It begins here

Hello there friends. Well look at that. A blog for my book.

Now why did I set this blog up? I've set up this blog to be a platform for one of the books I've been working on. There are two reasons for this: (1) This way I'll work more constantly on the book, getting the story to go where it needs to. (2) This platform is to be a forum for my writing, to get a real live feel for what works and doesn't work with my style of writing. So please if you have read the story, do comment and post your thoughts. 

That being said, here is how it'll work: Every month there'll be a release of approximately 5 pages of the story (maybe even bi-monthly if i've a rather productive month).  As a blog launch treat I'm putting up a page from each of my stories. I have already decided which story is going to publish in this blog, but am willing to listen to your compelling arguments about what you'd like to read..

So with out further blah blah blah from me. Here is a page of the first story:

The Shining

The scene from the hill was one of the more inspiring creations of God.  The orange glowing orb of sun painted the sky and sea various shades of crimson. Light clouds hung on the horizon. Marching toward a destiny on the other side.  The wind was the only thing that could have used a bit of improvement. It was too strong.  A figure stood at the top of the hill amongst the wind swept leaves next to the naked oak. Shrouded in his own darkness.  "Why do you come here Raeve? It's so depressing.” a voice said. He knew who it was without having to turn around. She would be watching him closely.

"Look down there.” He said. “We have the Lower City Lanqua and above New.  They sit one on top of the other. Sharing the same harbour, but worlds apart.  This must be as low as humans get, half those people down there are damned. The ruling class has sold their souls to our brother. They now know there’s no way to get to heaven. Hell is creeping on to this world more and more." Deep blue eyes scrolled over the city, "The balance is shifting. We are loosing…"

"Do you ever miss your job?" No answer.  This was usually where the conversation ended. She knew she shouldn't have asked that. The throne had sat empty for so long that many lost their way. Or simply got too tired from having to cart souls into Heaven. Raeve looked tired. Concerned. How was he supposed to negotiate if one party was missing?  "How is Christine?" What she wanted to ask was: “Can she be brought back?”  That was the big question. Christine was their hope. The only one that could take up the throne.

Raeve turned and faced Almerael his face expressionless, "You are a part of the all-seeing. You tell me." His rasping voice drifting in the wind.  Raeve turned and started on his way down the hill.  "I'm sorry Almerael. "  Bright blue eyes glanced at the evening sky, "Why do you keep sending her?  You are the one who the severed the connection." The darkness around him grew. As always he wouldn't look back. He heard her wings flap once. She had always loved flying. Raeve preferred walking. He felt it connected him to the humans. Helped him understand them better. Another flap. She was still watching him. He could feel her bright blue eyes on him. It was the same dance they had done for the last century. The shadow of a plane passed over him. Her eyes were gone. He missed being able to feel His eyes on him through hers. He turned once. Only the naked oak stood. Clawing at heaven.

He walked for half an hour and was soon entering the outskirts of the city. His face showed a wariness of many ages. The stench of  the struggling lower class played on his nostrils like the whining strings of a violin. Somewhere a dog barked it's protest to having to hunt garbage bags for food. A car sputtered by. The sound of it's engine told a story of poor maintenance. The look of the driver showed she could barely maintain herself, let alone the car. The houses that lined the street Raeve was walking through were ill kept. Some showed signs of an attempt to perk them up, but the limited level of the means of their owners was clearly stamped on them. Closer to the center of the lower city, buildings reached in supplication to riches of the upper city. Apartment block upon apartment block creaked and crawled jam full of people. The streets were teeming with them. Most rushed this was and that as the evening settled in. Buses going to and from the middle and upper city were at their fullest at this time of the evening. Many people were preparing to go out to jobs to put food on their plates as others were coming home from a day's toil. 

Lets hold that right there. I do so enjoy that opening scene to this story. Here is the second:

The Magic Within

FLASH!!

He opened his eyes and saw…

  He could feel The Leech sucking away at

 His lifeblood…

 HE would smite it!

No! He shouldn’t. He couldn’t!

      The Rules. Ahh, Sense…

Yes it was quite a change…

  He looked down at His hands and saw

The Stars,

      They were His very body.

      He looked closer and saw the Worlds,

all of them a potential he could mold..

  He looked behind him and saw

  The Beginning… In front Possibility.

  Yes he would mold Possibility.

He would forge a sword,

      Mighty like none before

      And a shield to compliment it.

  Yes He would smite The Leech…

 The world of Aurubah was lost and with it so much potential.  The only thing left to do was to close the nexus-gate.  Not that it would stop it. It will find a way to the other worlds, but Aurubah had been key.  The world where so much had been unlocked... Too much had been unlocked.  Henrur looked on as the last few refugees entered one of the last open gates, remembering all he had learnt from this world.  Remembering the great waves of magic that pulsed eternally out of Aurubah, indeed the great waves of magic that had begun to pulse out of him. He looked down at wrinkled sun-kissed skin on the back of his hand, fully expecting it to have changed and surprised it didn’t betray his age. He knew it wasn’t long before the change began to show though on his skin. Soon he wouldn’t be able to affect this form of existence directly.  His time here was over; he knew he had precious little time left. He would have to leave. Right when he was needed the most.  Soon he would leave this plain.  He wondered if he would be lonely.  He knew he would not be the last, for Aurubah had born children. They were her gift to him. The planet that had taken him into herself had focused her will into this one last gift that would be a continuation of her lessons to him.

He could hear the creatures breaking through the outer walls; soon they would be inside the city, heading for the port.  The protective dome he and the other sorcerers abd magi had raised proved what he had suspected. That it was never going to be strong enough to hold them back for long. It was enough to buy the needed time to evacuate the last city. Men and Elves alike had fled. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not every day that a man lost to the magic comes to them.  It’s not every day that Henrur appears and tells them to flee or suffer a fate worse than death. He had seen it.  Some stayed.  Henrur pitied these for they did not know what lei ahead.  The creatures were through the wall now and were rushing for the port.   It knew where he was. It could feel him as he did It and was It directing It’s spawn towards him.  Henrur looked down at his package. No more time could be wasted.  He knew that the nexus-doorway on the other side had been closed; all that he had to do was destroy the one this side.  He spoke the words of power and the gate shuddered and collapsed in on itself. Its shimmering green light gone. Leaving only a rune engraved hexagram on the floor below where it once was. It had been the last gate that had remained open in the port. He then used another word he burnt away the runes etched into the slightly raised hexagram.

The creatures had now entered the port – too late. He opened a temporal gate to the world of Gualitte.  Through this he gently pushed his package.  After closing the gate he looked around at what was left of the great City of the Guardians of Magic, the port tower provided a magnificent view of the darkness that was settling on Aurubah.  The many elegant floating spires of the city’s cathedral had already started to fall. The central column that had once been the Tower of the Magi and the highest point in the city crawled with creatures that were conceived by the entity’s mind. They were tiny specs of movement on the tower. Sapping the magic that the tower drew from the very ground it stood on. The silvery ball that once glowed above it, giving the city protection from the darkness now flickered as it neared its last light.

Henrur’s eyes took all this in with great sadness in his heart. He dared not look ahead to see if his beloved would be saved.  He could now see the creatures rushing at him. His weathered old face lost its morosity and grew stern. They were many and all were focused on him. Through them he could feel the Leech’s insatiable hunger. They were the likeness of the Leech itself. Sprinklings of thread thin hair, covering most of their grey skin that glistened in the last light of the setting sun. Though they were capable of walking on their hind legs, they rushed at him on several of their limbs. Their large triangular eyes that bulged as to seem to be on stubby stalks glowed with a hunger not unlike that of their master.They were but nothing to him. He gathered his magic to him. He could feel Aurubah gently support him. There was a sadness in the defiant waves that emanated from her very core. She was resolute. Her resolve steeled him. He had a message for the entity. One that will be feared by all who hear of it. The very universe seemed to hold it’s breath as he focused his mind and spread his hands. Light began to eminate from his skin as he closed his eyes. Indeed too much potential had been lost… 

I think I may have gone a bit more than the page I had intended to put up on that last story. Rather nice I must say. And roll on number 3:

Inner Flight

    What was it that lurked in the shadows of his peripheral consciousness, preventing him from making the necessary connections with the other beings around him? Was it what had happened to him when he was on Nehgea? Was it something that he had created? Had he made himself this way or was it something in the way his Pattern unfolded? He knew he could engage with any of the sentient beings in the known universe without much effort, but he would feel uneasy if they were able to probe him. This alone told him it wasn’t a lack of capacity, though he was certain he was behind on something. His life felt to him as if it had taken a path other than  that of the beings he called his friends. It wasn’t that he thought he was different. No. That could not be it. He had felt the things they felt at one point or other in his life...

He contemplated this quietly as he watched the riders hanging out there in the emptiness of space. Waiting. Some of them seemed like little dark spots against the blazing magnitude of the Twins. At this distance it was Prime that absorbed most of your vision. Off to the left, if you squinted your eyes just a little bit you would see the gentle yet brilliant blue shine of Prime’s smaller sister, Wedyen. They were the twin stars that gave the Odia system life.It was almost time. He could see some of the riders lock themselves into their blades. The waves had been lean to day, but the build up of magnetic radiation suggested there would be good sets for the next three hours.

His eyes wandered to Ahera who was chatting away with Sealho and Jenherk. She was beautiful, strong, and well grounded. Just looking in her general direction he would feel all his focus automatically zero in on her. He could pick up every single movement she made. Every gesture. Every breath she took... Just as he started getting absorbed by her beauty Reganh came charging from the back of the dock and threw his arms around her. Her surprised, yet delighted laughter pierced through Will. Her attentions taken by Reganh. Will turned away and connected the tether to his suit as a way to distract himself from the sight that made his world green with jealousy. He busied himself by making sure the tether was properly secure at the base of the sine of his drad-suit. He could feel the nerve-sensor-build discharge a three-pulse directly to the base of his spine to let him know he was connected properly and that all systems were ready. The anticipation for the coming waves building up in him. He would wait till the last minute to close his secondary visor. He wanted to feel the rush of the wave on his face. Behind him was the leisure space station that held orbit one hundred and ninety-six million miles from the closer of the two suns, Wyden. It was packed with sunbathers and beings here to enjoy the entertainment activities provided on the station. The secondary barrier of disassociated electrons that protected those that were there from direct exposure to the Sisters would drop for 10 seconds allowing in just the right amount of the fore-wave in to give the visitors of Break Point enough of a jolt to keep them in a state of glee for hours. At this distance that was all the direct exposure to the Sisters needed to achieve a happy balance between safety and sheer carnage. The wave radiation created a sense of euphoria so intense that many sentient beings would loose their minds if exposed to it for more than twenty minutes, but that would be the least of  worries Humans and Shereen would have because it would melt their skin and obliterate their internal organs in fifteen. It was the Usta that enjoyed the power of the two suns the most. Their wraith-like bodies made of pure energy reacted with the magnetic waves in a manner that left them in a state of happy stupor for days. They anticipated the wave more than any of the races at Break point. The Usta hung in mid-air all over the outside space station like a swarm of multi-colored lights.

Alright lets hold it there. Hope you've enjoyed the little reading of the story here. Now remember the story you get here will be in it's rawest form. No refinement or editing will be done to it before it is put up. So all your feedback will be invaluable. 

That concludes today's bit rambling from me. Catch you next time around.

Nic, Out.