Afterword - Book 1 - Chapter 34 (Patreon)

Chapter 34: Blind Faith

(Original Chapter Title: Of Gods and Monsters)

The original draft had this and the next chapter merged together. I separated them out, but there was also some new content added.

Hunting uses tough love to help hone Ranthia. I think a large part of that is him reacting to her personality and choosing the tool that works best, but I also bet that's his preferred method of training someone up. Hunting usually hasn't been able to do 1-on-1 apprentices like Night does, but his role in the war gave him some extra leeway.

The 'game' was newly added. The [Identify] flaw for Ranthia was something I, admittedly, didn't think of until Book 2. At which point it just made more sense to stick it in my notes to deal with during my Book 1 edits; and I ultimately decided Hunting worked best for pointing it out. Now, granted, the flaw is a bit mixed on how bad it is. Most people have to actively use [Identify] (or its variants) on a single target, which means they have to realize her images don't appear in [Identify] and use the ability on spam to find the real her. Though it also means Ranthia's more vulnerable to those with broader versions of the Skill, like the one I gave Hunting.

The me that wrote Book 1 would NOT have been brave enough to specify Hunting's skills beyond what Selkie wrote.

Originally Ranthia wasn't going to learn that the other Adventurers had negotiated extra rewards for going through the Ranger stuff until she was gawking at Kaesios' notes. I think/hope that it made more sense, and had more impact, with where I moved it.

So! Who here noticed that Priest Aeschylus was a BtDEM character? I'm serious, BtDEM Book 2 (Adventures in the Argo), Chapter 48: Government Vivisectionists. When it became clear that Ranthia was going to be expected to meet with whomever screened the god-touched in Remus after Priest Demos' death (random aside: I always want to write Priest Deimos; thanks Mars)... well, why not tap the enthusiastic acolyte who improbably got his name dropped? It makes a lot of sense, as he said: he was always curious and so it made sense to punish him for it. Never be eager about something no one wants to handle, you'll get stuck with it forever. That's an important life lesson there.

Statia's having her own, possibly worse, meeting, ofc. It's funny how Statia developed so much from "I want an oath-style skill that causes a minor problem" for when the hell months were getting started to becoming a character on her own merits. But I guess that's part of the writing process, you establish something on a whim and run with it for hundreds of thousands of words!

Oh, and Ranthia visited Hexara, dropped a verbal bombshell, and immediately fled. That was a thing that happened.

The best first 'I love you's slip out without intent or conscious awareness. That's how you know they came from their heart and not somewhere logical.