Interesting possibility

Hello there, everyone.
Yes, it has been a long time since I wrote last.  I've been focused as much as possible on my teaching career right now, and this project is on hold - which means that I've been processing things subconsciously, of course.

1)     Concept....I think that Ebbella is actually TWINS!  Ebba, the true Clear topaz sister, and Ella, whom the Heart of Light has gifted differently.   Ella is a extremely rare Pink topaz!  (in RL, pink topazes ARE that rare.  Their crystals are usually so tiny that they are useless for jewelry.  When you do find one large enough to polish and mount, it is quite valuable.  Therefore in the stories, Ella has a variant of the Clear topaz powers.  Haven't worked the details out on that one yet, but I'm sure it will bubble to the surface when I'm least expecting it.
She and her sister are identical, and in the Hidden villages, when you are "gemin", there is a strong tradition of twins trading places continuously.  It means that they both have the same knowledge as each other.
How would they be able to do this?  Heh heh heh.   This one jumped out at me.  They see things that are invisible to most people, even in the Realm of Light.  They would be able to see the tiny EM emissions that are distinctive to different gem-types (which resembles opalsight, which sees every hidden thing, and the Peridot's sense about what Power an individual has.)   That means that, like the Opals, they can see the Hidden Pathways between the Realms. . . . secret trans-dimensional worm-holes that criss-cross the universe in every which way.  The Clear topazes use them to appear and disappear in secret.    Hence, Ebba and Ella are BOTH in the Squad with Elpis.
(I figure one of them has a deep abiding crush on Elpis, too.  ;-)

This little tidbit will not be surfacing in the stories until Elpis reaches the Diamond Realm during his Academy Journey, which is quite a ways off, given that the first book is still being chewed on here.    I just keep filing these little connections away, and eventually they will be able to be woven together.

Thanks for following my ramble.
TTFN

Jeff

p.s. This post resembles one posted a while ago, where the idea of Pink topaz surfaced.  This thought was developed a little further than the last one, imho.

AHHH! A new direction of effort...again!

I love my wife more and more, ya know that. She sees with different eyes, and not the filled eyes I have from looking at the depths of this story for as long as I have. She is truly my peridot...she comes to me and I am empowered by her.


Thanks to her, I am beginning to see that my current manuscript is, in fact, the first two books of my series, schmucked together. Therefore, I'm beginning to look at filling out the first part of the story, up to Topaz's graduation...treating that event as the climax. The adept stories that happen in the second half will certainly be kept, but interspurced with Academy elements.



Back to the drawing board....
 
...this means that all the sensory descriptions that I glossed over can now be expanded to a much greater extent.
...the interactions can be broadened.
...the emotional reactions to things can be revealed more thoroughly
...the Topaz Realm can be explored even more.
 
This burst of revisionist thinking is actually coming from two sources.  The first is my wife's suggestions, of course.  The second comes from having almost inhaled a new book by Orson Scott Card, called "The Lost Gate."   Greatjumpingsquashnibbletsonaflamingkabobstick!   THAT MAN IS A MASTERFUL WORD-SMITH!!!!  It's not my concept, thank goodness, but it does explore a magic system that is fresh and that breathes life into aspects of human history like nothing I've read in ages!  
 

 
Read his stuff.  Now.  Right now.  Find this book, or "Ender's Game" and subsequent books, or anything by the man, and read.  He's that good.  'Nuff said.
 
J.A.Gartshore
 
p.s.  New life is breathed into my stories here, with the need to further expand.  It's exciting, and infuriating, all at the same time.