“You have a boyfriend?” Chris scratched his eyebrow. “Of course you do. I keep looking at you and seeing the teenage girl, but you’re a grown woman and a Torch.” He patted her hand. “For now, they need to do more tests. I’ll be back soon.”
Lyssa gave him another hug. “it doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere.”
Chris smiled and waved. “You did it, Lyssa. You saved me. Always remember that.” He stepped out of the room.
Lyssa dropped her head on her pillow. Despite all the excitement and joy, her body ached, and she was exhausted. “You don’t remember anything weird about the Night Goddess, Jofi?”
“No,” he replied. “Does it matter at this point?”
“I don’t know.” Lyssa laughed. “I’m still alive. Samuel’s alive, and my brother’s alive. You’re right. It doesn’t matter that much to me. Maybe it was just a weird hallucination. The important thing is, we can heal up and go back to doing what we do best.”
“You’re not going to stop being a Torch?” Jofi asked. “You found your brother.”
“It’s always been more than that,” Lyssa replied, “and that bastard Far One took his essence from him. I need to continue the Corti legacy for him, but I don’t mind taking a few weeks off.” She scowled. “Damn. No internet and no phones here. I wonder if Samuel can send a message to Bill for me?”
“I’m dubious the Elder will approve of using shards to contact your Shadow boyfriend,” Jofi replied.
“That’s petty stuff.” Lyssa gave a firm nod. “Next time a strange eldritch entity invades Last Remnant, I’ll let it do its thing.”
“Because you can’t call America?” Jofi asked.
“Sure, why not?” Lyssa grinned. “That and the serious lack of premium strawberry ice cream here.”
“I believe you’re joking, but I worry about the possibility you’re not.”
Lyssa shook a finger. “Don’t. I’m not going to destroy the Society over ice cream. Not today, at least.”
Author Notes - Kal Arron
March 31, 2021
Here we are with three books out of the way. A lot of questions have been answered, and some new mysteries have appeared. Although it’s hard to provide an answer to a plot mystery that’s as satisfying and pleasing as the excitement a reader feels when they’re speculating along the way, I’m hoping you all enjoyed this first plot arc.
Although I enjoyed taking a detour to Last Remnant, I plan to get Lyssa back to the streets of the Shadow world soon. I wanted to provide a glimpse of the kind of lost glory underlying every plan and scheme in the Illuminated Society.
We’ve come a long way from the original concept of a demon hunter from Chicago, but I’m ecstatic with how this storyline has developed. I’ve even happier with how positively it has been received by readers.
Writing, like all art, is a form of baring one’s soul. There’s an inherent vulnerability to the act.
All writers understand they can’t please everyone, and the risk of rejection comes with putting creations out into the world, but your embrace of Lyssa and her adventures has made this whole project worthwhile. A novel with no readers is nothing more than a long, drawn-out way to talk to oneself.
I’ve enjoyed developing this world and characters along with Mike, and I’m grateful for the editorial and beta reader feedback that has made this book was it is.
There are plenty of stories remaining to be told about Lyssa and the Illuminated Society, and I hope I’ll be able to keep you entertained.
Thanks again for reading!
Kal
Please note you can contact me at [email protected]. If you want to be added to my new releases mailing list, please go to https://kalaaron.com and fill out the form on the bottom of the page.
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
April 2, 2021
Thank you for reading through this story to the author's notes here in the back!
I’ve had an interesting learning week, and the other thing I delved into was Unreal Engine for building movies.
I’ve been working on this concept for what seems like years. Well, technically, it IS years. However, the process has been very slow.
For example, the first covers we built related to doing entertainment with digital actors was the series Protected by the Damned (Click here )
You see Katie on the front cover, and later, you will see Pandora as well. These are two examples of models LMBPN owns that we have used to play in the background.
WHY PLAY?
Well, the short answer is being on the bleeding edge is @#T%@#% (read hellishly, pun intended) expensive.
LMBPN has grown by self-funding our company to the tune of easily over a million dollars a year for the last couple of years. We don’t have the extra funds to play in what was a bleeding edge area of technology.
But we were—sort of.
I have been spending between $60k-$100k a year on efforts to learn more about the technology by hiring someone and having them learn while also working on projects that helped sell books, like creating covers.
I’ve used some of our R&D projects in advertising.
Frankly, anytime I could use what we needed to play with in some form or capacity for generating income, I would. The Protected by the Damned series is the answer to us working with 3D models but using what we were learning to generate covers and 3D assets we could use later too.
Also, acquisition of resources.
To do covers, you need a LOT of purchased 3D assets (guns, buildings, vehicles, clothes (so many clothes!) and special effects). Over the last three years, we have accumulated a pretty large selection of software, hardware, and digital assets for our little—and I do mean—studio.
I’ve used the time to learn more in small pieces as my mental capacity allowed me to go play. I’ve spent time learning about purchasing music compositions, and LMBPN has built up a name for doing
