Afterword

I can’t believe I managed to write this much and more still to come.

In case you were wondering, bringing Freyja back was always the intent. In Volume 2, you will see a line ‘a crackle like fire’ (the door) and not the ‘the crackle of fire.’ Initially, when Volume 2 was written in first-person, I had written the same event from both Martel and Morgan’s Point of View. The idea was that Martel’s was the first time through while Morgan’s was the second, when Freyja was saved. Changing it to third-person lost this subtle touch, but I believe the overall quality of the novel improved because of it. In the rewrite, this is a little more obvious.

Writing the epilogue was extremely strange to me. I had always had the idea that they would save him, but I didn’t picture how at all. The entire bit with them seeming to die was written in an emotional state of mind that I couldn't extract myself from. It ended up becoming far more emotional and tense then how I thought it ever would, and fit well with the vol 1 prologue. It was indeed an example of the story writing itself (coincidentally, nearly the entire next volume was conceived and written that way).

Bringing back Tom was also intended, and far more obvious. There were so many hints. Martel being covered in dirt before the fight, the perspective change, the conversation mid-fight, Tom falling over a slight rise out of sight, the blood on his hands (more then there should have been (as the blood would have been on his sword) but it was subtle), him being seemingly unphased after ‘killing’ a person for the first time, still being against killing (even saying things that makes no sense if he killed someone), never saying he killed him (always ‘took him away’), telling Caelia “I’m not sorry for what I’ve done (not killing Tom), but for what I am doing (not telling her he’s alive).” For those of you who got it, congrats! Personally, I was surprised at the amount of people who didn’t catch on. I was kind of torn on how obvious I wanted to make it for the reader as, if they could catch on easily, couldn’t the people in the story?

I hope this was a satisfying conclusion for Albion and the opening arc, even though the Legend has yet to begin.

Purpose of this volume:

Bring back Freyja

Wrap up Albion

Character Poll

Poll as of 2/13/2020 Total % Total Vol 1 Vol 2 Vol 3 Vol 4 Vol 5 AVG AVG% Martel 32.0% 105 52 14 19 10 10 17.5 26.5% Freyja 16.8% 55 21 18 8 6 2 9.2 13.9% Morgan 7.3% 24 10 6 2 4 2 4.0 6.1% Shiro 14.0% 46 23 11 7 2 3 7.7 11.6% Cali 6.1% 20 4 4 2 4 6 3.3 5.1% Caelia 5.5% 18 1 3 9 4 1 3.0 4.6% Shalgana 2.7% 9 8 1 3.0 4.6% Lucibelle 1.5% 5 5 2.5 3.8% Anna 0.6% 2 0 2 0.7 1.0% Grandma 3.4% 11 7 4 3.7 5.6% Duran 1.8% 6 2 4 2.0 3.0% The Queen of Camalot 2.7% 9 5 4 3.0 4.6% The Queen of Roxburghshire 0.3% 1 1 0.5 0.8% Yggdrasil 1.2% 4 4 0 1.3 2.0% Tom a Lincoln 1.8% 6 1 5 2.0 3.0% Dr. Barton 0.3% 1 1 0.5 0.8% Amanda 0.3% 1 1 0.5 0.8% The Three Perverts 0.6% 2 2 1.0 1.5% Freed 0.9% 3 0 2 0 1 0.6 0.9%

Book Stats

Start Date Views Readers Rating Unique Total Current: 2/13/20 119203 520 4.10 ScribbleHub 6/24/19 39909 320 4.3 Fav (Per CH) 593 RoyalRoad 7/7/19 79294 200 3.89 Fav (Series) 62

Important Update

(This is being written to both the ScribbleHub and RoyalRoad readers)

Firstly, Thank you for coming this far, especially if you have rated and/or reviewed.

The most important thing is that uploads will become biweekly. I can promise that I won't extend uploads any further until I catch up, where I will have to stop.

The primary reasons for his are:

Chapter Length - Unlike the first few volumes, I have relatively fewer chapters of longer lengths.

Time - Between work/looking for better work(I'm struggling here)/helping the folks with a house remodel/my (meager) social life, I don't have a lot of free time and writing isn't high on my list of priorities. I'm eating through my prewritten work way faster then I can write and I prefer to upload consistently.

Quality - My drafts go in this order: dictated/corrected/first edit/second edit/rough/final. Arc 1 is on the rough (almost final) draft. Everything else is on the corrected draft and I'm not happy with the quality, so I want some extra time to edit before uploading.

Motivation/Writer's Block - I've been struggling with this quite a bit.

The best way you can help me is to show your support:

Comments - I love comments that are speculative or commentative. It shows a level of engagement and enjoyment that I'm happy to see. Grammar corrections are always appreciated.

Ratings & Reviews - Ratings and reviews are important to any book as it makes them easier to find. Ratings are always appreciated, but they don't do much besides pad the formula and don't leave enough feedback. Reviews are awesome and I extremely appreciate a good quality (doesn't have to be a high score as I can take constructive criticism) review. They provide valuable feedback and can affect potential readers. If you decide to leave a review (thank you), it isn't as simple as you would think: Consider doing some quick research on how to write a good review, look at RR's review guidelines in their FAQ, put where you are in the story, and clearly state what is opinion and fact (and double-check your facts). Additionally, voting (liking on SH) on other reviews is an excellent way show your support. Also, PLEASE report bad quality reviews. If you have already written a review (thank you), consider updating it.

Vote - Voting on my polls is another excellent way to show engagement. Putting together the character poll is a lot of work, but I enjoy seeing the result.

Add the Story - On RR, Following the story if you are a consistent reader and Favoriting if you like it. On SH, adding to a reading list and favorite a chapter if it stood out to you (don't do every chapter, it might help book stats, but not me). It gives great feedback on who is still with me.

Money - Gives me! No, but seriously, I'm trying to become independent from my parents (or at least contribute to the family) but that's hard as we live in a high cost-of-living area. Given that I've only made $15 through dono's (super thank you btw)and compared to the amount of time I've spent writing, it's basically no return. That being said, I'm not doing this for the money, but because I enjoy it and I wanted to contribute to the circle that I've been abusing. However, I need to make money and that is a higher priority for me.

Once again, thank you for coming on this journey with me! I started writing this without the intention of making it public, but I don't regret it.

Arc 2 starts in 2 weeks!