Introducing One of My Secret Projects...

 

images are from Pinterest, all the credit goes to their original creators

A while back, I mentioned that I was working on a handful of as of yet unannounced projects. I said that I was planning on announcing them only when I was a good deal farther into them. However, despite how new and shiny my other secret projects are, this one in particular is a WIP that I have just been having such a hard time keeping a secret. So, I've decided what the hey, I'm just going to announce it to you now (this is your freebie, don't expect any more when it comes to the others, I'm not announcing them until I'm working on them in earnest and am a good chunk into them).

But this story is especially near and dear to my heart. It was the very first high fantasy story that I came up with. I had the first inklings of this idea back in 2015 (while I was working on the second draft of Week of Werewolves), so yeah, needless to say it's been around for a while, sitting there in the back of my mind keeping me company. I've entirely reworked it more times than I can count, started the first book at least three times (and have written probably close to 50,000 words in it across those drafts), and changed how many books are in the series a multitude of times. However, these past several months I have been working to piece together all the bits of different drafts and ideas that I have had over the years, keeping what works, getting rid of what doesn't. And now I believe that I finally have a solid place to start this story.

So, what is it?

Well, here's it's title.

It's the first book in what is currently a nine book long series, but it's very likely that number will go up. I'm not making any promises that the series will end at nine, in fact I kind of doubt that it will (the first version of it was 12/13 books long so yeah...)

What's it about?

Image Via Pinterest

Yup, that about sums it up. Of my two MCs Aleria is 5'1" and Dirk is 6'3", and neither one of them had a happy childhood.

character art of them as done by Kia Cheney

Oh, you wanted more information about the book? Well, um... let's see. It's set in Valeris, the homeland of the elves. These elves and a handful of humans who migrated there are divided into eleven houses depending on which deity they may or may not serve.

Each house has a different patron god, these patrons are the gods of the sea, love, light, trickery, and nature; the god who rebelled and created the dwarfs; and the goddesses of death, war, and fate. Every elf born into a house is born with a blessing from that house's patron god or goddess—humans bear no such gift. There are seven races of elves, and they make up seven of the houses. One house is made up of dwarfs they are the House Under the Mountain. Three houses are human, Fraterya (fate) is the only human house who serves a patron deity, they do not have any particular gift from their patron like the elves do, but they are said to experience good fortune all the same. The other two human houses serve no patron, these are the House of Man—a group who refuse to worship the elven gods and continue to follow their human religion—and the House of Dragons—a group of individuals who live amongst the great beasts and form close bonds with them.

Outside of their house gifts, only a choice few individuals wield actual magic, the Royal Blooded, which can be elves or human. They are chosen by the goddess of magic to vie with the other Royal Blooded for the throne to become the high king or queen over all eleven houses and all of Valeris. But no Royal Blooded has ascended the throne in centuries, leaving the houses to govern themselves, make treaties, and struggle to come out on top of bitter feuds.

In the midst of this intrigue and harsh religious differences is the plot of An Apprentice of Death.

My main character is known as the Wraith of Castrele, she is an assassin serving the House of the Sea. She however has given herself the name of Aleria, and she was raised by a powerful member of the Castrelean court to be his personal killer, but she is no Sea Elf. She is actually one of the very few remaining members of the House of Death.

As a Death Elf, Aleria has the ability to not die. Any time death would claim her, instead it reaps the soul of the last person she touched and she is returned to the walking world whole and unharmed. This ability makes Aleria an excellent assassin, but does put a damper on her ability to form close attachments to anyone.

My other main character Dirk is a member of the elite guard of Balvlin (The House of War), he was kidnapped from an orphanage and raised to be a fighter. As a human he has no way of tracing back to his house, not that it matters. He is of Balvlin now.

These two are walking weapons, raised in houses that are not their own, and pitted against each other. When they meet, sparks, sass, and a dagger or two fly.

An Apprentice of Death is their story.

Image Via Pinterest

And I do mean that it is their story. There is no massively huge cast of five main characters (*cough Rage Like the Gods*), or band of eight misfits (*cough League of Thieves*), or tightly knit group of four (*cough My Time in Amar* *cough The Gods Created Monsters*), there isn't even a secondary main character (*cough Winter Cursed* *cough A Certain Sort of Madness*). Despite being a high epic fantasy series, the cast in this is actually quite small, and as great as some of these side characters are ultimately this tale is Dirk and Aleria's.

And what a tale it is, by the way. I really can't wait until I can share more about it. But for now, I suppose I shall just have to settle for you guys having the gist of it, that illustration of them, and these couple of quotes.

P.S. Don't forget to Pre-Order your copy of Harbinger of the End

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