Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Possible Sketch for the Novel...

I have a lot of various test sketches and bits of poetry-like things that I use to help frame the story and let me see how a given plot element or step in character development pans out before I fully charge in. It's not that much different from running a simulation to test hypotheses, except a whole lot more stochastic in nature given how my imagination tends to work! This is a bit written by one of the side characters, possibly either an incompetent bard-like figure who plays the equivalent of the "Chorus" in Greek tragedies or even Ilithara the questionably competent wizard-like character who's on her 9th life and is in danger of ending up in the equivalent of a hell for bumbling mages if she fails on her own quest.

The idea with this particular poem explores a potential set of scenes in the third part of the story to explore the aftermath of our heroes practically starting a Cataclysm in an alternate version of this world...

She drank of the River Lethe,
Washed away her True Name
From sacred Book of Three.

No regrets, she walks alone,
Rain ceases to fall in summer breeze,
Blissful apathy, no sins to atone,
Roaming free through timeless domain,
Endless wilds, never to recall
Flames of joy or regret or pain.

There hides a forbidden flower
Near the Gate, beneath pitch debris.
Blood red rose of unspoken power,
Herald of her heart's rebirth
Yet to behold it is to remember:
Condemned to mortal doom again.

Lance of sunlight breaks in,
Pierces smoky glass coffin
And deep black earth alike.
Red rose's scent awakens lone wolf,
Tantalizes the curious Champion.
Will she leave Lethe for eternity
For bitter, tragic fate,
Life tinged with regrets and loss?

Furry paw extends to blood rose,
Frees it from dusty night,
Mighty furred paw softens to a hand.
Barbed thorns sting deep,
Fearless, she embraces pain,
Blood stains pearl-bleached sand,
Renewed warmth amidst salty tears,
First in a frozen near-eternity
Memory of one under curse of death
A fallen knight seeking penance.

Forget-me-not takes root in her bones,
Red rose blossoms by her heart,
Winter melts away with joyful tears.
Time remembers the silent clock,
Soothing rain falls once more,
Rewrites her True Name in Book of Three.

Banished to mortality and strife,
Yet broken free from eternal ice,
Fire returns to winter night.
Reunited with wounded rose-knight
Faithful past banks of Lethe River.
What verses and tales will they write
In their chapters of the Book of Three?

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