This is defiantly my favorite holiday. Sadly, this year I had to work instead of taking my three year old through the chilled chicagoland streets, raiding for candy. Work at least gets into the spirit and provide food, drink and costume contest. I went with the second of my two steampunk suits, Not costumes, suits .This was hand tailored by my lovely wife. Still piecing the accessories together i want to make a replica of Marcus's gun "Lucy" and the gun belt. I did tie for third place in the contest and made a little extra cash. Yay! caffeine money. Looks like somebody can stay up late and get a bit closer to finishing this book.
Not wanting to give too much of the book away before its done I've decided to give my lovely readers another sample from the "Violet Eclipse". Violet Eclipse is a high fantasy novel that I intend on breaking into two parts and releasing as novellas after I complete book one of the Moore for Less Investigations series.
Unedited Sample from the Violet Eclipse.
Prologue
Sparks
sent shooting stars across the starlit sky. Thunder clapped and
lighting crackled in the swelling clouds each time their blades met.
Their forms were flawless and their instincts were pure. Each move
was a strike and a parry, a strike and a parry. The oceans rose into
tidal waves and drowned the surrounding lands.
With
each impact the ground quaked and volcanoes erupted. The currents of
the winds and sea flowed in confused directions. Neither being
relented neither showed any sign of weakness. Sitting on a cloud
nearby, a single watcher witnessed the duel.
Tears
fell from her face causing monsoons as each drop met land, her silent
cries unheard over the clash of celestial steel. The two beings
pressed hard into one another. New valleys and mountains rose and
fell with each step they took. While destroying civilizations and
cultures of their own making.
Karasan
and Daskan were brothers of Celes, powerful beings of space and time.
They were what this world considered deities. Karasan stood tall in
luminescent armor of celestial silver; his golden hair pulled into a
long braid down his back. His features were long, smooth, and without
flaw, his eyes glittered as if filled with stars.
Daskan
was equally tall, dressed in armor of celestial onyx. Like his twin
his features were long, smooth, and flawless, his hair a perfect
black with a sheen that reflected the light of the stars, his eyes
were swirling pools of black holes.
Each
of them held in their hands an Aszan Star, matching blades created
the day they were born. Seamless long swords crafted by the Elemental
Smiths of the sun. Once not long ago the two loved and cared for each
other deeply and equally cared for those they now destroy without
thought or consequence.
Karasan
parried Daskan's strike high and let the blade slide down his own. With
his left gauntlet covered hand he struck Daskan in the jaw.
“You
slipped, brother” Karasan smirked.
“You
will not defeat me Karasan, Alanna will be free of you as will I.”
“Daskan,
she is with me by her own accord. I did not force her hand. She is
not a prisoner with me. You have gone mad.”
“The
only one mad is you, brother.”
The
blades clashed once again and the elements reeled. The power of the
two crashed like ocean waves, Daskan deflected Karasan's blade and
swiped his Aszan Star across the breastplate of his brother’s
armor.
Karasan
took a retreating step and resolved to a defensive stance. Daskan
rushed with a descending blow, Karasan parried high and drove the blade
down to the ground. He shifted his weight and brought the false edge
of his blade up toward Daskan’s head.
Daskan
took a step back, and pulled his blade above his right shoulder
defending his crown from the blow. He then rolled the blade around to
strike Karasan’s right temple. Karasan saw the incoming attack; he
stepped off to the left raising his blade, and parried Daskan’s
strike once again.
Releasing
his sword with his left hand Karasan wrapped his arm serpent like
around Daskan’s right arm. Daskan’s sword falls to the ground.
“I’m
sorry, my brother” Karasan whispered.
Karasan
pulled Daskan’s grappled arm toward him and plunged his Aszan Star
into Daskan’s midsection. Daskan’s divine blood spilled across
the ruined land mass. The blood saturated all the lands with his
essence and power.
His
body fell backward toward the ground with the speed of a comet
falling from the heavens. The impact caused vast mountains to rise
and cradle around his body. Alanna descended from her cloud still
crying. Her tears flooded the land beneath her mixing her essence
with Daskan’s blood. She knelled over him as he took his dying
breath.
“I’m
sorry, dear sweet Daskan. I never wanted this to happen. You two were
never to know. Please forgive me. Please...”
Rivers
of tears flowed from Alanna's cheeks and cascaded over Daskan's fallen
form. For a moment time froze as Karasan knelled beside Alanna. He
reached over and picked a few of her frozen tears from the air.
“We
will honor you with these my brother. May our story have a happier
ending the next time around?”
Karasan
placed the now crystallized tears within the pommel of his sword that
still rested in Daskan’s midsection. Karasan fused the gems with
the sword and his will. As Alanna rose to leave, Daskan reached out
grabbing her hand. The black holes that formed Daskan's eyes strained
with anguish and pain.
In
a struggled raspy breathless voice he whispered. “Death is but a
beginning, life is but an end. Remember this feeling, till we love
again.”
Karasan
recovered Daskan’s Aszan Star and grabbed Alanna by the arm. “We
must flee this place. The others know it was fated, but will not look
kindly to the cause. We will have to find another world for you and I.”
Karasan
and Alanna rose through the sky and flew off into the depths of
space. They have been never seen or worshiped in these lands. Daskan
however has never been forgotten. Thousands of years passed and what
remained of Daskan’s body has becomes one with the land. The onyx
of his armor strengthened the land, the meat of his flesh made it
fertile, and the blood from his veins gave it life.
Before
long new beings, creatures, and plant life emerged from the mass that
once was the body of Daskan. Thousands more years went by and these
species developed new cultures and new civilizations. These beings
discovered Daskan’s gift, the gift of magic to the world. Before
long these beings began to use what they found on one another. And
began the rise and fall of great civilizations, entire cites lost,
people slain, the story of Karasan and Daskan over and over again.
The
Bard Fargal stepped off the stage, in the tavern known as the Eagle’s
Pride. A posh place in the noble quarter of Daskan’s Hold grandest
city in all of Daskan’s Fall. In this same tavern sat Kritis, a
sword master from the land far to the west known as Trismorm. At his
side sat Elenoren, a magic sword believed to be fashioned from the
Onyx of Daskan.
A
slender but strong man Kritis stood at about six heads high with a
traveler’s complexion. His hair was a rich brown like that of
chocolate and fell haphazardly to his shoulders. His eyes were
narrow, colored shades of hazel with flecks of green in them. He wore
armor made of layered soft leather dyed in shades of dark blues and
browns. Hidden beneath the leather he wore a shirt of fine dwarf-
made mail. He word hardened leather bracer back by steel plate
fashion with the crest of sword pointed up surrounded by a wreath.
A
voice from the direction of the sword spoke aloud to Kritis.
“She’s
not going to show you know. It’s too risky.” The sword proclaimed
from her scabbard.
“She
hired me, if she thought it was too dangerous she would have chosen a
different place.” Kritis replied in an low near whisper.
“I’m
telling you Kritis, something is off about this job. Why would
someone steal some documents from a noble house and leave the jewels
on the dresser.”
“I
know not the thoughts of a thief, I simply found said thief and
recovered the documents.”
As
those words crossed Kritis’s lips, six burly men entered the tavern
followed by a tiny yet quite attractive woman. Her eyes scanned the
room briefly, and then locked on Kritis. She motioned her brawny
escort toward.
“Nothing
to worry about you said.” mocked Elenoren.
“This
bloody city, does no one know how to keep a contract.” Kritis
grumbled with a curse.
The
noble walked with the presents of one of her station haughty,
arrogant and snooty. Her eyes were the color of sapphires set above
high cheeks. She would have had what were considered luscious lips
had they not been pressed in a thin line.
The
noble and her entourage strode without deviations directly to
Kritis’s table. She stopped abruptly a few feet from the table and
turned up her nose. Her escort positioned themselves in a semi-circle
around the table.
Meilina
of house Kardasha looked Kritis in his hazel green eyes, A barely
five feet tall she barely stood at eye level with Kritis seated. She
outstretched her hand before him and demanded with a silky voice.
“I
believe you have something that belongs to my family.”
“That
depends on whether or not you have the agreed upon payment, my lady.”
“I
assumed you would have figured already that these men are here to
recover the documents from you.” Meilina gestured toward her escort
with a grim smirk.
The
other patrons in the tavern took to notice the conversation and
rising tension. They began making their way to the door or the far
corners of the room. It did not take a scholar to deduce that a fight
was about to break out.
The
bruisers spread themselves around the table drawing their sheathed
broad swords. Meilina’s men were built like that of large cargo
workers from the air docks. Back alley brawlers the lot of them each
is wore thick heavy leather jerkins underneath tunics carrying the
seal of house Kardasha.
“My
Lady, this would have been far easier if you had of paid my fee.”
Kritis said reluctantly with a sigh.
While
reaching for Elenoren, Kritis kicked the table in front of him. Which
sent it slamming rather hard into the knees of two of his would be
assailants. With the same motion he propelled himself backward and
rolled from his chair to his feet with Elenoren drawn.
Her
black blade rang with the sound of cracking ice. A frosty mist
emitted from her black surface as Kritis set her in a low guard blade
pointing to the floor held front and center of his body.
“So,
what’s the plan love?” Elenoren asked.
“Well, I was thinking we
deal with the brutes. Then renegotiate the terms our contract.”
Kritis answered.
The
nearest two attackers lunged forward swiping wildly with broad
swords that looked like long knife’s in their hands. Kritis brought
Elenoren to parry one while he side stepped the other. The latter’s
blade sailed pass Kritis and found itself wedge in a nearby chair.
Frost kisses the blade of the parried sword and is followed by the
sound of a sharp snap. The blade of the thug’s sword broke from the
impact and flew wildly into the tavern bar with a thud.
Kritis
firmly planted a knee in to the broken swordsman’s gut and shoved
him into the tough that continued to struggle with his trapped sword.
The two brutes tumbled of over with a thunderous crash smashing the
chair and a nearby table. With swift fluid movements Kritis danced
Elenoren in and the around six men. He proceeded to repeatedly knock
them down each time they returned to their feet.
“Are
we not killing them? Elenoren asked.
“Trying
not to, Elen. We are in a noble’s bar having a sword fight with a
noble’s hired hands. Killing them could get me put in Gladia.”
Kritis responded as he struck one of the thugs for the third time
with the pummel of Elenoren.
A
look of disbelief and worry marred the pretty face of Meilina. Kritis
took a coy posture and laid Elenoren to rest on his shoulder. As he
stood there triumphant over the noble lady’s battered and mostly
unconscious escort Elenoren hummed a soft melody in his ear. Kritis
reached down and recovered his now empty mug from the floor a shook
his head.
“Now,
my lady, about my fee. We agreed upon 3000 gold sigil for the
recovery of your documents. I have since had to fight a rather wildly
rogue, deal with an insane sage and now beat your men senseless.”
“Don’t
forget spilling your drink, Kritis.” Elenoren chimes in between
chords.
“And
cause me to spill a rather tasty drink. If you would now pay me, I
would like to be on my way.”
“Well.
Um I don’t have the 3000 gold sigil. This whole thing is off the
record. My father would never allow me to waste that kind of money.”
she replied.
Kritis
walked over to the bar, his back turned to Meilina. He reached into
the black leather pouch on his belt. He withdrew a number of coins
and stacked them on the bar. He pointed a finger at the tavern owner,
and then pointed to the stacks of two hundred gold sigil. The
barkeep nodded at Kritis in understanding.
“Lady
Meilina, It sounds like I am having this conversation with the wrong
person. I am not a bad man, nor a man without understanding. I am
however a man who would like to be paid for services rendered.”
Kritis walked to the door placing Elenoren in her scabbard on his
left hip.
Fury
flashed across her face, but suddenly cooled as Kritis opened the
door. A small smirk kissed the right corner of her lips. Kritis
turned to see ten of the City Watch in a semi-circle around the door,
crossbows trained on him. The noble’s quarter Watch Warden stepped
forward holding up a warrant for Kritis.
“Kritis
Melda of Trismorn, under warrant signed by the High Chancellor, by
the Authority of the Grand King I, Watch Warden Nien place you under
arrest for robbery and blackmail of a noble house.” the Watch
Warden spoke loud enough for the whole tavern to hear.
“Well,
I did not think she was that clever.”
“Kritis,
how many times have I told you not to trust a pretty face?”
“We
are not getting out of this one, Elenoren”
“I
am afraid not, my love.”
“Remove
your weapons and step forward.” commanded the Watch Warden.
Kritis
took in his time and removed weaponry one by one and staked them on
the ground before him. Several hidden daggers, throwing knives, an
enchanted amulet, and a small single handed crossbow clattered to the
stone road. Lastly, he drew Elenoren from her scabbard with a
flourish that made the watchmen shift their weight nervously. He
followed this motion with laying Elenoren's black blade flat across
his palms.
“We
are bound in life and death. We are bound in blade and flesh.”
Kritis and Elenoren chanted the words together.
Kritis
released the blade and allowed Elenoren to fall to the ground. The
swords dark blade morphed into a bolt of black light as black as
night just before striking the ground. With a flash Elenoren arced
and streaked in the air circling around Kritis like black lighting.
The guards stared wearily unsure if they should press and attack or
seek cover. Elenoren circled Kritis once more, than with another burst of dark energy the bolt transformed into the form of
beautiful Elf maiden in the nude.
Elenoren
in her spirit form embraced Kritis with a passionate kiss, then
melded into his body. Markings of a black tattoo streaked up the
right side of Kritis’s neck and across his right cheek etching his
skin in an archaic design. Kritis collapsed to the ground as if life
had been sucked from him.
