Afterword: Book 1 - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2: Seeking Direction

(original chapter title: N/A)

So in the initial draft (and my initial rolling edits) this chapter didn't exist. A few pieces of it existed in my original chapter 1, but much of it was new.

My goals here were pretty simple. I wanted to flesh out WHY Ranthia chose the path she did, and work some (hopefully natural) basics of the System in here. Ranthia (well, our Ranthia) never got a System Day explanation. ...Probably for the best, she'd have argued with them and started problems.

I also NEEDED to remedy a problem with my original draft. In the initial draft Ranthia never explained her plans for her build (at all) until it was made. Not entirely sure WHY I did that (Xaoc knows I hate it when authors play games like that, hiding knowledge from the reader to surprise them), but I needed to fix it. I mean I still kept the reveal parceled out, since I didn't want people impatient for the final form (and/or BtDEM veterans pointing out that her goal was... improbable), but I think the flow works a LOT better now.

"One to survive, one to kill" was newly written as part of this draft. It was something Ranthia and I had said mentally, but not something I'd committed to paper (word processor, whatever). But I think it adds a nice touch, while also explaining what the heck she's trying to do.

I feel like I should address Ranthia's mother, I expanded and added depth to their interactions here, but I also feel like I... shouldn't.

Readers should be free to develop their own thoughts as things proceed, right?

FWIW, I imagine it's Kallisto that she hid from. Feel free to have your own headcanon there though, it doesn't really come up later (is that a spoiler?).