The Crystal Crux Series tale unfolds in ten days over five books.
Betrayal
Blue Grotto
Cold Knight
Shimmer
Beautiful

Today, August 20, 2026
is exactly 828 years after the Eighth day in my book series.
The year was 1198.

I decided early on to begin each day of the series with a scripture I felt sort of captured the essence of something major happening in the story on that day.

On DAY Eight, Pero leaves Eliade, flying on the qilin Aerion. He returns to Capua in the dead of night to find it deserted, inhabited only by the shades of the those who were massacred after he left.
Francis Whitehall is on horseback, making his way back across Italy with a hundred Englishmen.
Anthea Manikos senses her impending death as the giant magician Sinibaldus has stopped visiting her, and the sunny plains of plenty where they had their talks have not returned.
She is alone in darkness, in ankle high water, despairing, her memory fading, wondering when and if this nightmare will end.
Occasionally, streaks of gold lightning will move through the sky around her, until one becomes a shimmering face of child.
Anthea begs her not to leave her.
The child says she is a servant come to care for her, but Anthea can’t feel her presence or see anything more of her than her shimmering face.
The child says she has been told that the woman she is caring for is blind.

I am counting down all ten days in a row this week and offering up one of my favorite passages from each day.

The excerpt below is Anthea and the child with the shimmering gold face speaking.

“Tell me what you see, Salva.”
“You are in the palace, my Lady. In Suadela.”
“Suadela?” Anthea gave the word some thought and the image of a man with a bear’s face appeared in her mind. “I know this word, but I don’t know what it means. Does it have something to do with a bear?”
“A bear, my Lady? No. Suadela is a goddess of romance and love. There are some carvings of her in the wood of the hall near the hearths.”
“I can’t see the hearths in the hall, Salva.”
“We are on the patio outside the hall.”
“Tell me what you see, Salva.”
“I see the sun, my Lady. It is summer and it is warm. I love summer.”
“I love summer also, although I cannot see the sun. I can’t see anything. Or feel anything.”
“I was told you are blind, my Lady. Your eyes are strange and grey. I can’t describe them. I have not the words.”
“I think I should be scared, Salva.”
“I would be.”
“But I am not, not really. I can’t describe how I feel. It’s as if I don’t really exist but am trapped in a dream.”
Excerpt from Beautiful

I’ll be back to post something about DAY NINE tomorrow.
Until then, stay inspired and keep reading!