New chapter is out and it's a satisfying conclusion to this arc. Heiress was pretty well handled and it's nice to see a Squire win.

 

I absolutely love when terrible characters (heiress) get their comeuppance. I just hope this doesn't come to bite Squire in the ass too hard later. She's already got a redhead for that.

 

That was a terrible joke and you should feel bad. Big fan of how things turned out, especially the "break every bone possible without shedding any blood" part. Heiress downright deserved it, even if I am a little scared of what she has planned for Liesse, especially with the knowledge that there's something there two elves are on their way over for. Makes me think there's something about the city that we really don't want Heiress messing around with.

 

Yea Heiress is definitely gonna get the next laugh, but as long as Cat gets to be in charge of Callow it'll be interesting. Elves are gonna be a nice problem, and it'll be good to have a more grounded threat for awhile instead of Angelic worries.

 

In this chapter: The Rule of Three is told to go fuck itself.

 

Take definitely seems like an interesting aspect too. Seems to work by stealing an aspect for a limited number of uses, after which Take becomes available to use again (lack of ability to steal more than one at a time definitely makes it a more balanced, if still powerful, aspect). I'd say it lends some credence to there being something to the prior claims that the Angels went against the pattern by not giving her her resurrection.

Really looking forward to seeing the fallout of everything.

 

It's also possible that Take has more than one facet. Perhaps there is more to it? Most other aspects seem to be applicable to more than one situation, or at least have more applications than just one in direct combat. Even Struggle, which should have just been something to even playing fields in a fight was leveraged to give Cat the ability to beat Juniper earlier in the story.

 

Just ploughed through all this in a day or two and it's some of the best stuff I've read online in a long while. The story really picks up midway through book 2 though.

 

New update

I don't know how I feel about this new chapter. One of the best parts of the story for me was the action. I don't know if that's going to go away with the new angle the story seems to be taking towards political struggles.

 

I think we can be assured the procer states are going to be the next major external threat to the empire.

 

Given the quote at the beginning of the chapter, I'm pretty sure that the political struggle is going to end up in an "Uncivil War" between Heiress' faction and Squire's. For that matter, given what Black has hinted at, it might even be a Squire vs. Empress face-off wherein Squire "climbs" the tower.

 

Honestly I like the coming political fights. The action has been amazing but I'm a sucker for great worldbuilding. The author has laid out such a rich world with so many little details that haven't been expanded on. Finding out more about how the world works and it's history has me more excited than this military campaign.

 

New interlude. A good taste of the world beyond Callow.

 

I love the response to Catherine's resurrection. Only Good Names can get it. Catherine gets it. Church calls her an abomination.

 

Well it's one of their pillars, only Good people can get resurrected, you can't expect them to give her a freebie like that.

Loved the Tyrant myself, seemed like an interesting guy and I hope he features heavily in the next book. Speaking of, what do you guys think is going to be the focus? Before this one I thought it was going to be about Catherine consolidating power in Callow and finishing her problems with Heiress, with international probes throughout building up to the finale where her domestic troubles are (for the most part) put to rest and we start on the continent wide war for Creation. However, this last interlude makes me think there will be a much heavier focus on the other countries from the get go.

 

Yeah I too thought that the next book was gonna be focused on Callowan politics. But now I actually think Catherine might get send to the Free Cities. I think it was the First Prince, who thought that Praes would send in the Calamities to support the Evil cities. Maybe that mean less military campaign style next book? Can't wait to find out either way!

 

Two new chapters today and both were pretty good. Interesting look from the Tower about Malicia and Black. Watching the schemes come together was very interesting and all the talk of hidden meanings makes me want to go back and read all of her dialogue. Heiress is still scheming and I liked what the Bard did for her. Really sets up that she has a major plan coming. Also the backstory on Bard is really interesting and only getting better. Finding out that the elves are just the failed Alt-Right of a much larger elvish nation is cool though. The backstory of this world is just amazing at times.

Ranger's chapter was even better than the epilogue. The twist at the end was really nice and it made her character far more interesting since she's been around the block a bit. It was also nice getting a good look at the Dead King since he's such an important Evil figure. Honestly I'm just super excited for February 8th when the next book starts.

 

Was nodding along to everything you said until the Feb 8th comment. Was not aware we were in for a wait... Thought it was going to be my one nice thing to look forward to as I took the plunge to another semester.

 

At this point it's a toss-up if Wandering Bard or Assassin is the most terrifying character in this story. That whole Bard segment was quite something.

 

Ranger's made a pretty good case for herself.