William Wilde and the Sons of Deceit

by Davis Ashura

  Adam couldn’t help it. He gaped. His brother meant to call the monsters of the world to Sinskrill, the necrosed, the unaffiliated unformed, and the few remaining vampires. All of them. Madness.

  Axel chuckled, obviously misinterpreting Adam’s gaping shock for amazement.

  “It is a bold move, yes,” Axel said, clenching a fist, “but it is also the means by which a Servitor rules. Boldness and power. I’ll destroy them all.” He gave Adam a sharp nod and strode ashore.

  Adam stared after his brother in disbelief, watching him march along Village White Sun’s pier. He was no longer sure of Axel’s sanity. Bring monsters to Sinskrill? Lunacy. They’d overrun the island, kill all the drones or enslave them.

  As Adam continued to consider Axel’s plan, he found himself wondering if the loss of so many mahavans and unformed had truly been a disaster. Perhaps it had actually been a blessing in disguise. After all, the magi weren’t Sinskrill’s real enemy. That title belonged to Shet and his monsters, the very monsters that Axel intended to call upon. The mahavans would not survive their coming.

  Adam had an uncomfortable awareness that the treasonous thoughts he’d so often considered might no longer suffice. Perhaps he’d have to become a traitor in truth.

  ARYLYN

  * * *

  ARYLYN: DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  * * *

  Afa (name means ‘storm’) Simon: He is originally from French Polynesia and came to Arylyn in 1886 when he was 33. By the time William arrives, age has left him stooped and weak, but he somehow still maintains the lush gardens around his home. He is also the most creative raha’asra on Arylyn.

  * * *

  Bar Duba: He is native born and possesses features typical of those types with Mediterranean dark skin and hair. In addition, he is the councilor for Cliff Air and is known to enjoy his food and dislike folk who are long-winded.

  * * *

  Break Foliage: A native born magus who is also born politician. He’s a small, weaselly man with a nasally voice who represents Cliff Fire on the Village Council. He and Zane Blood generally vote together, and Rukh can’t stand either of them.

  * * *

  Daniel Karllson: Native born, but his parents are not. They are Trace and Magnus Karllson, and he is their only child. When William was discovered, Daniel’s parents were asked to help evaluate this potentially powerful asrasin. In addition, they wanted Daniel to experience life in the world beyond Arylyn’s shores. He was initially hesitant to go. At the time, he had no belief that the Far Beyond could teach him anything. It took Jason Jacobs, his best friend, weeks of hounding to convince him to temporarily leave Arylyn. Then Daniel saw Star Wars, and his world changed. He became a proud participant in all things nerdy. He also became a good friend to William Wilde and later on, he fell in love with Lien, who also accompanied the Karllsons to the Far Beyond.

  * * *

  Daniella Logan: Native born, but like her older sister, Karla, she has blue eyes. She doesn’t like enrune and tends to be quiet until people get to know her.

  * * *

  Emma Lake: A young native born girl, and one of Selene’s earliest friends on Arylyn.

  * * *

  Fiona Applefield: She was originally from England and kidnapped to Sinskrill when her lorethasra flowered to life. For decades, she was the only raha’asra on the island (other than the Servitor), and consequently, for the past sixty years, she has functioned as a battery for the rest of the mahavans. She is also Serena and Selene’s grandmother.

  * * *

  Jake Ridley: He was originally a rich snob, athletic, good-looking, and smart, but life hasn’t been kind to him. Growing up, he and William disliked one another. Much of it is because Jake is a bully, and yet he can also be quite charitable and loving, especially to his brother, Johnny. His rivalry and distaste for William continued through high school. However, they have to set aside their differences when they’re both kidnapped to Sinskrill. There, the two of them forge a tight bond and become the best of friends. Eventually, Jake escapes to Arylyn where he continues his training as a raha’asra. His parents are Steven and Helen Ridley.

  * * *

  Janine Dale: A native born blacksmith.

  * * *

  Jason Jacobs: He was born in New Orleans to Randall and Amelia Jacobs but entered a saha’asra at age nine. In that moment, his lorethasra came to life. He would have died, but his great-great grandfather, Odysseus Louis Crane III (Mr. Zeus), discovered him. Jason moved to Arylyn, and that was also the last time he saw his parents or the rest of his family. He doesn’t speak of why that occurred. He and William are close friends.

  * * *

  (An interesting historical note: Jason’ great-grandmother, Layla, was the only daughter of Odysseus and Edith Crane. Layla was half-black and married a white Cuban Hispanic. They had seven children, including a son, Sonny who married Julia, a member of the Cherokee tribe. Sonny and Julia had three sons and one daughter, Amelia—Jason’s mother. She married Randall Jacobs, whose family hails from Scotland and Germany.)

  * * *

  Jean-Paul Bernard: A flamboyant, somewhat obnoxious Frenchman. He was once a pot-smoking hippie from Paris, France before emigrating to Arylyn. He loves to surf and taught Serena how to do so. She considers him one of her only friends on Arylyn. He is married to ThuDuc Thu.

  * * *

  Jeff Coats: A farmer murdered by the mahavan, Evelyn Mason, during her scouting mission to Arylyn.

  * * *

  Jimmy Webster: A native born restauranteur. He owns and operates Jimmy Webster’s Restaurant.

  * * *

  Julius O’Brien: He is originally from Montserrat, British West Indies, but his parents moved to Jamaica when he was young. He was a bit of a black sheep, falling into the Rastafarian life, of which his parents disapproved. However, he eventually pursued civil engineering at Purdue University, but on a trip home to visit family in Jamaica, he came in contact with a saha’asra and emigrated to Arylyn. He helps rescue William and Jake from Sinskrill and later takes part in the battle to free Travail and Fiona.

  * * *

  Karla Logan: Native born, but like her younger sister, Daniella, she has blue eyes and wears glasses. Her grandfather was a rector in the Episcopal Church in the United States. She loves enrune and often plays the sport with Serena and Lien.

  * * *

  Lien Sun: She is originally from China, but as a teenager, she found herself on the wrong side of the Communist Party. She fled and ended up in a saha’asra in Beijing. Luckily, Peter Magnus Karllson was visiting the city at the time and saved her by bringing her to Arylyn. She originally stayed with Mr. Zeus for the first three years of her life on Arylyn, but when he moved to the Far Beyond to determine William’s eligibility for Arylyn, she moved in with the Karllsons and pretended to be their foreign exchange student. She loves to sing but is a terrible singer. She also prides herself on not being a nerd, although she is one.

  * * *

  Lilian Care: Originally for England, she moved to Arylyn in the 1940s, shortly after the end of WWII. She once worked as a governess and has been Lilith’s mayor for the past five years.

  * * *

  Lucas Shaw: He is originally from Charleston, South Carolina and retains the accent of his blue-blood forebears. He emigrated to Arylyn in the 1920s. He is a member of the Village Council and represents Cliff Water.

  * * *

  Maxine Knight: She is originally from a small town in Indiana. She runs Ms. Maxine’s, the best place for ice cream in all of Arylyn.

  * * *

  Mink Ware: Native to Arylyn. A member of the Ashokan Irregulars and good with cannons.

  * * *

  Odysseus Louis Crane III aka Mr. Zeus: At the time of the events of William Wilde and the Necrosed, he is 134 years old, but he only appears to be in his sixties. He has a a deep, soothing voice, a long white beard, and looks like a wizard. He emigrated to Arylyn in 1878 and married another emigrant to Arylyn, a black woman named Edith Naomi Me
rle. However, when their only child, Layla, proved to be a normal—a person without asra—they took her to the Far Beyond and raised her there. Edith never returned to Arylyn, though. She died somewhere in Mississippi, and Mr. Zeus has never explained how she passed away, although he’s let slip that she died at the hands of a necrosed.

  * * *

  A more detailed biography of Mr. Zeus:

  Mr. Zeus’s great-grandfather, Lucius George Crane, emigrated to the American Colonies in the mid 1700’s. He settled in Savannah, a young town in what later became the state of Georgia. Lucius worked as a fisherman, but when the Revolutionary War erupted, Lucius joined the Continental Army. Later, after the war’s conclusion, Lucius bought land near Augusta and became a farmer, founding the plantation Aria. By the time Mr. Zeus’ father, Odysseus Louis Crane II, inherited the plantation, it had a thousand acres of land and almost 35 slaves.

  Decades later, the Civil War broke out, and Mr. Zeus’s father joined the Confederate Army, serving in the 6th Regiment, the first unit mustered from the state of Georgia and commanded by a good friend of the family, Colonel Arthur Colquitt, whom his father had met while the two men were studying at Princeton. Mr. Zeus’ two brothers, both much older than him, joined the Confederate Army as well, but they were assigned to the 19th Regiment. His eldest brother, Joshua, was killed at Cedar Mountain, while Jeb died at Second Manassas. His father learned that they had expired when the 19th and the 6th both fought at Antietam. He wrote home to Mr. Zeus’ mother (Miriam Francis Crane) that his heart was empty. All he had seen was death and suffering, and soon after, he died at the battle of Fredricksburg. Later, General Sherman burned Aria to the ground, leaving Mr. Zeus’ family destitute.

  After the surrender of the Confederacy, Miriam married Zachary Thomas, a local plantation owner whose entire family had also perished during the war. Mr. Thomas adopted Zeus and his sister, Ruth Esther, and moved the family to California in 1866. He wanted a fresh start and no memories of a way of life that had died in a flood of fire and blood. They moved to Santa Barbara, where Mr. Thomas, took his remaining savings and bought land. He grew oranges and established an orchard. Within 12 years, the family was living prosperously. Mr. Zeus’ mother had several more children, a girl, Susan and a boy, James. Ruth Esther married a local lawyer; the son of a well-to-do family that had been in Santa Barbara for many years.

  As for Mr. Zeus, at twenty-six he was sent east to take a tour of Europe, but he never arrived. Instead, he came across a saha’asra in New York City, in a swampy field that would eventually become Central Park. His lorethasra came alive, and Afa Simon brought him to Arylyn.

  * * *

  Peter Magnus Karllson (aka Magnus): He is from Sweden and looks like his Viking forebears. When his lorethasra came to life, it broke his heart to have to leave his family. He spent years hating what had happened to him, but eventually Trace arrived, and his life changed. He married her within nine months of their meeting, and they have a son, Daniel. When William is discovered, they accompanied Mr. Zeus to Cincinnati in order to expose Daniel to the wider world beyond Arylyn’s borders. In addition, Magnus discovered Lien in China and brought her to Arylyn prior to the events of William Wilde and the Necrosed.

  * * *

  Rail Forsyth: A scout in the Ashoka Irregulars.

  * * *

  Robert Weeks: A native born blacksmith who helps build Arylyn’s cannons.

  * * *

  Seema Choudary: She is a small, quiet Indian woman originally from what became the Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh after the end of the British Raj. Her caste is Kamma, which Rukh and Jessira find interesting. She emigrated to Arylyn in the early 1900s when she was still in her teens and is the councilor for Cliff Earth.

  * * *

  Selene Paradiso: Serena’s younger sister, and they share the same parents. She is aware of this shared lineage—the fact that they’re true sisters and that the Servitor is their true father. Until escaping to Arylyn, she didn’t know about her grandmother, Fiona Applefield. William and Jake have semi-formally adopted her as their little sister.

  * * *

  Serena Paradiso: She was born on Sinskrill to Axel Paradiso and Cinnamon Bliss. However, at age 11, when she passed her Tempering, she was taken from Cinnamon and given to Axel’s wife, Alaina, to become her daughter. She eventually became a bishan, but not until after she saw her birth mother, a woman she loved with all her heart, whipped to death in front of her eyes. This event is the main reason why Serena became so hard and ruthless. The terrible lesson is also why she became a consummate liar.

  * * *

  Sioned O’Sullivan: She is originally from Ireland and came to Arylyn when she was twenty-three. She is a raha’asra, and William’s and Jake’s originally instructor in Jayenasra, the Beautiful Art. By the time William arrives on Arylyn, she is over 140 years old.

  * * *

  Sile Troy: Native born to Arylyn. He works as a farmer with a plot of land in Janaki Valley. His wife is Jennifer Troy, a singer and baker, and his grandmother is Sioned O’Sullivan. Sile agrees to take on Serena as an apprentice farmer, acting as her master.

  * * *

  Stacey Cloud: A scout in the Ashokan Irregulars.

  * * *

  ThuDuc Thu: Originally from Saigon, Vietnam, he emigrated to the United States as part of the Vietnamese boat people in 1978. Shortly thereafter, he emigrated to Arylyn. He is married to Jean-Paul Bernard.

  * * *

  Trase Karllson: Born in Ethiopia, and her birth name is Hanan Malak Abdullah (‘merciful angel’ in Arabic). She was engaged to a family friend at age fifteen, but after she was attacked by her fiancé’s older brother, she had to flee, fearing an honor killing. She entered a saha’asra, and its glory calmed her pain. She stayed there, preferring to die, but Mr. Zeus saved her. As a result, she has a deep and abiding gratitude for him. On Arylyn, she eventually met Peter Magnus Karllson. They have a son, Daniel.

  * * *

  Travail Fine: He is a young troll, only about 200 years old. He was tricked into coming to Sinskrill by a prior Servitor, and with his fear of open water, he was trapped there. As a result, he has a deep and abiding hatred for Sinskrill and all mahavans. Like all trolls, he is massively built, quiet and solitary, and a Justice. In addition, he was William’s and Jake’s protector and teacher during their time on Sinskrill, and they love him for his friendship. Fiona Applefield was once his bishan and has always acted in his best interests, although they kept their friendship secret.

  * * *

  Ward Silver: He is a native to Arylyn and master of multiple Elements: Fire, Earth, and Water and Spirit. He is young and is the one who eventually teaches William how to properly braid his Elements.

  * * *

  William Wilde: Born in the mountains of North Carolina but moved to Cincinnati, Ohio when he was ten. As a result, his mountain accent sometimes still comes through. His parents, Kevin and Jane Wilde, were killed by the necrosed, Kohl Obsidian. It was assumed that his brother, Landon, was similarly murdered. These events started William on the long road to becoming an asrasin. He is also a raha’asra.

  * * *

  Zane Blood: A native-born man who has a large sense of self-worth, much of it undeserved. He is the councilor for Cliff Spirit, and he and Break Foliage are allies on the Village Council.

  * * *

  HISTORY

  * * *

  The island was discovered in 7545 B.C. At the time, it was volcanic and uninhabitable, but in 6257 B.C., a small colony of asrasins was eventually established there. Most were followers of Shokan—magavanes--and fleeing the Nusrael, the catastrophic war amongst the asrasins. At the time, the island was a relative backwater given its active volcanism, tortured landscape of flowing lava and erupting sulfur vents, and its meager lorasra. As a result, it was largely ignored during the worldwide war. However, as the battles raged on, some of the asrasins who had once scorned the island chose to settle there.

  * * *

  The Nu
srael eventually settled down to a low-level conflict, and the island was once again largely forgotten as many of its inhabitants rejoined the larger world. However, as the millennia passed, more and more saha’asras were slowly bereft of lorasra, and Arylyn was found to be one of the few places in the world that could sustain the life of those with lorethasra. It was permanently settled in 2039 B.C. with the founding of the village of Lilith. The volcano at the island’s heart was put to sleep through the magic of the dwarves, and a sithe of elves made the place more pleasant when they planted forests and jungles on the once barren hills and valleys of Arylyn.

  * * *

  In the centuries that followed, with the ongoing failure of all the world’s saha’asras, the island was conceived as the final home of the magi. A sithe of elves and creche of dwarves—the descendants of those who had helped tame the island—was allowed to live there as well. The three races built defenses into the heart of their new home since the war with the mahavans never fully ended. The three races remained ever vigilant, and by 533 AD, no other community of magi existed in the world.