Infernos Mirror

In April of 2021, I started writing a Red Queen fanfic that I completely forgot about but I found it again. So I'm going to post it on here despite it being about an OC and only 1,097 words. I think I was writing it for wattpad maybe? Its chapters so yeah. Also I think I was writing it as a slow burn with Maven- a very slow burn. Anyways, sorry for ranting. Here's the first chapter. Enjoy :)

The tears are fake. A room full of highly educated Silvers and nobody seems to notice that the tears are fake. My eyes roam for a moment, jumping between the Nobles ahead, the guards behind, and my best friend beside me. Ultimately, they land where everyone else is looking. Queen Elara, drying her eyes of fake tears with a piece of cloth that is probably worth more than me.

Why she is crying is even more unbelievable than the tears themself. “This morning we saw a miracle. We watched a red girl fall into the arena like a bolt of lightning, wielding power she should not have.” Elara pauses for theatrics and to wipe away another forced tear.

“The king and I interviewed the girl extensively, trying to discover how she came to be.” I look towards my friend Mare, the fallen red girl, knowing she would have a reaction to this. After all, they did not, in fact, interview her, they ripped open her brain as they did to me 10 minutes later. I cringe at the memory of just a few hours ago and I see Mare have a similar reaction before the Queen speaks again.

“During this interview, we found another impossibility, another red girl; with abilities like ours. Two impossibilities, two sisters.” The silence of the room breaks and people start whispering to each other. About the fallen red girl and her supposed sister. And of course, that sister is me. Myself and Mare aren’t really sisters, but the lie makes our powers seem more realistic than the alternative.

“They are not red, but they are still miracles. My friends, please welcome back to us Lady Mareena Titanos and Lady Koralyne Titanos, daughters of Ethan Titanos. Lost and now found.” The Queen waves us over and we obey, hearing the applause as we get closer.

‘Koralyne Titanos’ is not my name. My name is Kory. Kory Dennings.

The moment before we dive face first into a sea of Silvers, Mare takes my hand in hers and I give a reassuring smile, hoping to calm her nerves a bit. I’m worried for our fake lives to be public but I’ve had more practice at hiding my emotions. Mare, not so much.

I’m glad our guards don't follow us out. I’m enough of a spectacle with the Queens story and the extravagant purple and silver dress they shoved me into. Apparently, in the world of wealth and power, each house has colours; the House of Titanos’ colours are Purple and Silver, hence the semi matching dresses Mare and I are wearing. Along with layers and layers of White paint to hide our natural dark skin. To make us more like a Silver.

The Queen gestures us into some empty seats in the front row of the crowd, I sit down as quickly as I can while still trying to keep up some sort of Silver Mask. The Queenstrial girls watch us probably wondering why we are so important and if we are going to steal the precious Calore Princes from them.

I mean, it is quite fitting. Two “miracle sisters” with two royal brothers, but that's not what's going to happen. Mare is about to pledge herself to Maven, the younger Calore brother. While the heir to the throne, Tiberias Calore The Seventh is going to do the same with a girl named Evangeline Samos who almost killed Mare and the reason we are here.

“Saved from their parents' fate, Lady Mareena and Lady Koralyne were taken from the front and brought to a red village not ten miles from here'' The King now speaks. “Raised by red parents, they worked as red servants. And until this morning they believed they were. Mareena and Koralyne were diamonds in the rough, working in my own palace, the twin daughters of my late friend under my nose.” Mare and I are not twins. I am eight months older than her, not that anyone would notice.

“But no more. To atone for my ignorance, and to repay their father and their house for their great contributions to the kingdom, I would like to take this moment to announce the joining of House Calore and the resurrected House Titanos.” A loud gasp echoes from the girls of the Queenstrial. I was right, they think we are going to steal the Princes from them. I almost roll my eyes. But Mare, on the other hand, looks worried that they are going to murder us or something. I’d like to see them try.

Maven steps forward and some tension in the room deflates. He looks defeated but still regal somehow. “Lady Mareena,” he says. Mare gives me one last shaky look before rising and facing him.

“In the eyes of my royal father and the noble court, I would ask for your hand in marriage. I pledge myself to you, Mareena Titanos. Will you accept?” He recites the words he has been taught probably since birth.

“I pledge myself to you, Maven Calore. I accept.” Mare quivers. I doubt anyone else noticed it but I did. A little perk of being around someone for most of their life.

Maven sits back in his seat and Mare back in hers beside me. Cal, the eventual king, now stands. I feel more eyes on me, expecting him to say my name, pledge himself to me as Maven did to Mare. I’m glad that's never going to happen.

“I am my fathers heir, born to privilege and power and strength. You owe me your allegiance, just as I owe you my life. It is my duty to serve you and my kingdom as best as I can- and beyond.” He pauses his perfected speech. When he does, I take a second to look over at Maven, I don't know why, but I do. I’m usually really good at reading people but I can't read him. He looks emotionless, staring at his brother. It intrigues me. I wonder if I look like that when I’m hiding my emotions.

“I need a queen who will sacrifice just as much as I will, to maintain order, justice and balance.” Another pause, this one for drama, suspense. Keeping everyone on the edges of their seats.

“Lady Evangeline.” He says. Some are surprised that he didn’t call my name but others are not, knowing that Evangeline is undeniably the better option. They repeat the same words as the couple before them and each go back to their seats. The elder prince has a charming smile plastered on his face.

to the people who follow me for my book content, these are some authors that i no longer support:

pierce brown: one of the earliest authors to share the "i stand with israel" posts. (I guess rebellions are only cool for plot points. I loved red rising but ive always found it to be a whitewashed version of the hunger games, and b4 u go "but hunger games characters r white too!!" No theyre not. Katniss was supposed to have darker skin. The movie franchise whitewashed her.)

sarah j maas: has made it clear that her grandmother was in the IDF and is proud of her israeli heritage. I liked her when i was like 14. I grew to realise just how much queerbaiting and subtle racism there is in her books.

victoria aveyard: i loved her for a very long time, red queen was the series that pulled me back into reading and she have been one of my biggest inspiration in being a writer, but she had made a statement of standing in neutrality, and she have made a tiktok of her Starbucks order while everyone is trying to boycott starbucks for their donation to israel. I hope her words and actions are only of ignorance and that she'll learn to do better soon. but until then, I've completely lost my respect for her.

•••••••••••••••

IN RETURN: HERE ARE SOME AUTHORS WHO HAVE BEEN SUPPORTING AND DONATING TO PALESTINE AND WRITE AMAZING BOOKS:

- Rebecca F. Kuang: The poppy war trilogy, yellowface, Babel.

- Olivie Blake: The atlas six trilogy, One for my enemy, Alone with you in the ether, Masters of death.

- VE Schwab: A darker shade of magic series, The invisible life of Addie Larue, This savage song (monsters of verity) duology.

- Chloe Gong: These violent delights duology.

- Faridah abike iyimide: Ace of Spades.

- Leigh Bardugo: The grishaverse, Ninth house.

- Tracy Deonn: Legendborn series.

- Xiran Jay Zhao: Iron widow series.

That's right baybeeee - ten years after it first launched, Gollanczfest is back and it's bigger than ever!

WHEN?

16th March 2024

Leonardo Royal Hotel, London

Tickets go on sale Friday 6th October at 10am UK time!

Early presale for tickets available exclusively to our newsletter subscribers

WHO?

Our headliner? Only VICTORIA AVEYARD

Other confirmed authors: Joe Abercrombie, Natasha Pulley, Garth Nix, Dhonielle Clayton, Joe Hill, Ben Aaronovitch, @joannechocolat, Aliette de Bodard, Sarah Hawley, @jonnywaistcoat, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson . . . and MANY more

Plus: YOU

PLUS

All tickets come with a goodie bag full of Gollancz goodies work at least £30

VIP tickets are available with access to the green room, priority tickets to panels, and additional goodies

FREE SFF quiz run by the greatest quizmasters (allegedly, this may be a title they've claimed themselves and I cannot verify) Joe Abercrombie and Garth Nix!

We'll be announcing panels soon, but this is going to be a fun, friendly and festive day, full of nerdery, excitement and probably a lot of harried looking Gollancz staff stuffing their faces with sandwiches and trying to find where distracted authors have wandered off to.

PARTY TIME

I fear being alone more than anything else. So why do I do this? Why do I push away the people I love? What is so very wrong with me? I don’t know. And I don’t know how to make it stop.

Victoria Aveyard

Those who know what it’s like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light.

Victoria Aveyard, King’s Cage

What I need and what I want are two very different things.

Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen

the problem with all these white authors like rick riordan who are revealing their stances on the israel-palestine apartheid is that they barely do anything but virtue signal when they claim “i’m on the side against war” “i’m anti-violence” “i abhor terrorism.” zero people are going to disagree with you. zero people believe what hamas did is justified. zero people think israel shouldn’t have a right to defend itself against terrorism. but that isn’t what israel is doing when they collectively punish all of palestine, who doesn’t even have an official army. when rick riordan says some wishy-washy bullshit about the violence suffered on both sides of the conflict, and words his whole dumbass blog post like it’s violence that is in any way equal, that literally helps no one. in fact, it’s so damn negligent of the 75 years of violence that palestine has suffered and been oppressed for. yes, there are innocent civilians in israel who are suffering, no one is disagreeing with you. that doesn’t erase the fact that israel is a disgusting state that has used state-sanctioned violence on a systemic scale since its conception, and the oppressed people have responded to that in violent retaliation (because OBVIOUSLY they would). israel is built on the subjugation of palestine, there is no equal suffering between the two.

I don’t know. And I don’t know how to make it stop.

Victoria Aveyard

Brennan Sorrengail 🤝 Shade Barrow

Faking their death and letting their whole family mourn them, just to actually be fighting a revolution their very electrically inclined little sister ends up joining

Tried making my own design of Mare's purple dress as Mareena Titanos. I gave up on trying to render it tho dkhsdfb

The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.

Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen

she has no idea…

i'm almost done rereading Glass Sword by Victoeia Aveyard, and I've just realized something about Cal that I didn't notice before.

Growing up, Cal was never my favorite. I favored Maven so much, maybe even a little too much. So, Cal was very annoying to me? I hated his every line and I was very irritated with every word he said and every action he took. But I was 13 at that time.

I am 17 years old now. And I've found a sense of maturity I didn't realize I had once discovering this.

Cal Calore is a burning flame. He is passionate and driven, with a kind heart, but he is indecisive, and this flaw drags him down.

I noticed just how often his trauma is overlooked. Cal lost everything. His mother, at a young age. His father. His brother. His friends. His kingdom. His home. His titles. The list goes on. He was taken from everything he knew and slammed down into an entire new world.

He wasn't even welcomed by the Reds. The first thing they did to Cal was lock him up alone when they reached Tuck.

And then when they met Nix, Nix was immediately taunting Cal for being "seduced by Mare into killing his father", but once Cal reveals the truth of what happened, they all fell silent.

No one. Not a single person, except probably Mare, has asked Cal if he was okay.

Cal lost everything. I mean literally everything. And not once in the whole book did we see him cry, break down, or fall apart.

That is a kind of strength I could never imagine.

Those who know what it’s like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light.

Victoria Aveyard, King’s Cage

What to read next

You know, I think it would be pretty interesting if in War Storm they actually did find a Newblood to cure Maven but when he gets cured and back to normal he doesn't remember a single thing he did while under Elara's control because it wasn't him at all and he's like super confused or something when they tell him how long its been and something something idk