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Here's a brief, unedited preview of "Facing Destiny", which takes place when Darkni is about 20 years old. ====================================== The inn where the workmen of his father’s business were staying was a far cry from the well-appointed one where his own rooms were. The smell of cheap pipe weed and stale sweat lingered beneath the aroma of whatever was cooking for the evening. Through the dim lighting and haze of smoke, he spotted Ernest sitting at a corner table and crossed the creaking floor boards to join him. The man was one of his father’s wagon drivers, and was only rarely pressed into other service while on a business trip, freeing up his time. Darkni sat down, doing his best to drop the cultured tongue to which he had grown accustomed for the benefit of his more plainspoken conspirator. “Any luck?” he asked. “Yep,” Ernest answered. He then nodded toward the bar. “You’ll need to order something. I can already see the bartender giving you the evil eye.” “We can’t have that, can we?” Darkni turned and signaled a barmaid. He thought that she must have been quite pretty before hard work and long hours had hardened her. She was still curvy and attractive, but the bloom was certainly off the rose. From the crude words and gestures of the other patrons as she passed, it appeared the clientele still found her fetching. “What can I get you?” she asked with a thoroughly false tone and even falser smile of congeniality. Darkni pulled a silver coin from his purse and saw her eyes widen. “Bring me a cup of your finest wine, and you may keep what remains for yourself.” “Our finest isn’t all that good,” she warned. A flirtatious note crept into her voice when she added, “I can make sure the bartender doesn’t water it down and puts it in a clean cup for you, though.” “That will do,” he said as he held up the coin for her to take. She did so, making sure to let her fingers brush his. A genuine – if somewhat calculating – smile decorated her face as she turned and strutted back toward the bar with her hips swaying. “If you want to bed her, you just bought her,” Ernest said. “She won’t see that much from the whole of this lot all night. Might steal your purse while you’re all knackered, though.” He took a long look at her behind and said, “Think it would be worth it.” Darkniciad chuckled. “My father would faint if I even thought about it.” “True that.” “The shop?” Darkni enquired. Ernest tore his eyes away from the barmaid. “Place didn’t even have a sign. I asked about those herbs, and when he had those, I asked about the others. He got a bit antsy then, but I slipped him that coin you gave me and he brightened right up. Said he had a book, too.” The workman gave the slightest of nods, indicating that someone was approaching. Darkni glanced that way and saw the barmaid carrying his cup. “Here you are,” she said as she sat the cup down and stood in such a way as to display her womanly charms quite prominently. “Fresh bottle, only opened a few minutes ago. Just long enough for it to breathe.” “You know your craft. I thank you, my dear,” Darkni said as he lifted his cup. He took a sip, and while it was a relatively poor wine compared to his usual fare, it was passable. “This will do nicely.” She batted her eyelashes at him and said, “If you need anything, just ask for Milli.” “I will keep that in mind, Milli.” Once again she strutted as she left the table. Ernest let out a quiet whistle once she was out of hearing range. “Yep,” he said, “She’s yours for the askin’. Anyway, he had a book, and he let me see it. It was like you said to look for. The words almost looked like they were crawling on the page. Made my head hurt.” Darkniciad sat up a little straighter and leaned in at the description. “It had about fifty pages, and they all had that writing on them. There was some regular writing here and there, but I couldn’t make much more sense out of it than the spidery stuff. A little bigger than the size of your hand.” It had all the hallmarks of a traveling spellbook, and the number of pages presented a good probability of spells that were new to his studies. Darkni asked, “Was he willing to allow me to visit at such a late hour?” “He didn’t seem happy about it, but he said yes, so long as he knows you’re coming beforehand.” “Then let him know I will be there this evening. I should go and be seen somewhere my father expects me,” Darkniciad said as he pushed his chair back. “You’re going to break her heart,” his conspirator said, and then chuckled. “Well then,” Darkni said, and fished into his purse. He retrieved a coin of the same size as the one he’d given to the barmaid and pushed it to Ernest. “When you return, you could test your theory about the value of that coin in her eyes. You’ve certainly earned it.” He picked up the coin. “Doubt it’s worth half as much in my grubby fingers, but it might be worth just enough.” “Good luck.” With that, Darkni took his leave. As he moved toward the door, he noticed that Ernest’s prediction was bearing fruit. The barmaid’s shoulders slumped at the sight of him leaving. He felt a stirring in his loins as he considered that his conspirator’s other suggestion might also be true and he could bed the woman if he would only stay and let her take him home. But, if his father learned of such a liaison, it would jeopardize something far more important. He would almost certainly be left tending the business at home during these trips, rather than having the opportunity to seek out new magic. With just such a possibility on the horizon, he suppressed the swell of ardor with planning. There was much of that to be done.

I just added a new data point to the Danica timeline that wasn't a new story for the first time in a long time. 868: Cantel Bellows, known as Dark Obsidian, breaks his magical staff in Obsidian tower as a last act of defiance against heroes come to end his reign of power. The resulting magical explosion creates the Great Crater. I needed to pin this down before writing the last scene of "Facing Destiny". What's not on the timeline yet, and won't be unless I decide to delve deeper into Dark Obsidian's history than I plan, is that he was well over 100 years old at the time of his death. I'm thinking around 120. For close to a hundred years, he was a force of terror and near unlimited power in what would become Egoria, Draxnia, Freeland, The Western Baronies, and other surrounding lands. Little did the heroes who took him down know that they were paving the path for Draxnog to rise. There are significant changes to the PnP history of the character. In that continuity, he was Darkni's grandfather. Now, he's a many times great grandfather because it makes sense for the crater to have been there far longer. He also originally carried the same surname, but I decided to have the family change it to Softspake for the stories. I thought Bellows was a nice counterpoint to Softspake. I've also sketched out the details of what made him go off the rails to become Dark Obsidian. Some of that will be revealed in another Darkni history story. Darkni is about 20 years older than the rest of the companions, by the way. So because Destiny is an early story in his life, it's going to be way up the timeline from everyone else's history stories. Okay. Now that I'm done with that, back to writing