9 November 2023

The scene at the bottom, where she gets drunk, feels like one of the best I’ve written for this story. It’s become one of the anchor points; the ways I can tell if my ideas are drifting too far from the point of the story. It should be about Kyra, and how she handles her whole world shifting around her.

And sadly, it seems to be the last thing I wrote all year.

…one of her axes.

Brinja’s eyes went wide. “It’s fine, it’s fine! It’s supposed to do that! That’s how the car moves!”

Kyra forced herself to relax. “So you have some manner of beast or demon caged to move the vehicle forward?”

“No, not exactly… Well, kinda? I guess you could see it that way…” Brinja pondered for a moment and shrugged. “Close enough.”

More confused than ever, Kyra settled into her seat. Brinja pulled a strap across herself and shifted a lever. Then the car started to move. At first, Kyra focused on what Brinja was doing. Knowing how to control one of these strange carriages might be important later. Once they exited the gorge, however, Kyra couldn’t focus on anything other than the city before her. It was well past dusk, and it looked to Kyra as if the stars themselves had climbed down from the skies to light up the city. “Is… is that…?”

Brinja grinned widely. “Welcome to New Naothair. You probably knew it as Krotlin, though.”

Kyra set her jaw. Of course the sight was incredible. Awe-inspiring, even, especially when from her perspective, just the other day it was a festering camp with few, if any, permanent structures beyond the demon king’s castle. But at the same time… No, exactly because of that, it served as a stark reminder that Kyra didn’t belong here. That this entire world was foreign to her.

It took another twenty minutes or so to reach Brinja’s apartment. Kyra had to admit, the trip was far smoother than riding would have been, or any carriage she’d ever been on before.

[Later scene, written later in the day]

Kyra knew she’d had too much to drink. She couldn’t bring herself to care, though; at least her memories had finally stopped hurting her for the moment. Had stopped trying to pry their way into her brain, to torment her with what would never be.

She stumbled out of the bar and managed to keep herself mostly upright as she headed back towards Brinja’s apartment. Kyra felt a twinge of guilt when she realized the girl was probably worried about her right now. Maybe she should get one of those infernal phone things. Even if it was a hassle, at least she’d be able to reach Brinja and let her know she was fine.

By the time Kyra noticed the men following her, she was already pretty much surrounded. She groaned to herself and fumbled for her axes, before she remembered she’d left them at the apartment at Brinja’s insistence.

One of the men, a blonde boy with a leering smile, reached out toward her face. “Hey, pretty lady! Why don’t you come with us? We’ll show–”

Before he could actually touch her, Kyra grabbed his arm and bent it back the wrong direction. While he screamed, she grabbed him by the lapel and tossed him into his cronies off to the side. “Buzz off, assholes. I’m not in the mood.”

With tears in his eyes, the blonde screamed, “Get her!”

Kyra had trouble remembering the details of that fight. She did remember it was brutal, though. Between the alcohol and her exhaustion, she was running on instinct… and before she’d entered the seal, she’d trained to kill, not spare, her enemies.

At some point, a couple of them pulled out some strange new weapon that launched powerful projectiles. But they were generally meant to be used at range, and it was all too easy for Kyra to dart in too close and take their weapons.

Once everything was said and done, she stood alone, hands bloody, amid a pile of corpses. She was pretty sure two or three of them had gotten away, but she didn’t feel particularly worried. In fact, if anything, she felt weirdly energized right then, even smiling a bit.

At least, until she heard Brinja’s voice behind her.

“Kyra?”

8 November 2023

Mela’s expression was inscrutable while she looked Kyra up and down. “So it is true, then. You really are the next demon king.”

Kyra narrowed her eyes. “Is that going to be a problem?”

With a harsh bark of laughter, Mela waved out across the city below them. “You see this? They don’t need us anymore. Saintesses? Demon kings? As far as they’re concerned, it’s all just stories.” She snorted and shook her head. “Not that those old fools at the church realize that.”

For several moments, the two women just watched the hustle and bustle of the city below them. Finally, Kyra asked, “So, what now? What are you going to do?”

Rather than answer, Mera simply smiled. For some reason, that expression made Kyra’s stomach churn.

(Afternoon writing below)

Brinja offered to let Kyra stay the night in her apartment, and without anywhere else to go, Kyra accepted. The girl led her to a small vehicle; Kyra assumed it was a carriage of some sort, but she saw now place to tether animals, and the whole contraption sat quite low to the ground.

The interior was no less strange. The seats were covered in some kind of carpet, and they all faced one direction, rather than facing each other. Kyra sat down and discovered the seats were soft enough they would not have been out of place in a nobleman’s carriage. “How important is your family to own carriage’s like this?”

Brinja blinked, then started laughing. “This? This is just a [Honda Civic]. The expensive cars are much nicer, trust me.” Then she inserted a key of some kind, and the carriage itself roared.

Kyra jumped in her seat, reaching down for one of her axes. “What sort of sorcery is this?”

6 November 2024

Brinja knew she should have already left. All the other researchers had already gone back home, and it was getting late. A mere intern like her really had no business studying the old demon king seal this late; anything she could figure out, someone else had already researched in depth.

And yet, here she was. She couldn’t help herself. Brinja had grown up on stories of the saintess Fera and her epic battle with the demon king, of the sacrifice of the great warrior Kyra, and all the legends surrounding them. The seal was the greatest evidence those old heroes had actually lived.

With a sigh, she stopped poking and prodding. It really was getting late, and as safe as the city was, it still wasn’t the best idea for a college-aged woman to go walking around by herself in the dark.

While she gathered her things, however, the seal lit up with an eerie, purple glow. Brinja froze, unable to do anything but watch as glowing cracks creeped along the face of the seal. In a bright burst of light, the seal collapsed, revealing a three-meter tall figure. A crown of horns curled around his head, and wicked claws tipped the fingers on his hands.

Brinja let out a squeak of terror, but the figure only tipped forward and collapsed into dust. Behind it stood a woman, roughly in her late 30s, wearing a well-worn set of armor from around three or four hundred years ago.

It took a moment for Brinja’s thoughts to catch up to what she was seeing. Once they did, though, they exploded out from there. This couldn’t be… She wasn’t…

The woman noticed Brinja and flashed her a weary smile. “Hello there. I’m Kyra.” She collapsed against the wall and took a deep breath. “Sorry if this seems strange, but could you tell me what year it is?”

Kyra didn’t know what to make of the series of expressions that flashed across the young woman’s face, before she finally settled into a grin so wide it unnerved Kyra a bit. “Oh, wow. It really is, you really are…! Ah ha! This is amazing!” The girl froze and coughed once. “Erm. Sorry about that. It is 329 PDK, or Post Demon King.” She scooted closer. “Are you really the Kyra? The one that traveled with the saintess Fera and fought the demon king?”

For a moment, Kyra couldn’t respond. Three hundred years? Already? Though it did make a strange sort of sense. “Yeah. That’s me.”

Once again, the girl’s eyes lit up, and Kyra half expected her to jump up and do a jig or something. She managed to contain herself, though, and stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Brinja!”

5 November 2023

Their little campfire burned low, barely enough to cook on. Considering how deep they were into demon territory, it would probably have been better to do without completely, but none of them really pushed the issue.

Caldwell was telling them about some yearly festival they had back in his hometown, but Kyra was only half listening. Instead, she watched Gavin and Fera carefully. There was an odd tension between the two. Gavin’s jaw had been clenched all evening, and he didn’t sit next to Fera like he’d been doing. For her part, Fera shrank into herself, and she couldn’t stop fiddling with the engagement ring Gavin had given her. It was the exact opposite of how Kyra expected them to react after Gavin finally popped the question.

She knew Caldwell had been trying to ease the tension in his own way but it didn’t seem to make a significant difference. So as soon as there was a lull, she interrupted his story. “So what the hell is going on with the two of you? You’re acting like someone died, not like you just got engaged.”

“Actually, I… I turned him down.”

Kyra blinked slowly. She looked down at the ring Fera was fiddling with, then back up to her face. “What.”

Fera’s shoulders curled in even tighter. With no small trace of bitterness in his voice, Gavin said, “Tell them. They’re your friends. They have a right to know.”

At his words, Fera’s hands clenched tight. Kyra’s own stomach twisted,, but she never took her eyes off of Fera. For several long moments, no one spoke.

When Fera finally did speak, her voice cracked. “I… Even if everything goes well, I… I won’t be coming back. Even if the demon king dies, he’ll just come back. We have to seal him up, and to do that, I… I have to seal myself in with him.”

By the time she finished speaking, tears dripped down her cheeks. Despite that, still, she smiled, small and soft.

Kyra couldn’t tell if her thoughts had frozen in place, or if she was thinking so many things at once it all bled into nothingness. Once she’d started to calm down, her thoughts flickered to a desolate homestead, long ago. To the bloodied face her her dear husband, Roylan. To the immobile bodies of her two sons.

It was happening again. She’d finally healed enough to reach out to other people, to care about other people again, and she was going to lose them. And once more, there was nothing she could do about it.

She barely noticed the roar of anguish that tore through her throat, or the crack as she hurled one of her prized axes into the nearest tree. By the time her mind cleared, her own cheeks were wet, and she collapsed to her knees.

Kyra thought back to the bastards at the church, the ones sitting pretty on their thrones, while they sent a young girl–barely even nineteen–to give up her life for them. “Damn them. Damn them all.”

3 November 2023

I really struggled when I tried to participate in Nanowrimo for 2023. It didn’t go well, as you will see.

Three hundred years.

Three hundred years.

Kyra shouldn’t have been surprised; she’d known the seal was supposed to last a long time. She’d known all her friends would likely be dead if she ever got out. But then again… she hadn’t actually thought she’d ever get out, had she?

But she hadn’t died like she was supposed to. Instead, here she was, alone, again. And this time, the world itself felt foreign.

Kyra felt this keenly when Brinja pulled out a small, black tablet with shaking hands. She tapped on it a few times, then held it up to her ear. Considering everything the girl must have been through, she was holding herself together fairly well; Kyra was impressed.

The tablet produced a ringing sound, and then a woman’s voice emerged. “This is the Krotlin City Police Department. What is your emergency?”

Kyra jumped at the voice, but before she could react, Brinja replied, “H-hi, yes. My name’s Brinja Sonorak. I… I was kidnapped by some demon cultists, but I… They… they’re all dead now.”

There was a pause. “I see. Do you know your location, Miss Sonorak?”

“I-I’m not sure, but I think they took me to the demon king’s seal.”

“Okay, we have people on their way. Are you alright? Are you injured in any way?”

“N-no, I’m not injured. The person who rescued me stopped them before they could hurt me.”

“Is that person with you now?”

“Is that person with you still?”

“Yes. U-um…” Brinja shot a glance at Kyra. “She said her name is Kyra. And… and I think she’s probably the Kyra.”

There was a long moment of silence. “Could you tell me exactly what happened, Miss Sonorak?”

So she did. The more Kyra heard, the less she regretted killing the lot. Seriously, had nothing changed in that three hundred years she’d been sealed?

Then, she heard a series of roars and squeals, accompanied by blaring red and blue lights racing toward them. Kyra stepped protectively in front of Brinja and readied her axe, right as three white beasts raced around the corner. Then they opened, and Kyra realized these were some manner of carriage. Men and women in dark uniforms poured out, pointing some sort of metal object her direction. One of them, a tall, burly man, called out, “Lower your weapons and put your hands on your head!”