Coming of an end:: Chapter 29

To my readers,
At last I have come to writing the last chapter of Cursed with Power.  It truly shocks me how far this book has gotten over the past eight months.  Something that started out as an idea ended up turning into an exciting and mysterious adventure.  The journey is one I have enjoyed, but even this close to the end of the book I can say that I know it is far from over.
Whether you realized it or not, the version on inkpop was a second draft.  The first draft was originally up inkpop, but no one --thankfully--read the original ending.  So much has changed in the book since the first version.  Not only dialog or scenes, but there has also been a lot of material added in.  New characters, events, scenes, plot twists, secrets, relationships, fights... Pretty much everything  you've read was either altered from how it was originally written or altogether added in as something entirely new.
I could bore you with telling you about the three journals I have already filled up with notes, outlining, chapter drafts, and etc. but there are more pressing matters I need to address.
At this point I leave it to you to decide if you want to hear when the last chapter will be posted.  If you have not been all that interested in the book, I don't expect you'll care much about anything I address.  However, if you've been a fan then I hope this will reassure you that you will read the end of Cursed with Power in time to come.  Now I am going to address questions I expect you'll have.

• When will the last chapter be posted?

Chapter 29 (30 by inkpop standards) will not be posted the moment it is finished, as I have done in the past with previous chapters.  I am doing this simply because I want to read through the entire book and make sure nothing has been forgotten or left out.  Also, I need work with the final chapter and feel confident about it because this is the end of the book and if it's not done the right way there may be no one interested in the sequel.

The ending will be posted as soon as I feel it is ready.  Most likely it will definitely be up before the book comes near to reaching the top five.

• How can I [the reader] stay updated with Cursed with Power after it is finished?

If you like the book enough to want to stay updated, you can contact me and we'll work out something.  Whether it be messages via email, blogger, inkpop, etc, I am open to whatever would work best for you.  Since I am getting Cursed with Power ready to be sent to agencies, it may be simply that you want to be updated when I hear responses --good or bad--from different agents.  Again, this entirely up to you.

• When will editing begin?  Will edits be posted on inkpop?

Obviously while reading through the book again I will do basic editing, but once I write out the ending and post it then I will begin in depth editing.  Any edits I make will be posted on inkpop.

• So... about the summary for New Life... how much longer do we [the readers] have to wait in suspense?

The official summary and another fresh premier of New Life will be released in February.  As of this time, I don't know an exact date, but rest assured that it is going public soon.  I will be posting the summary and premier on both of my blogs.

• Do you plan to start on New Life soon?

My main priority right now is to fix Cursed with Power and get to a point where I can send it to agents.  Once I'm doing that, then I can start to play around with ideas for the sequel.  Until then, I will try to post ideas, character posts, and etc. on the blog.

• Hey, um, about Leal....

When you read the ending of Cursed with Power, I am hoping you'll be that much more excited about New Life.  I know it will require you to be patient, but I understand that during that time you may need to send me hate mail about how you "need" to read New Life.

• What should I do if one of my questions haven't been answered in this post?

If you don't see an answer to your question, please leave a comment in the "Ask a Question" section of the blog or email me.  I will gladly answer any additional questions you may have.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts once you read the end.  Until then, there's 29 chapters up (including the prologue) and now there's time for you to catch up from where you last left off.

Thank you for continually supporting the book.  

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

Chapter 28: Pressure of the Blade

CHAPTER 28

PRESSURE OF THE BLADE

A knife, a dagger, a sword... All three are used with the same intention.  In the magical world, however, nothing is quite as easy as fighting with a sword.  A battle does not end when a blade sinks into skin.

Before too much is given away, here is the excerpt you have been patiently waiting for...

EXCERPT:

I took a step back and tried to see what was happening with them, but I hit something and felt a knife against my neck. One too many times I had been in this exact position. Before he spoke, I knew Aldemund was my opponent. He had been since the day he heard news of me.

“I could do it, Celestria,” he said.

I shivered. “Go ahead.”

Before you become upset with how brief this update is, read my post following this and then you'll understand the shortness of this update.  Find out what happens when you read the book.

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

Chapter 26 & 27

CHAPTER 26

BROKEN, NOT HEALED

&

CHAPTER 27

CRY OF DESPAIR

I waited for words I would never hear.  I cried into the night for the love that would never return.  If you think I'm the man you once loved, you are blindly mistaken. --Alaire

Since the update for chapter 26 hasn't been posted yet, I decided to combine the update for chapter 26 and 27 into one post.  This will be a longer post than usual, but I'll split up the excerpts and whatnot from the chapters.

CHAPTER 26

BROKEN, NOT HEALED

It's ironic how quickly strangers can enter into one's life and become all too familiar.  For Celestria, though,  it is more bothersome that people she never knew before are now the ones who hold truths she must bear listening to.  What's more, now is the time she must fight for what she has believed in.  Either she fights against her enemies, or they overwhelm her and everything is lost.  Two choices but only one decision can be made.

EXCERPT:

What madness are you speaking? I thought to myself.

“Do you remember me? Jacquette, Alaire's partner? We once had been a team...” She stared off into the distance. I choked on my words, barely being able to believe it myself. The woman who Alaire had been engaged to was in Belsgar, standing in front of me?

“You... You're Jacquette? You worked with Alaire, and you were the one who called off the wedding?” I said.

CHAPTER 27
CRY OF DESPAIR
Darkness.  All her life, Celestria has been dependent on the darkness, whether she wants to admit it or no.  During the minutes when she needs to depend on it again, the shadows, the blackness, and the cold will become overwhelming.  The dark cannot physically hurt her, but it also gives an unexplainable advantage to someone else.
EXCERPT:

A gasp escaped from Aldemund's lips, but then Japhet ran from out of the audience. Once again he held a ghostly white knife. Though I did not know what his magic was, I cast a spell and he dropped and fell into the water. I grabbed him by his tunic as he chocked, yet even while he struggled he was tempted to stab me. I rapidly spoke words I knew would suffocate him. As I did so I felt a sharp pain in my arm. Glancing down, I saw he had cut me and was aiming the knife at my neck. The blood from my arm dripped down onto his tunic.

Aldemund?  Japhet?  How much more can Celestria take?  In the next chapter the heat is going to be intense, the fighting will be brutal, and the truth opens up old wounds.  It's not a matter of who to trust; now it's how to survive.  In all honesty, when you're out of the battle field there is only you, magic, and your opponent.

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

Leal, why do we love you?

Léal became a favorite of mine the day I began writing a dialog scene with him.  It was the first time he and I became familiar with each other, and I think it was also what convinced me that he had a sense of humor.  While he has a dark humor in the Magicians series, it is somewhat a relief compared to how most of the other characters are serious with only several funny moments.  Working with Léal from the beginning was something I enjoyed and his first conversation with a character from another one of my books went like this:

Léal: My name is Léal.  I am traveling through these woods to meet a friend.

Hunter: Your name is Lea?

Léal (annoyed): Léal.

Hunter: What kind of name is that?

Originally in the first draft of Cursed with Power there actually were several instances when characters would make strange remarks toward Léal's name.  Currently I have removed those scenes because the fact that almost everyone would make fun of his name seems a bit peculiar and ironic anyways.
Somehow, this handsome, striking, funny, mysterious man walked into Celestria's life and won over our hearts.  I never expected anyone to fall head over heels for him --so to speak--but it turns out I'm not the only one who found positive qualities in him.  Isn't it somewhat ironic we love him, though?  He, like Celestria, is a Dark magician.  Like Alaire said, he has also gotten involved in fighting...sometimes more than he should have.  How was it that Léal came about into the story to win over readers like this?  How did he have this effect?  Well I can't speak for the readers, but I can tell you a thing or two...
Like I have probably said a thousand times, Léal wasn't originally supposed to be in Cursed with Power at all.  His appearance was meant to come in the sequel, New Life.  Of course, as we all know this was not how everything turned out because after three chapters Léal was apologizing to Celestria for nearly having walked into her.
If it wasn't for Celestria, though, I cannot say for sure how readers would have felt toward him.  I purposely gave Celestria an interesting way to think of Léal.  When they talked she acted like he was the worst person she knew.  While when she was thinking to herself, she showed signs of having deeper feelings for him than she cared to admit.  Their relationship went from heated up to settled down, but when they parted and went their own ways it was not only the main character who felt the sadness in Léal's departure.  Readers as well seemed to notice the grief that entered into Celestria's mind after he walked away.
Despite whatever readers may think of him, I have always tried to keep Léal the way he is.  He can be serious but humorous; he is handsome yet dark and mysterious.  When at last he said his final goodbye and walked away into the distance, we were left to remember that he looked back.  For me this was something he had to do.  Celestria and I both connected there when she talked about how she had never had anybody look back at her.  With Léal doing that he became a man I myself could respect, and in return Celestria gained an ounce of respect and admiration toward him.
Several readers have asked me, "When is Léal coming back?" My response has always been the same, which is primarily saying that if he returns it will be unexpected.  We all know Léal is returning in New Life, but if he comes into Cursed with Power again it will be a surprise for everyone... perhaps even myself.  Léal has been a great character to work with and I would love nothing more than to bring him back into the book.  For now, though, he is missing and if you must make up some bizarre story to reassure yourself that at any minute he'll come running in to save Celestria...then do as you must.
Until his return we may continue to wonder...
Why do we love you, Léal?

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

The worst character yet

It shouldn't come as any surprise that even writers create characters in their stories that they dislike...perhaps even hate.  I hadn't hated anyone in Cursed with Power yet until Japhet came into the story.  I'll admit before I suppose the character I hated most was Aldemund, but Japhet... He is far worst.
The main reason I feel like killing him off in the book so often is because in chapter 25 he screwed up how the chapter went along.  Or rather I screwed up, but I blamed him.  (Yes, we writers are a bit crazy and we accuse fictional characters for our own mistakes.)  His character isn't complex or even all that involved in the storyline, but after I finished chapter 25 it became evident that he and I would continue to have problems until the end of the book.  He's not even a major lead character, but it's what he and I went through before I could start on chapter 26 that has bothered me to no end.  Of course I'm not going to kill off Japhet for my own bias reasons, but rest assured knowing that the thought is always in the back of my mind.
I suppose what I mean is just that I surprised myself with finding this burning hatred toward a character who I haven't written that much about.

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

Chapter 25: Unlocked Secrets

CHAPTER 25
UNLOCKED SECRETS
Did you ever have a secret you felt you couldn't tell anyone but that one person?  It was so dark and powerful that if you told anybody else they would have thought you mad?
...
I never had that kind of secret either. --Leal
In chapter 25 of Cursed with Power, new answers are brought forth that Celestria never imagined she would discover.  In the middle of the night she must ask what she does not want to know, she must hear the response she dreads the most, and in the morning there is one man she knows she must "meet" with.

EXCERPT:

Fayth interrupted me and jumped up to point. “That ring! Christopher, I've seen that ring!”

I stared down at Alaire's ring, which I regretted having kept. Fayth ran over to me and grabbed my hand without thinking twice. My eyes grew wide as she studied my ring finger, and Christopher looked as confused and horrified as me. We waited in silence for her to explain the reason behind her outburst. When at last she dropped my hand, she did not return to sit beside Christopher. She knelt beside me, grimacing.

“Magicians who worked for Esmour wore those rings…” Her voice quivered and then she turned to glower at me.

 In the next chapter, Celestria will need to rely on blind faith to walk through a field of shadows.  In the darkness, who can she trust?

"You died; you were dead without any life left in your body."

Yet what Celestria has said in the past will come to haunt her in the present.  Alaire has been reported to have only gotten worst, and there is no way of her finding Leal without him.  Perhaps Leal had left her never to return?

You like him more than you care to admit.

While she needs to come to terms with her emotions and the feelings in her heart, time is running short.  Surviving is what is essential, not what is wrong and right.  

The battle Celestria Hale was never prepared for is only approaching closer with each passing day.  The nights are becoming dark and not by coincidence.  Faces are unfamiliar, memories are slipping away, blood is soon to be shed.  Welcome to the magical world.  There is no turning back now.

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

Chapter 24: Drip of Blood

CHAPTER 24
DRIP OF BLOOD
Now tell me, when have you ever seen a 'drip' of blood?  Every time I've been involved in a fight --and I assure you that's been quite often-- I have seen more than what one might say was a mere 'drop'.  --Léal


In chapter 24 of Cursed with Power there are major significant events that occur.  These events begin to foreshadow and shape the coming end of the first book in the Magicians series.  What can Celestria hold onto during these times she will doubt herself?  How can she prepare herself for battles she never imagined getting involved in?  Celestria must find confidence in herself if she is to be ready for what will come next, but the truth of the matter remains: The future holds many secrets.
During a time when Celestria is scared, confused, and lost, there are new people who come into her life.  These people, however, are ones she knows --from the start--she will not be able to trust.  What's more, there is a new danger that threatens the lives of Celestria and Emeria.
EXCERPT:

“Emeria?” I whispered. I debated whether to approach her or no. She was curled up into a ball, shaking like a baby. Having never seen anyone act in such a manner, I continued to stare.

There was no response that came from Emeria. She whimpered and the moment I decided I needed to comfort her, she began wailing. Despite how many times I continued asking her to hush, she would not listen to a word I spoke. I stepped forward and then felt something hit me in the back. I fell down, rolled over, and gazed up to see the man who I thought had given up on pursuing us. There was a serious yet hungry look on his face. Hungry…like he desired to kill us for pure pleasure.

Now there is a man they must run from.  Soon there are enemies they must face.  Celestria's life is in the hands of people who hate her.  The ending you have been waiting for is coming closer with the arrival of each new chapter.  Find out what happens when you read Cursed with Power.

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