#or Henry being the new Alderking

[writerfae]

The Knights of the Alder - What if…

…Talon was part of the Knights?

*

When Aiden woke up again, the first thing he noticed was how dry his throat felt. The second thing he noticed was that he wasn’t alone.

The boy from earlier was there, the blonde with the sharp eyes. Talon, if he recalled right.

As the fae noticed that he was awake, he made his way over to the prisoner, perching down in front of him, too close for Aiden’s liking.

“Look who’s finally awake.”

Instinctively Aiden tried to move away, but the rope that tied his hands to the pole behind him held him in place.

Talon smirked. “So you’re the one that caused us all this trouble?”

The boy tilted Aiden’s chin upwards with a finger, amusement shining in his golden eyes.

“I would have expected someone more… impressive.”

Aiden huffed and jerked his head to the side to try and escape the other, but Talon grabbed his chin and turned his head back towards him.

“Did no one tell you that it’s impolite not to look at the person that talks to you?” he scolded.

“Has no one taught you that it is impolite to pester innocent defenseless people?” Aiden pressed through gritted teeth.

Talon regarded him with an expression of mock hurt.

“Pestering you? Oh no. I’m just talking to you, that’s all. Don’t you want to talk? Also,” he let go of Aiden’s chin, letting his finger wander down Aiden’s throat.

“I don’t think you’re as innocent as you claim to be.”

Aiden gulped, suddenly too aware of the dry feeling in his throat. As if the fae had noticed what he was thinking, he stood up and went over to the little desk, returning with a flask in his hand.

“Here.” Standing in front of him, the blonde held out the water bottle.

Aiden’s eyes immediately jumped to the movement of the water inside the clear glass of the flask.

He was thirsty, but he didn’t trust the fae one bit. Who knew what he put in there.

Gathering all his mental strength, he shook his head violently.

Talon rolled his eyes. “You can drink, you idiot.” He nudged Aiden with the flask. “It’s not poisoned or anything. We still need you after all.”

Aiden looked down at the water bottle in the other’s hand. “You could’ve still put something in it,” he mumbled.

The other boy shrugged. “Sure I could have, but I didn’t. If you rather want to dehydrate though, be my guest. I don’t mind.”

With his free hand he reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair out of Aiden’s face. Aiden flinched.

“But you mortals waste away so easily when it comes to things like this, so if I were you I’d drink. Who knows when you’ll get a chance again.”

He held out the flask to Aiden once more. Hesitantly Aiden leaned forwards and drank, eyes not leaving the gold-eyed fae.

The blonde watched him with a smirk. “Good boy.”

After he decided Aiden had enough Talon took the flask away from him and raised it to his own lips to drink.

Aiden’s eyes followed the movement, lingering on the other’s lips for just a second too long, which Talon noted with amusement. He attached the bottle to his belt.

“It’s a shame, really,” he said. “that our lady wants to shed your blood.”

Aiden froze at the mentioning of Morena’s plans for him. The other boy grinned, seeing how his words affected his prisoner, and the look he gave Aiden made him shiver.

“You’re quite cute for an insignificant halfling. What a waste.”

Aiden absolutely refused to blush, not wanting to give that asshole the satisfaction.

His cheeks colored a little anyway and Aiden cursed himself, because there was no way the fae didn’t notice.

Aiden snarled, irritated. He was mad at the fae with the golden eyes, mad at himself for letting him get to him so easily.

“I can’t be that insignificant when you need me to reawaken your stupid king. I bet I am of far more significance for your lady’s plans than you are.”

Talon laughed. “So he does bite back. Who would’ve thought. Maybe there’s more to you than I thought.”

The fae smiled. Leaning down, he whispered close to Aiden’s ear. “Who knows which skills may lie behind this pretty facade.”

“Talon,” a voice from behind them said and Talon pulled away. Aiden couldn’t help but to feel relieved.

“Leave the boy alone,” said a young woman with dark hair that Aiden hadn’t seen before. “And leave, it’s my turn to watch him now.”

“And it was just about to get interesting,” the blonde mumbled, but he turned to the other fae and bowed.

“Very well, Lady Nyx.”

He threw Aiden a mischievous look over his shoulder and winked.

Then he left and Aiden felt like he could finally breathe again.

*

Background info: in this scenario Talon (as well parts of his family) is part of the group who want to reawaken the Alderking (the knights of the Alder).

I had that idea because it might as well be possible, since Talon’s family used to be part of the Alder court before the king fell. And if his father would be interested in getting the family’s former status back, naturally Talon would follow him.

I’m not sure if he’d be fully convinced about the plans though, so it could be possible that something -or someone- could change his mind

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also @pen-of-roses cause you showed interest in this one 🙈

#did I have to make bad guy Talon extra flirty? no #did I do it anyway? yes #cause I firmly believe if it would be like this with everything between them aside he would flirt with Aiden #cause like I said he’s his type #and Aiden is all blushy and so made about it #there’s two possible outcomes of this what if scenario #either Aiden kills Talon later on #or he gets him to join his side #also i accidentally put a spoiler there and not so accidentally left it in #I was thinking about maybe making ‘what if’ a little series of alternate ideas about the story I have/had #like Aiden joining the knights #or Henry being the new Alderking #or other stuff I can’t think of rn #(oh how about a combination of Talon as a knight and Aiden joining them too) #(​it would be like that one song in the Excalibur musical) #(…. the one probably none of you know since it’s a German musical apparently ) #(but since it’s about someone who wants revenge on their brother and helps someone to make him fall so that would be the vibe of this idea #the name of the song is Morgen triffst du den Tod BTW #writer speaks #writeblr #wip: the knights of the alder #what if #what if series (?) #writing #my writing

[writerfae]

Hi! I'm not sure if this counts as a worldbuilding question, and if it's too spoilery, i understand if you don't want to answer, but I'd love to hear more about how Aiden will fit into everything that's happening with the Alder king. Does he just show up and is along for the ride, as the (if I understand correctly) only human, or does he end up being like: DO NOT HURT HENRY, TAKE ME INSTEAD! And the knights do?

Again, sorry if you explained this already!

Hi! Don’t worry, I’ll let all sorts of questions count!

First yes, Aiden is the only human! He sort of gets dragged into this and he doesn’t want to at first, but in the end he decides to go along with it.

One could say he stumbled into it all accidentally, but it’s actually pretty much fate that he ends up in this mess.

You wonder how he fits into the puzzle? Well, first off, he’s a seer and with his special ability he helps the others to get to the Alderking’s sword before the villains do. That’s like the first (and what he thought last) task on his list.

And after that, there’s no turning back tho, even if he wanted to. Because when they get to the sword, it chooses Aiden as it’s new owner.

And how it turns out that is bad for the villains because they need the sword for their ritual, but unfortunately the sword is now connected to Aiden, which is why they need him. And that’s how he accidentally becomes an important part of the plan to reawaken the Alderking.

Also you are not wrong when you say that he’ll get in a “take me, and not Henry” situation 👀

I think this is as spoiler free as possible! I hope this answered your question! And thanks for asking :)

#there’s another way Aiden fits into this but that’s pretty much a big spoiler #writer speaks #writeblr #wip: the knights of the alder

[writerfae]

I didn't know that Knights of the Alder used to be a series (or a plan of one)! Can i hear more about this, please? That sounds really interesting.

I kinda always knew that my story would be a standalone book. That being said: once this is done( and it will be done one day) I do want to write a little one-shot collection of sorts, with all kinds of stories from this world from all over the timeline. How did the characters deal with the aftermath of what happened? What were they up to before the story even took place? What elements of this world did we not have a chance to see in the main book?

I'm just rambling 🤣

But I really do want to hear about this Knights of the Alder used to be a series thing!

Well it wasn’t exactly planned as a series, I abandoned the idea before I could really get into planning it, but it was an idea I considered! That was before I decided a series would be too much work for me, haha.

In the series the Knights would’ve actually succeeded with bringing back the Alderking. Just that for that to happen they needed a new body for him to live in.

That body, unfortunately, would’ve been Henry (for kinda spoiler-y yet kinda obvious reasons). So book one would basically end with Henry becoming the new Alderking, since Rook took control over him and his body.

The other book(s) would’ve been about Aiden and Callan trying to stop the Alderking and bring back Henry.

You see, the situation would be that though Rook took over Henry’s body, Henry’s subconscious would still be there somehow. Him and Rook would be sort of constantly fighting for the control.

Their struggle (Henry coming to the surface occasionally and Rook trying to shut him out) would be one part of the plot, the other would be how Aiden and the others would fight the Alderking and his knights while also trying to save Henry.

That was the idea.

It would’ve included little things like Aiden and/or Callan trying to convince their allies to find a way to stop the Alderking without killing him (and this killing Henry since they are connected), Henry being so protective of his brother and husband that when Rook tries to harm them he fights through to stop him from doing so, a good old “i know you would never hurt me” moment and eventually, Henry winning the upper hand and getting rid of Rook. Stuff like that.

It would’ve been a great parallel to the way the Alderking and the holy alder are connected with each other (and how if one dies so does the other) and allow flashbacks and in general more backstory to Rook, but in the end it was just too big of an idea for me to handle.

I like your idea! Personally I’ve grown to prefer standalone books over series anyway cause those are often just too much for me. Little stories like you mentioned however are an interesting and fun alternative.

Funny enough, I actually plan to do the same if I should ever get done with the main story.

There’s a lot of possibilities with my world after all, i have backstories to tell (Henry and Callan’s story, that of Henry and Aiden’s mother, Runa’s story…), local legends and/or stories that actually happened in the world (the raven brothers, the creation of the world/fae, the old folk…) and possible little short stories with my characters after the story (Aiden and the wild hunt/ wild fae, Henry and Callan’s children…).

And not to forget the wild fae! Theoretically I also have enough possibilities for a second story in that universe as well, so the options are endless.

Oh and you know what I also want to do? A book about my story’s world(building)! Like, short ebtries to the deities and world details and stuff!

See, now I’m the one who rambles xD

I hope i could still give you a satisfying answer to your question! Thanks for the ask! ^^

#writer speaks #writeblr #wip: the knights of the alder #yes the idea was good but consider this: i am lazy #and I hate writing fight scenes and making this a series with that kind of plot would require me to write lots of fight scenes

[writerfae]

Things I changed about The Knights of the Alder

Interested in some extra knowledge? Here it is! Those are original ideas I had but left out/changed as well as options I considered but decided against

Henry and Aiden were originally orphans

Aiden disliked the fae because he accused them of being responsible for his parents' death and Henry's disappearance

Aiden and Halea were supposed to end up together

in the first version of this story, Maya and Talon didn't exist

as I came up with these two later, they were just supposed to be support characters, they didn't accompany Aiden and Halea on their journey

Talon was the character of this story I liked the least, until I gave him a new image now he's my fave

Cameron wasn't a character in the original version either, Morena's right hand was a man named Kenan, her late husband's cousin

Nyx was an only child

Callan was female in one version and his mother's story was his own

for a short time I also considered making Halea a boy

there was a version of the story that was supposed to be a series with several books, where the Knights succeeded in waking the Alderking and he takes over Henry's body to be able to start a war against the other courts (indirectly that kinda made Henry the villain and Aiden had to fight him to get his brother back)

originally, Henry was the name of one of Callan's knights

both Callan and Henry were originally characters of a different story idea of mine, but I recycled them when I threw said story idea out of the window

⭒

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