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Today I’ll be talking to you about all the things. Yay! 🙂 On the agenda – WIPpet Wednesday because it is Wednesday, ROW80 because I really need to update that, NaNoWriMo because I think I’ve finally worked out what to do for it (even though it is a ridiculous number of months away).

But first, if you missed my post about language creation earlier this week you can find it here! 🙂

So WIPpet Wednesday. As it is the 10th of September I thought I’d give you 10 letters from Queen of Hearts. Just kidding! This section is almost 500 words! How exciting is that? It’s from chapter 11 not because of math but because yesterday was the ninth so obviously I thought today would be the 11th because that’s how dates work, right? Anyway, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. You can join us here. Or stalk us. We’re flexible.

Context: Kara is about to suffer the consequences of defying her father. Again. Except this time she sort of plotted with some rebel lords and assembled a secret army. And then thought it would be totally fine to swan back to the castle because the king is never going to find out… You’d think she’d learn. Anyway.

When Kara woke the next morning, the chamber was cold and dark. She frowned. Lyea should have woken by now. Crawling to the foot of the bed, she peered sleepily through the curtains at Lyea’s palette below. “Lyea?” No response. Scrambling from the bed she knelt down beside the empty mattress. It was only as Kara stood once more, intent on looking for Lyea in the antechamber that she noticed the man standing by the door. “What are you doing here?” she demanded, snatching a blanket from the bed and swinging it around her shoulders.

“I am Piyar, Captain of the Royal Guard.”

“Sir Anotis is Captain of the Guard. And you have no reason or permission to be here and in my bedchamber no less. I demand you leave. Now.”

Piyar smiled lazily, sliding a finger down the polished hilt of his sword. He startled Kara with a laugh, “Oh, I have a right to be here, girl, more so than you. I bring a message from your father,” he pulled a scroll from his belt and began to read, “Karavere Anya-ren si Piren Astiryn, Duchess of Kandar, you are hereby arrested for crimes against the state, the people and his majesty the king. You are to be taken to the cells and held there until your execution.” He rolled up the parchment and tucked it back into his belt, “In other words, girlie, you better say your prayers.”

Kara did not move.

“Come along, you’re not my only appointment today.”

“Make me.”

“Pardon?”

“Make me, Captain.” Kara spat the title from her mouth as if it were a bitter almond.

Piyar chuckled, “Two options. You come with me, nice and quiet like and I’ll go easy on you when it comes to the interrogation. Struggle and I’ll make sure when I’m investigating your motley crew, I’ll start interrogating your maid and the blacksmith’s ready to pluck daughter first.”

“They know nothing!” Kara protested.

Piyar shrugged, “No? Well, we’ll see. But first, let’s get you to the dungeons.” He stepped forward.

Kara clutched the blanket tighter to her body, “May I dress first?”

“I don’t see why not.” He didn’t move.

“So leave me, please.”

“You’re going to die and you’re worried about privacy? Very well. Don’t bother trying to escape. I’ve seen a man jump from the fourth floor before. Not a pretty sight.”

Once Piyar left the room, Kara ran to her desk, scribbled a note to Eriden, gathered some clothes into a bag which she shoved under her bed and pulled on a tunic, breeches and a simple over dress. Slipping her feet into her boots, she flung open the door to the antechamber and stormed past Piyar, “Coming, Captain?”

So, now for ROW80 updates. I have things to report!

Edit Queen of Hearts

Some editing done. Not as much as I’d like. The usual story.

Write

A giant essay of doom! And a few snippets. And a scene. Or maybe I just dreamt I wrote that scene…

Blog

I wrote a post about language and now I’m doing this super long post and twitter is a sort of micro-blog so that counts 😛

Create

All the creation! This week I worked on designing a national dress for Fariel (or at least the south) which was really fun. Also made some new words in various languages, mostly during lectures because that seems to be when I get all the ideas.

This is a sentence I constructed during my lecture this morning. It is Low Haelean or Common and is strongly based on Old English.

Weir sawan der pelder mit blud.

Translation forthcoming but if you’ve got any guesses about what it means, let me know in the comments! 🙂

Also, NaNoWriMo – rather than than 1600 words a day, I’ll be editing 3 scenes a day or the word count. When I am writing, it will be either short stories or the continuation of something I’ve already started, I simply don;t have the inspiration at the moment to create anything new.