Afterword - Book 1 - Chapter 55 (Patreon)

Chapter 55: Contact

(Original Chapter Title: Ranger II)

Contact. One of the things I love doing where I can is using titles that change meaning as you read. Contact sounds relatively innocuous... until suddenly it doesn't.

But I'm putting the climax ahead of the buildup, so let's go in order.

I'm a bit amazed that Royal Road didn't have anyone squinting at Ranthia's travel time estimations (at least that they mentioned). It was yet another moment where Ranthia's estimations of the world were just a touch off-base. Much to her absolute mortification.

Speaking of mortification, heeeere's Hexy! Privately, I have to wonder how many messengers Hexara had interrupted before she 'found' Ranthia—she didn't have the levels to truly be certain of Ranthia's identity before she would have had to act. But Ranthia, once again, chooses cowardice and continues on her way.

Also, hey look at that, memory Skills in Remus! I have a lot of fun with showing other sides of Remus' cultures than those Elaine hyperfocused on. Ranger Headquarters is full of mystery and misdirection, but it's also a place with a long history and a coming together of some of Remus' greatest experts. Elaine never really dug into it beyond the Sentinels themselves—she almost never even interacted with the support teams for the other Sentinels. Also, it's just fun to give Ranthia weird situations and see how she'll react (I refuse to lie to my supporters).

Hylla's kidnapping incident was new to the edits. I'd expected it to be its own chapter at the time I came up with it, but Ranger Team 6 had come together and found its competence—they tore through the gang with ease. Pyra (and Lysia) may act immature, but they're still Rangers. Lysia came from the Legions too—even if they threw her at Ranger Academy without ever sending her off to war. Neither of them is exactly adverse to using lethal force on bad people that intend bad things. There's a difference between a bit of personal childishness and naive innocence that gets people killed due to inaction. Thank Xaoc, they fall on the right side of that. Also, if anyone wants to know why I didn't write that Hylla had been raped/abused by the gang, Ranthia has a crate of knives that we'd love to introduce to you. Seriously, the world is bleak enough—I don't need to constantly allude to Even Worse aspects.

Ranger Team 13 never really came together. They rallied behind the willpower of a strong and determined leader, but they never truly gelled. They just accepted one another, more-or-less. Ranger Team 6 is different, and I love how the contrast came out. Here they weren't 'soldiers' united under a leader, they were friends nurtured by the warmth of their leader. A lot of it comes down to Leoios and Green being VERY different people, but Ranthia's also part of it. She doesn't just need duty and performance, she needed friendships. And with Ranger Team 6 she found them, though the friendship she started to form with Tertia was plainly stronger than the others. Things are looking up.

And then Green splits the party for what should have been a low (Pallos is never no) risk situation. Ranthia even got the 'easy' end of it, standing in a slow moving line. Yes, as Rangers they probably could have demanded preferential treatment, but neither Ranthia nor Pyra are the sort to do so. They were perfectly content to wait in line. Hylla was... less willing, but she wasn't planning to make a scene. At least until she finally got fed up with not helping people and volunteered to help speed the line up.

Not knowing that reaching forward made a shimagu spy in their midst panic.

It was an inevitability in a lot of ways when I started to write. Writing in the post-Elaine era of Remus—before the (first) Remus Empire was focused on expansion—meant that the shimagu were the big menace that was just beyond the horizon. But the funny thing about wars is they never remain in the "safe" area away from civilians. People always get hurt.

This was Ranthia's first brush with the shimagu.

At the risk of a spoiler: it won't be her last.