Aetherite Book One - Paperback?

I've been procrastinating on the paperback editions that Amazon do. It's print per order which makes it pretty expensive per-book. The cost of-course it put onto the buyer, but thus far no one has purchased the digital edition yet, just read it through Kindle Unlimited and even then it's only a handful.

Despite this, I might go ahead with it. Perhaps that will give the story more credence. As such with this decision, I've decided to go through the whole book with another edit from start to finish. Currently on Chapter 12 and I'm attempting to fix issues that have nagged me. The issue is I have problems with certain types of scene. Action scenes are really difficult. Two people talking, I can do with ease and I can (in my opinion) make it interesting. Action scenes require planning out positions, moves, deflections and a whole lot of descriptive words and times where people move around, I tend to overwrite. The person doesn't need to know how they reached the door, just that they reached it. I don't need to write out every movement. The reader can imagine it.

To move back onto the lack of actual sales, which I very briefly mentioned. I think the issue is two-fold. First, I struggle with summaries and how to make them engaging. The other is that people don't know the book even exists. Even as I write this blog, only one or two people will see it and they (you reading this) probably stumbled on this entirely by accident.

I have pondered telling people in my family that I've written, but with that comes a certain amount of embarrassment. I'm anxious and reserved, and I suppose you could say that to a degree that I'm anti-social, but not in the miserable ruin everyone's day way, but in a quiet don't like talking to people kind of way. It sucks, which is probably why my self-advertising is virtually non-existent. I suppose I should try harder, but that's difficult when one doesn't know how.

Hope you're having a good day.

-Andrew Hallgarth
Wannabe writer and someone who always tries to improve on their writing but always finds it an uphill struggle.

Of Their Blood - Obsession - Chapter One - Preview

The small ship’s velocity slowed as it approached the landing pad. Fifty, forty, twenty, then ten metres per second. With a press of a button, the landing gear deployed as the ship was aligned with the pad.

Typically such a landing would be done automatically, but this time the small ship was coming in manually under the control of the pilot. While not unheard of, it was entirely irregular and was only usually permitted if the docking computer had failed.

Gripping both control sticks tightly, the pilot manipulated them carefully as the ship drifted closer to the pad. The stick on the left controlled vertical and lateral movement while the right stick controlled the pitch and roll. On the sticks were two triggers which controlled the yaw.

The pilot controlled velocity in two ways. First was by foot pedals which were only really used at speeds below one-thousand metres per second. For velocities that were higher, more precise values were input via the control panel which went all the way up to the megametre per-second range.

The ship slowed to a mere three metres per second, which was around twice that of walking speed. Nervously, the pilot pushed the left stick forward, and the craft began to descend before finally touching gently down onto the pad.

Checking that contact was solid, the pilot powered down the engines. The electronic sound of the port’s computer voice spoke its confirmation, and the pad lowered itself down into the hangar.

That was when the image behind the cockpit window changed. Instead of a hangar it was replaced by the pilot’s instructor and examiner both stood there observing at her.

The examiner gave the pilot instruction over the speakers. “Please vacate the test pod.”

Preia Lomas, the learner pilot, did as she was told and unbuckled herself from the seat before exiting the pod through the rear door.

None of what she had been through had been real, at least in the sense that she had not been in a real spaceship. All of it had been nothing more than a simulated examination, and today she would either be given a pilot’s license, or they would tell her that she needed to retake it. She was hoping for the former.

Moving around the test pod, she stepped up to both the instructor and examiner who looked over at her. “Three metres a second was a little slow on the final phase, but regardless you passed.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. The last eighteen months had been rather difficult. From learning the controls to getting used to operating them as though they were second nature, it had been rather harrowing at times. Now that part was finally over, and she would have an official license.

The examiner continued, “So, I see you have passed the theory tests and basic maintenance?”

“And advanced maintenance,” she corrected.

He looked it up. “Yes, you have. You seem to be better at that then with the flying part.”

The instructor who had helped her learn how to fly over the course of the year cleared his throat, indicating his displeasure at the examiner’s comment.

The examiner seemed to ignore him. “Have you considered doing a full engineer’s degree?” The examiner asked.

“No, not really,” she answered.

“Well regardless, you passed. We have some documents you have to sign for the license which you should have in about a week.”

She shook both of their hands. “Thank you.”

Her instructor, a guy by the name of Jackson, walked her to the main foyer of the pilot school.

“Thanks again,” she said with gratitude. “You’ve helped me a lot.”

“It’s my job,” he said with a smile. “You just make sure you put the license to good use.”

“I am,” she assured him. “You could say it’s going to help me realise something that I’ve wanted since I was a girl.”

“That’s good,” he said. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” she said as she signed out before leaving the school.

Outside wasn’t outside, at least not in the sense that most people used it. She lived on a giant space station and had done since she was fifteen. Now twenty-three she hadn’t been on a planet for a little over eight years.

The Marigold Colony, as it was called, was her home, and she lived in her grandfather’s old house that ran along the outer edges of the massive environmental enclosure in a gated district. The design of the enclosure wasn’t all that different from a town or city on a planet, complete with structures, roads and pavements.

Her grandfather had died a few years back now and was the only family she had. Or at least that cared enough or were able to take her in after her parents and little brother had been murdered. It was their deaths were what drove her onward, what pushed her to do things she would otherwise not have done, would not do in the future.

Stepping into a tram, she sat herself down and rode it to her destination by the LB landing bays. She then headed down an elevator to the deck four bay fourteen labelled MC-02 or Marigold Custom, hangar two.

After showing her ID to the electronic security terminal, she was allowed entry. The doors slid open, and she set foot on the upper level and stared down at her ship below.

The ship was being made by Marigold Custom, who rented out this and the hangar next door for their business which was building and customising ships. Usually, they were hired to modify an existing one, either to give it better engines, styling or a garish paint job. She had wanted a scratch build and for her money was no obstacle.

There were times when she believed they were taking advantage of that fact as the build time was glacially slow with over a year in development. She had hoped to have it finished well before she got her license, but that didn’t look likely at this point.

The reason for this was because she would also need her ship to undergo an inspection for certification. This process took longer on custom builds, such as this one and she would also have to ship in a specialist team to do it which wouldn’t be cheap.

She also needed a weapons license to stock torpedoes which again would take time and a full background check. The dual energy cannons were unlocked by default as a means of defence, but they were far from the most powerful out there being civilian grade.

All the hassle she had to go through was worth it, though. Every time she came to see the progress all her doubts faded away.

The ship was quite a bit bigger than she had initially imagined. The vessel included six cabins, a front lounge, a standard sized docking port on the rear and a nicely sized cargo bay. At forty-eight metres in length, eleven high with the landing gear retracted and thirty metres wide, it all added up to something of quite a significant scale. At least to her.

Preia moved down the steps over to Gable, the guy who was in charge of not only Marigold Customs but also the build. He was also the guy who kept encouraging her to go bigger and bolder with the build, something she knew he had done to get her to spend more and more money.

Initially, it had started as a much smaller ship. There had been a single cabin and no lounge and certainly no medbay. Regardless, Preia was satisfied, despite being initially against it.

Gable, who was looking at a holographic data readout, turned and looked at her. The readout faded away into his wrist as he greeted her. “She’s almost finished,” he told her. “Just some carpets and furniture to add in and she’ll be ready to go.”

“She still needs to pass a certain test to prove it’s spaceworthy.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “She’ll pass, don’t you worry about that. You want the tour?”

“I can go inside and take a look around?” she asked looking her ship up and down.

“Sure, everything’s in place. Well, we still need to hook up the stardrive systems, and there are cables strewn everywhere. Apart from that, everything’s in place.”

Preia nodded. “Sure, give me the tour.”

“We’ll take the inspection platform.” She followed him over to the platform and climbed on after him. He stood at the controls and activated it. A few moments later it began to levitate off of the ground.

The pod was a simple design. It had a cylindrical base with a waist-high railing all around it. It hovered by using a small gravity engine and had a very slow speed of around four kilometres per hour. The speed was adequate for what it was. It was an inspection platform, after all, used for inspection, not for racing.

The first thing they came upon was the rear port gravity engine. It was huge. Preia believed that she could almost walk inside it. The engine itself was a basic cylindrical design with the gravity coils running along the inside in what was known as a gravity funnel. The engine itself was hollow, and from front to back, you could see straight through it. One the outer edge of the engine was the name of the ship, Astraea which was written in large block capitals.

The pod continued forward where they passed the three port cabin windows and the forward cannon. They then moved to the front where the cockpit and two torpedo launchers lay.

Gable spoke. “No torpedoes for you I’m afraid. We can’t stock them.”

“And I currently don’t have the permits,” she added. “So don’t worry about it.”

The pod moved over the cockpit and along the dorsal section towards the aft. It was mostly smooth featureless hull apart from the windows.

At the rear was the stardrive with the central rectangular FTL charge banks and the two cylindrical jump engines that were projected out above the back of the ship.

Gable spoke again. “Up to forty light years in a single jump,” he said. “And the gravity engines have a top speed of four megametres per second, though it will take a good hour to get to that speed.”

She smiled. They were what she had spent the most on during this build. Each gravity engine cost almost as much as the rest of the build excluding the stardrive, which itself was the second most expensive thing. With them, she could outrun near everything on the market. They were oversized for the frame, but not ridiculously so and complimented the rest of the arrowhead design of the ship rather than ruined it.

Finally, the inspection platform moved around the rear of the ship where Gable pointed to a ring that circled the rear airlock.

“That’s the cyclic shielding system,” he explained. “Better than your average shielding system. It uses two cycling shields to boost the power and durability.”

“Not cheap,” Preia said.

“You said you wanted the best,” Gable pointed out.

“And you’ve delivered. Astraea is turning out far better than I’d hoped.”

“Thanks. Do you want to see the interior next?” Gable asked as the platform landed back where it had started.

“Actually, it’s probably best I don’t. At least today,” she said. “I need to be heading home, got things to do.”

“Well, it’s probably for the best. As I said earlier, we have a lot of cables and equipment all over the place. Makes for a bit of a tripping hazard.”

“When do you think it will all be cleared up?”

“By the end of the week, I should think,” Gable said.

“I’ll come by on Saturday, then?” she suggested.

“Weekend,” he reminded her. “Unless you want to pay us overtime?”

“Monday, then?” Preia said.

“Perfect. She’ll be ready.”

“Not until we have the furniture in,” she said.

“That is for someone other than me. Sam will hook you up with something.”

“I plan on hooking myself up,” Preia answered. “I know what I like.”

“So does Sam. Don’t let her force you into anything you don’t want.”

“Don’t worry about that,” she assured him. “I can handle her. I’ll see you Monday. Keep up the great work.”

“Monday,” he confirmed.

Preia made her way out of the hangar and back to the elevator. The pilot exam had taken a lot out of her, and she felt like taking it easy for the rest of the day. She felt like she deserved it.

Despite what people some people might think about her regarding her wealth, she rarely took time for just herself. Every waking moment felt like she was working towards a goal, one that she hoped would ease her mind and let her sleep properly at night without the help of aids.

The moment she got home, she headed straight for the kitchen and made herself something to eat before heading through into the workshop which required a passcode.

She stepped inside, closing the door behind her then made her way over to her desk where she brought up the schematics of her very own build on the holographic monitor.

It wasn’t a spaceship, but it was just as crucial for her plan. It was an armour suit known as an AMAS or an Advanced Mobile Assault Suit, and it was piloted, not worn. It stood towards the rear of her workshop in a frame, and was two-point-five metres at its full height which made it too large to get out of her place if she walked it out, but when the time came, she would be taking it apart and moving the pieces separately, reassembling it aboard her ship once she was out of the station.

The truth was what she was doing was illegal and the method she was going to use to control the armour was even more illegal. If she went through with it, that was, and she intended on going through with it.

The assault suit, as it was, required an outlawed spinal interface to connect with the user directly. She, however, had no interface implant and getting one was both expensive and very risky.

In all honesty, Preia wasn’t sure if she was going to go through with the interface or not, despite having already parted with the money. It was a big step, one that would change her life forever. But she was driven by a need to see justice, justice for her family who died in front of her.

The one responsible had an army of people around him, or supposedly had an army. To get close enough, she needed an edge and an illegal tech suit with enough firepower to level a small city was that edge.

Right now, though, the suit had no ordinance whatsoever. Getting those parts together was proving to be a lot more difficult. There was only so much one could do even with a lot of funds at their disposal, and she was undoubtedly experiencing that first hand.

She couldn’t give up, though. This build had been going on for years. She was seventeen when her aunt had first sent her the plans. She had learned everything she could, researched and studied hard on as much as she could about engineering and about the old wars where they had used assault suits such as this one. Unfortunately, they had been expensive to build and maintain, both financially and in regards to the toil it took on those that were unfortunate enough to be picked to pilot them.

There were unpleasant stories from those days. Armour pilots that were in constant pain from the implant. Those that suffered a form of phantom limb syndrome every time they were out of the armour. Others had breakdowns because their sense of self became confused. Were they the human, or the machine?

It was a huge risk, but she felt like there was no other reason to live, except for her goal. Her life from when her family had died when she was fifteen had been on a single course, and now she didn’t know if she could change it if she wanted to.

Preia performed a full systems check on the armour, despite knowing that nothing would have changed since she last did one which was this morning. As expected it was the same old armour that was almost complete sans armaments and a way to interface with it.

For the next thirty minutes, she tweaked a few of the settings. She wasn’t sure why she bothered as come tomorrow, she would probably end up resetting them right back to what they were.

The real reason she was there wasn’t to run diagnostics or to alter settings. She was waiting on a return message regarding where she could acquire some weapons systems. So far after nearly a month of waiting she had received no such reply and was starting to think that she never would.

That meant she would have to start the hunt for another contact and that posed a risk as she didn’t know if they were genuine or if it was a trap set up by the authorities to catch arms dealers and criminals. She didn’t want to have to do it, which was why she had already waited a month and would continue to do so for at least another.

“What’s the hold-up,” she mumbled to herself as she stood up. Sometimes it felt like nothing was happening and that she would never reach her goal. It frustrated her to no end at how long it was taking for everything to come together. At this point, it had been years, literally.

Thankfully, today had been a considerable step forward. Preia had passed her final test, and while she had to wait for all the finalisation of all the various documents, that was out of her hands which was yet another thing she had to wait for.

The truth was that Preia was fed up of waiting. She felt like she had been waiting for her entire life. Things were moving forward, but it was at a glacial pace. But she was driven, and no matter how long it took, she would see this through to the end, because there was nothing else she knew.

-

Links

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Future Story and Ship Design

So, I'm pretty much all in on writing a sci-fi story. Got the main draft done and I'm going through what might be the last edit, though it requires rewriting of segments to make it flow better.
Anyhow, It has what is known as a "hero ship" which while it doesn't really come into play until half-way through the story, I felt that it was important to know what the ship looked like on the inside and outside. So a little over two years ago I began modelling it in Blender and it's evolved a ton over that time. The exterior is pretty much done and textured and every room is there in the interior though only the rooms that can be seen from the outside are textures.

Probably a little overboard but it should also make for a good front cover prop.
Mood = Happy.

One Chapter One Day

Might seem trivial for some but for the first time I wrote a full chapter in a single day. That's around 3500 words! I've never accomplished that before and if I keep this up I'll have finished the first draft of what will hopefully be my next book by the end of the week. Still, there's a long way to go, but I genuinely feel happy about how the story is coming together. There are a few leaps in logic that I need to sort out, but I fixed most of them due to me doing a full chapter by chapter outline.

So there's my advice to anyone who happens to come across this who wants to write. Start with a basic outline, then start going over what you want to happen chapter by chapter. That way you can see what the basic story will be and how it will pan out. From there you can change things before you start writing, even the first chapter so that they work better. Works for me, or rather it seems to.

Feeling happier about things, even if people don't read my stuff on the Kindle.

Of the Future

Sometimes things can feel uncertain. Sometimes one can wonder if there is one at all. All you can do is push on and try to hope for the best, or at least try to make sure that you did your best. There is little else one can do except to lie down and give in.

So keep on pushing.

Prologue - Without Magic

The lone emperor sat silently in his throne, illuminated by bright shafts of light that streamed down into the large chamber from windows high above. At either side of the room were rows of pillars, each adorned with torch sconces of dying fire, the perfect representation for his dying empire.

He was dressed ornately in a long flowing white robe adorned with gold and bronze trims. His skin was a deep crimson, and he had bone white horns which protruded from his upper forehead and swept back, hugging close to his skull, giving him a distinctly sinister look.

At a glance, it all seemed rather peaceful. The perfect picture of serenity. At least for one that was merely observing the moment. Moving beyond it, revealed a reality which was very different.

The sounds of a war being waged outside echoed within the chamber. Thunderous booms from spells and the muffled cries of dying soldiers rumbled through the walls. It was a crescendo that marked the impending end of an empire.

Emperor Abadyn knew that there was very little he could do to stop it. He had been unable to slow it down or do anything to halt what was now coming to pass.

He dwelt on what could have been. On the things that he could have done differently. If only the people of the world had accepted his rule, then Albarth would have remained at peace.

It had been over three hundred years since his empire had first begun to take shape. It had started out as just a single city. Then it had expanded to engulf not only other cities but countries, continents and then the entire world.

Alas, it had not lasted, and his empire had crumbled as the people had rebelled. Now that rebellion was in the capital. Every race of Alfar had joined together to destroy him. It was almost funny since he was the one that had joined them all together in the first place.

It seemed that the price for peace was too much for them. He had sought to put an end to war forever, but the masses only knew how to follow their baser instincts. They had fought back against the peace and prosperity he had given them like the savages they were.

Despite the fierce battle going on outside, the Great Palace remained mostly untouched in the centre of the capital city of the nation of Gorbara.

Constructed over three hundred years ago, it sat atop of a vast underground structure of great importance. What lay within was something special, something that Abadyn could not allow his enemy to destroy.

To stop its impending destruction, he had sealed it off using the last of his magic. He had covered the entire structure with a protective ward so powerful that not even the greatest of mages would be able to break it. Not for a thousand years at least.

Or so he hoped.

Abadyn knew that he was going to die, but at least some part of his legacy would carry on in this place. Perhaps one day, someone would finish what he had started and have the strength needed to see it through to its conclusion. He hoped that by then, the people of Albarth would be willing to do what was necessary for there to be peace.

As for the empire itself? For a time the whole world had been under his rule. It had been a feat that no one else in history had ever been able to accomplish. It was possible that no one would ever again.

The first to fall to him was the nation of Gorbara itself that lay within Faena in the Djiana subcontinent. Abadyn had not had a massive army at the time, yet he had still managed to succeed with just a small group.

The battles had been bloody and fierce, but he was victorious. Gorbara was his and he was named king.

Now with an actual army, he pushed outwards and took the rest of the Djiana subcontinent, the home of the orange-skinned Djiana people. With only a short respite, Abadyn then pushed out and managed to conquer the rest of Faena and the pale-skinned Alfaerie people that lived there.

It had taken forty bloody years, but eventually, the entire continent was his. Its people had been defeated and brought under heel as part of his now gargantuan Empire. Even back then, it had been the biggest empire the world had ever known.

First Emperor Abadyn, however, had been far from finished. One continent had not been enough, and he not only wanted more, but he needed more. The savages still needed to be tamed, and it seemed that he was the only one willing to tame it.

From Faena he pushed into the adjoined continent of Alduath which lay to the direct west. There dwelled the short-statured peach-skinned Alduath people.

Despite their diminutive size, the continent had taken far longer to conquer than Faena. Not only were their cities built into the mountains, but they also had conceived of powerful aetheric machines and defences to fight off any would-be invader.

Regardless, it did not matter. With Abadyn and his top generals leading the armies, the continent eventually fell under his rule.

Even with that victory and after a total of ninety years of war, he was still not satisfied. With his unyielding hunger, he turned his attention to the southern continent of Damyre.

The people that lived there were mostly nomadic, with only a few cities to the very north of the landmass. As such it had been difficult to tame, as most of them had no form of government beyond a single village leader.

Abadyn accepted the challenge and commissioned the construction of cities to not only to house the tribes but to also act as staging areas for his armies.

Within a mere twenty years, his forces tore through most of northern Damyre. Satisfied that Damyre was now on its way to being civil, Abadyn turned his attention to his next conquest.

Merundinia was the land of his people, the Akanari. It was also land he had once called home. Unlike the others, this continent had been easier to bring into the fold.

Just like Damyre, the people that lived there were mostly nomadic with very few cities. While these cities were quite wealthy, they had gained it through the slave trade they had once had with the Djiana. Something that Abadyn himself had stopped a century earlier.

Now they had opened up relations to the giants of Ittara, a continent to the far east and continued the barbaric sale of their fellow Akanari unimpeded.

Through diplomacy with the tribes, Abadyn had promised to end the slave trade, to stop the Akanari from the cities from tearing their villages apart and selling their kinsman for wealth.

Being a fellow Akanari and a former slave himself had helped them to trust him, and with that trust, he had gained a foothold on the continent. That foothold grew in strength when his forces began their assault on the cities. More tribes joined his cause when word spread of what he was doing.

Finally, Abadyn brought the cities under his control. With the slave trade at an end, a new era began for the Akanari. Heralded as a hero the continent was his.

After taking Merundinia, there had been a respite as Abadyn returned to Gorbara for an entire decade. In the newly built palace, he planned the next phase which was taking the lands of the giants known as the Jötara and Ittara.

When the time came to begin what was to be the final two campaigns, he sailed with the largest fleet of ships the world had ever known.

From the moment his armies landed until he left having conquered both continents eighty years later, Abadyn knew only war as they engaged in the bloodiest battles any of them had ever known.

Regardless of how bloody, or how horrific, Abadyn took them all. Every continent on Albarth was his and every people sans the brutish Orgnaari of the Orken Isles, was now under his banner.

To Abadyn the Orgnaari were of little consequence. They were little more than oversized goblins who held the appearance of Alfar. He had no interest in their small chain of islands, nor did he have any interest in taming them, so he left them be.

Unfortunately, it was not to last. The empire had expanded too fast and had become stretched too thin. Now almost a hundred years after it had started to come apart. Abadyn could see it all as plain as day. Every mistake he had made, every consequence of his overzealous ambition.

His only regret was that it was far too late to change anything. There was no way to fix his mistakes or right where he had so desperately gone wrong.

Now his empire was lost. Nation after nation, continent after continent had rebelled against him and had subsequently broken away.

The first to take up arms against him were his own people, the Akanari and their departure had stung the most. Before the empire, slavers had ripped villages apart. First sold to the Djiana, then to the Ittara, Abadyn had put a stop to both.

Abadyn had been one of those slaves, once. Taken from his village in the middle of the night and torn from his own family as his home was pillaged and burned.

Abadyn thought of them as nothing but spoiled children who were not satisfied with everything he had given them. For wiping out slavery which had plagued them for generations and building them cities so they did not have to live in squalor.

Even with the rebellion, he had managed to hold onto the continent. At the time he had assumed it to be isolated, but when the giant Itten of Ittara had started to rebel against his empire, he had realised that all was most certainly not well.

Despite this, he managed to hold on to both continents through perseverance and overwhelming force. That was until the uprising in Alduath happened.

Fearing that a rebellion might spread to the home continent, Abadyn was forced to make a difficult decision. Knowing that holding the two continents was costing a lot of resources, he abandoned Ittara and Jötara completely, though kept his forces in Merundinia despite the increasing hostilities with the natives.

He’d had every intention of retaking the lost continents in the future, though it wasn’t to be. Upset not only spread from Alduath into western Faena but also to the continent of Damyre to the south

The events that led to the revolt in Damyre were unique, or they had been at the time. It had been one of his generals that had led the rebellion there. Abadyn had lost entire armies there, not due to death incurred by fighting, but to betrayal.

With everything starting to fall apart, Abadyn finally pulled his troops out of the conflict in Merundinia and brought them back to Faena to secure the home continent. He knew that he could not afford to lose it as he would also lose his seat of power and therefore everything.

There was some satisfaction when the traitorous general in Damyre met his end in a bloody battle, but it was unfortunately short-lived as it grew increasingly clear that his hold on Damyre and the Damyri people had not only waned but had collapsed.

With defeat in western Faena all but certain, he pulled what forces he could back to the Djiana subcontinent in the east. It did little good, though, as his very own people were starting to sense weakness and entire armies were turning against him.

Abadyn believed them to be all ungrateful, that all of them were traitors who had forsaken what he had given them and cast it away like a broken sword.

Out of everyone that had betrayed him, the one that had hurt the most was General Tanar. He had been his most trusted friend, and like Abadyn, the potential for greatness with the aetheric power that lay within him.

The Emperor had placed him in charge of the armies of western Faena. He had trusted him to do what was necessary to not only fulfil but also maintain Abadyn’s dream.

In the end, Tanar had used that potential to turn on him and lead the armies in the west against him. To this day, he did not know why Tanar had turned.

Now, it was far too late to know the reason. Whether it was divine retribution or luck, Tanar had met his end in the battle for Camare, a nation that bordered Gorbara to the direct west.

Regardless, it did not matter. Lost was Camare to the once great Empire and with nowhere else to go, the war spread to Gorbara itself.

With the enemy forces now in the city, he knew that he had mere hours left to live; if he even had that. Time was now a luxury and every moment that passed was a moment closer to his demise.

Soon, the enemy would finally destroy everything he had built over the last three centuries. With him gone, the world would once more descend into darkness. There would be nothing left of his dream or his vision.

In the end, they did not deserve him. None of them did. They had rebelled because they were unworthy. In his prime, Abadyn had been the greatest sorcerer the world had ever known. He had also ruled the largest empire that history would likely ever know. None of them cared about his accomplishments, because in his opinion, it was beyond the comprehension of their tiny weak minds.

If only things had been different, then he would have had more than just Albarth under his control. But that future had been thwarted before it had the chance to bloom by those who could not understand.

A Djiana soldier burst into the room, pulling Abadyn out of his reverie. Blood covered his grey Imperial armour and sweat covered his helm-less brow. One of his long swept back pointed ears had been partially severed and was still bleeding.

‘My Lord,’ the soldier uttered as he knelt before him, his breath heavy. ‘The defences have been breached. The enemy shall be at the palace gates at any moment.’

‘Very well,’ Abadyn accepted, his voice strangely calm considering the dire situation. ‘You may now take your leave.’

The soldier looked up at his emperor in confusion. ‘Take my leave, my Lord?’

Abadyn leant forwards in his throne. ‘There is no purpose in your death. ’Tis over, all of it. Go and escape while you still can.’

The soldier slowly rose to his feet but stood firm. ‘I shall not abandon you, my Emperor,’ he said assuredly.

Abadyn nodded slowly. ‘Then you will most certainly die here with me.’

The Emperor had no illusions. He knew that the only way this ended was with his death. They were all too scared of his power to let him live. He did not have a concubine or any children. He had not allowed himself to have that luxury, and as such his legacy would end up as nothing but ashes.

His legacy was meant to be a united Albarth, but he knew that was not what the future would tell. They would most likely call him a tyrant when all he had wanted was peace. Peace at any cost.

There on his throne, he remained. Even as the enemy burst into the room, pushing back the last defending soldiers he remained. All of them fell, leaving Abadyn alone with those that were here to end his very existence.

They all surrounded him, all pointing their various weapons consisting of blade, blunt, sceptre and stave. They were all anticipating a battle, one that Abadyn had no intention of giving them. He honestly no longer had the will or the energy.

A wiry pale Alfaerie sorcerer with a pointed white beard stepped forward. ‘So, it ends,’ he said staring him down. ‘Your reign of fear and oppression finally comes to a close.’

Abadyn leant back in his throne as though nothing were amiss. He intended on dying where he sat, not dragged off for some public execution.

The sorcerer continued, his glare becoming fierce. ‘You who ruled with fear and intimidation.’

Abadyn dusted off his robe with disinterest.

The sorcerer grew visibly angry. ‘You who took the world for his very own selfish reasons. Here you shall die, and your empire of evil will go forgotten. As shall you.’

Abadyn’s pride got the better of him. He rose up sharply from his throne and glared at the man. This action caused a few of them to take a step back due to either fear or surprise. Perhaps both.

‘I brought peace to this world!’ the Emperor bellowed.

He could see the hatred and fear in their eyes. It gave him strength.

‘The people were not at peace,’ the Alfaerie sorcerer responded loudly. ‘Our cries went unheard at best and were smashed down at worst. Your empire was one of subjugation. You maintained peace through fear and intimidation. Your laws were harsh and unreasonable. People cannot live in fear of punishment for the slightest misdemeanour.’

‘It was necessary!’ Abadyn shouted, phlegm flying from his mouth. ‘You people are barbarians. You cannot control your primitive bloodlust. You are disgusting animals that have rebelled against the only one who truly showed you love!’

‘No,’ the sorcerer disagreed with a shake of his head. ‘The bloodlust came from you and those you placed in charge. Under your so-called leadership, people were killed or severely punished for the slightest offence. Your grip was like adamantine, and it was choking the people, ripping the life out of their very souls.’

Calming himself, Abadyn sat back down. He understood now that the initial purges he had done during the wars to reduce the populations down to more manageable numbers had not been enough. Neither had the limits imposed on the people regarding their offspring.

It was clear now that he had not at all been severe enough regarding anything. His grip had not been like adamantine as had been said. It had been more akin to old rusty iron, brittle and ineffective.

If only he had another chance to try again, he would change so much. But the opportunity had long since passed. It had as soon as the Akanari in Merundinia had started to rebel, starting the avalanche that eventually took everything he had spent so long building up.

Abadyn slouched in his throne not at all intimidated, despite knowing the inevitable outcome of this encounter. He might have used up the power he had left to seal away the understructure and what power lay there, but he was still very much in command here. He could tell from their body language that they were scared of him. It gave him confidence, even if it was unearned.

‘Do what you must,’ Abadyn said finally with a dismissive wave of his hand. ‘Each of you has ensured more wars and more death. I brought you peace, and I brought you law.’

‘Law that stopped prosperity!’ a grey-skinned Damyri spell-sword yelled at him. ‘Law that turned every Alfar into nothing more than chattel to be used up and thrown away!’

‘The common Alfar was already nothing but chattel regardless of what I did,’ Abadyn said dismissing the very notion that what he had done was worse than what had come before.

‘Lies,’ A young Djiana mage uttered.

Abadyn continued, ‘They were already dying in the mines, dying on the farms and even dying in the cities. I removed death by pointless war, and I gave them purpose.’

The sorcerer disagreed. ‘The only purpose it brought was in your own eyes, for your very own deeds. To them, nothing had changed except the laws were so stifling, so severe that even miners in the deepest and most inhospitable mine were more likely to face death by guillotine than by a falling rock or cave-in.’

Abadyn leant forward, gripping his knees hard. ‘Because without such severe laws you savages would tear each other apart. This world needs laws, and it needs order. I gave it, you all rejected it.’

A giant lumbering Itten man moved forward, hulking a large hefty two-handed axe. ‘Enough!’ he bellowed, louder than the now former emperor would have thought possible. ‘Let us end this!’

Some of the others disagreed. ‘He must stand trial,’ a young Akanari woman said.

‘He has to face his crimes,’ another added.

The Itten ignored them and harshly shoved the aged Alfaerie sorcerer to the side as he brought up his axe. ‘No more,’ he said.

The sorcerer cast a spell to stop the Itten from killing Abadyn, but an Akanari witch blocked it with one of her own. ‘He must die,’ she said, her eyes sparkling with lust in anticipation of the coming execution.

The Itten flashed a toothy grin as he brought the axe down to cleave Abadyn’s head in two.

The emperor’s final thoughts were of how they had all failed him, of how none of them deserved him, of how they all had chosen chaos instead of order.

If only things had gone differently, then maybe history would have heralded him as a hero instead of a villain.

If only.

-

LINKS TO NOVEL

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A New Start

It is strange to think how much time passes and how long it can take for things to come together. Writing can take a long time, with very little reward, but it's important that you can not only tell a story but enjoy writing it.
I wrote a story once before, but I ultimately wasn't happy with it, mainly because I was writing a sci-fi military epic with no real knowledge of tactics or how the military ultimately works. I did research, sure, but it's not my place to tell such stories I feel.
So I began anew with something more Fantasy. It will develop into a fusion of genres, but it is more grounded in the people, not in the setting.

Still, the setting is incredibly important, so much so that I built a world despite only seeing a small corner of it.

Not the greatest map, but it was more to give me an idea of what this fantasy world looked like from a planetary standpoint because I wanted the world of Albarth to be more than just some realm but an actual planet.

In the next post, I will show the cover and the Prologue of my story which can be found here:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
It can also be found at any amazon site, simply type in the url plus "/dp/B07JDK7N61" at the end without quotations.