#pan out that parallels Gael and Estella’s whole situation

[sailforvalinor]

Request: tell me everything about the fantasy series with Miles and Kyelle in it, please?

*runs around my house like a maniac screaming*

Thank you so much for asking!!! Okay, I’m still going to try not to go into TOO much detail here, because this is about nine years worth of lore I’ve built up here, but I’ll at least give you what I have planned for the first book because it’s what I have the most planned out 😁

(Okay, um, I accidentally wrote WAY more than I thought I would, I apologize aaaaaaaaah)

So, in this universe, the God-figure, the Author, created three different peoples, who inhabit the earth, the sky, and space respectively. (These peoples will have names, but the only one I’ve come up with is the Caelarians, which are the Sky people.) They existed in harmony in the beginning, but after awhile the space peoples, often informally referred to as the Illusionists due to their ability to manipulate people’s perception of reality (this sounds a little bit like TLC on paper, I promise it isn’t lol), grew jealous of the earth peoples for a myriad of reasons, and have been trying to invade for thousands of years by the time the story begins. The Caelarians act as the last line of defense for the earth, and in order to protect it, cut off all contact and travel between the two realms, and thus knowledge of the sky and space peoples faded into obscurity and myth. Caelaria as a culture becomes very defined by its role as protector and defender. Also, instead of every person being born with some latent ability, like the Illusionists, Caelarians have a handful of people born every generation born with a Gift—some sort of miraculous ability that can aid the kingdom.

So, with all that lore out of the way, about ten years before our story picks up, Caelaria is in a period of peace, and has been for the past few hundred years. The king has two children: a daughter named Firaine, and a son named Gywair. However, ascension works a little differently in Caelaria: the firstborn, before being officially named as heir, has to undergo a series of semi-mystical trials that test their character and ability to lead. If they fail, they are passed over for the crown, and then the next child (or the closest kin) undergoes the Trials. If the heir apparent fails, they are named High Prince/Princess and still hold a position of renown within the court, acting as the monarch’s closest advisor. Furthermore, every generation a child is born who is destined to become the king or queen’s Guardian, a warrior sworn to protect their monarch with their life. When the child in question is around five or six, a Guardian’s Mark appears on their skin (no clue what this is gonna look like yet), and the child is brought to the palace immediately to be trained and raised alongside the monarch-to-be in question. Kellen is Firaine’s Guardian, and has lived in the palace with the prince and princess nearly his whole life.

When Firaine undergoes the trials, she fails, and thus Gywair undergoes them (even though he kind of loathes the idea of ruling), and succeeds. (Kellen thus becomes his Guardian instead, which is just as soul-wrecking as you would expect.) He becomes king a few years later when their father unexpectedly dies. The current Illusionist emperor sees an opportunity here—being possibly one of the most powerful Illusionists ever to be born, he possesses the ability to cast illusions over his appearance (which most illusionists cannot do), and murders and replaces a Caelarian duke named Aphelion. He then courts and wins the hand of Firaine, and then encourages her jealousy of her brother, eventually manipulating her into planning a coup to seize power. Their plan was to take advantage of a loophole in the rules of ascendancy—if the monarch is dying, they may bestow the kingship on whoever they wish, via giving them their scepter, a weapon of great power.

The coup goes off without a hitch at first—Aphelion sneaks Illusionist warriors into the palace and they suddenly attack during a meeting the Gywair was having with his advisors. Everyone in the room is killed (including seemingly Aphelion, though of course, that’s a ruse) except for Firaine and Kellen (who is not dead but grievously wounded). Firaine holds her dying brother in her arms, expecting him to pass on the kingship to her—but to her shock, he realizes her deception in his last moments, and dies without passing on his scepter to anyone.

Meanwhile, as all of this is happening, a young mother suddenly finds that her six-year-old son, Gael (a main character! Finally!) has had the Guardian’s mark appear on his shoulder, and thus brings him to the palace to be presented to the king. However, as the king’s council is in session, Gael is instead first brought to meet his future monarch—the little princess Estella, Gywair’s daughter (our main main character!). Aphelion and Firaine had accounted for Estella, of course—they manipulated the princess’s nursemaid, Coriander, into bringing Estella to them when the time was right. However, when the time comes she has a crisis of morals, and instead of taking the princess to Aphelion, she takes both Estella and Gael and runs.

Aphelion, furious at Firaine’s failure, attempts to pick up the scepter himself—but, as a defense mechanism, the power of the scepter rejects him immediately and instantly warps him and the other Illusionists out of Caelaria and down to earth.

…however, unfortunately, this also zaps every single other person in Caelaria down to earth with no way to get back.

Coriander, finding herself suddenly zapped to an unfamiliar land with two panicky six year olds, certain that she’ll be caught and killed for her betrayal, uses her Gift to manipulate memories to erase Estella and Gael’s memory of their previous lives and identities to protect them, and then leaves them in two separate orphanages in a nearby city where she hopes they’ll be safe. (Unfortunately they are not.) She is then unfortunately captured by the Illusionists and her fate is unknown.

And that’s where our story picks up! (Yeah, that…that was just the background. Why am I like this.) We follow a now sixteen year old amnesiac Estella, going by the name Dulce, living on the streets as a street musician. She’s had a very rough and lonely upbringing, but is finally found by her grandfather (her mother’s father) who has been searching for her this entire time, and is brought to the Haven, a remnant of Caelarians hiding out in the ruins of a forest city. Her grandfather runs into Gael quite by accident looking for Estella—who has been having an equally rough time, having been sold into slavery, and being sold from master to master due to how stubborn and rebellious he is—and brings him with them, having no idea that he is Estella’s Guardian, but recognizing him as Caelarian.

They then meet Kyelle at the Haven, who you’ve heard about, and they also meet Sage (MY BELOVED). I accidentally made him way too much like me, he’s the resident bookworm, a couple years younger than the others, and pretty shy. They also come to find out that he is Coriander’s son, and has inherited some of her gift—he is able to dream other people’s memories. This ability isn’t voluntary, it happens on its own, which can be a bit of a burden, but it comes in handy in helping Estella and Gael reclaim their lost memories.

Miles gets introduced here too, although he doesn’t have a major role in this first story. He’s actually a triplet; he has a brother named Ammil and a sister named Rowan. They are all wildly different from each other, which is really entertaining, and the three of them have grown up with Kyelle and Sage. Miles and Estella become quick friends over their shared love of music (Miles plays mandola), and he introduces her to his siblings, who are also musicians.

The story then follows Estella and Gael as they go on a quest to figure out how to get back to Caelaria. Kyelle comes along due to her resourcefulness, and Sage comes to aid the recovery of their memories along the way in case they remember something important (despite his lack of combat ability). Along the way they slowly find out all the above background information, how the coup happened, etc.

Gael’s Guardian abilities begin to come to light along the way, though he has no idea what’s going on (I’m thinking that they, along with everyone’s Gifts, have been dulled by their time away from Caelaria, and thus you can’t see the mark on his shoulder). A Guardian has the ability to sense when their monarch is in immediate danger (Gael often describes it as a ringing, buzzing sensation at the base of his skull), and they gain superhuman strength and reflexes for the duration of the time the monarch is in danger. You know how mothers in extreme situations have been known to be able to lift cars off of their trapped child due to adrenaline? It’s like that, but on steroids.

Estella and Gael are my main ship—I am insane about them and could talk about them for eons—they have a very deep bond and are extremely overprotective of each other (which causes some problems later on but that’s another story), but are both unwilling to voice their feelings for various reasons. They’re infuriating and I love them 😂

Kellen also shows up again later and becomes a mentor of sorts for both Estella (as her father’s best friend) and Gael (as the last Guardian)—however, having his king die in front of him and failing in his role was an extremely traumatic experience, and it’s a miracle that the sudden severing of the bond between him and Gywair didn’t shatter his mind.

And finally, I mentioned Hevel in my oc’s, but he doesn’t actually show up in this first story. He’s the son of Aphelion and Firaine that no one ever knew existed—and is thus both Estella’s cousins and technically the prince of the Illusionist realm. As a half-Caelarian half-Illusionist, he has no ability to create Illusions—however, he does have the Gift (although he’s more likely to call it a curse) of not being able to see Illusions at all. He’s thus shunned by his society as a whole and most pretend he doesn’t exist at all, including his father. He eventually joins Estella’s side.