Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Chapter 12: Rediscovering Life's Rhythm

(Original Chapter Title: The Grace of Remus II)

This chapter's both hard to read and a delight, at the same time.

Ranthia isn't broken, but she's been badly damaged psychologically by the war. It's the sort of thing she can heal from, but...

She went from a life of crises and obligations to rest surrounded by people more-or-less immediately. The specter of death that haunted her for six years is suddenly distant. And Ranthia struggles with the difference. She feels aimless, which is easily mistaken for guilt—and worse, she struggles with trust.

But she's off duty and bound for Ariminum soon enough.

In the OG draft Ranthia and her people were just told that they couldn't do anything about the mistaken report that their base had been destroyed. I wasn't super thrilled with that—and it would have been wildly out of character for Night—which meant that I needed to let Ranthia and her team address it. As 'fun' as a witch hunt sounded as a concept, well, it was Ranthia's logic here that stopped us before I even wrote Night's rationale in the last chapter. Had an army come for their base before Ranthia and her people were strong enough, it could have been a bloodbath. The troll was absolutely capable of killing Sentinel Aurora (as was the ogress). And they would have arrived around the time that the alliance/coaltion had recovered enough from the big shimagu push to mount a rescue.

But Ranthia does force herself into the city, and she once again meets one of the greatest loves she's ever known. A presence from her past life that she was destined to reunite with.

Pears, of course. (What did you think I was talking about?)

Ranthia's not a big fan of dense/sweet fruits like mangoes (yes, blasphemy), but pears are light and refreshing. She finds it revitalizing to eat one (or eight).

Also, yes, as one of my beta readers put it, we get to see "gay panic Ranthia".

I don't have much I can say in Ranthia's defense here. Avyna was being increasingly unsubtle, but Ranthia can be rather stubborn—once she decided Avyna couldn't be flirting with her, she became increasingly obstinate about the assumption. Also, IMO, Ranthia's rule about not asking out/directly hitting on women at work is a damned good one that more people should adopt. She doesn't want to press her desires on someone who might lack the freedom to openly decline and/or get away from her.

Still, it's an awkward chapter, in that Ranthia is retrospectively filled with so many regrets. And the readers face palm more than a bit at her too.

But Avyna persevered and finally managed to get through to Ranthia, at the almost literal last minute.

A promise has been made, and so Ranthia finally is set to return to Remus. What sort of welcome will her homeland offer?

Or will she just decide to stay in the war, orders be damned?