James Hiwatari

“Hey, Vác! It’s been such a long time! How are you?” Vilém’s phone call caught me by surprise. I wasn’t used to friends calling me early on Sunday mornings. In Vilém’s case it was even more so. He had been my best friend since we were little children in the small Czech town of Rakovník. Even at that young age he already cultivated a no-love-all-hate relationship with alarm clocks set before ten in the morning. Vilém was never awake this early if he could help it. This couldn’t be good. “

‘Who is Alana?’ I asked Kris at some point when we were both bored in the dark waiting for the diary to shine on Lydia’s answer. ‘Friend. Dead.’ He passed his finger through his neck to make the point. ‘Sorry.’ ‘No. I.’ He did the same gesture again. ‘You’re dead?’ ‘No. I.’ He repeated the gesture again, this time with urgency and anger. ‘You will die?’ ‘No! I!’ He pointed to his own chest, then made a fist with his hand and pretended to hit me. What a great time

Thanks! Alana is Kris's friend, and... something more... But you'll have to wait and see what that something more is (or try to guess!) We'll find out Lóránt's fate eventually. Nessa wouldn't let us wondering forever... but after this fight it might take a while. It all depends on how and if Nessa escapes kidnapping. Nessa will keep writing to her son until she covers 23 years of her life in this book, or her son's 20th birthday comes around - whichever comes first. So you'll still have plenty of story to enjoy.

Kris has been giving some hints that he's not all "ant-social lone wolf", though the communication barriers with Nessa usually get on the way of showing it. Also being in this kind of situation either brings out your best or your worst, and fortunately for Nessa, Kris is showing off his best.

Mind control is an art of subtlety, so I’m glad neither you nor your siblings have an affinity to it. All the time that Zhofie was technically in control of my mind… it didn’t feel like it. I didn’t hear voices telling me to do this or that, urging me to make bad choices. I genuinely believed whatever I was about to do had been my own decision. I don’t remember much of it now, though, and not only because it’s been 23 years since. It’s part of the spell’s nature to forget whatever the caster

Gummi held the last chord of Brahms’s second symphony much longer than usual. I was almost running out of bow when he finally closed his left hand and the orchestra stopped as one. “Thank you everyone for another great rehearsal!” he said. “Now go home and rest before tomorrow’s concert!” I rushed to Dmitri’s side as soon as could, dashing through the tiny space between the second violins and violas in much the same way he had become (in)famous for doing. I tried to apologise to my coll

You're free to comment on them if you want! I'll probably find it amusing or learn something new. Looking up references to understand things has always been a part of living in another culture and another language, so welcome to the club, I guess?

Thanks! According to Lóránt's trial at the end of the previous story, they don't quite escape this time, do they? I mean, they eventually escape from somewhere, or Nessa wouldn't be writing this thing, but that's not where this little bit is heading, unfortunately... On the plus side, you'll get to see what a demon-controlled island is like! It's the ideal holiday place, if you like having your mind controlled and your idea of entertainment is random cruel executions of rebels at lunch time!

Hope you like it. There are *just* another 50 chapters available for your entertainment...

Thanks, but I'm going to stick to the British way of doing English. Which is already a bit of a compromise on the Glaswegian way of where I live... I don't have anything against individual US people, but growing up in Brazil as a sort of "unofficial cultural colony" of the US, I usually make a point of distancing myself from that country as much as I can. It's quite tiring to be expected to get references and know useless information/trivia about a country that is not mine and not somewhere I'm particularly interested in. It's overwhelming, actually. To the point that British/Scottish/European things have a much more "refreshing" or even "comforting" appeal to me, even though technically Europeans have played their part in cultural imperialism too (and other forms of imperialism). Not to mention that learning English as a second language in Brazil you will learn US English, not British. So I actually had to put some effort to get to the level of Britishness I am in now. So don't take this personally. My anti-US feelings don't extend to individual people unless they're proven arseholes, which you don't seem to be.

Don't worry, Gunni is almost 17! (Joking aside, I do acknowledge now that Dmitri & Co. might have come out slightly creepier than I intended. Hopefully the new book version will make it clearer they aren't that bad. Though even as this version of the story goes on, it won't take much longer for readers to get a more "balanced" peek at Dmitri other than Siggi's point of view.)

My hands are shaking as I type now. I don’t like to remember what came next. One moment, Unn is sick, and the next thing I know I’m being mind-controlled and made to walk straight into a trap. If it wasn’t for your mother I would’ve lost my mind long before Hereweald got to me. The actual event that led to our kidnapping was caused by Unn, but it’s wrong to blame her for it. Nobody realised what the demons were planning, so there is no point in blaming anyone but Zhofie and Hereweald for bei

Wee! Thanks! See you next week!

Thanks! I'm glad you liked the chapter! We're getting close to some properly new information being revealed, so hold your horses!

Running away from Floresfada wasn’t easy. I had obviously committed the most heinous of crimes, so any fairy who saw me had the right to punish me the way they saw fit. And I too despaired because I thought I was a murderer and deserved all that punishment. By the time I crossed into the desert, I wasn’t so sure I should keep going. I arrived in Macchikai by a miracle (or rather, by a stranger on a car who refused to believe I didn’t deserve help and took me to the nearest hospital). I don’t

Arnar was waiting by the door when Karen parked her car. “How was your rehearsal?” He helped me take the cello out of the passenger’s seat and turned to her. “Would you and Gísli like to stay for dinner?” “Thanks, but we have other plans.” Karen grinned. “Dmitri is sleeping at Gunni’s, so we’re going to enjoy having the house to ourselves.” “Karen may or may not have invited a few friends to ‘drink responsibly’ the night before a concert,” Gísli did the literal air quotes as he spoke. Ka

Thanks! I certainly hope the slight repetition in the beginning won't be too boring. It's all for the benefit of Nessa's kid, who's almost 20 years old and still knows very little... And Nessa's husband is Kris, though he gets to be the "mother" because that's the way the language works and has nothing to do with gender.

Most definitely. Though now you made me think of that joke about a guy about to be eaten by cannibals and have his skin turned into a canoe. His last wish is to have a fork, and when he gets it he proceeds to stab himself with the fork yelling "you won't make a canoe with this skin!" Or some such. It's an old joke. But I'm sure Kris would be delighted with the mental image of his father being pierced by forks. Particularly those of the giant, sharp variety.

The Beginning is the Best Place to Start, but we don’t need to go that far in the beginning. I’m skipping most of my first sixteen years of life because your grandma has already told you almost everything there is to know about my cute toddlerhood and my amazing childhood (her words, not mine). You and your siblings know that your grandfather Jurandir was captured by demons when I was a toddler. You’ve heard my mother’s second-by-second retelling of her marriage to Morumpi, the man who broug

Wow, you caught up in 2 days! I'm impressed! We'll be back next week!

That is pretty amazing. Keep hanging in there!

That's how to go from "not very specific" to "I can find your house on Google maps if I try". Nice one! I'm just happy to find other people who know something about Brazil in unexpected places. FYI, I'm from the opposite end of the country, so there's definitely plenty of cultural differences from our corners of the world. I don't do Fahrenheit, but I've lived in Brazil long enough to know what the Northeast is like this time of the year. Though it's a bit of a stretch to call it "Spring", isn't it? When you get that close to the equator there aren't 4 seasons anymore... And I find it interesting that people would associate Bahia with rainforest. From our end of the country the whole of the Northeast is seen as either beaches or desert (though anyone who's paid attention to Geography classes knows it's not that clear-cut). But it sounds like you live in a lovely place. I don't like heat and sunshine (which is why I love Scotland), but I know most people somehow like it... How long have you been in Brazil? Did you move because of your partner? (See, more questions!)

Where do you live in Brazil (the "Mata Atlântica" of your profile is not exactly specific...)? I've never seen a "take your shoes off when coming into the house" as a rule that everybody follows, but more like "I take my shoes off in my house because walking around barefoot is more comfortable, but only if I feel like it, and not usually at somebody else's house" type of thing. Maybe a regional variation? If you speak Portuguese you're one step closer from understanding Nessa's mother language!

What do you mean keep changing pronouns? Nessa has always been "she", unless there's a typo somewhere I'm not seeing? And like I explained before, Lóránt is one person whose pronoun is singular "they". It takes some getting used to, but it does click after a while. If it's any consolation, Lóránt's mother language hasn't got any gendered pronouns at all, so it's much easier to express non-binary identities in general...

Of course I'm reading all the comments! I love to see my inbox flooded with notifications that someone new is going through the whole story and leaving comments and liking what they read. I just don't usually have time to answer right away, particularly when they come every other minute (which is not a criticism; it's definitely something I could have more of...). So no need to worry, whatever you comment will be eventually answered... just ask the other people who had their comments replied to after 4 months...