#aka imagining when ciaran arrives back in letria with lena in tow and everyone's like ���what?????”

[icwasher]

I've been working on a story that's been in the back of my head for a while and I've already told my sister all the details on multiple occasions and I don't really want to reiterate all that to her again, so if it interests you, here is a rambling post about my current WIP!

I was originally going to write a two-book series that chronologically comes before this story, but I really don't feel like writing the other story and I think that with sufficient flashbacks and explanations, I can make this story work without the other two books.

The two books were going to tell the story of a young dark magic user (and Allure) who was also the Crown Prince of this country called Letria. For a bit of background, dark magic requires killing to get its power (in order of magical power gained from their death, plants, animals, humans, dragons) and it's also like a drug, so if you use dark magic long enough, you'll be a slave to it. The main character of my current WIP was the villain of the original story. His name is Ciaran (See-air-aine (rhymes with aim)). His little brother drowned (after Ciaran failed to save him) and his death haunts Ciaran, which is why he turned to dark magic in the first place. Long story short, he summons the devil, gets defeated, gets his ability to do dark magic taken from him, and then his father disowns and banishes him beyond the mountains to a kingdom called Oshar.

The current story picks up six months after Ciaran is banished. He's been wandering around and is almost out of money, and as he travels through the forest to get to the yet-unnamed capital city of Oshar, he stumbles upon this village that's been burnt to the ground. There he finds this three-year-old girl, Lena, who has been orphaned. He takes her in and plans to leave her at an orphanage in the next village he finds (orphanages are actually really nice in this country so this isn't him being awful or anything) but he bonds with her and ends up adopting her. Then he goes to the capital city, gets a job as a member of the Guard (basically a police officer), and gets a domestication arc!!!! His boss, Armend, becomes a pseudo-dad to him and helps him work through his TraumaTM. For a little while, he gets to live a normal life.

Then, after barely a year of living in the capital city of Oshar, Ciaran gets a letter telling him that his dad needs his help in Letria because a bunch of Allures are causing problems and Ciaran, while unable to do dark magic, is an expert on the subject. So he reluctantly goes to Letria to help out his dad.

The group there consists of his dad, his ex-girlfriend, and the Truth Seekers, who were the main characters of the first two books. He killed one of their friends, so they really do not like him.

They all expect him to still be AngstyTM and all mean and dark but he shows up at the palace in Tired Dad Mode. He wants to get this over with quickly. He just spent the past two weeks traveling in a tiny carriage with his three-year-old daughter and he is exhausted. He's using up all his vacation days to be there, and he really does not care that half the group of people he traveled to assist hates him.

During his time there, Lena gets kidnapped by the Allures who were causing trouble. They want to get to Ciaran because he's the only person who knows how to summon the devil (basically) and they threaten to kill her if he doesn't give them his information.

Now, this is a tough decision for him, and it's really important, because in the prequels (I'm going to start calling the two books that come before this one that) he chose the fate of one person (he was trying to store enough magic to raise his brother from the dead) over the good of the universe, and now he's being faced with that decision again. He makes the choice not to save her (which is heartbreaking and awful but also the Right Thing to Do) but in the nick of time the Truth Seekers show up and kick the Allures' butts, so the story gets a happy ending. Ciaran's dad offers to let him be the Heir again but Ciaran does not want to be King, so he's like, "Nah" and goes back home to be a police officer. Eventually he and his ex get back together, but that's not until years later and would only show up in the epilogue.