There is a stage I hd not forgotten about. I had no writers block, but a logic block. Stories fantasy or not have their own rules of logic. It might not make sense to the reader (at first) but it does to the writer and in my case, the logic did not add up. So instead of making ‘fictive’ logic, I took time to think through the events. And recently I did so. So whilst I kind of need to make a small recap to Residuam Vitam, the recap is mostly limited to the other articles, so that you can pick up the pieces.
August 13th 2021 Death as a resource (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/08/13/death-as-a-resource/)
August 14th 2021 When death and chicken taste alike (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/08/14/when-death-and-chicken-taste-alike/)
August 16th 2021 When death is taxable (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/08/16/when-death-is-taxable/)
March 3rd 2022 From pot to bowl (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/03/from-pot-to-bowl/)
March 14th 2022 A view in the east (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/14/a-view-in-the-east/)
April 9th 2022 Struggle (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/04/09/struggle/)
There are a few more, but I am rewriting it all, optionally to insert it as a pdf.
So, where was I? I had set the stage with Baron Samedi, the meeting with Hades and at that point we added Meng Po, they all have larger stages to contribute, and that is going smoothly. But the wind caught on, and as such, so did Ereshkigal and Mot. Their powers are similar, but not the same and as such they started to tread on the loom of life, the loom that these two wield like masters. The loom of life has sustained them throughout the ages as they became part of that machine, but now that the rules are adapting it changes what they are given in the end and their share has been so large for such a long time. They now create shadows the size of giants on their former selves and that changes the equation by a much larger degree. So as the gods create a new alliance, they also unknowingly create the anti-pod of their alliance and the people, the mortals are between the two parties.
The detective (from the very beginning) becomes the axial of the middle, the becomes unknowing to her and to others the axial of a seesaw. Hades, Meng Po, Baron Samedi and Anubis are the main players of one side of the seesaw, the other end has Ereshkigal, Ta’xet, Tia and Mot occupy the other end of the seesaw. But these players are slowly introduced. As the new brew influences the people Tia becomes aware who informs Ta’xet. Ta’xet had a connection to Mot from the old days and now they start to learn on what is going on. Ereshkigal is the last to connect to this new eave, but only because Ereshkigal has had a deepened distrust of anything Anubis touches. It is at this point that Hel is awakened. She is awakened by Ta’xet who feels kinship to Hel, no like, but kinship is enough to take the stage in different ways. Ta’xet thinks (decently correctly) that any negative impact of dishonourable souls will anger Hel and it does, but she has no real friends as such she also investigates and she will get under the skin of the detective through all the people she lost in her career and as such she can stack against the other side.
Now that I have a grasp of how the interactions are going, I can start looking at the dialogues of these characters. I need to push a few more items to the surface and I need to see what to do about Meng Po, her duty and her tsk never failed. As such I need to push a different border to clear her vested interest to the top of the pile. She is driven too, but how to ‘exploit’ it? That is still a stage I need to examine. The ‘mortal’ side is decently clear, the side of Hades (and the twist in all this) is also clear. I have some ideas on how to counter Baron Samedi. Here we can rely on Maman Brijit. She is also the Loa of justice and vengeance and the drink is a stage of injustice to those who will die and there is the rub, as Samedi will become a lot more powerful, the imbalance between Maman and the Baron becomes stronger. To some degree he becomes his own worst enemy and that was one element Hades was counting on. He played the game for so long, the sound of every string on the loom of life are distinct in sound and he knows all the sounds. So there we have the three parts and now I need to set a line to all the characters and reread everything to see if I left any obvious holes.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 