They’re all still here, in this book you’ve just read. Stasia meeting Clarissa after Lycaena’s execution. Mari becoming the Lioness. Cyrus choosing not to execute Gordian’s son. Rayan praying over Alliya’s corpse. Their first fight fully together against a magistrate and his paragon bodyguard. For a blistering two weeks, I wrote these chapters, because I had been developing the cast in my head over the course of months and I just… didn’t want to lose them. I go on daily walks, listening to music while imagining scenes and moments from novels already written, or those I will soon write. I felt like I knew the main cast before I ever decided on where they were, who they were fighting, or how they all even knew each other.

All this worked because I left key aspects blank. I didn’t know why Stasia was so upset when she met Clarissa, only that something had gone wrong, and that her need for vengeance was conflicting with her desires for a loving, normal life. Rayan’s goddess was slain, but when and how were only vague ideas. What mattered was the moment of doubt, and the eruption of moths that followed. I knew Cyrus was a deposed prince, but the enemy at the time wasn’t the Everlorn Empire, nor even the Reborn Empire, as I called it for much of the first draft. What mattered was whether or not he could murder a child, a child that was so very much like himself many years ago.

I wrote these chapters and then shelved them. Had to finish Voidbreaker, after all! But I had the cast. I had this group I wanted to spend time with, to discover how they interacted, and learn why they were together. And for my first attempt, let’s just say I went big. Massive gateways linking thousands of worlds, a timeline taking place over thousands of years, and a main character who was similar to a paragon but with a bone arm that possessed ancient magic. It was weird and unfocused and the plot blended tons of elements of science fiction with ancient facilities performing automated surgery, world-gates, and robots inside bone skeletons.

And Orbit passed on pretty much the whole concept.