Stregoni Benefici, Chapter 28: Carlisle
Chapter Twenty-Eight:Carlisle
England and Scotland
August-October, 1667
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So I never intended to put a 4-week break between the penultimate and final chapters of this fic, but the reality of fanfiction is that real life sometimes gets in the way. Chapter 28 was penned in November, but taken to pieces several times.
One of the things a canon writer has to face is having a moment that is part of canon, that dozens upon dozens of writers have written before. I was grateful for every review of Chapter 26 that said that this version of Edward’s turning felt new. There is honestly no higher compliment, as far as I’m concerned.
When I first envisioned what would become Stregoni (it was at the time called Absolution), I’d planned to do exactly what almost ever writer who has covered these years has done-begin at Carlisle’s turning, or very near to it, and then barrel through two hundred seventy years of history until I reached Edward. But over the year plus it took me to even put the bones of this story together, I came to realize that the real story of the end of Carlisle’s life was rooted in the relationships he lost, and those he then had to forge anew.
So for that reason, I chose to end Stregoni Benefici at exactly the point others have chosen to begin. For when you are immortal, every ending is really only another beginning.
Happy Reading.