Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 42 (Patreon)

Chapter 42: An Unwanted Truth

(Original Chapter Title: N/A)

My 100th chapter afterword, according to my Patreon tags! (This makes sense, because I had a couple that covered two chapters.)

Hey, look, [Mine!] actually works!

Honestly, this is one of the more horrifying aspects of the System, in my opinion. Getting new senses that you've never had before, out of nowhere? I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it—and here we see Ranthia's reaction. She goes for the most obvious (...I'm not sure I can agree it'd be the most likely) explanation before she realizes what it truly is. She finds adamantium, but can't afford to acquire it! What's a girl to do?

Well, when she's become romantically involved with a damned good [Merchant], she has options. Cruel and unusual options.

This is the first time we get a glimpse at how good Avyna actually is at her job. Sure, she does well enough—but we've only seen her engage with other [Merchants] to a 'draw' or to a minor (and, allegedly, intentional) detriment. Here, we see Avyna tear apart a proud and wholly out-classed would-be negotiator and walk away with grand prizes.

She's an elf, never forget that. Mere competency falls far below her standards.

The prose for the first part of this chapter was expanded from a few paragraphs I trimmed off of Endless Preparations and the next chapter, but the meat of this chapter—the meeting with Night—was content that I cut from the OG draft. It was one of those decisions that I kind of just stare blankly at past me over. Past me wanted Ranthia to learn of the change to the shimagu herself over her next encounters with them.

...Past me wanted Night to be the dumbest fucker on Pallos, who chose not to warn one of his own Sentinels that her very obviously biased expectations were outright wrong. Seriously, she had given him her reports—he knew her expectations were wrong!

This was a rare scene where I felt like I nailed writing Night (...there was briefly a version of drafting these words where I missed that 'writing'). I've mentioned before that writing him is more intimidating than any other character that shows up in Blind Chaos, but in spite of the length of their conversation, I am completely happy with my portrayal of him here.

Ranthia's time in Coalition City is coming to an end. Ranthia is looking forward to the move, but for all the wrong (right?) reasons. She's barely sparing a thought for the shimagu and her role in stopping them—she's daydreaming about making a home with Avyna. And she's starting to grasp just how deep she's already gotten.

But she seems to be fine with it!