Rolling along....

Today was a great day for writing, other than the thunderstorms that rolled through about 2pm.  It rained like a bucket was pouring on my house.  In Colorado that's a very good thing.

I finished Chapter 7, turned Chapter 8 from a concept into something that will probably be even better with the next edit, wrote a short Chapter 9, and started on Chapter 10.  Wow!  I've never been that productive, but a good day shouldn't go to waste.

Chapter 7 takes Eislen (a local on Refuge) to meet the outsiders for the first time, at least indirectly.  It doesn't go well.

Chapter 8 explains how Eislen comes to be with the outsiders.

Chapter 9 introduces two new characters, Merik the Adept and Alarin her apprentice.  Merik doesn't do anything particularly evil in the chapter, and indeed she's not evil for the sake of being evil.  But you get a distinct feel for her character, and it's not warm and cuddly.

Chapter 10 puts Sarah Dayson and Eislen face to face for the first time.  I've just started it, but the concept is there.  The chapter is told from the point of view of Eislen, not Sarah, so there is a lot of confusion on his part.

Here is a sample of Merik, and her interaction with Alarin as she first notices the alien ships in the sky over Nula Armana, which is the native tongue for New Home.  Once the outsiders get that translated, that should tell them something.

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            Alarin flinched and small beads of sweat formed on his forehead as his master forced pain into his mind. He dropped to his knees as he fought furiously to use the gift to seal his mind from her.  He struggled to force her out even as the pain rose in intensity.

            Merik finally let him go.  “I do not wish to sense your every emotion.  Control yourself.”

            Alarin rose from the floor and wiped the sweat from his forehead.  “I will, master.”

            “Oh, Alarin, you’re only subject to my cruel whim.  This sky demon has me concerned.  Only the master Adepts can see it, at least so far, but what if it keeps growing until it consumes us all?”

            “The Gods will do as the Gods will do, master.  You are the greatest of Adepts, yet even you possess but a shadow of the power of the Gods.”

            She laughed.  “And you feel brave for reminding me of that.”  She sipped her wine and thought about what he'd said.  “But it has been kind of them to give me a taste of that power, has it not?"

            Merik took in his thoughts. Kind to whom? Alarin nearly panicked as he felt the thought, but Merik didn’t care. She could read him completely, but he didn’t need to know that. She enjoyed his fear, and his sense of satisfaction when he thought he was keeping something from her.

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Keep in mind that Merik and Alarin come from a society that is about as technologically advanced as Medieval Europe, and does not have any real access to metal other than copper and that is as rare as silver on Earth. Copper is insufficient for making much more than arrow heads and jewelry. There is a bit of iron in the crust, but it's as rare as copper and the inhabitants of Refuge simply have not unlocked the ability to smelt iron from what very small bit of ore there is. 

Earth is saturated with iron in our crust by comparison. We can thank the ancient impact with Thea that generated the moon and dispersed heavier metals through our crust.  No such impact occurred on Refuge, so the metals are in the core and they are less frequent to begin with.