From the Ashes of Victory: The Complete Series, page 215
part #0 of From the Ashes of Victory Series
"You understand— pleh! that I'm not leaving 'til you throw me out, now," Ivy said. "Happy housewarming, by the by."
Pret was even more emphatic when it was her turn to hold the puppy. "I can die now. Just… right here."
"You won't get out of going back to work that easily," Millie said, turning to greet the rest of their guests, who entered with slightly more decorum.
Selene took only a quick look around before beckoning Elise over and gathering them both into a warm embrace. "It's beautiful. A dream come true. You deserve no less, my sisters." She pulled away to favour Millie with a smile that for so long had been a stranger to her face, but was now worn with comfort. "I know Niamh would say the same thing."
"I would hope so, this is all her fault," Millie said with a smile of her own. She gestured Selene and Carice inside, who almost immediately began helping Elise find places for all the gift baskets that were quickly piling up.
Elise peered inside one and came away concerned. "Ivy, what are these?"
"Which 'these'? Oh, those're people fruit, not to worry. The other one has the plants for the river. Be sure to keep 'em wet 'til you put 'em in the ground or they get stabby."
Ivy chose to make more cooing noises at the dog rather than elaborate.
Vickie arrived with an entire chest filled with tools and a good chunk of a library floating behind her. "Given your proximity to the river, I took the liberty of waterproofing the tools. The books include home improvement guides, cookbooks and other ephemera I hope you find practical."
They were a perfectly Vickie kind of gift, and also a perfect kind of perfect. Millie almost fell at her feet in thanks. "You're a godsend! This is half of my to-do list! Thank you so much!"
Kat held out a basket emitting the most heavenly smells, the strongest of which was butter. The bread inside crinkled perfectly and went squish when you looked at it. "From Mrs. Halliwell's. Fresh baked an hour ago." She produced a canister of Caspian Sea salt from underneath. "It's tradition to bring both to a housewarming."
"Thank you, Katya. They are very much appreciated," Elise said, proving it by making space where there hadn't been a moment before. She may also have nicked a piece of the bread in the process.
"I hear tell of a puppy that needs fawning over," Kat said with an anxious glance at the sitting room.
Millie turned to see Lulu bouncing between the laps of no fewer than four witches. "Get in the queue."
With a nod from her wife, Kat did exactly that.
"I've never heard her make that sound before," Vickie said. Her eyes briefly lost focus as she listened to the Bond. "I feel suddenly inadequate."
"It'll wear off when she gets peed on."
Millie's smile faded as she looked about her own home. Though it was still new and unfamiliar to even herself, it snapped into an entirely unexpected kind of focus when she tried to see it as Vickie did. Not through the critical evaluation of the doctor or the matter-probing curiosity of the Raven, but as the girl at the munitions factory Millie had met all those years ago. "We're a damn sight from where we started, aren't we?"
"I still occasionally experience the fear that I'm going to wake up and it will be 1915 again." Elise emerged from the kitchen to hand Vickie a cup of tea. "Thank you."
As the three of them stood together, Millie felt in that moment her house become a home. Its walls rang with their first bouts of laughter, the floors took on the first hints of the patina they would bear forever as the smells of kitchen and hearth seeped into a ceiling that had until now only smelled of paint and glue.
For so many firsts, it was Vickie who gave voice to a last. "We shared the same roof for nearly half our lives. It doesn't feel that long."
"Puts it in perspective, doesn't it?" Millie said. She looked down at Elise, their affection having only grown in that time. "It was just another June day until you stepped out of that car and changed my life forever."
"I do not remember much from then, it is all a blur. But I remember you. So tall, your hair blocking the sun. I had never seen anyone like you." Elise put her arm around Millie, and the Bond pulsed with warmth. "Such a strong welcome, I never left."
"I seem to recall you debating jumping off the veranda to get to her faster, Millie," Vickie said. "Instead you risked breaking your neck taking the stairs two at a time. Or was it three?"
"Never did work out how to slide down the bannister. Too late to try now, bad example for the dog," Millie said to Vickie's laughter.
Also a bad example was letting her have her way when she got a little too rambunctious. Elise patted Millie's arm and told her to stay with Vickie. Showing the same deftness with puppies as she did with people, Elise quickly got Lulu calmed down and into Selene's arms, where she settled like she had always been there.
The look Selene gave Ivy then would sustain Millie for the rest of her life.
For centuries they had lived as nomads and hermits, hiding their nature and their age, ever fearful. They were afraid no longer.
"I have even more respect for them now, I will say. When Sophia came sniffing around about Manifests, I instantly understood why they didn't tell us until they had to. I guess I knew on some level, but having Sophia right there asking put me square in Selene's shoes. A lot of ADAM makes more sense than it used to, and they had it a lot harder."
"I sometimes wonder how anything came of it at all," Vickie said.
"Because we stayed together. Through all of it, we always had each other."
"And we always will." Vickie pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. "Apologies. I didn't think I would need this so soon in the evening."
"I thought I would need a drink or two, aye. But I'm glad we're talking about it sober."
Both of their wives looked over at them at the same time, with the same understanding on their faces before returning their attentions to the others.
"Vickie, you're my oldest friend. But you're also my sister, the only family I have from before ADAM and all this witchery nonsense. I love you with all my heart."
"I love you, too. And I am proud… and grateful, to not only be family with you, but to share one."
Dusk deepened to night, the traditional time of witches, and stories flowed alongside the wine in memory of those who couldn't be there to share it—stories old and new, triumphant and embarrassing, large and small. All of them important. It started with Carice and her time with Isabella on Cyprus, going down the generations to Selene and Ivy and their centuries both together and with Niamh. Millie wished she had more stories about Inga, to put her on par with the elders, but what they lacked in length they made up for in punching. Kat spoke of long Russian winters learning magic in secret over candlelight from her grandmother, while Vickie's stories about Colette oftentimes bordered on esoteric, with climaxes that only she understood the humour in. Even Pret opened up about her aunt Agatha and what living on a river was actually like.
The stars turned, the fire burned. Memories became stories became memories again, and amidst laughter and tears, began to pass into myth.
Outside of EVE and ADAM before it, Millie had no experience with witch traditions as they had been lived in the centuries before she was born. But as she sat in the company of her family and listened on a cold winter's night, lit by magic and warmed by fire, she couldn't imagine they were much different.
Some things were timeless for a reason.
AFTERWORD
Thank you so much for reading the entire From the Ashes of Victory series, a true labour of love if there ever was one. There were so many moments I doubted I would ever get this far. Times I wanted to stop, times I wished I'd left Remember, November to stand on its own.
I'm glad I didn't.
Seeing a monumental project like this all the way to the end is one of the hardest, most rewarding things I have ever done. Six books, a short story and over 700,000 words later, it's finished. An entire alternate universe, and a family unlike any other.
That's amazing.
How did we get here?
It started with a young woman waking up in an open grave with amnesia, the sky a grey rectangle. That was the entire impetus for the series. Why was she down there? What happened to her?
Six books later, we know the answers.
But along the way it became about something more: love. Brave, fierce love that drove incredible feats that changed the world. When Millie gave Elise the apple pin at the beginning of Remember, November, I didn't know I would be writing a true romance on the scale that the series ended up being, but I'm glad I did. What could have been a one-off exploration of depression became a sweeping, six-book love story, and Victoria ultimately finding inner peace through being able to love herself is a thousand times more satisfying than I had ever imagined. Through all the darkness and despair that is threaded through these books, I wanted to contribute something that was overall positive to the canon of Western fiction. A story about the power and ability to change things for the better, where hard work, sacrifice and lived experience mean something, not only to those who lived it but to others. Who listen. Who learn. Who love. A world built on love, positivity and overcoming to be better than the one we live in.
Star Trek needed three world wars to get there, I did it in one!
So what about that world?
I think everyone who dabbles in alternate history has 'kill Hitler' on their bucket list, and I'm no exception. Now when someone asks you to name a fictional character who punched Hitler, you can say Millie Brown instead of Captain America. That's a likely pub quiz question, right?
As for actual history, The Raven and the Firebird was where the classes I took on interwar Germany finally paid off! I've long had an interest in this time period, so studying the rise of Nazism was not new to me, but researching it again to get some of the details fresh in my mind was doubly depressing given the current state of the real world. As they say, history may not repeat, but it does rhyme, and the parallels between Weimar Germany and many Western nations of today are enough that you could certainly hum along, even if you don't know the words. It's one of the very reasons I wanted to write this entire series.
I had a long debate about whether or not to show the events that toppled the Soviet Union of the Ashes universe—it was the biggest question that would dictate whether the series went to seven books or stayed at six. Ultimately I decided against it because that wasn't what the story was about. And in truth, the real Soviet Union of the late 1920s was not the juggernaut of the end of WWII and the Cold War; it was fragile—no match for a group of determined witches to bring it down.
There are myriad other real-world connections in this series that I used as a jumping-off point or inspiration. The white feather movement that Victoria was a part of really happened (also portrayed in an episode of Downton Abby), Inga's Battalion of Death was real too, as was the tragic aftermath. Icons like Rosy the Riveter help us remember and celebrate the women who worked the factories during the Second World War, but it happened during the First as well. That taste of liberation was one of the major pushes that led to the women's liberation movement and passage of suffrage during the 1920s, yet we've largely forgotten it ever happened. In A Christmas in Paris, I mention the nine real villages that 'died for France' during WWI, and Elise's home village of Bezonvaux was one of them.
As for what's survived into now and that you might want to touch and experience for yourself: uranium glass is real! Or was (most of it was made before WWII), and can still be purchased on various auction sites. In reality, it only glows green under UV light, but those hadn't been invented by 1929, so I had to fudge things by making the sun do it. I'm convinced the eerie green glow of uranium glass is why popular culture portrays all radioactive things that way; in actuality, the visible light put off by nuclear reactions is blue!
If you fancy travel and have a chance to visit (or live in) the UK, you can tour the real-life airship hangars that inspired The Shed (and The Other Shed) in the real-life Bedfordshire. Now known as Cardington Studios, not only are they still standing, they are currently being used to film movies and TV shows (the Christopher Nolan Batman movies were shot there!). In France, the Red Zone still exists, though it is much smaller than it was just ten years after the Great War. And it's still killing people. I used the term 'iron harvest' deliberately in the Red Zone scene in Pax Victoria—what Victoria does with magic people are doing by hand to this day, collecting unexploded munitions from what are now farms and gardens, left out to be collected by disposal teams. As dangerous as the Red Zone still is, there are areas adjacent to it that can be visited, however. Many of the scars of the war are still there, like undulating green fields of shell craters and trench lines running through what are now forests. The pictures alone are astonishing and worth the search.
I tried to remain respectful of those who actually lived the history I borrowed and portrayed. This story was built on real-life tragedy, to build out the future they deserved, rather than the one they (and we) got.
After a journey like this, I have one thing I'd like to ask: please consider leaving a review. A quick tap on the star rating or just a few words would go a long way. After six years, six books and so much work, I would greatly appreciate any word of mouth you can help spread. On a personal note, there were days when I needed to read some of the beautiful things some have said about my books in order to keep going; to know that there are people out there who do care, who want more. A writer's life can be lonely, and it can be very easy to convince ourselves that nothing we do matters. I hope you can take a moment to show that it does, and in the process, perhaps draw someone to the series who will get as much out of it as you have.
If you haven't read any of my Alumita books yet, I urge you to give them a chance! They're more fantasy-fantasy with elves and magical creatures and stuff, but just as focussed on character and expressions of love. They're also much shorter, less emotionally heavy and can be read in any order!
Finally, if you would like a painless, passive way to find out when my next book comes out, just click the 'Follow Author' button on this book's Amazon page and you'll be notified automatically. Easy! I'm also on Twitter @cdarrowwrites, but if you prefer something longer-form and less public, I can also be reached at cdarrowwrites (at) gmail (dot) com.
No matter what you choose to do, I thank you again for being here, now, and taking this journey with me and the witches of EVE.
-Cameron Darrow
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
An entire fantasy series doesn't happen by itself, nor is it the product of a single individual. From the Ashes of Victory would not have been possible without the amazing support structure I had holding it up along the way. First and foremost is my wonderful wife, without whom the single idea I had all those years ago would never have been able to blossom into what it became. Thank you to my family for your support and always believing this day would come, even when it seemed like it never would. To Brooke for her encouragement when I needed it most and for always asking the right questions. And finally, thank you as well to anyone who has ever left a review, rating or reached out to me. That I have gotten fan letters is utterly bewildering, but I am overjoyed by every one. There is nothing more motivating than hearing from you.
Excerpt from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, 1865.
Cover design © 2023 Cameron Darrow
THANK YOU
Thank you Victoria.
Thank you Katya.
Thank you Millie.
Thank you Elise.
Thank you Ivy.
Thank you Niamh.
Thank you Selene.
I hope I did your story justice.
ALSO BY CAMERON DARROW
Alumita Fantasy Lesbian Romance Anthology
Midnight Magic
Without Words
From the Ashes of Victory
Remember, November
The Fires of Winter
Hall of Mirrors
Colours of Dawn
The Raven and the Firebird
Pax Victoria
Short Stories
By the Moon's Light
(my first published work; not explicitly lesfic)
Cameron Darrow, From the Ashes of Victory: The Complete Series
