Autumn's Plotnotes

[Autumn Rose]

NaNoWriMoTrTaTh (National Novel Writing Month Tracky Table Thingey)

Day	Threads	Words	Total
1	Gweneveh NPC Writeup, Broken Souls (pt. 1)	252, 494	746
2	Broken Souls (pt. 1 & 2), A Lonely Place (pt. 2)	323, 158, 403	1630
3	Broken Souls (pt. 2 & 3)	802, 520	2,952
4	Curiosities and Lost Things (1 & 2)	1986	4,938
5	History (pt. 3), Best Served Cold	790, 248	5,976
6	Best Served Cold	337	6,313
7	Best Served Cold, Curiosity and Lost Things (3)	832, 110	7,255
8	A Lonely Place 2	333	7,588
9	A Lonely Place 2, Like Taking Candy	140, 156	7,884
10	A Lonely Place 2, Like Taking Candy, Inside the Shadow	78, 875, 316	9,153
11	Inside the Shadow, Best Served Cold	1,015, 1,037	11,205
12	Broken Souls 4	249	11,454
13	Broken Souls 4, Best Served Cold 3	62, 593	12,109
14	Best Served Cold 3	35	12,144
15	Broken Souls 4	148	12,292
16	Broken Souls 4, Miscellaneous	315, 80	12,687
17	-	-	12,687
18	Best Served Cold 3	682	13,369
19	Best Served Cold 3, A Lonely Place 3	50, 97	13,516
20	Into the Shadow 2, Best Served Cold 4	976, 168	14,660
21	Into the Shadow 2, Best Served Cold 4	51, 821	15,532
22	Best Served Cold 4	477	16,009
23	Best Served Cold 4	268	16,277
24	Desperate Times 1 & 2, Inside the Shadow 3	739, 243, 938	18,197
25	Time for Two 1, Desperate Times 2	722, 382	19,301
26	Best Served Cold 5, Into the Stars 1	1,451, 52	20,804
27	Inside the Shadow 4, Desperate Times 3	912, 822	22,538
28	Into the Stars 1, Like Taking Candy 2, One Breath 1	1,118, 452, 370	24,478
29	Like Taking Candy 2	982	25,460
30	One Breath 1 & 2, Time for Two 2	535, 1,115, 662	27,772

[Autumn Rose]

The Song of Light

by Alessa Alar

This is the story of the dawning of light and how it was lost.

Table of Contents

The Three Daughters of Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

[Autumn Rose]

The Three Daughters of Light

Once, in its infancy, the world was drowning in darkness, and it wept for its unborn beauty. Life existed, but there was no light to see it by, no light for it to flourish by. For ages, the world let itself be consumed, and the life that should have blossomed withered and faded. But one soul saw this and could sit by no longer. Toying with the beautiful Djed written on the very essence of her being, she became the first of the burgeoning lights. She became light itself. For the first time, life exploded across the surface of Mizahar. Plants sprouted, and people saw their faces for the first time, saw their loved ones’ faces for the first time.

But a single soul was not enough. Her strength was limited, and her light alone couldn’t sustain the world. Whenever her concentration slipped, darkness flooded back into the world, threatening to send life back to what it had been, but she wasn’t alone. She was the mother of three daughters, and those daughters saw her struggle and came to her aid. They offered to carry the light with her, and relieved to not bear the burden alone, she gave to each daughter according to each one’s gifts.

To the first daughter, she gave the brightest of lights. This daughter had always been one who had clung to power, not as a crutch but because she saw it as the best tool to effect change. Because of the child’s power, her mother saw her as the one most fit to carry on her tradition of spreading light across the entire world. This daughter became the Sun, and she shed light on the world in ways her mother never could. But as with all who feast on power, she burned too brightly every day, and her light faded, allowing the darkness to come spilling back in.

To that end, the mother gave her second daughter a different light. It was a lesser light than the first, one that borrowed from the light of the Sun, but the second daughter cherished her light more than the first had cherished hers. She had always been one to look after her sisters, one made for self-sacrifice as long as it would improve the lives of others, and she became the Moon. When her sister the Sun was no longer strong enough to shine and darkness began to creep back into the world, the Moon gave what little light she had and held the night at bay. Hers was a fragile light, one that waxed and waned depending on how much light she had been able to borrow from her sister, and there were times, just as there were with her sister, when her light went out.

And so the third sister was given what little light their mother had left to spare. It was a meager light, not enough to see by but one that could be seen when the darkness arrived. This daughter’s gift was wonder though, and she used the light to search and find all the many wonderful things the world had to offer. Her sense of discovery gave her an air of bravery, for when difficulties and dangers arose, her sense of discovery overpowered any fear that would have stopped her. Everywhere she went, she left a little of the light, but her sense of wonder replenished the light she had, and it never went out. These traces of her adventures became the Stars, and though they disappeared from view under the brighter lights of her sisters, they never truly went out.

And so the first Lights came into being, and the world was never left without light again.

[Autumn Rose]

Nights were the worst. Nights were when Autumn waited alone with nothing but her thoughts, and her thoughts were not good company. In the day time, she had Maro, if she so chose, but the living needed sleep, and Maro, like most, got his sleep at night time. Days were alright. Nights were the worst, because Autumn had plenty of unpleasant things to think about.

That’s where she was this particular night. Her mind was pouring over the many things she had weathered during her life, and in seeming response to these thoughts, the weather outside turned bleak. The day had been overcast, and in the evening, thunderheads had gathered on the horizon. Now, the prophecy of storm had come true.

Outside, flashes of lightning found their way through the window to brighten the room, only to instantly be chased away by the thunderclap that followed. The storm was on them. Rain pelted the windows and the roof in a chaotic tattoo that stirred different thoughts in Autumn’s head. There were images of music and the sound of dancing, and suddenly she found herself thanking the storm for its presence. It shattered the quiet dark of night with light and sound. In the usual emptiness of night, there was something to fill it and her thoughts with something other than what she usually found to fill the void.

Nearly a half bell passed with her listening to the music in her head when lightning struck so nearby the entire room lit in wonderous detail simultaneously with the crack of thunder that came with it. Rather than bolting upright, Maro merely stirred on his side of the bed next to her. A greedy, selfish part of Autumn hoped the thunder woke him, that he would be awake for a while to keep her company. As if Lhex had granted her some boon, manipulated fate in her favor, Maro sat up, rubbing his eyes and looking about the room to try to figure out what had woken him. A second thunderclap followed closely to give him his answer.

He looked over to her side of the bed, searching for her form. She was not materialized, so he didn’t find it. “Autumn, are you awake?”

She adored his voice, though there was nothing special about it. His wasn’t the gruff grumble of distant thunder or a baritone with perfect timbre, but it was his voice. Perhaps that made it special. “You know I don’t sleep.”

He had always described her materialization as a dawning. She liked this and kept most of her materializations slow, just for him. It began as a low shimmer of the air and built, more details adding themselves until her face was formed.

She spoke as her body continued to fill in beneath her. “What is it?”

“Did you hear the thunder?”

Her head cocked to one side as she regarded him curiously, one of the many habits she had picked up from him in their short time together. She couldn’t count how many he’d picked up from her, mostly because she didn’t realize it was her he’d learned them from. Fear was not his way. Curiosity was. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid.”

“Of course not. I want to go out into it.”

Another bolt of lightning illuminated his face, revealing the excitement she should have heard in his voice. She was more distracted than she thought. “Maro, you’re ridiculous.” Pretending a yawn, she tested his resolve. “Aren’t you tired?”

“Not anymore. Come on, Autumn. It’ll be fun.”

“Not if you get sick.”

“I don’t get sick. Besides, I wouldn’t miss this for anything. Come on.”

She could only laugh at his childish insistence. “Fine. Get dressed, and we’ll go out.”

“I was actually thinking of going out without anything on.”

“You mean as a jackal?”

He nodded, so she shrugged her shoulders and walked to the door, looking over one shoulder as he stripped off what little clothing he slept in. Maro was not a handsome man. In fact, he was scrawny to the point of bony, but he had a kindness in his face and a curiosity in his eyes that made Autumn enjoy his presence all that much more. He was hers, and that made him somehow attractive to her.

On the cusp of the doorway, Maro paused and shivered, not a shiver of cold but a shiver of anticipation, like a lover awaiting the touch of their beloved, though he was too young and too distracted by the world and by Autumn to know what these things meant.

In the space of a few moments, they were outdoors, and in a flash of light that coincided with a bolt of lightning, Maro stood at her feet, jackal hackles raised as he hurled a defiant bark at the storm. Laughing, half at him and half at the attempts of the rain to soak her, she began to stride through the streets of Black Rock, the song playing itself in her head again as she went.

Twirling, she began to dance, her weightless feet infinitely more graceful than they had been in life, and as Maro bounded through the puddles around her, Autumn reached out with her toe tips projecting as much of a push as she could manage, catching the top of a puddle and flinging an arc of water that got lost in the torrential downpour.

They continued this way for several bells until Maro was soaked to the bone, then made their way back to their little house. Together, they built a fire and lay before it, Maro’s shivering subsiding while Autumn made his ear twitch with a devious materialized finger. When she’d had her fun with that game, she pulled down a book from the table, opened it to her favorite story, and read it to its end, though she knew he’d fallen asleep in the middle.

For another bell, Autumn watched him slumber, content and dreamless in his exhaustion, the rise and fall of his chest her only companion until the light of the fire died out.

[Autumn Rose]

A Fresh November

Day	Threads	Words	Total
1	-	-	0
2	-	-	0
3	-	-	0
4	-	-	0
5	-	-	0
6	-	-	0
7	-	-	0
8	A Memory's Requiem 4	443	443
9	A Memory's Requiem 4	498	941
10	-	-	941
11	We Can't Sleep	1,215	2,156
12	-	-	2,156
13	-	-	2,156
14	A Ghost A Gaze 1	1,132	3,288
15	-	-	3,288
16	Apple Picking 1	376	3,664
17	Apple Picking 1	93	3,757
18	Apple Picking 1	790	4,547
19	Apple Picking 1	506	5,053
20	Dirge 1	295	5,348
21	Dirge 1	1,013	6,361
22	A Ghost A Gaze 2	722	7,083
23	-	-	7,083
24	-	-	7,083
25	-	-	7,083
26	-	-	7,083
27	-	-	7,083
28	-	-	7,083
29	Apples Picking 2	917	8,000
30	-	-	8,000