Against the Odds

“Today, we suffered a defeat. But you know what? We did not fail. Even knowing the odds beforehand, knowing the possibility of defeat, we still rose up to fight. There was not a man who stood on that field this morning who did not expect to come home again. But still we fought, and that was the true win.

The king will be brought down, of that I am certain. One day this foe who stands against us so strongly will see defeat. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow- it may not even be within my lifetime. But one thing I do know, is that evil does not last forever. To all darkness there must come an end, and then goodness will reign. This I know in my heart, and of that I have no doubt.

And for this end I will continue to fight, for as long as strength remains in my body. Even if I never see the fruit of my work, even if at end of my life he still reigns, I know that I will have done my best. When I am gone and my life is done, I will have no regrets, for I did what I knew to be right. I will depart this world knowing that my part is done. Though I could not change the world, I hope that I have at least made it a little brighter. The world is beyond my reach, but I can at least hope to change my own small corner of it.”

– Words of Rakad after the rebellion suffers a defeat at the hands of the king.

The Wars of Song

Of the darkness, little is known, save only that it came out after the beginning, and that it sought the destruction of the Score. Whence it came, or how it gained its power, of this nothing is known. It came suddenly, and wrought great destruction on the world as it fought the Score. In its struggle for dominance, it brought into the world such things as pain, disease, and death. Most of all, it brought Darkness and Silence, which are formidable adversaries against the Score, which is Light and Song. These things- darkness, silence, and death- are weapons of the Darkness, tools which is uses in its continuing struggle.

In the beginning, the Darkness challenged the Score, and fought it. Thus began the era of the Struggle, in which were fought the Wars of Song. The wars ended when Ainrael, maiden of Rakkain, daughter of Sunaan, rose up against the Darkness. In her the Song was, and it moved within her, filled her with power. She rose against the Darkness, and fought in the power of the Song. The strength of her power was great, and against it the Darkness could not stand.

Yet though it fell, it was not without lost. For the strength left Ainrael as the burden of the fight overwhelmed her, and her spirit shattered. She died then, and she became the Song, which split into four parts, the Four Powers which are now known.

The Score was split, and was whole no longer. For this reason the Darkness continues in the earth, until the time when a Singer may rise to defeat the Darkness and restore the Song. For since the time of the Medduwyn- that time when the Song was broken- there has none been found who could arise once more and take on the power of the Score to challenge the Darkness once more, and return the time of Song.

Moving on

So here’s a little update about what’s going on in my little world… 🙂

Been working a lot on the story, Cerisal, although it’s not proceeding quite as fast as I would like, but it’s still going on at any rate. I now have 107 pages total, but it STILL lacks a first chapter! For the most part I’ve just skipped over that and went on ahead to work on a less frustrating scene. I figure I’ll probably get that first chapter done after I’ve already finished the rest of the book! lol.

A couple of good friends are helping with the production of this book. Kent, Christopher, and Nicolas have been good in keeping up on the reading, as long as I’ve been sending them anyway (Thank you!!!), and I’ve gotten good feedback that has been extremely helpful. What’s been most encouraging is their continued interest and willingness to help. Thanks guys! 🙂

Speaking of which, Christopher is adding his own contribution to the story- it may not appear in the main story as it’s printed and published, but we’ll be posting it on here for others to read. I’ve added him as a contributing author to my blog, plus he’ll be posting stuff on his own blog, Christopher’s Stories. Besides helping with my story, he’s also working on a few of his own- my favorite being a historical novel centered around Ghangis Khan. You can check out the rest of his stories at his site, or you can go straight to this link here: About Christopher’s Stories

Before…

There was a time

When Song was not heard

And Power was not made.

A dark time,

Before the world began.

Then from the darkness

Came a Song not heard;

Never heard by man.

The Song brought light;

It brought the Powers

Into the world

Where before there was none.

Time Will Tell

If the darkness wins, shall the Song endure? The Song is the life of men- if it goes out, shall death reign? The darkness is deep, and it is the bane of those things good. Yet as long as there still stands one who will fight, the darkness has not won. If it reigns over the earth, but one still resists its rule, then the light is not extinguished.

Against the rising darkness they must fight. The storm grows, but their strength remains in their bonds with each other. The Song of the earth is in them, and with it they can battle the evil without- if they do not succumb to the darkness within. Against all foes they stand, but against themselves how shall they fight?

They are born with the sense of evil, and the will for good. Both cannot be acheived; it is for them to choose which path they will follow. Some will choose light, and will stand; others love darkness, and will fall. The ultimate betrayal comes when those who have walked the path of light are revealed to be followers of darkness- can their relationships survive?

Only time will tell…

Remembrance of Haera

I remember that day well,

That moment frozen in time.

The darkened sun

And the cold wind that blew;

I know it all.

The day dawned dark and cold,

There was no warmth in the sun,

There was no strength to its light.

I looked, and I saw the sun,

And I knew that doom was near.

The dragon awoke,

And there was great destruction

Seen on that day.

The dragon was filled with wrath,

And waged war against the Powers.

He wielded a power

Like none I have ever seen.

He defeated that great city of Song,

Ceris.

He took her beauty,

Corrupting it with his darkness.

He caused a great shadow

To fall over the entire land,

A shadow of silence and darkness,

Silence without the Song.

What’s New

Well so after taking a break for a little while from working on this story, I’m back at it once again! The main story is going well, as well as the various additions, such as the history books that I’m writing to complement “Cerisal”. Cerisal now has over 100 pages and counting, for which I am very happy about. For a little while it was stuck on a certain point, and actually it still is, but then I took the avice of a friend and skipped it, just moved on to a later scene. That idea worked out real well, since now that part is flowing rather nicely! 🙂

Also, I now have a friend who is working with me on this- a close friend of mine who discovered what I was doing and was interested in helping out, being extremely interested in the book. So now with his help I’m continuing on writing this book, hopefully I’ll get somewhere concrete soon.

My friend, Christopher, has been a great help so far- looking over what I’m writing and giving input, as well as giving ideas whether for a plot line or a name for a character. He’s also started work himself, writing out his own contribution to the story in a collaboration of sorts.

This story has taken me far beyond what I imagined at first- in the beginning it was just a simple plot line that was straightforward- now it has so many twists and turns, with surprising developments that are completely unexected, and scenes that jump out of nowhere and take the book in an entirely different direction. The characters as well have changed, some new ones coming in or older ones taking on new roles. One character in particular, Keinyn, jumped in from nowhere, forcing me to rewrite what I have already done for the first part of the book. Not such a big loss that, since that part was already undeveloped and needed rewriting anyway, and I like the replacement much better.

As for my computer- well, it really hasn’t improved any, but I’m just working with what I have for right now. I’ve been kind of lax in keeping up on several things but I’m hoping to work that out so it changes. Also, I’ve been a little busy doing other sorts of writing- and getting paid for it! (always a plus, since I am still out of a job) I decided to do some research and looked around until I found a site that calls for freelance writers, so I’ve taken up freelance work. It doesn’t pay well, at least not at first, but it’s better than nothing and, best of all, I get to write!

So all in all, it’s going pretty well around here. I hope to be able to get on again soon to update some more, probably post something from my story, but no guaruntees, especially as the next week promises to be pretty busy. But I’ll try! 😉

Computer problems

Well so I know I haven’t been updating very much recently, actually it might be better to say not at all. That’s not because I haven’t been writing, although I haven’t been doing as much of that either, simply due to lack of urge to do so (which, thanks to several novels I just recently finished reading, added with the break that I took for a while, is now remedied and I’ve started up again). But really the main reason I haven’t been updating is the same reason that I haven’t gotten on wordpress period, not even to check up on the various blogs that I follow regurlarly- or rather, I did. But lately my computer has been running slower than normal, and it takes several minutes to load a single wordpress page. As one can imagine, trying to get on and then navigate around the site to maintain the blog can get quite tiresome when much of the time is spent sitting and waiting for it to load. Even writing out this post I have to stop every few phrases to wait for the computer to catch up to my writing. Sometimes it freezes up entirely, threatening to shut down. This morning actually it did crash- causing me to lose a half a page of work from a story that I had up and was working on. Granted, not a lot of work, but it was still significant- especially since the recovery drive didn’t catch it and so it was lost for good, so I have to rewrite it all out and hope for the best.

Eventually I’m hoping to get a new computer, but for now I’ll just have to deal with this one the best I can. Worst part is the fear of it crashing completely, so that everything is lost- all the hundreds of pages of work I have saved up on here. It’s been a little difficult trying to get all that work onto a portable drive such as a disk or flash drive, but hopefully it will hang on until something can be worked out. Until then…

The Singer

The Singer

The Singer stands at the edge

Staring into the distance beyond.

At her feet lies the world,

Stretching far to the horizon.

The sun shoots glorious rays of fire

Reaching deep into the heavens.

The Singer looks into the distance,

Waiting.

A soft wind blows the hair

Back from her face,

Gently stirring her clothes.

The sun lights her face,

Edging her with gold light.

The last rays of evening

Touch her softly,

Giving her an aura of power.

A sword is at her side,

But peace is in her eyes.

Her expression is far-off,

Tinged with sorrow.

A sadness rests about her,

Borne of long years of loss.

Then, as the sun sinks

Below the horizon,

She tips her head back

And begins to sing.

The song calls forth a power

Stronger than the world itself.

The power resides in her,

Called forth by the Song

That comes from her lips.

For she is the Singer.

Power Struggle

He who has the power will rule the world. The strongest survives, and those who are weak fall by the side, and are broken underfoot. The one with the power has the strength to stand, and will make the world his own, whether it be for darkness or for light.

A prophecy may speak of darkness and a power may bring it to pass but while the light stands men will find courage to fight. And though the darkness may rage against it, it is that light which will endure forever, for it cannot die. The light gives hope for all men to live for the future all the while being independant of the necessity of requiring validation of men’s belief for existence.

Yet the dark must still be there, for it is the support of the light, though it may fight against it. If the darkenss is gone, the light will be shallower for it, unless it may be the end of all time as it is known.