Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

Chapter 33: Humanity I

(Original Chapter Title: Humanity)

When I reached this chapter I hesitated for an odd reason: Humanity is a heck of a chapter title and I wondered if this chapter truly deserved it. ...The solution was both obvious and took me entirely too long to grasp it. There's no Humanity II following this chapter, I just reserved the ability to use 'Humanity' for future chapter titles. As one does.

(Watch me never use it again.)

After a good ol' fashioned pruning of her prior relationships, Ranthia's due for some introspection. But first she has to suffer through the Senate.

The emperor plainly plays games, but I still kind of groan at how basic of a con he pulled here. Having a senator speak out against her and then defending her (before offering her a 'reward') to create a positive bond between them just... isn't that clever. But it is, largely, in line with how he handled Dawn.

I don't have much to say about Ranthia's bathtime self-reflection, but I do want to point out a hidden bit in the Sentinel meeting:

“Flip it around. They’re people that are afraid of the empire. She just appeared, killed her own ex without flinching, killed another dude, and threatened them all with death. That’s… that’s not helping anything!” Scorch interjected.

“Do you really think that’ll matter?” Seeking challenged.

Ranthia missed the implication, but Seeking was saying that the rest of the rebels—those that had been captured—were almost certain to be executed. Remus has always been a pretty brutal place, and at a time of war... well, liberties and rights tend to erode. I actually have no idea how Ranthia would have reacted if she realized it; it's a tough question, but it would have definitely been devastating with her mental health already deteriorated.

The scene with Green is painful, even now. Nothing Green says is wrong, but it's as Ranthia pointed out: for the first time there was a disconnect between them. Green lacked the context to truly empathize with Ranthia and understand the pain that laid beneath her melodramatic streak. Just as Ranthia lacked the words to convey it.

I don't think Green would have been convinced by the words Ranthia came up with that night either, it was too far beyond her context. She vastly outleveled the girls that were in her care and was fine with that, but the scale was just too different. And, more problematically, Ranthia is exhausted by excess caution and self-monitoring. But Green isn't.

And, unfortunately, Green isn't truly a Mind [Healer]. She's the closest Ranthia's met to one, but she's just an experienced woman who's used to looking at things from other perspectives and helping younger folk bloom or spread their roots. She has compassion, but here we see her limits: when she truly is unable to grasp points of view, they remain beyond her. She assumes Ranthia is being overly dramatic and she's not entirely wrong... but there's more to it than that.

But hey, at least Ranthia has a parade to look forward to, right?