C.P.D. Harris's Blog, page 37

The Shadow Wolf Sagas: Red Fangs 2.55

Shadow Wolf time! This is part of my weekly writing exercise, written raw and rough. The first story arc, Blade Breaker, can be found here. The first story of this arc, Red Fangs, can be found here. The previous week’s post can be found here.

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The remains of Cinders crew ran off into the night, leaving her pinned to the ground. I suspected that few of them would make it out of Splinterside; the docks gangs can smell blood as well as any Vampire.

“Let go of me,” intoned Cinder. “I will pay you your weight in gold, Northlander. You have no idea of the riches that I command.”

“And here I thought you wanted to start a war; to lead your people out of their supposed torpor and start the grand struggle for supremacy.”

“We will not let you go, Cinder,” said Berkhilda. “You must pay for the chaos that you have caused.”

Berkhilda, breathing heavily, slumped down to the deck. I could see the bolts in her back and arm, blood leaking from the wounds. The wounds would have felled most people, but I was surprised that the big vampire was having trouble. She’d shown herself to be quite resilient.

“Poison?”

“It may be,” said Berkhilda. “I think I will rest here for a while, Ragnar.”

“It is my curse upon you, wretch.” snarled Cinder. “I hope you die, Vintul. It pleases me to know that you will follow me into the final death.”

Berkhilda coughed.I looked over at her. Cinder tried to twist out from under me, but I locked her in an armbar, knee in her back.

“It is done Cinder. You will be turned over to the Watch. They will find out the truth of your affairs and then they will execute you, I wager. They are not kind on those who kill their own.”

“You have no idea Ragnar, you have no idea what I have done. Forget Vintul, she is already dead. You let me go and I will give you a secret that will help your whore friends win their little war and more.”

“What could you, a vampire and a blood-mage, possibly know that is of use to me? What would send you scurrying about the city turning gangs and attacking alchemists?”

“Unlimited wealth,” said Cinder. “You’ll see. Just look at your friend.”

Berkhilda held up a bloody hand. In the dying light, under all of the blood, I could see a shimmer of gold.

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Sunday Night Teaser

Ah, tis late and I just finished the day’s writing. So for blog night I will leave you with a teaser from the new book. It is very raw and not yet edited.

“Hello, old friend.”

“Fuck. Skaerus. You scared the shit out of me.” (Ravius speaking here — had to cut some to avoid spoilers)

Skaerus, with a monstrous metal clad figure standing behind him. One of Antidilluvius’s knights, it seemed. An Ogre by the size of him. Big brute with a war-cleaver and heavy armour, the sort of fighter that Ravius loved coming up against in the arena. Steel plates could not turn words, and that cleaver, once set in motion by a clever feint would be so hard to regain control of.

“I’m sorry, brother. Sir Domascutus here has some questions for you. He is curious about Chosen Gavin.”

The eyes behind the steel mask glared at Ravius for several moments. Skaerus put on a bored expression, leaning against the doorway, but he did not fool Ravius; they were testing him.

“You seem familiar to me, Ravius Vergerus, and yet I cannot have met you,” said the Knight at last. “It is the same with Chosen Gavin. The one called Lionfang and Mindripper.”

“Mindripper?”

“It is what the Wirn call your friend,” added Skaerus.

“Oh, it makes sense I suppose,” said Ravius.

“Why?” asked Domascutus.

“Gavin and Sadira fought in the arena against the Wirn. Gavin did something to them, fucked with their mindlink, they call it the thoughtstream if I recall correctly, and they just gave up. It was like losing their limbs or worse to them. They just wanted to die.”

“The arena…” said Domascutus. Through the eye-slits in the massive Knight’s helm, Ravius could see that he was distant, unfocused. It was bizarre, potentially interesting even, but he needed to disengage and find Hummingblade.

“Is there anything else?”

The Shadow Wolf Sagas: Red Fangs 2.54

Shadow Wolf time! This is part of my weekly writing exercise, written raw and rough. The first story arc, Blade Breaker, can be found here. The first story of this arc, Red Fangs, can be found here. The previous week’s post can be found here.

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“Let’s finish this, Ragnar,” said Berkhilda, eyes gleaming in the half-dark mirroring the glittering edge of her axe.

With Cinder readying her crossbow, we approached the two armoured vampires cautiously. As they strode toward us the rest of the ship’s crew struggled behind them straining to push several large crates onto the deck. I wondered what they could be loaded with that was so heavy a half-dozen vampires had trouble moving it.

The armoured vampires moved carefully, and purposefully, shields up and heavy bladed swords ready to strike. These were not like Cinder’s other minions, most of whom were not yet accustomed to their newfound strength; these ones knew how to fight and how to use their full power.

As they drew close to us, they attacked. Their speed and grace was enviable. Parrying with my axe, I raised my hammer for a counterattack, but my opponent was one step ahead of me, bringing his kite shield up under my chin. I staggered back, tasting blood, but anticipated the follow up swing, catching it between by weapons and then kicking his armoured knee with my hobnailed boot. Before I could capitalize on my success I was forced to duck as Cinder fired her crossbow once more.

Berkhilda and her opponent were trading blows. Her massive axe was denting the edges of his shield, but he was still able to fend her off with his sword, battering her breastplate with powerful blows.

Battering my opponent’s sword, I tried to trick him into making a mistake. He read my moves and our weapons clashed but did not bind. Meanwhile Cinder was getting ready for another shot with her Crossbow. I moved to keep him between us.

“Whatever you owe her, is it worth dying for?” I ventured.

“I won’t die today,” snarled my opponent, forcing me back with a flurry of blows.

As he came at me, I kicked a stray cargo net toward his feet.

The problem with a full heaume is that it can impede one’s vision. On the cooperative chaos of the battlefield, this is almost a moot point. In a duel, however, it is a real disadvantage. My opponent did not see the netting until he stepped in it. To his credit, he realized his predicament right away and stopped before he could trip.

To my credit I made sure that it did not matter, batting aside his sword and shouldering into his shield. With his foot caught in the netting, he could not resist and he toppled to the ground. I brought my hammer down on his heaume, again and again, until it was badly dented and he was no longer struggling.

Up ahead of me, I saw Berkhilda stumble as Cinder shot her. There were two bolts in the big vampire woman’s back now. Yet, as I began to run toward her, Berkhilda knocked the armoured vampire’s sword away and then pushed him off the dock. She turned to Cinder, who was raising her Crossbow for another shot, eyes wide with hate. I kept sprinting, throwing my axe. The blade hit Cinder’s shoulder as she fired. The bolt hit Berkhildain the arm.

“Skygge, grant me light feet,” I beseeched the god of shadows and secrets, and I jumped, leaping over the gap between ship and dock ramming Cinder and bearing her to the ground. She struggled, but although she was strong, I was able to pin her.

“Help me you fools,” she screamed to her crew.

But Berkhilda, battered and bloodied, placed herself between us and them, and snarled. They turned and fled into the night, and the fight was done.

Game Review: X-Com 2, sequels, rebellions, the rule of cool, & verisimilitude (guest starring: BACON)

This week I actually found time to finish X-COM 2! I will scribble some thoughts here, which will serve as my review.

But first. This week I came to a realization. Bacon is becoming ubiquitous. I see it as a donut garnish, marmalade, as burgers flavoured with three types of bacon with a bacon-maple sauce. As I stood in the supermarket staring at bacon flavoured breath-mints, I realized that this saturation level has made it less of a treat, less special, and somehow offensive. I still love bacon, but enough is enough.

X-COM 2 is the second installment of the modern reboot. It was released on Feb 4 and has already sold 750,000 copies on Steam alone. It departs from the familiar tropes of the older games and the first game of the reboot in that instead of encountering, then fighting an alien invasion, the aliens have already won and the player is leading the resistance. They do a decent job of connecting the story and update the game-play with some interesting elements. Overall I enjoyed the game, but I found that it did not correct all of the flaws of the previous version, nor do I think that all of the changes will appeal to fans of the first reboot. With that in mind I will start with the cons.

Cons: What I did not like, or thought needed improving.

The Scamper System (major): The scamper system where when an enemy or group of enemies sees the player and gets a free action to seek cover is back from X-COM: Enemy Unknown. This is, by far, the weakest mechanic in the new series: it leads to a style of play where the best tactic is always to advance slowly so as to only activate one enemy pod at a time, kill it, rinse and repeat. Enemies in the first few versions of X-COM seemed to activate in a more organic fashion, open to a variety of tactics. In X-COM 2 they patch the holes in the scamper system by adding timers to many missions, forcing the player to move at a faster pace (this is mostly illusory, I rarely ever triggered more than one pod, save through my own stupidity) and reinforcements which drop enemies in the midst of the players with a turn of warning. They also allows players to scout with a concealment/stealth mechanic. While these patches do make the scamper system more interesting, it is still polishing a turd. I feel that the game would be better served by removing it entirely because the right thing to do is always to move forward as cautiously as you can, given mission parameters.

I contend that the scamper system could be used for rooms in a dungeon game, but for triggering larger encounters instead of single pods.


The Resistance & Verisimilitude (minor): In X-COM 2 the players are guerrilla fighters waging a shadow war against a victorious enemy, at least on paper. In reality the game does not really play like that, save for a few conceits and mission types. There is very little defense, stealth, and scavenging and far too much insurgency and attack. In the end the way the game plays is very much at odds with the idea of a beleaguered resistance. Weapons and armour are a good example, with the player able to research and manufacture their own superior weapons over time. The idea guerrilla force with the ability to manufacture experimental high tech weapons… just breaks verisimilitude. I would have preferred a more low tech response like customizing old tech and salvaging higher tech weapons directly from fallen aliens. Examples like this are why it does not feel like a resistance and steps on verisimilitude.

Guerrilla factions spend a lot of time fighting for hearts and minds. This is obvious from modern warfare as well as successful guerrilla insurgencies in the past. This is not well represented in the game. People just kind of rise up at the appropriate moment. It was a waste of the advent speaker character, as well — why make the guy if I can’t counter his propaganda.
Guerrilla resistances spread slowly from specific locations, relying on local relationships. The resistance in X-COM 2 is nomadic and wants to spread as quickly as possible for income and bonuses.
Smallest insurgency ever.


Small Squads (Minor): I may be in the minority here, but with 5 basic classes with 2 specialties each and many different enemy types I felt that squads of 4-6 were just too damn small. I would prefer to see bigger player squads and bigger enemy pods, just to make use of more of the options available.

Pros: What I loved

Variety of enemies (Major): The variety of enemies in X-COM 2 is perfect. Enemies are divided into two types: Advent forces which are the augmented humans and robots who are the face of the alien invasion trying to pass as the future of humanity and the aliens themselves. The advent forces are the baseline grunts and elites specialists who stay similar throughout the game and lend the enemy a kind of uniform feel. Their look and their totalitarian feel lend the game a gravitas far beyond what I was expecting. The aliens themselves are all unique, special snowflakes with powers and abilities that make fighting each one different. Together these two forces give the game both a shifting variety of enemies without losing the sense that you are fighting a single, monumental force. Even the look and feel of each enemy type was above my expectations. Loved the enemies in this game.
Turn Based Combat (Major): I love turn based combat. The Combat is X-COM 2 is fundamentally sound, with all of the basics from the first and a few nice improvements like concealment and better sets of character abilities. As long as you do not mind RNG and cover and flank firefights you should enjoy it. That said, the tactical depth is stunted a fair bit by the scamper system.
Better Research Trees (Major): setting aside the idea that an insurgency has a better research and manufacturing arm than the people they are fighting, the research trees are the best I have ever seen. Scientists and engineers are greatly desire and the end-game tech opens up a large number of tactical possibilities (some of which are arguably overwhelming powerful like mimic beacons and mines, but that’s what higher difficulties are for). It was nice to see some serious variety in armour types and equipment load-outs in the end-game, even if some options are very much superior on paper and small squads limited experimenting.
Hacking and Drones (Minor): The hacking system is interesting and I am pleased to see a nod to futuristic tactics with drones being used for healing, buffing, ranged hacking, and even some nasty attacks.
Character Variety (Minor): Crazy amount of customization options for your characters. I also enjoyed the ability of each character to learn a single random ability from another class tree as they advanced. These two things combined to give my squad lots of personality, although I tended toward uniforms.
Story (Trivial): Although verisimilitude does take some hits in that the campaign does not feel like a resistance insurgency, the story for X-COM 2 is better than any of the previous iterations. I enjoyed the characters despite the occasional repetitiveness of the dialogue.

Bonus Commentary: The Rule of Cool versus Verisimilitude & Unique Identity

Remember when I mentioned Bacon at the beginning of this wall of text? This is why.

Gunslingers and Ninjas with big swords are cool. I am not sure, however, that adding them to the X-COM universe is a great idea. The idea of the rule of cool is that people are more willing to accept offences against verisimilitude if they are really fun or just plain awesome. Think of it like bacon. If people put bits of chicken on your maple donut it would leave you wondering, but if they put bacon on it you will accept that because bacon is awesome (obviously not everyone loves bacon, but you get the idea). So when X-COM 2 gives their rangers kick ass fusion swords and their snipers awesome plasma revolvers that make them (deadly) space gunslingers it is definitely cool, even if the idea of bringing a sword to a gun fight is kind of stupid when you analyze it (a fusion bayonet/knife would be better).

But while I thought it was cool initially, I felt that something was lost in the way that X-COM 2 gave in to the rule of cool. Honestly if you put ninjas and gunslingers (and vikings, and zombies, and jedi etc) in every game they not only cease to be special, but they have a real chance of overpowering the already established aesthetic elements that made your world-building unique and interesting. X-COM was always had kind of a 80s military movie meets 90s x-files feel to it and this got lost when sword-wielding ninja rangers and I-can-fire-faster-than-an-automatic-weapon gunslingers get thrown into the mix. They may be cool, but for me they detract from the already established feel of X-COM.

Simply put: sometimes subtle, original flavours are better off without your favourite garnish. Would you ruin a perfectly good french vanilla ice cream by loading it with bacon? It might be tasty, but the bacon overpowers the vanilla. Really at that point, maybe you should just admit that you just want to eat more bacon and go cook yourself some goddamned bacon instead of inventing new ways of injecting it into everything.

In all seriousness, I do think that including all of the cool stuff in every game has started to make many games feel very samey and detracts from the unique charms of many properties. (And this from a guy who writes about magical superhero gladiators wielding rune weapons and fighting every monster under the sun.)

The Shadow Wolf Sagas: Red Fangs 2.53

Shadow Wolf time! This is part of my weekly writing exercise, written raw and rough. The first story arc, Blade Breaker, can be found here. The first story of this arc, Red Fangs, can be found here. The previous week’s post can be found here.

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“She was aiming at me,” said Berkhilda. “I do not know if he placed himself in front of it on purpose…”

Underneath her armour, Berkhilda’s massive shoulders seemed to sag. My jaw clenched; Bull was, had been, a good man, and he would be missed on the Jetties. It was my fault for entangling him in this. Reaching out, I put my hand on the the vampire woman’s shoulder. She looked up at me and I realized that, she too, felt at fault.

I do not know if the Gods are real or if they are just a manifestation of the will of my people, but when struggling for words, ritual can be comforting.

"Garm, fate-thwarter,
See this man true,
Witness his deeds,
Know he died true.
Let him ascend,
Drink in high halls,
Among the Brave."

It was a quick invocation, but Berkhilda nodded and stood.

“We will comeback for him later.”

We approached our comrades at the end of the warehouse. Relief washed over me as I confirmed that the wounds that Renoit and Murith had received in the battle with Cinder’s minions and the blood hydra were minor. We told them of Bulls fate. Git looked at me reproachfully, but only for a moment. There is a history in that.

“We have to find Cinder before she escapes,” said Berkhilda.

“Git, stay here with Renoit and Murith. The watch will be here soon. Berkhilda and I will be able to track Cinder down;  even if she figures out how we are following her; she cannot have gotten far.”

“Ragnar,” said Murith as we turned to leave. “Don’t fuck up.”

“We’ll finish this, you have my word.”

<>

We followed the scent that I had tagged Cinder with. I suppose she had no reason to suspect that it was on her, given that she had obviously wanted us to show up at her warehouse.

Berkilda strolled beside me, axe on her shoulder, eyes full of purpose. I found myself wondering what kind of life she would have led had she been born in Nordan lands. My friend Thyra came to mind. Berkhilda was brave and loyal, a skilled warrior and a conscientious friend; someone you would want standing with you in battle or in council. The only thing she lacked was confidence; torn between two worlds.

“It might seem odd coming from an exile and a Shadow Wolf, but you did your ancestors proud today, my friend.  Both the Vampires and the Nordan.”

“It is nice of you to say, Grimfang, but I have never heard of any Vampire being embraced by our people, save those told as tragedies.”

Turning to her, I looked up and said “Then be the first.” and tapped her on the breastplate.

<>

We were expecting Cinder to take to the tunnels again, but her trail led to the docks. We found her loading a ship. When she spotted us, instead of casting off, she ordered two burly armoured vampires to face us, loaded her crossbow, and shouted to her remaining minions.

“Get those crates loaded!”

I looked at Berkhilda.

“Let’s finish this,” she said.

Teaser Tuesday!

This week’s teaser is from Bloodlust: Will to Power (Domains of the Chosen #2)

Flamina is a dancer for the Blue Faction. A Gifted who had dedicated her life to a less bloody, but still spectacular, form of entertainment than her Gladiatrix brethren. I like the idea of factions hiring the best performers and entertainers of all sorts, which is an idea I first encountered in Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium. Flamina’s personality is as outrageous and ostentatious as her dance…

There were blade-jugglers, painters, storytellers, image-magickers and more.

The most anticipated act of all, however, was Flamina, the famed Blue Faction dancer. The slender performer entered the room wearing a mask of living fire that cast her eyes in flickering shadows. Her sinuous body was studded with red gems which caught the firelight and made it seem as if her naked skin was radiating flames. The dancer’s movements were full of liquid grace and bold swagger, like a Gladiatrix taking to the fighting grounds before a roaring crowd.

Any simple arousal over flesh and form quickly turned to awe as a pipe began to play and Flamina danced. Her hips undulated to the music, slowly at first, her long legs seeming to glide effortlessly despite the wild gyrations of her body. Her head remained mostly still, her lips curving into a smile that was half invitation and all challenge. As drums joined the pipe her dance became more inflamed. She swayed and shook, her entire figure vibrating with the intensity of her efforts. Her hair became a wild halo, highlighted by flame. The music kept increasing in tempo, and the dancer seemed to blur, a constant wave of motion.

She kept dancing longer than any of those watching thought possible, faster and faster without losing any of her grace or her sensuous smile. Heat seemed to radiate from her now. The Gladiators and The Chosen watched, entranced by the performance. The musicians reached the limit of their tempo and held it. Flamina became a blur, as if they watched a tongue of fire dancing for them. The tempo held. Flamina danced, graceful and passionate.

When the music stopped, Gavin realized he had been holding his breath. Flamina wound down gracefully, swaying and gyrating, smiling all the while, proving that it was the musicians who had reached their limit and not the dancer.

When she swayed to a halt, her eyes fixed on Gavin and Sadira, for just a moment, and then she turned and gestured to a hulking figure, beckoning Valaran to her. The crowd closed around them, eager to bask in her glory.

The Shadow Wolf Sagas: Red Fangs 2.52

Shadow Wolf time! This is part of my weekly writing exercise, written raw and rough. The first story arc, Blade Breaker, can be found here. The first story of this arc, Red Fangs, can be found here. The previous week’s post can be found here.

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“Fucking finish them off you dogs. Now, while they are still tired.”

And I laughed as they came, because what man can be tired with the rush of escaping the snapping jaws of something monstrous and the red joy of killing it still upon him?

My first attacker gave me plenty of warning, howling ferociously as she leapt off her high perch, teeth flashing in dim light. I swung my blade to meet here and her eyes went wide as it bit deep and sent her flying away in two pieces.

Then they were all around me. They clawed at my face and I pushed them away. They clawed at my sides but my Kingsmail proved too much for them. They clawed at my legs and bit at my back and that proved to be a larger problem. While most of Cinders minions were poor combatants, used to back alley street fights at best, they were still vampires and rather strong. I chopped the hands off the first couple, but as soon as one got a lasting grip my position became untenable.

A body slammed into my, I staggered. Another jumped on my back, biting at my neck and bearing me down. Roaring I slammed that body down on top of one the ones that had my feet and I was suddenly free again, although my greatsword had clattered to the ground in the meantime.

Grinning at my apparent helpless a vampire with the facial tattoos of a wildsider gang came at me. I fed him a mouthful of gauntleted fist, shattering the teeth that he had so proudly displayed.

The next vampire to come at me was bearing my own blade, shimmering silver.

“Let’s see how you like it!” he shouted, swinging it in a broad arc. I jumped back out of the way, and he followed, swinging. I knew very well that even an enchanted suit of kingsmail would not stop that blade with the strength of a vampire behind it, so I kept giving ground, waiting for my moment.

Just when I thought that I was ready, another vampire leapt on me from behind. Howling triumphantly, the one wielding my sword swung. I ducked and twisted, putting thebody on my back in the way of the weapon. The blade bearer was not skilled enough to arrest his wild attack and I felt the weight on my back lessen. Rolling, my feet caught the blade bearers, tripping him. I stunned him with a hammer-fist blow to the temple as he fell, pulled my sword from his grip and then stabbed him in the back before he could rise. He screamed, I roared and looked around for more.

The warehouse was carnage. The Blood Hydra was beginning to dissolve. Dozens of Vampires were dead or wounded. Renoit stood with Git and Murith. The two armoured vampires were dead, but the swordsman was bleeding, clutching his ribs while Git administered a salve. They must have been skilled to hit Renoit and it was fortunate that Cinder did not have more like them. I missed Berkhilda at first and thought she must have been in pursuit of Cinder. Then I spotted her kneeling over a body, and felt the bloodlust leave me.

Bull lay dead; a crossbow bolt in his head. Berkhilda, blood making a crimson trail on her cheek, said a prayer to Furis as she held him.

“Cinder was aiming for me,” Berkhilda said as I came up next to her.

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Happy St Patrick’s Day

Alas, the wolf will not prowl tonight. (Rescheduled for Sunday.)

 

Tuesday Teaser

This week’s teaser comes from Bloodlust: A Gladiator’s Tale.

Cover for Bloodlust: A Gladiator’s Tale.

This week we have Meady Mox, a character based around an old housemate of mine. Quite a nasty character. The passage speaks for itself.

Meady Mox started off the day a happy man. Even his timid, ill-used assistant had benefited from his good humour so far, enjoying the respite from her boss’s rough hands and vicious temper. Deathmatches always drew better crowds; for this fight, seats were sold out even at ten times his normal price, including the additional seats on the wooden bleachers he had constructed to handle the extra capacity.  He stood to make an immense profit today. The best part was, since the main fight involved only Gladiators, he would not have to pay for any replacement beasts no matter who was killed. If only the Great Games were more like the old days, when Deathmatches were more common; it would make each fight almost pure profit and rid the world of more troublesome bitches like the soon-to-be-headless Sadira.

The thought of proud, luscious Sadira meeting her end, begging for her life in front of the crowd made Mox ecstatic. And even if she and her boyfriend managed to beat Bella and Cat it was not really that bad for him; He would miss the fleshy romps that he had enjoyed with the two girls, but it was easy enough for him to find others like them. His arrangement with them couldn’t last forever. After all, hadn’t he seen lithe Bella talking to a visiting recruiter for the Red Faction recently? He frowned at the thought. Gladiatrices are all harlots and bitches, he thought, no loyalty to the men who make them what they are.

He was also looking forward to the lusty Karmal, who had consented to watch the match with him. At first the flame-haired Gladiatrix had been cold and formal in her dealings with him; but over the past months he had arranged to have several discussions with her. She now knew what he could do for her career, arranging better matches and introducing her to influential patrons. She had warmed considerably lately, but she was still maddeningly oblivious to his subtle, in his mind at least, hints that sexual favours were what he required from her. It looked like he was going to have to be blunt with her. The thought of getting his hands into that curly red hair while fucking her from behind was almost too much for him. There was something about her that excited him on a primal level.

Mox had built several private boxes for the match and rented most of them for an outrageous price. He had reserved one for his own use during the Deathmatch. He was sure that the power demonstrated by even having such an opulent enclosure, combined with the excitement of the match, would warm Karmal to him. If not, he had some mead and a little magic trinket that would help open the slut’s legs for him.

The thought of watching arrogant Sadira dying with Karmal’s succulent lips wrapped around his cock made Mox so hard he ached. He was so vile that he considered such thoughts normal, something that all men shared. He considered masturbating to relieve himself, but he had an assistant did he not? He called the poor woman into his office. It was a very good start to the day for Meady Mox. Very good indeed.

Sunday Teaser

I wanted to write a piece about the clash between verisimilitude and ‘the rule of cool’ in the new X-Com, but I am still playing through and also just finished working on the Seeds of Ruin for the days.

So I will offer a little, unedited teaser from the new book. (Very raw)

Agga was quite taken with his new creation, although the green man was not bound to follow his orders. This worried Hilena, because she could sense the being’s power and neither Valaran diVolcanus, nor the cursed plant that housed his spirit struck her as the basis for trustworthy allies. Of course, neither did the Lich.

She turned away from the green man when he looked at her, toward Agga.

“The men escorting me from the capital, were they some of your creations?”

“Two of them were,” said Agga. “They have self-will and autonomy for the most part. Before you ask: had you strayed they would have killed you, but if I thought you would fail I would not have tasked you with this responsibility Hilena.”

“Aren’t you afraid that when we attacked the Deliberative checkpoint, one of your creations would be captured or killed and examined?”

“Not really,” said Agga. “Most of them are tied to me like a kind of Hearthbound. Through me they are tied to the Oathstone. When killed or captured they shrivel up exactly like a follower of the Dark Heart.”

“Clever.”

“Necessary.”

“Still clever.”

“And yet I am not bound this way,” the Green Man’s voice was deep and vibrant.

Agga dropped one his tools. Hilena took an alarmed step backwards, suddenly fearing that the powerful creature might be able to pull the bars from its cell.

The green man merely looked at them expectantly.

“I did not expect you to talk, either,” said Agga, grinning now. “This is most unusual.”

“I am born of the old magic and the new magic,” said the green man. “I am beyond your reckoning.”

Agga laughed.

“What must I do to gain my freedom?” asked the green man.

“Once I am confident that you will not turn your strength against me and shown that you are worthy of trust, you will be treated accordingly,” said Agga.

“I will not swear any Oaths,” said the green man.

“That will make it difficult,” said Agga.

“Is there a reason?” said Hilena. The mere act of questioning the oath gave her a moment of intense pain, like a dagger in her temple. Yet she had to know. She feared the oath more than anything, and often wondered if she traded slavery to the Deliberative or the fearful life of an unaligned heretic for something much worse.