Prologue
One of the quintessential artifices from fantasy, which often fails to appear in urban fantasy, is the castle.
While the Draoithe Saga is primarily a group of intertwined urban fantasy tales, the characters are immortal.
When investigating their pasts to reveal more of what drives them or what made them as they are, it’s inevitable that medieval castles must appear, reaffirming the connection of the subgenre to the parent genre.
The following images were the inspirations for two such properties located in the dream version of Scotland in the 1600s.
The castle Arturista Jonsdottir worked in as a maid when Duncan first finds her belongs to a petty tyrant known only as Lord Lothlian.
It is a smaller, dark, and sinister castle surely in ruins by 2016 when the bulk of the Draoithe Saga occurs far away in the dream version of Tyler, Texas.
What happens to Artie inside its walls will be enough for an ancient king to commit murder.
Damon Markucio is an ancient vampire with all the wealth ensuing from a long immortal life.
His villa is out of sight and out of mind, just the way he likes it.
Visitors are rare without an invitation from the owner, but old guest rights are still in place in the backcountry areas of the dream in the 1600s.
The following pages contain the story of how Duncan met Artie and offers a glimpse into the grudge an old fox has against vampires who must perforce make a grand entrance into the Draoithe Saga in the second miniseries Royal Council.
Welcome to the dream…
