Hila sees the most high
A Warning
This chapter includes disturbing images and events which some readers are voting the worst yet in this story. So read at your own risk. The next chapter will tell at least some of what happened here.
“Yes, Surr!” the dark-haired elf laughed. “Tell us! Take us to Lord Lar! Do!”
He was beautiful, as Hila’s beloved horses were beautiful: tall, fine-boned, and sleek. He even had a forelock that the wind tossed – the one untidy part of him – crowning his perfection and proving him untamed. He was very nearly the most beautiful living creature Hila had ever seen.
But the high blond head and slow grace of the other were more beautiful still – more beautiful than any mere living creature. His was the beauty of unreachable, unknowable things: the majesty of thunderclouds, of sunsets, and of stars.
Hila’s father’s father, it was said, had been a mighty prince of olden times. She had always dreamt that when at last she met his people, they would know her. In her dreams they saw that she was not like the other girls, and they said, “Come with us. You are one of us.” In her dreams she had fine dresses, she rode horses, and she ate sweets every day. No one ever called her a gawky half-breed.
Kia whimpered and squirmed, but Hila stood tall, hoping the elves would see her and know her and not be ashamed.
At first they did not seem to notice her at all. Surr had put himself forward even as the other boy had dragged the girls back into the brush.
“You take me and let them go,” Surr commanded. His voice had gone high and reedy even though his words were firm. “They’re just kids.”
“How brave it is!” the dark-haired one gushed. “Why, it’s scarcely more than a fledgling itself.”
“Listen to it cheep,” the blond elf chuckled.
Hila knew that her father was blond. Could it be…? She lifted her head as high as she could, trying to see him over the weeds – hoping he would see her.
“Sing for us, birdie!” the dark elf crowed. “That’s what your kind do best!”
Surr did not sing and did not stir, but Hila saw how his hands shook, even planted on his hips. He was afraid to sing. She was not afraid. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, but then the dark-haired elf moved, and his beauty took her breath away.
He snorted and tossed his head like a stallion, and his hand went up in a graceful arc to push his forelock out of his eyes. Hila could almost wish that he were her father.
But the hand continued on behind his head and swooped back down again, drawing with it one white-fletched arrow that he nocked neatly into his bow. He lowered his head and stared down his straightened arm, arching his neck and letting his forelock fall over one eye.
“You can die like a bird or die like a cringing dog,” he growled. “It’s no difference to me.”
The arrow was pointed at Surr’s head. This was a dangerous game. Hila had a strange, sick feeling in her stomach, as when she saw her mother briskly gutting a fish with a knife. If the knife slipped… if the bowstring slipped…
“You let them go!” Surr barked. “They’re children!”
“Sing!” the dark-haired elf howled down the shaft of his arrow. “Sing! Sing!”
Even the stones repeated his command, shattering the stillness of the night over and over, and yet Surr did not sing.
When she could bear it no longer, Hila closed her eyes and began to sing the first song that came into her head, “Hush, hush, it’s time to be sleeping,” until Kia slapped and pawed at her face, squealing in panic through tightly closed lips.
The elf lowered his bow to laugh. “That’s a good girl! That’s a brave bird!”
“See that, puppy?” the blond elf asked roughly.
In spite of her sickened stomach and Kia’s evident terror, Hila felt a swell of pride. They had noticed her. They had found her brave and good. She was special.
But then the dark elf lifted his bow again and aimed his arrow at her, so directly that she saw nothing but the point, and behind it only the thumb that dented his cheek, so tightly did he draw the string.
Hila’s eyes were wide with disbelief. His were only cruel slits.
“She shall take your place, since you won’t sing.”
Surr cried, “No!”
The elf swung his bow back around to point it at Surr. “Then sing, dog!” he snarled.
Surr lifted his shaking hands and tipped back his head. The other boy began to cry, with little, sniffling, childish sobs. Hila looked up at him. He was not brave.
She did not see what happened next. She only heard the first hesitant words of a song she did not know: “When I am gone – ”
She heard the lingering hum of the bowstring, though she had not heard its twang over the singing. But Surr was singing no longer.
The beautiful elves laughed.
“Well shot,” the blond elf said.
“Hit him right in the middle of his note.”
They both laughed again.
Hila saw Surr’s knees buckle, but she did not understand.
The other boy whimpered “Surr, Surr, Surr,” in place of his wordless sobs of a moment before.
“Your turn,” the black-haired elf said.
The other, still more majestic elf reached behind his head and delicately plucked an arrow between two fingers.
“How does it go, again?” he chuckled. He nocked his arrow and drew the string so tight that it creased his cheek. “Sing, puppy!” he commanded. “Die singing like your friend, not slobbering like a dog.”
“My brother!” the boy blubbered.
“His brother!” the dark-haired one laughed. “How many are there?” He tucked his bow beneath his arm and tugged carelessly at the fingers of one of his gloves. “By my mother! They breed like vermin.”
“Sing!” the other shouted.
Surr’s crumpled body was slowly stretching itself out, like an enormous inchworm trying to crawl away. But once he lay flat, he did not crumple himself up again.
“Sing!”
The boy pawed limply at the air with one hand, reaching for his brother. He did not sing. He could not sing – he could not even breathe without choking on wet sobs, as his brother had until he had stopped making sounds.
The blond elf lowered his bow and spit on the tip of his arrow. Hila imagined he meant to polish it, but instead he nocked it again, still wet, and drew back the string as far as his cheek. He whispered, “Sing.”
Hila looked up at the boy in time to see his body arch backwards and fall.
Now she could not see the point of the arrow, but only the long, white-fletched shaft of it.
“That’s one eye that will cry no more,” the blond-haired elf laughed lightly.
After he fell the boy did not move, in spite of the apparent agony of an arrow sticking out of his face. At last Hila understood. Elves could be killed like deer – like any animal.
Still laughing between themselves, the elves approached the girls, but they did not lift their bows again. They walked past Surr’s sprawled body without a glance.
“Don’t be afraid,” the dark elf chuckled. “We like little girls. What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asked Kia.
There was that word again. Now Hila was certain she did not like it – certain she and Kia were not it. “She is not a sweetheart!” she sobbed.
“Isn’t she?” Now the elf looked down on her and smiled, and his beauty and her terror mesmerized her into silence. “You are. What’s your name?”
Kia managed to squeak, “Go away!”
“That’s a funny name,” the blond elf chuckled.
The other elf lifted his quiver off his shoulder and laid it and his bow in the weeds. He stood only halfway from his crouch and moved towards Kia. “Not at all,” he laughed breathily. “I believe this one is called ‘Come here, come here, come here…’”
Kia screamed a short, piercing scream, like a rabbit. The elf’s arms were already closing on her like a snare.
The blond elf kicked a fallen branch and muttered, “Let her go, Ris. She’s but a child.”
“I always do, don’t I?” the elf called Ris whined.
“Let her go.”
Ris stood and nodded at Hila. “There’s one for you, too.”
Hila felt a sudden gust of rough wind, but it blew inside her body, seeming to turn her inside out like an empty dress. She made a queer animal sound and fell with a thump onto her behind. The wind died, and she felt right-side out again.
“‘Go away’ there has air magic,” Ris purred. “I think you will like her.”
He turned back to Kia and opened his arms out around her again, fencing her in with his gloved hands.
The other elf repeated, “Let them go.”
Ris barked, “So I shall!” Suddenly his crooning voice had become the voice of undeniable, unanswerable things: of thunder, of rockfalls, of wind. He was the true prince of the two.
Majestic as he was, the blond elf bowed his head to him and turned away.
He took a few careless steps, and then he seemed to notice Hila huddled in the weeds and came to tower over her. The first stars of evening shone all around his head.
“Go away,” he growled. “Don’t make me do something I shall regret.”
Kia began to scream short, high-pitched screams, over and over, but Hila could not see why. Hila could neither go to her friend nor leave her behind, for that beautiful monster loomed over her, and her terror clenched around her as tightly as a shell.
The elf stomped on the earth before her and barked, “Go away before I change my mind!”
Hila sobbed, “Kia!” from where she sat. Kia sobbed, “Hila!”
The elf lunged at Hila and kicked her shin. She scrambled up and stumbled a few steps deeper into the weeds, but she could not leave her friend.
She stopped and moaned, “Kia!”
Kia only squealed and squealed as the crooning elf caught her and snatched her up. Hila heard a scrabbling like a dozen rabbits in the brush as Kia frantically kicked her dangling legs.
The blond elf leapt between Hila and the others and shook his bow high in the air. “Go away, stupid squab! Go away!” he growled hoarsely. “Go back to your mother!”
Her mother. If he was her father, then he had known her mother. It was he who had made Hila to grow in her mother’s belly. Hila and Kia still did not know what was the One Thing the fathers wanted from the ladies and girls, but from Kia’s shrieks she knew it must be a Terrible Thing.
It was not brave and it was not good, but Hila fled, leaping over the young boy’s lifeless body, and leaving her friend behind. Hila flew, and her heart beat frantically in her breast like a caged bird, and her terror beat at her back like wings.
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Oh my God I can't believe this whats happening to Kia is he hurting her the way Lar hurt Finn and Sela? There only children how could Ris be so evil the Khirron are the dogs not the Kisor. Great I'am going to bed with such a heavy heart.
Is that Imin with Llen, well theres a first for everything.
Whats going to happen to Omur and Llam now and poor Aia how will she react to the news of two cousin's murder.
I am in shock. Talk about role reversal. Who are the true "animals"?
Wow that was so unbelievably horrible...Surr and Mash dead....and god knows what is happening to Kia, though I can venture a guess. What a horrible horrible thing, where the hell is Vash in all this? Doesn't he know what is going on? Can't he do something?
Vash surely knows what's going on. Maybe not this particular incident and maybe not all the details, but at least in a general sense. He may not know certain things about Ris, however, or not until recently, since they came as a surprise to Paul. But even Paul obviously doesn't know all the certain things. Maybe not even Osh. Maybe not even Madra.
Sick bastards
Holy shit. That's...so brutal. One of the most upsetting I've seen here, probably.
Oh, hmm, I didn't even think about adding a little disclaimer at the top. I must be growing a tough hide or something.
It was a rather odd chapter to write, since it was coming from the POV of a six-year-old girl. She had to see Mash killed before her eyes like a deer before she began to comprehend what was going on. The same chapter would have been entirely different -- and I think more upsetting for me to write -- if it had come from the POV of Mash, for example. Someone who knew what was happening the whole time. I don't even want to think about writing it from the POV of Ris. *shudder*
I've read all the ones with the disclaimer, and this one was probably the worst for me. Dunno why. Maybe it's the mood I'm in today or something.
I actually agree. This one stuck with me in a way some of the more blatantly brutal ones didn't. So it's not just your mood, or anything...
All right, folks, I added a disclaimer. That's #3 for the story, I believe. I don't know whether anyone actually reads those and skips the chapter, but at least you will be warned now.
The other two chapters with warnings were "Catan remembers how to say" and "Sophie makes a choice". Maybe the difference is that Cat and Sophie are grown women?
I guess I am feeling rather cruel this month. I've done terrible things to a lot of characters. I'm not even done yet.
Is Kia going to be okay?
Well, Ris did say he always lets them go...
Thats not very comforting, this is the first time that children have been hurt.
Will we at least find out if she's ok or not? And is there going to be some freakin justice here? Like Ris getting his balls cut off and fed to him? Cause I need some justice!
Its so sad Lady Sela's family has lost so many of their members due to violence.
And Dru, Ris and even Lar are all very violent and murderous but Lar would never kill children.
You will have to be patient for both, Tiana. I don't know when we will find out exactly what happens to Kia. I suppose you can guess, though as long as I am not explicit in the story, my options are still open. As for justice...
This reminds me of a conversation Verity & I were having recently via comments. This seems like the kind of chapter that my 7th grade English teacher would have made me revise so that the guilty would be punished and everyone would find a way to work out their problems instead of resorting to violence, etc. But you know what? I'm not in 7th grade any more, and stuff like this happens in the real world. Look no farther than Darfur for example, or the Congo at the moment.
I have plans for Ris, but even justice won't be pretty.
Well I understand that, I had to tell my mom the same thing when I told her what happened in the story and she said, "That wasn't necessary!" And I said well it happens everyday and it isn't necessary then either. But you can't blame me for wanting justice, I'm sure everyone wants it. Maybe eventually Ris will get his, but you do have to have a bad guy. Even Imin has never gotten what he deserves.
Heh, sorry if my last comment seemed a little curt. I was at work and couldn't give it the time necessary for nuance.
I thought a lot about this chapter both before and after writing it. One of the things I was going for was the contrast with Cedric's "growing up too fast" incident. Compare this:
with this:
There is also the less-quotable comparison of the Leofric with the stag-headed demon and Alred with the dead horse, vs. the comparison of Ris with the horse and Mash with the dead deer.
However, your Mom is right, Tiana, in that the last part with Kia was unnecessary as far as the Cedric/Hila comparison goes. So why did I do it? A couple of reasons.
One, I needed Hila and Kia out of the life of Wulf and Gils, at least for a while. Whatever happens to Kia, certainly she and/or Hila will not be allowed to run around by themselves any longer. The reasons for their absence will gradually be made clear, but I'm sure Devin is hopping up and down with excitement at the possibilities. (I may do more with the girls in the near future, but not together with the boys.)
Two, I needed to do some rapid character development with Ris, so I went and portrayed him as being more-or-less abused by his wife, and conversely more-or-less abusing helpless little girls. For now we can all theorize about which came first.
And finally, this month I simply wanted to do some darker stuff. Originally I was going to do some sadder chapters, like Mouse & Wyn's baby dying for example, but then I started getting ideas for more violent and disturbing stuff. So it has turned into a National hiding-behind-your-fingers month rather than NKM.
Why? I don't know, because as far as my mental health goes I'm doing better than I have the last couple of years. Of course, that may also be why. To quote Alred:
Maybe I'm coming out of the nothing-at-all back into the sword-twisting or something.
But more than that, I needed the challenge as a writer. The story may or may not have needed this dark November, but I needed something to shake myself up a little. I always say I don't write sex or violence well, so it seems like the obvious place to look for a challenge. Guess I should have gone with the sex.
I do have to remind myself that I can't just experiment here any longer since you're so many to be reading along. This month I am probably breaking all the rules of fiction about the proportion of disturbing stuff to light-hearted stuff. So maybe I should rethink some storylines and lay off the tragedy a little for a while. We're over halfway to December, now, and I do think the worst is over, though November isn't done.
What do you guys think? If I show you this will you forgive me and bear with me for a while longer?
I think the fact that Ris seems to have gotten away with his crimes makes it more interesting. It gives us reason to hate him, if anything, and not the meek little mouse he was in front of Madra. I agree that the gritty crimes make the story more real. As much as it would be great to end every jarring entry like this with justice, it makes the characters and the world the characters are in a lot more engaging.
I don't know what it says about me but I wasn't so disturbed. Was I surprised with the images and descriptions of how Mash and Surr died? Sure but maybe I was expecting it since the last chapter. I also wonder what it says that I wasn't so disturbed about the fact that something was going to go happen. Maybe the preview banner prepared me.
I'm anxiously await the next chapter.
Yay for the little preview pic!
Now I'm really anxiously waiting for the next chapter... or a couple chapters down the road as the case may be.
I don't know what it says about you, either, Choco, but I was thinking you -- and maybe V, if she's around -- wouldn't take this quite as hard as some others. The fact that you didn't reassures me in some way. I don't know what that says about me.
I forget, did we ever get your impressions of Imin? As in, is he just revolting, or revolting yet sexy?
Juleneifier, we still have two chapters before the chapter of the preview pic there. One with revolting yet sexy Imin, and one with Poor Hetty with a capital P.
I don't want you to think your turning me away from your story Lothere, that's not the case at all. Its just heart wrenching to see little kids get hurt. I have read plenty of stories in the past ie: The Sword of Truth Series, which talks about kids getting raped and killed and is quite ruthless about it but maybe its because there are no pictures involved so I can block it out better. With stories like ours there are pictures so you grow closer to the characters and watch them grow and their emotions. I think its great that you can write all different kinds of scenarios. Any anger I have is only directed towards the character himself/herself, and not to you. My demanding justice is just me needed to vent that anger and lay out the possible punishments I would enjoy seeing inflicted on said offensive character. IE: Ris getting his balls chopped off and fed to him. There will be plenty traumatic and messed up scenes in my story as well so please don't think that I think ill of you or anything, your just a really good writer!
No, Tiana. I know you well enough to expect much explicit outrage. I don't take it personally.
I guess I am just trying to convince you all and possibly myself that it's not just violence for the sake of violence. There are reasons behind it, both in terms of the story and of the writer.
Heh, I'm around. I'm just kinda... I don't talk a lot, even online, so it always happens that a few episodes go by without me saying anything.
I'd really like to punch Ris and nameless elf guy, because moar violence is always the answer.
But... no, I don't think you were being violent for the sake of being violent. You are always writing something for a reason--maybe it's not always immediately clear what that is (Cat's rape, as a splendid example), but you show us eventually. And this has been building up, after all. You've mentioned in the past how the khírrón look way, way down on the kisór, and how the kisór keep getting killed. I believe you also mentioned, by inference, that the female kisór get raped because, heh, they're not truly elves in the eyes of the khírrón, or at least not worthy. I've always found it amusing that men will rape women even if they claim to find who and what they are disgusting. Oh, the fallacy...
Anyway, I'm not surprised. A little disturbed, but at the same time you haven't quite told us what's happened to Kia--for all we know, she could "just" be getting tortured right now. Somehow that's better than being raped. *eyeroll* Marginally, anyway.
I'm also finding Ris very interesting--not in the same way I find Imin, mind you, though there really isn't that much of a difference between them, haha. But Ris is... he very nearly has a dual personality, doesn't he? With his wife he's that toothless, tamed wolf, and with anyone he considers lesser he's practically rabid. It makes me wonder how many of the other elves are like him. Definitely sheds a new, much less sparkly light on their society.
Once again I am coming late to the party
. What a sad chapter. I should have been careful what I wished for 
although it was very interesting seeing the other, completely brutal side of Ris. The thing is, apart from the Kia thing, which is a big thing of course, the other elf was almost as brutal as he was. I always feel completely sickened by the behaviour of the Khirron to the Kisor. These were just little kids. I also am wondering exactly what Ris was doing to Kia (I mean sort of wondering because part of me really doesn't want to know). But it was never stated that she was raped and when I read it I thought that perhaps he was torturing her somehow in some terrible way only possible to those with elven magic. Then I read it again and what he said to the other elf about Hila having air magic made me think that perhaps it was for the original reason I had thought. But then his response seemed a bit strange to me "Don't make me do something I shall regret". Now maybe Ris is a brutal, murdering rapist, but does that mean that other elves would be tempted by that. So perhaps he was tempted to hurt her the way Ris was hurting Kia, because it seems like the Khirron just love to hurt the kisor. And we knew that Ris is a woman-killer so I wonder what he meant with the "I always let them go" bit. Lets them go off into the afterlife. Or maybe he doesn't kill them at all. But of course this could just all be speculation.
The main thing for me in the post was actually that I was really glad that Surr came through in the end. He may have been an idiot for a while then, thinking about dreadful things he could do but he died honourable trying to save the others even though he was just a boy and he was terrified.
I don't know if I am becoming hard-hearted but this post didn't distress me as much as it did some of the others. I guess I am becoming used to the death images and what happened to Kia wasn't really made explicit, the focus was on Hila so much. Also as you said, because we saw it from her POV we didn't have the distress of someone who knew what was happening, say in Cat's case. For me that was the most disturbing, upsetting chapter. In the case of Sophie, I found it horrible, but because the good character won out in the end it was sort of better. I am still scarred from the chapter with Cat. There was that line about the wound tugging open from the weight of her breasts that still gives me the utter horrors. Ugh.
And is it terrible, but I still think Ris is really hot. Dreadful and terrible and evil but still hot. Not that I would want to hang out with him or anything.
Hmmm... still thinking. And we don't know this elf at all... maybe he has a happy elven relationship and wouldn't be tempted at all by a little girl. Who is that elf btw? Have we seen him before? I thought he was Sorin at first *sheepish grin*
For a second I thought the blond elf was Lena's father.
But I'am not quite used to the murderous deaths yet.
What dreadful speculation I have you engaging in, about Kia's fate. I know a few things about the elves that you don't, which would probably make it clear. And about certain elves, I should say, which sort of answers V's question about how many of the others are like him. Or at least hints that some are and some aren't. Heuh.
I am torn at the moment, between wanting to reveal a bunch of things about the elves in this story so that I will not be tempted to write another, and my desire not to tell to much in case I decide to write another. (This idea of the "prequel" I had to tell more about the elves before Sigefrith and the other men showed up.)
The other elf is not Sorin. I wanted to squeal when I read that: Noooooo! Which probably also partly answers V's question. This chapter would not have gone the same way if Sorin had been there.
We have not seen the other elf at all yet. I'm not even sure why I made him.
I usually make elves in batches of 8 in CAS, so if I only need 1 or 2 for the story, I pick a few more from my family tree and make them to total 8. His wife is closely related to someone we know very well, but we haven't seen her before either. His identity is not very important at this point, so once again I am keeping my options open. *shifty eyes*
We will see Sorin again next month, and a few other elves. I'll think about how much I want to reveal then. Depending on whose POV I pick, it could be very enlightening.
I realised it wasn't Sorin after reading it all the way through (and going back for some comparison and remembering that Sorin looked like Vash). Sorry
. I know I know, it is just that they had similar hair and we haven't seen Sorin in such a long time and I have the memory of a goldfish so I get easily confused. And I was thinking when I thought it was Sorin that he was behaving in an extremely out-of-character way. I mean, yes he probably doesn't have qualms about killing Kisor, but he definitely didn't strike me as the torment (or other things) little girls kind of guy. And I coulnd't understand why he wasn't keeping control of Ris. So don't worry, I didn't think that Sorin would behave at all like that, that is how my sluggish brain managed to realise that it wasn't him. I am tired 
.
I am wondering if it is Imin's son in the banner. Maybe I am wrong again though. My identity analysis skills are not exactly brilliant today.
Aww, don't apologize for your goldfish-head, Verity. I was just being defensive about poor Sorin. I feel kind of sorry for him these days. He's trying to do the best he can, but his best is not very good, unfortunately, especially not since his wife was killed.
That's Imin's son with him in the banner, so you got that right. I was just so amused to see Devin thinking it was Imin sharing a tender moment with Llen...
His son's hair looks more like red then silver that's why I thought it was Llen. When do you think we will see Aia especially now since two of her younger cousins have been murdered?
I know when we will be seeing Aia, but that doesn't mean I will tell you. Soon though, at least in terms of the Lothere calendar.
She isn't really close to that family though. Surr & his brothers know more about her than she knows about them. The elves who live with Lar have much more of a sense of being a people, and they know where are all the villages and who's in them. The ladies living in the villages, meanwhile, don't think too much about what's happening elsewhere among other elves in the valley. They just live their quiet little lives, which are occasionally interrupted by males coming along, either for The One Thing, or in the case of some of Lar's elves, their evangelical mission to get all of the ladies to come live underground with them.
You notice that Hila doesn't even know that her father is dead. Probably her mother doesn't even know. So Aia, all the way across the river, may not learn of their deaths for weeks or months.
Oh, so when the men come they bring news of whats happening around them but arent the elven ladies afraid when the khirron males come to visit?
When I first saw Imin on Verso, I thought he was a bit on the handsome side, even if he had the smarmy smile on. I still think that he's a bit replusive but the psych major in me wants to know what's going on inside of his head besides feeling ladies. I do like his eyes since they seem almost inviting, which is such a contrast with the rest of him and his behavior. Or maybe not, since I'm certain he uses that to his advantage. But to really answer the question, most times I want to grab him by his pretty white-blond hair and shake him.
Devin, I was thinking about that question when I was writing this chapter, because of Hila's thoughts -- about how the other girls call her a "a gawky half-breed" (she's going to be quite tall for her people) and how she wants the khírrón to recognize her as one of them and take her away so she can be a sort of little princess.
It means that her people do not necessarily think that it's better to have the blood of these noble elves, even if they have magic and are more beautiful and so forth. Or at least not all of them think so. My guess is that it is the sort of thing they fight about amongst themselves -- whose blood is better or purer than whose.
However I don't think the ladies would be afraid, because all the males want is "one thing" as the big sisters say. And the ladies have no other ways to have babies except when they visit (from either side), and having babies is one of the ways they get higher status in the village.
Choco, I've had the same thought about Imin's eyes. I'm not crazy about that set, so I deleted them all except for the color Imin is wearing. And then I even tried to change Imin's eyes, but no matter which eyes I chose for him, it was not Imin any more. There's something about those sparkly gray-green eyes of his. Plus they come with freckles, and the freckles make it seem like there's a sweet little boy trapped inside. *sniffle*
Your inner psych major will probably like the next chapter. I think we have had only one chapter from his POV and it was not at all revealing of Imin... only a hint of what Imin thinks about Lar's motivations. The next one is a lot more in Imin's head.
The next chapter is probably also a lot more revealing of my own thoughts about Imin.
What does your psych major say about my recurring tendency to break down and give my evil characters some redeeming characteristics? And my desire while I am writing this chapter to grab him by his pretty white-blond hair and shove him down onto his bearskin rug there, and unbutton his shirt, and so on? (And then take a loooooong shower and scrub his fingerprints off me with a stiff brush, probably, ugh. Talk about morning-after regrets.)
Thanks for the input though, even if it makes me feel even creepier than before. At least V is with me on Team Imin.
And believe me, V is just as disturbed as you are about Team Imin, Lothere.
But your tendency to, as you say, give your villains redeeming characteristics is rather fantastical in my eyes. It keeps them from being those flat, one-dimensional bad guys so many writers love to employ. In reality, very few people are nothing but evil, so why write characters that way? And after thinking about it for all of five minutes (I needs a coffee >.<
the only character of yours I cannot find a redeeming quality in is "Brother" Myrddin. But considering how mysterious a character he is, even he might have unplumbed depths.
I acutally didn't expect any sort of answer to my ambigious question, so hey, bonus! It's nice to know that at least some of the holier-than-thou khírrón aren't completely homicidal towards the kisór. Now watch me start building a chart showing who is and who isn't...
There is definitely more to Myrddin than meets the eye, even to those of you who have already figured out a few things about him. But I don't have any plans for him to make himself charming in the near future, no. Also there is little chance of me redeeming him due to my inability to resist his sexiness.
Speaking of which, I wonder what redeeming quality Sophie's "ex"-husband Leofwine had. I can only guess you needed coffee, because he was such a brute. And he wasn't even attractive, which once again might explain his fate at my hands.
The idea of Myrddin being sexy is about as horrifying as you can get. Thanks, Lothere.
You're going to give me even more nightmares! I'm not sure how much I've figured out about him, though--it's rather obvious that he's a sort of Merlin and he's looking for an Arthur, but beyond that... eh.
...Okay, you got me. Leofwine doesn't have any redeeming characteristics either. And it is due to my need for coffee, which I still have not had!
Not that I'm trying to redeem Leofwine but I think you seemed to have mentioned he was just ever so slightly nice at one point:
"She dreamt of the days when her husband was still in awe of her; of the days when he was more pleased to follow his noble wife into the society of nobles than he was jealous of her popularity or of her blood; of the days before he had smothered the one and first spilled the other."
I guess that didn't last long.
As for Imin, I guess I understand where you and V are coming from. He definitely seems like one of those guys that puts off a dead skunk but after several (dozen) drinks, he's the guy you savagely come after and regret the whole ordeal in the morning. Mind bleach, please!
V, I have to say I find Myrddin particularly repulsive. There are those bony elbows and wrists and ankles, and then he goes around all year long in a thin robe (since that's all I have for elder monks
) so you know his skin is all... chapped and stuff. And he has that way of getting right up in someone's personal space and staring up at them with his blue eyes... *shudder*
Choco, I wouldn't say Leofwine was ever nice... more like ingratiating. I think Sophie revealed in her fairy-tale version that she was only ever interested in him to annoy her step-grand-ogre. And I can imagine that Sophie lorded it over him a bit at first... pre-homicidal Sophie was probably not the most pleasant woman to live with herself.
Ugh ugh Myrddin... sexy... erg! So gross.
I can't even coherently put into words how this chapter made me feel. I said something on Verity's blog about being rather desensitized to violence, particularly fictional violence. Violence against children seems to be the caveat to that rule.
It is extremely well written. So much so that I actually had the same physical and mental feelings as I did a month ago when I had to call the cops because I could hear my neighbor beating one of her kids.
Thanks, Cearbhaill... if I can make you relive that sort of experience, it must be effective writing indeed.
I can't even imagine how horrible that would feel, though if I continue my story long enough I suppose I must try. Kids getting beaten was even more a fact of life in those days than in ours -- or at least I hope we've grown a little more humane since then. And at least we have cops to call.
This is heart wrenching, but you're right. Challenging yourself as a writer is important. So is experimentation. It's disturbing to know a child is being hurt and people are dying, but it happens all the time, and it happened quite a bit more in that time period. You did it very well, in my opinion - there was no gratuitious violence for violence's sake. It's all necessary in the story. This is what these characters do, and it's hard and painful, but it's no less valid for that.
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