fantasy stage play | Stephanie Flint

A few years ago, while visiting my parents’ house, I found a stage play I attempted to write during college based on my original version of The Wishing Blade series.

It was cheesy.

Really cheesy.

But it was cool seeing which plot points changed and which ones had remained surprisingly similar to the final, published version of Magic’s Stealing and The Shadow War (originally part one and two of the same book).

When I first started writing the story that would eventually become The Wishing Blade series, it was in 2003. (I did a lot of plotting in eighth grade choir).

Eventually, the story got shelved during the later part of high school and college–except for a playwriting class where I decided to try reworking my story idea into a screenplay. While I think I got a decent grade on it, looking back now…

There was way too much going on for a stage play.

However, it was one of my first successful attempts to fully rewrite the original draft and re-envision the story as a whole.

As such, it was fun to read through sections of the play’s draft and see which aspects stayed the same from the original story, and which aspects changed. (Even though several things had already changed from the rough draft to the stage play version).

Here’s a look at what the stage play looked like. As a warning, there are spoilers for the current version of the story. It would be best if you’ve already read Magic’s Stealing and The Shadow War before reading this. However, I’ve tried to make annotations that relate to the series as a whole.

I’ve added my comments in red.

SHEVANLAGIY

(Aside.)

So easy to fool him (Isahna) with half-truths. He doesn’t know why Aifa attacked me, and he does not know who the traitor’s son is. Poor Nihestan got into so much trouble, yet still he lives. Better yet, only a few know how I came to be here. Isahna has an idea, yes, but there’s still so much he doesn’t know… unless he does know and he’s pulling the trick over me…

(Aside from Shevanlagiy monologuing, which happens a lot in the stage play version… Nihestan was Shalant’s original name, and he had connections to Lord Cafrash Menchtoteale. Though hinted at in The Shadow War, the “traitor” aspect has not yet been addressed in the current version of the series… though I think there’s a couple hints of this in Magebane).

(AIFA comes on stage.)

AIFA

You like to make things hard on us, don’t you? Here string magic binds you, and maybe string magic will hold you, unlike the ribbon magic of mortals.

(I was actually surprised that I had string magic referenced this early in the story’s development. The idea that something is wrong with Shevanlagiy’s string magic remains in the current version.)

SHEVANLAGIY

If I’m not mistaken, ribbon magic is the magic of the gods, too. Isn’t it?

AIFA

That… that is true.

SHEVANLAGIY

Sure, string magic can hold me for a time being. But how long before my look-alike pulls a trick that unravels this prison?

AIFA

She doesn’t have that kind of power. And she really doesn’t look that much like you.

SHEVANLAGIY

Close enough. Genetic code is amazing, yes?

AIFA

Genetic what?

SHEVANLAGIY

Heritage. I wouldn’t expect you to know. Though, being a matchmaker goddess, I would think you would be more inclined to know than some of the others. Then again, it isn’t like the gods to try multiverse travel.

(Though I’ve downplayed it in the current version of the story, Shevanlagiy’s travel to other worlds was more prominent in the earlier drafts, as was her tendency to befuddle those around her with her other-worldly knowledge. That being said, the concept of Shevanlagiy visiting other worlds starts playing a much larger role in Magebane.)

AIFA

That doesn’t change the fact that you’re stuck here.

SHEVANLAGIY

Actually, it does. But what’s a minor goddess like you doing with the Time Stone? How are you controlling it? Surely it’s beyond your powers.

(Originally, the shodo’charl was called the “Time Stone.” However, with the introduction of “time stones” in the Distant Horizon universe that Isaac and I write, I decided to change the name to the “stone of passage,” or “shodo’charl.”)

AIFA

It… is trying.

(As seen in the end of The Shadow War, the newer version of the story has it that Aifa’s not having nearly the same amount of luck controlling the stone as we see here. It’s a factor that I intend to play a larger role in the fourth book of the series.)