Author Archives: Illinia

Firestorm and Sunspot

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Sunspot and Firestorm, art by Talon

Griffon and rider, art by Talon

A commission I commissioned from fellow Wayrifter and DA user, Talon, of the Generals of the Griffonland, Firestorm the elf and Sunspot the griffon. The second image Talon coloured in the way she did because I didn’t get around to approving the more spot-free colour scheme in a timely fashion. But she did such an amazing job that I’m thrilled to have both versions. I mean, look at it! Iz pretty awesome. Not to mention the beautiful background, which I didn’t describe in any detail, and yet she had the exactly right image.

I’m going to post the rest of the gift/commission art I have, today, so stay tuned for more fabulousness. 😀

About Frelia’s Finest, Part 3

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Final wordcount: 24,492. Final pagecount: 60. Days to write: 5.

A truly gigantic chapter, in which Innes learns how to have a real relationship in a totally uncreepy way with a woman he already knows. ‘Bout time, ain’t it? I mean, there is a huge difference between realizing that your good friend is really quite attractive and you get along well and heck, why not spend your whole lives together? and stalking a pretty girl to make sure nothing hurts her. Good job, Innes. You have graduated from the totally-optional ‘creeper’ stage of life. …Now, if it was in real life, would be the time to pray for a real happily-ever-after. But since Fire Emblem is by design a fairy-tale (even if it doesn’t have fairies), happily-ever-after is pretty much guaranteed – until the sequel. : P (dun dun dunnn? …nahhhh, too much work. :3 ) Continue reading →

Frelia’s Finest: Part 3 (rewrite)

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Part 1 this way

Part 2 this way

 

Part 3

 

Joshua was Prince of Jehanna.

Well. I hadn’t seen that one coming. It was almost a bigger shock than Eirika rejecting me. Actually, Joshua was having far worse a day than I was, because he was no sooner revealed to us as Prince than he became King as well, for his mother Ismaire died in his arms.

I formally gave him the letter from my father, and then someone set the hall on fire.

The first we knew of it was a soldier came rushing up to all us royals. “Sire! Sire! Fires have broken out all through the hall!”

“What!?” cried the new King. This was too much for him. His mentor betraying him, his mother dying – he needed someone to help him out.

“Someone soaked the wall hangings in oil and set fire to them! It’s a deathtrap!”

“We must get out!” I called, turning towards Tana and her winged horse.

“Mother… no… I will return…” Joshua cried. Seth was already pulling him onto his horse. Where was Eirika? Oh, with L’Arachel. She was all right. Continue reading →

About Frelia’s Finest: Part 2

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If you ever read Eirika’s Story, you’ll note some key differences here, mostly because this is the bit that I’m planning to rewrite. Really? Eirika dragging Seth off during a battle for some kisses? Wow. That’s just dumb. So that’s gone now. I think I am better at writing dialogue than I was five years ago (especially when I’m not using the stilted stuff from the game) and trying to think in first person view gives a slightly better set of descriptions than thinking in top-down map view. (Partly why The Tactician and the Jewel worked out so well? Because I had no maps to rely on?)

Innes is reminding me of Hrulash. I talk so much, myself, because I’m always thinking. (Whether I’m thinking about anything useful or intelligent is up for debate. :3 ) But so my characters have a lot of things to say. But when they don’t say a lot, like Hrulash – or Innes – they end up saying it inside their heads. (Which Yllamse noticed, and nailed in her recent Rifted Riders fic. 😀 ) I guess I have a thing for quiet, intelligent, snarky guys? Straight-laced-ness is optional, though. : )

One more bit, and it’s going to be (finally) 100% Innes/Syrene-y. 😀

This is some excellent writing music. Almost an hour of Baroque organ music! : D And it’s awesome organ music! It’s variations on a hexachord by Pachelbel, which I believe means that the theme is on a ground bass six chords long? Anyway, Pachelbel’s pretty inventive, if he draws it out for 48.5 minutes of this beautiful ornate… music (complete with varied registrations in this recording) on the same theme. 😀

Frelia’s Finest: Part 2 (rewrite)

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Part 1 this way

 

Part 2

 

“How goes it?” I asked Gerik, who crouched at the door of the tower while I knelt on the top of the tower.

The mercenary captain peeked through the arrow slit next to him. “I’m good, thanks for asking, Highness. Still lots of baddies out there, though.”

I stood up and surveyed the hilly plain. “They’ve drawn off a little. I think we have time for a breather. Come up and look around.”

“Ewan, stay in hiding,” Tethys warned her brother as she followed Gerik up to the top of the tower.

We had been ambushed by Carcino soldiers right when we were in the middle of the country. Brin had taken a lance in the leg, and had dropped back even though she was able to partly heal the wound with a vulnerary. They wouldn’t kill her; the mercenaries’ guild laws prevented that. But the treacherous bastards had no reason to attack me, and since I hadn’t stopped for news since I left Frelia, I had no idea why they thought they had reason to. Could it be that Grado guessed at my mission and had corrupted them with coin?

In any case, we were wildly outnumbered and though we made it to the relative safety of a small abandoned tower in the middle of this plain, it was only a matter of time before we were overrun. I would have failed almost before I had begun.

I couldn’t let that happen. Continue reading →

About Frelia’s Finest

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More Fire Emblem 8 fanfiction? Whut?

See… I was working on Ephraim’s Story… and then I realized that large portions of Eirika’s Story weren’t very good. I’m going to rewrite them. But then I read Frelia’s Finest, which was my Innes/Syrene story, and realized that it, too, is not very good. So I’m rewriting it first, since it’s short and there needs to be more Innes/Syrene in the world. But it’s long enough to get divided into three parts. : P

EDIT: Also I am totally ignoring any sort of timeline, so mentions of days and hours and things probably won’t match up between stories. Not really concerned about it. I might look into that when I’m done getting the fun parts down. : P

I’m almost done the next chapter of Ephraim’s Story, so it will be up within a day, probably.

I’m so happy for Ryder Hesjedal! <3 Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! It was kind of emotional when they played O Canada in Milan. History! : D

Frelia’s Finest: Part 1 (rewrite)

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Part 1

An arrow zipped past my shoulder as I ducked behind the wall of Castle Mulan. Nocking another arrow to my own string, I stood up and sent feathery death down on the peon who had dared attack me.

“How goes it?” I called to my general, Kalvin.

“Not good,” he called back. “Captain Misha’s unit is under heavy mage-fire. I’ve redirected our healers to that area.”

“Mage fire?” I looked around at the gates beside me. The enemy’s battering rams were getting closer, but our own mages were blasting at them, and our cavalry was ready in the courtyard. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you, Prince Innes!”

I nodded and, crouching, walked swiftly over to the other side of the castle where our pegasus knights were fending off a storm of fireballs and lightening bolts. Pegasus were naturally resistant to magic attacks, but we only had one squad, and there were too many mages for them to deal with. We’d already lost four, a third of them.

I was not resistant to magic, but I was agile and my arrows struck faster than the knights. I revealed myself and pegged three mages in the space of a breath, drawing new arrows from my quiver in the blink of an eye. Then I had to throw myself down and roll as they became aware of the new threat and aimed several eye-searing spells in my general direction. Continue reading →

About Ephraim’s Story: Chapter 10

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Um. Well. That was a giant long chapter… Honestly, those guys talk more than my guys! XD But anyway, I’m a little closer to finishing this story now. I am hoping I can recycle dialogue from Eirika’s Story, because I’m a cheating cheater who is lazy. : P

Part of the reason this chapter took up so much space is because the game itself doesn’t make a lot of sense. Ephraim, in the game, just appears in the castle with his army, with no explanation of how he got there, and I felt an explanation was needed. Also there was a lot of smoothing out to do, since the dialogue is occasionally loltastic, and I wanted to spread the dialogue out a bit, hence some line-trading. Continue reading →

Ephraim’s Story: Chapter 10: Father and Son

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Chapter 9: Fluorspar’s Oath          Chapter 11: Scorched Sand

 

Chapter 10: Father and Son

Barely a day and a night later, we stood looking down on Grado City, the capital of the Grado Empire. It had been so long since I had seen it, and it was the same as ever – proud dark stone walls rising up out of a lush green valley. The Keep stood at the head of the city, even taller. We had not encountered any resistance since Hanarka, which was suspicious to me, but I would take whatever seemed like good fortune I could get. The capital itself seemed normal, if a little quieter than usual; she seemed unaware that a hostile force was camped almost at her very gates.

The last time I was there, two years ago, it had been for my education. I’d studied martial arts with Duessel, but the intellectual side of my studies I was hopeless in. If it hadn’t been for Lyon’s patient help, I would have flunked every test and then some. Books just held no interest for me. Lyon, on the other hand, absorbed them like a sponge does water, but was defeated soundly by Eirika in combat, so he came to me for additional sparring practice. He and I had a good friendship, each helping the other. And of course he had a good friendship with Eirika; she was more sympathetic than I was, and when I was a jerk, she would comfort him while I snickered at them both or stood shamefaced.

Being a kid was pretty fun in Grado, books aside. Continue reading →