SPOILER WARNING is in effect as the Pathways in the Dark author commentary continues!

Building Connections

Soriya’s arc in The Medusa Coin was all about building connections. She realizes her secrets from Loren, her lack of trust in handling the Erikson case, hurt their cause and almost caused Loren’s death. That couldn’t happen again.

Her eyes opened to the need for others, something she always wanted anyway. By the end, Soriya walks away from the Bypass to search for a new home.

And she gains an ally in Gilgamesh.

For me, at this stage in her arc, Soriya’s goal is to grow, to humanize, in a city where all kinds of insanity occurs to dissuade her from that. Making friends with Gilgamesh cements their bond by the end of The Medusa Coin.

And it causes her to trust in his presence.

Creating my own problems…

Unfortunately, I knew where we were headed in Greystone. For all my efforts of building up these connections, of cementing friendships for Soriya, I knew I had to end some.

I had to sever ties to push her where she needed to be for A Circle of Shadows.

That became one of the two goals in Connections. How to take Gilgamesh, who has just committed to being Soriya’s ally in the fight ahead, and knock him from the board.

I’ll be honest – I didn’t want to do it. At all.

I had the same fight when it came to breaking up Loren and Soriya. Driving the wedge between them was the toughest choice I ever made. Was it the right one? Absolutely.

Did I struggle with it? Oh, hell yeah.

The same held true in this. Gilgamesh was fun to write. There is untold potential in writing a character that has served as Death for centuries and is suddenly part of the world once again. (I wrote down three separate notes about potential stories while typing this…)

But his presence, his friendship with Soriya, for as much as I wanted it to be there, needed to move in a different direction.

Tearing them down.

Finding cause to do this was tough. Having Gilgamesh run from Soriya at the end, to disappear for fear of what might happen should someone else figure out who and what he is, was probably the toughest scene to craft in the tale.

I went back and forth on the how of it. On the reasons behind each choice.

There was a moment where killing Gilgamesh off made it easier than simply walking away. I didn’t want that. I wanted to know he was still out there, able to be part of the narrative to come.

By tying his fear to his connection with death, by making it about his potential to be exploited and used against Soriya cemented the decision for me. It also based his departure in friendship, in their deepening connection, rather than be abrupt and out of place.

Using the knowledge we learn about Gilgamesh and then tying it to the overarching story playing out in the background strengthened the final choice all the more.

What this means for Soriya down the line comes to light in A Circle of Shadows, this September.