Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Chapter 5: Blind Judgment

(Original Chapter Title: Broken)

This chapter. In some ways it gives me the same vibes I had when I finished book 1 on Royal Road—I feel like I just created it and got to watch Patreons react, now it's time for the wider audience to learn.

Now it's time for an all new class of people to scream that they were right. (I've always been genuinely been shocked at how many people immediately called that Ranthia's 'true body' wasn't important.)

I don't think I mentioned this back in book 1, but I'll share a sneaky little author tidbit for you all: Pay close attention to any chapter where I use 'Blind <something>' for a chapter title. I try to use these for BIG moments that change things, but I use them very sparingly. Life is full of thousands of little changes that stick with you, but there are certain splashy moments that really strike you.

This is a dense chapter in a lot of ways. A lot of things happen, very, very quickly. Ranthia ends up more than a little overwhelmed (gee, wonder why), which means a lot of the explanations and realizations have to wait for the next chapter(s).

It's not every day that you get killed, find out that not only are you going to live but you're also somehow immortal, get cursed, lose a fight utterly, and then realize that you're the only person who can take command of the chunk of the army you served with. ...I hope.

It's a chapter that changes everything for Ranthia (and not in the way she wanted, given her current situation), but weirdly I find myself struggling to say much on most of those changes. Many of the threads are better discussed in future chapters.

What I can say though, is an admission: This chapter was, aside from the brief clash with the troll, completely new.

And, yes, you should be going "Uhh..." about that. I had been under a (common, given Selkie's discord) misconception about the rules of WD's curses in the OG draft. This portion of the OG draft was written well before I had any contact with Selkie Myth. Ranthia should have been cursed, and given that my focus was on finishing the OG draft at that stage, I made it future-me's problem.

I strove to embrace the chaos, and I think/hope I nailed it well.

I'll conclude this afterword with a teensy fun fact. Going blind during the night of the new moon? That was Selkie's suggestion. And, no, Selkie didn't know much about Ranthia at that point. Pure perfection.