Roi Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Roi starts life as a slave named Snowy by his mother, though she wasn’t able to keep him past childhood. He was sold as an entertainment slave, but his mother’s training, to hide his odd abilities as they could get him killed, was deep rooted. He has golden eyes flecked with metallic gold, but the contrast is so slight it is hard to see. He is white haired like his mother, with dark bronze skin, lightly built but very well coordinated and athletic. He is a superb dancer and choreographer, and learns new sports, such as horseback riding, very quickly.

Roi is the protagonist of both Homecoming and Tourist Trap, appears in Horse Power, and will appear in the trilogy I’m working on, if I ever get it done. He is speaking here from the early part of Homecoming, shortly before he meets Coryn for the second time. (The first time was when Coryn’s father, Derik, owned Roi.) He’s about fourteen and a half, here.

I wish I could figure out what they want from me. Learn, Kim said, and I am. I understand everything they’re saying in class. It’s just that buzzing in my head. I can’t do anything without feeling exhausted, certainly not use that computer the way they want me to for homework. And with Xazhar making threats at mealtimes, I have to lift my arms to the food, and I’m not getting nearly enough to eat. He sees to it I don’t make any friends, either. Peer pressure discipline may work, but it’s sure not working for me.

I wish I were back just being Derik’s slave, with Timi and Amber and Flame. I knew where I was, there. I knew how to get by as a slave, and I could keep my friends with me. Here …. I’ve figured out what they want me to believe, but why? What they’re telling me can’t be true, but what is? And now I’ve even got Kim mad at me.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Derik Tarlian (A to Z Challenge)

Derik is a major character in both Homecoming and Tourist Trap, and will continue to be important in the upcoming trilogy. He is Lai’s half brother. He is High R’il’noid, second only to Zhaim among the R’il’noids, and one of Lai’s closest friends. Like many R’il’noids, he will never age beyond maturity, and by the beginning of Homecoming is roughly fifteen centuries old.

Physically, he is athletic (horseback obstacle racing, sailing, hang gliding) medium sized with a rather light build, and monotone in color – his hair, eyes, and skin are all the same medium golden brown color, except for the metallic gold veining in his eyes. He is more than half R’il’nian (the metallic eye veining is a R’il’nian trait) being the son of the purebred R’il’nian, Tarl, and a mother who is a complex crossbred.

Psychologically, he is one of those characters who invented himself. He is bisexual in that his partners are important to him more because of what is inside them than because of external qualities like sex. He is by nature monogamous, but he is effectively immortal in a world where women with his life span are rare and want children, and he is nearly sterile. As a young R’il’noid he had little sense of responsibility, and still suffers from the reputation that earned him. However, by the time his younger half-brother Lai was born he was considered responsible and expert enough that Tarl entrusted much of Lai’s basic esper training to Derik, and he is still the one who trains most of the young R’il’noids in the use of these abilities. He is also the Confederation’s premier expert in xenotelepathy.

Here he is speaking from roughly a third of the way through Homecoming. This is some of what he does not reveal to Roi in the book.

“Of course I understand the difference between love and lust,” I growled at Bera. “And I loved Edward.”

“Did you? Did you truly do what was best for him, or did you please yourself?”

I looked at the bier where what was left of Edward lay, fighting to control tears. Why was Bera talking of this now?

“Perhaps you are not old enough yet to understand,” she said. “Perhaps for now you need to bury this memory. But keep it. Here,” and she plucked a flower from the hedge beside us, a small scarlet flower of the kind called lovers’ lips. “Remember this, and its scent, when you are ready to bring this day back.”

Last night, after I was forced to go into Roi’s mind to understand why he had that poltergeist reaction, I revisited that memory, and this time I understood. Love cannot be bought. Edward was my slave, and while I thought I was doing the best for him, I never really allowed him to be his own person. I’d intended the same with Roi, but in seeing the horrors he had been through I understood all too well that his apparent compliance had been based on fear that I would sell him.

Had the same been true of Edward?

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Six Sentence Sunday

Here is the continuation of the scene I have been posting from for the last two weeks. This is from Tourist Trap, published last year and given the Garcia Award for best fiction book of the year. The “he” in the first sentence is Roi, whose arm has just been grabbed and twisted behind his back by his friend, Timi.

When he rolled with the pull, the shift in his weight allowed Zhaim to pull away and struggle back to his feet, shaking with fury.

Roi could hear the sob in Timi’s breath. Timi’s body, yes, but it was Zhaim’s will that twisted his arm so high that his shoulder joint screamed protest, and jammed Timi’s arm across Roi’s throat. The heavier boy’s body pulled him to his feet, and he managed to glance around as he was jerked up. The girls were sprawled bonelessly where they had fallen, their wet clothing plastered to their bodies by the rain. Then Timi swung him around to face Zhaim, and it took all his self-control to keep his head up and his eyes steady on his brother’s.

Zhaim’s face was contorted with rage, and the beamer was shaking visibly in his hand.

What’s Six Sentence Sunday? A group of writers get together each Sunday, under the hashtag #sixsunday, and post exactly six sentences from their work, published or unpublished. To see what other writers have posted, click on the logo.

 

Six Sentence Sunday

Another snippet, continued from last week, from the end of the first chapter of Rescue Operation.

“It won’t happen again,” Roi said, “but I couldn’t do anything for Horizon.” He lifted his head, blinking wet eyes at Mark. The next time he had to reinforce Marna’s bindings, he swore to himself, he would insist that the part of the Inner Council he trusted back him up.

“Maybe,” he continued softly, as much to himself as to Mark, “I can get enough change in the situation to force reconsideration. But I don’t think I can do it by a Council vote. Meanwhile, I’ll have to do what I can with the other situations.”

Be sure to visit the other Six Sentence Sunday authors.

Six Sentence Sunday

Today’s snippet is from near the end of the first chapter of Rescue Operation, my current WIP. Zhaim has been arguing that he’s done the right thing in imposing slaving on Horizon, a recently colonized planet, as they refuse to pay their dues and are breeding people faster than their economy is growing.

Right if he wanted to make the Confederation into a military dictatorship rather than something that allowed over a hundred human-occupied planets to live in peace, if not harmony, Roi thought as he returned home. Not that there weren’t times he would have liked more power over individual planets, especially those that abused their own people. For that matter, he’d like more power over Central, to eliminate slavery there, but not at the cost of turning the Confederation into something people feared, instead of a protection.

Mark and Ginger, the latest of the slaves he’d rescued, adopted and educated for freedom, found him sitting in his office with his face in his hands. “Audi told me,” the young man said awkwardly. “Were you able to do anything?”

Be sure to visit the other Six Sentence Sunday authors.

Six Sentence Sunday

Six sentences from Rescue Operation, following directly from the six I had last week.

But he had another heritage as well, one that he was even less comfortable with. His father had left him in charge of the Inner Council of R’il’noids that effectively ruled the Confederation. Not the planets that made up the Confederation; in fact he as the regent of the Confederation had no voice at all in the laws of Central, where the Councils met and he lived. Now and then Council duties included fieldwork when the specialties of individual Council members were needed, and in truth he’d been eager to get away when the government of a distant planet thought (wrongly) that others were making it the target of biological warfare. Wif, the other medical expert, had already been away from Central, and Derry’s specialty of xenotelepathy and Kaia’s of communications had been needed in the field while Roi was gone, leaving Roi’s older brother Zhaim in charge without the steadying influence of the other two.

Roi had never expected a disaster like this.

Again, I know this is more telling than showing, and this, with the last week, makes up a section separated from the action. Suggestions for improvements are welcome!

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Six Sentence Sunday

This is telling, not showing–I know it, but this and next week’s snippet are information the reader needs to have. Any suggestions for livening it up are welcome!

By choice, Roi was an esper Healer, an artist and devoted to his family. The Healing talent was a legacy from his R’il’nian father, the last survivor of the now-extinct R’il’nai. His creativity was a gift from the Human mother he could barely remember. His love for children and other small, helpless things might have come from his mother as well, though he thought it just as likely to have been learned from Marna, the R’il’nian stepmother who had taught him to use the Healing ability he’d been born with. His birth mother had also given him a gene that was far too dangerous to be passed on–on that, he agreed with the Genetics Board. Luckily Wif had been born before the problem was recognized and was not even a carrier, but Roi had no other children of his own.

Have a look at the other Six Sentence Sunday participants.

Six Sentence Sunday #sixsunday

One more snippet from the first chapter of Rescue Operation. Note that all Six Sentence Sunday posts can now be accessed from the Index page.

“Is it that serious?” Keishala asked, putting her music tablet down on Lelani’s table. “I mean, I know how you feel about slavery, but there are planets in the Confederation that sell their own citizens. Ginger says it’s a lottery on hers.”

“It’d be every bit that serious,” Emeraude shot back. “Yes, there are planets that accept slavery, but Horizon doesn’t and never has. Anyway, people will accept things from their own governments that they’ll go to war to keep from having imposed on them from outside.”

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Six Sentence Sunday

Following on from last week, here are sentences 7-12 from the rewritten first chapter of Rescue Operation.

“Roi,” [Keishala] said, “it can’t be that bad. You’ve only been gone for a month. And Zhaim’s competent enough, even if you don’t like him.”

Emeraude, twenty years younger than Keishala, unwound her bitter-chocolate body from the exercise bars and pulled loose the scarf that had held her beige hair. “What happened?” she asked.

“Zhaim ‘solved’ the problem of Horizon’s not paying its dues by authorizing one of the big slaving companies to collect them—in people.”

I’d really appreciate comments on this.

Stop by and enjoy the rest of the snippets on Six Sentence Sunday.

Six Sentence Sunday

For quite a while I’ve been blogging Chapter 2 from a WIP, tentatively titled Rescue Operation. That Chapter is now complete. I skipped Chapter 1 on the grounds that it was an unholy mess, but I think I finally have it straightened out. So for the next few weeks I’ll be giving six sentence segments from Chapter 1, starting with the beginning of the chapter, the book, and the trilogy. Please leave comments, letting me know how this works as an initial hook.

Roi Laian jerked upright on the interface lounge. “Oh, no,” he gasped aloud. “He can’t be that stupid. The Council can’t be. Is he trying to start a revolution?”

Lelani, the oldest of his three wives, hardly lifted her wrinkled face from the wire and beads that would become a new hair ornament, but Keishala turned toward him, lowering the musical score she had been studying.

Don’t forget to visit the other Six Sentence Sunday writers – lots of interesting bits and pieces. And I’d appreciate it if you could find time to visit the interview I had at Christine’s Words.