Hello and Good Evening Everyone! Another solid day of writing, although I ended up getting a later start than I meant to, but still got writing progress done today, which I am excited about, namely I have finished Chapter Sixteen of When Gods do Meddle.
Please check out the excerpt below and I would love to hear your feedback and thoughts on it, it would really help me out.
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Writing Time: 30 Minutes
Word Count: 722
Excerpt
“I don’t wish to hard him,” hissed Tanara, “and I am not hear to kill anyone in this temple. I just need one piece of information, but if you scream or shout, you will limit my options in this regard. Nod if you understand.”
The man nodded with eyes wide.
Tanara whispered, “We are looking for a man named Wendon. I know he is down in the archives, but nothing else. Where is he?”
Tanara raised her hand off the man’s mouth a short distance. The man swallowed hard and he croaked out, “continue down this hard and you’ll come to stairs down into the archive. When you reach the bottom head right. His room is down there, or if not there he’ll likely be in one of the reading rooms nearby. I cannot be more specific, I swear.”
“Thank you,” replied Tanara. With a quick motion, the dagger disappeared from her hands, and her thumbs pressed themselves into the major arteries on either side of the man’s neck. His eyes went wide and then almost immediately rolled back into his head. Tanara held her thumbs in place a second or two longer and then released them. She then pulled a small pouch of her belt, rarely used these days, and withdrew a small vial from it. Taking a small pinch of what rather looked like a greenish-sand, or would have in better light, she sprinkled it onto the man’s nose. He snorted, coughed a few times, but his muscles seemed to relax into a deeper sleep.
Maelith arched an eyebrow of inquiry at Tanara, who responded as she put away the vial, “Lethic Powder, haven’t needed it in a while, but a small pinch inhaled by a sleeping person causes them to fall into a far deeper and lasting sleep, nearly impossible to awake for several hours, and sometimes allows them to forget a short span before they fell asleep.”
Maelith nodded and whispered, “that sounds useful.”
“It is,” Tanara replied as she dragged the man’s body further into the shadows. “Let’s go, before someone else happens along.”
Maelith led the way with Tanara close behind. As promised, a short ways down the hall, there was a spiral staircase that seemed to go down two or three stories, and came out into a corridor which seemed to be running around the perimeter of the vast archives in this area of the building. They turned as instructed and made their way down the hallway. Most of the rooms were shut tight at this point in the night, although candlelight could be seen peeping through the bottoms of several of them. After searching perhaps a quarter of an hour, they found a room that had its door ajar, and was strewn all over the place inside with various books and papers and a few keepsakes, including a very familiar look staff that appeared to have been cracked near in half by lightning.
Tanara and Maelith both chuckled quietly as they stepped into the room. Maelith said, “this very much does feel like Wendon’s.”
Tanara nodded, taking a look around, “yes, and a couple of those scraps and sheets of paper have what looks exactly like his handwriting.”
Maelith whispered back, “I guess we had better go look for him.”
Tanara chuckled, “we should have guessed he would be in one of the reading rooms, even at this late hour.”
Tanara was moving to exit the room, which a figure in a grey robe came sharply around the corner and ran full into her. The figure was sent sprawling backward and Tanara had to take a step back to brace herself properly. The figure, a man, stood and dusted himself off, and on looking up to see the faces of Tanara and Maelith, gasped and was about to shout when Tanara quickly crossed the distance and clamped a hand over his mouth.”
“Wendon, I cannot tell you how it pleases me to see you alive and well, but we need to stay quiet.”
Wendon recovered himself enough to nod, and when Tanara removed her hand, he said, “It warms the heart to see you again, my friends. But, what are you doing here? I doubt Tengana has forgotten or forgiven everything that happened.”
“Wendon, I hate to do this, but we need your help.”
I hope you all have a wonderful day, get the chance to do or experience something creative, and I’ll catch you on the next one!
– Jon
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