Sunday, May 05, 2013

Tightening The Weave

One of the most enjoyable parts of writing a future history novel is the tying up of loose ends, or as I would like to call it 'tightening the weave'.

This usually occurs when a character who was created as a plot device does not have a satisfying (or in this case, alarming) resolution to their piece of the storyline.

Tianara Redourine

In this case, it is Tianara, Dianire Redourine's older sister, and chief martial arts instructor to the Nueguan guilds.  She is employed mostly by the Tialan Healers, as it is their First Sisters who venture out of Nuegua under the protection of the Apache.

We first meet her in the chapter 'First Sister'; this is the chapter where Rintiala completes her re-design of the Healing Temple--vastly expanded and now self-powered--with Dianire Redourine's help.  This chapter is very positive and upbeat until the very end when the Water Woman appears and prophecies Rintiala's future.  The Guilds decide that Rintiala cannot become a First Sister until she implements Water Woman's commands.

This leads us to the chapter 'Ghost Sickness'; followed by the 'Trader's Bazaar', then 'The Furniture of Paradise.'

Here we meet Tianara, eldest sister of the Redourine women: Tianara; Dianire; Alope.

What is Tianara doing in all this? She is teaching martial arts to the Novices of the Healer's Guild, at the Lagoon of Lights in front of the Healing Temple.  Tianara at the time is eight and one-half months pregnant; she has been warned by the her Guild of Builders not to attempt another pregnancy. They warn, but being very Darwinian in mindset, do not punish her.

She is showing the young women how to defend themselves against Western Bandits (and Old Humans in general) by not displaying their Nueguan abilities until the last possible moment.  Several Healing Novices try to throw her down, and are unable to do so. Tianara is teaching them deception by economy of movement.  Everything is going well until Alope Redourine--her blood sister--steps up. Alope is the first Redourine ever to be accepted as a Healing Novice, and has been training under Tianara since she was small.  While Tianara is still talking, the brash Alope attacks her with a roundhouse; Tianara is forced to turn and block it with her right hip, which knocks her off balance, to the ground.  Tianara is cross with Alope, and forces her to apologize in front of the other Novices. She orders all of them inside, including the forlorn Alope, hiding her agony.

Since her Caesarean delivery in the chapter 'The Furniture of Paradise' is pivotal to the entire story, her character needs to show up in at least two more chapters, as a minor thread that gives the reader a greater understanding of the Nueguan Darwinian mindset.

When Alathea and Dianire create the Warrior Guild, Tianara is the first to enlist, much to everyone's dismay.  She entrusts the care of her tiny infant to the Guild of Healers, and follows her young sister to war.

In hand-to-hand--even hand-to-sword--combat, Tianara has no equal, and is the stealthy fighter who clears the way out of Santa Fe for the retreating Warrior Guild.


She meets her end in the Galiuro, attempting to reawaken a sick Wild Mother, in order to control the WM termite horde, to fight off both the Spaniards and the Apache.  The Wild Mother does not accept her, and she dies a horrible suffocating death, while Alope takes command of a healthier Wild Mother, and tries to control the sicker one.  In the end, only Alope can control the Wild Mothers, as only she has had experience in both of the Guilds.

Lieutenant Alfonso Sepulveda 

In the prologue 'No Mercy In The Cathedral' we are in the limited third person omniscient of Fr. Bartolome. For him, his death was the end of the scene; however, that is only one perspective.  It is much more economical (in terms of story logic) for Lieutenant Alfonso Sepulveda to survive, especially if it is clear to the Lieutenant that Dona Dina has allowed only him to survive and to return to New Spain.  What more effective message could she deliver? Therefore, in the next chapter, it is the wounded and recovering Queen's Guardsman who stands with her and the Abbot of Carlsbad on the Royal Dais.

The Royal Seal

In the chapter 'The Meeting In The Green Lake Room',  the authenticity of the Book is unchallenged, because it is wrapped with the Royal Seal of King Carlos.  Herein lies the usefulness of the characters of Don Antonion and Dona Carita: they argue not about the veracity, but about the severity of punishment for anyone who would  counterfeit such an object.  In New Spain, such a counterfeit carries with it the penalty of death.  Further, there is an extradition treaty for every major nation: Apache, Navaho, Hopi.  The only other alternative would be exile from the Empty Earth, and as the disaster in Old Chihuahua proves, that is simply another pathway to death.

We readers next encounter (the first for the characters) in the chapter 'The Business at New Alcazar', where King Carlos nonchalantly uses it to order some dainties for a Navaho grandmother and her grandchildren.  We readers next encounter it in the chapter 'Catching The Swarm', where Rintiala asks for a Royal Seal as a pledge of her agreement with King Carlos.  Of course, Rintiala is planning all along to write the true history of the war between New Spain and Nuegua.  That loops us back.

Dianire Redourine to Dona Rina(aka The Dark Queen)

This transformation is gradual, even more so than the increase in Rintiala's powers of clairvoyance.  Dianire is a risk-taker from the very beginning, but not especially violent. It is danger to her loved ones that brings out the Dark Queen.  Since I have chosen to show the Dark Queen in the prologue, the real interest lies in how and what brings that about.  In 'The Summer People' Dianire is not fully  a monster; it is in the chapter 'The Warrior Guild' at the height of combat that the full transformation begins.  It is the debilitation of the change that allows King Carlos to capture her as hostage and force Rintiala out of the Grotto of the Pregnant Virgin, back into physical reality.

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