The Book of Elias - Ashes and Light

by M. J. Vale

Book One follows Elias from a farm boy fascinated by knighthood into a feared soldier, with his growing attachment to Seraphina running through that transformation. Its later climax and ending are still undecided. In Avelion, Elias and his friend Will leave their village for a fair, drawn by the tournaments, the crowds and the promise of adventure. Amid their mischief, Elias collides with a hooded girl fleeing through the market. Their brief, exasperated encounter means little to him until he later recognises something familiar in one of the king’s daughters. The tournament exposes the cruelty beneath the life he has admired. A powerful lord needlessly kills another knight, and the king allows it to pass. Soon afterwards, a confrontation with royal guards leaves Elias arrested for pushing one of them. Princess Seraphina stops the immediate beating, but cannot undo what follows. Sentenced to ten lashes and five years of forced labour, Elias believes his future has been taken from him. His father and the village priest appeal to the king, trusting that their military service will earn a hearing. The king remits the prison sentence and replaces it with one hundred lashes, presenting the decision as mercy. Elias loses consciousness before the punishment ends. For almost a month, he hovers near death in a discreet house belonging to Seraphina’s family. She arranges his treatment and visits every day, reading to him, helping with his dressings and growing close to his parents and Will. When Elias finally wakes, he encounters a young woman who knows his suffering intimately but remains, to him, the princess who stood beside the king. Their acquaintance develops through the long, ordinary work of recovery. Seraphina is compassionate, proud and accustomed to being obeyed. Elias is stubborn, increasingly independent and entirely unwilling to grant her authority over every disagreement. They irritate each other, hurt each other occasionally, and keep returning to one another’s company. As he grows stronger, the prospect of his departure makes her quieter. Their lives offer no simple way to remain together. On his final evening, an argument gives way to music drifting through an open window. Elias asks her to dance. For those few minutes, they allow a closeness neither has known how to acknowledge. When the music ends, Seraphina begins to cry and leaves abruptly. Elias remains behind with the scarf she has forgotten. He returns home carrying it, alongside a decision formed during his punishment: he will never again be so helpless. The next arc is still in progress and will take some time before its ready but below is the first ideas, I have had. Recovery becomes training, training becomes service, and successive campaigns expose Elias to the labour, loyalties and compromises of war. His ability and reputation grow through specific victories, failures and costly choices. The boy who once admired knights becomes a man whose name frightens people he has never met. Throughout those years, he carries Seraphina’s scarf. His memories of her remain private even as stories about him spread. Eventually, a campaign brings him to her father’s city, where the possibility of seeing her again becomes real. Behind this human story lies the wider mythology of angels, demons and an ancient war, introduced through the opening battle involving the Archangel Michael and his twelve Paladins.