Hello, everyone.

First things first; I truly am sorry for my disappearance off the face of the earth. A lot of things have been happening that I've been trying to deal with (albeit unsuccessfully). I'm not going to get into too many details, since I doubt anyone really would care to listen to me complain for hours.

Not only is the reality getting in the way of things, I find myself disillusioned with this archive. I've lost interest in attaining, setting new bars, because everything is so... stale, dry, worn down. There is something missing; a vitality, an eagerness from which I can always feel the author's excitement, their hopes for improvement and love. Now...

My dearest friends, I thank you for all you have done for me, whether or not you were aware of it in the first place. It is because of this that I have yet to quit, and it is also because of this that I have reached today's decision after months of consideration and contemplation.

If I were to describe my own fatal flaw, I would say it is the fruitless pursuit of unattainable perfection and the frustration that therein lies. I have had much time to think, and I've been distracting myself by thinking of the future of this story. It hasn't been halted by writer's block so much as it has by apathy. Originally, I was thinking of deleting everything, and maybe beginning anew under a different name, in a different archive; a blank slate. But then I thought about how much I would be letting everyone down, because being an author is to dedicate yourself to the works that you create and not decide off the top of your head to abandon it "just because," and damn it, I wasn't going to do that.

So now, since I may be writing in part for myself but mostly for all of you, there are two choices that you have to pick from.

One, I will continue as best I can along my original plot line (did you think we were almost through? Oh, come now. The fun hasn't even started!).

Two, I will rewrite... again.

Let me explain myself. I know that a lot of people are confused over what I am trying to do with this story. I've always been promising that it will all make sense in the end, but I guess some people really don't want to wait until then, and it's really hard to try and explain without giving away the whole thing. My writing style also tends to take a dramatic shift every half an year or so, and it's often incompatible with the previous kind, enough that it's like different people are writing it, though that might just be my critical side coming out. I was originally planning for this story to be around 150k, twenty chapters or so in length (hence, the reason why Part I is so short), and it's really quite evident that the story took me hostage and then ran away with me. When I figured that I wasn't satisfied with the result, I intended to slap chunks of new material on all of the old chapters, but then I realized that they would be 50k words each and much, much too long, even for me. If I am to rewrite, the later chapters will undergo little change. Rather, the beginning chapters will be altered, be added and taken from, and improved upon (I'm a little bit ashamed to say that I wrote it, even if it was years and years ago). I'll take down all chapters, then re-upload them as I go, just like I've been doing all along.

Now that I'm not in a rush, I think I can try to explain the viewpoint of the gods a bit better rather than saying, "Zeus's a jerk, Annabeth sucks, deal with it." I think I can do a much better job making them real, live characters. I can build and destroy bonds. I can redefine Erebus' character—they are meant to be very different, Percy and Erebus, and the way they deal with problems should be enough to definitively separated their characters even if I were not to put their names. For example, while Percy is mostly definitively good, Erebus is cold, calculating, and will kill without hesitation. There's a very, very big reason for that, and not just because one possesses a moral compass that the other lacks. He as much a villain as Percy is a hero. He's not a martyr, not some misunderstood hero, even if it may seem that way sometimes. When Percy and Erebus combine, they balance each other out. Did you really think either would really be thrown into the Void and would not twist it to his advantage?

(But of course, that's later on and it'll only make sense if you still remember what went on a million words ago).

At any rate, I would very much appreciate your opinions. I promise with everything that's left of me that if I do rewrite, I won't go on a big hiatus again. Regardless of what happens, I won't abandon Blackened Dawn. It holds much too dear of a place in my heart for that.

I'll see you all soon. After all, ars longa, vita brevis.

With love,

—Sv

P. S. Those PMs... I'm getting there. Slowly.