Some character background for my novel The Secret Apprentice…
Goodwin is a bit of an idiot.
It’s not because he’s illiterate and has no education whatsoever. That’s normal for someone living on the streets of Kingston, the capital city of the kingdom of Caulador. It’s more about the fact that he still has a blind faith in the goodness of the King, the Lords, and the Manassi wizards who keep them in power. The others in his street gang have little love for those who stand over them and don’t hesitate to lie and thieve to survive. But Goodwin has somehow managed to hold onto his faith in Osa the Magnificent (their creator god) and his earthly servants the Manassi. His first young love, tragically cut short by her death, installed this in him.
Goodwin reluctantly goes along on an egg-stealing adventure resulting in his arrest and sentencing to community service. This is how he stumbles into one of the wizards, who senses Goodwin is a Champion with un-awakened superhuman abilities destined to destroy the evil threatening the land. This is all a great surprise for Goodwin and entirely overwhelming for him. His clumsy terror of everything slowly fades away as his powers grow on the journey to face the ‘evil’ sorcerer Anudala, who is actually a young woman leading a democratic rebellion against the King. His experiences erase his ignorant idealism, leaving the question of whether he will kill or join Anudala when he finally meets her.
Anudala wasn’t supposed to be the face of a revolution.
She was an unassuming handmaiden in the King’s castle, one of the beleaguered adolescents responsible for the spoiled and nasty little girl Princess Megan. Anudala faced her share of traumas at the hands of the corrupt Kingsmen guarding the castle. One day she was rescued from them by the Manassi wizard Baraka. Baraka made her his own servant to protect her and began to secretly teach her how to awaken her dormant abilities as a Champion. Baraka was openly disgusted with the corruption and cruelty on display everywhere. Anudala not only admired him… she fell in love. Baraka was forbidden from such things, but he revealed hidden secrets to her and Anudala’s power grew until it finally became too great for even him to ignore. The confrontation ended with Baraka slain, an impossible feat, and Anudala fleeing to the neighboring hostile kingdom of Ardenae. She swiftly became a great leader and found likeminded brethren in the Arden. Now, she is ready to lead their armies in a final invasion of Caulador… not to destroy it, but to liberate it.
Her past still haunts her, however. Anudala has risen above everything but remains a driven woman incapable of trust or happiness. She will never love again… and she will sacrifice everything to liberate the world from injustice. No matter who she has to kill to do so.
derekbeebe.wordpress.com 