Chapter Text

Foreword

"Take A Gamble That Love Exists..."

2025 was not one of my favorite years. I imagine it was not great for you as well unless you were lucky. I personally found myself out of a job in the games industry after five years working at a major studio and while I wanted to use that spare time for writing like my ongoing Skies of Arcadia novelization (which is coming back soon!) I unfortunately found that being out of work is a career unto itself. Having a prior life in journalism, I at least found time to do freelance work again but that’s not the same as writing fan fic or other creative endeavors. I think I’m a decent writer but I’m not always diligent and so I felt my muscles atrophy as I found myself unable to sit down and do some fiction writing. 

Near the end of the year, I decided I would use some time to catch up on the Trails series and at the start of December I began a replay of Trails of Cold Steel. Imagination sparked by the ongoing events in Zemuria, I started writing some fairly indulgent original character adventures as a way to further engage with the works. This proved very fun! It’s now the end of February and I just finished Trails Beyond the Horizon. Through that process, I wrote 135,415 words about my strange little OC and the ways in which I inserted her into these stories. I was content to leave all this alone and keep it to myself but that’s about 300 pages worth of writing and while it’s a bit slip-shod—I’ve written so much more of the later events than the start, opting to simply drabble down the parts I found most exciting as I went along—I’ve decided to bite the bullet, re-edit the words, and turn this into a more traditional piece of fan fiction. I expect it'll be a bit more "niche" than my other projects.

So here we are. Hi, I'm Harper! And though I've published all kinds of stuff in my life, I kept this one under lock and key until folks convinced me to share it all here. "Take a gamble that love exists..." as they say and put your art out there for the world to see! Well, we're certainly gambling a bit...

Because I’m actually very bashful about this work! It was not written with the assumption that other people would ever see it and as such it is a fundamentally more narcissistic enterprise that what I'd usually share. I wrote this so I could nourish my soul and retrain my hands and brain in the process of sitting down and writing passionately. As I wrote, the nature of the work, which was already self-serving, developed to include the kinds of things you find in stereotypical OC fiction. Special powers, proximity to important peoples/events, even a romance which I did not plan but nevertheless found its way to the page. Hopefully, we can make those things a bit more grounded but as I adjust this story, sifting through what I've written and adjusting it for a public audience, I hope you will accept the selfish nature of the work.

I hope, in fact, that might be part of the fun. Having surprise characters show up earlier, dramatic face offs, a few mysteries, and more. The first two sections (Cold Steel and Cold Steel 2) will stay closer to the stories we know but eventually we'll break out to original side adventures and alt-perspectives on events. All while getting up close and personal with our heroine and also many of our favorite characters.

That's the joy of pulp adventure; let go and swashbuckle with the heroes and you're in for a blast. Let's do that! Let's share an adventure together!

The premise is isekai-adjacent. There is a mystery at play which I reserve the right to leave hazy if I choose. What if someone was gifted with knowledge of the many grand events about to seize Zemuria in the year 1204? What if, through an act of divine shock, someone's life dramatically changed? What does it mean to know the story in advance? Can this person nudge events from time to time to keep things on track? And in a world of Divine Blades, political intrigue, secret societies, and Sept-Terrions where does that someone fit in? Can she help our heroes?

I will tell that tale in flashes and vignettes and short arc, leaving gaps when I want as this is not some grand novelization but the portrait of a single person criss-crossing a path through the tumult upon the continent. A highlight-reel of formative moments. Small flashes of friendship, the occasional battle or tragedy, and more. One drop in the sea of Kiseki melodrama, tracked over the years. Some events will be slightly different but this is mostly about looking at them from the perspective of the Church and the politics therein.

Which is to say the story will be "familiar" but spiced a bit differently! Some action but a lot of internality and character bonding.

This is the story of a piece of my own soul, transplanted into a fictional realm and shaped into a young woman named Avet Weiss. It is a story of a sinner learning to wear the armor of faith and getting entangled in a variety of crises.

 If that sounds interesting and if you’re willing to allow me my fun little indulgences and also permit me some bashfulness, my hope is that you will find a little bit of adventure and mystery.