Step 1.2
Read the blurb + Story about the story
What the Crone whispered
Blurb:
Panithea is the king’s weapon, the sword in the hand of a madman. A lady in name only, she is owned by King Malric, who uses the love for her friends as the bonds of her ruin. As commander of the Right Hands, Pan helps Prince Adrian hold Drukha together using a secret gift that lets her see into the minds of whomever she touches, stealing their skills.
But nothing is working. The Rues raid every winter, and a broken treaty has left Drukha on the brink of starvation. With each passing day, Malric grows more paranoid and unhinged. Now, people are vanishing, leaving behind nothing but blood and unanswered questions. All signs point to monsters; the kingdom is living on borrowed time.
Then their ill-woven fates bring them Kaelen.
An emissary Pan cannot touch, carrying secrets she cannot reach, offering aid at a price they cannot afford to pay. His presence draws Malric’s cruel gaze toward the people Pan would die to protect. Every breath and easy smile starts to cost Pan in a very permanent way, as the hope she is barely holding on to starts to slip.
As the monsters close in and the gods begin to watch, Pan must make impossible choices. But as a slave, she never had many to make. Now, the fate of her world rests on the ones she chooses.
Story about the Story:
“Life is the sum of all your choices.” Albert Camus
What the crone whispered is a dark fantasy based on a loose retelling of Pandora’s Box. It was born from a question posed to me by my psychology professor: If life is the sum of our choices, where is the line between what people, society, and systems do to us and our choices? Can our choices truly define us if they are shaped beyond recognition by forces outside our control, especially when we cannot even recognise them as choices at all?
With that paradox of autonomy in mind, I created a dark fantasy about a woman who seemingly has no choice at all and took her on a journey to answer that question.
Panithea, or Pan to the few who dare call her friend, is a slave to a tyrannical king, Malric. She is owned. Used. Brutalised. Weaponised and forged into a sword wielded in the hand of a madman. Who uses her empathy and friendships as the very bonds that keep her chained.
On the surface, the premise is straightforward: her kingdom, Drukha, is starving after a neighbouring power cuts off trade, and they will not survive another year. Raiders descend every winter like clockwork to pillage what little remains. But most disturbingly, people have begun to vanish in brutal attacks that leave behind nothing but blood, and all signs are pointing to monsters in the forest. Political tension sharpens when an emissary from the rival kingdom arrives, offering to restore trade they desperately need but only at a price they cannot afford to pay.
But Kaelen brings more than diplomacy; he brings instability that starts to threaten everyone and everything Pan is trying to keep safe. She is ordered by Malric to use her secret ability on him: touch his skin, access his mind and uncover secrets…or else. Pan can feel his secrets and tastes his lies, yet the bastard never removes his gloves. As romantic tension builds and Malric’s threats tighten, Pan is forced into a new series of choices: vulnerability instead of fear, trust instead of suspicion, and hope instead of survival. And ultimately, where is the line when enough is enough?
As external obstacles mount – assassins, dark magic, the monsters revealed, a dark sect intent on ending it all and what is truly waiting to devour their world. Pan must decide who she is: the monster a madman created or the shield in front of everything living.
The novel explores three central themes, all dependent on the construct of choice:
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Healing – isn't always soft and gentle but can also be resistance and an act of defiance. I wanted to challenge a recurring dark fantasy assumption: that suffering automatically ennobles. It does not. Trauma does not grant wisdom by default. Growth occurs only when a person chooses not to let their wounds define them, and it is not pretty.
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Vengeance – against those who harm us, against unjust systems, and against the very idea that destiny is fixed. It asks the question, why do we let people hurt us? And where is the line between what we are willing to do to reclaim our power and get revenge for our pain?
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Weaponised empathy – as a form of manipulation, and whether we can still choose to keep our empathy when it has been systematically used to control us for the benefit of others.
This novel is planned as a series that will take its characters to the depths of despair, to the bowels of moral reasoning and to the brink of total world annihilation. Where they must search for the last thing left in Pandora’s box after all evil has escaped: hope.
Because if life is the sum of our choices, then the end of the world is merely the moment when those choices have to become action, and the consequences are finally realised.