Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 60 (Patreon)

Chapter 60: Ancient History I

(Original Chapter Title: Ancient History I)

I think this chapter might be one of the most flagrant and easy to notice examples of Ranthia's unreliable narration. The tonal shift in how she describes the [Bard] is rather stark; for rather obvious reasons.

Every now and then you end up running into a coincidence that feels so unlikely you're kinda left baffled at the odds. One of the more prominent examples that I have, personally, is one time back when I was in my early teens. Pretty much the instant I got out of school, my mother picked me up to haul me on a ~4 hour drive to visit relatives. While on the way, we decided to stop by a decently large mall (...oh gods, do I need to explain what a mall is? Think a large, indoor shopping center meant to keep you inside and spending until you successfully found one of a handful of exits). We entered and almost immediately I encountered one of my classmates that I just saw at school.

My example is a tad less note-worthy than Avyna's, admittedly.

Ranthia's usually willing to throw down when provoked (and does Ass-y ever provoke her), but I enjoyed the opportunity to have Ranthia revisit her roots—her dancing wasn't always tied to conflict. That said, it's not exactly a fair match up and, for once, it's undeniably not in Ranthia's favor.

It's more than valid to argue that Ranthia lost the contest. Narration aside, Avyna's spectacle had more to do with the 'victory' than anything Ranthia did. Even Ranthia's charming attempt to embody the poem in her dance with her image was largely meaningless to the crowd; few present knew the language Avyna was singing in.

But Ranthia feels vindicated, at the very least. So let's not take that away from her!