Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Chapter 26: Defining Herself I

(Original Chapter Title: Defining Herself I)

And we're back to synchronizing with the OG draft after a solid departure!

I'd mentioned a couple of chapters ago that Ranthia was being biased and unfair, and here we see why. She chose to assume that Serondes was hitting on her—again—when he offered her the glass figurine. In truth, it was meant as an apology/peace offering. He just assumes that people like exaggerated ones because most people actually do like better curves or magnificent muscles piled onto an artistic depiction of them.

Themis, as BtDEM readers know, is going places and I wanted to show a hint of that. He hasn't gotten there yet, but here we see the earlier steps. Ocean absolutely pointed him at her though, to get out of dealing with it himself. He saw an opportunity to test Ranthia ahead of her being inflicted upon high society.

And he was rewarded with an Aegion special. I'll leave it up to you if Aegion noticed that he was testing her and avenged her or if Aegion just noticed that Ocean was paying a bit less attention and served something from a different barrel for the refill.

Ranthia has pieced together that Sentinel Dawn was the woman that saved her life when she first woke up on Pallos, back in Book 1, Chapter 1. I've had a couple of readers express surprise that I ended the scene with Ranthia toasting Elaine/Dawn with the rest—since it avoided any reactions from the others. But here's the thing: there weren't really any significant reactions from the others. Why in Xaoc's glory would anyone be surprised that Elaine had saved a life? There are cities where it would be difficult to shake a stick without finding someone that Elaine had helped.

If you want to know more, read BtDEM!

Ranthia forgetting to report the governor's death was never a plothole, it was a plot point waiting to happen! (Seriously, I was waiting for this moment.)

And Ranthia has discovered that she is sickeningly wealthy (by her standards) and come up with a 'plan' to make use of it.

Also, I am amused that to date no one has (in comments or on discord) called out Ranthia's hypocrisy here. She had a whole internal rant about how trying to help the city's kids off a vague notion—without a full fledged plan—would do more harm than good. Yet here she is, using a vague notion to get things rolling (and arguably passing the buck in the process).

Back when I began editing the to release on Royal Road, I was planning to use the current lead [Priest] as the [Priest] that a younger Ranthia interacted with, but I couldn't quite get into his mindset. This led to the Irreverent [Priest] being born—who I adore, but this guy remains meaningful to me. I try to keep it a consistent theme that Ranthia's worship of Xaoc feels "old fashioned" compared to other mortal adherents. Here, the lead [Priest] is fairly relaxed about his worship, to the extent that he refers to it as a "modest den of absurdity." His take on chaos is plainly a bit childish, but he enjoys himself and Xaoc apparently approves.

The man's joke about wishing he had denied the Irreverent [Priest] ever existed was legitimately something I toyed with doing, by the way. I didn't for several reasons—not the least of which is readers can be dreadfully literal when Ranthia doesn't outright call out someone joking around—but I still wanted to immortalize the idea in prose, so I added a couple of lines in.

I don't have a ton to say about Ranthia revisiting Fausteo's Musical Theater, I feel like the prose speaks for itself. It was important though, it continues the theme that Ranthia is more than just a tool for war—something that even she had started to forget. Her dance was never about self-preservation like her first class was, and it was time that she reconnected with that.