A warm welcome to author Andi Van joining us today to talk about their new Release “Magic Fell”.
Welcome Andi 🙂

Before I get started: Magic Fell isn’t a romance. It has a romantic sub-plot, but overall it’s a high fantasy adventure.

[waits]

Still with me? Okay then.

You might already know the backstory behind this. A novel written on request from a beloved grandmother. A once-popular role playing forum set in a mages’ guild. If I were the type to make bad puns, I might say the combination was…magic.

…

Sorry. I’ll try not to do that again for the duration of the post.

Magic Fell is the first in a trilogy that centers on Tasis Kadara, his adopted sister Zaree, and their friend Kelwin. Oh, and the cat. K’yerin would happily tell you that he’s the most important character in the book.

I wanted to write some short pieces to share with you during this blog tour, but as this is the first book, it took me a while to figure out what I could write that wouldn’t involve spoilers. And then it hit me – why not write the very beginning?

In the prologue, you witness the end of the guild, a millennium before Tasis is even born. The leader of the guild at that point in time is a woman named Trivintaie, who washed up on the isle’s beach when she was a young woman. I thought it might be fun to write a few short pieces set before the prologue, starting from when Triv washes up, to give everyone a better feel for what exactly is lost when the guild is destroyed.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a paperback or ebook copy of Magic Fell! I’ll be pulling winners on May 29th.

***

“I’m leaving.”

Triv looked up from her desk to see Falcon standing at the entrance to the room, the enormous bird of prey that was her familiar perched on her shoulder. Triv had no idea how she could handle the weight and claws of the bird, but she made it look easy.

Triv sighed and leaned back in her chair as she stared at the other woman. “I should have expected this,” she said at last, “but that doesn’t make me any less disappointed.”

Falcon narrowed her eyes. “Fuck you,” she snarled. “Did you really expect me to stick around once you announced you were going to marry Corrin? You know how I feel about you.”

“And you know I don’t return those feelings,” Triv told her. “I’ve made that very clear in hopes of avoiding this exact situation. You’re a good friend and a brave ally, and I hate that you feel this is your only option.”

Falcon shrugged the shoulder her familiar wasn’t perched on. “Well, it is. It’s my only option.”

“All I can do is hope you rethink this,” Triv answered, doing her best to remain calm. Falcon was a friend, for the Maker’s sake. She didn’t want to lose a friend.

“I won’t,” Falcon said. “And you likely won’t see me before I go, so…goodbye, Triv.” The woman snorted, giving Triv a glare that was part anger and part anguish. “She’ll leave you too, you know, seeing as how she’s also in love with you. Your apprentice.”

“Josephina and I have already had that discussion,” Triv said. And that discussion had been far less awkward than this one.

Falcon gave her a derisive snort, but declined to comment as she turned and walked away, nearly running into Corrin as she did. Once the woman was out of sight, Triv began to rub at her temples.

“What was that all about?” Corrin asked, shutting the door behind him.

“Falcon’s leaving,” Triv answered, letting out a sigh when Corrin came around the desk to let her lean against him. “Why am I the villain in this?”

“You’re not,” her fiance assured her. “But she’s hurt. Let her work through that. Maybe, once she’s had some time, she’ll come back.”

“Maybe,” Triv echoed, though she didn’t really feel it. “She told me Josephina would leave, too.”

Corrin snorted. “Not that girl. She knows how things stand, and she’s told you she’s content to remain friends. She’d give her life for you if she had to.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Triv said. Somehow, it felt like her foundation was beginning to crumble, and she didn’t like it one bit.

Blurb:

Past and present are about to collide, and the world will never be the same.

Magic has been missing from the world for a millennium, and it’s needed now more than ever. It falls to young Tasis Kadara to revive the fabled Mages Guild of the Dragons Claw. But in a culture where arcane power is forbidden and practitioners are executed, Tasis will have to keep his own aptitude for magic secret. With nothing to direct them besides bizarre dreams and a mysterious cat, Tasis and his sister Zaree undertake a quest to discover the hidden island that was once home to the guild.

Kelwin Tiovolk departs his village following his mentors suggestion. As an elf wandering into human civilization, he’s in danger simply for being who he is. A brawl at an inn leads him straight into the path of the young man he’s been dreaming about, and he’s compelled to help Tasis and his sister any way he can. Together, the trio might have a chance of accomplishing their mission or the attempt might kill them.

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Thunder rumbled overhead. Tasis’s body felt as if it had been pricked by a thousand needles, much like his limbs had fallen asleep and were in the process of waking back up. He shivered, more from fear than cold, and stood silently. After a moment the feeling faded. When nothing else happened after a few minutes, he said the phrase again, his voice taking on a firm edge.

The room glowed faintly with the words, as if another candle had been lit. Tasis’s eyes widened, but he said the phrase again, this time feeling as if he were unable to stop the words from escaping his mouth. He repeated it once more, then twice, and it quickly became a chant. The room seemed to fill with light, and Tasis had to shield his eyes. His vision started to blur, and he felt as if he were being physically pulled by the words. As he chanted the walls began to crackle as if charged with the lightning outside.

He was yelling the words now, though he was unaware of it. The only thing he was aware of was the pull and the feeling of energy draining from his body. He tried to shut his eyes against the blinding light but found he couldn’t. His body began to tremble, and he was quite sure he was going to pass out if he couldn’t stop. There was another clap of thunder over the house, and the crackling energy in the walls seemed to gather tightly into itself.

Tasis’s knees gave out, and he landed on the floor. The energy imploded, and as he began to lose consciousness he could see a strange hole of some sort hanging in midair. Something emerged from the hole, and he heard the familiar voice speak to him once more.

It certainly took you long enough.

With that, Tasis was thrust into blissful darkness.

Tasis was standing on the cliff, but he wasn’t alone. He could see himself standing there, facing an army. No, it wasn’t him, he realized after a moment. It was the woman from the first dream, and the likeness was uncanny, despite the fact the woman in front of him was obviously human. The man leading the army yelled something at the woman, but Tasis couldn’t hear him. It was like trying to listen to someone speak underwater. The woman had a defiant look on her face as she yelled something back at the man before turning and raising her arms. The wall of water rose from the sea and hovered above them for a brief moment before it began to crash down.

Tasis woke screaming, only to find himself in bed with Zaree hovering over him. “Thank the Maker,” Zaree cried out, throwing herself at him. “You finally woke up.”

Tasis sat up and put his hands to his face as he began to sob. Where the tears came from, he wasn’t sure, but Zaree held him tight as he did. “You’ve been out cold for two days,” she said softly. “I came home to find you on the floor, and the healer couldn’t figure out what might be wrong with you. I didn’t know what to do.”

Tasis wiped his eyes and gave Zaree a horrified look. “Two days?”

Zaree nodded, leaning her forehead against his. “Nothing would rouse you. The oddest thing happened, though. When I came home, there was a strange-colored cat sitting on our porch. When I opened the door, he came straight to your room and sat down right next to you. He seemed friendly enough, so I let him stay. We could use a cat anyway, to keep mice out of the pantry.”

Mice? The voice in his head sounded indignant. A silver tabby cat—who actually looked vaguely purple, Tasis realized—jumped onto the bed and butted its head against his arm. Tasis reached out mechanically and stroked it between the ears, earning himself a loud purr as the cat settled into his lap, looking pleased with itself.

“We ought to name him if we’re going to keep him,” Zaree noted as she gave the cat’s ears a fond rub.

“K’yerin,” Tasis said immediately, not sure how he had known. “His name is K’yerin.”

Zaree hummed thoughtfully before giving a quick nod. “I like it. K’yerin it is.” She cleared her throat and glanced over at Tasis. “Do you remember what happened before you passed out?”

“I was….” Tasis paused as a flash of memory came back to him. The walls glowing and crackling, a thunderclap, a hole in midair. All centered around one phrase.

“What is it?” Zaree asked, sounding even more worried than before. “What were you doing?”

Tasis sighed heavily, rubbing his face with his hands before looking down at the cat in his lap. K’yerin looked up at him, and Tasis could swear the feline was smirking at him.

“I think I was doing magic,” Tasis said in a heavy voice.

Zaree went pale. “Oh dear,” she said for lack of a better expression. “That could cause problems.”

Tasis sighed again and leaned back in bed. “Don’t I know it.”

K’yerin merely purred.

Andi Van is a foul-mouthed troublemaker who lives near San Diego with a small fluffy thing named Koi, a baseball bat that’s forever being used for things other than baseball, and a fondness for rum and caffeine (though not necessarily together).

Andi is fluent in three languages (English, sarcasm, and profanity), and takes pride in a highly developed”if somewhat bizarre”sense of humor.

E-mail: andi@andivan.com

Website: http://www.andivan.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/defiantandi

Twitter: @DefiantAndi

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