abraxasnet | @everyone

This is Kell again.

Since you were all helpful beyond words (I mean it, seriously. I'm not being sarcastic here) with my previous request, I have one more.

I was able to find a mage who would produce my books, and she won't charge me all of my worldly possessions for it. However, I have encountered two problems.

Problem number one,
I must tell her how many copies I want her to make. Which would be easy to answer if I could just have made as many as fits in the amount of money I have. Thing is, I don't want to spend everything only to end with a box of books sitting under my bed and gathering dust.
I was talking to one of the bookshops, and they asked me how many people I expect to buy it. I had no idea what to tell them. So what do you think?

Problem number two,
I had to take out one of the stories. The reasons behind are quite sensitive and complicated, but I decided not to publish it. Which means I now have four and am one story short of a whole book. Here are the ones that I have:

1. Two werewolves from packs divided by a generational feud try to make things work for them in spite of their families being mortal enemies.

2. A noble lady getting invited to a Fey masquerade ball and meeting a handsome lord in a rose maze who steals her heart. Only that after the ball ends, she still doesn't know who he is and how to find him. She tries nevertheless.

3. A young magical researcher of untold wisdom and beauty, who on one of her research trips gets lost in a dark forest and finds an injured being she thinks to be a minor spirit of nature. The spirit turns out to be an exiled queen of her own realm that fled from her traitorous sister, who gravely injured her.

4. A young prince turned into a frog by a jealous princess who he was supposed to marry but turned down because he did not love her. Saved by a mysterious assassin sent by his own parents, who think their son is dead and the frog-headed monster is terrorizing their country.

Any ideas what should go as the last one? I'm aiming for a consistent theme here, though I'm not sure if I'm getting it through.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kell.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Kell nods. He doesn't interrupt and doesn't ask for clarification at first. It seems obvious to him this Eärendil must have been a prince, and there must have been strife in his homeland if he was chased away, and that family problems where not the only trouble the prince had. There's a sense of bigger danger. The dark Elrond speaks of. To Kell it feels eerily familiar. How is it that there's always some darkness looming over otherwise perfectly fine lands? While not exactly the fall of Black London, the situation does strike a chord.
Kell waits with his questions until the elf has finished.]

Why was he chased away from his home? Was he expecting to find someone in particular across the sea that could help him?

[Other kingdoms perhaps? Sympathetic to his cause.]

[ elrond sighs, the whisper of the wind. ]

No kingdom was stable. All that was good and golden crumbled quickly from the finger of the dark. And the servants of the dark could not abide the line of Eärendil surviving.

[ nor could his kinsmen, sadly. though elrond is well treated and well regarded, beren and luthien upheld in song and deed, he is still a peredhel. like his father and his father's father. a line mixed with the race of men. ]

And he had hoped to find the Valar, beings of great power who kept their distance from the war of Middle-Earth.

[This. Right here.

The words flow like a silver river, evoking images, feeling, sights. The sorrow of the fall. The pain of witnessing good things crushed under the fist of malice.

Kell stares, listening in silence. The tales Elrond weaves is barely few sentences long, and yet somehow it already manages to get through the hope and desperation of the events that transpired. Kell feels his heart sink. What chance does he have competing against such mastery? Thing is, it's not even on his mind right now. Right now, Kell needs to know if the man succeeded. He really hopes he did.]

Did he find them?

[ elrond can't help but smile. ]

He did. After much travel, he steps onto the shores of Valinor. However, this island had barred its entrances to all those who hail from Middle-Earth and they were wroth. They would have flung him away if not for his impassioned plea for the people. Through his stout heart and his sacrifice to forgo his own life, his future and the golden shores of his people, the Valar listened.

And thus, they took to their ships to banish the shadow.

[Relief, genuine relief, and hope. Hope that even in the darkest hour there's a way out as long as people in it do not give into despair, but are willing to make sacrifices.
This what the story leaves him with. Kell lets out a sigh, realising in hindsight that he must have been holding his breath waiting for the conclusion.]

I have no idea if I'm ever able to get near the way how you just told it, but I can promise you my absolute best attempt... and leave to you to decide how well I have done this.

I'm no expert on stories, or people, but I think I can see it would be told often.

[It's unusual of him to just let go of expectations of excellence. To let go of anything. Belief in his abilities the most. Too just entrust the judgement to someone else. But it is no ordinary story, so no wonder the reaction it causes is quite extraordinary.]

[ his smile is like a crescent above the sky. ]

I think it is enough that a story is told by anyone. Regardless of their expertise level.

@everyone

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wrap here? they surely will meet again

sounds good!