A Drift of Quills: The 5-Year Plan (Characters in Question)

This month A Drift of Quills has another character interview. It’s been awhile! Last time, our characters told us whether they were honorable or not. What fun that was!

This time around, we’re asking our characters another revealing question: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

More fun! Let’s see where this goes…!

Let me introduce you to our guest Bairith Mindar, a principle character in my book Blood and Shadow. He is a nobleman by fate, by birth, and by strength of character. His slight build, angular features, and graceful manner suggest elvish descent. One does not ask such things in polite society. Not straight out…

Bairith confesses that he is a mage, though when asked what spheres he can manipulate he deflects the question with a smile and an elegant gesture. Everything about him is elegant, from the unadorned coronet on his head to his silk clad feet. From the way he holds himself to the way he speaks.

“You have a question for me,” he reminds, gentle humor in his eyes, as if he suspects his presence has me tongue-tied. As if to remind me that he will answer one question and one alone. It puts me at a disadvantage. He knows this.

If I pose another, I’ve broken my word. If I do not, I am weak and easily manipulated. Dull of mind. The entire exercise would be a waste of time if it did not plant seeds in the fertile minds of other would-be interrogators.

“Only one,” I reply easily. No smile. No elegance, either, for that matter, but I have other weapons. “As Blood and Shadow draws to a close, you’ve bound the boy Sherakai to you with magic. His father has been sent packing—literally and figuratively—and his brothers are gone. He can’t trust the reinforcement he requested and you so generously supplied. The one person he does trust is dying. Yet you have significantly improved his skills and his knowledge. You’ve opened his mind to possibilities he didn’t know existed. With all the work you are putting into this project, where do you see yourself in five years?”

For a long time Bairith regards me without the slightest change of expression. Then he smiles again and an uncanny gleam comes into his eyes. Hungry and acquisitive. “Five years can be a long time in some places,” he murmurs. “Long enough to finish a shaping. To polish all the inappropriate edges and finish putting the final pieces into place.”

His words are innocent enough, but I know him. I know his kind. Hidden beneath the innocence and elegance is an unrelenting drive.

Bairith rises, brushes imaginary dust from his silken coat, and does that thing with his hand that I so admire. It is like a dance, fluid and demanding attention. It takes my gaze to the chair he’s just vacated.

“In five years I will have something better to sit in than that.” Inflection reduces the thing from furniture to kindling. “My honor will be avenged, I will be restored, and I will renew my father’s bright vision. Sherakai does not see it yet, but he will be my right hand. He will be my dragon. It is promised. Do you know anyone who’s fought a dragon and lived?”

I do, actually, but that’s another story…

P.S. BROADDUS

Author of A Hero’s Curse (The Unseen Chronicles Book 1)
Parker’s website

It’s been a year since A Hero’s Curse made its debut and twelve-year-old Essie Brightsday stepped out from between the pages. To mark the anniversary, I sat down with her to talk about what she thought of being brought to life, what it was like having a talking cat and where she saw herself in five years.

She laughs at the last question and smoothes the red cloudsilk bandana that’s over her eyes… (Read about what Essie says!)

PATRICIA REDING

Author of Oathtaker and Select
Patricia’s website

This is Patricia Reding, coming to you with A Drift of Quills, and on behalf of Scripta Manent Publishing, where “Written Words Remain.” Today I bring you my long anticipated interview with the renowned Lucy Haven of The Oathtaker Series. Lucy, as many of you know, is the oldest living person known in Oosa, having survived the deaths of her two former charges. Of course, she has enjoyed the gift of “continued youth” since she first swore to protect a seventh-born of the Select, and will continue to do so for the remainder of her days.

I caught up with Lucy on her way out of sanctuary here, in the City of Light, following a Council hearing that the twins, Reigna and Eden, arranged after their return from The Tearless. (That is, following the end of Select: The Oathtaker Series, Volume Two). We’re standing outside the residence hall on sanctuary grounds. I must say, the Oathtakers in the city are all aflutter with news that the twins have been tested and have found Ehyeh’s favor! So, without further ado, here is Lucy Haven… (Read all about it here!)

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What question would you like to ask our characters?
Let us know in the comments below!