True to the End

by CorsicanFiend

It is said that when the stars align, the Rites shall come to bear. But now there are no more stars, and the Rites have ended alongside them. The Reader has been left in the Downside, their future undetermined. Yet despite the troubles they faced during the Rites, they will find it was nothing compared to the trials that await them now. Happy endings are not so easy to obtain.

1. Preface

The purpose of this foreword is to inform any who would wish to know general things about this story before they begin reading. Essentially, it's an FAQ. It won't contain any spoilers per se, but if you want to go in completely and utterly blind then just skip this chapter.

First off, that lovely picture I used for the story was drawn by the tumblr user respirdal. The picture was used as per the permission on their about page.

I don't intend to leave any author's notes, except for this one and perhaps one at the very end, after the story is finished. This is not to imply any disrespect to reviewers or anyone, but I generally think that AN's tend to disrupt the flow of a story, specifically if a chapter ends on a moment of tension only for the reader to be brought out of it by a unnecessary comment by the author. I don't disrespect people who do prefer to leave AN's often, but don't expect that in this story. I may leave a few minor, one-liner ones, if I do ever end up leaving any, and they will be important enough to be read should I bother make them.

I'm not sure how long this story is going to be but I don't intend it to be overly long or overly short. I already have everything pretty much mapped out, so don't expect a 100+ chapter epic with multiple long arcs.

I don't know how long each chapter of the story will be either, but I will say that I have a certain list of things I want to accomplish every chapter. The list for the first one was longer than it will likely be for most, so don't expect most chapters to be as long as the first.

I haven't read a lot of Pyre fanfiction, but from what I have read, it seems that most stories depict the Reader in a second person perspective. This makes sense, as it follows what the game does, but from at least what I've seen, most of those stories follow the style of the game where the Reader is left vague enough to be a self-insert. In the actual game, the Reader is similarly vague but the player is given the option to characterize them enough to where they develop a bit of a character. This is done so the player can self-insert as the Reader into the game. I have absolutely nothing wrong with this and stories that use it, in fact I enjoy them.

However, this story is a bit more of a traditional one, that being a story where the protagonist is actively saying things and making decisions regarding other characters. As such, the perspective was written in a more traditional third person perspective, as I doubt every reader would make the exact same decisions and say the exact same things that the protagonist would.

I also intend to finish this story. I know that should be a given, but I, and I'm sure many others, have read a story they've enjoyed only to find out that it was left unfinished and the last update was years ago. I swear on my merits as a fanfiction author (whatever the hell that may be) that I will finish this thing. I'm not bold enough to give a timeframe for when I'll update it, but I would like for it to be on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

Finally, if you enjoy the story I would appreciate it a lot if you left a review. I understand that you have no incentive too, but I (and I'm sure many other authors on this site) am an aspiring writer, and I would love to hear any sort of criticism on the story or my writing that could help me improve.

With all that being said, thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoy the story.