For someone facing a trial with the potential of the death penalty, Jyslyn doesn't seem all that concerned. While not intended, this does show her intent later. It worked out for me. What I was originally thinking is that she knew what the verdict would be and was taking advantage of the last luxuries she'd ever have. However, the other explanation is that Jyslyn is fully expecting to be put to death and has the calmness of finality. There's nothing to be done by worrying, panicking, or getting emotional.
Kaleena, though, isn't calm. Her job is to guard the prisoner and make sure she doesn't escape, with the added, unspoken, order to not let a mob kill Jyslyn before the trial. Of course, if the prisoner does try to escape, Kaleena would have to do all she can to stop her, even if it means killing Jyslyn. Given where Jyslyn is from, setting up Kaleena to do the Council's dirty work is an obvious ploy. Kaleena, though, is a professional. She can see that Jyslyn doesn't want to escape.
I managed to get a better look of Wildwood in. Again, I wanted the elven city to be different, something that reflects elven culture. Building a city out of a forest, encouraging the growth of the trees to support a population and using magic when needed. In a fantasy setting, why wouldn't magic be in use in architecture? I hope that the city feels different.
The Council of Elders is made up of the matriarchs of the clans that live in Wildwood. It wasn't an idea I had at the start, but having elves base their government on families instead of a singular head of state made sense to me. The Wildwood Council is a contrast to the Seven Dominions with its one king. Still, I didn't name six of the clans. That would have taken time from the actual writing and they weren't important to the story.
Despite the War of Splintering, the dark elves still maintained the clan structure. A clanless elf is rare and implies that something serious happened to cause the rift. Jyslyn doesn't even mention her clan's name. Part of this was that I didn't want to leave the groove I was in while writing the scene. Technically, I do have a family name for her, but it turned out to be not important. In fact, not giving her the name helped with building her culture, even as she violated a taboo.
Something that might be noticeable is the length of the chapters. Unlike Unruly and Mecha Academy, The Elf's Prisoner wasn't written to be a serial. It's being serialized, a minor difference. The chapters were allowed to go as long as needed, while a story that's being written as a serial will have parts of equal length, more or less. Thus, Chapter 6 is noticeably longer than Chapter 5.
Friday, the execution of Jyslyn, in The Elf's Prisoner Chapter 7.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, The Phantom of the Opera.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, Mystery Science .Theatre 3000: The Gauntlet.
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