Five years? It might only take one.
THE END
AFTERWORD
Thank you for following along with the adventures of Tikaya and Rias. Look for them to make an appearance in the final Emperor’s Edge novel, as well.
As always, I’d love to hear from you; you can get in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or my blog. If you would like a quick note when I have something new out, please sign up for my newsletter. Also, if you enjoyed Forgotten Ages, you can help me out by leaving a review at your favorite store. Thank you!
BONUS EXTRAS
I bring you an interview with the exiled retired Fleet Admiral Rias Starcrest. He’s recovering from the events in Decrypted as I talk with him (note: Decrypted takes place approximately eighteen years before the Emperor’s Edge books, so any references to Sicarius will be of the young seventeen-year-old assassin Rias last dealt with in Encrypted), but I’ll edit out any spoilers.
Interview with Former Fleet Admiral “Rias” Starcrest
Thank you for agreeing to join us for a few minutes… Rias. Is it all right if I use that name? I know you have your friends call you that, though I’ve admittedly put you through some… distress of late.
Indeed.
That… wasn’t really a yes, was it? Well, either way, thank you for joining us. I understand the Kyattese have been keeping you quite busy, and I imagine Tikaya is, too now that you’re… ah, better not spoil things for the reader, eh?
eyebrow quirk Indeed.
Hm, this is starting out a lot like that Sicarius interview. I sense you don’t approve of me fully. Well, perhaps you’ll open up to your readers? Why don’t we jump into the questions…
First up, Moondreamer asks, “Does he want kids? How does he view his future with Tikaya now that they’re both free?”
Yes, I do want children. Freedom, now that’s an elusive concept. So often people claim to seek it, yet they construct the bars of their own cages.
That’s how you’re going to open this interview? With philosophy?
another eyebrow twitch I’m getting a sense of why your characters don’t approve of you.
Hey, it’s not me. The readers like… Well, you’ll see what folks really want to hear about in some of the future questions… but let’s keep things simple. Next up, Daisy and Cat wonder what your first impressions were of Tikaya.
My first thoughts were along the lines of… “Dear ancestors, they’re putting a woman in the cell across from me? When I look and smell like this? Maybe if I hide in the corner back here, she won’t notice me…” I wasn’t in a very good state of mind then, you understand. It was only her mutterings of puzzles and mathematics that intrigued me enough to speak.
Right away, her presence on the warship caught my interest, but it wasn’t until I learned about her unique role in the war that I became rather smitten.
Meera asks, “Would you return to Turgonia if it had a more progressive emperor?”
Though I’m reconciled to the life of an exile — and the Kyatt Islands are a far better place to live in exile than most! — it would be pleasant to be permitted to visit my family and old colleagues at some point. But there is little point in musing upon such matters. Emperor Raumesys is neither an old nor unhealthy man, and I expect he will continue to rule for a long time.
Sarah asks, “Is there really a Starcrest Adventure Series for Boys, also known as the less factual tales of Rias’s adventures, that Sicarius kept in his cubby at the Imperial Barracks? Is there an accompanying action figure now with more strategizing action? If there is an action figure, how does he see Tikaya reacting to this knowledge?”
blink, blink You’ve heard of those books? I confess that I haven’t read any of them, but I’m sure they overly dramatize true events. I’m not aware of any “action figures.” How does one strategize in an actiony manner? With much pacing?
As for Sicarius, we did not discuss books or… cubbies (I believe that what a young man keeps in his cubby is no one’s business but his own), but I did, of course, sense that he regarded me with deference that he didn’t display toward the other officers. I suspected he was familiar with my military career and found it admirable.
Leslie, SparkleGirl, and others want to know how you survived on the penal island. “How long was he there for? What was it like, and was he forced to eat anyone?”
Will this interview be publicly available in the Polytechnic library?
Oh, I should imagine so. They keep records of everything, don’t they?
Well, then, since I may have children one day, I’ll say only that surviving on Krychek Island was difficult, but I was not forced to do anything forbidden by the Kantioch Treaty or that would be otherwise considered reprehensible by modern human notions of morality.
I see. And these nightmares you still suffer from on occasion, they’re of…?
Rias eyes the Kyattese landscape for a moment Coconuts falling on my head. It’s dreadful.
Turgonians are very good at keeping secrets secret, aren’t they?
It’s part of the anti-interrogation training, yes.
K2N2 asks, “Is there anything that scares you to the point where you’d seriously consider running in the other direction? No, I understand the Turgonian military doesn’t run….so I’ll rephrase that to ‘perform an expeditious strategic retreat to a more defensible position?’”
I have, on more than one occasion, expeditiously retreated to a more defensible position when my ex-wife’s mother came to visit. Interacting with Tikaya’s grandfather is a pleasure by comparison.
As for physical threats, I’ve rarely found those too daunting to face. I’ve been told, by those under my command or otherwise foolish enough to stand within range of artillery fire with me, that this isn’t always an admirable trait.
Sweartoad asks, “What’s your stance on goatees/facial hair? Spelunking is a very popular sport in Turgonia. Your thoughts?”
Turgonian military regulations require facial hair to be kept shaven. But… I suppose those regulations don’t apply to me anymore. Do you think I should grow a goatee? I had some facial hair for a brief time during the story you know as Decrypted, as I was too busy to tend to daily ablutions. Or sleep. Or eat. Tikaya, however, seemed relieved when I shaved it.
Spelunking? In the aftermath of recent events, it may be a while before I’m ready for more cave explorations, though, for the purpose of research, I did enter a cave with Tikaya during our adventures here on Kyatt. Twice.
Just to be clear, you’re talking about real caves, right? With rocks and bats and things?
What else would I be referencing?
Never mind. Rebecca and Kara want to know about the black knife. “Has your black dagger become your tool of choice, like Sicarius? Or did you snatch other super sweet tools from the Alien ruins?”
Actually, the Kyattese confiscated the knife and everything else in my pack when they first detained me. I haven’t seen the black blade since. Perhaps some erudite archaeology professor is using it to clean his nails during staff meetings?
Kitty asks, “So is he gonna be a good submariner and do it deep?”
Yes. Yes, I am.
You know that was a sexual innuendo, right? I only ask because English isn’t your first language, and Tikaya isn’t around to help with translations. You kind of missed the spelunking thing.
bland expression Yes.
All right, then. Moving on. Parang asks, “Rambunctious Rias in his youth… what was he like to his closest friends?? Do his teachers have stories that they pass on to future cohorts?”
Due to the age difference my classmates and me, I was usually… Let’s just say there were years when books were my closest friends. I was often able to convince the neighborhood kids to play with me by showing off the incendiary and sometimes explosive devices I’d built. Nothing dangerous, of course. Nobody lost more than their eyebrows. Or part of an ear. But I maintain that Rivvy Ravencrest blew off his own ear.
; As for teachers, I’m told they found me bright, delightful, and… don’t confirm Tikaya’s suspicions here, but the word trying came up often at parent-teacher meetings. That started sometime after the outhouse-as-a-rocket incident. I’m certain I wasn’t the first boy to see if it was possible to make an outhouse… airborne. It’s possible I was the first to achieve it. Have you ever noticed that incidents like that remain on your record? It came up during my officer candidacy interview, if you can imagine.
Rhiannon asks, “Did he like those who must have been in charge when he was still a Warlord? The Emperor, Hollowcrest and (perhaps) Pike.”
I had little contact with them until I reached the rank of admiral. Even then, I was at sea most of the year, interacting with my superiors only through written documents. Since I usually only came into ports for restocking and repairs, and the capital is far from the sea, I didn’t meet the emperor or Commander of the Armies Hollowcrest in person until my promotion ceremony to fleet admiral.
Is it just me, or are you avoiding answering the question?
As a marine, you’re taught to obey the rank, no matter what you think of the person.
I guess that’s the best we’re getting, hm? Okay, last question. Sam says, “I would like to know more about his first wife.”
Sam, if you have a warrior-caste lineage, money, great stamina, dexterity, and an utter lack of inhibitions, I can introduce you to her. Oddly, I don’t believe she’s remarried yet.
~
Q&A with Lindsay
In interviews, you’ve said that Encrypted is still one of your favorite works. What makes it special for you?
Encrypted was my first attempt at writing a romance in addition to a grand action/adventure/mystery story, so it sticks in my head a little. I’ve written many more fantasy and science fiction romances now, but Rias and Tikaya are still one of my favorite pairings, maybe because they’re both big geeks. Their passions seemed to give them some common interests and fun chemistry, right from the start.
I also felt that because they were from enemy nations, they had so much built-in conflict that there wasn’t any need to have them snapping at and misunderstanding each other, at least not for long. Conflict between the hero and the heroine is at the heart of any good romance, but sometimes the characters end up being so snippy with each other that you start to hate one or both of them.
On the topic of enemies, I have a longstanding fondness for stories that explore the relationships of characters who realistically should be great friends but who can’t be (or at least not easily) because their peoples are enemies. This fondness goes all the way back to The Fox and the Hound, which I saw when I was about four (and proceeded to memorize, as any good fan-kid does). One of my favorite Original Star Trek episodes (I saw all of those when I was quite young too) was Balance of Terror, where Kirk and the enemy commander were such similar types of people that they should have been buddies, but their people were at war with each other, so one of them had to die.
Fortunately (I think), I’m more into happy endings than tragic ones, so Rias and Tikaya were able to work things out.
In addition to all of that, I enjoyed the mystery and the danger elements in Encrypted, and I felt that the tension was quite high throughout the story. By mixing in the science fiction elements, I think it ended up feeling like a more original fantasy novel than some.
Did you find it difficult to write such smart characters? Any tips for other writers doing the same?
Oh, absolutely. I adore smart heroes and heroines, but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a stack of advanced degrees or a particularly good memory, so I have to scramble to look smart. It’s definitely daunting to write geniuses for heroes. I did the best I could and am not sure I have any advice, other than that it’s a lot easier to make someone seem smart if he or she isn’t the point-of-view character. I’m guessing there was a reason Watson usually narrated the story instead of Holmes!
Unlike with the typical romance formula, I didn’t jump into Rias’s head at any point in these books. Part of that was because it would have ruined the mystery about who he was (it’s hard to make a character seem smart when the reader knows something he or she doesn’t), but also it was partially because it was easier to make him comes across like the genius military strategist he was supposed to be if I wasn’t showing his thought processes. I just tried to show that he was usually a step or two ahead of the rest of the characters.
The cover for this bundle is a lot different from the covers on the original books. What’s the deal?
One of the cool things about being an independent author (or one horrible things, if you don’t have a knack for design) is getting to hire your own cover designer and having a lot of input on what you want on there. The trouble is that a lot of us authors don’t have the experience that publishers do, and we don’t know what will really draw the eye of our target audience. Early on, I just did my best to represent the story when I gave blurbs to the designers. I still haven’t figured everything out, but I’ve learned that going for what’s more typical of what’s selling in the genre is usually better than going with something esoteric from the stories.
If you’ve seen the Encrypted cover, you know it has one of those cubes on it, and if you’ve seen the Decrypted cover, you know it has a submarine. Both of those covers have more of a science fiction vibe than a fantasy one. I think that’s fine, since there are elements of science fiction, but they’re also romances, and that’s not represented well. I thought putting a woman with a bow on the cover would suggest, if not romance specifically, a female heroine and more of a fantasy feel than a science fiction one. I’ve always thought these stories could appeal to high fantasy/epic fantasy fans.
I’ll admit the chick on the front isn’t quite “Tikaya” in my mind, but at least she has a bow and the right hair color. It’s tough to find what you want on the stock photo sites!
What should I read next?
If you haven’t read anything else by me, and you’re interested in trying more, you might want to go on to The Emperor’s Edge series. Those books are set in the same world as Encrypted and Decrypted, about twenty years later and with characters from the empire (Sicarius, the young assassin from Encrypted, is one of the main characters). There’s plenty of action, mystery, humor, and Tikaya and Rias (and children) show up for the last two books in the series.
If you want something that’s still a fantasy adventure but that’s heavier on the romance side, check out the Dragon Blood series. Balanced on the Blade’s Edge is the first.
Lastly, if you want lots of romance (including steamy scenes) with your action and don’t mind jumping into science fiction, you can try my Ruby Lionsdrake books. The first is Mercenary Instinct and is free in the various stores.
Thanks for following along!
Table of Contents
Main Title Page
Forgotten Ages, Books 1 - 3
Title Page
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
EPILOGUE
Title Page
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Title Page
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
EPILOGUE
Afterword
Bonus Extras
Forgotten Ages (The Complete Series) Page 75