#StarKnight: Book Two Updates

Another brief post.

The plot outline for Book Two is down to the details. Where it starts and ends is decided. The major points along the way are decided. Now it's taking notes on who is where, and what--in Executive Summary/High Concept format--happens at each point. I still have no clue about a title. Mechanical designs, heretofore not mentioned, are also coming along.

One new character being featured in Book Two is one implied by Reavers but not explicitly named: Count Robin, Gabriela's father. His role in the plot comes from his dissatisfaction with the performance of his cousin--Count Qis--to be his agent regarding Gabriela's security. In cutting off Qis from Gabriela, he's prevented Qis from easily tying up the loose end Gabriela is to him, but Count Robin doesn't know that detail yet. All he knows is that the silver-tongued courtier wrote a check with his mouth that his ass didn't cash, and Count Robin is not one to repeat his mistakes.

Qis also knows that the reason for this familial conflict comes from Lord Roland's report to him on the matter, an influence that had to include not only cutting him off from Gabriela, but to conceal her location from all but Robin and Roland due to concerns of retaliation by Red Eyes or his allies. Qis knows that Gabriela is the only witness to his treason; he has to get rid of her, and he can't kill her due to his deal with Azazel, or the entire jig is up. So his plan is to find her and get her out of the way; he has a Last Resort plan, which Count Robin forces him to use, to make this happen but the consequences of that action don't come until Book Three.

And Roland? He figured out that Gabriela has to be important to the mastermind behind Red Eyes's raid on New Edinburgh and Gabriela's abduction, but he doesn't know who that figure is, so he's using this vulnerability to attempt to flush out the identity of that figure. Part of Roland's aims in Book Two are to discover the mastermind's identity; once done, he's got the clout to push Qis's lord to cast him out and the Church to excommunicate him. (When you're one of the twelve greatest living heroes of Galactic Christendom, your name goes a long way.)