No Doings; Have a Snippet!

Hey'a, y'all. First thing: I won Camp NaNoWriMo! I validated my count at, like, twenty minutes to midnight, but it's fine. Second, due to a busier-than-expected finals week and a more-tired-than-expected me, I will be pushing the April Doings! post until next Friday. (Hey, I've put Doings! posts up later . . .) To make up for this, I'm sharing some snippets from Mechanical Heart. Enjoy!
First: in which Breen is every sleep-deprived college student (but with higher stakes):

Why had she stayed awake so late last night? Why had she not thought to keep track of the time? Why had she not insisted on finishing the project another night? I’m such a fool . . .

Second: in which people bond over food (which I'm pretty sure is going to be a trademark of my books):

While he did, Breen pulled open the bundle. Here were a half-dozen small loaves of bread — not the course, hard, dark variety she was used to, but light, golden-crusted rounds, some speckled with what looked like cranberries. Here was a packet of large tea leaves, which Breen smelled eagerly — even their faint scent was delicious — and a jar full of coffee, at which Breen let out an audible cry of delight. Here were round, red-cheeked apples, and a small wheel of hard, white cheese, and a metal tin of porridge oats and another small jar of — oh, delight! Honey! And at the very bottom of the bundle, she found a small box wrapped in gold paper, tied with a white ribbon, and marked with a stamp that read Düetschin Confectionary.
She glanced up at Josiah. “Chocolates,” he said, before she could say anything. “That’s how Grace usually likes me to apologize for things. As for the rest — I wasn’t sure what you’d want, so I guessed. I hope it’s all right.”

Third: in which Josiah talks policy and ethics with another senator:

“Good things indeed.” Josiah leaned forward slightly, tilting his head. “Yet you’re still concerned.”
“Of course I am. Everything has a cost, your highness. In blood alchemy, that cost is blood.” Aaronson raised an eyebrow. “My question is, who’s paying it?”

There you have it. Pulling snippets for this was harder than I thought; everything is potentially spoilery. Hope you enjoyed. If not, I apologize.
Have a lovely day!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Mechanical Heart Snippets

Hey'a, everyone! Thanksgiving break was awesome, but coming back kind of hit me like a punch to the face (especially since I had several projects that I intended to work on but didn't . . . oops). And the blog tour that I was going to participate in is currently experiencing technical difficulties. So, I'm going with something easy for this week's post: Mechanical Heart snippets. Enjoy!

 Mechanical Heart Snippets

1. First up, we have Josiah and Luis on the sensibility of staying up late (and being in clock towers at odd hours):

“It doesn’t make sense, Luis. No one goes into the clock towers. No one. They are – and I quote – ‘Self-sustaining and self-maintaining.’ They don’t even need a keeper to check the mechanisms once a year. They’re expressly forbidden to the public. And yet – and yet – there she sat, real as the tower itself, at an hour when most sensible people should’ve been in bed.”

“Not counting yourself as sensible, I see.” Luis grinned at his own joke as he tightened a screw on the complicated assemblage of gears, wire, and crystal before him.

2. Next, two different reactions to a clock tower's chime when you're right under the bells:

Even with protection, the bong, bong, bong of the bells nearly deafened him [Josiah], and the vibrations from the sound made the tower shake beneath his feet. Breen, oddly, seemed to enjoy the moment, smiling and gazing past him at the machinery. She had, Josiah thought, a nice smile — a little crooked, but her delight shone through all the same.

3. For a change of pace, the thoughts of Grace (Josiah's sister) on the problem of brothers:

Josiah made a face at Grace. “What’s wrong with brothers?”

“They’re annoying. They talk too much, and they drag you into their schemes.” But Grace’s smile clearly belied her words. “Don’t you agree, Breen?”

4. This is actually two sets of quotes, but: in which my characters are basically college students:

On they worked, long past the time when Josiah normally left, hours after Breen ordinary collapsed into her cot. Eventually, Breen’s eyelids began to feel heavy, and she could tell Luis was starting to droop as well. She paused her work, waiting for him to suggest that they stop for the night. But instead, he just rummaged in his bag, produced a jar of ground coffee, and tossed it to Josiah, gesturing towards the single-burner stove as Josiah caught the jar.

. . .
Why had she stayed awake so late last night? Why had she not thought to keep track of the time? Why had she not insisted on finishing the project another night? I’m such a fool . . . She should’ve known better, even if Josiah and Luis didn’t. She should’ve said something; stopped earlier. Now, even if she rushed, she would be lucky to work back up to the top floor before Madame arrived. And when Madame saw her poor work . . .

5. Finally, we have Luis on the way Josiah generally operates:

Luis picked up a screwdriver and pointed it at Josiah. “I know you. You’ll let her stay in that tower for exactly as long as it takes you to figure out who’s keeping her there, why they’re doing it, and if there’s any real reason she or anyone else needs to stay there. And as soon as you know that, you’ll get her out and find her a good job or a university scholarship, and then you’ll have two gadgeteers to help you on your next project. I, meanwhile, will probably be working on my invention to get me into the guild for the next three years.”

I hope you enjoyed those snippets! Let me know what you think and leave a snippet from your own work in the comments! I'd love to hear about what you're working on!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)  

NaNoWriMo 2017 Day 10!

 

Wordcount: 13,645
Words Written Today: 1,849
Hours of Writing Today: 1.02
Writing Music Obsession: My Anime/Asian Playlist

“And what good does it do for him to notice a goose girl?” Baili clutched her staff, almost— almost— wishing to whack the other girl over the head. “In my current state, I am nothing to him, just as you keep pointing out all of us animal keepers are to the nobility!”

“Maybe so. But you are the fairest nothing in the land, and that will count for something. At the very least, his highness may begin to wonder why a goose girl is lovelier than his loveliest of brides.”

I am very, very surprised by how well NaNoWriMo is going. I worried that I'd have trouble fitting in a solid hour of writing per day, but I've actually had several days when I've gone significantly over an hour. My wordcounts are building up equally well; I have 17.5K words edited and so I'm over halfway done. Not as close to being fully done as I might have been had I stuck closer to the required wordcount for the contest, but oh well . . . At the moment, I'm not stressing too much about trying to cut down wordcount or rework the plot to make it shorter. I'm just trying to get down a more polished version of what I originally wrote (although there is one scene that I'm 99% sure I won't type out, at least not in the main document, because I knew I was going to cut it before I even wrote it). Then, once that's done, I'll go though and cut and rearrange and make every word justify its existence.

In terms of the story itself, everything's going magnificently. I finally brought in the prince (and remembered that I really need to try to get him in earlier when I do my second round of edits), and then two of my characters had a massive row. It was very fun for me to write, since it essentially signals that Baili has reached her snapping point, when she's done with just enduring and ready to fight for what's hers. Plus, it was very cathartic for the characters involved, especially since one of them has been carrying around a lot of bitterness for a very long time and this is where she really starts to heal from that.

We'll see if I can keep this pace up for the rest of the month. I have to start work on final projects pretty soon, which will take up a lot of time. On the other hand, one of my classes is essentially canceled for the next week, which gives me a fair bit of extra time to work on that class's final paper, and I have Thanksgiving break the week after that (yay!). Whatever happens, I'm looking forward to it.

If you're doing NaNoWriMo, how's it going for you? If not, how's school treating you? Also, how do you feel about writing character conflict? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for stopping by!
 -Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

July Doings!

Well, it's the end of another busy month, which means it's time for another Doings post. July really has just flown by, it seems-

What's that you say? July's not over yet? We still have over a week to go?

Well, I do actually know that. However, I won't be able to put up Doings at the usual time, for reasons which I'll explain later. For now, on with the post!

Writing!

•  As I mentioned last month, I'm once again participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. My project this month was Fight Song, a superhero novella. Synopsis for those interested:

Three years ago, she saw murder done.
Three years ago, everyone said she was crazy.
They still say it now. But she knows what she saw. She knows what she heard. And she will find the killer no one knows is a killer and bring him to justice, even if no one in the world believes her.
Because she's just one girl. But she has the power of her songs at her back- songs that can shape the world if used the right way- and she's not going to let anything stop her from completing her mission. 

• My goal was only 10K words, which is my lowest NaNo goal yet. I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to get through, and I'm glad I didn't try for more. Although I did hit 10K less than halfway through the month, I don't think I could've made it to 15K, let 20K, by this time. As it is, I won with about 12K words, and I should be able to finish the rest of the novel sometime in the next week or two.
• For those desiring snippets, the first two paragraphs of the novel:

The digital clock behind the receptionist's desk had just turned to twelve, and I was starting to wonder if I could get away with sleeping on duty when I heard it: the song of death.
The discordant notes jolted me into alertness, chasing all thoughts of sleep from my mind. I'd heard that song once before- when my family sat 'round my gramma's bed while she traveled through the pearly gates. It sounded worse now. Then it had bordered on being real music; this time it was . . . not. Not music, not simply noise, but something so harsh and wrong that listening was physically painful.

• And another piece of dialog that made me rather happy:

"All business, Songbird?" Jonathan turns his computer towards me. "Our villain committed the classic blunder-"
I can't resist. "He got involved in a land war in Asia?"
Jonathan rolls his eyes, though in an amused way. "No."
"Oh, so he went up against a Sicilian when death was on the line?"
"Good grief, Songbird, do you want the information or not?"

• Outside of Camp, I haven't done much other writing or editing, though I am hoping to re-edit at least one chapter of Destinies and Decisions before the month is out, and there's one or two stories (or story pieces) that I want to write for blogs if I can find time. We'll see how that works out.

 Reading!

• I have read approximately 50% of The Shadow Rising and that's all. In my defense, I've been busy, and when I've gotten free time, other things have taken priority. In general, my feelings about this book so far are about the same as my feelings about the first three books. I'm not a Rand fan, though he has improved. I like Perrin, though he's currently making a questionable choice or two and his refusal to admit that he's ta'veren is rather amusing. Faile needs to get off her high horse and stop driving Perrin crazy. Egwene is challenging Celeana Sardothien for the position of "Most Aggravating Female Character (Who Still Actually Does Something) Ever." Mat and Thom are both awesome and two of my favorite characters. Elayne is alternately annoying me with her Rand-crazyness and making me happy as she gets a chance to shine a bit away from Egwene's shadow. and Nynaeve continues to be fabulous and my other favorite character.
• I'm still hoping to finish The Shadow Rising by the end of July. I don't know if it'll happen or not, though.
• Oh, and I listened to The Penderwicks at Point Mouette with my family. I always enjoy the Penderwicks books, so that was fun. And it's sort of reading, right?

Life! 

•  Most of the month was occupied by my internship, which just ended today. I am very glad to not have to get up at 5:15 or 5:45 anymore unless I want to, let me tell you. I did enjoy the work, though, and I accomplished a lot in the relatively short time I was there. And today I had to give a briefing on what I'd done and learned during my internship, and I actually did pretty well, so that made me happy.
• We celebrated Independence Day weekend with a trip down to Lexington to visit a family friend who we haven't seen since we moved. I enjoyed the trip, and got a lot of writing done on it- 9+ hours in the car is pretty useful in that respect (even if a lot of that time was taken up by listening to the aforementioned audiobook).
• I crocheted my sister a dragon! The picture is above, for those interested. I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially as it's only my second crochet project. The hardest part of making him was actually sewing all the pieces together; making the parts was all single crochet and decreasing, which is pretty easy. I used the Hannah's Red Dragon pattern, though I used the wings from Tarragon the Gentle Dragon (which is a knit pattern that my sister has done more than a dozen times) because when I grabbed the dragon pattern, the author hadn't added wings. I want to make myself a similar dragon now, but I have to figure out what yarn to use, as I don't have enough red left.
• Last weekend, my church had a summer carnival/festival/mini-VBS thing. I ended up running the can-knock-down game. It was exhausting, but not as bad as I expected, and some of the kids were pretty cute. I think my game ended up being one of the most popular ones, partially because it was easy and partially because I tended to be generous with the tickets. 
• We also had a fair amount of family visiting this month. My grandpa came up the weekend of the 9th, which was fun. And then last weekend my aunt, uncle, and cousins visited, which was also nice since we haven't seen them in a while.
• We finally visited Fort Stanwix! Fort Stanwix is a recreation of a Revolutionary War fort- the only fort which never fell to the British during that war, and the site where the first red, white, and blue American flag was flown. I've wanted to go there ever since we moved here, since it looked pretty cool and like a great place to take pictures. As it turns out, it's even better than I expected. Like Williamsburg, it's a sort of "living history" site- but because it's a recreation rather than an original, you can actually go into the rooms, sit on the chairs, touch and pick up the stuff, and so on- which both made it more fun and better for photography. A few rooms were blocked off, yes, but I think that they may be on a rotation: some are open one day, some are open another, and some are open all the time. I also did my first escape room at Fort Stanwix, which was really fun. It wasn't quite what I was expecting- it was less like the escape room games I've played on the computer and more like a Nancy Drew or puzzle game- but I still enjoyed it.
• I bought a Kindle! I haven't actually used it because (A) I don't have a case for it yet, and (B) I've barely read anything all month. But it's still nice to have one that's all my own as opposed to technically being my mom's. (Not that she used it much at all- it was mostly my sister and I who read things on it.)

 August (and the last ten days of July) Plans!

•  As you may or may not have guessed and/or remember from my June Doings post, I'm taking another internet hiatus, starting on Friday, July 22. It should last for two weeks and a bit, so I'll be back in mid-August.
• However, I may be spotty during the rest of August; it's hard to say. I should be back to my regular posting schedule (or will have formulated a new schedule) by September, barring calamity. Just warning you.
• I really want to read more in August and the end of July than I have the rest of the month. No internet should help with that, though, as should not having an internship to keep me busy.
• I also want to finish writing Fight Song and then maybe work on some short fiction. And also fanfiction, if I can get my ideas sorted out. And once my hiatus ends, I'm going to get back to work editing Destinies and Decisions and whatever else I decide needs edited. 
• And there's something else happening in August, the nature of which some of you (or most of you) may be able to guess. And I think I should be slightly terrified about it, but I haven't had much time to be, so I'm just vaguely nervous and absentmindedly conscious that I really ought to have done more to prepare by now. So that's probably good- the not-being-terrified bit, I mean. Not the needing-to-prepare bit.

How's your July been? What plans do you have for August and the rest of the month? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

NaNoWriMo Day 16

Wordcount: 42,185
Words Written Today: 1,199
Words I Still Need to Write Today: 0; I'm taking today as a light day.
Writing Music Obsession: Back to the Said the Sky Dubstep Mix

Yesterday was a very long writing day. I wrote a little over 5K, which makes it one of my most productive writing days ever. For that reason (and for other personal reasons) I'm taking today about half-off; I'm doing what I need to do for the Dice Quest crawl, and nothing more. Though I do have a Teenage Superhero Society post to write . . . I might not do that tonight, though, because my awesome parents bought me The King's Scrolls so now I need to reread Resistance to remind myself of characters and plot and such. And it would be really, really nice to read something.

Anyway! In celebration of being-past-40K and also of various other stuff, I'm posting snippets from Binding Destiny.

"Taika! The time has come!"

This is my first line. I'm fairly happy with it. It's not the best first line I've ever written, but it's not the worst either.

~~~

The door opened. Two guards dressed in green and brown emerged first, glanced around, and then stepped aside. Next emerged a young man a few years older than Mikkel, dark-skinned and dark-haired, dressed in a blue tunic and dark brown cloak. At his side was a lady about his same age. Tanned and red-haired, she was obviously not an Aralan native- though she wore the formal outfit of a lady Aralan soldier: green tunic, knee-length skirt over leggings, a short dark green cloak, and brown leather chestpiece, shoulder guards, and bracers. She carried herself with the grace of a Seeker or some other order used to walking unseen in shadows; used to swift, precise movements and unerring accuracy- yet she also seemed to shrink into herself as if nervous of something. The young man, on the other hand, walked with easy, quiet confidence- not pride, but certainty. Behind them followed two more guards, one looking serious as the first two, the other definitely smirking.

Mikkel's first impression of Katelyn, Aedon, and Jarek . . . who is definitely in this novel. But he's behaving and actually being more helpful than Aedon is, so I'm not complaining.

~~~

Katelyn did so, stroking the griffin almost as if she were stroking a cat. She grinned at Aedon. "Oh stars. I'm petting a griffin. Petting. A griffin. My life is made."

Aedon made a mock-disappointed face. "So . . . I suppose anything I ever do will pale in comparison with petting a griffin."

Katelyn laughed. "No. My life can be made more than once."

"Can it?" Aedon approached the griffin from the other side. "Or are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

"It can. I can think of three things you could do that would top this."

The griffin chose that moment to hiss and shake itself. Katelyn jerked back. "Oh- um. Sorry? I didn't mean offense?"

There are griffins in my novel! Finally! I've been wanting to write a novel with griffins for ages. So far, Taika has the most to do with griffins (she's had three griffin rides so far) but I had to put in this one mostly so Katelyn could express my griffin-excitement for me.

~~~

"We'll need to keep an eye on what she's doing, then," Sir Leod said. "Seeker Estijar? Can you assign a rotation of your Seekers to revisit Rushire and watch Eira? None are to outright attack her, whatever she does. If she sees and attacks them, they run like the hounds of midnight are after them- What?" He gave the Aralan girl a confused glance.

The girl seemed to find something highly amusing, and she struggled to force a straight face. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Carry on. You were saying."

In which we are reminded that Katelyn was a fangirl before she was a character, and in which Sir Leod unknowingly makes a reference to a certain book series which both Kate and I love.

~~~

"Lady Cavanaugh?" Pieces clicked together in Taika's mind from her father's descriptions of events in other worlds. "Wait. You're Katelyn Shadowwalker? The lost-girl-turned-[Shadowwalker]-turned-Hero?"

"My name is Katelyn Stevens," she said, with considerable force. "But . . . yes. That is me. I thought I didn't have a reputation here yet."

I have become more glad than ever that I decided to include Katelyn, Aedon, and Jarek in Binding Destiny. They're basically the only people who don't view everything Taika says and does with utmost suspicion simply because she's a Coradin. And Katelyn and Taika are rapidly becoming friends, and it's a lot of fun to write- they have quite a bit in common.

~~~

"I miss you, Da," Taika whispered. "You'd know what to do. How to handle all this. I miss your excitement, your passion . . . I miss how you'd listen when I was upset and then try to help- or just try to distract me and cheer me up, if the problem wasn't one you could solve. I miss knowing you were here for me. I miss waking up to your voice calling me to the day, and I miss you pulling me away from my books or my tinkering to tell me about your plans because you just had to share them with someone."

She rubbed the dark pommel stone of the sword with her sleeve. "I miss you, Da. I wish you were here; we could hide by ourselves here and be safe and happy like we were. Except . . . we couldn't. Because you'd still feel like you had to fix what had gone too far. So maybe we'd have allied with Rushire anyway- but we would have each other when they think it's fine to say and do whatever they want because we're usually enemies. Maybe that would be better."

I needed words and didn't know what to do . . . so Taika spent a scene being sad and missing her father. I think it turned out rather well.

~~~

The trip back passed slower than the trip there- perhaps the griffin was reluctant to return. Taika wouldn't blame him if he was. If she could fly on her own, soar freely through the endless blue sky, she didn't think she'd ever come to earth. She'd just fly and fly and fly, crossing mountains and ocean and whatever lay on the sea's other side, stopping only when exhaustion forced her to fold her wings and snatch a few hours' sleep.

More griffins. Taika and I both needed a break from arguments and angst.

How's your NaNo going? Any favorite bits that you've written recently? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Story Snippets 2/25/15

Hello, everyone! In the last month, I've been working on editing my two most recent WIPs. Neither is ready to show to people, but I still want to share what I've been doing. So I thought I'd post some snippets! I was originally just going to post bits of Between Two Worlds, which I've done the most on- I have almost-seven chapters edited, as opposed to only one in Destinies and Decisions. (I'd have more done on D&D, but I had to entirely rewrite the first chapter. Augh, beginnings, why must you torment me so?) But then I decided that I'd go ahead and just post snippets from both, just not as many from Destinies and Decisions as from Between Worlds. Also, some of my D&D snippets may be from my rough draft rather than from what I've edited. Anyway, on with the snippets!

Between Two Worlds

For the past two years, I’ve dreamed of this day. I’ve imagined in detail what will happen: how my neighborhood will look as I walk up the street once more, my joyful recognition as I pick out memories from my surroundings, my excitement as I near my house. I’ve pictured how my parents will greet me, their surprise and relief to see me back, how I’ll tell them everything I’ve done since I last walked out my door. I’ve laughed as I thought of my sister’s reaction, no less joyful than my parents’ but twice as surprised and outraged that I’d gone and had an adventure without her. I’ve thought many times of what it’ll be like to live again in my own home, sleep in my own bed, and return to my favorite activities and haunts.

Yet, despite all that, my dreams are wrong. The street I now walk up is not quite familiar; everything seems to have shrunk and shifted ever so slightly. My joy is cooled and tempered with sorrow, my excitement dulled with longing for something else I cannot have. And my home itself . . . I pause at the end of the driveway and look up at the house. Has it always been so small? So like the other houses around it?

~~~

Aedon waits for me around the other side of the church, where we can’t be seen from the door or the parking lot. As I approach, he gives me that easy grin I know so well. “Hello, Lady Kate. Funny that someone I’ve never met would tell me to meet her outside, isn’t it? Maybe she does know me after all.”

“And maybe she doesn’t like answering more of her sister’s awkward questions than is absolutely necessary.” I cross my arms. “What are you doing here?”

~~~

A familiar figure stands before me, tall and lithe, a second dagger ready in his left hand. I let out a moan of mixed relief and pain and manage a slight smile. “Botheration, Jarek,” I mutter, “how many times do I owe you my life now?”

“Seven and counting, shadow.” Jarek steps over the soldier’s body and kneels beside me. “You should be more careful.”

~~~

Aedon continues to hover over me once I’m settled in the chair. “What happened, Kate?”

“I was attacked.” I struggle to keep my eyes open, suddenly feeling very tired even though it’s not even nine in the morning. “What’s it look like?”

“You sound like me.” Jarek claims the other chair and raises an eyebrow at me. “Maybe that bump on the head did more damage than I thought.”

~~~

When we reach the path, we find that the soldiers’ bodies have been cleared away. A faint smell of burned flesh still hangs in the air, sending a stab of guilt into my soul. Two more people, dead because of me.

I know I’ll see them again in my dreams, watch once more as they die- one to my fire, one to Jarek’s knife. I’ll watch and I’ll see all the details I missed in the moment, and I’ll remember all too clearly that they likely bore me no ill will; they were simply doing following orders.

As if reading my thoughts, Aedon whispers soft words, “Don’t go down that path, Lady Kate. Don’t let the guilt eat you. What’s done is done; there’s nothing you can do to change that.”

Tears bead my eyes as we continue down the black asphalt trail. “They’re dead, Aedon. And it’s my fault.”

“I know.” He rubs my shoulder gently. “I know, but remember what Sir Camrick taught us. If you allow guilt to consume you, you’ll have nothing left.”

~~~

Destinies and Decisions

Gwen walked over to Rachelle, Skyla, and Ariana and fixed Rachelle with a firm stare. "Stay out of trouble, understand? I want you to still be in one piece when I see you again."

Rachelle made a face. "I already promised Hunter I'd be careful. Besides, I don't get into trouble; it pounces on me."

"Then stay out of trouble's way." For emphasis, Gwen let her stare linger a moment longer.

~~~

Bianca slid her rook two squares to the right. "Check."

Jared took the only option he had: moving his king a space forward and to the left. "You know, I'm starting to hate that word."

Bianca moved her queen three spaces to the left. "Then I apologize that I must say it again: check."

Sliding his king back a square, Jared scowled. "If you were really sorry, you wouldn't find so much reason to say it."

"But then I would eventually force you to say it instead, and I'm sure that would be worse." Bianca smiled sweetly as she moved her knight a space to the right and two spaces down. "Also, checkmate."

~~~

A few minutes passed before Gwen replied. Did you know you're the only person I've ever heard stammer while mindspeaking?

~~~

And just for fun, a little bit of what I've written this month in Monster in the Castle:

Hayden sighed. "Master Silver, we are not going to fake a crisis simply to convince Miss Pansy to ask for a reprieve from her promise. Nor," he added, anticipating Jason's next suggestion, "are we going to cause one."

Jason's expression could've passed for innocence had it not become an amused smirk partway through. "Cause a crisis? Now I know I'm rubbing off on you, highness. That's not a bad idea."

~~~

"And not much else besides more questions." Jason made for the door. "Why am I not surprised?"

"I expect it is because we are Leaguesmen, Master Silver." Hayden reached the door first and pulled it open. "Questions are the purpose for our existence; to find their answers, our calling."

Jason snorted. "Leave it to you, highness, to make a rhetorical question into a philosophical statement."

~~~

And that's it for the snippets. I hope you enjoyed! How's your writing going? Feel free to leave some of your favorite lines you've recently written in the comments; I'd love to read them!
Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)