The Incarnation's Daughter

4/15/2016

The Incarnation's Daughter, another Traveler's Gate short story, has been sent out to all mailing list subscribers! Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you missed it, make sure you don't miss next month's!

...which is coming out once again at the beginning of next month!

As a side question, for those of you who have been getting the stories, would you prefer me to send them out in the morning or the evening? Last time I had a few people ask that I send them out later, but this time I got the feeling that people might want them in the morning.

Let me know!

-Will

EDIT: It was pointed out to me that there's a typo in the story: for one page, I call "Vasha" by the name "Mithra." It's fixed now, but I was too late! Sorry about that!

81 Comments

Mesmerizing Suggestion

4/15/2016 06:15:18 pm

I have returned after a long absence to announce but a single comment on this short story, in a most eloquent fashion.
'The feels are pretty intense here.
The good bittersweet kind.'

Will link

4/15/2016 09:10:19 pm

Welcome back, Mesmer!

I didn't ask for these feels.

Chase

4/15/2016 07:35:42 pm

Awesome. Thanks for quenching my thirst for of anything you do.

Will link

4/15/2016 09:09:51 pm

This is my best Sprite impression, Chase. Obey your thirst.

Aaron

4/15/2016 07:38:32 pm

I loved this story!!!!!! It just makes me want more. I really like the other characters development, but i still want to see more simon. Keep up the AMAZING work, love all your book!!!

Will link

4/15/2016 09:09:32 pm

Thanks, Aaron! The books have a lot of Simon, and the upcoming books have a lot of Simon, so I thought I'd get my non-Simon quota met here.

Glad you enjoyed it!

jake

4/30/2016 09:16:30 am

Yes but when are the new books coming out its killing me this wait for both series

Marvin

4/15/2016 07:39:49 pm

Hello Will! I have been signed up for the stories since March but did not receive it this month! So sad :( WOuld you be able to resend?

Will link

4/15/2016 09:08:50 pm

Did you get the other stories, just not today's? Did you get the one from March and the April Fool's story?

Harlequin

4/15/2016 08:54:44 pm

Really good short story.
Did notice you called Indirial's blade "Mithra" a couple times when Elaina was wielding it. Only realized it must have been his because it described it as a cracked blade at a few moments.

Hope they take Lycus to someone who could actually help. If he is missing tendons or part of his bones i have no idea if it would work, but Asphodel and Elyssia both are more detail oriented when it comes to Healing.

Will link

4/15/2016 09:08:16 pm

So I did. Curses. I've updated it now, but everyone already got the typo version.

As for Lycus, his maternal grandmother is actually an Asphodel healer. It's never come up in the books, but I planned for it from the very beginning. Olissa makes some reference to Traveler healers in HoB; she's speaking from personal experience with her mother.

The more you know!

Ravi link

4/15/2016 09:15:35 pm

That was a great story! It was also completely unexpected! I was expecting something more in the vein of the previous Simon story. These are just as good! (P.S. Thanks for releasing it on my Birthday!!)

Will link

4/18/2016 07:00:48 am

I thought, "What birthday gift should I get for Ravi?" And then it clicked.

What do you mean about something more in the vein of the previous story? Other than it not being from Simon's POV, I thought it was pretty similar.

Did you expect just another random Simon adventure, or what?

Nick

4/15/2016 10:03:12 pm

Just wanted to say these are awesome and can't wait for more! Thanks!

Will link

4/18/2016 07:01:33 am

Thanks, Nick! It's easier for me to write in the Traveler's Gate world than I remembered. I guess I'm just used to it.

Ryan

4/15/2016 10:25:14 pm

Great story once again.

One quick question, now that the mask is a true Valinhall power (room,guardian,object) are they able to be summoned similar to all the other valinhall powers (horn,weapons,bell)?

If they are able to be summoned, does this now include the original mask that Simon used to carry around (I notice it did not mention him grabbing it from the house here)?

Will link

4/18/2016 07:01:51 am

He keeps it in the pocket of his cloak.

Adam

4/15/2016 11:27:47 pm

Hi Will, I have stopped receiving the short stories to my email and I am not sure why :'(
Is there a regional limit as I'm in the uk?
P.s. Keep up the good work, massive fan (actually, pretty average sized human, but love your work)

Will link

4/18/2016 07:03:47 am

I have no clue, Adam. That definitely shouldn't be happening. There's no regional limit that I'm aware of, but the Internet is a huge magical mystery to me.

Did you get the previous story?

Either way, email me at [email protected] and let me know. I'll send you a copy of the story directly.

discadae

4/27/2016 07:27:55 am

Would you be willing to do this for a new subscriber with all of your email stories so far? I didn't know you were doing this till this month. I love your stories.... please!?!?!?

Will link

4/27/2016 09:52:53 am

Of course, Discadae! Send me an email!

Rhys

4/15/2016 11:52:53 pm

Hi will, just wanted to say that this might well be my favourite piece of your work. We get to see just how much simon has grown, especially when compared to someone his age and also how he is still in part the shy boy from the village. I thought your other characterisation in this was spot on as well. In summary I thought this was brilliant and certainly your best short story.

Will link

4/18/2016 07:04:40 am

Thanks, Rhys! I've gotten a stronger reaction from this one than I expected, which surprised me a little because it wasn't from Simon's perspective. But I had a pretty clear vision for this story going in, and I've known all along that I wanted Elaina to have a conflict like this.

Him

4/16/2016 01:02:07 am

Thanks for another great story, even though I'm super frustrated that every time he was looked down upon. Is he going to continue to be the underdog? Ooh and just wondering, he was holding back when fighting elaina right? Is he ever going change his " I don't want to fight you" mindset? Isn't valinhall's teach is all about not holding back if you want to survive?

Jim

4/16/2016 01:02:55 am

It's Jim haha

Jim

4/16/2016 01:26:17 am

Another question, doesn't Simon collapses whenever he pulls the mask off, no matter how long he wears it?

Will link

4/18/2016 07:05:48 am

It's too bad that your name is actually Jim. I was picturing the demonic Powerpuff Girls villain.

Simon did collapse whenever he pulled the mask off, yes. He's been practicing.

Mick

4/16/2016 03:14:22 am

I really enjoyed that there is tension in the house and that Simon is still finding his role as its head.

Great read.

Will link

4/18/2016 07:06:46 am

Glad you enjoyed it, Mick! I have to throw in conflict wherever I can, or my characters would get lazy.

James

4/16/2016 03:53:42 am

Loved the short story will send them out anytime it's nice just to get my travelers gate fix. The only problem I have is now I really want a second series of full length moves.

Will link

4/18/2016 07:07:29 am

My moves aren't spectacular, but I can promise you a second series of full-length novels. The first one is slated to come out late this year!

Scott

4/16/2016 11:14:52 am

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Craving more now!

Will link

4/18/2016 07:07:55 am

Next one is May 1st, so only two weeks away!

Scott

4/22/2016 01:24:13 pm

Fantastic :D

Also, this story made me go back and re-read the TG books while I was away on vacation. Well done on the addicting writing front!

Kristin

4/16/2016 05:52:19 pm

Oh hi there. Will there be a way to read the story if we did not have a newsletter subscription? I've since corrected my horrible mistake.

Will link

4/18/2016 07:08:40 am

You MONSTER.

Of course, Kristin! Email me at [email protected], and I'll be happy to send you a copy of the two stories you missed.

Will M

4/16/2016 06:07:44 pm

I really enjoyed this story and the one you sent out last month as well. It must be weird to be Simon, where you live with quite a few people looking down on you all the time.

Just a quick question, I thought that Indirial was confined to the graveyard and bestowed the ghost armor? Did that change?

Jim

4/16/2016 07:53:42 pm

That's valin

Will M

4/16/2016 08:46:31 pm

Ah.. That's right. My bad.

Will link

4/18/2016 07:10:04 am

Jim's right!

I admit it is confusing to have two former Incarnations bound to rooms as guardians, but imagine having to live there.

As for Simon being looked down upon...that's kind of his fate. It's just easy to look down on Simon.

4/16/2016 09:48:47 pm

Dear Mr. Wight,

Once again you have left me on the edge on my seat.. Thank you for the great story and thank you for making me want more TGT..

Will link

4/18/2016 07:10:39 am

I'm glad to hear it, JM! Now I have to decide what to do for next month's story...

James Johnson

4/16/2016 11:25:14 pm

Spoiler alert

I have a question about the masks. What is the test to obtain one that she doesn't get one in the beginning of the story, but only after realizing her faults. Is that the test?

Will link

4/18/2016 07:11:12 am

That was her test.

Nikk

4/17/2016 08:47:17 am

This was an amazing story! Now I have an unyielding desire to read more about Simon!

I prefer the stories in the evening, just as an FYI

Will link

4/18/2016 07:12:15 am

You know, Nikk, you're one of the very few people to answer my question. Thanks!

Unfortunately, I now have two people who said "morning" and two people who said "evening." Looks like most people don't care.

I'm going to flip a coin.

Jeff

4/17/2016 04:42:02 pm

Please send it out in the morning I don't want to wait

Will link

4/18/2016 07:13:48 am

You're the second person to tell me that...but two people also told me evening. And only four people answered the question, which suggests that most people don't care.

I'm going to roll a d20. On a 2-10, it's morning. 11-19, it's evening.

Natural 20 means I write and release the story IMMEDIATELY, and a 1 means I drop the laptop on my foot.

Nikk

4/19/2016 07:22:28 am

You drop your laptop on the foot of an Orc. He is uncomfortable. The orc reflexively goes to crush your larynx in response (Rolls a 1) but instead entwines his fingers in your hair. Years and several critical failures later Borgog, Scourge of the Thundercaves, thinks back on how he met his husband Will Wight and chuckles. A different time, to be sure. He goes back to weeding their garden

Will link

4/19/2016 10:49:15 am

That's a sadistically creative DM and a truly unfortunate string of crit fumbles.

Liam

4/18/2016 10:10:28 am

Hey Will loved the story and really like the focus on the "new generation" of Dragons. Would love to see more of Erastes and Lycus. Maybe how they get a real Dragon fang. Even if Lycus is permanently hurt it would be cool to see him have to overcome it and take a serious level in badass. You are doing great sir. But I do have one request o sovereign. My man Simon needs a REAL rival baaad! Not a Alin kinda friend type but someone hates him and vice versa and can match him sword for sword and really scares the piss out of everybody else. Someone we ain't sure Simon can take. But you the man. We eagerly await the next installment.

Will link

4/19/2016 10:53:27 am

Yes he does, Liam. Yes he does.

(￣ω￣)

Lisa

4/18/2016 01:28:12 pm

I keep fearing for one of your stories to fall short of my expectations...... happily that has not happened. I love the Travelers Gate stories, I love the Elder Empire stories. You ask if I want more short stories??? I want anything you care to write, short, medium, novel, epic..... Simon is just so freakin awesome. Thank you for sharing these with us.

Will link

4/19/2016 10:51:37 am

I'm glad I haven't let you down so far, Lisa, but I'll keep trying!

...wait.

Wayne

4/19/2016 10:41:57 am

I signed up for the mailing list after the first story was sent out but did not get this one. When I just went to sign up thinking that I remembered incorrectly or signed up for the wrong one I was told that my email was already on the list. I searched gmail for any messages from @willwight.com and nothing was found.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Is there more than one list? I used the mailing list signup on the right side of the page.

Will link

4/19/2016 10:51:01 am

Hey Wayne,

I've heard this from a couple of people now, but I have no idea where the problem is. Email me from the address you used to sign up, and I'll send you the story, and I'll also check the list from my end to make sure you're on it.

There is only one list.

Will link

4/19/2016 11:02:20 am

All right, I looked up the email address you used to make this comment, and it's on the list. You should have received an email.

MailChimp is the service I use for this mailing list, and they say it's usually because of spam filters or block lists. Try adding "[email protected]" to your Contact List on your email, so your filters will let it through.

Either way, I'm sending you the story. Both stories.

Chris

4/19/2016 03:09:30 pm

I must admit, this is one of my favorite short stories you've done! There's a seriousness and sad poignancy to it that seems to give it extra life.

Will link

4/26/2016 10:28:26 am

This story is the combination of a couple of stories that I've wanted to tell for a while now, so I'm happy it came out well! I don't dive into it much, because the series is more about high-speed combat and decapitating monsters, but there's a lot of heavy stuff going on in these character's lives. I wanted to touch on that a little bit for this one.

Brian

4/21/2016 07:24:10 am

I prefer morning so I can spend the whole day reading it over and over again.

Will link

4/26/2016 10:32:03 am

This makes me want to write a recursive story where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. Maybe about time travel.

loopy link

4/28/2016 10:54:31 am

What you've described is an infinite recursion loop, and that is what happens when recursion goes wrong. A properly functioning recursive loop will only continue functioning until the desired outcome has occurred. A literary example of this would be Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, where the main character at one point experiences all the universes where he failed in his task, but in his universe (that of the story) he succeeds. Such stories are awesome, and I would love to see you write one.

jeff

4/21/2016 09:59:52 am

how do i get this if i missed it and any others? im willing to buy them for my kindle

Will link

4/26/2016 10:32:55 am

I might repackage them for Kindle at some point, kind of like I did with the Traveler's Gate Chronicles, but I'm not sold on that yet. If you'd like the ones you missed, just email me! [email protected]

Jessiah

4/21/2016 10:00:17 pm

That was amazing Will!!!! Always wondered what Indirials daughter was up to in the house. Umh the time doesn't really matter imho just as long as it comes

Will link

4/26/2016 10:33:41 am

That seems to be the vibe I'm getting, Jessiah. It doesn't seem like people particularly care.

Though I do get emails all day asking me, "DID YOU RELEASE IT YET? DID I MISS IT?" So maybe morning is best for my sanity.

Bryant

4/22/2016 07:22:57 pm

Wow this short story was worth the wait! Although all you've done is wet our appetite for more Valinhall stories!

Will link

4/26/2016 10:34:09 am

Looks like it's time for a non-Valinhall story. Keeping you all in suspense.

Jordan

4/23/2016 03:23:35 pm

I kinda want the stories that I missed (because, in my eternal laziness, I assumed that since you had released a book recently, there was no reason to visit the blog), so I will be emailing you. Just a fyi. Love your books and wish for them to never stop. Just to throw a kink in your plan, I'm going to add a 21 to your dice and say afternoon, as that's when I get home. Hopefully the creatively sadistic DM can't think of anything strange for that.

Will link

4/26/2016 10:35:01 am

If anyone in my campaign rolls a 21 on their d20, their character immediately wins the campaign forever and ascends to become a god. Because apparently the player already has divine powers.

James G

4/24/2016 02:50:40 pm

Glad I didn't need to send that Gnome Writer Encouragement Squad after all. Excellent work as usual Will.

Personally, I love to get these in the morning as a wonderful surprise.

Your remarks about dice rolls and critical fumbles reminded me of an old Dragon magazine cartoon. Two knights are looking at a nerdy individual and marvelling at the Dragon bound and gagged behind him. The caption beneath: No fair, he has a Ring of Dungeon Master Control

Will link

4/26/2016 10:37:14 am

I read a short story one time about a guy who found a Wand of Wishing in a video game that could actually affect things in the real world. So he used an infinite dupe glitch to make more and more, and he used each wish to make one aspect of the game world real.

Over the course of the story, the modern world became more and more like an MMO, and nobody noticed because that was just how reality was. Hordes of goblins were causing highway pile-ups, elf princesses were using their royal blood to skip the college application process. It was pretty great.

Francisco

4/24/2016 05:11:52 pm

Great story. The best thing about it is to see Simon through the eyes of the next generation of travelers. I hoped to see Simon fight without the mask though. The mask makes him too powerful and does not completely answer if he's getting better. After all Kai took down an incarnation all by himself and he didn't even have the Nye essence.

Will link

4/26/2016 10:38:14 am

The trick is, when the fight matters enough, why would he choose not to use the mask? Obviously he won't wear it for little things, but when he's fighting an Incarnation, there would have to be a reason for him not to use it.

Scott

4/27/2016 11:03:03 am

That makes me wonder....as a Valinhall Traveler, would he eventually not want to use the mask just to make the fight more interesting? Or does the fact that he not care about making the fight more challenging make him far less likely to go down the Incarnation road like Valin and Indirial?

david

4/30/2016 09:36:35 am

Loved the short stories re-read it multiple times and i cant stop checking thd blog for any kind of update on the books or any other projects
So i have 2 questions can you give us a time (even ballpark it) when the TGT or EES books will be released
Also for TGT how many new books will there be will it be a prequel or sequel ( i prefer sequel)
And last but not least definetly morning's

Liam cephus

5/2/2016 07:00:38 am

Hey Will I was re-reading some of your stuff (baaad weather where im at) and it just struck me today (weird thoughts) What happened to the other advisors for the other Fangs in your story? With now being able to summon Vasha shouldn't Elaina have the medallion? And Andras advisor hasn't been seen since...idk when maybe the first book. Other than the dolls and a talkative Giles wannabe bookwhere'd you put everybody man?

Will link

5/2/2016 07:45:15 am

I just typed out a huge explanatory post for this, and then my phone crashed and everything was deleted. Now you get the bare-bones answer.

Manyu: He's in Crimson Vault, and glimpsed briefly in CoL. He doesn't show up much because his power isn't combat-related.

Korr: Indirial has him. Korr stays with Indirial most of the time because they're friends. Elaina could have taken Korr with her to fight in this story, but she would have had to explain to her father what she was doing and why.

In general: the dolls and Hariman get more lines because they always add something to the story. Dolls give Simon someone to talk to, and Hariman explains everything. The other advisors only show up when they're relevant, which is rarely, because the story is focused on Simon.

Also, most Travelers don't take their advisors into combat. Indirial's and Simon's are combat-related, and Denner carries Hariman around just in case. He still doesn't often fight with the book under his arm. Most of the other Dragon Army, like Kathrin, didn't take their advisors because they're only helpful out of combat.

So I didn't lose the advisors, they're just not relevant most of the time, so I leave them out of the story until they matter.

Nick

5/3/2016 08:14:48 pm

Technology sucks sometimes. I however appreciate that you took the time to type out another answer even if it was just the bare-bones version!
Thanks!

Subhadeep

1/11/2017 06:58:05 am

Hi Will ,

First of all a very happy new year to you !

One small request, if you wouldn't mind sending me a copy of the incarnation's daughter . I have subscribed recently so

Pretty please

Will link

1/11/2017 10:45:59 am

Happy New Year to you as well!

Send me an email at [email protected] and I'd be happy to respond with the stories!

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.