The Calpurnia Mission: Chapter 2: The Rebel Lion

This story is the meat of the whole situation or collection. This is where I can better define the problem that the characters have to solve – the returning of these magical keys. This was the first story where I had to fight brawn with brain.

The Rebel Lion starts with Derko, Calpurnia’s brother, being taken and held hostage. She has has some options:

• Turn herself in to Fairscourt to save him and face the consequences of her theft
• Run away 
• Attempt to save him

Calpurnia chooses to attempt to save Derko through slyness. She manages to infiltrate the heart of her Fairscourt's lair – a realm where he and his army, the Free Company, live. She is stopped by Rebelein and learns more of the details of what stealing the keys meant and generally what she is in for. It's a good place where the rules of the universe are explained.

The story displays two characters that are of importance – Commander Byron Fairscourt and Emmanuel Rebelein.

How about I pen a bit about Fairscourt?

Byron Fairscourt
Fairscourt is the first obvious antagonist – he is the one hunting Calpurnia and holding Derko. The whole goddamn series opens with him.

Goddamnit!

I wrote of Fairscourt: Brown, short hair. Hazel/green eyes. Muscular and compact. Walks with a limp. Probably 5’10-5’11.

It was so important for him to be brutal from Calpurnia's and Derko's perspective - and I created that brutality through two means:

• He is good at what he does
• He is never completely wrong

The first brush of Fairscourt was built for him to be the bully and the scary shadow.

It was also so important for him to carry the same richness as the rest of the characters even if he only gets a few lines or a few scenes in each story. Good thing I learned a lot from writing about Calpurnia for getting the most of a character out of the least amount of ink.

Phew.

As a Commander, the head of an army, I felt it was so easy for him to be simply brutal - that is the easiest part of him. In order for him to keep that position, he also had to be respected. He is a true protector – he just is not protecting Calpurnia who is the protagonist.

Fairscourt does not micromanage; he is involved with his men and seeks to bring out the best for the Company. He is a well-seasoned fighter with physical prowess – even though very rarely does he rely on his own force over a well contrived plan or his own men. I made sure his position as a leader of the Free Company involved the gritty planning over him in some type of combat.

Fairscourt is also probably the most mature character - like he adults good. I needed him to be powerful, brutal and intelligent in order for him to hold his own against Calpurnia. While she might win battles against him, he wins the war.

In order to create instability in Fairscourt, I built him with two different personalities that emerge at different times. Not Jekyll and Hyde, mind you. No Jekyll and Hyde is cool when you want to display out-of-controlness. Fairscourt is never out of control making the friendly, charismatic and submissive personality he can display against his cold and exacting personality…scarier.

Fairscourt is a remarkable static character but the world around the reader changes until when you review his first appearances and words, it makes complete sense and is completely the same as the person he is by the end.

What I Learned
Fairscourt is most often exposed through his journals that he kept for each mission. Each of these journals corresponds to a realm Calpurnia and Derko must visit to retrieve a key. The get to read why he was there, what work he was doing with his army, and then the after effects. This meant I had to come up with backstories for almost everything, as well as series of events, understand how Fairscourt would present them when writing down his notes and then finding slight ways Calpurnia could extract his character.

All while he was not there.

Fairscourt taught me a lot about honesty, good and evil and what it means to be loyal – to be centered in an ideology that understands others. Fairscourt is not bogged down with guilt and he doesn’t get caught up in things that do not threaten what he protects. He makes mistakes, he sees the importance of self-care and dicipline. He sees no importance in being louder or better than someone else.

He does his job even if what he is doing seems evil or wrong because he has a long view of life. He understand that only through oppression can there be revolution, and only in revolution can there be growth. He has no problem being the oppression or the revolution.

Within these perimeters, he is very quietly human. As the first “antagonist,” I thought it would be very difficult to find compassion or humanity in him. Actually, it was super easy and while he can be merciless, it felt easy to put him in spaces that required him to be supportive, trusting and even nurturing.

Key Points
Fairscourt always follows these structural rules:

• He is an excellent listener because he needs to extract information – not because he cares.
• He speaks only in “I” sentences. This is to show not only his total control over his world but because he absorbs the consequences. He is a protector and he claims everything as his own to protect it, use it and support it
• He doesn't allow women in his Company
• His weaknesses are hard to find but easy to see. It takes Calpurnia a long time to enrage Fairscourt. 
• It takes a lot of words and situations to final get a savage response from Fairscourt – although he shows his is capable in this chapter. 
• He has a doe-skinned jacket he wears frequently
• When possible, he will speak in one word as a command: Speak, report, silence, go

Fin
If you have questions about them or The Calpurnia Mission you can email me at StoriesbyMaddie at gmail or TheCalpurniaMission at gmail. All of the posts about the Calpurnia Mission can be found by clicking on the production label on the right.

What? I like gmail.