Literature / The Sunder of the Octagon

some caption text

"Eight worlds ruled over by eight children from Earth. Children who are pure and good and kind. Eight worlds whose very existence together was enough to hold back the evil. An evil almost as old as Time itself. The Octagon has never been breached.
But every design, no matter how carefully it is planned, has a flaw."

A magical fantasy adventure by LR Manley and sequel to The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen (2012).

Published in 2014 on Amazon Kindle and by CreateSpace.

---

Provides Examples Of:

• Always a Bigger Fish: Alaskadie. End of. Even Mordalayn is unsure how to handle him.
• Artistic License: The "lake" in Jefferson Gardens, Leamington Spa which one of the Bury Boys is thrown into. In reality it's shallow enough to stand up in.
• Ascended Extra: Jeroth, who was an unnamed member of the King's Daggers in book one, yet becomes a major character here.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Mordalayn is the Emerald Queen’s bodyguard and is nigh unbeatable. Alaskadie is an Octagon sentinel. A job only 7 other people hold in 8 linked worlds. He is capable of Rage Dancing, highly intelligent and he can take out the Vagthunder. Also the Emerald Queen. She is also the only one capable of restraining Alaskadie during his rage dance....and she's ELEVEN.
• Badass Boast: Alaskadie has the best one with: “You attacked me then, something no one may ever do. Your grief grants you clemency. Another time and I will kill you.”
• Bad Boss: Galfront Siavy...again.
• Benevolent Boss: King Talbot. Even his own soldiers have trouble accepting the difference between him and his brother, King James (from the first book).

• BFS: Mordalayn’s sword. It has 3 blades and is so large he wears it on his back.
• Battle in the Rain: Bue & Mordalayn vs. The Bury Boys.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Alaskadie, who deliberately sacrifices three soldiers to save the Octagon (to be fair he asked for volunteers...but didn't tell them what they were volunteering for). Also Jeroth. A former King's Dagger (baddies from the first book) he has regained his youth by saving the boy Calson, but still fights dirty, steals and even kills a man in anger.
• Booby Trap: The death trap in one world also holds one of these. It gets activated by Scious after his greed gets the better of him.
• Bully Hunter: Mordalayan, Bue and Alaskadie.
• The Chain of Harm: Scious stole the Octagon crystals which in turn led to the instability of the Octagon and the Claviger invoking Vyluka. This ultimately led to the rescue mission which cost the lives of nearly all the soldiers sent on it.
• Chekhov's Gun: Jared's teleport crystal.

• Cruel and Unusual Death: Anyone killed by a Vagthunder gets merged into solid rock. Averted in the case of the jailer who fell asleep on duty in book one. King James had him bricked up in a cell to starve to death but King Talbot rescues him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Alaskadie taking on a huge Vagthunder...alone. Also when the Claviger attack the evil at the end.
• Death Trap: The dimensions that house the eight Octagon crystals are full of these.
• Delivery Guy Infiltration: Harrod and Crow...again.

• Enemy Rising Behind: Alaskadie and Unik.
• Establishing Character Moment: Alaskadie calmly drinking and ignoring the Aaron brothers when they threaten to kill him. Jeroth beating up three thugs just after regaining his youth. King Talbot rescuing the jailer who fell asleep in the first book (bricked up in one of his cells and left to starve to death). Also his treatment of his horrible niece Epiphany (King James's daughter).
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Hindmore. Unik Aaron when he sees a former friend of his father, despite bullying everyone else in the bar.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Time froze in Sophie's bedroom while she and Jared were in Alegria so the time was VERY short.

• Flashback: How Sophie met Mordalayn. Also Madame Veer killing Maximo's sunflowers, in the first book which happened off page
• Got Volunteered: Jared. Tink. Nayda. Unnamed Alegrian Brother.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The evil. Although it's implied that there are things even IT is afraid of as it is terrified when it realises it has strayed into territory controlled by the Claviger.
• Hilarity Ensues: Bue accidentally wakes up dozens of fairies. Kloee and Maximo then get into a quarrel about her behaviour.
• Honor Among Thieves: Jeroth won't leave Bue behind.

• Improbable Infant Survival: Nearly averted. Bue is left behind when Ruhani's realm falls to limbo but Jeroth makes Scious go back for him.
• Invincible Hero: Averted. Mordalayn is told to stay behind from the mission by Sophie, despite being the main protagonist/ hero of the first book. Alaskadie can "warp" but needs to rest immediately after, as the effort exhausts him.
• Irony: Ruhani's prime purpose is to scare people until they die, when she tries it on Alaskadie, she regrets it big time.
• Jerkass with a Heart of Gold: Bue is clearly a brat but has his heart in the right place. Jeroth was a bad guy in the first book and thinks nothing of training a child to rob and steal. However he is very protective of Calson and saves both Bue and Jared during the story.
• Karma Houdini: Averted. Unik Aaron and his gang threaten Alaskadie and try to kill him and falsely believe that he jolted away from them, when in fact he was summoned to deal with the Octagon crisis. Unik is later seen bragging about this and brandishing the dagger Alaskadie left behind. However Alaskadie comes back to settle the argument at the book's end.
• Karmic Death: Ruhani is scared to death by Alaskadie, despite being the bringer of eternal nightmares.
• Kids Are Cruel: The children who tormented the dog that strayed into Ruhani's territory.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Averted. Mordalayn improvises and fights dirty all the time. Jeroth suggests he fight with his hands behind his back, then headbutts his opponent in the face. Alaskadie suggests that if Unik Aaron can take his dagger then he will hand over the bracelet Unik wants. However he is planning on "warping" if Unik attacks him.

• Mangst: Bue. Missing his archery teacher Leppard. He holds it in until Jared inadvertently brings up the subject.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Alaskadie smashes the other two crystals needed to summon his fellow sentinels (or at least the ones that can be reached during Vyluka).

• Only a Flesh Wound: The two thugs shot by Bue. It's implied he was going to kill them until Mordalayn intervened.
• Our Angels Are Different: The Claviger. Red eyes and black wings. Also never speak. And become Nightmare Fuel at the end when their faces transform into huge beaks in order to kill the evil.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Nearly everyone the team meets at the crystal troves.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Queen Sophie. Also King Talbot.
• Royal Brat: Princess Epiphany. She gets better though.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Galfront Siavy in the border woods. Everyone when the Vagthunder appear.

• Suicide Mission: The hand picked squad that accompanies Alaskadie.

• Sycophantic Servant: Princess Epiphany's nanny. Karma bites her in the ass though when King Talbot fires her for it.
• Teleport Interdiction: The crystals used for teleporting have limits. Jerome saves his brother and his two Raaka by using one (Raaka get a free ride as they're small). However he cannot go too, so has to die to save them.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You
• Time for Plan B: Averted. In the first book Alegria became over confident and complacent. In this book it's clear that another SEVEN worlds have more or less fallen into the same trap.
• Too Dumb to Live: Any of Galfront Siavy’s men. Theub and his friends, although Jeroth only beats them up.
• Underestimating Badassery: The Aaron brothers, who think the quiet guy in the corner ignoring them is no threat. Steve from the Bury Boys who pulls a knife on Mordalayn and gets his fingers broken for his troubles.
• The Unreveal: It is again never made clear why Mordalayn has the head of a Caracal cat. Other characters simply accept it without question (although Jared remarks on it a few times). Also his “terrible tragedy” that led to him resigning as an army general and becoming Sophie’s bodyguard is never revealed. We only see two of the other eight Octagon monarchs and NONE of the other sentinels.
• Villainous Breakdown:
• Violence is the Only Option: Kind of. Alaskadie doesn't wish to fight anyone but will if he has no choice. Mordalayn and Bue beat up the Bury Boys (who had attacked a young woman for no reason). Jeroth was a special forces soldier and has a hair trigger temper.
• Warp Zone: The Shimmer can only be used from specific points and places.
• What the Hell, Hero?: EVERYONE'S reaction after Alaskadie kills three of his own rescue party. To be fair he had no other options, but hey.
• Wasn't That Fun?: Bue's attitude to nearly all hair's breadth escapes he is involved in.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: As established in the first book, time moves 3 times faster on Alegria than on Earth. However in this book Sophie freezes time in her bedroom so her and Jared arrive back just after they left, despite spending days in Alegria.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Or world, to be more accurate.

---