandson is a good man and fine commander, and with his new understanding of his own family history he’s ready to give that up, and acknowledge Burek openly as part of the family.\u00a0\u00a0 He also tells his children the truth, and prepares them for the coming struggle…and two of them where he has hidden the papers that tell the truth about the Fall of Aare, papers that would inflame Alured’s ambitions without proving his right to have such ambitions.<\/p>\n All this seemed good when I first wrote it.\u00a0\u00a0 And the whole story arc has a lot of complications in it already–it’s not a simple forward run.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But I woke up the other day thinking “But what if Andressat did<\/em> die in that ambush?”<\/p>\n He hasn’t yet explained anything to his children.\u00a0\u00a0 They don’t know about the hidden papers, though they would find them (they know about the hiding place, but not what’s in it right now.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Which of his sons would really take over?\u00a0\u00a0 How firm would that one be in resisting Alured’s demands?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Would there be dissension among the sons?\u00a0\u00a0 And, for that matter, daughters?\u00a0 The first book has a lot about Vonja (where Arcolin has a season’s contract) but not Cilwan, where one of the\u00a0 Count’s daughters was married.\u00a0\u00a0 Would Burek’s father acknowledge him if the Count were dead?\u00a0\u00a0 Or blame him for the Count’s death and consider it revenge for the banishment?\u00a0\u00a0 How would Burek deal with the Count’s death–both as a professional failure and as a personal matter?\u00a0\u00a0 Andressat expanded after Siniava’s War–the Count laid claim to the South Marches, including Cha and Sibili and some of the ports like Confaer.\u00a0 Would one or more sons want to make that a separate domain and, if so, how would that work?<\/p>\n The main plot impulsion is toward the final conclusion–unraveling the mystery of Aare’s fall and the restoration of “something.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That will happen whether the Count of Andressat lives or dies at this particular time, but his survival or death will have long-lasting effects.<\/p>\n So muses the writer, as she has been musing for three days now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Not that I really want to rewrite the chapters involved, but should I?\u00a0\u00a0 And no, you don’t need to answer that.\u00a0 This is just a window opening in the writer’s head so you can watch the gears clattering against one another, not yet meshed properly.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About three days ago,\u00a0 one of those ideas hit me that could be really good, sort of interesting, or not at all the right move.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s very spoiler-full, so here’s your first spoiler warning…if you don’t like spoilers, skip this 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