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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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 Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 3:55 pm
Of Amethyst and Emeralds
A novel thread
By PMS
So, I believe that it's customary around this time of year to begin making project threads. SuWriMos was a bit of a fail last year for me, but this year I'm hoping that things will go more smoothly - and I'm hoping that this thread will help. It's mostly just a place for me to track the progress towards my goal, and keep track of characters and such (I find it easier to do online than just in word documents; easier to format nicely).
Also, I'll probably be posting chapters as and when I write them (so it's inclined to incredibly ad hoc in terms of timing, and you may notice more than a few basic errors), but feel free to give it a read if you fancy. I definitely wouldn't mind.
Anyway, welcome to the thread! If you are interested, give me a shout. Or, you know, just do that anyway because I'll need people to talk to. It's going to be a busy summer and I know I'm going to need some serious encouragement. Please!
Basic premise: Nyssa and Calista have never really been close, but when her sister gets herself into deeper trouble than usual, Nyssa feels obliged to protect her. They run from their home, and their aging father, in the hopes that they will be able to escape Calista's troublesome past. The problem is, the wider world of Exos is not exactly how they imagined it would be; it is much more dangerous, and inhabited by many untrustworthy people. They seek refuge among the growing turmoil in the Iturina Regent's court, and before they know it they are both drawn into something deeper than normal court politics - and Nyssa is struggling to keep her own past a secret, even from her sister.
4,263 / 5o,ooo words.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 4:01 pm
Chapters As I have said before: I shall post most of the chapters online, here, and then link the separate posts through this one. If you choose to review an earlier chapter when a later one is online it might be useful for you to tell me which you're talking about, (again this is on the assumption that people will read what I write). If at any point I do decide to stop posting my chapters here I will let you know, though there will be the possibility of a more private blog-post system, or if you really want to read the novel then I have to say: Emails are wonderful things.
Please, please remember that this is an incredibly rough draft, and that a good few stupid errors are to be expected. They probably won't even hit me until people point them out, or I edit, because my brain is set into fifth gear writing mode. :]
If you do read and comment, I'll thank you now in advance. It's appreciated. <3 (But remember: Read at your own risk!)
Prologue: [x]
Chapter one: [x]
Daily progress Here's my daily word count. I figure then I can look back and see how well I've kept to my goals. <3 Daily goal: 2,000 words.
(NB: My last exam is June 9th. Expect things to pick up a bit more after that.)
June 1st: 0
June 2nd: 0
June 3rd: 0
June 4th: 0
June 5th: 3,091 words.
June 6th: 1,171 words. (Damn exam revision!)
June 7th: 0
June 8th: 0
June 9th: 0 [[FREE!!]]
June 10th: 0
June 11th: 0
June 12th: 0 (Sadly, catching up of life seems to take time. @_@)
June 13th:
June 14th:
June 15th:
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 4:05 pm
Important Characters This is more for my benefit than yours. If you need to use it to figure out who everybody is, then I think we have a problem. :3 But, let me know if you do need it, and I can hopefully fix the problem!
(More characters to be added as they appear.)
Nyssa - MC
Calista - MC's sister
Novel soundtrack Give a damn about what I'm listening to? Well, here's a definitely-not-quite-comprehensive list of songs. =D
(To be updates at a later date.)
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 4:06 pm
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 4:08 pm
Okay guys, it looks like we're good to go. whee Just don't expect too much from me until June 10th, haha.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 7:57 pm
*pop* * Did you know you will giggle like mad when you see this? It's a fact.
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:40 am
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 4:20 pm
Hot-off-the-press-without-editing-totally-rubbish-prologue anybody? Feedback is appreciated, but definitely not necessary. This draft is for fun, so will likely be very poor. However, don't let that stop you! xd
Of Amethyst and Emeralds
In the beginning, the haze between the worlds was thin...
Prologue
The night was hot. The wind was sullen in its intensity; it somehow managed to be soothing against the skin, and yet also carry a warning with its angry, cool bite. Nyssa sat on the front stoop, enjoying the play of wind against her bare arms. She held a book between her knees, several of the pages fluttering. Her mind, as usual, was wandering somewhere else.
Calista was late.
Calista was always late, these days. It didn’t matter what Nyssa said, nothing worked. Now, she sat with her book and couldn’t help but close her eyes against the breeze and the late summer night. It would be a while before she had to move, and the pleasant weather was lulling her like a crooned nursery melody. The house behind her was quiet, dark. The only light came from the electric bulb that hung above her head; a meager yellow ring surrounding the young woman, making a halo of her dark glossy curls.
She didn’t know how long it had been since she had expected to dish up supper, but she wasn’t hungry. She was waiting. And hoping that her younger sister wouldn’t keep her up all night.
The night was total darkness around her when she jerked awake. It was cool now, and the breeze had died down to almost nothingness. With another crack that came from the woodlands at the edge of the property, Nyssa was totally alert. Her heart began hammering before she had the time to quell any fear. It was just Calista - and she was definitely late. Wipe the fear away, she thought; what you need now is Annoyance.
Her face was set in such an emotion, ready for the confrontation, when Calista emerged from the darkness. She was limping badly, clutching one arm to her chest.
“Nyssa,” she whispered. Her voice was loud in the darkness, but Nyssa barely heard it over the roaring blood inside her head. Calista’s face was smudged with dirt and streaked with fresh tears. Her long blonde curls were dishevelled and her muddy dress was ripped at the hem.
“Calista.” Nyssa didn’t know what to say. She felt totally frozen, unable to move or speak or even change her facial expression. Her sister was hurt - and Nyssa felt nothing.
“He hit me, Nyssa. He hit me.” Calista wasn’t crying any longer, but her bottom lip was trembling against a fresh onslaught of tears. “I thought he was going to kill me. I thought he would-”
And then, as quickly as the deep-freeze had taken over her body, Nyssa was alive. The roaring inside her veins died down, and she was on her feet. She rushed to Calista, who was still standing at the foot of the front stairs, still clutching her hand to her chest. Now the tears flowed freely.
“What did he do to you?” Nyssa asked, drawing the younger girl to her. “Come here. Come here...” She crooned and patted and fawned, but only until her sister was safely inside. Then she bolted the door. She let her hands drop to her sides, and turned.
They were in total darkness. Calista was close, and she smelled like cheap perfume and whisky.
“You’ve been drinking,” Nyssa hissed. Their father was asleep, but she spoke quietly more from a fear of scaring herself in that darkness than waking him. “You’ve been out. Again. I knew you would get yourself into something - I knew you would! I warned you, and I tried to keep you safe; you just don’t care-”
“Nyssa, please!” Calista begged. “Please, listen to me!”
“I don’t know what you expect me to do.” Nyssa shook her head, forgetting that the gesture meant nothing to anybody but herself. “I can’t do anything.” It was a lie; she wished it was true. Nyssa had know that this day was coming for a long time. She had only hoped that it would never appear. She sighed. “What can I do?”
“I don’t know.” Calista’s voice had gained an edge in the second that it had taken Nyssa to doubt the necessity behind her harsh words. “Nyssa. Nyssa, I need to talk to you. I need to explain what’s going on.”
“And you can’t do that here?”
“No.” A pause. And then, “Yes. I can. You’re going to hate me.”
Nyssa sucked in a breath between her teeth, biting back the retort that was hanging between them, already unspoken. Not hatred, she wanted to say: disappointment. Worry. Fear. Instead, she took another long, deep breath and reached out for the girl’s shoulder.
“I’m listening,” she said. “Tell me what happened. Tell me what I can do to make it go away this time.”
Calista was silent for a long time. When she finally spoke, it was as though the words were being forced from her mouth by an invisible demon, and Calista was fighting against them every second of the time. Nyssa felt her sister’s shoulder heaving beneath her fingers, as though even the thought of the words made her sick.
“He found out... Ka found out. I told him. He said that he’d kill me, said that I’d die before have... Before he’d let it happen. I tried to explain to him - honestly I did, Nys - but he wouldn’t listen! He just kept coming at me, and he had this funny look in his eyes... Oh, god. Nyssa. I really think I’ve screwed it up this time.”
Not even the vulgar language could worsen the biting feeling that was growing in the pit of Nyssa’s stomach. It felt like something inside of her was clawing itself out. She realised that it was the fear, the worry that had pitted her waking minutes for the last two years. It was coming. It was coming...
“Calista. What is it?”
“I’m...” She heard Calista swallow in the quiet, heard the sharp intake of breath. “Nyssa, I’m pregnant.”
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 7:21 pm
The prologue was pretty interesting, definitely managed to grow some emotional tension - though with editing, I'm sure the tension can be grown. I'm anxious to read about Cal and Nys's adventures in the outside world though. It seems that you could develop a very cool story from this premise. I see it as a sort of free form fantasy with real world problems. Update soon!
949
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:56 am
Thanks. I definitely need to work on the tension a little more, but flying without a plot can lead to some dodgy scenes, haha.
There will be fantasy elements in the plot, especially revolving around Nyssa, but mostly these problems will be striving for at least some realism. X3
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:38 pm
I'm thoroughly confused already, which might be because I never read all of the other books. Or not. I dunno. But arrgh, your writing is so much better than mine. What have I got left? Y_Y *takes out pistol* Remember me fondly!
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:45 pm
What are you confused about? Hopefully confusion will go away quickly.
And don't be daft! You're not allowed to shoot yourself in here; you'll make a mess. You're obviously delusional. ninja
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:41 pm
Confused mostly because I thought this was a prequel, but then Calista seems so different from when I saw her last time. I think I'm having some kind of dissonance. XD
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:50 pm
Ah, it's Calista, not Calina.
Although I know the name is confusing, it's supposed to be an attempt at historical depth. Or something. dramallama The name Calina became Calina, you know, after it was Calista (the trilogy is set a years and years after this book). Calista is a Greek name meaning "fairest" or "most beautiful." And Exosian culture began with a very strong link to Greece... xd Really, the books aren't much related except this book is set before the Thau comes to power, explains how it is possible for him to do so, and may well dip a toe into what happens AFTER the whole trilogy... But probably not. >_>
Does that make it any clearer? XD
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:17 pm
Because I do not have a life, here is unedited chapter one. Hell, this is even un-reread. never mind unedited... Feel privileged? XD Chapter one
“What if they won’t take us?” Calista held her arm out while Nyssa wrapped a length of support around the long, thin cut that ran from her sister’s shoulder down to the inside of her elbow. The blood had slowed, and all that was left down was a garish red line, beaded here and there with little ruby drops, like precious stones. They glittered, almost, in the half-light that came from their bedroom lamp.
“They will.” Nyssa wound harder, waiting until Calista flinched, and then sighed. “Look. Don’t ask questions, just do as I’m asking. It’s not hard. I know you’ve not had much practice at listening to people Cal, but you need to try. Okay? Just try.”
Calista bit her lip. “I just... I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“Yes. You did.” Nyssa didn’t look at her. The seventeen year-old was shaking, but her face was determined and Nyssa knew that if she glanced up for even a second the anger would resurface. This was huge - this was the biggest, most foolish thing that Calista had ever done - and Nyssa was still, as usual, expected to pick up the pieces. “Calista, you brought this on yourself. I knew it was coming; that’s why I’m prepared.”
Calista didn’t say any more. She sat in a stony silence as Nyssa finished binding her arm, and then slipped out of her dirty underskirts as Nyssa turned away. The older girl wandered to the window, pretending to look out into the darkness. Instead what she saw was her sister’s reflection. The girl’s long, blonde hair shimmered in the dim light. Her thin arms look almost faerie-like as she twisted out of her muddied clothing and into a new gown.
“What were you thinking?” she whispered softly. Calista didn’t turn around, but Nyssa knew that she had heard her. She continued to dress in silence, working until all she had left to don were her shoes.
“I thought that he would love me,” she said. Her voice was calm, her words carefully chosen. “I thought that I was safe with him. I thought that anything was better than here.”
“Well, I guess you got your wish.” Nyssa turned back from the window, her mouth set in a thin, grim line. “We’re leaving. Are you happy now?”
Calista didn’t speak a word.
*
They left before first light, taking only what they could carry easily. The walk to town was rough, and taking the lesser path through the woodlands made the journey longer. The sister’s did not speak. Even as the sun began to rise, warm and bright behind the trees, they spoke only when necessary, to avoid accident or confrontation.
Nyssa’s stomach was churning, her heart hammering at a crazy pace. How was she ever supposed to forgive her for this? How did Calista ever expect for things to be okay again? But that was Nyssa’s job, wasn’t it? It was her job to care for her sister, to prevent the trouble - and when she couldn’t do that, to make it go away. She had been doing it for as long as she could remember. This was just the highest notch on an already lengthy ladder.
“How are we going to do it?”
They had paused to drink just outside of town, their small bags at their feet in the dusty earth. Calista was standing with her arms folded across her chest, a sullen look on her face as though they were doing this on her sister’s whim, leaving town just for a jaunt.
“I have money.” Nyssa eyed her sister, slowly taking in her posture, her expression. “You never expected this to happen,” she said. “Did you? You never once thought that it would come to this.”
“I don’t understand why it had to come to this.” Calista strugged her shoulders, working her jaw as she gazed back up towards the hillside. Nyssa could tell what she was thinking: You should have tried harder to help me. You should have made me stop. You should have warned me. But the warnings had been for nothing, and Nyssa knew that Calista didn’t really care.
“We can’t stay here, you know that. If Papa ever found out about you, he’d kill us himself. And what about Ka - or whoever is it this time? What if he makes good on his promise and comes to find you? Everybody knows who you are; everybody knows where you live. One wrong word and you’re in trouble. Bigger trouble than I think you even realise.”
“I don’t...”
“Just stop, okay? Stop it. We’ll get to the nearest city and we’ll find a pharmacy. I can fix this, but you have to let me do it my way. If you don’t want to do this, that’s fine - just tell me now before we go any further. I would much rather be at home. Where I belong.” The glare she shot in Calista’s direction was weak, but it seemed to do the trick.
“Fine,” she said. “Fine. We do it your way. What other way is there?”
“Yours. Which, if I’m not mistaken, seems to end in near-death and pregnancy. I think it’s time you gave this a shot.”
Nyssa hitched up her small boxy suitcase and began to walk, not checking to make sure Calista was following her until they reached town. The sunrise had brought with it the welcoming scents of warming cobblestones and fresh bread. Nyssa was thankful that they would be out of Pastora before the lunch rush, and before the heat hit the sewers properly. She wrinkled her nose at the mere thought of it, and then gestured vaguely towards a small back alley.
“D’you know the Heart and Crown?” she asked, turning to her sister. Calista nodded slowly, and then frowned.
“Why?”
“We need to get out of here, Cal. And we need to do it quietly. That’s the only place I know of open at this time - and it doesn’t charge you a finder’s fee. There will be somebody in there who has a cab, or somebody who knows somebody who has one.” Nyssa bit back a further retort and then gave her sister a little shove between the shoulder blades. “You need to go.”
“No.” Calista jammed her toes between the cobblestones and fought backwards, swinging her suitcase. “They’ll see me, Nyssa. Ka will know I’ve been there. He’ll know we’re leaving.”
“So? What good will knowledge do him when we’re on our way to Tirachel? From there we can get the train, Calista. From there we’re safe.”
“And then what?” she hissed, grabbing her sister’s shoulders and drawing her in. Their faces were pressed so close together, Nyssa could smell the mint that the younger girl had been chewing on the way down. “What’s safe when the man knows people, huh? How will we get away from him if he knows where we’re going?”
“Calista, he’s just a man. Once we’re in Itur, he’ll never find us. And neither will Papa. Don’t you understand? I’ve had years to perfect his plan; months to figure out the alternatives. Do you think I’m so stupid as to take you that far away from home just so you can get your pretty little self beaten by a farm boy?” Calista snorted, but Nyssa cut her off with a shake of her head. “Besides, you should have thought more about that when you were fooling around with him, shouldn’t you? I won’t preach to you any more, but you have to accept that this is your fault. Your mistake, you fix it.”
“Nyssa-”
“No, Calista. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it how I planned. We have three days to reach Itur, and another day to make it to the court - from when I post this letter. If you don’t think you’re ready to do this, then you can find your own way out. But if we’re leaving, we need to leave now.”
Calista hung her head, her blueish grey eyes looking glassy and wet as she scuffed her toes against the ground. Nyssa felt a bite of sympathy for the young girl, but pushed it away. If this was going to work, she needed to stay tough, and stay alert. They had already been out in town, in the open, for too long.
“If you won’t go, then I won’t make you. I’m leaving.”
Nyssa turned tail, back the way they had come, and sure enough she soon felt Calista reach out for her. “No,” her sister begged. “Okay. Okay. I’ll do it.” Nyssa smiled thinly, already reaching into her pocket.
“Take this message to the bar man. He’ll know who sent it.” At Calista’s raised eyebrows, Nyssa gave a snort of her own. “What, you didn’t think I was going to let you get so far in over your head without some kind of backup, did you? Meet me back here as soon as you can. I have some other things to see to.”
It was clear that Calista didn’t like how cryptic she was being, but Nyssa knew that it was necessary. If Calista knew more about their plans than she needed to, somehow things would find themselves out in the open. Nyssa had hoped that Calista’s behaviour would never reach a point beyond redeemability, but deep down inside her she had known it was coming from the first day she caught the teenager with her legs locked around a man old enough to be her father.
As Calista walked off, Nyssa let out a long, releasing breath. The growing bubble of anxiety in her stomach was threatening to burst, and if it did she would be no use to anybody. It didn’t matter what they were leaving behind; there was nothing for them at home anyway. It had always been the same: school, books, Papa away on business. If nothing else, this had to be a natural culmination of their childhoods. Or at least that was what Nyssa kept telling herself, repeating the mantra as she made her way down winding paths and little alleyways, and deep into the heart of Pastora’s market.
There was one small place, just one, that she would be saddened to leave behind; a hovel of a bar, inhabited by only the most lonely people in town. It was buried behind an abandoned Court building, and sheltered between two equally hovel-like bars. Calista had never been there, of this Nyssa was sure, and that was what made the place so special. At least at first.
She smelled the early-morning beer spills before the Cresent actually came into sight. The air was still this morning, but the sign above the door creaked a faint ghostly tune even without a breeze. The wood of the door was so heavy that Nyssa had to apply all of her weight to the thing before it would open even slightly. She wedged her foot between the gap, feeling every bit her slight five feet two inches in height, and shoved. Hard.
The door swung back, but didn’t make it to the wall before something stopped it. Nyssa stepped through the narrow entrance, cautiously keeping on alert for anything that could ruin her dress; it was the only one she had packed. Her suitcase just wasn’t big enough.
Inside, it was almost as dark as it had been when Calista had come home the night before. There were a few lamps hanging from the ceiling, but they were dim and barely even worth the cost of them. The only window was at the back of the room, and did little to make the place brighter. Nyssa smiled, feeling comfortable for the first time that day. The only customers were a crooked old man and his cane, and an old woman who could have been his wife - or could also easily have been some other less desirable acquaintance. In this place, it was never smart to assume.
“Ah, the little Miss Amethyst!”
The man behind the bar, tall with dark hair and darker eyes, smiled at her. The left side of his face was directed away from the door, as had become his habit after the accident, but Nyssa didn’t need to see the whole of him to know that he was pleased to see her. When he saw her suitcase, however, and the grim look that made her face appear pointed, almost puckered, he stopped smiling.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, concern drawing his eyebrows high.
“No,” she answered, more sharply than she had intended. “No. And please, not with the ‘Amethyst’ - Finn, you know you can’t call me-”
“Relax. It’s fine, honestly.” He waved her away and leaned on the top of the bar, the muscles in his right arm flexing as he tried to beckon her closer. “They can’t hear a thing. One’s deaf and the other - well, she won’t say anything. Look, what’s going on?”
Nyssa tried to brush him off, as he had done her, but found that her tongue was sticky inside her mouth. It was like she had been chewing on peanut paste, and her lips were as dry as dust. She swallowed.
“Calista.” It was only one word, but it was all Finn needed to understand. It took seconds for his eyes to cloud, his face to pucker in the same way she was sure her own had since the news last night. He reached out for her, grasping for her arm.
“Come into the back,” he said, his voice tender. “How long do you have?”
“Minutes, only. I couldn’t leave without telling you that I was going.”
Finn led her around the back of the bar and through a thin, shady doorway. The room beyond was barely even big enough to house the bottles of liquor that Finn needed to keep the place afloat, but he had somehow managed to fit a mangled old sofa in there, along with an oven. He gestured to the sofa, but she didn’t take a seat. She couldn’t afford to get sidetracked.
“Listen. It’s nothing. We’ll be fine.” She tried to keep calm the fluttering anger that was growing inside her every second she spent away from the pressing needs of her sister; but every second her anger grew, as did her resentment and frustration.
“You’re upset. I can tell.”
“Of course I’m upset!” she snapped, the anger whipping from her body before she could contain it. It felt better, cooler. She clenched her fists and reopened them slowly. “I’m sorry. Calista’s been messing around for a while. You know that... And I told you that it would come to this. Didn’t I? Didn’t I, Finn?”
“Yes.” He sighed, rubbing his arms as he lowered himself onto the sofa. The left side of his face was visible now, although only faintly in the dim light. The skin was pitted and marred, contorted from the burn he had received some time after first meeting Nyssa. She felt her stomach churn even at the familiar sight, knowing that where she was headed things could be a lot worse.
“Things will be better for us in Itur,” she said, confirming Finn’s worry about her own fear. She was afraid. She simply couldn’t afford to let it rule her. “I managed to get us positions. In Court.”
“They’ll hang you if they find out, Amethyst.” Finn’s dark eyes were narrowed, and they saw nothing but Nyssa. Under his gaze, she felt herself shifting and growing nervous. This was the only man who really, truly, knew her.
“They won’t find out.” She forced her voice to be firm, cold. Dark. The very muscles in her body screamed against it, but this was important. One word from Finn and everything, all her plans, would be for nothing. “They won’t find out because you won’t tell them. You’ve kept your mouth shut until now - I know - but this time... Calista left us with no choice. The... She’s made too many enemies, Finn. I can’t keep them all at bay. But you? You I’d stop. If you ever breathe-”
Finn closed the gap between their bodies in less time than it took for Nyssa to figure out what was happening. He forced her backwards, his hands on her shoulders, until they were against the wall. The rough-edged stones bit through the thin material of her dress, but Nyssa did not move. Did not speak.
“I’m not afraid of you, little Amethyst,” he whispered. His eyes were focused, mean, but his voice betrayed his sympathy and the friendship they had once shared. “But don’t worry. I won’t tell.”
He pressed his face close to Nyssa’s, as close as he could be without hurting her any more. Their skin touched, brow to brow and nose to nose. Nyssa exhaled, slowly. Finn gave her shoulder a squeeze. Nyssa felt his hands tremble against her, as though he was wrestling with words too many for Nyssa to understand through his eyes.
“I’m sorry...” She closed her eyes, let him hold onto her for a moment longer. And then, suddenly, he was no longer sharing her air; he was two feet away, on the sofa. He didn’t look at her as she reached for the door, only sighed and shook his head.
“Take care of her little Amethyst. Take care of yourself. And remember, always: is she worth the risk?”
Nyssa didn’t wait to find out if he had any more to say.
The bile in her throat was in her mouth, and then it was out in the street, and on the hem of her dress. She felt her hands shaking, her arms weak and the suitcase still hanging limply from her fingers was swaying with her sudden terror.
Although she had been there, lived it, she could not have explained, even to Calista, what had just come to pass. She only hoped that Finn would hold up his end of the bargain. He must never breathe a word of what she had done. Never.
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