April 2026 Camp NovMo: Soulwatchers!

CYRUS IS SO INJURED. Instead of ignoring that injury, what if I embrace it and have the Swans act as bad actors? They have every reason to embrace that role. That would increase the uneasy moral grayness of my story and pave the way to Book 4 a lot more easily. PLUS. This means I don't have to explain so much in Book 4 about Cyrus and the Swans, AND CAN TRIM SOME STUFF FROM THAT OVERLY LONG BOOK!!!! Obviously, this is a major win, lol.

1. Talks with Pompy/Solea - half done!

2. Talks with Reint/Clarise/Grandpa- half-done!

3. Talk with the Lady - needs a little intro, but otherwise mostly done

4. Big Swan Meeting - Mostly trimmed! less than 6k words now, from previously being a bloated 16k! ^^;;

5. CONQUEROR TIME! (these are multiple chapters, but that's okay because it's mostly pure action and pure action is forgiveable, hahaha... it's the meetings that need to be trimmed!)

A. Unmasking of Faces - edited
B. Underground - edited
C. Diamea's Offer - needs to be rewritten with new twist (see previous post)

6. New bridge dream sequence needs to be written based on Book 4's beginning, because the more I can trim from book 4, the better. ^^;; (That book is STILL ridiculously long, guh.)

SINCE DAMIEN IS NOW TEMPORARILY OUT OF THE PICTURE...

- One of the girls (let's call her Millie) brings Adelphina to the Palace and they go TOGETHER into the testing thing. As they wait, Millie teases Adelphina about her "husband" openly. SO I STILL NEED TO WRITE THIS. And write Damien out, hahhaha.

- I think I am mostly going to keep the "testing" chapters and Lucian's offer as I edited them because those are solid I think.

- DUNGEON SCENE. DUNGEON SCENE. DUNGEON SCENE. Which is interrupted because YASSSSS GIRL POWER.

- SISTERS BEFORE MISTERS, YO. Also, I reread the previous draft and lowkey laughed when Nancy was like, "You want Radiance???? Time for a MAKEOVER." Like, omg, it's ridiculous but IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE. Why does this book have to be so good????

- ...still, you might need the mister a little bit because he has magic, whoooooops. But OOPE. Apparently when she meets with him, he's not sure what to do either and asks her to figure it out??? ALSO HE NEEDS TO BE TIED UP. I REQUIRE THIS. He is a PRISONER, darnit... THERE ARE PLOT REASONS FOR THIS OTHER THAN HIM BEING TIED UP, I SWEEEEEAR. (Also, there needs to be a pirate backstory in his story, please. I realize this is kind of dumb, but also this story is kind of dumb, but I need it anyway.)

- BRING IN FREDERICK. OMG. I NEED HIM. Like, wouldn't that be hilarious????

Adelphina: "I need an adze."

Frederick: "...huh?"

A: "It's not for me... your friend, Damien needs it for Reasons."

F: *audibly groans* "What crazy has Damien gotten in THIS time???"

A: "It's not Damien's fault... it's mine. I kind of got him involved with a mess."

F: "You're perfect for each other."

LIKE CAN'T YOU JUST IMAGINE???? THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS.

Then when they go up, Tied-Up Damien is goooooooone and then we go to the climax, and it's going to be GREAT.

Though the climax is going to be even better because Damien is going to try using an adze before pivoting to the next weapon, LOL.

“Frankly, I think Solea is one of the best things that’s ever happened to you,” Pompy said, grinning. “You were getting to be a very self-righteous know-it-all when I left you. At least she’s taught you humility.”

Hero snorted. “She hasn’t taught me humility. Her family has.”

Pompy's grin widened. “All the better!”

Lucian’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think you’re really a cooper! I think you’re a spy.”

Damien suddenly snorted. “A spy?”

“I’ve known Damien since he was an apprentice,” Nancy said quickly, stepping forward. “He works as a journeyman for the cooperage up in Namshur.”

“Then why is he all the way here?” Lucian demanded.

Nancy’s lips thinned. “There aren’t many cooperages who are willing to work directly with us, being who we are. Master Ron was the exception. When he moved out of the capital and settled in Namshur, we remained his customer. Damien works under him.”

“I have my official papers and identification upstairs in my room in my bag, along with my references and guild papers,” Damien said, nodding his head. “If you want, I can get them now. Or, if you’d rather not have me move, I’m sure Nancy wouldn’t mind showing you where my room is. The bag’s in there. You can search through the whole room, if you’d like. I have nothing to hide.”

“Papers can be forged. Skill is harder to fake.” Lucian eyed him, then saw his toolkit. He picked up Damien’s side ax — the same ax Damien had shown her only minutes before — and weighed it in his hand. “So you say you’re a cooper?”

Damien shifted uncomfortably, glancing at the ax, and nodded. “I am.”

“Then fix this!”

Before Adelphina could prepare herself, Lucian sprang forward with the ax. At first, she was terrified that he had struck Damien. But then she noticed that his target had been the barrel behind him. At once, ale began to spray everywhere.

“You madman!” Damien said swearing under his breath before launching himself at the barrel. Shoving his hand at the split, he grabbed some reeds buried in his apron. He threw those out, ale spraying his face, and shoved the reeds into the gouge. Then, dipping his hand into his apron again, he brought out some wooden wedges and shoved them into the reeds. Then, grabbing his hammer, he hammered them into the split.

The barrel stopped spraying.

Damien took what looked to be a wood pegs and hammered that in too. Then, his face dripping with ale, he grinned, grabbed his apron, and dipped into the most ridiculous curtsy Adelphina had ever seen. “There!” he yelled. “I’m a cooper!”

Suddenly, the room erupted in cheers. With a shock, Adelphina looked around and realized the girls had come out from their rooms at the noise and were applauding him. Several of the girls ran down the stairs, and Adelphina was dismayed to see that Rosalie batted the guards away, threw her arms around Damien, and kissed his lips — a kiss, Adelphina was morbidly pleased to see that Damien did not return.

When Prince Tristian hears that he is supposed to capture a golden mermaid who is a princess of the sea, he just nopes out. Nope. Not going to do that. Mind you, he agrees that he will to the king so the king will let him go, but like. Once he's out, he's like nope. And when the wolf is like, "BUT I HAVE A PLAN" Tristian is like, "NOPE. NOT GONNA DO IT. I might be a thief and a liar, but I am a prince and a prince does not kidnap women and sell them into slavery just to get out of their own trouble."

So the wolf is like, "OKAY. Fine. But if you're prince, shouldn't you warn the sea people that there is a king that is currently eyeing their princess and sent you to kidnap her?"

And Tristian is like, "LOL yeah no I am not going to their palace and telling them that I've been sent to kidnap her, they'd kill me. Bad idea."

So the wolf suggests visiting an old sea witch who can deliver his message, and also reassure the sea people that he has no intention of following through so that the sea doesn't kill him." Tristian finally agrees to that and they go to this old hut with the sea witch. She invites them in... she's having tea with a young lady that Tristian feels desperately shy over, but because he's so rough he decides he doesn't have a chance with her and tries to mask it by being the most Awkward Boi in history. Anyway, he gives the sea witch his message and warning, goes to leave, when the girl bursts out laughing -- APPARENTLY SHE'S THE GIRL HE WAS SUPPOSED TO KIDNAP.

She is a mermaid, technically, but she can kind of go back and forth on land and sea thanks to a deal she made with the sea witch so that's why she doesn't have a tail, and yeah, no she totally is princess of the sea.

So Tristian feels like a complete idiot and is afraid the girl will kill him, but the girl seems oddly happy by the whole thing. She asks what Tristian intends to do, and Tristian is like, "Yeah, no, I was going to run away and try to live on the land or something." Which makes the girl laugh even harder ("As if you could even survive the peasant life!") which irritates him, but like also she's right and that irritates him more, and he's like, "I don't knooooooow."

Then she's like, "I have an idea." And she comes up with this crazy plan to give the king "everything he deserves" but doesn't tell Tristian her details except...

1) she will disguise herself as a sea witch and bring in a magicked "golden mermaid" (actually a goldfish) and present it to the king.

2) she'll give the king what he deserves depending on how he treats "the mermaid" and that Tristian is to trust her and obey her entirely, otherwise she will bring him to the sea palace and have him arrested for publicly agreeing with the king to kidnap her.

3) If he doesn't obey her, there will be CONSEQUENCES.

So Tristian, of course, agrees immediately and they go to see the king.

The king, upon seeing Tristian, the "sea witch" (really the mermaid in disguise), and the "golden mermaid (really the goldfish), welcomes them in. Then Tristian presents the "mermaid" to the king.

The king, upon getting the "mermaid" immediately splits apart her tail so she can have legs. At this point, the magic fails and the fish is just... a split apart fish. The king turns against Tristian, enraged, and demands to know what happened. Then the REAL mermaid throws off her disguise and declares that she sees the king's evil clearly and will not be cowed by it, nor will she have her kingdom of the sea blackmailed by his cruelty. Then she threatens war with him, which means she will summon the storms and the water, unless he "splits apart his land and gives it to the prince and relinquishes his claim on the prince entirely, as well as gives up his quest to have her as his bride.

The king, terrified by this change of events, quickly agrees and gives part of half of his kingdom away to Tristian, who is just as terrified and also slightly confused because his luck has been TERRIBLE as of late and now things are actually working to plan??? Anyway, at first he tries to shy away, but the mermaid reminds him that he SPECIFICALLY AGREED TO OBEY, so he takes half the kingdom. She leaves the castle, linking her arm into his and suggests that they scare the other kings and get the other prizes back. To which Tristian, surprised again, agrees.