Living in a Rewrite of My Own Book World

Just one chapter left. It’s amazing what goes through your mind when you’re dying. I had taken a break and gone to the nearest convenience store to buy a boatload of chocolate to celebrate writing the last chapter to the last installment of my book series. When I started to write this story of swords, magic, and court intrigue a couple years ago, I could have never dreamt that the books would get published and that they would actually be popular. Of course, that just meant for the last book of the series, the pressure was on to write a good ending. Even though most of the fan mail I got was surprisingly encouraging, I could sense the inpatient desire for the next and final book. The ending better be worth it. I could read the message clearly in between the lines. But despite multiple setbacks, a couple mini nervous breakdowns and one bad tequila binge that I hoped everyone would quickly forget, I had written

It was Autumn’s 16th birthday. I woke her up, dressed her, and styled her hair, just like a proper lady’s maid. All the while I kept up a running commentary, prepping her on who would be at the party. We would be surrounded by allies, enemies, and people on the sidelines, and Autumn needed to be aware of who could be charmed, who could be bought and who needed to be ignored. Fortunately after two years of Head Maid Gertia’s boot camp from hell, I knew exactly how to coach her.  Autumn endured my lecturing without complaint. She really was a sweet girl, with a quiet temperament but strong morals. I thought she was adorable and felt inclined to protect her. I had felt similarly when I was writing her character. I thought the calm sweet way she approached things was fitting of the protagonist of my story, and made sure she would have a beautiful romance and a happy ending. Fortunately those feelings didn’t fade even

The Duke stared at me in confusion. It was understandable, I suppose. Magic was a rare talent, one that showed up rarely even among the nobility, much less so among the common people. For a servant to have magic talent would be extremely unlikely. I saw his mind working, and he must have remembered that I came from a noble family, although only a Baron, for he asked me quietly.  “You underwent aptitude testing?”  Every noble child in the world underwent aptitude testing. It was a simple test, the child simple placed their hands on a crystal sphere, and if they had any talent for magic, globes of light would appear around them. The number of globes was an indication of their magical power. Among people who did have magical talent, 1-2 orbs was considered average. The prince had 6 orbs appear when he tested, the Duke currently held the record at 10 orbs. When Autumn had attempted, her magic nullifying ability had destroye

Things did not go as planned when we arrived in the Capital. To be fair, my expectations were based off of the book plot. In the story, the protagonist met a lot of resistance among the nobility, who were jealous of her favored status with the prince. Katrina of course, worked furiously behind the scenes to make friends with anyone who disliked Autumn and fan the flames as much as possible. This meant it was my time to shine, when I could masquerade as the worthless antagonist side character while protecting sweet little Autumn from anyone who would go against her. At least, that’s how it was supposed to happen.   Everything went wrong right from the start. I had prepared extensively for our arrival. We were to act out the scene from the book, where Katrina tripped Autumn on her way out of the carriage. Autumn would be unhurt but embarrassed, while Katrina would be securely placed within the “anti-Autumn” faction.

It took a little bit of time, but eventually I pulled myself together. No matter how the plot changed, or how terrified I was, I could not let Autumn get kidnapped tonight. That was the only path I refused to go down. All I could do was trust in my preparations.  I got changed, leaving the blue ball gown behind and changing into my black sparring clothes. I tied my hair back and wrapped my hands to protect my fists. Poisons went in one pocket, antidotes in another. I strapped knives to my arms, waist and legs. Feeling better now that I was armed head to toe, I went in search of Captain Alexander.  When Autumn and I had first come to the capital, he and a group of the guards I frequently sparred with all volunteered to follow us and arrange for security. Although not thrilled about losing the captain of his guard, Autumn’s father agreed that in the end, his daughter’s safety took first priority. I was thrilled to have a