It is the nature of comets to dazzle and destroy. These eldritch spirits from beyond the stars will grind kingdoms to dust with joyful ease. Only the power of a daughter of the moon can repel them. There are none left.
Aurora knows she is different. Her father is a plain man, and her mother is a mystery. Prismatic hair, a divergent mind, an inability to weave common enchantments — it must come from her mother’s side. But her mother is gone and no one will say why or where or anything. It’s enough to make her want to fight someone.
And Aurora fights — people, animals, spirits, it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t want to hurt them, but it’s thrilling. She’ll just have to become a hero — heroes get to fight things, right? And heroes get answers to who their parents were.
When a cursed storm leaves Aurora glowing in the light of the full moon, she awakens new powers she can’t control. Powers unheard of, except in those old stories.
But the word on the lips of churchmen is witchcraft — communion with unnatural spirits that spells doom.
Will she defend humanity? Or is she a threat to it?
Aurora Moonrise began as a pedagogical writing exercise. When drafting “Outlines as Temporarily Embarassed Drafts”, I briefly outlined the plot of this series as an example. When planning the followup, “Wheels Within Wheels”, I needed more examples, and sought to flesh out the story more completely. It quickly grew out of hand; subsequently outlines grew to novella, then novel length.
What exists here on this page are rough drafts that emerged reflexively from attempted to further refine the outline. I’m currently sitting on roughly 76k words of notes and plans describing this story from beginning to end, but I’ve stalled in refining them chiefly because as far as I can tell, no one is interested. If you’d like to hear more about where I was going with this story, contact me.
I have, on request, summarized some specific episodes from the sprawling saga yet unwritten. One post describes a fight between a comet and a high level enchanter; another describes the early life of a noble and major character. The newest discusses the themes of humanity, and reveals major plot developments of its climatic moments.
It is the nature of comets to dazzle and destroy. These eldritch spirit from beyond the stars will joyfully grind kingdoms to dust. They’re exactly what the knights of noble blood exist to fight, what the daughters of the moon exist to destroy.
Aurora knows she is different, and nobody will say why. It’s enough to make her want to fight someone. And Aurora fights people, animals, spirits, it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t want to hurt them, but it’s thrilling. She’ll just have to become a knight. If there’s anything Aurora won’t feel bad fighting, it’s a comet.
And when she’s a comet-slaying hero, then someone will tell who her mother was.
Contents (Full Text, 11.2k words)
- Memory vii: Meteor Cadence 2023-08-03 .7k words
Flashes of Lightning in Endless Rainfall
- Flash i: Melt in Battle’s Heat 2023-08-03 2.3k words
- Flash ii: What Haunts the Stars 2023-08-15 2.4k words
- Flash iii: A Freezing Summer’s Wind 2023-09-03 3.0k words
- Flash iv: To Drown With a Smile 2024-05-18 2.8k words