Afterword - Book 1 - Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Chapter 12: Violence Visited

(original chapter title: N/A)

The crux of this fight was EARLY in Passings, back when Ranthia still had Light and Metal classes. But when I was rewriting I realized it didn't make sense, not with Tatius' personality. Instead it got pushed back until Ranthia was 'old enough', even if I enjoyed Ranthia's OG draft threat: conjuring metal bandages to force Tatius to stop squirming.

Ranthia's brush with death was new though. When I ran the numbers... there was almost no WAY Ranthia could have killed the man in a single attack, not with [Knife in the]. But as I wrote the situation... Honestly, I don't know what the answer is. Your friend's death draws your attention and you find your throat cut and your side pierced by... a 13 year old kid? Hesitation or just confusion both explain it, let alone a blend of both.

Ranthia's fairly good at burying trauma. Which definitely won't cause her problems later in life, but for now even I've been surprised at some of what she's shrugged off.

BtDEM Book 4 Spoilers: The arcanite that the rogue classers had is one of the giant arcanite chunks that the Sentinels dropped while they rushed to counter the surging formorian tide. Several giant crystals tossed willynilly, yeah some of them ended up in terrible hands. Hands that used them to annihilate a small village in a fit of megalomania. Ironically, this probably leads to the Sentinels getting to recover this particular stone. Only because none of the trio had the equipment or knowhow to break the stone up into manageable pieces (plus they had no way of knowing if it was something that was known to be in the criminals' hands).

This was a fun chapter to flesh out, but don't worry: Ranthia hitting puberty definitely will have absolutely no repercussions. ...Wait, I am being handed a note.

It reads: Spoilers.