Emily Wrayburn

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 25 2017

Welcome! This month I’m writing a small story each day to try to brainstorm a future full-length novel, a sequel to my current WIP Memories and Magic, which is tentatively titled Rebels and Rebellions.

Today’s prompt is: Mistake.

Rikard splashed water on his face and then frowned at his reflection as the water settled.

Putting a magician in danger shouldn’t have bothered him. Under normal circumstances, he would be the source of the danger without a second thought for the magician’s well-being. And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that blackmailing Queen Clara into confronting the rebel magicians was a bad idea. True, they had no way of knowing that Clara was currently powerless, and she had the Algiarian Mages with her. If her reputation preceded her, perhaps this would result in a fruitful mission.

He scoffed. Did he really think it would take the rebels long to figure out she was no threat?

She was guilty of crimes against his nation, yes, and the punishments for those were severe. But sending someone unprepared into enemy territory…

He gnawed at the inside of his cheek.

Maybe this had been a mistake.

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay #WIPpet Wednesday – May 17, 2017

Hello everyone! It’s WIPpet Wednesday again. This is a weekly blog hop hosted by yours truly. If you’re a writer, you are very welcome to join us by posting an excerpt from your WIP that somehow relates to the date. You can click the blue guy on the right of this blog to be taken to the link up.

I’m continuing with the Story A Day In May challenge, so once again, my snippet relates to the date because I wrote it today. 😛 All the stories I write this month have been brainstorms for the Memories and Magic sequel, Rulers and Rebellions. As I’ve said in previous weeks during this challenge, please forgive the flash fiction-y/first draft-y nature of the snippet.

Today’s prompt is: Mighty.

The tent flap was left tantalisingly open, but there was nothing Clara could do to edge closer when her wrists were still tied to the central tentpole. Even she managed to jerk the pole tight enough to pull it out of the ground, the would only result with the tent collapsing on top of her.

The rebels were gathering in the clearing outside. Edden Syl was standing on top of a crate in the middle of the ground, and Clara suspected that she was supposed to hear whatever speech he was about to give, and that was why the tent had been left open. He was showing off now.

When the rebels had all assembled, he held up his hands for silence. The chatter amongst the crowd lessened and then quieted all together.

“Friends,” he said, and Clara recognised the magic that amplified his voice. It must have been the same, or a similar Rune to the one Max had used to amplify her own voice when she had been rallying the people of Thelidon to stand with her against Josef Bauer.

“The time has come,” Syl was saying now. “Our numbers are strong enough and our power is great. It is time we took back our birthright and took our places as the rightful rulers of Racharan.” A cheer went up at this point and Syl looked around at the crowd, nodding. His eyes gleamed.

“Perhaps some of you are wondering how we can accomplish this. It’s true, there don’t seem to be many of us. Not enough to take on the Magic Guard, surely. But the Magic Guard is shrinking. And we have something they don’t have.”

At this point, he bent down. Clara couldn’t see what he was doing, but there was a faint blue light, enough for her to know that he had activated a Rune somewhere on the ground. He turned around so that his back was to Clara and the crowd, and he was looking into the woods.

Minutes passed.

Some people in the crowd started murmuring, wondering what they were waiting for. That was when the noise started to be heard. Twigs cracking, tree branches creaking and flinging back into position after being pushed aside. As the sounds got closer, the sounds of multiple footfalls accompanied them in almost perfect sync.

Moments later, a crowd of people appeared. There was no uniformity; there were different heights, builds, genders… about the only thing they had in common was their scrappy clothes that didn’t appear to have been washed or changed in weeks. That and the smears of blood on their foreheads.

Clara felt cold. This was where all the missing people were. The rebels had been hiding them, using magic to control them and prevent them from returning to their homes.

Edden Syl held up his hand, and the entire group of people stopped mid-stride. They stood perfectly still. It was unnerving. Syl turned back to the crowd.

“Behold,” he said, raising his arms. “An army with all the might of the Racharan magicians behind it.”

Apologies for the length; it got away from me a bit today.

There’s only one week left of the challenge now. So far I’ve only missed one day, and I am hoping that is all I miss. At my current rate, I will hit 10,00 words for the month as well, which is so much more than I expected.

I hope all your writing projects are going well. 🙂

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 22 2017

Forgive the vagueness of terms in this piece. I don’t have enough world-building yet. The people in this army aren’t the rebels, more their slaves, but I haven’t nutted out terminology yet.

Today’s prompt is: Music.

The Rebels’ army marched slowly towards the gathered group. Even from a distance, the vacant expression in their eyes was noticeable. But the thing that made Clara’s stomach turn was the smear of red on each of their foreheads; Runes drawn in their own blood, which the Racharan magicians were using to control them.

“They’re like zombies,” Clara said. “Do the magicians really think these people are a threat?”

“There must be something else,” Max replied. “They must have some other power.” He was grasping his Mage’s pen tightly in one hand. “Clara,” he said. “Can you stop them? Hold them back at least?”

“I think so,” she replied. “Why?”

“I’m going to try to get to them.”

Clara nodded and turned to face the oncoming rebels. She took a deep breath and became aware of the air around her. She pushed at it, and soon she could see the faint shimmer of an invisible dome around the rebels. The ones at the front of the group tried to step forward, but couldn’t. They tried again, with the same result, but they didn’t stop. It was like they were in a trance and the only thing that mattered was reaching their goal.

Now that they were contained, Max walked over to the nearest one and reached for her. She immediately shot out one arm, knocking Max’s away. Max staggered under the force of it, holding the arm against his chest and supporting it with his other.

Clara immediately transported herself to his side. He was straightening up now; there was no lasting damage.

“They’re strong,” Max said. “Incredibly strong. That’s going to bruise.”

Now that Clara had removed her concentration from the dome of air, the rebels were starting to move again, so she grabbed Max’s sleeve and pulled them both back to where Rikard and the other members of the Magic Guard were waiting.

“If I remove the blood Runes, will that remove the magic’s influence?” Clara asked.

“Yes,” said Reiner, “it should. The Rune is the thing holding them. What are you going to do?”

Clara took a deep breath. This type of rapid movement was going to take it out of her but she had to try. She focused on the person on the edge of the group. She would need to land close enough that she could wipe the blood from his forehead before he had a chance to strike her. But she didn’t want to land on top of him. Who knew what reaction that would bring?

She exhaled, and raised her arm so it was around height of the man’s head. She sent herself forward into the group, and was pleased with where she landed. She wiped her sleeve across the man’s forehead. He began to raise his arm to defend himself, but the second Clara wiped away a small part of the blood, the magic cancelled out. He stopped and looked around, then hurriedly got out of the way. Clara disappeared from the spot before another one could catch her there, and went onto the next person. Her arms grew tired quickly from the speed she was moving, wiping, moving, wiping, but she kept on.

Their numbers were dwindling. By the time she took herself back to her own group, the army of rebels had halved. She rolled her shoulders.

The rebels she had freed were confused, but they were banding together. There were some cries of alarm, but also laughter and anger. It was all so natural, not like the strange, trance-like droning Clara had heard earlier. The sound was music to Clara’s ears.

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 22 2017

Today’s prompt is: Moral.

Clara awoke with a gasp. Her body was tingling all over. She knew exactly what it meant but she couldn’t imagine how her magic had returned to her here. She sent a rush of heat to her wrists and the rope that was binding them. There was a hiss and the bonds fell away. Clara massaged her neck; it was stiff from where her head had drooped while she slept.

If her magic had returned, that had to mean that some of her friends were around somewhere.

Max? she fed the thought through the ether. Rikard?

It was Max’s voice that she heard reply inside her head. She spared a brief grin, imagining Rikard’s reaction to her voice inside his head. He’d be too startled to try to reply.

Clara? It worked!

Yes! I can’t tell you how this feels! Give me a minute; I’ll come to find you.

Clara stood up, stamping on the spot a bit to get her blood circulating through her legs again. She pulled the tent flap aside and saw a woman standing guard. The movement of the tent flap attracted the woman’s attention and she turned around. Clara thrust one hand forward; the air between them followed her motion, knocking the other woman to the ground.

“What are you-” The woman was winded, and only managed to gasp out half the sentence.

Clara couldn’t help but smirk; that was the mood she was in. “That’s what you get when you tangle with the real magicians,” she said, then stalked away. With her own powers back, there was little the Racharan magicians would be able to do to stop her.

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 21, 2017

Today’s prompt is: Mind.

They were silent for a while, each staring out over the waves. Clara drew lines in the sand with her fingers. Rikard dug one hand into the sand a few times, each time lifting it slightly so that the sand could sift through his fingers and refill the hole he had just made.

It was Rikard who finally broke the silence. “May I speak my mind with you, Clara?”

Clara glanced over at him. “Of course.”

He kept his eyes fixed on the ocean. He knew this was going to be hard enough without throwing eye contact into the mix.

He cleared his throat. “Before we met, I never would have accepted that magic could be anything other than a corrupting force. And you’ve shown me, in the most spectacular ways over the last few weeks, that that’s not the case. So I just wanted to say thank you.”

He looked up and saw Clara smiling at him. He wasn’t going to think about the effect that was having on him.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?”

Rikard smiled back, rolling his eyes at the words he remembered using during their conversation back when she had first arrived in Racharan.

“It means there’s nothing to forgive.”

Her smile broadened and her eyes widened, sparkling in the moonlight. Rikard was acutely aware of how close they were sitting now, and that she was leaning slightly towards him. He was also aware of how inappropriate it would be to take advantage of that fact, particularly given the presence of the two Aligarian Mages keeping an eye on them from further down the beach.

And yet Rikard found he really didn’t care about any of that. Placing one hand behind her neck, he pulled her towards him, pressing his lips to hers quickly, before he could change his mind. He didn’t even sense a moment of hesitation before Clara kissed him back. She ran one hand up his arm to his shoulder and then tangled her fingers in the wisps of hair growing at the nape of his neck, sending shivers coursing right through him.

When they broke apart, they remained close, their foreheads pressed together. For a while, neither of them said anything; they were too busy catching their breath.

“Does kissing the Queen mean I’ve started a war with Thelidon?’ Rikard asked, his voice low. Somehow the situation called for whispering.

Clara grinned. The moonlight was in her eyes again, but they were also sparkling with a certain amount of mischief.

“Given all the trouble our two nations have been having, maybe you’ve just helped to stop one,” she said, and leaned in again.

I’d really love to find a way for these two to end up together officially, but I have no idea if I can really make it work, given they two existences are worlds apart, the few weeks when this story takes place excepted. I’ll have to work on it.

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 20, 2017

Today’s prompt doesn’t tie in with others from earlier in the month very closely, but the whole point of this month’s stories is to try out different ideas. This one is a different direction.

Today’s prompt is: Mystery.

“How are we going to find them if we couldn’t tell where they were?” Clara asked.

“We can run the Traces again later,” Max suggested. “At regular intervals. Maybe they’ll be moved and we can get a glimpse at what’s outside their tent.”

“I have some theories about their location,” Voidsun replied. “Most of our country is urban. They must be in one of the less-populated areas.”

“Are there people you can send out there?” Clara asked. “Scouts?”

“Yes. But we need more information. Why have they taken these men? What are they doing with them? How did they get into the city undetected and stay there for long enough to track the men down and take them? We can send a few scouts but if we want to confront them in any way, we need to know what we’re up against.”

“Let some of us go, then,” Clara said, standing up.

Max stood up, too, staring at her. “Clara, we-”

“Max, you said yourself, the magic used by the Racharans is similar to yours. Perhaps we could infiltrate them.”

Clara didn’t mention just yet that she hoped this would incite the Magic Guard to return her powers to her. For now, she would simply act as though she wanted to help them clear up the mystery. When they saw how keen she was, surely they wouldn’t be able to refuse.

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 19 2017

Today’s prompt is: Madness.

Clara struggled against the magician’s grip. If she had had access to her own powers, she wouldn’t have had any trouble getting away. The Racharans had somehow switched off her own magic; surely, they had a way to return it to her. Why hadn’t she pressed them harder to do so before she walked into this madness? Why hadn’t they just used the same technology on the Racharans?

“Stop!” she cried, watching as the knife came closer to her wrist. “You’re making a terrible mistake.”

The magician laughed. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “Who knows what we can do with your blood. With its own power.”

Clara hissed through her teeth as the knife broke her skin. For now, all she could do was hope that when they realised her blood was no different to anyone else’s, they would let her go.

See all those questions I’m asking. That’s to remind myself to answer them when I finally write the first official draft. Nothing like filling in a plot hole.

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 18, 2017

Today’s prompt is: Marry.

Clara paced the length of her bedroom, trying to squash down the funny feeling in her stomach. This wouldn’t do at all. It was inappropriate to say the least. Even if there wasn’t any tension between their two countries, Rikard Voidsun was the equivalent of a palace guard; a government official at most. Taking up with him would be like taking up with Max.

She stopped pacing. If she was honest, during the time she, Max and Jana had lived in Racharan, she had harboured a bit of an attraction to Max. In her defence, the magical false identity she had been operating under had constructed them as childhood sweethearts, so it wasn’t like the feelings had been borne entirely within her. But it wasn’t as though Max was unattractive…

She threw her hands up and stopped that train of thought in its tracks. These feelings were difficult enough as it was without throwing someone else into the mix as well.

She sighed. She didn’t have the freedom to think this way. Perhaps if her parents were still alive and she was still just a teenage princess, there would have been the opportunity for a reckless romance or two. But now she was the Queen, a figurehead. She was supposed to be grown up already, not still in the process.

She knew that back home there were already discussions regarding whom she ought to marry. No one really thought to involve her in them. Racharan wasn’t a monarchy, so no one from there would be considered suitable. No, the advisors would be looking to one of the other Kingdoms surrounding Thelidon, trying to find her a nice second-born Prince to marry and solidify relations between the two countries.

That was what her future held, even if her heart wanted otherwise.

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay #WIPpet Wednesday – May 17, 2017

Today’s prompt is: Motivate.

“You want me to what?”

This conversation was not going the way Rikard had planned, though he supposed he couldn’t fault the Theldonian Queen for her resistance.

“The Magic Guard has always fought the magician rebels with guns or swords. Up until now, that has worked. Previously, there have only been two or three of them to deal with at a time. But over the years, the Guards’ numbers have grown smaller as the threat seemed to grow smaller. Now their numbers are too great for us.”

Rikard paused as Queen Clara crossed her arms over her chest. He wasn’t getting through to her, but he had to press on.

“You’re a magician yourself. That’s why we were hoping that you would go. That you could make them see reason.”

“Are you lumping me in with them? Do you understand there’s more than one form of magic? I object to what they do as much as you do. They are dangerous criminals. I use my magic to protect people. Do you really think they’ll listen to me?”

Rikard had no idea whether the rebels would listen to her or not, but they were running out of options. He squared his jaw and changed tack.

“Put it this way, your Majesty,” he said, and watched her brow furrow as she heard the sarcasm he used on her title. He felt a little guilty; he wouldn’t pretend he hadn’t been scornful when they had first met, but that had dropped off the more they had started to know each other. Still, desperate times…

He crossed his own arms to match her body language. “If you do this for us, I can guarantee the negotiations regarding how we deal with your illegal stay in our country will be a lot smoother.”

The flash of anger and hurt in her eyes made him regret his words instantly. He avoided her gaze, but stood his ground. There was no point in getting sentimental about the Queen of another country when his own was in danger.

With that, I must be off to do some uni work, but I will see you all later!

#FictMAYhem #StoryADay May 16 2017

Today’s prompt is: Mission.

Clara couldn’t believe she was doing this. It was one thing for a Queen to offer diplomatic aid from her country to another. To offer advice on how to deal with a situation. Perhaps even lend manpower if the situation warranted it. And yet, here she was, walking into a dangerous situation herself. Would she even be able to do anything? From everything she had heard, the Racharan magicians sounded like a cult. She might be a queen but she had a feeling that wouldn’t hold much sway with them. Or perhaps it would hold too much, and they would decide that her blood would be perfect for their depraved magical experiments.

Her stomach churned at the thought. This was a terrible idea. She ought to tell the carriage driver to stop. She ought to abort the mission immediately. And yet, they kept going…