Alaire

Today I'll be talking about Alaire because quite honestly he's a character who came into Cursed with Power unexpectedly, and now it appears he'll be coming along for the journey.
Whether you've read the new chapters of Cursed with Power or not, hopefully you'll read this post and come away with knowing a bit more about Alaire.  However, his secrets are not going to be revealed.  Oh no, I leave that for him to do.

 Alaire Secler is a 29 year old man.  He's single, despite the inferences we can make that he is attractive --maybe even just as much as Leal.  The picture you see to your left actually became a rather large influencer of how Alaire's physical traits became determined.
In Cursed with Power, Celestria vividly describes him as such:

Alaire sat down in the grass, and gestured for me to sit beside him.  After a moment’s hesitation I sat down as well.  For the longest time we sat in silence, staring at each other.  His dark hair seemed cut so perfectly, as if someone had just done it for him yesterday.  As a breeze blew past us I realized I was watching his tunic wave in the wind.  For the first time I also noticed a necklace around his neck.  I attempted to see what it was, but in order to see any more of it I would have to lean closer to him.  The last thing I wanted to do was make it more obvious that I was observing him in great detail.

From the picture I was inspired to give Alaire's character a somewhat ironic addition.  A necklace of a cross...Though at first this would have seemed totally out of the ordinary for Alaire's character, I was soon able to weave it into him and before I knew it this the necklace became more than just an object around his neck.  It became something Celestria and the reader noticed and questioned. Is he a religious man?  Can he be wearing such a necklace when he has committed so many sins in his life?
The questions revolving around Alaire are many, but as you may have noticed Celestria seems more worried about finding Leal than discovering every secret of Alaire's.  And what she will not realize for a very long time is just how many dark secrets Alaire has and keeps to himself.

As I said at the beginning of the post, Alaire was not a character I had planned to place in Cursed with Power.  I knew he was a character that would eventually come into the series --since he's a Dark magician--but he was expected to come in The Secrets We Share, not at the start of the series.  However, there was a time in the book where Celestria was extremely close to death.  She was most certainly going to die, and there were only two options left: One, let her die or two, have someone save her.  Having already determined an end to the book, I did not want to kill Celestria off in chapter 7 of the book.  Instead I decided that someone new needed to come into the story and rescue her from a fate she herself could not escape alone.  Alaire ended up being this new character because Leal rescuing her seemed a bit too hopeful.
Now that Alaire is involved in the story with Celestria, I can definitely say many new changes to the plot are being made.  Whether Alaire is staying or no continues to be a factor I fret over every day and night.  Eventually there will come the chapter where I must decide what ending role he will have in the book.
For now, though, I can say with certainty that the ultimate role Alaire was chosen to play in the series was saving Celestria's life.  As for in the future of the book...there's no telling for now.

As Celestria has pointed out, there seems to be a lot Alaire knows about Leal --and so forth--that he does not willingly come forth with.  Keep Celestria's words in mind; she is foreshadowing a truth that will later on be discovered.
Something that was decided long ago --probably at the start of this series--was that Alaire and Leal both worked for Esmour.  Their true nature of missions and such have not yet been revealed, but in time it shall be.  In time their real personality will show, and perhaps even a darker side as well...

There's more to be discovered about Alaire.  What really happened with his wedding plans?  Why does he wear a cross?  Who is Esmour and what did Alaire do for him?  Why is Alaire so set on getting Celestria to admit her feelings for Leal?
Perhaps the most important question: Is Alaire the darkest person Celestria could know?

We worked together, and eventually we began to fight over everything.  Magic was pulling us further apart, and then she could not take anymore.  She said she hated the person I was becoming… She argued I was the darkest force in the world she knew.

"There's a lot that I want." He said. He smirked as he said it like he knew he was pushing my patience.