Crossroads

So I wrote it. And then I put some of it in the deleted scenes file. How lovely is that? On the one hand I feel work wasted, but on the other hand I'm glad I wrote it and realized that it just didn't flow. But it has left me in a muddle. Daniel is captured, and he has to escape. There are several options here, and all of them have the added possibility of the reader never knowing exactly what happened.

1. Daniel escapes on his own. He does carry a knife in his boot after all.
1. ----- Does he escape cleanly?
2. ----- Or does he escape and see Ivolet asleep first? (How romantic!)
1. ---------- If he sees Ivolet, does she wake up and remember him in the morning?
2. ---------- If he sees Ivolet, does Quin see him see Ivolet?
1. --------------- If Quin sees him see Ivolet, does she speak to him. The problem with this is that Quin does not speak Evich, and writing a dialogue in sign language is not too hard, but it results in a very uninteresting set of paragraphs.
3. ----- He could escape and just see Quin and not Ivolet, which opens up the questions above - again.
2. Ivolet helps Daniel escape. (I'm not in favor of this one at all, but it is a possibility.)
1. ----- Is she seen?
1. ---------- Seen by who? Martin? Quin? Halt? And which of those would tell?
3. Martin helps Daniel escape. (I didn't originally like this one, but it's grown on me. After realizing that Ivolet knew Daniel well, Martin would help Daniel escape so as to make Ivolet completely untrustworthy. Then he she wouldn't be a rival to him, if she was thought guilty of such treachery.)
1. ----- How much of a frame is it? (I considered Martin dropping Ivolet's necklace and adding an earlier sentence about how it falls off occasionally.)
1. ---------- If he drops the necklace, is it found the next morning?
2. ---------- Or does Daniel see it and realize what a precarious situation Ivolet is in?
1. --------------- Then he would steal the necklace to give to her later.
2. --------------- This also gives rise to Daniel wanting to protect Ivolet and getting her out of Belayer (against her wishes). It gives him more motive for taking her to Evichburn.
2. ----- If they converse, I'm going to have problems because I didn't think Martin spoke Evich. Does Daniel speak Belayer? Maybe haltingly...
3. ----- How can I make Martin untrustworthy? I always thought he would inherit the kingdom while Ivolet would be happy in Evichburn married to Daniel. But if I have him commit this treason, what will happen? You can't have a king like that!
1. ---------- However, I already had a spirited conversation between Ivolet and Martin that showed her that he would never give her the throne. Honestly, his jealousy is now scaring me.
2. ---------- If I do that, I need someone to rule Belayer. I could get Halt, but I feel like I haven't developed his character enough to give him that responsibility.
1. --------------- Perhaps Evichburn would rule Belayer. They would be one country and live in peace with good trading and no tribute. I don't know how I would ever convince Daniel to agree to that, much less Adome. But Cyrus might...
4. Halt could help him escape.
1. ----- Motive?!?! Halt is good and wise and wouldn't commit that treachery just for Martin. And he trusts Ivolet, doesn't he? Unless he's worried about her being emotionally compromised now...
1. ---------- Wait. Let's investigate this. If Halt believes that Ivolet's emotionally compromised (and he does, due to her stupid pleading for Daniel's life), then he'll do whatever it takes to keep Belayer loyalty in the fold.
2. ---------- I can see Halt doing this. He's nice, but he's also cold and calculating. He doesn't want to harm Ivolet, but he wants the best for Belayer, and maybe even the best for her.
3. ---------- Also, Halt is a unsociable enough character that no one will mourn his fate, whatever it is, too badly. We're not dragging him away from kingship like we would Martin. Also, he's really easy to kill in battle if we need to.
4. ---------- (And, it makes it easy to have a conversation, because Halt speaks Evich.)
5. The last one was the idea that Quin would help him escape.
1. ----- I just couldn't sweet, kindhearted Quin doing that! I know she loves Ivolet, but she's too timid. She would never do that to Martin. Ever.

I like this Halt idea. It's a twist even I didn't see. And if I didn't see it...neither will anyone else, right? Unless it's blaringly obvious and I just happened to miss it.

Thank you, Blogspot, for being the place to converse with no one and everyone (aka "talk to myself") and figure out my story. I'm going to bold that which I decided upon.