Prince Charming—I mean Cynrik

Today we’re talking about Prince Cynrik, Prince Charming himself, now that Cinders of Glass has been out for a while. Of course, some spoilers ahead if you haven’t had the chance to get to it!

As I mentioned in the previous posts, Cynrik is where this story really started. I knew I wanted a Prince Charming archetype in Mirrors of Ice who would also function as the Prince Charming in a Cinderella retelling. And I knew I wanted him to be a darker Prince Charming than typically found in ya fairytale retellings. A bit of a womanizer, but that wasn’t the real crux on his issues and future redemption arc. The real issue is Cynrik’s manipulative tendencies.

The only problem with all of that while writing Mirrors of Ice is that… the cold, calculating, master manipulator didn’t entirely work when Sterling was a cold, calculating frighteningly perceptive character. And the charming, personable façade is really hard to accurately portray when both point of view characters don’t like him and don’t buy into it. So when we first see Cynrik in Mirrors of Ice, we don’t quite get the full suave, charming manipulator. But we really do see him at his worst. He is cruel and aggressive and desperate. The way Cynrik was with Sterling is different than the way he was with everyone else, mostly because Sterling’s curse meant he was always reflecting the truth of Cynrik, not the image he was putting on.

There are glimpses of Cynrik when he’s with others, being his charming, manipulative self and there are even glimpses of some of the better parts of his character, Cynrik trying to protect Liliana similarly to how he does Princess Dione. But we mostly see Cynrik as the worst of Sterling’s siblings.

But there is one big event in Mirrors of Ice that has a profound effect on Cynrik’s character, and I knew this moment was going to be crucial in setting Cynrik up for his own story. The months Cynrik spends frozen by Isolde, trapped in his own head fresh off his disastrous fight with Sterling. As you know from reading Cinders of Glass, man, is Cynrik ever in his own head, thinking and overthinking and always calculating. So I’m sure you can imagine what it was like when he had nothing else to distract him from the way he’d treated Sterling. And of course, when Sterling returned to unfreeze them, Cynrik is presented with a reality that he cannot comprehend. The fact that Sterling, even after all the things Cynrik had said and done, would come back and unfreeze him.

The scene between Cynrik and Sterling, when Cynrik chases after Sterling as he’s trying to leave, is one I agonized over. I wrote it and rewrote it and tweaked it so many times because I knew how crucial it was not just for Sterling’s character his broken relationship with Cynrik and the rest of his family but for Cynrik as well. When Sterling reveals what his curse was, Cynrik is faced with those dark aspects of his character that he works so hard to bury. He can’t run from it and put on another face, not after he’s spent months thinking over everything he’s ever said to Sterling. But it’s too much for him to handle all at once. In his head, he knows he should apologize, but he’s never had to genuinely apologize for anything before, and it’s all too much all at once.

But it affects Cynrik for a year and a half.

So the Cynrik we meet in the beginning of Cinders of Glass is one who is stuck, knowing what he wants to do regarding Sterling, but afraid of ruining his one chance.

But now we get to see a more complete view of Cynrik’s character, so I get to have my manipulative, calculating prince who puts on the appearance of a typical Prince Charming to disguise his darker traits. I just loved the idea of a Prince Charming who was so well-liked and charming as a method of manipulation. It’s something that seems to come up pretty often in terms of criminals, serial killers, conmen, cult leaders, they’re very charismatic and it’s how they manipulate people and trick them. I wanted to explore that but in a redemptive way because there are plenty of normal, non-criminal people who are manipulative. Of course, manipulative characters make great villains, but there’s something in my own flawed dark heart that thinks they can also make great heroes.

You know by now I am all about the redemption arc. I love when characters hit the bottom of the barrel, when they make the biggest mistakes they can, bringing them to the depths of their darkest parts. Because that’s when they’re forced to confront themselves, there’s nowhere else to go, and that’s when change happens. Cynrik’s low point was in Mirrors of Ice and all of Cinders of Glass is him climbing back up, of learning how to change.

And also, I just like making characters work for their happy ending!

But man, let me tell you, it is so much fun and it is so much work to write such a manipulative, calculating character. It reminded me a lot of writing Sterling’s POV where I had to very careful and intentional about the words I used and I had to create rules to follow about what he could think, the things he needed to say, and his body language that were all controlled by his curse. For Cynrik, I didn’t have to be as strict because magic wasn’t literally preventing him from calling something beautiful, but I did have to be very intentional with his interactions with people, especially when he was being manipulative, which is… often.

He had to be constantly studying their body language and words and calculating the correct response in order to achieve his means. He had to be intentionally crafting his body language and responses to achieve his means. Cynrik spends a lot of time playing Prince Charming in a way or as he puts it “putting on the appearance of himself,” so that translated into how he describes himself. He “puts on” expressions. He has specific smiles, and he is intentional about which ones he uses when to give his best smile more power. His mind moves very quickly when he’s in control and trying to manipulate. His head, especially in the beginning of the book, isn’t always a nice place to be, but it’s a fascinating one.

This sounds really vain because I was the one writing it, but I just cracked up writing his POV. I just think he’s so funny. Liora cracked me up too, and their dynamic was just so much fun to write, but Cynrik’s perspective was just fun. He has this strange dynamic where he allows himself to be more honest with himself about things but he still does his best to lie to himself and convince himself of things. He’s just a mess, and I love him.

So that’s how I really formed my darker but still redeemable manipulative Prince Charming!

If for some reason you read this without haven’t read Cinders of Glass, you can grab it here!