[Fic] "The Coming of the Queen" -- original, Sunbright and Shadowfall

[edenfalling]

This is some background noodling for a fantasy story I've been fiddling with. It includes some elements of "Sleeping Beauty," but that's mostly just a pretext for a larger story. The plot is also an excuse to include a bunch of my narrative kinks, like absolute power (magical and/or political), restraint and use of power, the ethics of power, swordfighting, messy battle scenes, dreamwalking, people finding loopholes in carelessly worded curses, devotion, the logical implications of magic, complicated political maneuvering, shifting power dynamics in relationships, royals who actually do things, found family, etc. And a lesbian romance which starts with Character A older than Character B but ends up with Character B older than Character A, because of reasons. Oh, did I mention it's girls and women doing most of the magic and swordfighting and politics and leading people into battles? Because yeah.

I have the two main characters and a rough outline through about 2/3 of the plot, but the world-building is still sadly vague, and the final 1/3 of the plot is at the "and then war! and politics! and magic! what do you mean I need details and closure?" stage, so I need to sort out a whole bunch of things before I start writing, so the story I begin will match the story I end.

But anyway, background noodling! (325 words)

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The Coming of the Queen
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No one knows what lies beyond the gate that brought the Shining Ones, only that they are not of this world. Earth's blood does not run through their veins. But they brought their own world's blood through that gate, and in our world it caught fire. This is how you may know them. They burn silver. They can mute it, they can hide it, but always some shift of fabric over flame-like hair, some sidelong glance with too-bright eyes, some breath that hangs like glowing frost -- something will give them away.

The children they have sown upon us are more muted. Their warning light is caught within, caged by the flesh and bone of their mortal parents. They bleed silver, they bleed fire, but they are of this world and the Shining Ones despise them even more than they despise us.

And since the day when the gate opened, the Earth has groaned in pain as the Shining Ones hunted and scattered all the peoples of this world. Whenever we find a place to stand, whenever we win a little peace, they ride against us, stoop down from the sky, and destroy us yet again.

But they will not rule forever.

On the day when that gate opened, a pillar of golden fire appeared from the Earth and a voice like thunder said, "You may hold this world for a long and fearful age, but you will never rest easy in your rule. My blood will not answer your call. My people will not bend to your will. And when my Queen is come, your fate will be hers to decide."

And since that day, now and again, a pillar of golden fire marks the birth of a special girl, one the Shining Ones dare not touch, and she wins us a generation of peace. None of them have been the Queen, but we know she will come. We know the Earth spoke true.

On the day she raises her banner, the Shining Ones will fall.

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Inspired by the 6/1/14 15_minute_ficlets word #189: warning

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Look, original fiction! Granted, it's tiny and more of a promissory note to myself than anything else, but still. Original fiction! \o/

Comments

[heliopausa]

\o/ for original fiction - and it's sounding good!

[edenfalling]

Thank you!

[snacky]

Oooh, this is so intriguing! I want to know about the queen! And the children of the Shining Ones and the mortals.

[edenfalling]

The queen is Sunbright. She gets shoved into the Sleeping Beauty role for a bit, but she and the other main character (Shadowfall) manage to short-circuit the spell long before its appointed end date, so that's only one part of the story. She doesn't save herself alone, but dreamwalking is a useful skill if you're stuck in enchanted slumber. *grin* (Dreamwalking is also dangerous, but hey, magic without a price is boring.)

The children of the Shining Ones and mortals (or at least their many-generations-on descendants) definitely show up. Shadowfall is raised by one, in fact -- her aunt by marriage -- after her parents are executed for possession and use of a black market spinning wheel while Sunbright was in residence in their city. Or something like that. Like I said, my details and world-building are still fuzzy.

[askerian]

i am intrigued. :3

[edenfalling]

I'm kind of bogged down in world-building right now -- figuring out geography and climate and responses to over a thousand years of devastating attacks on large population clusters and stuff like that -- but I really want to write this story. *crosses fingers, plots evilly*

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Oooh, cool intro. Looks interesting!

[edenfalling]

This little history lesson will probably never appear in the actual story in this form, but I find that sometimes pinning a vague concept down in words helps me figure out what parts actually make any narrative sense. :-)