Imprecate | ✓

Afterword

"Dragons breath:
Girls like you were born to tame dragons,
to fight in wars, to lead armies.
Girls like you were created to swallow darkness, to quell monsters,
to destroy obscurity.
Girls like you were given life, to bring tempests and hail gales, unto their enemies.
Dont let a king or a prince or a fairytale tell you you are smaller than that
or who you are meant to be."
- Nikita Gill

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NOTE ON THE BOOK

This was the unrevised version of Imprecate. Which definitely needs some thorough revisions. Especially in terms of descriptions (of places, the appearance of people, feelings, etc.).

So I will probably revise it bit by bit in a few months. So feel free to be honest and critical and leave me your suggestions for improvement or unanswered questions and let me know if some parts were confusing or hard to understand. Or if you wish that something had been better described or elaborated. This would really help me to get a critical point of view from you readers and to improve my story. It can happen to authors that they write something that makes sense to them, but is incomprehensible to other readers.

Another thing:

I have to admit, actually the ending that was in the offing when I wrote the story was quite different. For a while, I was really a little desperate because it would have ended with Victorine killing herself and Nicolas remaining entirely the monster he has become through his actions.

On the other hand, I didn't want to do that to you, to me, and especially not to Victorine and Nicolas.

I honestly don't know if the two of them took the good path because of their own strength or because of my stubbornness. It's hard to judge whether I interfered too much with their character development or just gave them some sparks of hope.

On the one hand, both have experienced inhumane, horrific things and done them themselves. On the other hand, both are also strong and have always held on to life.

Victorine had nothing left. Every remaining day of her life she will blame herself for the death of her loved ones. Her parents were murdered, her only friend sacrificed herself for her, and she killed her sister with her own hands. She had only one kingdom left in which her brother lived, but which she could no longer call home because of everything that had happened. And Nicolas? I didn't want Victorine to stay alive only for a man to be her only purpose in life.

But then, for what? Victorine dedicates the rest of her life to peace. Her destiny was never to become a soldier and fight, but to become a soldier and protect.

And it is her destiny to pass this on to the men and women who follow. That survival is not glorious, but dirty and bitter and hard. That the true victims of wars are the defenseless bystanders, who must be protected first and foremost. And that the only wars won are the ones that never had to be fought.

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THANK YOU

THANK YOU to everyone who has read Imprecate. THANK YOU for every single vote and for every comment and for every message. All of this means an incredible amount to me.

Yours,

WritingHoney