Spires of Infinity Chapters 31-35 draft 2

I've finished chapters 31-35 of the second draft of Spires of Infinity and you can download them at the bottom of this page. I have also posted a revised version of chapter 30, and deleted the old version. There was something I forgot to add that explains something later on.

These chapters mark the point where Gabriel overcomes his selfish nature and decides he wants to be the hero of the story, and also the beginning of the climactic end. I've added a little more depth to his internal struggle and decision, as well as a bit more to Kari's advice to him to better fit changes that I've made. I've also added a lot more character development for Kari as well. Her internal struggle was barely touched at all int he first draft, and I needed to remind people that she's still not sure what her motivation is before her climax in the story. I've also removed a lot of the ambiguity regarding her feelings for Gabriel. Her character is interesting because she's got two very hard problems to deal with, her identity crises, and the fact that she met the man of her dreams and he was already taken, these two things have recently forced quite a bit of uncertainty and insecurity into her for the Apostle to take advantage of. I downplayed it in the first draft because it doesn't play that big a part in this book, but it will in later ones, but I realized this time around that she really needs to be falling to pieces over her perfect life crumbling around her for the Apostle to be able to affect her with her powers, and this gives her that extra little kick over the edge that she needs.

This is also where things get a little screwey with time travel. I hope that it is clear in the story, but this is what happens. Gabriel goes back in time. He almost immediately reappears with his mission completed in the present, the Apostle attacks, makes it over the walls, and uses the Gate's previous coordinates to Gate Jump back in time, and Gabriel sends Sam after her, knowing that if he does not, he'll die, creating yet another paradox. In the past, when Gabriel arrives it seems as though no time at all has passed between his arrival and that of hte Apostle, because she used the same coordinates to arrive at relatively the same time and place that he did. Everything that happens to him in the past happened between the few minutes that he was gone in the present, despite the fact that it was hours for him.

Isn't time travel fun? I really enjoyed using it as a plot device in this story, because it takes some thinking to set it all up correctly, and it makes someone who is reading use their brain a little to follow what's going on.

Only 12 chapters left to go on this draft, and I'm currently down 23,000 words from the first draft.