In the Void

Meant to start on KD today, but got sidetracked when a short story pinned my fingers to the keyboard. I've got about 4k so far. Think it'll finish it up at 6K. Then on to a second draft.

Got a belated response on Baen's last night by someone who didn't like my story, (which always stings). The comment summed up (I think) as she didn't buy the basic premise of the story...which is something that can't be changed without completely trashing the story and starting over. Hmmm.  Since the story has already gotten a decent reception elsewhere, I do think it has merit. And since I had already submitted it the formal way, I can't change it now anyway.   Rats!

::sigh:: I just want everyone to be happy....

Snippet "Whatever Else" (working title)

      "I did not ask for you to come here," I told him. (Him being the protag's brother)
      "And you should have, long ago," he said. "You are such a fool."
       For a second I gaped at him. "How dare you?"
      "Who is this man to whom you are married?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest. "I know he's not Arras Arnacassan."
      "What?"
       "I know he is not," my brother repeated. "Arras is dead."
       I didn't know from where he'd picked up such nonsense. "Why would you even say such a thing?"
       "I saw him dead," he insisted.
       He has run mad, I thought. I jumped to my feet to flee.
       Seyvas grabbed my arm, saying "I killed Arras…five days before your wedding."
        I dragged at my arm to get away, but he held me firm.
        "We were out watching one of the herds. We were drinking," he said. "I was drunk. I made some comment about his father and he hit me." He punctuated his sentences by shaking me. "I never meant it, @@, I swear, but I was drunk. I had my knife out to eat. I stabbed him before I realized what I'd done."
       "You are insane," I cried. "Let me go."
       "Let her go," Arras said from the edge of the inglenook, come to rescue me.
        My brother glanced at my husband and then shoved me away. I ran to Arras' side, and he pulled me behind him.
        "You are an imposter," Seyvas said. "I do not know how you have managed this, but I saw the real Arras die."
        "Seyvas," he said in a calm voice, "I remember that night. You were drunk. How much can you truly recall?"
         My brother, half a head taller and two stone heavier, seemed frightened for a moment. Then he rallied. "I recall my panic. I recall my guilt when I knew I had destroyed the treaty with my hot-headedness. I saw Arras die. I put my knife in his heart," my brother insisted. "And I did not leave him even as the body cooled. I did not leave his body until morning to seek out my brothers. Arras was staring up at the heavens the whole while, dead."
        "You did not stab me through the heart, Seyvas," my husband said, "but the shoulder. Once you'd left me to go find your brothers, one of the goat herders found me and brought me back here. You spoke to me that very night, remember?"
        "I was confused then," my brother said. "I didn't understand what had happened. But I do now. You are not Arras."
         My husband sighed. My hands were clenched in the back of his shirt, and he tugged at it to loosen the laces at the neck. He drew it open to bare his shoulder for my brother's eyes, displaying a long jagged scar running across his left shoulder. "My shoulder," he said again, "but not my heart."
          They spoke on, my brother suspicious and my husband reassuring him. I stood silent behind Arras. I had some vague memory of that night, only a few nights before our wedding. Arras had taken Seyvas aside, and I saw them speak near the doors of the manor's great hall. I recall my brother weeping, as if in relief. That made sense if he had feared he'd killed his old friend. Somehow I managed to keep my face from revealing my inner qualms.
         I had never seen that scar before.

(@@ is the protag's name...as yet, I don't have one)