Announcement – Chapter II Coming in January 2021

Hello everyone, First of all, I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, interact, share, and comment on my writings. Your feedback is what helps me continue to share my stories.

I’ve burned through a decent chunk of what I wanted to tell with the current storyline. There is more there with our protagonist, the Elven rogue Val, the city of Hearthhome, and the Questioners. But what I have left of the story is considerably less coherent than I would like. So that story I’m going to break into chapters. Everything from the introduction of the Dragon’s Wing Inn to the capture of the protagonist and Val by the Questioners was Chapter I. I’m going to take a bit to assemble and organize the rest of the story and aim for the Second Chapter to pick up in early January.

Between now and then I’m going to work on the craft of writing. I’ve had no formal training in writing fiction, but quite a bit in Academic writing. I feel this is why I have a tendency to run a bit long. Why say in three sentences what I can say in three pages… I’m going to work on being more concise, removing passive voice, and organizing dialogue structure more. So what does this mean for the page, the group, the Lorekeeper?

There will still be stories, some longer, some shorter, and not at the schedule I was trying to keep previously. I put out a lot of information in a short period of time and I feel as if I might have overloaded a lot of you and turned you off from reading. I’m aiming for two short stories a week. Less than 1,000 words each and not necessarily connected. The Lorekeeper will still be active, and offer up small nuggets of info, quotes by historical figures, and of course updates on what is going on during the Current Age. TL;DR Thanks for reading, Current story will pick up in January, 2 stories a week moving forward.

Thanks,

Michael Fay-Vitale

Author

Control

This is a rewrite of a story titled initially “All is remembered, All is Forgotten”


Somewhere on the Great Sea…

      Kiera threw an empty mug across the cabin and growled as it crashed and splintered into pieces against the, still locked cabin door. Pacing back and forth the elf weighed her options. She knew that she had been unconscious for a number of hours. The ship she was on was heading in an Easterly direction, in open water. By the rocking of the boat, Kiera knew that they were moving at a pretty good clip, which means they were getting away from Daenis as quickly as possible.

      That damned man had drugged her, boxed her up like some Allasian whore, and shipped her away. Angry tears filled her eyes as she stared at the crumpled note and read his words aloud “It’s because I can’t lose you…” she growled. “My time may be over, yours is just beginning…” she punched the door. Screaming in frustration the elf rubbed her bruised hand and looked for something else to throw.

       As Keira spied an especially fragile-looking plate, the elf was suddenly thrown to the floor as a thunderous booming erupted somewhere above deck. She painfully tried to raise her head from the floor as the sound of people yelling and fighting cut through the painful ringing in her ears. Standing shakily the elf did her best to quash the wave of nausea that threatened to have her revisit the lunch she had eaten a few hours ago. Touching a sore spot on her head she was surprised to see her fingers come away stained with blood. All thoughts of nausea and pain were wiped away in a single instant; replaced with a burning white-hot rage that threatened to catch the ship, and possibly the sea itself, on fire.

       Full of this rage and determination Keira headed towards the door. One way or another she was leaving this room. As she reached for the handle the door swung open and hit her outstretched, and bruised hand. She growled and sucked on her now bleeding knuckles. Looking up to see who she was going to murder her face lost all expression, and her hands dropped limply to her sides.

      Standing in the doorway was a tall elf with dark black hair. His lithe frame was adorned in a sharp seafoam green uniform and his bearing was that of a person who knew they were in charge and would brook very little argument.

      Keira swallowed “Grand Admiral. What are you doing here?”

      The man smiled politely and then frowned. “Princess, you are bleeding, what did this human filth do to you?” The Admiral stepped into the room and pulled an elaborately embroidered handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Keira.

      The elf snatched it from the Admiral and winced as she put it against the wound. “I’m sorry Admiral, I was surprised to see you. Let me ask again. What in the seven hells are you doing here?!” The irritation and anger in her voice made the Admiral almost take a step back.

      Almost.

      “Princess, I have been ordered, by the Queen, to return you to the homeland. Matters at home require your undivided attention.”

      Kiera ignored the Admiral and stepped past him into the corridor. Nausea threatened to rise up again as she looked at the mangled corpses of the crew of the ship. “They didn’t deserve this.” She muttered as she walked to the stairs leading up to the deck.

      “They kidnapped a Princess.” Was the Admiral’s flat reply.

      Keira wheeled on the Admiral her eyes flashing with anger, and perhaps a slight concussion. “THEY did not. Conlan he… he sent me away.”

      The Admiral’s face twisted in a barely perceptible mask of annoyance. “Your human lover… No doubt he went to go throw his life…” The Admiral fell silent as he felt the cold tip of a blade pressing at his throat.

      Keira pushed the tip of her blade into the Admiral’s throat just enough to draw a trickle of blood. “Say one more thing about him… I dare you.” The Admiral stared at her with hard eyes but said nothing.  She turned away from him and proceeded up to the main deck.

      Strewn about the deck were more of the boat’s crew, their blood staining the wood. Elven soldiers stood at attention, their silver armor glinting in the sunlight. Thin ropes of silver stretched from the port side of the ship to the towering dreadnought class warship Imperator. Keira shook her head at the amount of overkill and walked to the railing staring into the cool deep blue water below.

       “Princess.” The Admiral called out as he approached, now Keira noticed, with his personal guard close at hand. “Kiera, please, I too have orders.”

      The Elven Princess turned to look at the Admiral, her eyes full of sadness and rage. “Mother believes she knows what is best for me, Conlan believes he knows what is best for me. I control my destiny not Mother, Not Conlan, and certainly not you dear Brother. Tell Mother to handle her own business, I am otherwise occupied.” She turned to once again stare into the calming waters.

      “Kiera, I’m preparing to leave this ship, Once I do, I‘ll give the order to burn it. You will not be on it when I do.” The Admiral drew his saber and stepped forward.

      Kiera felt the familiar rage rise up in her. She turned around and glanced at the elves confronting her. “If you touch me, this ship will be the only thing that you have left in the world.”

      The Admiral sighed and waved his personal guard forward.

      Sometime later, a merchant vessel out of Calais, found the human boat floating amid the becalmed waters East of Daenis. Hoping to find some sort of valuable salvage the merchants boarded the ship. All the merchants found was a half-mad elf, who had been nearly starved and wore the tattered remains of an Elven Fleet Admiral.