WAIT you're the writer for Golden Ashes? The dragon one??? I've been really worried that it's been abandoned, but if you're the one writing it then I don't need to worry about that anymore!
That's me! Omg you know of it! It broke my heart to take the demo down, but I wasn't feeling it at all. I actually like what I have written for the new demo but it's still too short and needs introduction scenes with Sekh' and Zaphia still. Ahh I miss my dragons...
could you please write about a leader that surrenders to save their friends and the enemy is suprised because they didn’t think they would actually do it? Thank you
Okay, I am officially alive!!!
With summer out and trips to take, I have been extremely busy. I’ve been off the computer and focusing on my book that I am writing, called Golden Ashes! I didn’t know what to do with this ask, but I love the idea soooooo I am going to use my characters for Golden Ashes! However, this doesn’t play into the actual story, but I thought I would use them because I’m getting the hang of their individuality. If you want to see some sneak peeks or info on these characters, let me know in the comments, but I am planning on publishing my book eventually via KDP! For now, enjoy!
(Character run down! Elora is the main protagonist, Dayne the main antagonist. Aidan is Elora’s mentor, and Nori is her dearest friend and father figure. Cardan is Elora’s childhood friend/tentative love interest, and Tyler is Dayne’s right hand man.)
Surrender
Content warnings: Intimate whumper, minor violence, non-con kiss (It's on the nose) manhandling, sedation
Elora’s eyes whipped around the cave as she held the smartphone closer to her ear. Soft static buzzed in the background, but other than that she couldn’t hear anything. She knew she shouldn’t have answered the call, but the message would have been delivered regardless. So, while her friends slept by the dying fire, she had climbed the hill and pulled herself into this alcove.
“Hello?” She whispered, knowing her voice might waver if she didn’t, “Who is this?”
“You know full well who it is, Miss Eagle.”
This was true. Nobody else would have called the phone in the middle of the mountains. She knew there was no service, but Dayne wouldn’t be held back by something so simple. Elora took a deep, silent breath, and released it.
“What do you want?”
Dayne’s smooth laughter made shudders run up and down her spine as it filled the line. Her mouth opened and closed, and yet she couldn’t fill her breath with words. Her Golden Eagle feathered wings sagged, suddenly feeling all too heavy.
“Now isn’t the time for silly questions, darling,” He cooed, voice thick and suave. Bile caught in her throat, but she forced herself to respond.
Heaven knows what would happen if she didn’t.
“Yes, I’m well aware. I’m assuming you have us– them, surrounded?”
“You’re catching on. You know what you need to do.”
Elora opened her mouth again, but the line clicked silent.
She couldn’t stop the tears once they began to fall. Thick, wet streams that made her voice catch and chest stutter. How could she go through with this? The last person to escape him would be her.
But she loved them too much not to. So she let herself cry. She let herself mourn what was to come. Memories flooded her mind, and it made the tears slow.
When she met Nori in that cafe.
The first time she realized that Cardan loved her.
When she’d kissed him, and for the first time she’d felt truly free.
Aidan teaching her how to shoot her beloved bow, how to send a punch, and how to talk to her people.
Elora pulled herself together. She took deep breaths, focusing on calming her nerves.
In, out. In, out, in, out.
She took each motion by itself, focusing on simply completing the task. Standing up. Wiping her face. Walking to the edge of the cave. She exited, extended, and jumped for one last fly. She knew that once she touched ground and returned to camp, her friends would be in Grounder clutches, and she would be there to greet them.
Elora landed yards away from camp. She fixed her blonde hair that had fallen in front of her face. She could see one of the Grounders approaching, but didn’t run. She held still, and simply waited as her stomach tied itself in knots.
“Hello, princess.”
“Tyler.” She growled, neck stiffening as his breath tickled the shell of her ear.
“I knew you’d recognize me.” He purred, hand sliding around her waist. Elora gritted her teeth and turned to raise her arm but Tyler grabbed her wrist, silver eyes shining in the moonlight. His grip tightened and turned, twisting her towards him and making her hiss. His face was only inches from hers, eyes dragging across her features.
“Ah, now we can’t have that, Your highness… we wouldn’t want anyone else to get hurt.” He sneered, and planted a gentle kiss on her nose.
“You are disgusting.” She snarled, and shoved away when his grip loosened. She didn’t need instruction before she started walking towards camp. Tyler followed close behind, his smoky wings leaving a trail as he walked behind her with a hand at the base of her own feathered ones. They walked to the clearing that her team had claimed as camp, and she had to stifle her gasp.
Aidan and Nori were both restrained by two Grounders each. Elora didn’t recognize any of them, but their grips only tightened when her friends went still at the sight of her.
“Elora, no!” Nori grunted, breathless and brow sprinkled with sweat. His hazelnut eyes bore into hers with a heartbreaking sorrow, as if he already knew she had to go. That she had no choice.
But she would always but him first, put Cardan and Aidan and her people first. As long as they were safe.
Cardan was on the other side of the clearing, down on his knees. A lady Grounder was on top of him, knee digging into his spine as she held his arm at an unnatural angle above his head. She was down close to his ear, and it made her blood boil.
“Welcome, Welcome, Miss Eagle!” Dayne drawled over the crowd. He stood directly in front of her, across the clearing that was seeming shorter and shorter the longer she stood there. She could never be far enough away from him. He began to stroll towards Cardan, eyes practically glowing with glee. He bend at the waist when he reached him, grabbing his blonde hair with slender fingers. Cardan didn’t exclaim as Dayne pulled his head up to look into his eyes, and his smile widened as he let his head drop back down.
“I’m so glad you could join us, Princess. I was going to have some fun, but it seems you arrived just in time.” He sneered, and instead walked towards her. She stood her ground, not flinching when he took her face in a bruising hand. He scanned her face, but his gaze was much colder than Tyler’s. While Tyler made her sick to her stomach, Dayne brought a chilling fear that she couldn’t shake.
She let him slide a pair of electric cuffs over her wrists, and Tyler released her as he attached a thin silver chain. He yanked the chain forward, and sent Elora sprawling.
“No! Elora- mph!” Aidan shoved against those who held him, receiving only a knee to the gut in return. Elora spat dirt, the grit making her grimace.
“Now let them go.” She growled, standing back up with the help of Tyler at her elbow. She turned to Nori and Aidan, followed by Cardan, when her left wrist cuff pricked her inner arm. She gasped, and turned on Dayne.
“You told me you’d release them, now do it.”
“Oh Princess,” Dayne chuckled, that same laugh sending chills down her spine, “You must learn not to believe everything you hear.”
Elora pulled hard against the chain and it slid from Dayne’s hands. Tyler reached out to grab her, but she dodged away and ran to Cardan. She easily knocked the girl off her, and he raced to Aidan and Nori. Elora tried to follow, but Tyler was already on top of her. He scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder, beginning to run with Dayne back the way they had come. She shrieked and wailed on Tyler from the back and front, flapping her wings, but his grip was strong as iron.
“You promised!” She screamed, though she felt her energy draining, “You said you would release them!”
She wasn’t granted a response as cotton filled her ears. Her fighting slowed and eventually fell to nothing. Dark rings and spots covered her vision, and her limbs stopped responding. Tyler vibrated under her, but she couldn’t tell if he was laughing or speaking. She was fading away, and soon her head fell against Tyler’s strong back. Her eyes closed, and she fell down into the dark abyss of unconsciousness.
A review of Golden Ashes by Freeman Wills Crofts – 250607
I do not think I am being unduly unfair if I describe the twentieth novel in Freeman Wills Crofts’ long-running Inspector French series, originally published in 1940, as distinctly one-paced. In truth, you do not pick up one of his books for a thrill a minute but rather a well-plotted ingenious murder mystery and a painstaking…
Album Review: Golden Ashes - A Lightless Christ Shuns The Crown Of Divinity (Improved Sequence)
Epic and raw sounding black metal, A Lightless Christ Shuns the Crown Of Divinity is an experience that is part-transcendent and part-savagery.
One year following the release of Golden Ashes’ critically acclaimed second album “In the Lugubrious Silence of Eternal Night”, the incredibly prolific Maurice de Jong, largely known for Gnaw Their Tongues, is ready to release another full-length album of this symphonic black-metal project.
A Lightless Christ Shuns the Crown Of Divinity will be released on August 23rd, 2021 via Improved…
((So I do a lot of pondering about ‘what if Golden Ashes was how the game went’, especially the Genocide route. Thoughts on a ‘Prince’ boss fight below.))
((The Prince would function kind of like an Undyne replacement - Undyne might well be in there somewhere, but Prince Chara Dreemurr would be the leader of the defensive forces, and the Boss Gate between Waterfall and Hotland.
They start at the corridor to Hotland, and fall back after every few hits - their defense is pretty solid, and they hit hard with sweeping attack patterns, but nothing phenomenal.
Then once they’ve fallen back to the Hotland bridge, they take their coat off. Lower weight, along with the pressure of stopping you at this chokepoint, and they’re a lot more mobile now - their sprite sways on the battle screen, and if you mistime an attack and they’re not in the right position, you miss.
Their attack pattern gets more intricate, too - faster, new angles, occasionally switching pattern halfway through.
But the real ‘gotcha’ is once you kill them.
The fight doesn’t end
Because sure, you destroyed their body and mind - but their SOUL is still around, and even without their intelligence and will to direct it, they’re Determined and they want you dead.
So their SOUL will swoop at you, darting arcs in the menus and more complex homing passes on ‘their’ turn.
To end it, you need to time an attack again, for when they’re right in the center of the screen-
-and bring your weapon down on their SOUL, shattering it.))
