We welcome author Kristina Elyse Butke here today to answer some questions for the release of The Name and the Key, book one in The Darkening Gate series.
Welcome! What inspired this new series?
I’m an anime geek so I’ll just come right out and say it: Fullmetal Alchemist (both the original and Brotherhood). I knew that alchemy was the pseudoscience of turning lead into gold, but FMA showed me you could be so much more. There’s alchemy that transforms materials. Then there’s alchemy that creates godlike beings. There’s separation, putrefaction, purification, recombination—both literal and metaphorical. Alchemy is truly a fantasy author’s playground, and I loved how FMA played with it. It inspired me to write a story with my own take on it, while very much tipping the hat to the beloved anime.
What do you enjoy most about writing fantasy?
I’d say creating magic systems and settings. Magic is so broad and there is virtually no limit to what you can imagine, and yet at the same time you have to come up with rules for it and inner workings and consistencies, which makes magic creation a fun challenge, too. As for settings, I can’t help but rely on my experiences traveling and living abroad to create special places where characters live.
Can you tell us a little about the setting of this book?
*The Name and the Key* is largely inspired by my time in Wales. I studied there for a term as an undergraduate in Carmarthen, and I did a lot of traveling in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. Mariner is the main city in the novel, and it’s inspired by Tenby, Wales. Tenby is a beautiful little city that’s within a medieval wall whose ruins are still visible today. It has multicolored buildings in brilliant colors, stone walkways, bright beaches, and a ferry that sails to Caldey Island, home to a still-thriving Cistercian abbey. You can see ancient and modern things in Tenby, and it’s just a gorgeous, fun place to be.
What drew you to the Regency period as an inspiration?
The clothes!! I am a huge costume nerd (cosplay is one of my hobbies) and when I envision my characters, the clothing that they wear is extremely important, not just visually, but conceptually, too. Clothing immediately communicates personality, era, and status, and my mind settled on The Name and the Key being Regency ages ago. I think there’s something regal about the time period and its fashion—men and women look like fairytale princes and princesses, but not in an overwrought way like during the 18th century, for example. There’s a classical look to the fashions of the period, and I love the cuts and colors of the clothing. Men look dashing and rich and adventurous, while women look modest yet coy and romantic. I first imagined my characters wearing Regency costume in my mind, so I just went with it, and embraced it as the setting and culture of the book.
How does alchemy play a role in this story?
Alchemy is the major magic system that Andresh uses in the novel. He has had tragedy in his life from an early age on, and is so traumatized by death that he has studied the dark magic capable of stopping it. Alchemy is that magic. And alchemy has its many secrets, so Andresh made a deal with a demon he names Isabelle, whose specialty lies in revealing secrets. She has guided Andresh through the Magnum Opus, the alchemical journey to immortality. There are Four Gates of alchemy, and you have to give up something of yourself as you pass through each one—this is a separation and purification process. What would you give up if it meant you could end death?
What really influenced you most while writing The Name and the Key?
If we want to get really into Fullmetal Alchemist lore, it’s the character of Father from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. He started out as a black blob in a flask, already feeling himself to be superior to human beings, but he had a great desire to become a perfect being, a god. He removed the sinful parts of himself in order to pursue perfection: lust, gluttony, greed, envy, sloth, wrath, and pride. These seven deadly sins became the homunculi in the series, who serve Father and call him, well, Father. He uses his “children” to grow in strength and do his bidding, and the lengths in which Father will go to get ultimate power is unfathomable, and largely a secret for most of the anime until the great conspiracies are revealed. Father plays the long game—one that goes on for centuries with innumerable sacrifices made.
The idea of removing the lesser parts of yourself to become a perfect being (one that can’t die) leaked from FMAB **into The Name and the Key, largely with Andresh’s character. Only, he doesn’t give up the famed seven deadly sins. He has to deal with something far more difficult: the sacrifice of human desire. And that’s only the first step!
What is your favorite part about Lily Bellamy’s character?
I just admire how strong she is. She has a curse that’s followed her for five years and counting—seeing her dead mother’s corpse calling out to her in mirrors, glass, and still water—and she somehow has learned to take steps to avoid falling into a deep melancholy or losing her sanity, although every day the curse continues, she’s one step closer to doing so. She’s learned to stop looking at herself. I think that is incredibly hard for a person to stop doing—we’re naturally drawn to reflections out of curiosity, vanity, etc. I do not possess a modicum of self-discipline to be able to do this. I admire her strength of will and her follow-through.
What is your favorite part about Andresh Zatavier’s character?
I tried to make Andresh as perfect as possible, with some hints of cracks underneath. I want audiences to fall in love with him. When The Name and the Key was my graduate thesis, people did. When I rewrote it for Oliver Heber Books, my beta readers adored him. I wanted to make an admirable character worthy of Lily’s (and my readers’) love but…he’s also someone so shiny and clean that you can’t entirely trust him. Like, he’s just too good. That was challenging for me to do as a writer, and I hope readers think I pulled it off. You’ll be able to see how the cracks underneath him formed in The Name and the Key’s sequel, The Step and the Walk, which releases October 13, 2026.
Want to know more about The Name and the Key?
Some doors are sealed for a reason—and some names should never be spoken aloud.
At thirteen, Lily Bellamy finds her mother’s body in the marshes. What haunts her afterward is worse.
A corpselike spirit that looks like her mother follows Lily through every reflective surface—mirrors, glass, still water—whispering for Lily to open the door and let her out. Lily has no idea what the door is, how to stop the visions, or whether saving her mother is even possible. The haunting stretches into her young adulthood, eroding her sanity and dragging her closer to a breaking point she can feel but cannot escape.
When Lily is eighteen, Andresh Zatavier returns—the boy who once knew her better than anyone, and perhaps still does. Changed by years overseas, Andresh confesses his study of dark magic and forbidden knowledge beyond human limits. He believes he knows the key to Lily’s curse—and how to end death itself.
But every secret Andresh carries comes at a cost.
As Lily is drawn deeper into a world of dark gates and dangerous names, she must decide how far she is willing to go to save the woman she lost… and whether opening the door will free her mother—or unleash something far worse.Kristina Elyse Butke launches a chilling new dark fantasy series with The Name and the Key, weaving grief, forbidden magic, and aching connection into a story where love tempts fate—and some doors should never be opened.
Preorder it here: https://books2read.com/u/mKZ8zy
Meet Kristina Elyse Butke:
Kristina Elyse Butke writes fantasy filled with magic, dark curses, and true love. Her time living abroad in Wales and Japan inspires her writing through the fantastical settings and creatures she creates. She has an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and when she isn’t writing, she indulges herself with reading manga and webtoons, watching anime, and cosplaying. She also enjoys spending time in forests, the more whimsical, the better.
You can find out more about Kristina on her website, and you can find her on Facebook, X, Bookbub, TikTok, Bluesky, Threads, and Instagram
