Your friendly neighborhood SPOILER WARNING here! I will be discussing the plot of Collateral in detail including the threat behind the story so you have been sufficiently WARNED…
Finding the threat
I stumbled out of the gate on this one. Usually I’m quick to know the threat of a story. I like to have it worked out before I start putting plot to paper.
To start, I focused on what I knew.
This was Loren and Soriya’s show. Their dynamic, more than anything else in the series, has been the driving force of each and every book. So I needed their case, their shared menace, to be solely about where they were at this moment in time.
Loren was reeling from the gut punch of learning Soriya was present the day his wife died. Another secret, one too many kept from him.
Soriya, during The Medusa Coin, learned that trust is necessary to make their relationship work. Oops…
I wanted to play with those crossed wires and really charge each scene with Loren’s anger and Soriya’s constant joy at just being near him again after his close call with the Charon.
The second piece I had was the background of the threat’s arrival. Henry Erikson. His actions in The Medusa Coin set off this tale. His research into saving his own skin brought something to Portents that should never have been there.
Thus my search began. What was it? What could it mean for this specific story? For these two particular characters?
Finding the Phoenix
Yes, I am a fan of the X-Men. No, this had nothing to do with that.
In my search through a database of mythical creatures I tried to dissuade myself from using a phoenix. Because of the X-Men, because of its constant use through media.
Yet, it was because of this use that the phoenix ended up working perfectly.
The Phoenix as this life-giving force, this creature of light, twisted by her arrival into Portents was meant to prove counter to Soriya’s journey. Throughout The Medusa Coin and even before that, Soriya viewed herself as a force of destruction; offering little more than death.
Here, she tried to save the day, tried to save the city and this creature who was meant to do the same stood in her way. Soriya is forced to play her dark role for the betterment of Portents.
At a cost.
The innocence of the Phoenix, her reasoning behind her actions really drove it home. She is trying to help people live to their fullest in spite of causing their deaths. The fact that she can’t understand the pain being caused by her actions and that Soriya has to intervene in the harshest way possible made it that much brutal.
Maybe there is no real light, no real victory to be had in this fight.
The toughest one to pull off…
I struggled with this tale. More than any other in the collection. For me, the joy of writing the series is the interplay with the characters. To see Soriya and Loren at odds, to feel the tension in the background the entire time, was difficult to manage and more difficult to conceive.
I think it worked though. And I definitely think it was necessary to push these two further apart, which is where they are when A Circle of Shadows opens.
What are your thoughts? Shoot me an email at lou@loupaduano.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
