Chapter 84 - Back at Camelot! (With added announcement/Author's note) (Patreon)

AN: IT'S ALIVE!

Thank you all for your understanding and patience, I really, REALLY needed that. I wasn't aware of just how bad everything was until I stepped all the way back and took a proper break. Not just a 'okay, breathe for a minute and catch up on the torched backlog' break, an actual, genuine 'NO obligation here' break. It was like waking up after a long sleep, I could feel the cobwebs getting brushed off.

I know I'm not going back to a regular posting schedule quite yet, although I've got hopes of getting a second chapter done this week. Perhaps it'll be posted this week, maybe next week, we'll see. We're in that awkward stage of summer vacation with my kid where all the activities are done, but school hasn't started back up yet, so we're spending a lot of time together. 95% of the way to teaching her how to ride a bike! Just need to work on starting a bit.

Onto Song!

I've got tons and tons of notes, ideas, and things to happen. Like the 4th year will be the Grimoire Games (already hinted at), with 8 different trials and a bunch of subplot between each one. Etc.

The issue? I've got a one-two punch of structural problems. The first is the setting is too competent. I went 'why is the school staff either incompetent or willing to throw students into a meatgrinder, it makes no sense.' Except, turns out writing plot with a competent staff is HARD, even when they're willing to let students throw themselves into danger. Because there's always the lurking 'the professors could bail everyone out' aspect to it.

I've tried to give each of the professors a number of flaws, most of which seem to have been missed so far (op success on that bit of worldbuilding), but it doesn't change the fundamental nature of the competent school. For example, Erik getting bullied and attacked was supposed to be a much larger part of the vibe - the 'outsiders' being shunned. Except the school has Praetorians on staff, and while they're willing to let some things go, they do enforce the law. Yeah, I can wiggle around it a bit, but it's not going super well.

The other, much larger issue - I have no real A-list plot. I've got thousands of B-list plot, things to happen while the main plot is occurring, but no primary plot. I can write slice of cozy here and there, but I don't think I'm up for ALL cozy, all the time. I've seeded a number of antagonists all over the place, and I was hoping, by now, I'd manage to get SOME sort of overarching plot going by them, but I just haven't quite managed it without making them comedically inept. Most of them will flat-out win before they're discovered, or if I slice the difference, we end up not having a school story anymore.

None of these problems are insurmountable. However, I do think once I finish book 1 of Song, I'm going to put it on the backburner, and start a new project. Book 1 has a solid A-plot (The mystery of Felix's core, discovering the magical world, etc.), and I do think I can neatly land it as a satisfying stand-alone book, with HUGE series potential. I do think I'm young enough, and with a long enough writing career ahead of me, that I'll be able to slowly chip away at the story, letting it percolate in my head, to finally come up with a good plot.

High chance it involves Avalon 'falling' into Arcadia and becoming a 'true' presence in the world. That little bit of worldbuilding fucks with so many issues, mostly external threats and the ability to respond to them. It's super cool how travel is handled. It's less cool that people can't get a letter saying there's trouble at home, or trouble can't easily find them.

Also, it turns out that I utterly suck at writing in the 3rd person, and have a lot of regrets around it. I tried to do the split-protagonist thing and I fumbled it, etc. I knew they were going to be challenges and issues going into the book, I thought I could manage it, but I don't think I pulled it off.

Given all of your support, I suspect some of you would disagree, but hey, I'm allowed to have crises of ego as well.

If I'm not doing Song, what am I doing?

Portal Wars (Project name - WIP name right now is 'Defending the Rainbow Rings', but that'll change when I sit down to workshop it) was a large arc I constantly hinted at in BTDEM, but decided not to execute on for various reasons. Mostly, that it'd do better as it's own series, with its own protagonist. Yup! That's right, I'm planning on returning to Pallos! I needed the break from all the numbers. I got a break from all the numbers! Time to fire up ye olde spreadsheets again!

My wife picked a kitsune MC, and voted for a Nordic setting. Still unsure how I'm pulling THAT particular combination off, but hey, the Northern Lights are the BEST Mirage around. That synergy is absolutely going to occur. No ETA on it, but I don't plan on rushing the launch like I did for Song. That was another mistake of mine, although it did help with my writing pressure and all that.

FIRST!

We need to finish Song, and I'm trying quite hard not to rush it. I will say, the amount left in my outline between the coven forming and the end of the year is smaller than you'd expect. I hope it doesn't feel rushed, and I know there's going to be critical eyes on it, but the primary stated conflict of book 1 was 'who's in the coven?'. The primary mystery/plot of book 1 is 'what's Felix's core?'. And like, I'm 84 chapters and about 160k words deep into the book at this point, hopefully it feels like a complete book. But yes, time will go by a little faster now.

At the same time, read Harry Potter. 1/3rd of book 1 is just getting to Hogwarts. We then spend the next 1/3rd of the book getting through Halloween, then there's almost nothing between there and the end of the year. A bit with the holidays, the dragon subplot, and BOOM! End of the book.

... I really should've made this its own post, shouldn't I?

Enough delays!

AN2: The good break question and answer was written BEFORE I went on break...

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“Good break?” Felix asked Chris.

“Pretty solid! Nothing much to write home about.” He chuckled at his own bad joke, trying to sit down on a chair that wasn’t there anymore.

“Oi!” He complained. “Not cool!”

Felix held up his hands, then realized how futile it was.

“Don’t look at me, they rearranged the common room a bit. You’re the one flinging yourself around without thinking about it.”

Chris paused.

“True. This one’s on me. Your break?” He asked.

“We formed our coven!” Felix said. 

“You did? Good on you! Chris said.

A few of the other Dragon students made a brief congratulatory noise as they passed, but that was it. They had their own friends, their own stories from break, and they were busy catching up with each other. Life moved on, no matter how great or small the events in Felix’s life were.

What now?

Felix was used to always needing to move. To do something. If it wasn’t working, it was studying. If it wasn’t studying, it was getting between the places he needed to go. When he started at Camelot, the other Dragons had insisted that he slowed down so he wouldn’t burn out, and Felix had taken the lesson to heart.

Except… he’d just gotten off a two week break. He was calm. Refreshed. Energized. The tanks were full, the batteries were maxed out. Lazing around wasn’t the thing to do.

No, it was time to make money. Vivian had been here and gone again so quickly in Dublin that Felix hadn’t been able to unload his goods. Given the story she and Alexandria had told, he wasn’t even sure that the girl had come with any money!

What a thought. To have so much money, to be so secure with it, that he could leave it at home and not be worried at all. To not know where every bent penny and folded dollar was.

Felix knew exactly how many denarii he had - 12, in his front right robe pocket - and that was the grand total of his worldly cash. He’d already returned the ‘change’ from his shopping trip to Erik, and the debt hung over his head like a cloud. Sure, that wasn’t how Erik had phrased it, but it was how it felt.

Plan in mind, Felix grabbed his suitcase, and started rolling it through the hallways, over to Thunderbird House. The school was animated, students running around and catching up with their friends, and Felix had to dodge around some of the more enthusiastic students or the spells they were casting. 

There was a whole song and dance to get into Thunderbird House, but Felix soon found himself knocking on Vivian’s door. He heard a giggle, some rustling, and a flustered Vivian opened the door a moment later, Alexandria peeking out over her shoulder.

“Oh! Felix. Errr. Ah. Right. The shopping. Fudge, this is awkward.” Vivian said.

Felix’s eye twitched. He knew those words. They immediately preceded ‘I can’t pay you’ or some other excuse for money avoiding his family’s hands. However, he kept quiet, the memory of a honey kiss still floating through his head.

Plus, Alexandria was right there, and coven or no, she could be scary as hell. 

“My parents got kinda pissed that I joined ‘the Morsin Coven’, and I’m grounded as heck. They completely cut off my allowance.” Vivian’s face fell, and Felix felt the familiar hot flair of indignation. 

God, to be that rich. Where thousands in cosmetics was allowance money. The sheer unfairness of the world…

He shook the feelings off in a well-practiced manner.

“What am I supposed to do with them now?” He asked, already feeling a hot lump forming in his throat.

“Errr…” Vivian said, only for Alexandria to cuff her from behind.

“As you keep telling me,” She hissed, “You fucked this up, you fix it.”

“I want to!” Vivian squawked in protest, whirling around and rubbing the back of her head. “I don’t know how to! I don’t have the money!”

Alexandria rolled her eyes.

“It’s real simple.” She whispered. “You go out, and you help him sell it to someone else. There’s 400 girls here. Yeah, they don’t all have your complexion, but someone will want it, and be able to fork over the funds. Now shoo.”

Felix dutifully turned around, and started to walk away with slumped shoulders. Alex growled in frustration behind him.

“Not you!” She hissed. “Vivian! No, wait, you as well. Argh!”

The girl gave up on talking and shoved Vivian out of her room, then slammed the door shut.

“Did I just get kicked out of my own room?” She asked at the door.

“Yes?” Felix said, not wanting to get between the two forces of nature.

“Wait. I can’t go out like this!” Vivian shrieked. Felix took the chance to appraise her, and could see absolutely nothing wrong with her outfit. “Alex! You utter cow! Let me back in!” She yelled, hammering on the door.

Felix walked to the bottom of the stairs, rolling his luggage behind him. Far, far away from the two forces of nature that were about to collide with each other.

He snorted and shook his head, clearing his thoughts. When had he become so overly dramatic? Was it the coven ritual?

Either way, Vivian had herself sorted in just a few minutes, and caught up with Felix in the common room, where he was feeling awkward. He was allowed there - everyone was allowed in everyone else’s common room, except for Dragon’s - but it was still slightly awkward to be the only one in black and gold in a sea of blue and bronze.

“Cosmetics! First, show me the goods.” Vivian ordered.

“Here?” Felix asked.

“... Advertising!” Vivian blurted out after a moment of thinking about it.

“... Sure.” Felix didn’t believe her for a second. He hauled the luggage up to the table, flipped the clasps, and opened it. Vivian whimpered at the display.

“It’s so perfect.” She whispered, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye.

Felix did a double take. There was no pretending, she was wiping a tear from her eye. 

“Right!” Vivian straightened up. “This is excellent, but it’s a miracle it stayed this way. Hang on, let me just…”

Without waiting for permission, she reached into Felix’s suitcase and started rearranging everything.

“These go.” She said, tossing the snacks onto Felix’s lap. “These should go here… nobody would put these things together…”

Five minutes of mumbling later, and Felix feeling quite put out, Vivian stopped.

“There! Perfectly organized.” She said. “All ready to sell.”

Felix looked at the suit - display case, and back at Vivian. He mildly resented his project and his stuff getting taken over, and he could see at least one glaring thing Vivian had forgotten. 

“Not ready to sell.” He countered mulishly.

“Oh yeah? What do you know about fashion?” Vivian retorted.

“That you need price tags to sell things.” Felix drily replied.

Vivian’s mouth did a fish impression.

“Wait right here.” She said, zipping up to her room. After a brief comedy sketch that Felix could see from here - Vivian knocking on her room, then talking to it, then arguing about it, before finally getting let in - she hustled down the stairs, waving multi-colored post-it notes.

“Tada!” Vivian presented them. Felix was somewhat familiar with them from their study sessions. They were enchanted to have small scenes playing in the ‘background’ or patterns slowly floating across them. “Now, this costs 200 in the store.” She started to write the number down on a sticky note as Felix gaped.

“But it only cost me 40 denarii!” He said. $39.99 before tax.

“Yeah, and it’s 200 here.” Vivian said.

“But we’re not a store, we shouldn’t sell it at their full price. We want to be cheaper, so it’ll sell.” Felix said.

“Counterpoint. We’re easy. Delivery right to the dorm room! That costs a premium.” Vivian said.

“But if we don’t sell it, then it’s not doing us any good.” Felix said.

Vivian whimpered, then batted her eyelashes at Felix. His heart briefly lurched, then he remembered he was utterly broke.

“It does me no good.” Felix corrected.

“Even if we’ve already sold a lot?” Vivian asked.

“Yes.” Felix said.

“What’s my cut for helping?” She asked, playing with her long curls.

“Alexandria not murdering you? She knows where you sleep.” Felix said.

Vivian pouted prettily.

“Maybe next time, when this is the plan, we can split it.” He conceded.

“Fineeee.” Vivian whined, and the two descended into an awkward silence.

“Now what?” Felix asked, after a few minutes of students walking by, glancing at them, and moving on.

“Um. Someone comes to us and it sells?” Vivian said.

Felix rolled his eyes. With that sort of passive attitude, they’d never sell anything. He recognized one of the girls walking by.

“Hey! De Lys!” He called out, waving her over when the platinum-blonde glanced over aristocratically. 

“Sutter! We can’t call her over!” Vivian whispered urgently.

“Why not?” He asked as the girl in question slowly and gracefully moved across the common room.

“She’s a De Lys!”

Felix tried to dredge through the absurdly large list of all the tiny little nobles that existed in Logres, before remembering that she was one of the big nobles. Duchy of France, although not the heir. Heiress? 

They made it complicated here. Either way, there was one fundamental truth.

“Yeah, but they’re well off, aren’t they?”

Vivian put her face in her hands, muttering something about ‘we don’t just call over the daughter of a duke’ and ‘she’s a winter, all of this is for a summer’, and other such arcane nonsense.

Wait, it was possible it was actually arcane, and she was trying to perform an impromptu ritual. No, no, it was all wrong for that, it was only muttering.

“Sutter.” Valerie lifted one eyebrow. “Did you call me over for anything other than to peddle your wares?”

Felix grinned.

“Nope! See anything you like? Brought it all over from Sacramento myself.”

“In your infinite wisdom, you chose your first foray in merchandising to be cosmetics? What possessed you?” She asked.

“Hey! I didn’t just grab cosmetics! I’ve got all sorts of snacks and drinks. This one,” He bumped shoulders into Vivian “convinced me to go shopping for cosmetics. See anything you need? Want to place any orders?”

Valerie quickly glanced over the goods before shaking her head.

“Entirely wrong for my complexion, I’m afraid, but I’m interested in the snacks. What do you have to offer?”

Felix listed a dozen different snacks, and Valerie’s eyes lit up in the middle of the list.

“Oooh! Snickers! I had a Snickers once, when I was a little girl. How much for it?” She asked. Her ‘princess’ poise was completely gone, replaced by an excited kid in a candy shop.

Felix almost answered - at approximately 73 cents per full sized bar when bought in bulk, he only needed a single denarii to make a profit, but saying that was a great way to get as little as possible. She could name something higher, and he’d at least 5x his profit margin by selling it for 2 denarii. “How much do you want to pay for it?” He asked.

De Lys looked a little put out, and briefly muttered to herself.

“10 denarii?” She offered, hesitantly.

“SOLD!” Felix jumped up, more to prevent himself from snickering at the number than anything else. “Wait right here, I’ll be right back.”

Felix ran all the way to Dragon dorm, stuffed all the snacks and drinks he had into his backpack, then sprinted back to Thunderbird House. He wasn’t even winded as he arrived back, and handed the Snickers bar over to De Lys with a smile.

“Here you go!” He said, receiving his money with a smile. “Happy to sell you more, anytime! Let me know what you want when we go on break this winter, I’m happy to go shopping.”

“I think I’ll do that. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” De Lys didn’t wait for a reply, striding back to her room with almost unseemly haste.

“Those don’t cost anywhere near 10 denarii, do they?” Vivian asked after a moment.

“Not even close.” Felix confirmed.

“Nice.” Vivian held up her hand.

Felix crisply high-fived her.