Sunshine Challenge 2021 - Prompt 4 (the Furies) (original) (raw)

Prompt 4: the Furies
The Furies, also known as the Erinyes, are a trio of vengeance deities whose immortal task is to hear complaints of insolence from mortals—and to punish those crimes by hounding the culprits relentlessly. They are said to focus on punishment for lying, killing, or sinning against the gods, but any lawbreaking was indeed punishable by them.

“Alecto was the oldest, unceasing in anger. Megaera was next, retaliator of jealousy, and Tisiphone, the last, regarded as the avenger of murder.” ― Elisabeth Naughton, Stolen Fury

Maybe you are inspired by Alecto (“the implacable one”, incites war), or perhaps Megaera (“the envious one”, vengeance) speaks to you, or maybe even Tisiphone (“avenger of murder”, guards the gates to Tartarus) – however you want to interpret the prompt, we’d love to hear from you!

On consideration, I decided to do another self-rec for this prompt. (I notice that several other participants are self-reccing this year.)

One would think that, among my various Forever Knight based stories, there'd be plenty that fit this motif. We are, after all, talking not only about vampires but a dysfunctional family where Divia slew her own master Q'ara, LaCroix slew Divia, and Nick did his level best to slay LaCroix. Shades of Greek mythology! However, where these characters are concerned, I tend to try to look beneath the obvious to unpick deeper psychological causes than mere revenge.

So instead I'm going to turn to war.

For those who don't know Forever Knight, there's a bit of backstory to "The Siege of Hastings". The protagonist of the show, Nick Knight, was turned into a vampire in 1228. This every writer ought to know, since the voiceover to the opening credits tells you so each week. Nevertheless, what is obvious to a fan writer is not necessarily so to a scriptwriter, especially in a show that apparently had no proper book—and definitely had a loosey goosey attitude to continuity. At any rate, in the episode "Forward Into the Past", Nick calls in a favour from another vampire whom he saved "at the Battle of Hastings". Which took place in 1066.

Fans have, of course, written fix-its ever since: they range from time-travel to bar fights in a Hastings pub. I was asked for a story with a new approach. If you're curious, you can read the comments on AO3 here.

It is obviously pure coincidence that the story stars three vampires and there are three Furies. Which is who is up to you.

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