Anhelos Lost

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Hi, I'm Legend, she/ze. We're onto our second interview of the month at the Teashop Between Worlds. Please welcome Quinn from V. C. Boldick's Anhelos Lost.

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Legend: First of all, please introduce yourself. Name, pronouns if you wish, and tell us an interesting fact about yourself.

 

Quinn: Thank you, it’s nice to be here. 
I am Tarquinius Vovin. *Looks over his shoulder and sighs.* Okay, apparently, I am supposed to acknowledge my title here. I hate doing that, I prefer being more anonymous, but my full name, including title, is Crown Prince Tarquinius Leifus Alwyn Vovin. It just sounds so pretentious to use the full thing. Gods it's annoying. Anyway, most people call me Quinn. My pronouns are He/Him, and I suppose an interesting fact about myself is the fact that I can summon two spirit beasts. Most magiquers can only host one at a time. A seven-headed dragon named Augnasta, and a Dread Wolf, Valharen.

 

Legend: That is interesting. Good thing there are no Grey Wardens or Inquisition around. We do sometimes let the mages in. For the record, we strongly believe in not telling people your full name, so Quinn it is. 2.    Can you tell us a bit about the world you live in?​

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Quinn: I can. The Six Realms is a large continent surrounded by ocean. As far as I know, nothing else exists beyond the Six Realms, but somebody (glares at V.C.) doesn’t like sharing everything she knows. 

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Legend: Authors are such a pain.

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Quinn: Sorry, I digress, I was born in Arctus and have basically lived in the capital, Arcturia, all my life. Magique differs from kingdom to kingdom and Arctus specializes in combat-based magiques. The other five kingdoms all have their own specialties, except the Imperium of Twili *he grimaces* they have no magique, because they are traitors… sorry that’s a big, long backstory that I don’t know if we have time for.  

 

Arctus has a long-standing peace treaty with the Kingdom of Luz and another treaty with Greerland. We are more or less peaceful with the Empire of Whit, but that’s because everyone thinks they are crazy and believe the Velryn are going to destroy us all one day… so we avoid them. The Empire of Vasto has close ties with Twili and are far away, but we do have an ambassador there and we are working on creating a dialogue between our nations. So hopefully we can all make peace. 
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Legend: I hope that's the case, but authors often have other ideas. Let’s a have a quick-fire round of This or That. Try to just answer and not think too hard about it.

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• Tea or coffee? Tea, though I haven’t tried coffee. (Don't bother.)

• Sweet or savoury? Savoury, everytime.

• Music or sports? I enjoy the annual jousting competition more then the balls so, sports, I guess?

• Paperback or ebook? E- what now? Is that some kind of magique I don’t know?  *Author leans in and explains.* ohhhhhh, uhh, I guess paperback. I like the feel of it.

• Paint or pencil? Paint.

• Countryside or city? Do not tell the Regents but countryside. They all think I love being in the city, but I like the freedom of the countryside. That and not everyone is bowing or saluting to me. *He chuckles awkwardly.*

• Fight or negotiate? With the Twilians, fight. There is no negotiation. Anyone else, negotiate.

• Sword or gun? Sword, I don’t think I have ever been faced with a gun, but if they are anything like Twili’s wooden beasts, I’ll take the sword.

• Vampire or werewolf? Hmm, vampire.

• FIlm or TV series? I don’t know what those are, but (author explains) I mean I do like plays… so I think a movie sounds the most like a play. Movie I guess.

• Morals or laws? Morals. Laws can be wrong.

• Kids or puppies? Aww that’s hard…. Puppies, no wait, kids? Ohh but one of the hunting dogs just had a litter of puppies and they are adorable.

• Museum or beach? Beach.

• World peace or end famine? End famine. I don’t believe peace is achievable on an empty stomach.

• Winter or summer? Summer. Arcturian winters suck,

• Dance or football? Dance? I have never played football.

• Olives or sardines? Eww. Umm but if I have to choose sardines.

• Rainbows or monochrome? Rainbows!

• Brain or gut? Whenever I go with my gut it blows up in my face… but that doesn’t stop me from doing it every time.

• Traditional or new? Traditional.

• Revenge or justice? Justice. Revenge will only perpetuate the cycle. *Glances back.* Why is V.C. laughing?

• Fast zombies or slow zombies? Are no zombies an option? Okay, uhm… slow. I can give myself time to word the spell carefully to get rid of them.

• Mountains or oceans? Mountains, oceans are terrifying.

• Afterlife or ghost? Ghost, mostly because I’m not sure an afterlife exists.

• Friendship or the law? Friendship.

• Fantasy or reality? Reality. Fantasy is a fun escape, but at the end of the day, things have to get done.

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Legend: Since you have little regard for law, let's have some fun breaking one. If you had to hide a body, whose would it be and who would you ask to help you?

 

Quinn: With any luck, it is Princept Aragorn. Gods I hate that man. Obviously, I am asking Valerius to help me. He’s my best friend, and he does not ask questions the way Cassius does.​

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Legend: Obviously. And obviously, the question now is are there any circumstances under which you’d kill someone?

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Quinn: I have killed before, in defence of Arctus, and I would have no problem doing so again. I likely will have to. I heard someone say, “War is the price of peace,” and I very much agree with that statement. I hate that it is true, but battle and conquest is the way of things in my world.

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Legend: How horrible, yet sadly true of many places. Continuing on the topic of law, if you were in charge of the country, what’s the first thing you would do?

 

Quinn: I will be in charge of the kingdom in about ten months time. I have a plan to deal with the Twilian menace once and for all. But… I probably shouldn’t say more in a public place. Let’s just say, its going to work.

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Legend: Well, that's unnervingly sinister. So you'll be in charge soon? Legally or would you consider overthrowing your government?

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Quinn: *He glances back to see V.C. laughing.* Okay, I do not know why she is laughing, but whenever she laughs, I get worried. I would never overthrow my own government, because I am the one who inherits the mess. Right now, the Regents are doing a good job— *He looks back again as V.C. falls off her chair, dying of laughter.* Okay what is her problem!? I would never endanger Arctus like that! She knows something… *He turns back to the interviewer.* My apologies.

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Legend: It's fine. I know how it is with authors. They're a pain. Have you and your author ever seriously disagreed on something? What was it and who won?

 

Quinn: We have. It was about me and Valerius and something I wanted to happen but V.C. was worried about how it would come across because she had not written in enough to make it believable, and it would have required a huge overhaul to the story. So, we compromised and now she has a headcanon about me and Valerius. This headcanon has been shared with her boyfriend, who Valerius is based off.

 

Legend: Sounds like some newsletter or bonus material there. Sometimes we like to make our author change stuff, too. On to something different. How do you feel about magic? If you use magic, tell us a bit about it.

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Quinn:  ​I love magique (magic) and I was born with it. I can’t imagine not having it, my core is a comfort to me, and I’d be lost without it. Like I said earlier, Arcturian magique is combat-based and my magiqual core is what makes it possible for me to host the two spirit beasts I mentioned. 

 

There is a form of magique that I don’t like. It is extremely unethical, and I am horrified that my little brother wants to learn it. It is called runic magique. Basically, slave traders create rune stones and force core-born users like me to pour their magic into rune stones. These runes are supercharged by the core user's magique and become raw and powerful. But they aren’t well controlled. *He growls* Worse still is how the people making these runes treat the core-born user they are forcing into this. The core-borns pour everything they have and once their core begins shattering, which is practically a death sentence for core-borns, the slavers cast them into the streets. It's awful! Once I am king, I intend to do something about it.
 

​Legend: Excellent. It sounds like a potentially useful technology that's being horribly used. I hope you stop the slavery and your brother finds an ethical way to use the tool. Those stones kind of remind me of a character in our previous interview, Zero. He's a bit of a magical battery like that, too. Outside of this teashop, if you could travel between worlds & meet a character from another book, who would it be & why would you want to meet them?

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Quinn: I have heard that I would get along with Asira Mayar, from a series by Mirna Chandrakumar called Heritage of Blood. She does sound awesome. The other character I would like to meet, and I guess I kind of have because we share the same author’s head, is Rylen Parthenope. *He pauses while V.C. mutters to him.* Apparently, I am supposed to say that his book is not out yet, so he does not count. But he and I need to have words about how much attention he has been getting from V.C. lately. I just want to talk… that’s all.

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Legend: Yeah. It's kind of humiliating not to be the main voice up there, isn't it? Kind of like losing a friend. Have you lost touch with a friend you wish you were still close to? Why don’t you contact them?

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Quinn: I had a friend named Jaques. He, Valerius, and I were close when we were boys, but we had a falling out due to religious differences. I don’t believe in the All Father, which is strange to most people, because that is the main religion in Arctus. My life is not one that has lent itself to belief in any deity really. I know, I know, I’ve said Gods a couple of times, for me it’s a figure of speech. Anyway, we lost touch, and I guess I don’t contact him because I think he is disappointed in me. I have enough people disappointed in me these days... I do not really want more. *He sighs softly.*

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Legend: I find falling out over such a thing very strange. The ethics of opposing beliefs, maybe, though most religions I'm aware of share similar core values. Very odd to fall out over simply not believing. Anyway. That is the end of both this interview and today's line up. Thanks folks for coming along!

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Quinn: Thank you for this, and the tea, it was refreshing and quite fun.

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​Legend: Indeed it was. See you all next month!

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