Cynus

"How could you?" Prism asked, pulling away from Ghayle. "How could I what?" Ghayle asked. "My life should show you how much love remained in the world, how much goodness remained." Prism growled and walked away, throwing his hands in the air. "How could you destroy that?" "Why were purities harvested in Kobinaru? What is so special about that place?" Ghayle replied. Prism stared at her, but inevitably shook his head. "I don't know. Ego says because we were there, but we

"The bond between you was special," Ghayle said, pulling away to let Prism recover for a moment. "I think your relationship was one of the purest I've ever seen, across all the time I've guided this world. I wonder if Khalis ever considered the two of you for the Purity of Connection." "That's a frightening thought," Prism said, shuddering more from the thought of injury to Grim than his own potential peril. As thoughts of his own death crossed his mind, however, he added, "A poetic death,

"I can see why she had that effect on you. She was a remarkable woman. I'd not realized you were the one who put her into that sword," Prism said. "Kirra doesn't have the faintest clue what treasure he possesses." "I promised to protect her children to the end. Unfortunately, their family has a tendency to die young," Ghayle said, sighing. "Despite my best efforts, their line is far too reckless." "Reckless and pious blood mixed together. Zealots of their own natures," Prism said, ch

Ghayle sensed her coming from a thousand miles away, each step the woman took brought additional strength to Ghayle. She felt the purity emanating from the woman, shining like a beacon through a sea of dark fog. As the distance closed between them, Ghayle found herself growing more and more eager. Whoever this mortal was, she had a strength unparalleled among Ghayle's children. Faith propelled the woman forward, despite a corrupting sickness which had spread through her body. In tim

I'm excited for you to find out the path these boys take. They might surprise you, they might not. Grim's older brother was first in line for the throne. Prism's line about being a thief corresponds to some of the words he said to Styx in Shadow Honor, too. You'll find out on Saturday. thanks!

Yay! Right? And Prism is really into being honorable now, so will he try to live up to that decision, or will he risk everything for love? Selfaeth's already on edge. What happens now that he can't trust anyone? Where will Khalis go next?

If mine is any indication, this is close to an absolute truth... Selfaeth is someone I wasn't intending to love. I meant to make him horrible, an absolutely dreadful man on every level. he surprised me when he did a 180 as far as his kids were concerned, and it humbled me a bit. I love it when my children resist my attempts to control them. I probably haven't sold the idea too well within the writing, but the Fedain are unaware that their healing can work in reverse. Maybe at one point before they became so pacifistic, it was different.

I am planning on responding to comments today. I apologize for taking so long. I've been beyond depressed these past few weeks, up until a couple of days ago, anyway. But I'm doing better now, so hopefully I'll find the energy.

Grim wanted to fire Sharis. Prism had arrived an hour ago, and Sharis had kept the information to himself to ensure it did not interrupt their lesson. Grim understood the tutor's decision, especially since Sharis had no idea how important Prism's presence was, but it still annoyed Grim. But his excitement overrode any negativity, and Grim struggled to contain himself as he headed toward his rooms. Prism would be waiting for him, four months of separation would be over, and they could now s

Prism lounged in Kaeral's room, tired from a day of hard labor. Master Vinh had made good on his promise, working him from dawn to dusk every single day since Prism had sneaked out. Prism refused to tell the Master the nature of his visit and bore his labors in near silence. Today afforded him a rare moment of respite, as Valkean had called the Masters to council several hours earlier, and once Prism completed the tasks Master Vinh had already assigned him, he finished a few more for good

Prism's angry growl pierced the solitude of Ghayle's garden, and she pulled away from him, regarding him curiously. He stepped away from the log, furiously pacing. "That night . . . that day . . . Master Vinh and his bloody apple tree," Prism muttered. "The memory was more bitter than you expected? I don't understand your reaction. You wanted to see that day," Ghayle replied quizzically. Prism faced her and said, "Sometimes we have to face our demons." "Pertinent words."

Thanks! Marhys didn't want to be healed. She is embracing death. Her key words were "I won't betray the natural order". But... I can see how I could have definitely made this clearer. I learn more from these comments than from anything else. I'll respond to your other question at the bottom. This is part of it, in a way, though I'll explain my intentions at the bottom. There is certainly an aspect of this, though. Fedain hypocrisy is also part of it. If you're a fan of Star Trek (specifically anything Next Generation, DS9, or Voyager), then you're likely familiar with the Prime Directive. The system I envisioned here is sort of like that. The Fedain didn't come to power through violence, but through humans putting them up on a pedestal and treating them as gods. Since the Fedains were pacifistic healers who sacrificed themselves to help anyone, the humans thought of them as superior beings. Eventually, the Fedain started to believe that, started to accept themselves as superior over humans, and viewing the humans as 'primitive'. They won't interfere with their laws because that would mean tampering with their culture, and so only the laws which establish the relations between Fedain and Humankind are important to the Fedain. This is something I should have communicated better in the writing, and hopefully I will manage it better in future projects.

I'm glad. I was unfamiliar with Remo Williams, so I looked it up. Seems interesting. Vinh is my second-favorite character in the series, and he'll have more shining moments to come. Prism definitely knows, heh. Hopefully you'll enjoy it! Especially when the people at the top are worshiped as infallible for years and they start to believe it. Awww... I love the Tai Chi reference. I studied it for several years when I was younger, and Valkean is actually modeled after my teacher. Oh, just you wait! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Prism gasped for air as Kaeral gripped his bicep, pulling him from the tumultuous waves of the Ilivar Sea and helping him onto the buoy. Storm clouds overhead taunted them, though little pockets of moonlight filtered through now, allowing them some ability to see. Rain assaulting them during their swim had nearly brought them to a suffocating end. As Prism rested his back against the buoy, he wondered how they'd avoided drowning in the cold water. Not only had he swallowed more sea water t

I loved this story, Val. As you may already be aware, my significant other is asexual, and I'm gray-asexual. Despite this, I have rarely written any asexual characters into my work, and even when I have, I haven't announced them. To read something specifically designed with asexual people in mind is refreshing, and you handled the subject well. This is very similar to my SO's experience in many ways, and although not quite the same as mine, it's close enough that it rings completely true in my mind. You do great work, Val! Thank you.

I'm glad you caught the identical names. Not everybody does, though in defense of my editing team, several of them had read Shadow Honor years before and had simply forgotten the names. The dramatic future and who remains to be part of it will yet unfold before us. I know who I'm rooting for, personally.;) I'm glad! Hopefully I will continue to intrigue you. I'm planning on creating a wiki at some point, but since my wrist is still injured, I'm not able to do that much typing yet. Hopefully I'll do it in time for it to be useful to people. Those are all great questions to be asking, and I will have some answers for you. My goal here was for Ghayle to speak as if this was a cycle, but cycles can be broken...

Prism jumped from one wooden pillar to another. As they increased in height they also increased in distance from each other, and he'd yet to make it to the highest pillar. He reached the second highest, scrambling on the edge to keep his momentum before leaping toward the highest pillar with all the strength of his legs. He collided with the side of it, his fingers stretching for the top edge of the pillar, but they came up empty and he slid to the ground, once again defeated by the long j

I thought about that going into this, too. I decided I wanted to keep the names the same between them because it was mentioned in Shadow Honor that Kirra's family had been around during the demon war. Since he currently lives in the Everbright City, I wanted to give the feeling that his family had been preserved over the centuries.

Your first paragraph is exactly what I was hoping people would get out of this chapter. I wanted to show the contrast of Fedain words versus Fedain actions, and at least, for you, it seems I was successful. This is indeed the nanotechnology which aided Prism. There will be more to come with that, of course, but I certainly wasn't trying to hide that fact. The heat rifles were created on a whim. The Gor master is someone I can't wait to introduce you to. Déjà vu is certainly one way of looking at it. Might say I've been inspired a bit by current events. Master Jan was drawn mainly from the Buddhist monks who would light themselves on fire for political protest. Those images always stayed with me, and so I suppose I view them as effective, though I hope no one takes that as me endorsing suicide... Veil has had a very complicated road, and it is definitely heartbreaking at points. We'll be getting into that later, though. Lots of ground still to cover! I agree. There's a reason why things must exist in balance. You need an even counterweight in order to achieve a proper equal playing field. The world gets screwed when one group decides they want to be lifted above all others. I promise it won't be all sad. There are some great moments to come as well, a lot of happiness, despite the overall tone. But thank you for the compliment. Indeed. She is connected to the soul of the world, as she has felt this building for some time. Were going to see a lot more of that as the story continues. Precisely. Good eye on that. It did do a lot of good for him, as we saw in Shadow Honor, but not quite enough. At least it got to the point where it held a small dose of the poison at bay, allowing him to escape The Shade with Styx. Thank you for the comments!

Nightmares plagued every moment of Ghayle's existence as she lay splayed across the stone. She'd lost track of time, but still experienced every second of her children's lives. Darkness encroached upon the world with each passing second, the slow degradation of society corrupting the lifeforce of every being. Over the course of her reign as the avatar of the world, this corruption began time and time again, but each time her children had fought against it, coming together in times of crisi

His ancestor, yes. He's happy to have you with him.

Have a drink in her memory sometime.

Thankfully for Prism, he's only mentally traveling back a few decades rather than centuries, due to the time he spent in stasis. 🙂 This is one of the other scenes that I had planned since the very beginning of this story, back when I first finished writing Shadow Honor. I always enjoyed the thought of Kaeral Elrhanadan meeting Prism. I haven't thought of that analogy for Ghayle before, but I can definitely see where you're getting it. I'm sure you'll find over the course of the story that Prism's not entirely certain how to feel about it either. I didn't realize until a while after I wrote it that I had included some similarities between the two couples, but once I did I wondered if I should keep it. I ended up deciding to leave it, obviously. I decided the similarities would add a little weight of fate to them. I love this observation. World building in fantasy is one of my favorite things to do, and I had a lot of fun with the Fedain. I had always intended them to be somewhat like this, but the story did take a slightly different route than I intended. Hopefully you will find the surprises as pleasant as I did. I'm a little surprised that no one recognized the name Elrhanadan..

"Quick, turn on the newscast," Veil said, bursting into Grim's room without knocking. Grim quickly pulled the covers over his naked body. He wasn't ashamed of his nakedness, but he didn't want her to see the results of the fantasies he'd pursued for the past hour. He'd done the same a dozen times at least since meeting Prism a week before, but some things were inappropriate for even twins to share. "What? Why?" Grim asked, making no move to access the broadcast screen on the opposite

The vision shifted in subtle ways, drawing Prism back into his own memories. He allowed Ghayle to pull him there, comforted by the vision of Grim and his family. Longing for simpler times filled his heart, and as much as he wanted to resist the pain ahead, he also ached to relive the bright moments along the path. Giving himself fully over to Ghayle, the city streets of Kobinaru reformed in his mind. Grandmaster Valkean walked behind him, holding one end of the rope binding Prism's hands.