Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 32 (Patreon)

Chapter 32: Spilling the Blood of Remus

(Original Chapter Title: Blood Spilled)

Not much substantively changed with this chapter. I clarified a few things—and fixed the manor's architecture to be more coherent/appropriate—but the important bits of the chapter are unchanged. The chapter title was just me wanting something with a bit more... spark to it; which seemed to be well received by both beta readers and Patreons.

Back when I hyped Book 2 for Patreon, I promised that Ranthia would face the consequences of her past actions in this book. I didn't just mean Statia—honestly, I wasn't even thinking of Statia when I said it. It was for this moment, first and foremost.

Ranthia certainly never meant to, but she had, in her callous selfishness, contributed to ruining the life of the first person she was with. Plenty of people have pointed out how awful Ranthia was back then, but she was also a teenager. And the only thing worse than dealing with a teenager is being one. I've mentioned it before—and it will come up in the prose more bluntly—that Ranthia was never as mature as she convinced herself she was. But no matter how she might regret her past actions, they still happened.

In this case, the consequence turned out to be a problem for everyone.

This is a heavy chapter, and it's one I kinda fretted about when it came time to edit it. It's brutal and it doesn't paint Ranthia in the best light, but it's important in its own way. Ranthia kills her ex—someone she once dreamed of marrying—and barely even blinks, let alone hesitates.

But there was no redeeming the nameless woman. She had chosen a horrible, indefensible path. She had blood on her hands and was ready to add a full godsdamned city's worth on top of it.

I mentioned before (I think) that I cut a scene from early-ish into the Return to Remus arc. In it, an ex-legionary murdered a young woman and Ranthia nearly killed him while trying to disarm him. It was, in the OG draft, the first moment that she realized that she had become absurdly dangerous by Reman standards. ...It was also a weak scene. I was uncomfortable with portraying a brutal dismissal of someone that genuinely needed help (yes, yes, ironic given this chapter), even if Remus had no concept of mental health. Also, I felt like the lesson Ranthia learned from that scene worked far better here.

Where Ranthia—in the heat of the moment—executed a move that she had performed countless times. And kills a man with a blow that outright breaks him.

Being twice the level of a 'living legend' tier has some consequences.