I started a new project titled 'Starwitch'.
It's about three sisters that launched themselves into space with magic. The novel has been named for the ship itself. The setting will be primarily fantasy, though with some minor scientific elements, mostly in the form of mathematics and orbital dynamics.
I intend to publish as an episodic web series, then as a novel, so keep an eye out for details.
https://owentyme.us/books/book-of-newts/starwitch.html
[#]author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #actionadventure #fiction #wip
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Chapter 5 of Starwitch is 'Salt in the Wound'.
While Amelia's family are reeling at the loss of their wife/mother, a few days pass and the town crier shows up with a proclamation from the mayor: all property of the confessed witch is to be forfeit to the village and auctioned to pay for the firewood used.
https://owentyme.us/books/starwitch/index.html
[#]author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #actionadventure #fiction #wip
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The auction is the next day, though they have four more days to actually willingly give up the land or make arguments that they should be allowed to keep it.
Amelia's father produces a stack of old wills from her ancestors and she reads them all, discovering that every one of the Blackwell women for the past few centuries has used the same wording in the last will and testament.
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The essence of it is that the home and land were given to a specific individual, but everything else became the property of their female progeny.
In essence, they foresaw the issue of being discovered as witches and had a strong legal defense in mind to dodge the seizure of property. They would have done the same with the land and house, but local law forbids joint ownership of real estate, to avoid legal arguments.
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Amelia attends the auction and makes an attempt to buy their land back, but the mayor out-bids her, paying double the actual value of the land.
Over the next few days, wagon loads of salt, alchemical waste and lye arrive at the Blackwell family home and their father directs the work of poisoning the land, to make it worthless to the mayor. At night, the sisters use magic to summon rains storms, so the salt and lye will sink into the soil.
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Their last day on the land, they pack up their belongings and Iris uses fire magic to burn the house down, followed by Marta employing earth magic to make the mortal and stones of the walls crumble. Last of all, Amelia jams the pressure relief valves of a small steam engine and activates it, inside her workshop.
Effectively, there's nothing of value left behind. That night, they sleep in a tent, but their father can't sleep and goes out.
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He visits the village smith and brow-beats him into joining him. They gather others that hate the mayor.
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Together, they throw a blanket over the mayor's head and haul him out of his house, for the beating of his life, but before they get going, they tell him why, including among the accusation both everything they know and suspect. He's warned that if he ever twists the law again, they'll come back to seek vengeance for the three people he's killed (Erika, his own son Conrad, and Zayne, Marta's husband).
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In the morning, the mayor fails to show up for the deed to the Blackwell family's land and the subject of where their father went in the night is raised. He admits nothing, but promises the man is still alive, followed by this little gem: "On those cold, winter nights, I imagine his knee will really ache and I hope he'll be reminded of all the bad things he’s done."
The sisters decide they can live with that and, in fact, it makes them feel slightly better.
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They leave the deed to the land under a rock and depart for what they hope will be a land without persecution and prejudice.
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