Flashback scene

The following is a draft of a flashback that I'll work into the narrative later in the novel. The scene is set five years before the start of our novel.

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Shortly after her family moved from the wreckage of their village to the slums of Slag City, Moxie had been hurrying home after a day of pilfering scrap metal and wires from the trash of the surrounding factories. She hesitated at the edge of a dump yard, a huge lot filled with towering mounds of slag. She knew she should go around, but her arms ached from carrying the heavy box of spare parts that she and her family would soon make into valuable machines. She glanced up. Sooty snow had begun to fall from the sky. That decided her. She'd be damned if she had to draw another bath from the communal well down the street because the plumbing in her shoddy apartment didn't work.

She was halfway through the mounds when two squat creatures suddenly rose up out of the earth in front of her, blocking her path. Moxie's eyes widened and her legs felt like water. The fey didn't take kindly to trespassers, but this was communal land... wasn't it? The foreign creatures were barely four feet tall with rough-hewn skin and craggy, scowling faces that appeared to be made out of stone. Wisps of hair like the fine roots of trees stuck out from their balding heads. Triple-jointed fingers ended in sharp claws and their legs were little more than crumbling piles of earth and stone. Moxie was too terrified to move; she had never seen or even heard of faeries like this.

One of creatures opened his mouth, working his jaw like he was trying to speak and revealing double rows of serrated teeth and a thick, worm-like tongue that made Moxie gag. She imagined that tongue licking her flesh as the creature bit down, ripping the meat from her bones. A deep pulse sounded through the earth, a sound so low that Moxie felt rather than heard it. Then the creatures were moving toward her, reaching out with dirt dripping from their arms. Moxie dropped her box and ran like hell.
 
She wound her way back out through the mounds of slag as fast as her legs could carry her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the creatures were gaining on her and they appeared to be passing through the mounds, rather than around them. She turned back around, making it to the street - and slammed straight into a slender, golden god of a man. He cried out in surprise, but then pivoted with astonishing grace, dropping his sack and catching her before she fell. Apples and one precious orange rolled out of his bag. Moxie accidentally stepped on the orange as she tried to regain her feet, squishing the expensive fruit and nearly falling again before she found her balance.

The golden god glanced down as he steadied her with his hands on her arms, resignation etched into his handsome features. "Of course," he muttered then gave her a wry smile. "You have no idea what I went through to get that." Moxie gasped. His voice was like rich black coffee and sinfully sweet honey, all rolled into one. She couldn't think past the sound of it. That voice - Oh, God, that voice! - caressed her skin under her clothes and sent shivers down her breasts and spine. It curled around her body, drawing her deeper into his embrace. She wanted to crawl inside him where it was safe and warm and make him hers, but she couldn't even manage move. The best she could do was stare up into his chestnut eyes and tremble in his arms. The man's brow knitted with concern. "Are you all right? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Moxie almost moaned. His decadent voice tightened things deep inside her, and she blushed - actually blushed. Pure mortification finally broke her from his spell. "I don't blush," she muttered then blushed even harder as she noticed that she was clutching his threadbare coat, pulling him against her.

The man gave her a shy, nervous laugh that was totally at odds with his stunning appearance. "I'm sorry?" he said. He hesitated then brushed her hands with his fingertips, a quick, light touch like the brush of a falling leaf. Moxie released him as if she'd been burned, staring at where her hands had been. The man jerked away so fast that she almost lost her balance. She looked up, braced for his derision, and instead found him watching her warily, as if he expected her to slap him.

Moxie frowned but didn't have time to deal with his strange reaction. The man had been silent long enough that the fog was clearing from her mind, and she suddenly recalled why she had been running in the first place. She whirled, shocked that they weren't dead yet, and found that the two creatures had stopped between the towering mounds of slag twenty feet away. They moved restlessly, dirt dripping from their squat figures, as they eyed the man beside her, one with amusement, the other with malice. The man followed her gaze and stiffened. "Please tell me those are friends of yours," he said.

Moxie shook her head. "I trespassed on their territory. I didn't know..."

The man gave her a sidelong glance. "The fey know when a trespasser means them harm or is just passing through unawares." Moxie glanced at him and realized what she hadn't before: he was part sidhe. It was there in his delicate bones, slightly too large eyes, and that amazing voice. His tone was clipped now. His words still tasted like honey on her tongue, but they didn't catch her in their spell as they had before. Moxie wondered if he could control his voice or if she was merely getting used to it. "Besides," he finished, slowly withdrawing a bone knife from a sheath on his thigh, "I've been through here a thousand times, even slept here once or twice. This is not their territory."

Moxie eyed the knife. The blade was as long as her forearm and stained dark brown in places. "Then what do they want?" she whispered.

He snorted then gave a roguish grin, keeping his eyes on the creatures. His smile made him look younger. She realized with a start that he was only a few years older than her sixteen. "How the hell would I know?" he said. "I'm Cy, by the way--Cypher."

"Moxie."

He nodded then stepped carefully between her and the creatures. "Go away," he called to them. "We have no quarrel with you." Moxie gasped at the force of that deep, honey voice and grabbed the back of his jacket as she swayed. Oh, yes, he could control it, and he hadn't meant to enchant her before, that much was clear.

The creatures hissed at him. Their serrated teeth appeared to be made of stone. The one who had looked amused opened his mouth as if to speak and again that deep pulse of sound-that-was-not-sound shook the earth. Cy covered his ears with a cry and swore under his breath.

"I think we should go," Moxie said, tugging at his coat.

He turned to her with an incredulous look. "You think?" He grabbed her hand and they started to run, but a series of pulses made him stumble then finally drop to his knees. The bone knife clattered to the ground as he clutched at his ears, trying to block out the sound that was too low for Moxie to hear.

"Cy!" she cried, dropping beside him and trying to pull him to his feet. He hunched in on himself, looking as if he might throw up. Moxie glanced behind them. The earthly creatures appeared to be arguing, gesturing at Cy and Moxie with their claws. She didn't understand the chubby one's malice as he glared at Cy. Neither of them had looked at her that way, and for that she was glad. She tugged at Cy's arm, trying to get him to rise. He gasped and looked up at her. Pain shone in his eyes as well as surprise, as if he couldn't quite believe that she hadn't left him behind.

He struggled to his feet and she grabbed his knife--and then suddenly the pulsing ended. Moxie watched as the creatures melted back into the earth. Cy's eyes were wide with disbelief as their straggly hair and balding heads disappeared.

"What the hell were those things?" Moxie said. Cy didn't respond. She turned toward him and saw blood trickling from his ears. She took his hand in hers. His palm was smeared with blood. "Can you hear me?" she asked.

His expression was tender when he looked at her. He brushed the brown strands of her hair away from her face with the fingertips of his free hand. "A little," he said. "It'll pass."

Moxie offered him a small smile and squeezed his hand. "You're sure?"

He nodded. Then the corners of his lips quirked up. "My neighbor is a banshee who fancies herself a singer. Pray you never have to hear her wail."

Moxie gaped, unsure whether or not he was kidding until he tweaked her nose. "Come on, bright eyes," he laughed. "Let's get you home."

How dark do you want our story to be?

I need your input! We decided that the promise Moxie made to her "benefactor" (character TBD) in order to secure his help in reviving Cy was to remove Cy's essence of fey. But the original discussion cited Moxie's promise as being to continue replacing parts of Cy with steam tech parts in order to remove Cy's essence of fey. These are very different promises with very different effects on our story. Please let me know your preference so I know where you want our story to go!

Option 1 (epic fantasy): Moxie promised to do something that would remove Cy's essence of fey and make him fully human. Cy's living parts needing to be replaced with mechanical parts is an unexpected side effect of either saving his life or Moxie's attempts to make him human. Effects: 1) Our story stays mostly out of the realm of horror. 2) Moxie is a protagonist who made a bad choice; Moxie and Cy's love story is a subplot. 3) Moxie's benefactor isn't necessarily vicious or evil. 4) The main villainous part comes from the people who tried to murder Cy in the first place.

Option 2 (kind-of-dark fantasy): Moxie promised to continue replacing Cy's living flesh with mechanical parts, but doesn't know that this will also result in removing his essence of fey. Effects: 1) Our story veers toward dark fantasy; the tone of our story darkens. 2) Moxie is somewhat of a villain, but is morally ambiguous enough that she could still assume a positive role later on; Cy and Moxie's story is one of love gone wrong. 3) Moxie's benefactor is an insidious, trickster villain.

Option 3 (dark fantasy): Moxie promised to replace Cy's living flesh with mechanical parts, knowing that this will also remove his essence of fey. Effects: 1) Our story becomes dark fantasy/horror (slash steampunk); the overall tone of our story is dark, punctuated by shining bits of brightness. 2) Moxie is irredeemably a villain. Her "love" for Cy is obsessive, not real. 3) I don't know where else this will take us, but it could be fun.

Cypher Nahuel (Cy) - Character Sketch

Thank you for all of your input. Now that I have a general idea of where you want our story to go, I can finish scene one. Yea! I'm working on it now. In the meantime though, I'll post some character summaries and questions in the forums.

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Character development techniques
Some of the best ways that I know to develop characters quickly are:
1) Decide on a few words that describe their personality, appearance, or role.
2) Give them some unusual traits and then figure out where those traits came from and how they affect the character's life.
3) Give them strengths and flaws. Real people are not perfect; characters shouldn't be either.
4) Create moral and emotional conflicts for the characters, especially major characters. This gives the characters depth, makes them seem real, and makes them more interesting.
5) Determine what flaws and/or moral or emotional conflicts they will struggle to overcome throughout the story. This is the character development that will guide your story along and create the catharsis that's necessary for a good climax.

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Cypher Nahuel (Cy)
History and personality
Half-faerie, half-human, Cy was abandoned as a child by his sidhe father. His human mother, who had to have been a stunning beauty to attract the conceited and fickle sidhe as well as young and naive enough to bed him, died of tuberculosis when Cy was eight years old. He lived alone on the streets until he was a teenager, despised by the sidhe and the other rich and conceited faeries of the High Court because of his mixed blood and distrusted by humans because he's part fey. Because of his faerie blood, he longs for the green places that he's never seen and has always felt restless and unhappy living in the packed and dirty slums of the sprawling, industrial metropolis disaffectionately nicknamed Slag City by its downtrodden inhabitants.

Cy has his mother's human, working-class morals. He's kind to whoever will let him, which unfortunately aren't many because most people look down on him because of his mixed heritage. He's loyal to a fault to the few people he calls friends and turns a blind eye to their flaws, refusing to consider the bad things that might come of them because he wants so desperately to be loved and accepted - although deep down he believes that he will never have either. He values hard work and honesty and takes what little honest work he can find, which is usually back-breaking or degrading positions with minimal pay. He is therefore dirt poor and feels resigned to the "fact" that he will never escape the slums of Slag City. At the core though, he has always been a survivor and harbors a deep, bitter anger at the injustices of the world, so when he can't find honest work, he's not above turning to thievery or participating in underworld crimes. He hates himself a little more after every crime, suffering from conflicting emotions of guilt and pleasure when his actions hurt strangers or those who have wronged him.

When Cy was fourteen sixteen, he finally scraped enough money together to afford a tiny, dilapidated apartment and get off the streets. At nineteen, he met Moxie, who had just immigrated from the country with her parents and twin sister. He was enchanted with her stories of forests and fields and fascinated by her mechanical aptitude and ability to create useful items out of scrap metal and spare parts. She didn't treat him like dirt or look down on him for his mixed heritage, all of which earned her his fierce loyalty. He helped her adjust to living in the city slums and did odd jobs for her parents, often for free.

Two years later, after a devastating fight with her family her parents are executed, Moxie moved in with Cy. They soon became lovers. Cy never knew why she instigated it, whether it was out of genuine affection or a twisted sense of obligation [it was both, and her affection soon developed into an obsessive type of love], and was frankly too shocked that she even wanted him to dare question it. Now, three years later, he still wonders, but loves her too much and wants to stay with her too badly to ask. He knows she loves him - she makes sure to show him that every day - but he doesn't understand why she does because he sees himself as defective and undeserving of love.

[Moxie loves Cy because he's sweet and kind, loyal and honest, and she finds his dry, cynical humor endlessly funny. It helps too that he's devastatingly handsome, having inherited both his father's ethereal beauty and his mother's stunningly sweet, girl-next-door sort of looks, which is part of the reason humans distrust him so much although he doesn't know it. He also completely lacks the conceitedness that runs rampant amongst the fey and despises looking in mirrors. She keeps putting them up when he's not around to try to show him how handsome he is, and will find them missing within minutes of him getting home - although she's never actually caught him taking them down. In Moxie's eyes, Cy's only physical defect is his faerie flaw, which is a small third arm on his left side. It creeps her out and she tries her damnest to ignore it and pretend it's not there, which hurts Cy because it's as much a part of him as his hands or feet.]

Moxie and Cy now live in a small apartment adjoining her mechanical workshop. Their main income is from selling her steam tech inventions. Cy tries to do his part by performing whatever honest work he can find, interspersed with the occasional illegal activity that pays better than weeks of his other work. His working outside their home, whether it's illegal work or not, is major point of contention between them because Moxie wants him with her at all times, more than she wants to eat. She has also noticed that her steam tech machines always work better when Cy helps her build them, although she doesn't understand why. [It's because he infuses her inventions with the raw creative magic he inherited from his father. He has never been trained on it and doesn't know he has it, but it comes out whenever he creates something, and it's getting stronger as he ages. Incidentally, his cooking is nearly orgasmic.]

Fatal flaws
1) Cy's mixed blood makes most people despise or distrust him.
2) Craves affection and acceptance to the point of obsession. Although he distrusts everyone when he first meets them, if they are kind to him for any length of time, he will give them his loyalty and steadfastly refuse to see their flaws, even if they treat him poorly or take advantage of him.
3) Deeply undervalues himself. Unconsciously self-destructive and shy.
4) Secretly vengeful, especially toward those who lie to him or abuse him.

Saving graces
1) Kind, generous, and honest to a fault.
2) Fiercely loyal to the people he cares about.
3) Prefers honest work and tries to do the right thing, although he doesn't always succeed.
4) Values life for its own sake and is determined to survive no matter the cost.

Physical traits
Cy's features are more beautiful than handsome. Delicately boned, high cheekbones, slightly too large eyes, and slender nose from his father. Moves with unconscious grace and has the seductive and enchanting voice of the sidhe. Rich brown eyes and golden hair from his mother. Tawny skin and strong, lean muscles from a lifetime of working outside. 5'9" tall. His faerie defect is a small third arm on his left side, usually hidden by his clothes. He prefers nondescript brown clothes and never wears jewelry or anything that will get him noticed. Despite being dirt poor, he is always neat and clean, and his clothes and boots, though old and well-worn, are always in good repair. Cy doesn't mind getting dirty at work, but itches for everything to be neat and orderly (a faerie trait).

Cy's appearance is altered - some would say ruined, although Moxie doesn't think so - before our story begins. He was murdered and, with the magical assistance of a sidhe, Moxie revived him and replaced the damaged parts of his body with custom steam tech parts.

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By the way, for those of you who are wondering, yes, I am making all of this up off the top of my head, and no, I had nothing more than vague ideas when I wrote scene one. Also, yes, Cypher's name is a conscious nod toward Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, whose main character is Richard Cypher.

Please check out these questions being discussed in the forums and give us your input!

• How do Moxie and her "benefactor" plan to remove Cy's essence of fey?
• Mixie is Moxie's twin sister. What is her personality and what role does she play in our story?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages to using magic vs. steam technology?
• The magic steam engine (we so need a new name) is powering up throughout the story. What effects does this have on our plot?
• There's a war brewing between magic users and steamers. Why? How does each faction operate and what are they planning to do?
• If you haven't introduced yourself, please do!

Social Novel Writing is now on Facebook!

Join us on our new Facebook page. I created a Social Novel Writing Facebook page because, hey, Facebook is fun, but also because some people don't normally use the software that subscribes to blogs. I'll make sure to spread the word on our Facebook page about new posts and forum discussions.

On a separate note, I'm betting that some people in our SNW community are artists or photographers. If you'd like, I'll figure out how to make a photo page on our blog and Facebook page so that you can display your work and get some fans. Would you like me to do that?

We now have forums!

We now have forums! Woohoo! I think this will be much easier for everyone to have discussions in the forums than via comments on my posts. This way, the discussions won't be interrupted every time I make a new post.

I do not, however, know how to run a forum, so any suggestions or help you have for me would be very much appreciated. Thank you!

Character and plot developments

Chris has created a new character to add to the novel: "a rogue-ish human who plays both ends against the middle to make a living, but isn't overly ambitious." I think this is an excellent idea! By his very nature, he's a complex character whose moral ambiguity will keep our readers guessing and expand on the theme of betrayal that I started with Moxie and Cy.

Please tell me all you can about this character so I can stay true to your ideas as I write him in. What are you picturing in your head? What is his personality? Appearance? Male or female? Name, age, family, social status? What are the flaws and strengths in his character? How does he play both ends? And which ends? We have several: the upper class magic users seeking to crush steam technology, the government trying to maintain order, the upper-class people trying to use steam technology to their advantage, the poor rebels who are stealing the steam technology and altering it with magic to fit their own purposes, or anything else along those lines that you would like to use. Is he, for example, feeding information about the poor rebels to the rich while also helping the rebels steal steam technology? What skills does he have?

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Plague is caught up in what Moxie promised to the sidhe for his help in reviving Cy. He suggests two ideas. I put a poll on the right side of the screen. Please vote on which path you would like our story to take. Plague's first idea is that Moxie promised to continue replacing parts of Cy with steam-built parts in order to remove his "essence of fey." The effects of this idea on our story are:

1) The sidhe who helped revive Cy is the minion of the person to whom Moxie made the promise. (He can't be the receiver of that promise because he didn't know that Cy was part fey until he started using magic on him.) Who is the person to whom Moxie made the promise? Why does he want to remove Cy's "essence of fey," and why Cy? How does this tie into Cy's murder? Presumably the "master" is not the one who wanted Cy dead; indeed, he has a vested interest in keeping Cy alive. Why? And is Cy a special case or are there others that they're experimenting on? If there are others, is Moxie involved in them? Does the master want to wipe out all fey or just hybrids? And why would he not simply kill the hybrids? Next you have the minion. He couldn't have known who Cy is because he didn't know that Cy was part fey. So how does the minion fit in? Is he now disillusioned with his master or employer and will he turn against him?

2) Moxie and the "master" had to believe that they could force Cy to keep replacing parts. Cy, of course, would venomously oppose this. How did they think that would work? And then there's Moxie. It's plausible that she would "repair" Cy once to save his life if she truly loved him, but you wouldn't sentence someone you truly love to a horrific life of having his body parts replaced. Therefore her love must not be true love, but obsession. Moxie becomes a villain, not an ally, although she could turn into an ally later on once she starts to understand what real love is. The other result is that Cy will seek to escape and prevent these replacements from happening, and that will become a central part of the story.

Whether we go with this as the promise or not, I have to say that I love the idea of that parts of Cy's natural body continue to be replaced with steam-built technology throughout the story. It plays in very well with our nature vs. technology theme. Even if it's not Moxie's promise, I think we should still use the idea. The replacements could be forced on Cy because the magic can't sustain his natural body (since he should be dead). His extremities could start dying or rotting, and then he and Moxie would be seeking a way to save himself throughout the story.

Plague's second suggestion is that Moxie promised to manipulate Cy's memories in order to coerce him into, or out of, some task of which only he is capable of performing. It has to be "into" because otherwise they could have just not revived him. So what is this task and why is Cy the only one who can do it? This option requires that the sidhe knew that Cy would have memory problems. Either a) he created those problems though magic, which means Cy could find a way to reverse the effects, or b) other people have been revived in the same manner and had the same problems.

Please vote on which option you prefer.

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A while ago, Plague as said: "There's a war on the way steam vs magic. Both sides would imaginably be fueled by the the politicians, manipulating the two sides to their benefit... This could be a great way to introduce that steam dragon. they've been building it since things started getting heated, and eventually they get it completed. Would the main characters be involved in helping find the necessary parts to finish it? Would Mixie be directly involved with the build? For that matter is she directly involved with such a faction period?"

Would anyone like to expand on this?

(And sorry, Plague. I just realized I used Moxie instead of Mixie. Would you like me to change it?)

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Plague also decided that "the earth elementals live underground, and are going to be near, or at least nearer to the steam engine... That [is] going to make the magic they're using a lot stronger... The remergence of steam technology up top is going to end up syphoning some of that power from them, distributing it more throughout the world. This loss off magical power for them could very well be why one, a few, or even a number of them have headed to the surface. Investigating these changes in their power."

Anyone want to develop a gnome/earth elemental character for us?

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If I haven't mentioned any comments or ideas that you've had in this or other posts, please let me know. Your ideas are valuable and I don't want to miss them by accident! If you have any other ideas, or if you'd like to develop Cy, Moxie, the sidhe, or any other characters, please feel free to do so. Thank you!

Chapter 1, part 1

Cy stared through a red haze at a patchwork metal ceiling, panic squeezing his lungs. He shouldn't be able to see. His eyes were closed, damn it! He could feel them... well, one of them anyway. Only one. Oh, God. That eye snapped open. He tried to open his mouth to scream--and couldn't. His jaw scraped open, adding to the agony in his skull, but his lips were sealed shut. Sharp points of pain blossomed around them, and liquid dripped down his cheeks. His scream vibrated against his sealed lips, emerging as nothing more than a pathetic whimper.

His brain couldn't make sense of any of this. He couldn't concentrate, couldn't think, past the sharp pain lancing through his flesh. The misery was so intense, it made his limbs twist and ate away at all other sensations. There was only the pain and a mind-numbing cold. He was so cold that a glacier may as well have taken root in his chest, and yet he could feel the stifling heat and the ungodly humidity of summer in Slag City pressing against his skin and making the air thick enough to chew. Oh, yes. He was home. He knew that at least.

Voices drifted from his left. A man and a woman, arguing. The two had been at it for some time, Cy realized. Did they know he was awake? He didn't dare turn his head to see. One, it would hurt too much. And two, he didn't know if they were his friends or enemies. Cy's lips twitched with ill-placed humor. Enemies, definitely. It's not like he had many friends, being a hybrid and all. Of course, he didn't have many enemies either... did he? He couldn't remember. He blamed the pain. Although, if it wasn't his imagination--please, God, don't let it be his imagination--the misery was starting to ease.

"He's part fey. I felt it," the man accused. His voice was smooth and cultured--money, definitely--and held a deep, sensual layer of seduction that marked him as a full-blooded sidhe. Cy sighed, blinking back tears. If he let it, the faerie's hypnotic voice could take his pain away. It whispered sweet promises of wildflowers and sunlight, freedom, if he would only give in. Hell. No. The disgust dripping from the sidhe's tone could have eaten through steel. Cy's fingers itched to flip him off.

The woman was slow to respond, probably fighting the same pull as Cy. Arguing with a sidhe was always so much fun. Her boot scraped the floor as she stepped back. "Yeah, so?" she finally said. Her country lilt colored the ugly drawl of the city slums into a soft caress. The fear constricting Cy's lungs loosened. He knew that voice. Loved that voice. If he could just... remember... There--a flash of memory: the two of them tangled in bedsheets beneath an open skylight, gasping for breath as they watched the stars glitter beyond the smog. Moxie had cuddled beside him to trace gears on his chest, a habit of hers, and Cy's fingers curled in her cinnamon hair. Do you love me, Cypher? she'd asked. You know I do, he'd breathed, and she had shivered, no more immune to his half-sidhe voice than she was to that of the bastard standing before her.

The memory splintered and Cy growled in frustration. He couldn't pretend anymore that the pain was mucking up his memory. Something was very, very wrong. Like being able to see with your eyes--eye--shut? He shuddered then noticed the patchwork metal in the ceiling again. His breath caught. No. Please no. He knew which levers made those skylights open, baring the workshop to the open air.

"He'll hate you for what you've done," the sidhe was saying. Then his voice deepened, becoming husky, hungry, as his darker side peeked out. "And you lied to me." His feet whispered against the floorboards as he stalked toward her. "Do you know what happens when you lie to the fey?"

"Oh, shut it," Moxie snapped. The faerie hissed and she gentled her tone, but gave no ground. That's my girl, Cy thought. Knowing her, she had a pistol in her hand and was packing cold iron shot. "I didn't lie," she said. "I told you he was human and he is. So what if he's also part fey? If that bothers you, leave."

Silence fell between them. All Cy could hear was Moxie's fast breaths, the sidhe's low growling, and the rapid beat of his own heart. Cy tried to move, but his limbs wouldn't work right and the pain was excruciating. Black winked in and out of his vision. What the hell had happened to him? All he could recall was blood pooling around him and a silky, condescending voice--this sidhe's voice. Oh, God. Did Moxie know? He fought the lethargy in his limbs, even managed to move his right arm, only to find that he was bound to the worktable.

Finally, the sidhe said, "You would claim a hybrid as one of your own?"

Moxie didn't hesitate. "I would walk through hell and back for this man. Hell yes, I claim him. He's mine." 

The sidhe laughed. [To be continued]

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Please post your comments. What would you like to have happen next, or later in the novel? I integrated several plot threads into this scene. Please pick up on any that interest you and run with them.

Or tell me about the characters. Moxie is a steamer, a mechanic and inventor of steam technology. Cy became involved somehow with a rebel faction and was murdered. Moxie and this sidhe brought him back, integrating steam technology into his body for the parts that were destroyed. Moxie had to promise something major to the sidhe in exchange for his help. I'm thinking some sort of betrayal that will play out throughout the rest of the book, such as spying on that rebel faction for him for whatever reason. Whatever she promised, it's something she'll have to struggle with because breaking a promise to a faerie is basically a death sentence, and a long and torturous death at that.

I've also started some themes that we can play on: Betrayal. Love struggling against what should tear lovers apart (death, betrayal, etc.). People's need for the natural world even while living in a highly industrialized city.

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you.