Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 52 (Patreon)

Chapter 52: Bricks of Wisdom

(Original Chapter Title: Love Defined)

The original title was too on the nose, and Bricks of Wisdom came to mind when I sought to come up with a way for Ranthia to describe books; which meant I had to use it. No choice in the matter, truly.

The meat of the chapter never truly changed from the OG draft, but the editing stage let me inject more character into the earlier parts of the chapter. The art that adorned Avyna's store was newly described, and Ranthia's own actions and words were slightly tweaked to make her a better partner. I actually feel like I landed on a poignant bit of prose with "being there for each other wasn’t a promise for perfection—it was a promise to grow," but I often suspect that what feels profound for me is seldom what truly means anything to the reader. Which is fine! Meaning often is cobbled from the meat of our personal experience, and (strangely) each of us has at least slightly different sets of experience.

Months pass through this chapter, as Remera slowly transitions from military base to something with touches of (elf-inflicted) civilization. It's the nature of storytelling that Ranthia's life can't be exciting and/or interesting each and every hour of each and every day. Xaoc knows we all need uninteresting days to maintain our sanity.

Oh, and to explain a joke: as for how Avyna signaled that she had woken up to Ranthia... well, recall that Ranthia was effectively squatting over Avyna's face at the time. If you still don't get it, I'm sure someone will happily explain on my discord server. Or you can try to recreate the scene with a lady you know and see if that helps you guess!

I have something in mind for the Statue Incident, but I openly choose not to disclose it. I'd like to leave space for anyone who writes in Remus during this time period to see what they want to do with it, rather than dictate terms that are irrelevant to my own story. It clearly caused some chaos though!

Seen also in this chapter: Ranthia's tendency to underestimate the System's impact due to her Reman sensibilities. Namely, she shrugs off the benefit of cooking Skills and argues that ingredients and preparation matter more. By Reman standards, this isn't entirely wrong; but (zomg spoiler?!) she will eat those words eventually.

Of course, the big scene from this chapter was the cause for the original chapter title: Avyna finally learns what "my love" actually meant. The scene this creates still makes me emotional; it's scary, but it's important. From a mutual (but for different reasons) misunderstanding, they found a true, healthy love—and they finally come to mutually realize that. For the first time, Avyna and Ranthia are on the same page, emotionally.

And that's important for any relationship! Which is in the same vein as Ranthia's decision to finally take the plunge and learn Avyna's language; she doesn't want there to be any barriers or uncertainty between them. Communication is so important.

I'd like to think that this shows that Ranthia's matured a lot since her relationships with dead-ex and Hexara.