Retrospective: “The Order” and “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”

The cover of The Devil’s Piano, which includes “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”

This #ThrowbackThursday retrospective covers two stories–“Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden” and “The Order”–since they’re both about the same incident, a defining moment in the life of Arlise Dun.

“After three years of devastating civil war in the Seven Marches, Lady Arlise Dun has finally cornered the usurper Teign Arnen Raus in the tiny village of Laufenden. But the only way to ensure he doesn’t escape places innocents in peril. Is ending the war worth sacrificing dozens of her own freeholders? Even if it is, can Arlise live with herself afterward?”

All the way back in 2015, when the idea for Arlise and her character arc began taking shape, this moment was the first to jump out at me. I’d already decided she would embark on a redemption arc–one of my favorite storytelling devices–which left me with an incredibly important question: what drove Arlise to seek redemption?

The answer to this question became “The Fall”, the very first story I wrote about Arlise. Not to mention the first story I had the courage to submit. Unsurprisingly, it met with rejection after rejection, though a few were quite positive. Eventually, I shelved it in favor of my newer, more polished works.

Fast forward to a couple years later, when I found an anthology call from Horrified Press seeking speculative fiction stories about the horrors of war. “The Fall” seemed like a perfect fit, but I’d come a long way as a writer since then, so I decided to completely rewrite the story.

This gave me the opportunity to really play up the horror of the choice facing Arlise…and the truly horrific consequences of her decision. My hope is that “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden” really brings home why Arlise threw away her privileged life, why she picked up death-seeking tendencies, and why she longs for redemption as a member of the Order of Watchers.

The cover of Speculative 66 #14, which includes “The Order

“The Order” had its genesis around the same time, while I was actually working on the early stages of “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”. The challenge of writing a complete story in 66 words seemed like a great way to get back into writing after a lightning strike fried my old computer, and I was already thinking about Arlise, so I dashed the piece off in an afternoon and submitted it. To my surprise, Speculative 66 liked it enough to publish!

If you’re interested in “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”, you can find it in The Devil’s Piano, an anthology from Horrified Press.

If you’re interested in “The Order”, you can find it in Speculative 66 Issue #14 or on my DeviantArt profile.