Covenant's End - Ari Marmell Page 0,99

would be no more rain, for a time.

“It'd be nice to be dry for more than a few hours at a time, wouldn't it?”

The lack of response surprised her for only an instant, and she couldn't quite repress a smile, wondering if she'd ever break the habit of talking to herself.

“Maybe Widdershins and Adrienne can exchange a few words,” she muttered.

Widdershins. Adrienne. She had more than her life still ahead of her; she had two to choose from.

She had the Flippant Witch to rebuild. Whether she would stay with it after that, or return to the Guild, or both, or neither, she couldn't say. But the choice would be hers.

She had Robin, Renard, Faustine, and others. People who loved her and whom she truly loved—and if it was not always in the precise way they might wish she loved them, she knew they would still be there. Her family.

She had a god watching out for her, to the best of his ability. For her, more than any other man, woman, or child. Because he loved her, too.

And that was a lot. It wasn't enough, not yet.

But it would be.

Some of you hate me right now.

It's okay to admit it. Not only do I understand, but I kind of hate me right now, too.

I always struggle with good-bye-type endings. They make me sad, even the ones that aren't written to be; the closer I've felt to the characters, the sadder. So you can imagine how upset I was writing these last couple of chapters.

What you may not realize is that Widdershins has been more a part of me—my creative process, stories, plans, my imagination—than any other character. Technically, I created Corvis Rebaine (The Conqueror's Shadow) earlier, but only by a year or so. And Shins has, at the time I'm writing this, more word count devoted to her than Corvis does.

The first draft of the book that would eventually become Thief's Covenant was written way back around the summer and fall of 2000. It's been massively rewritten since then, multiple times, but throughout all of that, Shins herself didn't change much.

Yeah. A long time. She feels real to me, and that means her losses do, too.

So, as I'm sure some of you are asking, why do it?

Truth is, I almost didn't. The planning stages, outlining stages, writing stages; during each, there was at least one point where I nearly chickened out. If I'd been writing this book just for me, tailoring it to my own enjoyment, I probably would have. This is the first time what I've wanted emotionally, and what I've wanted creatively, have differed to such an extent.

In the end, though, I'm not writing this just for me. I'm not even writing it just for my audience, though you guys are one of my greatest motivators.

I'm writing it because I have things I want to say and stories I want to tell. And this? This is what was right for the story and the characters.

It was dramatically appropriate. Ending it this way made Widdershins's tale far more powerful and compelling than it otherwise would have been.

It was creatively appropriate. After four books, I felt like I was on the verge of starting to repeat myself. Nothing's more disappointing than a good character or series that hangs around too long, becomes a shadow of what it once was. I'd much rather I—and Shins—take a bow before that happens.

And it was thematically appropriate. You see, it was time for Shins to grow up.

I didn't intend to make the series a metaphor about growing up. Heck, when I wrote the first book, I didn't even intend it to be a series; I hadn't decided if I even wanted to write a sequel or not. It became very clear to me, however, as I was writing False Covenant and planning Lost Covenant and Covenant's End, that that's exactly what it had become. It was, my own intentions notwithstanding, a series about Shins maturing and learning to stand on her own.

Parents, whether they want to or not, have to eventually let their children go. Children, whether they like it or not, have to eventually stop relying on their parents. Oh, the family's still going to be there—special occasions, emergencies—but no longer a part of everyday life. No longer something to lean on.

Like Olgun and Shins.

So that's where I found myself. I've known since book two how book four had to end. I'm not one of those authors whose characters speak to them or anything like that. But in this case, the story really did demand to go only one way, and it would have felt dishonest of me—as a storyteller, as an entertainer, as an author—to do otherwise.

What does that mean, then, for Widdershins? Is this really her last book, the last time we'll be seeing her?

Well…yes, no, and maybe. Isn't that a helpful answer?

Yes, this is the end of the current series, what I guess you could call “The Covenant Cycle.” Four books, over and done. There won't be any more of these, specifically.

No, it's probably not the last time you'll see her. While I have no more Widdershins books currently planned, I do intend—circumstances permitting, of course—to write more stories set in this world. If you think Shins isn't going to pop up occasionally in those, whether as a supporting character or just a cameo, then you haven't been paying attention. Shins doesn't keep her nose out of anything.

And maybe. I never know what ideas are going to come to me, and I don't rule anything out. The Covenant Cycle is done—any future Widdershins book will be a very different beast, given that she's no longer got her divine companion—but if the right story hits me, something that really feels Widdershinsy, I'll certainly write it. I'm not sure what it'd be like to write her without Olgun, but I'm not unwilling to find out.

(I do not anticipate ever putting them back together. I feel like that would be a cop-out and would cheapen the stories that have come so far. I guess it's possible that an absolutely genius idea for doing so might someday come to me, so I won't swear never to do it, but it's highly unlikely. Shins—and her writer—need to keep moving forward.)

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who came along on Shins's travels with me. This could never have happened without you, and you've made it an incredibly rewarding experience. I hope you'll join me on some of my other journeys, as well—if you liked the Widdershins books, I think you'll enjoy a good portion of my other works—but even if you don't, thank you, truly, for sticking with this one.

Ari “Mouseferatu” Marmell

May 12, 2014

Ari Marmell would love to tell you all about the various esoteric jobs he's held and the wacky adventures he had on the way to becoming an author, since that's what other authors seem to do in these sections. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually have any, as the most exciting thing about his professional life, besides his novel writing, is the work he's done for Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games. His published fiction includes the Widdershins Adventures YA fantasy series, along with The Goblin Corps, from Pyr Books, as well as multiple books from other major publishers, including the fantasy-noire Mick Oberon series, the Corvis Rebaine duology, and the official computer game tie-in novel Darksiders: the Abomination Vault.

Ari currently lives in an apartment that's almost as cluttered as his subconscious, which he shares (the apartment, not the subconscious, though sometimes it seems like it) with George—his wife—and a cat who really, really thinks it's dinner time. You can find Ari online at http://www.mouseferatu.com and on Twitter @mouseferatu.