Character Interview: Sierra and Sashe from Promising Light

Today, I’m going to have two of my characters interview each other. Sierra and Sashe are sisters who grew up with shape changers. They are main characters in the prequel novellas (Shifting Light, Fire and Light, and The End of Light), and reappear in Promising Light.

***CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE PREQUEL NOVELLAS, ESPECIALLY THE END OF LIGHT***

For those readers who decide to read Promising Light before the prequels, Sierra and Sashe separated from the shape changers two years before the story and have gone very different ways in life.

Sashe: Sierra, where do you see yourself in ten years?

Sierra: Wow, that’s a good question. For a while, it was hard to think about any kind of life without Evan. Even now, I just live day by day. I don’t really think about the future. God, if I had to. . .I hope I can settle down eventually. I don’t think I’d move back to Shyra, but maybe Belisha. Not close to Lisbeth and Jeshro, of course. I don’t want kids or anything, but I’d like to stop moving around so much.

Sashe: That kind of leads me to my next question. What do you do for a living?

Sierra: I work for the Childress’ Traveling Circus. I’m the wild child, a girl who was raised by tigers. I pretend to be savage and the tigers pretend to attack the men who try to rescue me. It’s all very dramatic. I love it.

Sashe: Why is that?

Sierra: I don’t know, it’s just easy to get lost in it all. Each show has a routine and an order, but at the same time, it’s so chaotic and crazy. There’s so many interesting people, and the animals are just great. There’s all kinds. Animals I’d never think about seeing everyday.

Sashe: What’s your favorite animal?

Sierra: Oh, definitely the tigers. They’re such majestic creatures. I think they might actually like me, too. Maybe I’m just delusional, but it really feels like they do.

Sashe: The circus travels a lot. Where have you visited, and what’s your favorite place?

Sierra: Oh, we’ve been all over. We do mostly Haltar and Kleisade, but we went to Jolen a couple months ago. That was definitely my favorite. I can see why Seth loved it. The beaches are so pristine, and the sea is beautiful. It’s different from Shyra, of course, but I had a great time there.

Sashe: Did you visit Seth’s grave?

Sierra: I wanted to, but I didn’t know where it was. I had hardly any time to myself, too. I’m sorry.

Sashe: No, don’t be sorry. I think it’s your turn.

Sierra: Right. Well, what’s a typical day in the life of Sashe Silva?

Sashe: I wake up, get dressed and ready for the day. I eat breakfast, sometimes by myself, but usually in the dining hall with the royalty and other guests of the palace. In the mornings, I have a lot of free time. I have lessons or I go shopping. Afternoons are usually full of outings and social callings with nobles or foreign visitors. Evenings. . .about half of my evenings I spend with the king. The other half are more social or my own free time.

Sierra: How do you do that? Sleep with the king?

Sashe: It’s part of the job description. If I wasn’t here, I don’t know where I’d be. Trying to make a living off of selling jewelry? Right. I do what I have to to stay alive, just like you do.

Sierra: I’m not judging, just curious. Let’s say it was a perfect world. If you could have any job and make enough to get by, what would you do? Where would you live?

Sashe: Can I raise the dead in this perfect world? If so, I’d take the life I had two years ago. Life with Seth, you, Evan, Dar. . .life in Shyra. Seth and Evan working at the cherry orchard, you and me with our jewelry business. I wouldn’t want the Protectors in this perfect world, of course. But if I couldn’t raise the dead and I couldn’t get rid of all the Protectors. . .I’d want you and me and Dar to go back to Shyra. Or maybe Belisha or Jolen. We have very similar tastes in what makes a place decent.

Sierra: We are sisters. What do you remember about our birth parents? What do you think our life would be like if we grew up with them instead?

Sashe: I remember they made and sold perfumes. I remember their gardens and all the flowers we had in our house. I think we still would have had a comfortable life, even if they didn’t have as much wealth as Alastor. We probably would have met some merchant boys from Belisha and married them. But they wouldn’t have been Seth or Evan.

Sierra: No, but maybe they wouldn’t be dead.

Sashe: You’re such a joy to talk to, Sierra.

Sierra: I’m right, aren’t I?

Sashe: Of course you are, but this is the life we have. Our parents died, and the Avialies took us in. There’s no perfect world. There’s just this.

Sierra: That’s just depressing.

Sashe: No, it’s not. We have each other. We’re alive. We have the whole future ahead of us, even if it’s with different people than we’d planned on a couple years ago.

Sierra: Well, if nothing changes in my situation in the next year, I’m kidnapping you from the king and taking you to Jolen with me.

Sashe: Kidnapping? I’ll go willingly.

Sierra: In that case, I’ll be back in a year.

To read more about Sierra and Sashe, check out Promising Light at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords.