D. T. Kane reads chapter 28 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience.
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The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now:
https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/
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Parts II and III of The Spoken Books Uprising also now available!
Part II, Declaimer’s Discovery: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09R18NZ5G/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
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Part III, Declaimer’s Flight (out now!):
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Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/
Characters in this Chapter:
Baztian (Baz): Our main character
Rox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard)
Ehma: Leader of Citiless Patrol
Madame Scrivener Tessa: Leader of all the Citiless
Marla: Trials competitor from Kolnar Library
Hellar: Trials competitor from Xavier Library
Ryle: Marla’s Harbour
Retch: Marla’s Speaker
Trunnel: Hellar’s Speaker
Below is a copy of my script/notes for the episode, not a verbatim transcription:
PERSONAL UPDATE
Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is Sunday, June 19, 2022 as I record this, Episode 23.
I spent a lot of the week busy on last-minute admin for the Declaimer’s Flight launch, but it’s now out and available in eBook and paperback most places where you buy books online. The eBook should also be available to borrow from many libraries, so feel free to check out your local library as well. And if you prefer physical copies, you should be able to ask your librarian to order a copy for your local library as well. I still receive compensation for library borrows, so don’t feel like you’re doing me wrong by utilizing your local library. I encourage it!
And now that Declaimer’s Flight is officially out, I’m back working on Book 4, which will be called Declaimer’s Stand, which picks up a couple weeks after the conclusion of Book 3 with Baz and his friends once more on the run. I won’t say more so as not to give any spoilers, but I think it’s lining up to be one of my best books yet! As I mentioned before my vacation, I’m done with the first draft and now I’m editing and addressing all the comments I left for myself in the margins… go back and foreshadow this, fact check that, etc. Rather than go back and make small (or in some cases, large) fixes while drafting, I’ll just leave notes to myself and continue drafting as if I’ve already included whatever it is earlier. Then when I go through my second pass I address all these comments, so that hopefully by the end of my second pass most content issues have been addressed and it’s just a matter of cleaning up small things.
ANAYLIS CH. 28
So here we are at the climax of the story!
Marla and Hellar
So Hellar and Marla have found Under Tome, likely having seen Ehma reveal the door earlier when Hellar exposed Baz to the Citiless. They’ve taken Ehma hostage and Trunnel (Hellar’s Speaker) is Influencing Rox, keeping him from attacking.
Both Hellar and Marla are obviously interested, more than interested, in all the Books they see beyond the dark peninsula. Marla wants the room cleared, and when Tessa doesn’t comply, she kills one of Tessa’s scriveners, having her Speaker squeeze him to a pulp with roots. It would seem that despite her gruff exterior, Tessa does care about her daughter, because after that she orders everyone away, rather than risk Ehma further. But there’s a problem here. Tessa can’t give any of these Books to Marla even if she wants to.
Why can’t Baz just keep his eyes down and mouth shut?
Baz sees the lust in Marla’s eyes when she looks at the books out beyond the dark peninsula, and that she’s not going to believe Tessa that she can’t reach them. Likely, she’ll kill Ehma next, so Baz acts, because as we’ve seen by now, Baz deep down wants to do the right thing and he can’t stand by and watch Ehma get killed. So he pretends to be a subservient Speaker, saying he’ll show Marla how to get to the Books. He tricks her into coming down there by saying a Reader and Speaker are needed to access the Books.
What’s Baz doing, Tessa asks? He’s actually trusting her! Baz has changed, actually willing to trust someone like Tessa, who he really has no reason to put any faith in. But he’s grown, knows he can’t do this by himself.
Hellar, of course, wants to come with Marla to get his Books as well. Well, it seems Marla sees her chance to solidify her Trials victory, as instead of taking Hellar with her, she kills him instead. She’s still ruthless. She has her Speaker root Rox to the ground since Trunnel is no longer Influencing him, then goes down to the Sanctum floor. A rather inauspicious end for Hellar, but as Baz insinuated a while back, that’s what he gets for making alliance with a rabid dog he couldn’t control.
Now you die.
So Baz leads Marla out onto the platform, and initially it looks like he’s erred. Nothing happens and Marla gets pissed, realizing Baz never intended to help her. She’s about to kill him when this odd, black mist puffs up from the abyss and floats into Marla. She begins to convulse and starts screaming. Her Harbour rushes to help her, but they’ve made a mistake–they left Rox’s hands free, and he throws his razor at Ryle. Bye bye Ryle, her head is split in two.
Marla continues to scream. Then she speaks, but not in her voice. Several different voices come out of her instead, each different, like she’s possessed: crazed man, mature woman lecturing, arrogant aristocrat, seductive woman, gleeful child, deep basso, and the horrifying, placid man. And what does Baz tell us? It reminds him of the voices he heard when he cast the shadow spell earlier in the Book. And where else have we heard strange voices? Back in the prologue, which we now know was when Pront vi Lextor was imprisoning the Dark Ones in Tome. So, is this the Dark Ones speaking through Marla’s body?
But interesting, as the Dark Ones ultimately conclude that Marla is of “no use” to them because she hasn’t mastered the powers of the elements. In other words, she isn’t a Speaker. Moments later, she disintegrates into dust, the Dark Ones apparently leaving her body. Where do they go?
Into Baz.
“This one is much better… he has great power,” they say, now through Baz’s mouth. He’s been possessed! Again, what are they talking about here? What do they mean, Baz is much better. What do they need him for? It seems they’re trying to take him over, like a parasite taking a host. Frightening thought–can the Dark Ones take over another’s body? What happens if they do? You can’t have me, Baz thinks to them, but it’s useless. He loses control of his body, can’t run away, and he passes out. Have the Dark Ones gotten him?
CONCLUSION
Homework: Next week we’ll read Ch. 29 and see what happened to Baz!
Listener Question: No listener question this week, but I did get a nice comment on Twitter from Jan that she’s been enjoying listening to the post-narration analysis each week. Thanks, Jan! That’s nice to hear, because every once in a while the self-doubt creeps in and I wonder if anyone cares about what I’m speaking into a microphone alone in my tiny home office. Good to know I’m not just speaking into the void!
Quote:
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
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