Afterword - Book 1 - Chapter 45 & 46 (Patreon)

Chapter 45: Outmatched

(Original Chapter Title: Outmatched)

You ever just see a situation that's so obviously not something you want to touch that you just go "Nope" and move on?

Ranthia and Republius did. ...It just didn't stay something they could opt out of.

As you might have noticed, this chapter got split up more than a bit. I wanted to save Outmatched for Massilix and not leave readers wondering as Ranthia experimented with her new Skills. The result became a short chapter, but a punchy one.

Ranthia reveals her [Identify] in a fit of necessity... and things still go not-so-great.

It was a hard chapter to write AND to edit. I knew from day 1 that they were going to die, but... well, over the course of what I wrote they developed and Ranthia established a bond. Her level of respect for Leoios wasn't expected either, which cause a problem—it rendered Ranthia inactive. ...At first, it turns out that respect has its limits when you're giving blatantly bad orders.

It just took Ranthia too long to accept this.

Chapter 46: Minor Interlude - Leoios - One Miscalculation

(Original Chapter Title: N/A)

I mentioned this before, but ever since the Ranger Convocation in the OG draft I switched between Leoios' perspective and Ranthia's.

I didn't like the effect when I came back through editing. I almost never used that outside of this point (except for Tatius, once, back when Ranthia was severely depressed) and, well, honestly I got confused when I was trying to parse out sudden perspective shifts while editing.

The story is stronger when focused through Ranthia's eyes, but removing Leoios' perspective left a hole. His broad assumptions about who Ranthia was and what her restrictions meant... and why he made the call to attack. He hadn't even known what they were facing, not truly. As he states, the kraken is masked beneath a cloud of dark mist. He's firing blind and his orders are nothing but guesswork.

One of my Patreons recently referred to him as a psychopath. After doing a bit of research I'm not sure if I completely agree. Leoios didn't properly see people as people, but he had no muted emotions—he just expected people to perform like machines. Everyone within their role. He wanted to live an orderly world of black and white.

It's why I—at the eleventh hour as I wrote this chapter—made him a follower of Seira, the Goddess of Order (he had a generic 'goddess' comment at one point). He even held himself to the same standard, and he acknowledges that he fell short.

...Far too late.