Thanks to @thewriteblrarchives for the tag!
(…why yes I do have exams to study for, which is why I am finally catching up on my tag games, shhhh.)
Sudden | Wait | Happened | Surprise | Race | Beat | Wind | Slam | Appear | Swept | Fire | Fled | Danger | Power | Never | Always | Gone | Now | Break | New | Help | Keep | Hide | Back | Go
Then look, says Other, and see.
Aza takes a breath that, in Hearrtespace, she doesn’t really need and opens herself to the magic of her Hearrte. The threads blaze around her, like she stands in the centre of a spider’s web, and she gazes into eternity. It’s enough to overwhelm a mortal mind—and indeed, the first few times she’d done it, it had overwhelmed her too—but she’s more used to it now than she had been in those early childish days, and she does not falter. She looks toward the future and draws an image of the Visionaries into her mind as she’d seen them last: calm and patient and—
The light burns her eyes, heat sears her skin and distantly, she hears screams that echo like faraway sounds of war. Burning, she realizes faintly, she’s burning, the church is on fire and there’s nowhere to safely run—her room, her safety, is ablaze and she’s never been anywhere else. Run, child, Other urges, panicked and afraid, run, you must live, you are the last—
The hallway’s twists and turns are already becoming more dear, more familiar, and she finds her way down to Aza’s door with no trouble at all. As she reaches it, though, a terrible anxiety reaches out and grabs her by the throat--she’ll be gone, it’ll be the same again, they’ll know I was here and they’ll take her and she’ll be gone—
She bangs on the door with perhaps unnecessary vehemence, and the startled little cry on the other side relieves the anxiety but brings immediate guilt in its place. “Sorry,” she says, “it’s just me.”
“Ebony?” The door creaks open slightly, and Aza peers around it. Deep green eyes, too aware to have just woken up, are still wide with surprise, and she’s still wearing that dress. Her skin looks a little damp, like she’s just gotten out of the shower, but her hair is dry. “It’s--what time is it?”
“Late,” Ebony admits. She hadn’t realized that Aza probably has no real sense of time passing, in a room with no windows. The thought sets her deeper into her determination. She’s going to get her out.
“Where is it?” hisses a voice from behind her.
She’s struggling enough as it is; the extra blow from behind is enough to send her to her knees. As she skids in the dirt, something warm and wet trickles down her back, and she grabs for some kind of purchase. The rock that she comes up with breaks her fall somewhat, but also catches her fingers, ripping away two of her nails down to the quick. Rolling, she manages to use the momentum to get back to her feet.
The man--boy--he’s about her age--staring at her isn’t the man in grey as she’d feared. “What are you—” she gasps. It’s suddenly rather hard to breathe. He’s got something shiny in one hand and for a second she’s terrified it’s crystal, it’s a crystal shard, it’s Aza’s—
But no, it’s a knife. Long and slim-bladed, quite pretty actually, and—
“Did you fucking stab me?”
1. “Have you had some unexpected events in your writing that surprised you? Any new character or item to appear from nothing? Conversely, has anyone or anything dropped off the map? How did you respond?”
About halfway through Part 1, I realized that Ebony owns a charm that was given to her by…let’s just say by a friend. It allows her, among other things, to see magic as it’s used. Made a few later chapters a lot more straightforward!
2. Have you had any unexpected connections between former and later events? Anything you didn’t realise you’d foreshadowed?
I’ve never really been that person who accidentally foreshadows things, though I am very jealous of how effortlessly they work these things in! If there’s foreshadowing in my work, it’s on purpose, and I probably spent an hour agonizing over whether it was too blatantly obvious. (And it probably was, oops.)
3. What part are you most excited to write? What part that you’ve already written are you the most excited about?
Honestly, I’m thrilled to write Part 3. The entirety of Part 2 is being written so that I can get to Part 3. When will Part 3 come back to me I’m tired of Part 2 and I’m only two chapters in. I want my girls reunited. Of the parts I’ve already done, I think my favourite is the fire at the church. Probably because it’s the only real action scene I’ve done. :/
