NOVEL NEXT Book 5 - Afterword
Last book. Last afterword. For this series anyway. After everything we've been through, thanks for being here.
Thanks for reading The Homeseeker Book 5: Ascendance and Acceptance. If I were to describe the feeling surrounding this book, I would call it "climactic." Nold is introduced in book one as a passing cameo, but he was always the big bad from the beginning. Aside from the five stages of grief.
Five books with no delays! I'm honestly really happy it came out as planned! As always, thank you for the response to each and every chapter. I loved the bits and pieces of theories jumping out or desperate hopes for Zalan to not be an idiot. Sometimes he can pull through.
Below here will be filled with Book 5 spoilers, so you better not have jumped to this chapter on a whim.
When writing the series, there have been a handful of mentions of "Beasts of Slumber" throughout different interactions. At one point The Mind of Madness is called something akin to a "lesser Beast of Slumber," but I always wanted their reference to almost be a blink and you miss it. They're usually asleep, you don't have to worry about them. And then book five hits you in the face with them, where Ma is the only one that can stop them and essentially refuses to do so. I think a whole different story could have been told if this is where the story began instead of ended, in that it would have been cool to first be introduced to a realm as it was drastically changing. But maybe next time.
I had another one of those moments when writing this thinking that I had too much similarity to another series. I got to the point of Dreadgods in Will Wight's Cradle series and wondered if the Beasts of Slumber were too similar. But instead of picnicking like I have in the past, I just shrugged it off as two having similar ideas with different executions. As far as I've read, no commenters have noted the similarity, so maybe I'm safe on the overlap.
If you want to know scrapped ideas I had, there was a list of "Does Finnegan come back with an Elemental Power to join the crew", "What happens to Captain Buttonwillow and his crew?", "Do they ask Ma to join them in the battle against Morloch AND finance Rep's wedding?" and some odd joke about the FDA approving isekai medicine when Zalan talks about the pills he took.
Gorb wanting to fly was a plot point from book one just for the purpose of him assisting to get them to Aetheria. Among him having a goal that felt very achievable, I thought it would make sense for his friends to want to return to him when he was always going on about wanting to fly.
My notes only had enough content for about 16 chapters where Morlochw was confronted in Chapter 14-ish, but so many of my notes are so vague that they span chapters. "They fought a beast of slumber" can take so many shapes and stretch so many chapters!
Originally, I was going to end the story right after visiting Mom's grave with the line "Because now that he had accepted his mother's death, he could finally start living." Tying up the plot introduced in the very first chapter to the scene in the very last one. But I think it's a little nicer to have the resolution including family and going to sleep with the smile instead of frown. Not a massive difference, but one that shows him progressing after the story.
And to come all the way back to the beginning is the subject of Zalan's Arabic name. Zalan Alasif can be translated as "Upset, the sorry one." An unfortunate name, but very amusing to my parents. BUT, depending on your pronunciation, "upset" can instead be "Shining/Radiant" foreshadowing his Elemental Light and eventual enlightenment from day one. But he's always the sorry one, for missing his mom when he had the chance.
And now for some "what happened to the characters after the fact?"
Enzo goes home to tell his father all about his travels with Magnolia on the way up to Aetheria. His father is enraptured through the entire tale and after the entire ordeal is silent for a long time. After some reflection, he shares a thought that Enzo is more than thrilled to hear. "Perhaps we may ease off from you going out at sea, eh? Recover a bit from that battle with the madman."
Magnolia finds herself drawn back to Captain Buttonwillow McKittrick to continue her time with his crew. The best leader she's been in the company of, Zalan and Rep included. But neither the captain nor Rosemary are keen to be at sea anytime soon. With some annoyance and pressure from Magnolia she discovers it's because she's with child. Both Buttonwillow and Rosemary know they will name the little one "Xavier" if it is a boy. If a girl, Captain Buttonwillow wants to name the baby "Ma," but Rosemary finds the name absurd. Buttonwillow is as astonished as he is surprised.
Finnegan Swift, contrary to his name, takes months to track down and repay every last person he's swindled. By a stroke of fate, Dimak is the last one he has to pay back, with dozens of gold coins for him. Dimak investigates him, and challenges him, thinking that this might be another con from a conman. With enough prying, he hears that Zalan is the one that supplied him the money. At this Dimak laughs. Zalan was a bit mad when it came to his spending, giving both Dimak and Finnegan small fortunes after knowing them for such short periods. They relate over this fact of their old acquaintance, and the past is forgiven. When Finnegan rushes back to Oriton in excitement to tell him of his success, he finds that he's dead. Well, Rep says he "warped to another world," but Finnegan some part in the back of his mind is still convinced Rep lies to mess with him.
Ma is presented with a Nature Elemental as Zalan requested of the Dark Elemental. First looking upon it with awe, she quickly pivots to business. Either the Nature Elemental offers her a challenge, or she'll kill it. She's an Ascended Being, after all. The Nature Elemental provides her a challenge. She, herself, must grow one of every plant in the realm. Having no idea just how many plants there could be, she accepts the challenge without hesitation. Oshrad offers to track down every flora possible, but Ma refuses, knowing a challenge is intended to be completed by only one individual. Instead, Ma's operation is left in his charge while she leaves to travel the realm in search of everything. Oshrad's promotion leads to no changes across Oriton. He acts as he believes Ma would have wanted, providing mercy for few and favors for none.
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Moss rushes to Slauson's hometown as soon as he's warped back by the Homeseeker. All out of breath, he says there's an urgent matter the two of them must attend to. When Slauson asks, he's annoyed to find that Moss wants to convince the realm that the Beasts of Slumber went back to sleep. They're still in a state of paranoia. Slauson really doesn't care. Until Moss keeps asking incessantly, finally getting him when Slauson can't answer the question "is there truly something better that you have going on?"
Soon after everyone warps back home, Yelsa regrets not having taken the Homeseeker to be sent back to her home. The quarry is surrounded by residents of Aetheria, who demand to know what happened. Leaving out some details, Yelsa gives them the truth in a few sentences. Morloch was stripped of his powers and carried off by Elementals, either to be tortured or killed. With a bit of nudging, she's able to get the crowd to see that perhaps Morloch was wrong about his crusade against the surface if the heavens rebuked and carried him off for it. Except for Yelsa's father who thinks there's more to the story despite Yelsa trying to convince him otherwise. More of the same, she supposes.
Not long after, Yelsa climbs her way down the lowest edges of the city in the sky and challenges the Elemental to grant her Elemental Air Power. It offers her the same challenge it did Morloch. She must convince someone to jump off the city. First, she's appalled, thinking she'll never get the power. Then, after a few more weeks of living with her strongly-opinionated father, she wonders if she should convince him to walk off the edge. Quickly, she brushes that idea aside as idiotic and evil. But she hypothesizes a loophole. Waiting patiently, months later, Gorb comes to visit his old friend. She convinces him to walk off the edge and fly back up. He agrees, not sure why she's so insistent. Until he sees the Air Elemental grant her power as he jumps off.
Gorb remains in his hometown with his parents, content with a life on the walls. Despite his mother Opal's coaxing to get back out and climb beyond the Death Levels, Gorb is staunchly opposed to adventuring. He's done his time, and he's happy with the life experience he's gathered. Maybe his own children will take on the mantle of adventuring. At this, Opal pivots and insists that Gorb be wed to every other passing woman of age. With all the patience and stoicism of Gorb, he's glad to deny them all. Until Yelsa catches his eye when she gains Elemental Power.
And Rep returns home to his wife in Oriton. For months, he's more than happy to take a break from adventuring just to patrol the walls and enjoy the company of Junill. After two years of marriage, Junill agrees that Rep isn't content to the life on the walls and can run a few expeditions, given that he's safe. Rep is told of a new Elemental that gives easy challenges and acts as a guide for fresh recruits to the Journey House, as Kilile did for him years before. On one such trip, Rep finds a Realm Summoner, the Artifact with the capability to summon Zalan, or perhaps others from other realms. With months more of searching, Rep finds a Homeseeker as well. He could call Zalan back.
At first Rep is paranoid to use it, even if Junill insists that Zalan would love to see his old friend. Rep puts it off, not wanting to intrude at a burdensome time. Until he has a son, and names him after his best friend. Using the Realm Summoner, Rep's son has to meet his namesake. Zalan is ecstatic.
Upon returning to his world, Zalan first reconciles with his family, knowing how much it would have meant to his mother, plus knowing it would be good for him. After that, he finds himself needing to find a job, as he's still just fresh out of college. Feeling like he has a wealth of experience, he's preoccupied with thoughts of the realm, taking away from the focus he needs in day-to-day life. Instead of trying to ignore it, he embraces it and uses his minor in Computer Science to make video games which take place in the world he traveled through. He doesn't even put effort into lore, he just takes from people he met. Releasing under Zalasif Studios, his first game is a modest success, but his subsequent games are enough to give him a decent living. Baffled by his own success, he sees that his journey through the realm gave him even more blessings than he initially imagined. As he's having the thought, he takes the pill that allows him to be summoned again if Rep chooses. Just in time to meet Rep and Junill's son.
Also to finally answer "what video game was this story based on?" It was Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. Book one is "Docrun's Castle" with the dragon "Hatewing." Book two was a tournament arc. Book three was a travel at sea with a larger-than-life captain. Book 4 is in Nightfall, always in darkness. And book five doesn't take place on the moon, but there's a city in the sky in Paper Mario too. You thought this was a sophisticated setting, that would do better than a 20-year-old GameCube game? Yeah right.
As a very ahead of time reminder, this series will eventually be edited and released on Amazon as a physical copy and ebook. (Edits are underway!) And yes, this series will eventually be made into an Audiobook on Audible (more on book 1 audiobook soon). That'll take some time though, so no stubbing yet
Thank you very much for reading and I hope you all continue into my next series The Hero Unification Entity: The Silent Scream.
If you're really enjoying my work, consider supporting me on Patreon. Sincerely, nothing is more motivating than having backers offering consistent support. You can get up to 10 Advanced Chapters. Yes, by the time this post goes up, Patreon is already a few chapters into my next series!
I also want to add a sincere thanks for the ratings and reviews. Last time I wrote an afterword, I asked for honest ratings/reviews and I got some! Thank you, seriously. It helps so much. Consider updating an existing review or leaving a rating if you haven't already. Makes a huge difference for me as an author.
That's all! Thanks! Still taking the next few days off, then the new series starts. See you soon!
N.T. Lazer