The Fourth Sage (The Circularity Saga) (52 page)

BOOK: The Fourth Sage (The Circularity Saga)

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This post affected me in a way that I can't explain. I knew Amber needed to be in the story. Then I met someone on Facebook who had created a beautiful cover for a writer friend of mine. I contacted her and found out that she lives in Russia. Her name is Mila. We wrote back and forth a bit and she had an idea for the cover of
The Fourth Sage
that she sent me. I loved it for what it was, but she told me she didn't know that much about cover creation, etc. I eventually enlisted the amazing Jason Gurley to do the cover but Mila had found a place for herself in the story. She is obviously good at drawing things. Tuari is the son of a good friend of mine. Max is my son. He is older than Max in the story and hears quite well, but I always envisioned him when I wrote about Max. At one point, I told him jokingly that there is a little bit of a romance going on between him and Aries :-). Kiire is a much younger version of my younger brother, Christian. His brilliant computer skills made it into the story as well. The name Tevis was an interesting addition. It came about before I had thought about the Forgotten Floors. I had sent Part One of the book to my sister-in-law, Jackie. She messaged me back and asked, "Who is Tevis?" When I asked her why, she told me that there is a sentence that starts with Tevis. Tevis is a friend of mine and I must have copied and pasted her name by mistake. The name Tevis, besides being a very strong name, is also a really cool name, in my opinion. I wanted to include it, especially as it made its way into the story anyway.

The nursery rhyme came out of the writing session during which I had discovered the deeper meaning of the Eight in the story. It also connects
The Fourth Sage
to the other books (not yet written) and
The Three Feathers
. I also loved the juxtaposition of the high tech world ruled by artificial intelligence and an ancient nursery rhyme as its opposing force, strong enough to inspire a group of people to change their fate.

That the Eight all have special abilities was a thought I had during the writing of the Forgotten Floors. But I had no clue what those abilities were, except for a few of them. I knew Amber's and Jeremiah's and Mila's, but that was pretty much it. It was during a karate training session in which we practiced kata—ancient forms of movement of defense against invisible enemies—when I had another explosion in my head (they don't occur often but when they do, they are pretty intense). I realized C.J.'s special ability is that she can concentrate energy, have it build up inside her and release it in one burst. Her ability is erratic at best, and it only happens during extreme emotional distress. Discovering C.J.'s ability opened the door to the essence of the next book, titled
The Fourth Sage — Revelations
. In it, the eight companions will discover and learn how to control their abilities, in preparation for a war that's coming and that will make what happened in
The Fourth Sage
seem like a stroll through a sunny meadow during springtime.

The final chapter, Battle, was a tough one. The closer I got to the end, the more I was worried whether or not I could pull it off and weave all the threads together into a beautiful and satisfying fabric. It took me three weeks to get from the part where they had survived the ordeal with the sea monster to the end of the story. The writing didn't take that long. But I couldn't do it. I sat down each day and my fingers wouldn't start typing. I realized that I had to let it sit and rest and gather some strength and power before I could go on. I can say now that the ways in which the waiting paid off were manifold. The poem written on the slab of stone was the key. It didn't come to me until they were up in the tower and I didn't know what to do from there. Once the poem came through, everything began to flow, and I wrote that section in two sittings, I believe. Writing the sequence where they figure out what the symbols mean was so much fun. And from there it took off where it wanted to go. I had several scenarios in my head, one of which involved Ty and a few others actually generating a distraction so that the androids would move away from the plate. But none of them made sense. Until they ran down the crater and got separated. I knew where to go from there.

And then there was Leannah and her letter to Aries. What an amazing surprise that was. I had no clue whatsoever until Amber opened the stasis chamber and saw the body. I cannot tell you more about Leannah right now, but be assured that she plays a major role in one of the following books. The more I wrote, the more I realized that this, all of this, was so much bigger than I’d initially thought.

Unfortunately, I can't share that much of what is to come in the next book. It would spoil all the fun. But what I can tell you are locations that play a major role in
The Fourth Sage — Revelations.
Besides Stockholm in Sweden and Saltfjellveien inside the Arctic Circle in Norway, there is the University of Exeter in Penryn, United Kingdom, and Mount Merapi, seventeen miles north of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Another area of importance will be the town of Xinjiang in Mongolia, twenty-five miles south of the Russian border. And then there is a remote Buddhist temple somewhere in the Himalayas, a small town in Japan and, last but not least, the island of Manhattan in New York. As I am writing this, I've been working on the first chapter. Here is a small excerpt for you:

The Fourth Sage — Revelations (Available spring of 2015)

Aries. Aries, where are you? Aries!

I wanted to answer but, as much as I tried, I couldn't open my mouth. It was taped over.

I'm here,
I thought.
I'm right here! Don't you see me?

Max stood on the crest of a hill. The orange glow behind him illuminated the pre-dawn sky. He looked worried.

Aries!

When I tried to move toward him, I fell and landed on my face. I couldn't use my hands to soften the impact. They were tied behind my back. I managed to turn on my side and saw that my feet were bound together as well.

Max! Help me!

I didn't understand why he couldn't hear me.

Born-of-Night?

There was no answer.

Where are you?

The glow behind Max became stronger. He briefly turned his head to look back. I saw the desperation in his face when he started to run.

Aries! Where are you? We have to get out of here!

What's going on?

A few hundred feet behind Max, I saw a shape in the air moving toward us. I knew it was the hawk.

Thank God. Thank God you're okay!

Born-of-Night reached Max, flew a few feet above him, a dark shadow against the glowing sky. Then Max's clothes caught on fire.

"NO!" I screamed through my closed mouth. He stretched out his arms toward me. Above him, the flames reached the hawk and for a moment, she flew, ablaze and gliding to her death.

Then the wall of fire reached me and the heat took my last breath.

The Three Feathers

The Three Feathers is the story of an extraordinary journey. Three unlikely friends — a wolf, a rooster and a war horse — on a quest to search for three feathers deep inside a mountain. Their friendship is their only hope of survival; their courage faces dangers beyond their wildest dreams; and the fate of a whole civilization rests on their shoulders.

The Three Feathers on Amazon

The Three Feathers signed paperback

The Three Feathers on YouTube (read by the author)