The Short Story to End the 8th Book

...it could be the darkest tale yet and the most important in laying the groundwork for the saga's final act

*There are spoilers here for those who are not caught up with the latest two books in the “Barbarians of the Storm” series: “A Crown of Furious Color” & “An Axe to Eat the Gods”.

A character that readers have only had a brief glimpse at, thus far, is the dark form of Elizabeth. I’ll call her “Dark Elizabeth” for simplicity’s sake.

The real purpose of the main story in A Crown of Furious Color was to paint a picture of who the heroic and legendary Elizabeth is. Additionally, its epilogue peeks into the most traumatic and fucked up event of her childhood, which was to set up the creation of her dark, demon-raised doppelgänger. Well, doppelgänger for lack of a better word because a doppelgänger is defined as “biologically unrelated” and this version of Elizabeth was created from body parts that were taken from her as a child.

Until that final battle where Fenrik will step into the cosmic arena to face off against darkness’ greatest champion (Lucifer/Satan), Dark Elizabeth is the main villain of the remaining saga. Like her light counterpart, she is a legendary warrior and conqueror. However, she also has the unique ability to step outside of and break the threads of destiny, shattering the side of light’s carefully plotted pathway to victory. She is the antithesis of everything Elizabeth is and her motivation is to dominate and break those that could oppose the darkness. She knows that Fenrik (her original biological father) will become an unstoppable physical force, so her destiny is to break his mind and his spirit, making him succumb to his own darkness. While some devils have tried this before, Dark Elizabeth shares his blood and the blood of his greatest love.

The short story in the next book will serve her character in the same way that The Forging of Foolpuddle served Xulgog and Eyes in All Shadows served Erzulyn. It will show some of the origin of her character, as well as how she acquired the ability to foresee and break destiny.

The thing is, she is so tied into everything going forward that I may actually break from the main story in the 8th book to craft this tale. The reason being, is that it may help some of the latter parts of this book’s plot. It will also help me to organize the events that need to take place over the next 2-3 books and how I should present them.

However I move forward, I’m sure that the short story will be carefully plotted and outlined alongside the 2nd Fenrik Side Quest. Also, I can always fix any inconsistencies or new developments and ideas during the big final editing process.

The blood is flowing, the fire is returning, and I am excited to get working on these stories, regardless of how they come out of me. I’ve been holding onto the idea of this Dark Elizabeth character for multiple years now, and her story is one I’ve been dying to tell. After a lot of writing over the last few years, I have finally reached the point that I am most excited about.