#wip: ennas prequel

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

WIP Re-Intro: Enna's Prequel

Title: Enna's Prequel (temporary title, subject to change)

Genre: high fantasy

Status: draft 1

Pov: third person dual POV

Setting: Halmond, a small-ish country in the world of Aqurah. The majority of the action takes place in its capital, the city of Halmire.

Universal TW/CW: Murder, complicated family relationships, necromancy, people murdering their own relatives, kidnapping, crime, swearing

Plot/Synopsis: When she was 20, Enna Helder-Kromlin ran away from Halmire, accused of murdering her own brother. Fourteen years later they've returned, at the request of their twin sister, Anne. But when he gets to the city Anne is missing, and has been for nearly a year. Enna must work together with Effie and Bezeo, two new friends Anne had made in their absence, to get to the bottom of just what the hell is going on--not only now, but also what was happening 14 years ago, and who actually killed her brother.

Notes: this is the prequel to Frost & Fire & is set 10-20 years before that story

Tags: #wip: ennas prequel, #c: [first name] + [last name if applicable]

Main Characters:

Enna Helder-Kromlin, any/all pronouns, ~34, half elf. The first of our two narrators, Enna is a thief, mostly, and sometimes a baker. A few weeks ago, Enna got a letter from her twin, Anne, dated almost a year ago, asking him to please come to Halmire because she needs to talk to them.

Anne Helder-Kromlin, she/her, ~34, half elf. Our other narrator, Anne is a thief, and the de facto leader of the second of two factions in Halmond's thevies guild--Oleski. A year ago, she left the city for her own safety, and was supposed to confirm her location within two months, but hasn't made any contact.

Effie Fisarnos, she/they, 64 (~33 in human years), mostly a gnome. Effie is an alchemist, who owns the potion shop The Broken Cauldron, which sometimes acts as a safehouse for the thieves guild. She is also Anne's partner/fiancee, but that isn't public knowledge, and not even Enna knows it. Anne promised to send her a letter no more than two months after she left, but Effie never got one.

Bezeo [last name], he/him, 68 (~36-38 in human years), dwarf. Bezeo is the owner of a traveling food cart that roams around the city. He also invented pizza, and works for the thieves guild Anne is in.

Zephyr Helder-Kromlin, he/they, deceased (died at age 24), half elf. Zephyr was the older brother of Anne and Enna, and fourteen years ago he was murdered. At the time, he was the leader of Oleski, the thevies guild. Enna (though innocent) was blamed for the murder, but she managed to get away. The actual culprit was never found.

taglist maintained below the cut! Ask to be added or removed!

@ihaveneverhadaclue @thelaughingstag @athenswrites

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Best reason for a necromancer to be waiting until a specific time to sacrifice somebody?

(eleanor is the necromancer doing the killing, anne is the one being killed)

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

'Allo! 7, 8, and 15 for the ask game? :D

hi!!!

7. what are three songs you put on your WIP-playlist this year?

So I don't really have a wip playlist, but I have a general playlist I use for writing (mostly essays for school, but anything that's being a pain in the ass or I need to get done I use it for) plus a couple ones form when I'm working on specific wips, and those got a bunch of new editions! (the entire playlist, actually, the playlists for writing a specific wip didn't exist until this year).

Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin (fun fact: I couldnt remember the name of this song when I was talking to my friend once so I called it the harmonica lesbians song) (frost & fire/enna's prequel writing playlist)

Once and For All from the Newsies musical sound track (herald at dawn writing playlist)

Big Dreams in a Small Town by Restless Heart (herald at dawn AND frost & fire/ennas prequel writing playlsit)

8. what are three things you're looking forward to next year?

I'm really looking forward to doing the worldbuilding for herald at dawn. its going to be so much fun, i can't wait. and also working on fleshing out the proper plot of ennas prequel and frost & fire. and the third thing is probably just getting back into writeblr in general because damn did i not have any spoons or motivation for like a year and a half. but i has both of those now!!!

15. time for shameless self-promotion! answer with a piece of writing you want others to see/read! (if you have nothing posted/published this year, any other year is fine too ^^)

I love this bit so much. so fucking much. its the prologue to enna's prequel and i love it.

631 words. tw/cw: referenced murder, blood, graphic description of torture (no actual depiction of it, its a threat made by one character to another), someone trying to kill their relatives

In the tunnel there was a girl standing alone. Her name was Enna. She was crying, tears streaking tracks down her cheeks, and her shirt was wet with blood that did not belong to her. She stood in a stone tunnel with an arched ceiling. The floor was hard packed dirt, with the occasional flagstone poking out from underneath.

Her black-and-blue hair was in a simple braid down her back. It ended just above her waist. She was staring at someone in the distance, no more than 15 feet past. Her eyes were wide and wet; despite that, they were fierce, a hint of fire burning in the depths inside them. She reminded the elf at the end of the passageway of her mother. Stubborn and full of a fierce anger; one that was strong enough to burn down cities.

She didn’t make any move towards the elf. She knew she couldn’t win whatever fight would happen if she tried to stop him. Enna did not yet wish to join her brother in death. Instead, Enna asked one question. Just one, and nothing else. “Why?” she said, voice shaky. “Why did you kill my brother?”

The elf half turned, his face cast in shadow. “You wish to know why?” the man laughed, a deep, bone chilling, hollow laugh that Enna would never forget. “There are more powerful forces in this world than you know, girl, and it would do you wise to listen where your brother did not. Stay out of matters you do not, cannot, understand. Die now and redeem yourself from the crimes of your mother.”

“You knew my mother?” asked Enna, her voice soft and hollow.

“Yes. Why would I not, Enna Marie?” The elf leaned forward until his face hit the edge of the pool of low lamplight. Icy blue skin, a face framed by black hair, and a pair of eyes she saw in her own face everyday. Green eyes, eyes the color of emeralds and of even finer stones Enna could not hope to see. “I am your uncle, girl,” he spat. “I know of every ‘accident’; of the blasphemy that resulted in the birth of you and your heathen twin.”

His voice echoed as he drew back from the light. “I will make you pay for that. I will make you bleed and I will make you until you scream until that little dammed father of yours comes running. And I will make him watch as I bleed his two little girls dry, just as I did to his son.”

“My father is dead,” said Enna, softly. It was the only thing she could think of to say. “I don’t even know his name.” But no one was around to hear her. Echoing in the silence was a bone chilling laugh that would haunt her nightmares for decades to come.

Her uncle was long gone by the time anyone came down the passage to accuse her of fratricide, of the murder of her brother.

It was not Enna who had killed her brother, not Enna who had committed that most grievous of transgressions, the killing of one’s own blood, not yet. It was her uncle who had killed Zephyr, who had murdered the son of his once beloved sister.

But her pleas of innocence were not to be believed, and Enna would carry that blame for a decade and a half. Some people would never forgive her. Some people forgave her even before she did it, and some people believed her—that she did not need to be forgiven, because she had not done anything.

Enna would not die an innocent, not today. She would run, and run, and run. She would keep running until she could run no longer, and then she took the name Marie.

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Writing Excerpt: Enna's Prequel

In honor of the 2/3s winner of the poll I made last night, here's something I wrote last week.

(The winner was ''Anne gets rescued by a group of assorted sapphic women'')

Word Count: 1,227 Tw/cw: Blood/human sacrifice, murder, referenced death, the protaganist being afraid that someone close to them might die, fighting, weapons, blood. I think that's it, let me know if I missed anything else. Context: Anne got kidnapped by a necromancer (Eleanor) who wants to use her (and enna) as the sacrifice(s) to kickstart a summoning ritual. She wants to use them because of who their dad is (loosely an angel (if you know d&d they're assimar)) and the magic that gives them. This is the scene of Effie, Enna, Thea, and Lauralei all going to rescue her, because none of them want her dead or an eldritch being trying to kill them all. Effie is Anne's girlfriend/partner/future wife, Lauralei & Thea are her friends, & Enna is her twin sister.

At the bottom of four layers of catacombs was a secret trapdoor, guarded by a man named Barnabus. Now, he was dead. Enna pushed the door open and descended down the flight of stairs beyond it. She wasn’t expecting what was at their bottom.

In the center of the room was a carved stone circle. It was detailed with hundreds, if not thousands, of symbols and phrases that Enna could never hope to understand. At one side of it, placing half melted candles into worn grooves, was an auburn haired woman. She was taller than Enna by at least a foot and everything about her screamed two things. She was a necromancer, and she was rich.

Her dress was ebony black and made of fine, heavy cloth. It was the kind of fabric that it would cost a hundred gold just to get wax out of, but here she stood, wax dripping past her skirt. Her hair was braided into a crown, and at the top there was a hair comb. It had a blood red ruby in its center, and the rest of it was gold. Her make up was flawless, and her skin the color of clouds.

Chained against the wall was a woman who could have been Enna herself. She was small; slightly built to begin with and months of near starvation having taken their toll. Her hair was limp, her cheeks hollow and her eyes half closed. Her ankles and both her wrists were shackled, and one arm was bent in a way that no one’s should be. The only thing that told her Anne was alive was the twin pulse beating alongside her own and the slow rise and fall of her chest.

“Oh, excellent, you’ve made it just in time for the main spectacle,” she said, her voice filled with a malice that contained far too much glee for Enna to be comfortable with. Her voice was smooth—like velvet. “I would so hate for you to miss it,” Eleanor continued.

“What are you doing to her,” demanded Enna, feeling a short figure push against her back and knowing that Effie was behind her on the stairs.

“Oh,” laughed Eleanor, “Nothing I wouldn’t do to you. I was hoping I would get to kill all three of you, but,” —and here her voice took on a darker turn— “Zenderian killed the boy before I got the chance. Pity, that, but no matter. The two of you combined will be plenty strong enough for what is needed. Who knows, there might even be leftovers!” She giggled.

Enna let the arrow fly.

The giggling cut off abruptly. Suspended in the air in front of Eleanor’s throat was the arrow. It floated in space, bobbing gently in a nonexistent breeze. She reached up and plucked it out of the air like she was plucking a raspberry off a bush. “A steel tipped arrow. How… quaint.” Her lip curled, and she flung it to one side. It clattered against the flagstones.

Effie moved to Enna’s side, where she had a clear view of the room. She drew a vial from her belt, and hefted it in her hand as if to chuck it at Eleanor. Then she looked at Anne, and how close the two women were, and she lowered it.

“That’s right, little gnome. Just surrender now, and everything will be perfectly fine.”

“No! It won’t be! It isn't! You’re trying to kill my partner, who I love very much and would like to not be sacrificed for the birth of an eldritch demon.”

Eleanor stood to her full height as Effie withdrew a small crossbow from her back and two more figures moved past Enna to flank her and Effie. She drew a long and wickedly curved knife from her belt. It’s handle was worn, and the iron blade was sharp enough to gleam in the half-light.

“Oh, darling,” she purred. “Birth? No, this is just waking them up. They’ve existed for a long, long time.” She raised the knife behind her.

Effie hissed. “Fuck. You.” She pulled the trigger on the crossbow, watching as a pair of bolts fired straight for her.

Sure, she couldn’t use her potions. But that didn’t mean Effie was defenseless. She was a damn sight with a crossbow, and this one she had modified herself. The bolts weren’t steel, not completely. Copper did not, as a rule, mix particularly well with magic. It was practically impervious to it, which made it a very good weapon against spellcasters. In this case, necromancers.

Effie’s bolts shot, one and then another, cutting Eleanor off mid monologue. The first missed. It landed in the mortar of the wall behind Eleanor. The other didn’t. It flew straight into her upper arm and buried itself there. Eleanor screeched, and raised the knife with her uninjured arm. With the point she drew a careful line down Anne’s chest. The cut was shallow; about six inches long. It began at her throat. Blood began to bead along the edges, and slowly drip into the carvings below. It began to spread out in the carved circle. Eleanor began to smile. It was cold, and cruel, and the most terrifying thing Enna had ever seen in her life.

She didn’t know what scarred her more: Eleanor’s smile, or the fact that Anne didn’t react to the cut at all. The only sound she made was the slow ‘huff’ of her breathing, barely audible over the noise. At the same time, footsteps all at once began in the corridor to the left and immediately got louder. Temerity and Geir emerged from the archway. They were both armed to the teeth.

“Fuck,” said Lauralei, eloquently.

“You three deal with them,” said Thea. “I’ll get Anne.”

They nodded. Enna looked at Lauralei. “Make her feel it, will you?”

“Oh, she will,” said Lauralei grimly.

Just like that, the battle began. Enna dropped her bow and drew two of her daggers. She locked eyes with Temerity. The assassin drew her own blades.

“Fair fight?” she offered.

“Fair fight. No magic.”

“No bows,” countered Temerity. The two women circled each other.

“Fine. Three knives?”

“Don’t press your luck, Enna.”

“Alright. No bow, no magic. Agreed?”

“No magic, no bow,” said Temerity, and made the first move.

We must here pause in our narrative to clarify three things. One (1): Temerity was first and foremost an assassin. Her targets never saw her coming. Having one who could was throwing her off. That didn’t mean she was a shoddy fighter in the open—quite the opposite, in fact—but it did mean that just for the next few seconds, Enna had the upper hand.

Two (2): Temerity fought dirty.

Three (3): So did Enna.

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

I want to write but idk what to write

Context for the first: like the third or fourth scene in this new rewrite of frost & fire is Enna and Anne meeting the dragon council. There they also meet Redari and Ana!

Context for the second one because I ran out of space: Anne gets rescued from a necromancer by a group of assorted sapphic women (including her girlfriend), plus Enna (aroace)

Context for the third: I don't have my computer (well, I do, but it's on my desk and I'm comfy and refuse to move) so right now it's just notebooks, which is why there isn't herald on here cause I don't remember where I was at last

However I do have empty space and need to fill it so ya know. ideas welcome

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Heads up seven up tag

I was tagged by @zmwrites! thank you!

This is from Enna's prequel story, except its about Anne instead of Enna, because I love confusing the hell out of myself and everybody else, apparently.

If she was feeling up to being overdramatic, Anne might say she was deeply regretting every life choice she had made that led her to this moment. But, frankly, she didn’t. Some of them, yeah, several of those relating to her sister, but not all of them. Anne could never regret meeting Effie. Never. She did, however, regret not killing that bitch of a ginger necromancer when she had the chance.

there's a necromancer! she's an asshole! and also a ginger, but i'm a ginger, so there isn't necessarily any correlation between ginger and necromancer and/or asshole

I'll tag (with no pressure!!) @writing-is-a-martial-art @did-i-do-this-write @sleepyowlwrites and anyone else who wants to do this!

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

writing! scene from enna's prequel

As promised (sort of), writing!

This is from Enna's unnamed prequel (it used to be named angel's daughters but that has been scrapped because it really really does not fit), its almost the entire scene except for the end of it because that part doesn't really make sense yet. It's about 1.7 thousand words, which is long but I like this scene so fucking much so you get all of it! (it is under the cut because. Long).

tw/cw for death mention, murder mention, swearing

--------------------

It took her an embarrassingly long time to find the shop the person, Bezeo, had mentioned. She poked her head down what felt like half the streets in the city until she found it. Tucked between an empty storefront and a florist, with a bright, though cracked and peeling, green paint job and a single large display window filled with potions that sparkled in the sunlight, was a shop. Its sign, creaking in the wind, had a similarly green background with a large cauldron in the middle of it, a crack splitting it down the middle. In slightly peeling gold letters, it proclaimed to all who cared look that this was the Broken Cauldron, founded 682.

If that outside suggested that whoever owned the place took no great care for the building or its wares, then the inside suggested the complete opposite. On racks there were displayed dozens of potions in varying shapes, colors, and sizes. A bell hung above the door rang as Enna opened it, and golden sun poured through the well cleaned window.

As she entered, a voice called from the back, “I’ll be right with you!”

“Take your time!” shouted back Enna, and she began to look at the walls. An intricate, Gnomish made cuckoo clock hung on the wall above the counter. It was beautiful, and shone like it had been recently polished. The top of it, though, the roof of the little house, was more dusty, like it couldn’t be reached. As Enna looked around, she noticed all the shelves were like that. The very tops of them were significantly more dusty than the bottoms or middles.

“What can I—” the voice died off in the middle of the sentence as a short gnomish woman emerged from the backroom, dusting her hands on her apron and skirt.

She scanned Enna over once, twice, three times, lingering on her face, and on the scar there. “Annie thought you were dead,” she said, quietly.

“She said as much. Who’re you?”

“Effie, owner, operator, and sole employee. Do you know where she is?”

“I thought she was still in the city until ten seconds ago. There’s plenty of places to hide in this town.”

Effie muttered something under her breath that Enna couldn’t make out, then abruptly changed the subject. “Does Bezeo know you aren’t Anne? I assume he’s the one who sent you here.”

“He did. I don’t think so, I’m not even sure he knows that ‘Enna’ exists.”

As Effie walked over and flipped the sign on the door to closed—though she left it unlocked—she said, “He does. Bezeo and Anne were—are—good friends.”

“They’re not married, are they? I would’ve hated to miss the wedding.”

Effie laughed. “No, they’re not married. You,” Effie took a deep breathe, and for a moment Enna thought she was going to cry. “You didn’t miss any weddings. Well, you didn’t miss any you might care about. Bezeo’s married to some lady in the guard, which is endlessly funny to me, given that his two closest friends are a thief and her— are thieves.”

Enna nodded. “That’s good, I guess.”

“Yeah. Do you know anything at all of what’s been going on?”

“Going on where?”

“Here.” Effie led Enna through a door behind the counter and into a backroom, where a narrow set of stairs against the wall led up to the second floor—presumably residential—and crammed in the corner was a small table, with the rest of the space taken up by books, counters for brewing potions, and extra stock. She gestured Enna to the chair, and pulled over a stool for herself after dumping the papers on it onto the counter. “Sorry for the mess, I haven’t had time to clean up recently.”

“It’s alright, I don’t mind. As for your question. I know a little bit.”

“What?”

“Something scared Anne enough to make her leave and contact me sometime in the last year, after remaining in the city 13 years before that, through at least one murder charge & making no noticeable attempt to find me.”

“So you don’t know anything, not really. You don’t know why your sister ran.”

Effie’s words stung. They were right, but that didn’t mean they didn’t hurt. “So that’s what she did,” murmured Enna. “Had to be bad, then, she’s always been braver than me.”

“Bad is an understatement.” Effie ran a hair through her curly hair and tapped her fingers nervously on her leg. “If she didn’t tell you…”

“Everyone thinks I’m her. If it was bad enough to make her leave, there is a very good chance that I will get murdered within the week.” Effie looked directly at Enna’s arm, where there was a tattoo that marked her membership in the thieves guild that had defined her late teens and early twenties. Effie couldn’t see it through Enna’s sleeve, but she knew it was there.

Finally, after twenty seconds silence heavy with unspoken warnings and memories, Effie spoke. Her eyes were looking anywhere but on Enna’s face. “Beginning about sixteen, seventeen years ago, though it had been building for ages, there was a split, a schism. The old leader was of one mind, and his people controlled most of the power. Then, around the time you left, that guy died. His deputy, Lucas, took over, but he was ousted within the year. Lucas’ deputy was killed too, or bribed, or something, but they vanished.

“Maybe he never appointed one, I don’t know. I joined around that time, mostly as a safe house and a secret partner/ally for one side of the schism.”

“The side Anne was on.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes. The next leader, the current one, has been running the show for twelve, thirteen years. When he killed Lucas, or at least I’m pretty sure he killed Lucas, maybe the dude before him too, Anne thinks he got Temerity to kill Lucas and that someone else killed the one before him. I don’t remember his name, but Anne joined the camp he was in.”

Enna interrupted. “Zephyr. The man before Lucas was named Zephyr.”

“Right, yeah, thanks. So I think that it’s the current guy—Barnabus—who killed Lucas and Zephyr, but Annie thinks that Barnabus got Temerity to kill Lucas, and that some unknown third or fourth party killed Zephyr. Anne joined the side Zephyr had been on, maybe she’d been part of it already or maybe she didn’t know about the split before Zephyr was killed—because, apparently, that threw things into the open and people thought that someone had killed Zephyr to get power to someone on the other side of things.

“Anyways, over the course of six to seven years Anne got decently high up in the side that was against Barnabus. Her position got revealed two years ago. The fifth time someone tried to kill her I made her leave town.” There was something in Effie’s voice, some secret she was trying very hard not to reveal.

Enna sighed. “Hot fucking shit. Barnabus—gods, I remember him. Bloody idiot. How the hell did he ever become the leader?”

“I don’t know. Some people think that he’s a figurehead for Geer—he’s the leader of the assassins, unofficially Anne’s opposite, second in command of the side that’s wants to make Oleski an assassins guild, as well as a thieves guild.”

“So thats what the fuckers want to do. I can see why Anne and Zephyr’d be against that, I would be too.”

“Yeah, its rotten. Y’all steal things, not kill people. When Anne left I told her to find you and to send me a letter or some other message when she got there. It’s been a year. I never got a letter. You say you haven’t seen her. Something has gone very, very wrong.”

“She’s not dead. I would know if she was dead. She can’t be dead.” Enna’s words were more a hope or prayer than anything.

“Are you absolutely, completely, certain?” Asked Effie, and there was iron in her voice.

“I…” Enna dug down inside herself. She looked for that thread of contact, the string that connected the two sisters by more than appearance and age. And she tugged on it, and after a moment something tugged back.

Enna opened her eyes. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She said, voice filled with relief unimaginable, “Yes. Anne lives.”

Effie smiled, bright and true and clear, for the first time in months. “Then we can find her.” And I can keep my promise. But Enna didn’t know about the promise, and Effie refused to reveal secrets that were not hers, not completely, to keep.

The bells of the clock tower chimed noon, the deep Booms ringing out across the city and over the water beyond. “Effie? Are you in here?” shouted a voice from the front. Bezeo. He had perfect timing. “Back room, come on in!” hollered Effie, and shortly Bezeo entered, apron dusted with flour that streaked his beard and made him look decades older. He looked first at Effie, and then at Enna, before taking one of two remaining seats—a chair, the one that wasn’t next to Enna, who had wedged herself into a corner where she could see the door.

“Enna, meet Bezeo, a good friend of mine and of Anne. Bezeo, meet Enna Helder-Kromlin—do you use that last name?—” Enna nodded—, Anne’s sister.”

Bezeo blinked. “Pardon?”

“Anne’s sister. Enna.”

“Is this some sort of weird joke or… They’re identical!”

“Twin sister. Hi,” said Enna, at the same time as Effie said,

“They’re not identical, Enna’s got a scar next to her eye and Anne has freckles.”

“’Course you’d be the one to notice that,” grumbled Bezeo good natured-ly. “You probably clocked her the minute she came in, didn’t you?”

Effie smiled, not as bright as she had a minute earlier when she had found out Anne was definitely alive. “Yes. Though already knowing Enna existed did help.”

“Fuck off, I knew she exists too! Not my fault I assumed she was dead.”

“I’m pretty sure that is your fault, actually?” said Enna.

“Rude!” exclaimed Bezeo, with no real malice behind it.

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Last Line Tag

Forever and forever ago (I'm so sorry) I was tagged by @talesofsorrowandofruin & @oh-no-another-idea in a last line tag, and I finally have something to answer it with (yay for writing things finally for the first time in what feels like several months!!!). Since this took me so long to answer and there's two of you (and also because I absolutely love this) it is slightly longer than a last line and I'm sorry about it.

Someone had chalked the menu up onto a board propped up against the front of the cart, and Enna read it, checked her pocket to make sure she had enough coins, and absently wondered what in the world a ''pizza'' was.

She found out when the current customer finished paying & turned around, holding a sort of a flatbread. It had a red sauce--tomato, she thought, or perhaps strawberry--, little pieces of cheese that had melted, and small slices of some sort of cured meat.

This was absurdly fun to write and is easily one of my favorite things I've ever written just because it's so fucking absurd (to me).

I shall tag @ashen-crest, @magic-is-something-we-create, and @akindofmagictoo (No pressure). & also if someone wants an open tag, here you go!

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Manuscript Search Tag Game!

tagged (twice :D)by @akindofmagictoo! thanks!

Forever (herald at dawn, draft 1)

Alex nodded. “It will not keep you secret forever. In truth, I don’t think it will last for more than 24 hours from date of publishing. Your name was in the news a lot, especially then.” Nathaniel nodded. “That it was. You are sure I’ll only have a day or so?” “Journalists are an industrious group. Even if they aren’t looking for the witnesses mentioned, they will still be looking for her son. There are four and a half months of daily newspaper articles with your name in them in our archives alone.”

Rage

I can't find rage anywhere in any draft of a wip.

Trial (herald at dawn, draft 1)

“I do not understand why they need to have a trial go on for four months, and I am quite literally being paid to understand that.” “Do you want help? I don’t much understand legalese, but a second person looking at it might help?” offered James. “Thank you, Blakely, but you’ve got more important things to do, surely.” James half shrugged. “Not as such. Nothing that my uncle can’t wait for. Which case is it?” “The Ekker trial,” said Leo, leaning back and cracking his neck, “regarding the murder of Marisol Ekker by her son’s father’s wife, who was possibly aided by her son’s father.

Fade (enna's prequel, draft 1)

The expression on her brother’s face as she walked into the room, the plea for help, the way that man in the passage had claimed to be her uncle before he faded back into the shadows. Not that she believed him. She didn’t, not really. Why would he kill his nephew?. The look on first Penelope’s face, as she followed the screaming and the open trapdoor to find Enna staring into the darkness of the tunnel with blood on her shirt and no words to prove the man had actually been there. The look on Anne’s face as she admitted that she had gotten there after Enna, and their brother and their captain was already bleeding out. That look, and the way Anne wouldn’t—or couldn’t—meet the eyes of her sister as she damned her. The way Anne had looked at her when, three hours later, she broke into the cells to set Enna free. The way she had hugged her, and told her to run, and promised not to forget Enna, that they would find each other someday, like all the old stories said about twins.

I'll tag (no pressure) @ashen-crest @sleepyowlwrites and anyone who wants to play! your words are seek, find, wonder, and fire

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

WIP Titles Tag Game

I was tagged by @flock-from-the-void. Thanks!!!!

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! Then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I have. a great quantity of WIPs. more than I should, actually. its a problem. Or things I would classify as WIPs that I still think about at least once every 5 months. So there are going to be categorizes, for simplicity and also so I don't get lost in the maze of google docs files and notebooks and scrivener files. As follows: Scriviner Files, Google Docs, & actual notebooks.

(note: most of these do not have more than 1k words in them, or in the case of notebooks, most are less than 1/3 of the way full. I have lots of ideas but they're in my head)

Scriviner Files:

Frost & Fire REVAMP

Echoes of Blood (I haven't the slightest clue what this was)

Ashes of the Morrowwood

enna's prequel

One of Copper and associated works

Silence and Secondhand Souls

The Adventures of Evelyn Harker

sci fi thingy

Starr's story REWRITE

There shall now be a cut, because uh. LONG.

Google Docs:

Royalty AU

ONE OF COPPER ONE-SHOT: BALL

Elemental // Draft 0

Starr's Story Draft 0 (Camp NaNo April 2022)

Untitled Document #1--AU Prompt Fill

Vampire Hunter Steampunk Story-Victorian Era?

Assassin's Code

Bladesinger

Froost & Fire

Knight Story

Mascardae Ball Fic

Nightblades

Nine's A Storm

Raven

Silent War

WIP: Elven Story // Draft 0

A Dragon's Apprentice (NaNo 21)

Actual Physical Notebooks:

Black Notebook--One of Copper 2 (or, the very beginnings of it, anyway)

Purple Dragon Notebook--One of Copper (the entire draft 0 takes up about all but the last 10 pages or so, and thats just lore notes to fill up the rest)

Brown Notebook--NaNo ideas and notes on the stuff i did do for it

White Geode Notebook--misc wip stuff, mostly little snippets of backstory stuff.

that one moleskin notebook my uncle gave me for my birthday--that's the frost & fire notebook, with all the random notes and ideas in it

Rainbow Unicorn Notebook--Space Sci Fi Mail Carriers Story

Teal Notebook--Its got the original notes and rambles for Silence and Secondhand Souls in it, which was really fun to reread just now, but other than that its mostly empty.

Black Notebook (1)--Misc WIP ideas and snippets and such.

Cat Notebook--Lots of longer form snippets and short story like stuff, the beginings of enna's prequel story, and random experimental ideas.

Flower Map Notebook--the first bit is my original ideas for the morrowwood story i mentioned in the scriviner docs section, and then the rest is a lot of random experiments with my d&d characters, most of that stuff is for my one character named Lexi after Certain Events that happened in the campaign, and then ideas for what a prequel about Ana and Redari's backstory could look like.

Space Notebook--This one is almost completely full. Its a bunch of random ideas and snippet type things, for most of my main WIPs.

Moon Notebook--Rewrites of older stuff I wrote, contintuations of older stuff I wrote, and scenes that I haven't gotten around to properly writing in Frost & Fire yet

okay, thats it. mostly. there's a lot. too much, actually.

I shall tag, with absolutely zero pressure, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @did-i-do-this-write, and anyone else who wants to play!!!!

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Writeblr Re-Intro version 3!

Hello I'm doing this again because there are new wips. Also new pronouns and a new name (mostly new name, I suppose)

I'm Copper or Julius or dragon or what else you wish to call me, and my pronouns are he/they. I'm queer and neurodivergent and I really, really lik I'me dragons. My main is @copper-dragon-in-disguise, so any likes/reblogs/other assorted interactions will come from there.

Here's my wips, all of them are in the same world unless otherwise stated. Title (with a link to its wip intro if there is one), then draft number in parentheses, then its main tag in the second parentheses with the description/blurb/weirdly ominous sentences below that!

Main WIPs:

Frost & Fire (draft 2) (#wip: frost & fire):

The death of an ancient primordial dragon brings the greatest (if not particularly well known) adventurers of the last centuries together. Enna Helder-Kromlin, half-elf thief and contractor for the crown of Halmond, along with her sister, Anne, leader of the thieves guild Oleski. Anastrannia & Redari Galendel, half-dragon, half-elf siblings, one a shadow ranger and one a shadow sorcerer. They must work together, if not get along, to stop a evil dragon named Dizerdrat from trying to claim the power released by the death for himself, because if he does he could conquer the world—and would.

One of Copper (needs a re intro so no link yet but there will be) (draft 1) (title may change) (#wip: one of copper):

Decades after the events of Frost & Fire, a new age of heroes is ready to start adventuring. Only these heroes weren't exactly willing, nor were they ready. Four envelopes later and they're together, tracking down the weapon of a god and facing off against enemies none of them could fathom three months before.

Silence and Secondhand Souls (draft 0) (#wip: silence and secondhand souls):

Fate is an interesting thing. Some doubt it even exists. Not me. Not anymore. Souls don't rest until they've told their story, and I've got a long way to go yet. My friends are dead and so am I, haunting a narrative I never got a choice in. How exactly did that happen, you ask? Let me start at the beginning. Or the end, rather. I died when I was 21 years old.

There are my other wips + things that are not technically wips but have tags below the cut for length reasons

Other Wips:

Angel's Daughters (Draft ?) (#wip: angel's daughters):

A prequel to Frost & Fire that's about Enna's backstory, based on the DnD campaign I originally played her in.

Starr's Story (draft 1) (this is a placeholder title and will change eventually but i've been saying that for almost a year so...) (#starrs story):

My Camp NaNo April 2022 story. It's about some pirates, a somewhat lost heir to a fallen underwater kingdom (the heir in question being the pirate captain), and an awful lot of secrets.

A Dragon's Apprentice (draft 0) (#wip: a dragon's apprentice):

Another NaNo story, but for the actual November NaNo in 2021 (a challenge which I did not even come close to finishing. Whoops). Also about lost heirs, and by that I mean that the heir got kidnapped and the apprentice wizard had to go and find them with the help of their brother.

Things that are not technically wips but have tags (none of the below are in the same world as the wips above, they all have their own world. mostly.):

Vampire Hunter Steampunk Story (#vampire hunter steampunk story):

Exactly what it says on the tin, except I messed with the rules of what a vampire actually is sooooo *shrugs*. It also may not be entirely steampunk that much. Or at all sometimes. The title is only mildly accurate.

Space story (#space story):

The product of the single time I ventured into sci-fi. The thing I know the most about is that the protagonist is an alien from Pluto. Because I'm me I got sucked down the wormhole of figuring out if she could breathe on earth or how would that work and it was a lot of a wormhole.

Supernatural story (#supernatural story):

Not that supernatural. Dear god no. I would of called it ghost story but that's a different one and besides there aren't any ghosts in this anyway it's vampires and werewolves and one girl who's part fae.

Ghost story (#ghost story):

This one has ghosts in it! May or may not be in the same universe as the above supernatural story, I'm unclear on that.

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

End of 2021 Writing Wrap up!

Hey! I saw other people doing this and I wanna do it too!

In 2021 I wrote ~60,000 words (This is a guesstimate, from draft 0 & 1 of Frost & Fire, what I wrote on Angel's Daughters & a couple WIPs that I have since ditched).

A lot of this was on Frost & Fire, and that was mostly draft 1. In fact 80% draft 1, because that's 32k and draft 0 was 10k (I never finished it).

So here's a bit from my favorite piece I wrote this year, Frost & Fire draft 2 chapter 19.

CW: Threats, arrows, mentions of war Taglist (Ask to be +/-): @golden-eyed-writer @writing-is-a-martial-art @livvywrites @magic-is-something-we-create @gr3y-heron @ihaveneverhadaclue @void-fireworks @thelaughingstag

The ease was a deception. As they walked out of town for about half an hour they found a path into the woods and followed it, only to be warned off by an arrow appearing in a tree next to Theren’s head. A voice came from out of the trees, and it said, “You have sixty seconds to explain and get the hell out of here, or I shoot. And I won’t miss this time.”

Enna talked rapidly. “We don’t want to hurt you, we just want to talk. You’re the last Bladesinger, right? We need your help.”

“55, 54, 53-”

“I swear we won’t hurt you, and we’ll leave if you really want and not bother you again, but please. The war, the dragon war, it’s back on. And we need your help to stop Dizerdrat. He’s a Greatwyrm now. Only you can kill him.”

“Fine. You get five minutes. This had better be good.”

A woman swung down from the trees, an eagle perched on her shoulder and a panther trodding at her heels. She had long dark blue hair and lavender skin, blue eyes flecked with gold and long, pointed ears.

She was a moon elf, and she recognized Theren.

“You. I remember you. Why do I remember you?”

“Met you in a bar in town about three years ago. I helped you fight that displacer colony?”

“Oh, yes. That thing. Stupid things, really. Now. Explain why you’re here.”

Ana laid it all out, as fast as she could. Dizerdrat being a Greatwyrm, her being the only thing that could stop him, the war being back on. And then the woman said, “Alright. I guess I can’t kick you out, Kitara will kill me. Follow me.”

“What did you say your name was, again?” Asked Ana.

The woman turned around, still walking, except backwards this time. “I didn’t.” And she grinned. She grinned a wild and crazy grin, one that threw joy into Enna. She liked this woman. She was her kind of Elf.

“But it’s Thia, for sake of introductions. The panther is Luna and the eagle is Goldie.”

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

WIP Intro: Angel's Daughters

(What no I would never release a new wip ever why would I do that...)

Title: Angel's Daughters

Status: Draft 1

Goal Word Count: 50k (May be adjusted as time goes on)

Genre: High Fantasy

Inspiration: Dungeons & Dragons (It's based off my Dnd Characters!)

POV: Third Person limited

Narrator: Enna Helder-Kromlin

TW/CW: Death, Fire, Injury, Dead Parents, Murder,

Synopsis: Fifty Years before Frost & Fire, half-elf Enna Helder gets a knock on her door, and she opens it to find a half dead messenger carrying a message from her sister- a sister she hasn't seen in twenty years. The Message is 11 months old, telling her to come to Halmire- the Capital of the Barony of Halmire- because something is happening. Something big. And when Enna gets to Halmire, she finds nothing. Her sister is missing, all her old friends are either dead or missing, and there's a death warrant out for Anne. With the help of unforeseen allies and unlikely friends she finds a secret deeper than anything she ever knew before or will know again, and the answer to the question she'd been asking herself all along.

Notes: Prequel to Frost & Fire. Takes Place 50 years before.

Tags: #WIP: Angel's Daughters #Enna Helder-Kromlin #Anne Jones #Thea #Lauralai #Effie Ambrose #Zibra Kromlin

Including/Tropes: Orphaned MCs | Half Elves | Twins | Thieves | Dragons | Evil Relatives | Necromancy | Devils | Angels | Hell | Dead Parents | Female MCs | Potions Master | Magic | Queer Characters | POC Charchters | Found Family | Thieves Guild | Elves | Magic | Swords! | Dragons (Eventually) | Archery | Daggers | Swords |

Characters:

Enna Helder. Half Elf. 41. She/Her. Raised by a Gnome/Orphaned. Thief/Baker. Archery as weapon of choice. Anne's Twin.

Anne Helder. Half Elf. 41. She/Her. Raised by a Gnome/Orphaned. Thief. Shortswords as weapons of choice. Enna's Twin.

Thea. Human. 24. She/Her. Orphaned. Cleric/Member of the Guard of Halmire. Magic & Warhammer as weapons of choice.

Lauralai. Human. 25. She/Her. Orphaned. Fighter/Captain of the Guard. Longsword as weapon of choice.

Effie Ambrose. Half Gnome, Half Demonsblood. 34. She/Her. Living Parents. Alchemist/Coffeemaker. Potions as weapon of choice.

Zibra Kromlin (Deceased). Half Elf. 24 at time of death. He/Him. Orphaned. Thief/thieves guild leader. Daggers & shortswords as weapons of choice.

Taglist (Ask to be +/-): @thelaughingstag

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

56 for the oc asks! I am not all that familiar with your characters so please feel free to share about whichever ones you want :)

- @sagasofazeria

Hi!!! Thank you very much for the ask!

56: What's one of your character's quirks?

Hmm, who should I do... Well I want to do Enna but I always do them.

I'm doing Enna. Maybe because she's the one I know best.

When she's nervous, or anxious, or just has nothing to do with her hands, she'll braid & unbraid her hair. It's partly the ADHD and partly just a comfort thing. She's been doing it as long as she's had hair long enough to braid and she knew how, so since she was about 8.

She'd never admit it, but she also does it because it reminds her of Pike (Her adoptive mother, who is now dead. Unfortunately), who taught her how to braid hair.

Send me an oc ask (If you want!)!

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Alright. Random bits from my writing because I want to:

Inside the city was gray, but full of the living and the dead. - WIP One of Copper, Chapter 10.

She was a product of both worlds, but not truly a part of either of them. -WIP Angel's Daughters, Chapter 2.

“Anne. The one the press doesn’t talk about ever. Possibly because she assassinated or threatened anyone who tried.” -WIP Frost & Fire, Chapter 21.

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

WIP Intro (Yes, a fourth one): Angel's Daughters

Title: Angel's Daughters

Genre: High Fantasy

POV: Third Person Limited; Multiple Narrators

Narrator(s): Enna Helder-Kromlin & Anne Jones

Status: First Draft/Planning

Synopsis: After 20 years away, Enna Helder has returned to Halmire. But something is wrong. Her sister, Anne Helder, is missing, possibly dead. And Enna herself is imprisoned, her freedom hanging on her ability to find the Staff of the Iron Rose inside a centuries old crypt haunted by monsters of all varieties. Clues to Anne's fate are popping up everywhere, including in Enna's own memory.

Including: Necromancy | Ominous Rituals | LGBTQ+ Characters | POC Characters (I think! Fantasy counts, right?) | Daggers | Twins | Elves | Disabled Characters |

Tags: #WIP: Angel's Daughters #Enna Helder-Kromlin #Anne Jones

Excerpts:

“Listen, thief. I don’t know if you’ve been here before but be respectful. The Baron is a powerful man. Four others of your kind were already executed, and the reason you aren’t dead is because I don’t think you’re guilty. Don’t make me regret that.”

But it couldn’t be Anne. Not only was something about this woman different, she had a bow and quiver slung across her back instead of Anne’s swords. Plus, Anne wouldn’t dare show her face in the city, not this openly, not when Geir still had a death warrant out for her. Bezeo’s friend had left the city nearly a year ago, on the run for her life. He- and the rest of those who still sided with her- hadn’t seen her since. Until now.

Place in the Aqurah Timeline: A prequel to Frost & Fire, about Enna & Anne's past.

Note: Entirely based off an (Kinda ongoing) D&D campaign!

Taglist (Ask to be +/-): @thelaughingstag