Announcement: The Shadow of Arthan

There’s a strange thing that happens when you spend enough time inside a story. You start out thinking you’re in control; moving characters where they need to go, lining up scenes, keeping everything on the rails. But every now and then, someone slips off the page.

Not in a dramatic way. Nothing explodes. They just…keep going.

And as the writer, you feel it. Like catching movement out of the corner of your eye. Something important is happening, but it’s happening somewhere the reader can’t see yet. The story you’re telling keeps moving forward, but there’s another one running alongside it, just out of frame.

I’ve always had a bad habit of following those threads when they show up, usually leading to distractions of furious note typing when I should be drafting.

There was one of those moments in The Templars of Alderath.

A Character Who Didn’t Stay Small

There’s always a handful of characters in a book who are there to do a job. Deliver a line. Fill a role. Move the story along and get out of the way. This was supposed to be one of those characters in The Templars of Alderath.

Nothing complicated. Nothing central.

But somewhere along the way, that stopped being true.

It wasn’t anything obvious at first. Just small things like how they carried themselves in a scene, or the way they reacted instead of just responding. A little too flavorful when they should’ve been forgettable. The kind of presence that doesn’t ask for attention, but ends up holding it anyway.

And then came that familiar feeling. Like something was still moving after the scene ended.

That usually means trouble.

What Readers Didn’t See

There’s a moment in The Templars of Alderath where everything shifts. Up to that point, it’s controlled—tense, but controlled. Hiding. Waiting. Hoping things don’t go as bad as they probably will.

And then they do.

It turns fast. Quiet gives way to chaos. Order breaks, and suddenly it’s panic and movement—people running, decisions made too late, and the kind of noise that tells you things aren’t just going wrong… they’re ending.

In the middle of that, there’s a smaller moment that’s easy to miss. You don’t see it happen. You hear it. A brief piece of the chaos. A life cut short somewhere just out of view. The story doesn’t stop for it. It keeps moving forward.

You heard what happened, but now you’re going to see it.

The Announcement: Introducing The Shadow of Arthan

That was the moment I realized this wasn’t going to stay off the page.

So I followed it.

The Shadow of Arthan is a five-part short story series that tracks what actually happened during those unseen moments when Inquisitors storm onto the scene with full menace. It leans a little darker than the main story with a touch grittier action, but still grounded in my 'no gory dark fantasy' style. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of John Wick meets Mission: Impossible.

What happens here feeds directly into the next book in the series, The Wrath of the Primus. Threads that barely register in Book 1 start to come into focus, and we'll see more detail and worldbuilding around what I cleverly called 'the inquisitors' in The Templars of Alderath. We will get more into the Eternal Order—their structure, methods, and how they aid the Primus in keeping a grip on the Empire, Followers, and the Templars.

If you follow this story, you won't just see more of the world, you’ll understand what's coming for it and how it got to the state it's in. You'll also get to know what will become a much more prominent and punchy character than you got to know in The Templars of Alderath.

Conclusion

The first part—Part 1: The Sable and Sage—is already waiting for you at the end of The Templars of Alderath, in both the ebook and print versions. It’s easy to miss if you close the book right at the last chapter. So, when you reach the end, keep reading, you wont regret it.

After that, the rest of The Shadow of Arthan will unfold here on the website, one installment at a time, released monthly. I’ll send a reminder and a link through the newsletter as it drops. It will also be visible for subscribers right on the front website page.

If you’ve already read The Templars of Alderath and missed Part 1, go back and flip a few more pages. If you haven’t yet, just know there’s a little more waiting for you when the Hawthornes’ story comes to a close. Either way, it's there for you to read and you wont regret it.

See you next week.