Behind the Book: Turning Two Stories Into One

The only thing that didn’t change dramatically in The Eye of the Lion was the title. This book has undergone the biggest alterations of the entire series because firstly, I had to combine my original drafts for Book 4 and 5 into one story and secondly, Supai was suddenly dead. 

Let’s talk about all things that could have been. There are spoilers ahead if you haven’t read The Goblin Deception or The Eye of the Lion. You have been warned. 

What Could Have Been: The Orb of Atlantis 

The Orb of Atlantis was the original title for the first draft of Book 4, which was entirely from Tobi’s point of view. In this version the crew still head to the elves’ vault in order to store the Lupatus Stone, where Damien encounters the Eye of the Lion ruby, but are ambushed by vampires. This was a deadly turn of events since the vampires who were there to kidnap Tobi for ransom realize that Damien is the same soldier who nearly eradicated their coven a few years ago. But, surprise, his friend Beckett didn’t die in that conflict and instead was turned into a vampire and became the new leader that rebuilt the coven. 

In this version Nathan and Malcolm come to the rescue along with Damien’s friend Eli! The witch hunter turned pilot originally had a more significant role, and I was planning a big moment where it’s revealed he was also turned into a vampire on that fateful day and kept it hidden from Damien all this time.  But as I mentioned in my blog Behind the Book: Why Werewolves, his role was cut from the series.

I decided not to go down this route in the end because it was odd to have such an important moment to Damien be from Tobi's point of view and since the vampires didn't have anything to do with the greater plot of the series it felt like too much of a tangent when I had other hell to put Damien through with the quest for Excalibur.

In this earlier version of the series Supai actually survives until the second-to-last book, and so the plot was more focused on the quest for artefacts from each major species. This theory is brought up in The Goblin Deception, to which Isla dismisses because goblins don't have a singular culturally significant object. That was around the time I shifted away from this artifect quest throughline, but let's chat about what could have been.

The Orb of Atlantis was the elven artefact, which possessed the ability to control water and was involved in the sinking of a major Elven city called Atlantis. You can find a nod to this in the published version of The Eye of the Lion. The crew was going to track down the orb to the Valencia Aquarium where the fighters of the group would face off against Supai and his corpse demon lackey (who was also still alive in this version) while the others used their wits to retrieve the orb. 

Some key elements did stick around from these earlier drafts, such as meeting Dr. Ordem and discovering the existence of the Grimoire Mortalis. But aside from that most of what you will find in the published version of Book 4 are easter eggs to these earlier drafts. It took a few tries before I found the right combination of those elements to effectively combine this story with the original version of Book 5.

What The Eye of the Lion Could Have Been. 

I kept the title and the ending, but the beginning and middle of the original version of Book 5 was a muddy mess. There was a fight in a tower to get back the Grimoire Mortalis back from Supia, a conflict with some ogres on a train as the crew struggled to cross England in order to find Dr. Ordem at his museum of magic, and a  meeting with a mermaid to find the secret to getting to Avalon. These are just some of the moments that now live on the cutting room floor.

What this original draft did contribute to the final version was Damien's point of view and the quest to Avalon. Damien always had to go through some trials to retrieve Excalibur, though with fewer dragons, and it would still be revealed that Dr. Ordem was actually Mordred. But remember, Supai was still alive in this version.

In this original draft the crew was going to have a big final battle against Supai on Avalon. Mordred takes Jessica hostage through the use of a cursed broach to try and get the upper hand and to force Damien to hand over the Grimoire Mortalis.

Of course Jessica manages to escape and fight back, eventually destroying Supai’s physical form now that she's realized he was summoned as a demon and not a god. But, in a desperate attempt to avoid dissolving back into the magical realm, Supai attempts to possess Jessica. Since Excalibur deflects magic Damien throws the sword in front of Jessica to protect her, redirecting Supai to possess him instead. 

The last line in the book was going to be “If this is what dying felt like, it's not so bad.” I ended up using a similar line for Nathan in the published version, since a sacrifice still had to be made. It remains the cliffhanger I had hoped for. 

Folding Book 5 into Book 4 streamlined the plot and cut out all of the happenstance I had excessively planned to get my characters from point A to B. While I am sad to lose some of the head-canon I had planned, I couldn’t be happier with the decision. Sometimes you have to write the story just to figure out what it is. And in this case, it was the starting point of what became the final adventure that I am incredibly proud of.