Progress on Vengeance

Man oh man, was there ever. Inspiration struck over the past week for how exactly to move forward from Aaron's viewpoint. Basically, the problem was the conversation with Alice. The solution turned out to be to prevent them from having a conversation at all, and then things continued to spin out from there. And now I'm a lot more clear on what exactly Thorme's plans are for the short-to-medium term, with regards to his attack on Hernando.

In summary: his prime goal is to partner up with Aaron. However, he had a backup plan, which was to take out Hernando's other servant (he'd already taken out Chance by this point, with Mira still alive), by doing a spell that would give him the power to mess with her remotely. And one of the prime ingredients of that spell is the sacrifice of an innocent. And Alice is that innocent.

So when Aaron shows up, Thorme presents him with a choice: accept a partnership, or watch Alice die in the alternate ritual (and then be killed). Either way would help Thorme. And in fact he's probably still going to do that second spell later, though not with Alice as the sacrifice. Aaron of course chooses to do the partnership.

So that was Chapter 8. Another excellent chapter. Needs polishing, but basically everything that needs to be in it is there.

So far the chapters are:
1. Craig stalks Jessica and tries to shoot her.
2. Rumen captures Craig and takes him to Hernando.
3. Hernando says "I'll trade you Jessica for Aaron."
4. Craig visits Aaron at the bookstore.
5. Craig and Rumen go to the park, where they plan to assault the warehouse.
6. The warehouse assault, which turns out to be a trap. (Scene needs major work.)
7. They escape the warehouse and find the right one. (I still haven't figure out how that's going to happen yet.)
8. Aaron shows up at the warehouse.

The plans for 9 so far: Craig and Rumen and etc. sneak into the warehouse where Aaron's ritual is in progress.

I'm not entirely sure what happens after that. They'll want to get both Alice and Aaron out of there, but how to do that is up in the air. Hopefully something will present itself while I'm writing it.

As for the warehouses... I've completely reconfigured them. Instead of plain old buildings, these are two levels by giant hydraulic elevator - which is how the thing could've sunk underground in the first place. The design is to be able to store stuff in two giant compartments. Fill one, then sink it down, then there's a second compartment over it. To reach the lower compartment (of every warehouse in the row), there's an underground hallway connecting them.

I'm not actually sure why I'm sticking with the "it sinks completely underground" that I wrote in on the spur of the moment. Hopefully that'll become clear at some point too.

Anyway, so now there's a second exit - through the door to the underground hallway. From there they just have to figure out which warehouse they actually want, break into it, and observe the ritual.

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On a general note, I've noticed lately that I have a *lot* of magic rituals. There's at least one major one in every Fortress Launne book, and usually it's a climax scene. I wonder what that means...

I've made a small amount of progress on the Fortress Launne series too, mostly back in January when I was hoping to focus more on fiction than I did. Basically I took the opener I wrote for Taint, modified it to fit into Triangle II, then added to the bottom. It's at a stuck point again, where basically I have to finish the second draft version of Amulet I/Edward before I can continue. Which means starting with Edward. Which I've been procrastinating for weeks now...