Keeping a character out of the story?

I have an issue with the very ending of my novel, and deciding whether a certain character (who has been alluded to throughout the book) should make an appearance or not.

The character in question is the Queen of the Unseelie Court, and the mother of the main villain. Notably, she is not a villainous character at all, but a reasonable authority figure like her husband, the King. For the majority of the book she has been away from the Unseelie stronghold for business reasons, but after the events of the climax she is summoned back to deal with things.

I can't seem to find a logical reason for her NOT to show up at the end. She is by no means a neglectful mother to her children, and she had every intention of returning in time for her son's wedding (the date of which got bumped up several weeks without her knowledge), which never happened anyway for various reasons. Only after the climax, during which important Fae are wounded or killed (spoiler: the prince dies after trying to assassinate the King, who is saved by the MC and her allies), is there time and means to inform her of what's been going on. Naturally, when she hears about things she is going to rush back home as fast as possible.

The problem is, this happens in the penultimate chapter of the book. And the Fae have ways of cheating when it comes to long travel (mainly in the form of what I call "folding space" to cover more ground efficiently, which works at its best in their own world), so I can't arbitrarily say the journey is too long and the messenger won't get there for a few days (especially since said messenger can turn into a bird and fly there, on top of folding space), or the Queen won't get back in time before the MC leaves and the story ends (which happens a few days after the climax, mostly summarized within the chapter). I cannot/don't want to, likewise, throw in a pointless delay like her horse breaking a leg or something, because that's on the ridiculous side to shove into chapter 19 of 20.

I feel the Queen's presence would add depth to the resolution, even if it seems slightly redundant during the rest of the plot. I want my characters to see that the villain is strictly the black sheep of his family, and his parents and sister are all perfectly reasonable, even for Fae who consider themselves superior to humans. Even the King's one villainous act (sentencing the MC to death for maiming the prince in self-defense after the prince goes nuts and tries to kill her) is motivated out of a desire to uphold the law. When everything calms down, he is the one who relents and lets the MC and her family leave his kingdom safely. (This is mainly to repay the life-debt owed to them after they save him, but still.) I'm very tempted to have the Queen call out the King on his reasoning for acting against the MC (because she's the only one with enough authority), especially since the MC did all in her power to warn him that the villain was plotting against him, but he brushed her off.

 

If the story you're thinking of is WINTER'S QUEEN, then yes it is. I've got the middle part all filled up, though.

*nod* I see what you're saying. I hadn't intended to write another instalment -- I tried that a few drafts ago, but the ending has changed so much as to make my original sequel idea not feasible at all. At this point I'm not sure what a sequel would reasonably entail, so I'm content to leave it as a standalone.

My plan with the Queen's introduction was also to serve as an Establishing Character Moment -- one little thing that showcases the primary focus of their personality as it pertains to the plot. There are lots of examples here: Establishing Character Moment - TV Tropes I could have the MC ask people about the Queen throughout the story as well, to get a notion of what she's like as described through others' perspectives, if that would help at all.

 

I don't plan on adding another POV, since I already have three, and I'm not sure what it would add to the plot as a whole. Ditto with letters. The Queen's location and business isn't at all relevant to the story; I just needed a way to have her out of the action while making it clear that she's alive and well.

 

That makes sense. Trouble is, the MC (who is female, btw) has no idea where the Queen is, so trying to contact her is impossible. And I have no idea if the MC's Fae allies (mainly a maidservant and a guard) who DO know where the Queen is would be willing to go behind the King's (or more logically the prince's, since he's the one trying to marry the MC) back at that point. As it is, they only really get the guts to defy the King openly when the MC's life is danger, by breaking the MC out of prison before she can be killed.

Well, the MC doesn't know the Queen at ALL, and see my response above about contacting her. The question of which side the Queen would choose makes perfect sense, though. I could allude to the "ally or enemy" question otherwise though, like having the MC ask the prince about his mother, with questions like "Do you think she'd approve of me?"

 

I honestly have no idea. XD Which just makes it all the harder to decide what to do.

 

I do have a beta reader who's read everything I've written so far, but she advised me to exclude the Queen entirely from the end of the book. I disagreed on that, since I do want to show the Queen having influence on her kingdom. The question is how much to show. Right now I'm still inclined to include her, at least in this draft. Things might change after I manage to write her scene(s) out in full.