Exile Chapter 33 Draft 4

I'm done with chapter 33 of the fourth draft of Exile and it can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

There were some moderate changes to this chapter. In this draft i'm trying to focus a lot more on Mal and Silmera's relationship, and also the fact that they're real people, not impervious, stony heroes that nothing can get the better of. To do this, I'm adding in more human traits for Silmera, the fact that she starts crying ater Mal storms out is a good example of that. There really needs to be a solid relationship between them, or at least a promise of one to come for Mal's actions at the end to make any sense. It's for her and really her alone that he basically walks right into the lion's den ready to do battle with anything that Fayt Nightfang can throw at him. It's for her sake that he makes his leap of faith, and if there's no basis for that happening, then it's rather meaningless and out of character for him.

Also in this chapter Silmera mentions Cain. As i've said before Exile is part of a massive storyline I've been putting together since middle school. it's a bunch of different storie that are seemingly unconnected, taking place in different worlds and different times, all in the same universe. And Cain is the ultimate antagonist in this gigantic storyline. He's literally the actual, biblical Cain from Genesis, son of adam and eve who killed his brother. For this he was cursed with immortality the "mark of Cain" and cast out to find his own way. He vowed revenge against god, but after several thousand years he forgot that vow and began just seeking a way to end his life. He's discovered that the only way that he can die is to make it so that nothing exists anymore, the end of all creation, including the hereafter. he makes several attempts at that, one of those attempts being Beyond the Lost Horizon. During the events of Beyond the Lost Horizon (and its two sequels) it's discovered that Cain has gained control of the Gate that Silmera talks about in this chapter, and has forced the universe into a time loop, traping all of the souls within it and grinding down creation until it finally unravels and everything ceases to exist. Of course our heroes stop him just in time in book 3, and he's imprisoned in the most perfect prison ever created, with Raven, the Northern sage to watch over him as his jailer forever. He's motivated by one desire and one desire alone, to end his own life, no matter the cost to himself or anyone else. There's a prophecy that says he will be caged, but he will then break free of his cage to have his last battle battle, and take the universe with him. You will see the beginnings of this in Spires of infinity. He only gets a mention in this story because though by this time he has started work on creating the Apostle, that really has nothing to do with the events of Exile, and since he's such a large part of the lore surrounding hte Gate he had to get that mention, but nothing more.

Anyway, it's 2 AM and I have to get up for work in 5 hrs, I'm going to bed.