Like any other published book out there, indie or otherwise, Psiarch: Rising underwent several rewrites and draft versions before it reached its final manuscript form.
Up until said final form, however, the story had a scene at the end of Chapter 22 ('Under The Spotlight') where Trajan meets with his former 'great love' Chloé Wallace, as foreshadowed/announced in (preceding) Chapter 21 and intended as a conclusion, or a kind of 'coming full circle' type of resolution.
Here's the thing, though: the majority of the beta readers throughout previous drafts commented that this scene was unnecessary, if not superfluous, since as readers they felt the resolution (albeit only 'announced') was properly handled with finality and didn't require any re-visitation... especially with a whole scene.
For a long time I didn't agree with this and stubbornly held onto this scene. I even sought to place it elsewhere in following chapters but... alas, it simply didn't fit anywhere else but at the end of Chapter 22.
After mulling things over and over, I finally relented and removed it. Still, I continue to think this same scene plays at least a non-insignificant role in the growth of Trajan as a character, for all the beta readers didn't agree with me 😅.
Therefore, here's the scene in its last version before its final deletion and pre-final editing of the book (note: references to wizard princes and knights are related to how Chloé described Trajan to Mira Nakatomi on the evening she 'confessed' to the latter concerning what truly happened between her and Trajan, in the preceding Chapter 21; also, the 'wicked witch' mentioned refers to a certain news personality and her live confrontation with Trajan/Psion, as shown in the bulk of Chapter 22):
Chloé Wallace sat on one of the benches placed along the walking path of the park-like, open-air center area of her Grade 4-5 HTC christened ‘Pleasant Towers’.
She gave a look over to her eleven-month-old son, the latter being sound asleep in the roller set before her, all snug and warm in baby fall clothes whilst covered by thick blankets. In the same moment, she sent heartfelt thoughts to her beloved daughter enjoying herself in preschool and her loving husband Robert busy at his UMD Supervisor’s job.
Wearing proper fall clothing herself, Chloé gazed at the numerous trees adorning said outdoors space of Pleasant Towers, their leaves displaying various hues of bright yellow, orange, or red, as was typical for this time of the year—except for pines and evergreens, of course. In a similar way, decorative bushes and floral arrangements had browned or withered, whereas the living pond was already in slumbering quietude, in evident expectation of the winter season awaiting its turn to settle over not only the Québec Capital District, but the whole of the world’s northern hemisphere as well.
Thankfully, the excited chirping chatter of sparrows enlivened what would have been a melancholic autumn stillness.
She cast a quick glimpse at her ewatch. 10/23/2071; 10:28—he should arrive at any moment, now, she assessed, not without tenseness.
Chloé inhaled and exhaled deeply to steady herself, in so doing releasing a small cloud of condensed breath due to the chill temperature prevailing on this cloudy morning of late October.
She spotted him the next moment walking through the archway leading into the HTC’s open-air center area. Sporting nondescript jeans and a fall jacket zipped all the way up to his scarf-wrapped neck, he adjusted the shades he wore with one of his gloved hands. Because of the light breeze sweeping around and about, numerous strands of his chin-length, slightly wavy brown hair lifted themselves in seeming insurgency against remaining coiffed in a right-parted fashion.
Even out of his Psion attire as he was, he looked to her very much like the noble Arcane-Knight she had been seeing on news streams over the past five years or so.
Moreover, seeing his face after all those years, and aside from his overall frame being somewhat more muscular than she recalled, she couldn’t help but be surprised at how little he had changed, let alone aged.
As he approached her further, a timid Chloé smiled in response to his genial grin.
“Thanks for agreeing to meet on such short notice and ‘out of the blue’, as they say,” Trajan said in his soft-spoken tenor timbre, on purpose murmuring loud enough to be heard yet ensuring he wouldn’t disturb the sleeping baby. He opted to remain standing.
“Of course, no problem,” a nervous Chloé replied in kind, placing reflexively a part of her shoulder-length, auburn straight hair behind one ear while casting her eyes downward in a bout of shyness. Her silky soprano voice quivered, betraying her racing heart.
Although she looked older than he remembered, Trajan couldn’t deny he found her as beautiful as ever. With her angular face and delicate chin, her small pointed nose above full lips, and her bright-blue eyes underneath thin auburn arches, the diminutive and dainty sylph-like woman had remained comely and attractive over the years, indeed.
“Like I said on the phone, this will be short,” he reassured, seeking to avoid as much awkwardness as possible.
“This… This is Nathan–my baby boy,” she offered, her demeanor tentative.
“How old is he?” Trajan asked in a conversational fashion.
“Eleven months. I’m still on maternal leave. Sylvie, his rambunctious older sister, is in kindergarten right now,” she specified in meek tone, for all she spoke as a proud and loving mother.
Trajan nodded in affable acquiescence. He was buoyed by the fact that talking about children with Chloé—her children, in particular—left him as unaffected as if he was conversing on the same subject with an acquaintance.
“I wanted to see you so I could tell you, out of personal courtesy, TransAm CSS special agents will be contacting you within a day or two—discreetly, of course,” he prefaced with as much tact as he could muster. “It’s to put you under what they call Omega Secret-level protocols, because you know about me and my abilities. It’s to ensure my privacy and safety. Don’t ask how they’ve known about me, to begin with. They’re the ones who supplied me with your ephone number when I asked, in case you’re wondering.”
It was Chloé’s turn to nod in complete acceptance. “Abilities—plural, huh?” she retorted in good-humor at length, having learned of his telepathy like everyone else during the Puppeteer Incident.
“Yeah… I’m very sorry about this,” a now-embarrassed Trajan offered, putting his usual hand to the back of his neck. “I didn’t… I mean, I never peeked into your mind or anything like that and—”
She shook her head. “Don’t be—and I know,” she interjected, her voice all the more unsteady whilst tears welled up in her reddening bright-blue eyes.
“I was quite angry at that shrilling Wicked Witch on the news show, by the way,” she managed to throw in a casual manner.
Trajan nodded in appreciation. “My understanding is she’s in trouble of sorts for it. However, I’ve been told a whole lot of folks agree with her sentiments—way more than what was expected,” he disclosed in reference to the latest update of Danilo’s ‘post-News Forum appearance analytics’, which indicated an upsurge of activity on all known FHF discussion boards and VR agoras.
To his consequent demurred smile, he brushed the matter aside with a curt wave of a gloved hand: “Well, never mind all that. I’m digressing.”
Chloé exhaled aloud at this, having at last gathered the courage for what she needed to do, for what she felt she owed him: “I’ve to tell you something—something big and very bad, for which you’ll surely hate me, and justly so…”
“You don’t have to,” Trajan cut in, his tone gentle. “I already found out the truth of what actually happened. It’s why I mean it when I say I really contacted you to tell you about the CSS—nothing else, nothing more.”
An aghast Chloé raised her teary eyes toward him. “H-how …?”
Trajan shrugged. “It’s not important,” he dismissed with nonchalance, not wishing to reveal Mira as his source, for all the latter had asserted she didn’t mind it.
“Again, I came here just to let you know about the CSS and the Omega protocols,” he insisted congenially.
“I’m so sorry… I-I don’t see how you could ever forgive me,” a remorseful Chloé apologized between sniffles, struggling to keep her weeping voice low so as to not awaken her son.
Sighing, Trajan shrugged anew. “There’s nothing to forgive. What was done was done and the past is the past. For what it’s worth, I hold no resentment whatsoever. I’ve moved on long ago and so have you: in the end, it’s what truly matters,” he said, sincerity permeating his words.
Chloé steadied her gaze onto him, her reddened eyes filled with sadness mixed with gratitude… and regret. In this instant, she wished she could see those deep-blue eyes of his she had memorized so well.
“A-are you married or anything?” she inquired in a half-hearted light mood, along with an uneasy snicker. A sniffle or two followed.
Trajan lowered his head to a self-effaced grin on his part. “I’m… seeing someone, at the present time. We’ll see where it goes, I guess,” he answered with yet another shrug, again wishing to leave Mira out of the short conversation.
And truth be told—although Chloé had once been a very important part of his life, he didn’t feel like sharing anything private with her, just as he was at best faintly interested in her personal affairs.
We must remain perfect strangers, he reflected with honesty.
He gave a swift look at his ewatch. “Well, I better go; I’ve got lunch coming up soon with my father, with me being here in Québec City and having to oblige him with a visit or be disowned,” he announced good-naturedly. “Just be sure to disclose everything to the CSS special agents, including telling them about anyone to whom you may have talked about me. It’s OK—they’ll also act with utmost discretion to put those folks in turn under Omega protocols.”
“I never told anyone, not even my husband or my parents–except to the single one person, on the night when you first came out as Psion,” Chloé assured. “But yes—I’ll tell them about this.”
With a silent acknowledgement of the head, Trajan half-turned to get on his way. “Have a good one, Chloé,” he said in pleasant tone, to a quick wave of his gloved hand.
Her heart sinking, she accepted his conveyance while wiping tears with her scarf. She wanted very much for the two of them to share more.
Deep down, however, she understood why it was best they refrained from doing so.
“Will I ever see you again, other than on the news and all?” she asked, nonetheless.
“I doubt it,” he replied in a matter-of-fact manner. There was not a trace of frostiness or bitterness in his words.
“Be happy, Chloé. I mean it,” he added in parting.
“You too, Tristan. You too,” she tendered back in kind, wiping the last of her tears.
As Chloé watched him stroll away in his typical unassuming-yet-confident stride, the secret part of herself which had remained in love with Trajan after all these years sought to compel her to call out and plead with insistence for him to stay, so he could fulfill her long-buried yearning to know more about his hopes, his loves, his life.
This was when Nathan let out a little coo of contentment followed by a tiny yawn, his pale-blue eyes wide open after awakening from his nap.
A precious reminder, as it were, that life did go on. Always.
Thank you, my wonderful Wizard-Prince; starting today, I’ll let myself be happy without reservation. I promise, she resolved to one final glance at the gallant Arcane-Knight walking further away and out of her life for good, before joyfully mollycoddling her roused baby boy.
Well, that's it. I hope you liked it and let me know, if you read Psiarch: Rising, whether you agree with the final decision to delete this scene out of Chapter 22 or not. Let's have fun! 😁
But in case you haven't read the book yet, feel free to grab a copy of Psiarch: Rising from any of the outlets listed here. 😉
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