I cowrote a book once. The story of Keld (hello Sparks if you ever find this), a rollocking yarn in a fantasy world, with lots of stories weaving in and out of each other. And I think it's time to retell some of them again now. The man that I love unconditionally has finished his novel, and is needing less support by the day (see haikus), so it's time that I came good on my promise and wrote one myself. And since this is cyberspace, and I live here at the moment, I'm going to do i here. So lets begin. With some of the back story from the other book.
Sometimes we wake up, look around and wonder what we've done with our lives (I did this this week; first tears, then paralysis, and now writing. I'm hoping sanity is next on that list). Sometimes the next thought is what did someone else do with it. And sometimes too there's a wierd disconnect, as though we've stopped living altogether and are merely existing whilst our doppelgangers are awake and alive. One of the threads in Keld is the story of what happens when two very different twins both end up in the right environment for the other one. Throughout history there have been people reported as being able to read the thoughts of others; the StarTrek empaths are only a small thread in a long line stretching back through centuries of seers and saints and ladies in black fringed shawls. And maybe there's some truth in that; a knowing of another person without verbal communications and beyond the clues signalled out by the body. And I wondered if, somehow, two very different neighbouring kingdoms could evolve, one with the seer gene dominant and the other with it absent or dormant; a giant ghettoisation into those who could mind-read and second-guess, and those who mistrusted them.
I had a lovely time evolving social systems and rules for both of these societies; for example, it must be difficult to be a close personal assassin when even thinking a bit too hard will warn off your potential victim. But people are people, despite their talents, and they will always find a way.
And the two societies have grown. Without telepathy, the Pearl Kingdom has skipped the industrial age and gone straight to powerplants that look nuclear, but without a real understanding of their physics. The telepaths in Duin are still in an older, more feudal age, but are well-protected with the ability to concentrate and phase the minds of anyone who tries individually to attack them. Which hasn't happened yet, because the two countries maintain a discreet courtly dialogue: neighbours must have, possibly covertly, some form of diplomatic relations, even if it's to chuck a brick over the wall occasionally or to actively ignore each other across a border (see Cyprus). Sometimes the sons and daughters of power are brought along on a state visit in the hope that they will learn something, and sometimes what they learn is that they really quite like the younger members of the opposition. And then all hell breaks loose. Heck, let's just tell the story...