Today's update, Cheddar. The stars above come into play, and Forbearance's astro-chart is finished.

As for Alex ... well, that's who she is, isn't it? In the end, howevermuch she has matured, she still accepts nothing and no one above her, not even whatever form of "destiny" there might be. She is the highest and only authority of herself. And I don't think this particular form of arrogance will ever leave her (and I don't want it to, either).

I'm just not sure that was the main reason for the challenge. For me, it came a bit out of the left field, tbh.

 

I checked 3 times for an update today (including just prior to posting) and did not see one.

I still don't see one, actually. I had to go to Chapter 8 and manually alter the URL to Chapter 9 to get it to come up -- wasn't available via the normal clicking method.

Weird. At any rate, I'm off to read it now.

Edit: And despite thinking it came up a minute ago, now it's not anywhere I can find. You guys really have Chapter 9 available? Bah, WTF? Where the hell is it?

 

Where the hell is the chapter? Even clicking on the link from the Author's blog doesn't work...

Ah ha, Author's Blog post:

Looks like I'm reading on Fictionalley. Is that what the rest of you did?

 

I liked the chapter. Yes Alex might have done something a bit immature, but she lost her temper first, and that's just like her.

Though I do think it was a bit weird that she didn't at least have a moment of apprehension about choosing to do it on Halloween despite just having been warned about it. She even suggested the date herself! That was a bit much.

 

That was what I meant. I'm not sure her picking Halloween as the date had much to do with the star chart -- like picking that date because it told her she'd be in danger then. She simply didn't think about it, because it's unimportant for her.

Of course, since that isn't the reason, I still say the challenge was a little unmotivated. But on the other hand, funnily enough, it gives credence to the chart as an independent entity, since its prediction is about to come true, without factoring in the decision process that led there.

 

I agree that she simply didn't think about it -- but my issue was that I have trouble believing that she wouldn't have thought about it. It's like it doesn't fit. They had an entire discussion about it when they were eating. And it's Halloween -- it's not like Constance told her to worry about November 13th or some random date. Alex should associate the warning she got with Halloween and therefore have at least some apprehension before suggesting it as a date for a duel. She's also hyper-aware at the moment that someone is trying to kill her, seriously.

I get that she'd lose her temper and do something stupid on Halloween, because that's just like her, but this particular thing didn't seem to jive.

On the other hand... this is pretty much the definition of nitpick, so eh. Looking forward to the next chapter.

 

Oh, how nice. Finally, I want to bitchslap Mary. About time :3

 

Loved the latest chapter. Good length, good plot stuff, good character stuff, good all around.

I need to re-read the third book. I remember the basics but some of the details are hazy.

I expected the thing with the letter but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. It was also very violent, which is fine, but Alex seems to have recovered rapidly with no ill effects. Also fine, but the pacing felt slightly strange. That's just a nitpick though -- good stuff as usual.

I can't recall... does C/F know that Alex is the seventh sister in her family? Eighth child, but seventh girl? It might add an extra dimension to that bit about her Star Chart.

 

Wait, what?

 

My guess has been that either (1) Mary is completely innocent or (2) Mary is being used by someone for access to the school itself. Apart from Larry most of the people who might have a grudge against Alexandra aren't on campus, so Mary could be an ideal go-between (she could even be partly ignorant of what she's doing).