Growing up
If a child can grow up in a night, Renate von Adler just did. (Logs aren’t up yet; I’ll post when they are.)
To get to the Lord of Faerie who bought her family’s bow, she had to travel what she eventually learned to be the Sea of Possibility. Alternate realities. Except starting out, she didn’t know they were alternates.
She saw her beloved, idolized older brother fail his entrance exam for the elite military unit he left home to join. Then she saw him broken, ruined, addicted to a drug called Glitter and member of a violent street gang. (Until he let her escape them, at which point he rather violently became an ex-member.)
Getting him through detox meant giving up the statue with which she meant to buy the Lord of Faerie’s favor. She did so willingly, loyal little soul that she is. Then she refused to leave him when the plot device scene-shifting sea-mists came for her. Mistake. Her manservant Godfrey had to come after her—through what hellish visions she doesn’t know—and explain enough to pull her out. She’ll be a long time forgiving herself for that one.
Her final vision was of her own home, invaded by authoritarian Andragar—with her brother leading their army. He demanded their surrender. She told him off right and proper, she did (though I will admit to one esprit d’escalier moment afterwards). I was proud of her. He returned her the statue right before he left. She now stands on Forfeit Isle, as ready as she can be to face its Lord.
Like a lot of teenagers, Renate has been bluff and bluster over a terribly self-conscious and uncertain heart. Bless her, though, she comes through in the clutch. It’ll be a while yet before she recognizes that—as far as she’s concerned, her entire journey so far has been a string of mistakes and failures. But there’s real steel under the gilt, and a real heart under the affectation. A fine young woman, Renate is now. Not a child any longer.
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