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Rain Over the Hand's Tower

Ch. 1 · The Weight of the Crown

Opening establishing page: the northern bedchamber at night, Harrison at the window with his back half to the room, Miriel watching him from the writing desk. Nothing has been said yet.
  1. Narration: Harrison came to the Hand's Tower to escape Miriel's shadow. Now the shadow is the room, and the room has one door.
  2. Caption: The Hand's Tower. The northern bedchamber. The ninth night of rain.
Miriel breaks the silence from across the room; Harrison does not turn from the glass.
  1. Miriel: You stand there every night, Harrison. As if the rain could carry you out.
Harrison answers her and turns from the window; Miriel stands up from the desk.
  1. Harrison: It's the only thing in this tower that moves.
  2. Miriel: Everything in this tower moves when I tell it to.
Miriel begins to cross the chamber toward him, unhurried; Harrison's hand comes off the window sill.
  1. Narration: She never hurried. That was the worst of it.
Miriel has closed the distance and stands over Harrison at the window; he has not stepped away.
  1. Miriel: You've been quiet since the evening bell.
  2. Harrison: I've been counting the rain.
Harrison gathers himself and asks to speak; Miriel gives him exactly one word of room.
  1. Harrison: Miriel. I want to ask you for something.
  2. Miriel: Then ask.
Harrison makes his small request; Miriel answers it without moving.
  1. Harrison: My own room. Just to sleep. One night.
  2. Miriel: You have a room.
The room itself answers his request: the bed, the space, the single door. Miriel takes one step closer.
  1. Miriel: You sleep where I can see you breathe.
Face to face: Harrison names what she is doing; Miriel does not deny it.
  1. Harrison: That isn't a room. That's a leash.
  2. Miriel: Then stop pulling on it.
Miriel goes to the writing desk, takes up the heavy iron key and crosses to the chamber door.
  1. Miriel: Nine nights you've watched that door.
The door is locked. Miriel turns her head back to Harrison across the length of the room.
  1. Miriel: Now the storm and I agree about you.
  2. Narration: The lock clicked like a small bone.
Miriel puts out one lantern with a curl of shadow, dropping the room into near-darkness. Harrison does not see her move.
  1. Miriel: Dark is honest. In the dark you can't pretend you're leaving.
Miriel pockets the key and comes back into the room; Harrison asks the question he has been holding.
  1. Miriel: You'll find out what the tower does to things that leave.
  2. Harrison: What happens if I walk down those stairs?
Harrison asks to be told the truth; Miriel refuses him even that.
  1. Harrison: Then tell me. Please. I'd rather know than guess.
  2. Miriel: No. You'd rather hope. That's the part I'm taking.
Miriel closes the last of the distance and lifts Harrison's chin with one finger.
  1. Miriel: Look at me when I speak to you.
  2. Harrison (thinking): Don't look down. Don't look down.
Harrison obeys and lifts his eyes; Miriel is pleased by the smallest possible amount.
  1. Harrison: I'm looking.
  2. Miriel: Good.
Harrison pulls his chin free and backs into the bedpost; Miriel does not follow, and does not need to.
  1. Harrison: You don't have to do this. I'm not—
  2. Miriel: You're not what? Free?
Harrison finally says the thing he came to say; Miriel folds it up and puts it away.
  1. Harrison: I came here because I was tired. Not because I was yours.
  2. Miriel: Those aren't different things.
Miriel advances; Harrison has nowhere left to go but the bedpost.
  1. Narration: He had rehearsed this speech for a week. It lasted four sentences.
Miriel raises a hand and the shadows behind her rise with it; Harrison's grip tightens on the bedpost.
  1. Miriel: Say it again. The part about not being mine.
Harrison tries to say it again and the words will not come out.
  1. Narration: The words had been ready for nine nights.
Miriel reads his silence as the answer and is satisfied by it; Harrison hears himself give in.
  1. Miriel: There. That's the silence I keep you for.
  2. Harrison: You like me quiet.
  3. Miriel: I like you honest.
Miriel steps in until there is nothing between them and sets her hand on the bedpost beside his head.
  1. Miriel: One more thing, and then you may sleep.
Final beat: Miriel leans in to Harrison's ear and gives him the sentence he will live inside.
  1. Miriel: You will not leave this tower until I decide you are worthy of breath.
  2. Narration: It was not a threat. Threats could be argued with.

End of Chapter 1

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Chapter 2 · written, not drawn yet

The Price of Silence

Harrison seeks a sliver of autonomy from Miriel, but she dismisses his pleas with an icy, absolute power that leaves him breathless.

about 24 pages · drawn in about 10 minutes · free for everyone after

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