Where did the idea for the story come from?

Boy, I, you know, I wish I had an answer for that.

As I said, the first book was absolutely by the seat of the pants.

When I first started writing, I didn't have a clue where it was headed.

It started out with the Guild of Takers and the character Ruler Two, and it sort of morphed into all these rulers and the Magister, the sinister, uh, Guild of Takers.

And it just sort of grew into, "Okay, what are they trying to do? Now they're trying to overthrow two kings." It, it just grew and grew, and then these little side plots came in.

It just happened really organically, the first book.

Yeah.