Archive | October 25, 2014

Edora Begins to Explain Life to Prince Rodegard

Oct25

Previously: Prince Rodegard Visits the Imperial Capital

~~

Prince Rodegard was staring open-mouthed at Edora. She watched him implacably, pretending that she did not care about his reactions.

Said reactions, as she cataloged them, appeared to be, in order: confusion, worried understanding, denial, more confusion, angry understanding, angrier denial, and then a further state of confusion.

He might be a spoiled childish specimen of a Prince, but he was still, after all, a prince. After a few minutes, he cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Dame Edora. I must have misheard you.”

She contemplated her answer for a moment. “It’s Princess, actually.”

“…what?” This time, even his manners failed him.

“Technically, Kneginja Esedora. But I have been Edora for quite a while.”

“Kneg…” He struggled with the unfamiliar word. “Wait. I thought you were my bodyguard.”

“I am your bodyguard, your minder, your instructor, and your guide. I am also, to some ways of thinking, your jail-keeper. But most importantly right now, Prince Rodegard, I am the person in charge of getting you ready for the Imperial Capital.”

“That’s not what you said last time. Uh. Your Highness? You said you were supposed to prepare me for her… for the Imperial Empressina. Didn’t you? Your Highness?”

“I did.” Edora found herself smiling. He wasn’t stupid, this boy, he was just – well, he was provincial, and sheltered, and naive. She’d known more than her share of ones like that. “It is my job, among all my other jobs, to get you ready for her before she returns from her tour of the Empire.”

“Get me ready for… what, exactly?” From the way his face was going ashen, Edora thought he might already know. Still, she couldn’t fault him for asking.

And she couldn’t fault herself for wanting to tease him a little. He’d jumped into this position feet-first and without checking the water first; in a pond, that could get your neck broken. In life… “Didn’t you ask what you were volunteering for?”

“Somebody had to go!” He leaned forward, his hands clenched into fists in his lap. To either side of him, the guards stirred but didn’t try to stop him. “Look, it’s not like the Emperor would have taken ‘Caredorn is in love with the dancers’ daughter and Takaranne is a better businessman than any of the rest of us; Petraken is too frail to travel and Lidotarre would get us into a war.’“ He was glaring at Edora, which she found interesting. “It got me out of blessing the fields and all of the maidens, sure. It got me out of plowing the fields and helping with the harvest in bad years, and it was the only chance I was likely to have to visit the Imperial Capital.”

Edora leaned back. Perhaps he had jumped in feet first to escape a burning building, or perhaps he was making up justifications to cover a lack of forethought. “It would have been interesting if you had said all of those things. Instead, however, you said ‘the Imperial Capital sounds fun. I’ll go.’“

“Well… it does sound fun. But – the Empressina? Her Imperial Highness?” He leaned back and folded his hands carefully, left over right. “What am I being prepared for?”


Written to @dahob’s commissioned continuation.

If you want more – and I’m pretty sure this wants to be a full-length romance novel – drop a tip in the tip… handcuffs 😉

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/836504.html. You can comment here or there.

Fitting In, a story of Facets of Dusk for the Impossible Situations mini-call

Oct25

In retrospect, things would have gone smoother if the team had made any other choice at all, even staying frozen in indecision.

But the volcano was seconds from showering them all in hot ash and then burying them in lava, and that wasn’t a way any of them wanted to die. So Alexa grabbed Cole’s hand, who grabbed Josie’s, who grabbed Xenia’s, who grabbed Aerich’s, who grabbed Peter’s…

Who grabbed the Jameerery mayor’s hand. And the twenty-five Jameerery, no fools and not wanting to die, had been forming up a chain of hands already, so when Alexa opened the Door with her free hand, all twenty-five Jameerery came through with the team.

And in most cases, in most worlds they went between, this wouldn’t have been a huge problem. They were alternate Earths, after all. Cole had lost count of the number of Coles and Alexas they’d run into, and there had been that place with the clone Josies…

The problem was that the Jameerery were, ah. Trolls. Or elves. They had horns, at least, and their skin had a slightly purplish tint to it. They worked magic – although not enough to withstand an eruption of that scope, clearly – and they had ears that were pointed and almost catlike. To put it shortly: They weren’t human. And it showed. And the Door back to their land had either burned or was encased in lava.

And so Cole found himself putting an adorable straw hat on the head of the most adorable of the Jameerery refugees, who sadly happened to be their mayor’s daughter. It covered the horns, and Xenia had already dyed the girl’s violet curls black. But covering the violet skin was going to be a trick…

“The girls could be very religious sorts,” Josie mused. “But I don’t know of a sect in our world where the men cover their faces.”

To [personal profile] lilfluff‘s prompt.

Facets of Dusk has a landing page here.

As always, if you want more, I can be commissioned!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/836293.html. You can comment here or there.

ALSO: Want to help me cast a year of Doomsday?

Oct25

The idea of the Doomsday novella series is to have 8 novellas following a class of 8 through their 8 years at Doomsday.

This is Austin, Sianna, & Sweetbriar’s year, but the other 5 students are up in the air.

Each student will get their own novella.

So, what sort of traits would you enjoy reading in Doomsday students, and, if you know, at which age?

(like: the girl who would be a dancer, in her last year at school… but that’s already Sianna)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/836038.html. You can comment here or there.

The Catboy Samurai is getting an Adventure~

Oct25

I have planned for Nanowrimo, among other stories, a 5000-word piece on Austin, the catboy samurai, to which the existing pieces can be a prelude.

So tell me, what sort of shenanigans should Austin be getting into?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/835647.html. You can comment here or there.

Theme Mini-#PromptCall: Impossible Situations!

Oct25

It’s almost November, and the Dungeon Call was so successful, I almost forgot about the October theme!

I’m taking prompts on the theme “Impossible Situations;” I’ll write at least 100 words to at least the first five prompters.

Prompt in any setting, any characters. I’ll see what I can do!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/835424.html. You can comment here or there.