For the most part I used the Lombardo (2000) translation of Homer's 'The Odyssey' as I pondered my parallels. The opening line I quoted is from this translation. There was a Castilian translation done in the later 1500s that Vachon could have read in the course of these flashbacks.

Deliberate parallels:

• Trojan War: opening fight with the Inka across the sea
• Ulysses: Vachon
• Ulysses' crew: Screed, Bourbon
• Circe/Penelope: Lucrece
• Lotus-Eaters/Suitors: Misc. Vampires, including Thomas and LaCroix
• The Sirens: Francesca
• Charybdis: mob from Lyon
• Scylla: the Enforcers
• Athena: Mother Superior at the convent

Other references are more obscure: the visit to the graveyard in Trujillo was meant to be parallel to Ulysses traveling to the underworld and seeing his mother again, Lucrece dies from a shot from a bow harkening to the climax versus the suitors, various imagery referring to weaving and tapestries, the scene where Lucrece and Vachon are sleeping outside at the base of a tree refers to Ulysses and Penelope's bed carved out of a trunk, there were more, but those are probably the most obvious.

Doesn't everyone eventually write a story somehow involved with 'Fever'? As much as this story was meant to be about Vachon - and as 80% of it is from his POV, he certainly gets coverage - there were points where I really felt this story was all about Screed, a eulogy that Vachon gives to Nick after Natalie examines him, gives Screed's bad prognosis, and leaves.

The original concept only covered the initial meeting with Screed, through the graveyard scene. No Bourbon, no Lucrece, no Enforcers, no plans for adding the 'Odyssey' theme to the existing 'Words and Meanings' idea. It was my niggling conscience saying, 'Well, you never explained where the name 'Javier Vachon' came from, you twit!' that headed this story beyond twelve pages.

I wrote in the bit about Screed keeping Marie Vachon's ring as trivial whimsy. After all, in 'Fever' I'd noticed Screed is wearing what looks to be a plain silver band on one pinkie. < ---- Obvious sign have watched episode too much. I wrote about it here because I doubt anyone will notice the tie-in, no matter what I wrote in the story. (Gasp! Bonnie Pardoe, Non-Gullible, Non-Idiot beta reader recognized it right away! Hurrah!)

I skimmed the details of Screed and Lucrece's dice game on purpose. Number one, I wanted to finish this novel before the end of 2001. Number two, the idea behind wagering 'Stories about Vachon' seemed like a nifty 'Scheherazade' meets 'Canterbury Tales' type framework for a future short story series about Vachon set before 1652, you know, assuming I ever wrote a *short* story. (And since have - so there is hope!) There is one early days scenario involving Vachon and The Inka that I conjured as a flashback when I was writing 'Survivors' that I wanted to do, but I'm not sure it will fit with that series of novels after all. Maybe, maybe, it'll find a place here.

I'd written other stories that used Vachon as the one who made Screed a vampire, but I've since learned Greg Kramer said that ain't so, therefore I've mended my ways. I figured The Inka's a good secondary patsy for blame!

Once I decided to expand this story to include Bourbon, the woman I drafted into the story was not initially Lucrezia Borgia. I thought to use a flat-out wicked lady, call her 'Annalise' (a name which did make it into the final draft, but in a completely peripheral way), and have Vachon kill her in the end. It just so happened I started some recreational reading about the Borgias around the same time I began this section. (What? Of course that's normal pool-lounging material!) I was struck by certain nuances attributable to Lucrezia - the idea of her being trapped within the plots of her family and the princess in the tower syndrome. Aspects of the struggles in her life made me wonder if I could use her as an Urs/Tracy prototype. The part where she had blonde hair and blue eyes cinched it (shallow me!), and thereafter I revised my story to include this infamous personage.

In the end, I read so much about the woman, I don't know what to think. That pretty much sums up the historical truth of Lucrezia Borgia's character. Writings on her life portray her as everything from evil incarnate (Hugo), to a pretty and romantic ebullient figure (Haslip), to a shallow cow who would not have been remotely remarkable if she'd been in another family (Gregorovius). I believe I ended up combining a pinch of Hugo's lurid treatment (though I tried to restrain myself) with the puppet figure housing a romantic personality that Bellonci and Haslip present in their work on Lucrezia Borgia.

Joan Haslip wrote regarding Lucrezia Borgia's features: "It was not a face from which one would expect a strict moral standpoint or an irrevocable decision," which I found a delightful image with which to start.

In truth, surviving portraits and medals featuring her likeness are rare, and from the five I've seen, she seemed plain and round-faced with a receding chin, her hair and eyes being her most attractive features. There is a Pinturicchio portrait from the family's Papal apartments where she is depicted as St. Catherine in which I can see the claims of prettiness, but it dates to when Lucrezia was 14 years old. Portraiture done once she was an adult strikes me as distinctly matronly, and she was 39 at the time of her death. Obviously I embellished what I represented as her youth and beauty (rather Renaissance of me, eh?), but as fans say regarding 'Bad Blood,' the first thing you get as a new vampire is a makeover! La-la!

Lucrezia's fondness for the Spanish poet Estuńiga, Spanish dances, and Spaniards is detailed in Bellonci and supported through Gregorovius. While she was born and raised in Italy, her household until the time of her first marriage at age 13 had a strong Spanish influence. Her family name was actually the Spanish Borja, Borgia being the Italian form. The family had connections to the Aragonese, and held power in the Valencia region, centered in Játiva/Xativa from the 14th century.

'Lucrece de Valentinois' is another family name, deriving from a dukedom in the vicinity of Lyon that Lucrezia's brother Cesare Borgia bargained out of Louis XII in exchange for aiding the French king's petition for a divorce with his father, the Pope. In English, it's the 'Duke of Valence,' in Italian, 'Il Valentino,' and the French, the niftiest 'Valentinois.'

Another tricky issue after LB's actual appearance and age was religion - the influence of the Papacy and Catholicism in Lucrezia's daily life would be irrefutable. She was, between the time of her second and third marriages, given regency over the Vatican while her father, Pope Alexander VI a.k.a. Rodrigo Borgia, was off on a tour of the Papal States. She was effectively the guest-host of the Pope show, overseeing the courts and daily proceedings of the Vatican while she was still twenty. In other times of her life, she found refuge in convents, seemingly an escape from the intrigues and pressures of her everyday life. She would have to have some kind of opinions on religion as it related to her life once she became a vampire, but what? Would it be the kind of penitence Nick seems to display, or the mocking 'Is god sane?' deportment of LaCroix? Would it be somewhere in between, the way I portrayed Vachon - a respect for religion he didn't realize he had as a mortal, that had all become pointless and was better off avoided once he was not.

Gregorovius gave me a foothold into this predicament, outlining a perspective of Lucrezia's education. Religion would have been a matter of ritual, steps that she practiced from an early age, like children today learn how to tie their shoes, memorize multiplication tables, then get a license to drive a car. Religion equaled power in her lifetime, and her ties to power were corrupted. Though Lucrezia Borgia's life was closely entwined to the spectacle and riches of Catholicism, religion didn't necessarily have any meaning for her beyond 'that's the way things are done.'

I decided to approach Lucrezia as someone still very much a puppet, going through the motions of her mortal life, but for whom 133 years as a vampire had sowed the seeds of suspicion that there could be alternatives. I think in her mortal life, she did make a measure of progression from the mystic turmoil of her Circe youth to a settled, Penelope tending the hearth kind of existence during her third marriage to the Duke of Ferrara, especially in the years after her father's and Cesare Borgia's deaths. My intentions in this story were to replay that kind of shift for Lucrezia's character.

The 3rd season bible labeled Bourbon a former Musketeer who is a complete asshole. While that made a fun prospect, I had to wonder - why did Vachon ever hang out with this complete asshole? The granddaughter of Lucrece's brother Cesare Borgia actually did marry a man named Philippe de Bourbon. That's where I borrowed the rest of his name, though this was a marriage thirty years or so before the fictional Bourbon would have been born.

I didn't bother to research the financial status of the Bourbon family tree in detail to see if the version he tells Vachon of his background could be remotely accurate. This was a point where historical verity wasn't as important as fitting the character to me. I approached it from the pov that Bourbon's branch of the family was one of the ones that had their land seized by Charles IX or Henry III between 1572-1589, or by Richelieu in the 1620s, leaving Bourbon impoverished, but of royal blood. The wacky part is that the French Kings during the adult portion of Bourbon's lifetime would have been descended from the same Bourbons persecuted as Huguenots. The thing is, while all these guys seized property and wealth at the time of the massacre and beyond, the Bourbon kings of the future didn't give it back to the Huguenots once they were in power. They kept that wealth with the Crown, which caused many a later plot as the 1600s wore on and these former-Huguenots wanted their money and land back. The idea was that, depending on how Bourbon's family sided, or renounced Protestantism during this period, it would have affected how Bourbon was viewed when he chose to make his way as a Musketeer sometime between 1589-1630. I never settled on the specific date, though the 3rd season story bible suggests the 16th century.

In one version, I revealed that Lucrece had, in fact, organized the poisoned sword in the duel responsible for Bourbon's mortal death, so that she could swoop in and 'save' him by bringing him across, manipulating his gratitude. Since I wanted readers to feel some chagrin when she's destroyed (and from the beta readers, I've gathered varying degrees of tolerance and approval for her character as it stands), I decided that this was just one questionable act too many for Lucrece, especially considering I hadn't meant to paint her as a reprehensible figure like Victor Hugo, but rather as the sorceress having second thoughts.

What started the whole mess. A discussion on FORKNI-L started by Barbara Vainio brought up questions such as 'Why did Vachon use the alias 'J.D. Valdez' in 'Black Buddha'? Is that his real name?' Lisa McDavid pointed out that 'Vachon' was certainly not a Spanish name, and that 'Javier' was not a name in use until the 17th century, and it was of Portuguese derivation. I supposed to her privately that that 'J.D. Valdez' might very well be his real name, but perhaps the initials stood for a name he did not want to keep once he became a vampire. We agreed that 'Jésus' was not only possible, it had a wealth of ramifications to give to a character as well as an interesting contrast to LaCroix's character, who chooses a religious name for the irony.

I did check several lists manifesting names of Spanish men who traveled to and wrote about the New World in the 1500s, but none of them included a 'Jésus.' There were several with the name 'Domingo' however, so I picked that as a middle name, keeping with the idea of a name with religious significance that the Vachon would be inclined to ditch.

There was a Marie Vachon in France @ 1650 (My target date for the French flashback was 1652, the year Moličre came to Lyon; Screed's coming across was @ 1590). She was a relative of the fellow who evidently settled in Canada. She, however, lived in the southwest of France, so I fudged a little in that area.

You might notice I used 1532 as a year of death on Vachon's tombstone, despite it being canon that he was brought across in 1531. Well, I don't like the year 1531, as the conquistadors were a thousand miles away from Lake Titicaca, where Vachon says he ran into The Inka in that year. I justify the 1532 with the reasoning that there would be a gap in time between when Vachon actually died, Pizarro's men realized he was a goner, and the word got back to Spain.

It seemed a perfect opportunity to use a Vachon/Francesca encounter in this story, because it always seemed to me in the scene in 'Francesca' where Tracy is babbling to Vachon, he knew more than the name 'Nicholas Chevalier.' Sure, we can assume that he put 2 and 2 together, translating 'Nicholas Chevalier' as 'Nick Knight' on the spot, and that's what the funny 'I'm going to evade Tracy's questions now' look is all about, but it just *seems* like there's more going on there.

I wanted to do something nifty with the Enforcers, but I didn't want to make them all- knowing and omnipotent as they are so often portrayed. That's when I came up with the option of making them immune to some form of vampire death and decided upon staking (I'd considered making them unaffected by religious icons or resistant to sunlight, first). What does this have to do with Vachon? Well, in the back of my head I started wondering if that could add to the cheesy rationalizations of why Vachon isn't dead after 'Ashes to Ashes.' It's not like he'd been staked before - maybe Vachon turns out to be an Enforcer! Like he'd care.

Of course, one of the first comments I got during beta was 'Yikes! Attacking Enforcers! Won't this bring more of them?' (Actually, the whole non-stakeable Enforcers thing brought 'Yikes!' across the board.) But I'd thought of that. As Vachon and Screed were already used to avoiding The Inka chasing them down, I decided they wouldn't care, at least not in the face of the conflict. If an Enforcer was laying the heavy on them, they wouldn't back down, they wouldn't cower, they wouldn't have a discussion, and they wouldn't accept any blame. They'd fight to the death, and if that brought more hunting them later, well, that's just another busy night with The Crew.

I always have mood music on when I write, tunes that keep me in a frame of mind or jam me along during the fight scenes. Some tracks tie in with the story more than others, but all are fantastic songs. This story's playlist as it grew:

• This Mortal Coil version feat. Elizabeth Fraser 'Song To The Siren'
• Depeche Mode 'Enjoy The Silence'
• The Calling 'Wherever You Will Go'
• Smithereens 'Only A Memory'
• Baby Animals 'Painless'
• Travis 'The Humpty Dumpty Love Song'
• Spiritualized 'Stop Your Crying'
• Portishead 'Glory Box'
• Treble Charger 'How She Died'
• Paul Oakenfold version feat. Sabel 'Song To The Siren'
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 'Love Burns' and 'Red Eyes and Tears'
• Cosmic Rough Riders 'The Pain Inside'
• By Divine Right 'Supernatural'
• Starsailor 'Fever'
• Swag 'She's Deceiving'
• Morphine 'A Good Woman Is Hard To Find'
• Tricky 'Girls'

Yes, I chose to use 'The Inka' rather than 'The Inca' on purpose. To me, it reflects the native language, and is more appropriate, especially when trying to portray the character in a culturally accurate manner. The beta readers prescribed other character-driven reasons for this usage, as well, mainly that Vachon's use of this particular spelling illustrates a subtle respect or (depending on your interpretation) a subtle mocking of his vampire brother.

Information of the history, geography and features of Lyon, France was taken from the city's own website, except for the sewer/catacomb bits. I have no idea what's true in that area. Thwap me for factual incontinence, if you want. I think it takes some suspension of disbelief that Vachon and Bourbon were able to follow Screed and Lucrece's path, especially finding their way to Saint Jean Cathedral, but at least I made the attempt to give them a few clues.

The ending of this story went through different versions. Two went on to address whether or not LaCroix had been part of the riverside attack that resulted in Lucrece's death (rather suspicious, cross-tipped arrows and all). One take cleared LaCroix of involvement, the other left his participation open to interpretation.

My original ending also replayed two scenes from 'Fever': Screed's death, and the tag scene with Vachon at Screed's gravesite. The final version came after Bonnie Pardoe's beta suggestions, including the full circle reference to the death mask, as well as reinforcing Nick's place in the story. I haven't given Nick his own section in the notes, and yet his presence is very important. In fact, two scenes from 'Fever': the tag scene between Nick and Vachon as well as the one simple line Nick offers Tracy 'I was visiting a sick friend' inspired a great deal of this story.