. . . There was no malice in his tone, but with Mylia laying at death’s door from her choices, the words pierced her worse than any blade could ever have.
This is all so well done, the dialogue feels so real, but that line especially hits home.😭
“What’s the big deal if someone uses their powers to reheat their lunch?”
Love it!😂
Nothing is keeping us apart. The distant echo faded away in Song's mind to some dark place where it would always echo, in his every dream, wherever he was, in his every hope, and even in his fears. Nothing is keeping us apart. That was the one thing that would always matter.
#HopePit
The hope of freedom, and the love of friends who'd risked everything for him, are the building blocks of Song's new life.
Can he truly be free from the nightmare of his past?
Links can be found under my pinned.
DM for if interested in a free copy of Named By Love.
A quote with "hope"
“You cursed, self-righteous priests. I am no angel, but I'd never stoop to this,” Kortenze muttered in seething anger. A massage sealed with the blood of some fledgling mage is a message worthy of being thrown into the fire without me even reading it. He wasn't really going to leave it unread, but he already knew he wasn't giving much heed to whatever words it contained. From the council of the Vallune-Shakar Brother Kortenze, you are summoned to Shallen-Kar Your presence is demanded within twenty-five cycles of the curtains of light and dark We will discuss details when you arrive Know that failure to respond to this summon will make you our brethren no more, and your status will mean nothing either for you or for any companions you may have We have no use for veiled threats, and we truly want you along us You must work with us to repair what you have done, or we must make right what we can with you out of the picture. Come home, Kortenze You are blood-brother to all of us. Kortenze re-folded the paper, without one hair of respect. I am brethren to none of you, he spat in disgust. My only brother has died, I have nothing to lose, which means– Prepare to face my wrath if you dare threaten my ability to protect those for whom my blood-brother died. He stared at the paper, and breathed deliberately– not to calm himself but to steady his anger. Would Viddor forgive him if he really became the monster he'd embraced when he'd first knelt before that alter? Could he even see any other future? Perhaps, perhaps I can bargain. But it depends on them too. If they are too stubborn our whole land will pay dearly.
Not in Kortenze's mind, but this society used to be pretty messed up.
I can only guess at the reason, & I'd likely be better at doing that through Kortenze's POV.
Here's a little of what follows the short snippet above, but I don't know if it answers anything.
I can sympathize with that so much.
Poor Fox. I can feel how rough this is for her.😢
🥺
#WIPSnips I should be sharing from my main WIP, but my blood-mage WIP was up, so here's a snip of Kortenze
Content WARNING: mention of blood used for magic.
The ink was blood-sealed, which confirmed Kortenze's suspicion that this was more urgent than he wanted to deal with.
His brow knitted . . .
Yeah. He often really doesn't know how, & he's a mix of desperate to please people & overly stubborn.
Brutally high.💔
Poor Bayle,😱 & Nora too.
Though Bayle is somehow more relatable to me.
Charlie is so relatable.😢
- relational mistake.
He does sometimes tries to do better even when he claims he can't.
#AwesomeCharacters
Lawcket is surprisingly bad with handling mistakes of all kinds, both relational & material.
He usually won't deny his fault, but he gets upset with himself & won't let anyone talk him out of it, at the same time as he sometimes refuses to try to better when it's a - 1/2
- to do better next time.
#AwesomeCharacters
Rider admits his mistakes easily, & tries his best to learn from them, though he rarely forgives himself for life changing mistakes. Or mistakes that get anyone he cares about hurt, even minorly.
He might curse himself for other minor mistakes, but he'll get over them & try -1/2
I’ve spent a long time thinking about how Rider’s love for Song and Furgo could be explained, and after a lot of time and going through rough places mentally in my life, I’ve come to realize that there is an explanation. Rider first promises to help Furgo, expecting nothing in return. Yet Furgo loves him as a baby animal will love the person who saved it, as a small child will love their parent. Rider never trusted as a child, never really was part of a family, but raising Furgo changes that. He still hasn’t been a child, but he’s been a parent. I think it melts his heart in a similar way to how rescuing baby animals melts mine. Raising Furgo makes Rider capable of a love he wasn’t capable of before. He’s too stubborn to believe in family bonds, but I think his love both for Furgo and Song is much like the love of a parent who will sacrifice anything for their child. It means he must love them no matter if he trusts them, no matter even if they love him. He’s very lucky they do love him, though sometimes he at least thinks he doesn’t want to be loved. None of this makes his love perfect. He’s still scarred from his past, he still has regrets he can’t let go of, betrayed promises he still longs to fulfill, but his love is still the unconditional love of a parent, a parent who never chose to have a child yet will give literally anything to give their child happiness. To make things even more complex, Rider has a talent for sensing minds, which he’s often considered a curse. It goes both ways, not only making him feel the thoughts and emotions of others, but making them feel his. He’s learned to mostly control his talent. He doesn’t want to infringe on the minds of others, and he wants to keep his own thoughts to himself. But it’s unlikely his control is ever quite perfect, so even if clear thoughts never leak through emotions almost certainly do when he feels strongly. This is almost certainly part of why Song senses Rider’s pain so much, . . .
Don't have a lot of time right now to edit this, or ask my question properly, but I was wondering if I could add something like this to the beginning of Named By Love for context, maybe after the foreword?🤔
I used belief for my answers, even if not exactly religious.
I’ve spent a long time thinking about how Rider’s love for Song and Furgo could be explained, and after a lot of time and going through rough places mentally in my life, I’ve come to realize that there is an explanation. Rider first promises to help Furgo, expecting nothing in return. Yet Furgo loves him as a baby animal will love the person who saved it, as a small child will love their parent. Rider never trusted as a child, never really was part of a family, but raising Furgo changes that. He still hasn’t been a child, but he’s been a parent. I think it melts his heart in a similar way to how rescuing baby animals melts mine. Raising Furgo makes Rider capable of a love he wasn’t capable of before. He’s too stubborn to believe in family bonds, but I think his love both for Furgo and Song is much like the love of a parent who will sacrifice anything for their child. It means he must love them no matter if he trusts them, no matter even if they love him. He’s very lucky they do love him, though sometimes he at least thinks he doesn’t want to be loved. None of this makes his love perfect. He’s still scarred from his past, he still has regrets he can’t let go of, betrayed promises he still longs to fulfill, but his love is still the unconditional love of a parent, a parent who never chose to have a child yet will give literally anything to give their child happiness. To make things even more complex, Rider has a talent for sensing minds, which he’s often considered a curse. It goes both ways, not only making him feel the thoughts and emotions of others, but making them feel his. He’s learned to mostly control his talent. He doesn’t want to infringe on the minds of others, and he wants to keep his own thoughts to himself. But it’s unlikely his control is ever quite perfect, so even if clear thoughts never leak through emotions almost certainly do when he feels strongly. This is almost certainly part of why Song senses Rider’s pain so much, . . .
Don't have a lot of time right now to edit this, or ask my question properly, but I was wondering if I could add something like this to the beginning of Named By Love for context, maybe after the foreword?🤔
"It's okay to hide things from people for their good" is such a hard one to deal with, on both sides.😭
I think I might have a few things in common with Ray.😅
Too bad I can't sleep like her.
- they have to look after so can't just get themselves killed.
What would happen if his opinions were found out would depend on where & when, but worst case scenario probably wouldn't be all that different from what does happen.
#AwesomeCharacters
Lawcket has so many I'm not sure where to start.
Dragons are supposed to be evil monsters, so his being bonded to a dragon could get him in big trouble all on its own.
He also believes rulers & rich people are cruel, & should be defied. Except that everyone has loved ones - 1/2
- though I think he'd end up trying something that failed, because he couldn't bring himself to knowing kill someone he has no reason to believe is hurting others.
I had to look it up, but I know it now for as long as I remember it.😅
If he doesn't know any of the people in any way, he'd probably do nothing.
Let nature decide the outcome. (I know a trolley assume an unnatural setting, but same difference)
It's Lawcket who'd have more of a problem,-
Yes.
There may be a few exception, & also not all magic is "blood-magic" but he doesn't know that. I'm not sure if he'll ever find out.
He's far too prone to self-harm, living with guilt he's never quite free from.😭 He's a murderer, at yet still a mostly good person with all his flaws.💔
I'd just eat them frozen, until I broke my teeth too many times.😂
- & that all rule is wrong by nature.
I won't say anyone exactly understands him, but I suspect his refusal to hide his disrespect, or to value life over his personal sense of freedom & wrong & right, does play a part in his getting tortured by Dawn.
#AwesomeCharacters
Rider doesn't just have opinions, but beliefs, which is part of what gets him into so much trouble with Skybollon.
He believes it's evil to put the lives of hundreds over the freedom of one unless that one willing chooses it.
He believes humans are generally corrupt,- 1/2
This is beautiful.