TWO HUNDRED NINETY-EIGHT: A Chance to Appreciate
Edited (minor, epub updated): July 17, 2026
******
Alden hurried into the teleportation area at Matadero on Saturday morning, his nose still cold from a swift flight over, and found Esh-erdi and Lind-otta waiting for him.
“Good morning! I hope your family likes these,” he said, holding up the bag of oranges that was his only luggage for this trip other than what he carried in his messenger bag. “And that I brought enough. I’m not sure how many relatives you have.”
Esh-erdi was already waving him into a teleportation alcove. “Naturally, you’ve guessed that my offspring outnumber the art’hs and their names sing throughout the universe.”
Alden looked to Lind-otta.
“Esh has no offspring. You’ve brought plenty of fruits.”
“I’m glad. I gave Stu’s family oranges, and they seemed to like them.”
“Esh’s nieces will enjoy them, though they might be too excited by a human guest to appreciate them while you’re there.”
“I feel like I’m being ignored,” said Esh-erdi. “It’s such a strange feeling that I’m sure it can’t be true.”
“You’ll have to look after him for me, Alden,” Lind-otta said. “I’m going to the Rapport as well, but I’ll be in the city to meet with some people. You’re visiting a different area.”
“I’ll try.”
A couple of his oranges ended up in Lind-otta’s pockets before they teleported away.
******
“No trees.”
“These want to know what you think they are.” Esh-erdi swung his arms wide as if to embrace the landscape that surrounded them.
This summonarium was an open-air pavilion with a roof that extended halfway across the lazy brown river that bounded one side of the structure. A long, unmanned barge loaded with humps of covered cargo was approaching. On the opposite side, Alden and Esh-erdi faced a stretch of nature. It was mostly yellow-green grass that was too tall to enjoy walking through and tan-barked trees with sparse branches and pillowy tuffets of leaves as their crowns.
“Sorry. Those are trees. I associate Rapport I so much with the forest that I started imagining every Rapport had the same kind of trees. I know that was illogical. Stu even told me their history. It wouldn’t make sense for those to be here on a different continent.”
Rapport III was on the other side of an ocean, near the equator. Midday would be approaching at the art’h siblinghold, but they were only a couple of hours from sunset here.
“Rapport folk travel freely between the Mother’s seven Rapports, and the culture we’ve woven makes us much more alike one another than like outsiders. But at the same time, each Rapport has its own way about it.” Esh-erdi turned his face toward the sun, looking downriver. “I’ve brought you here to show you lovely things, and to answer your questions about less lovely ones, I suspect. It’s past the proper time for that conversation we keep promising each other. This seemed like a place where words would sound better than they do at Matadero.”
Am I getting a tattoo this weekend, then?
One for Matadero shouldn’t be much of a problem for him, and it was long overdue.
But I only just got free of the last one.
“Don’t sigh yet,” Esh-erdi murmured. “I haven’t even told you anything unfortunate.”
“I’m grateful to be here,” Alden said since he couldn’t deny the sigh. “I want to know all about the Rapports, knights, you and Lind-otta, Goldbush, oaths, chaos everywhere, chaos specifically on Earth, how a knight like you thinks the war against it is going…if it can be won…I want to know everything. Stuart and I—Stu and I—talk a lot. But there’s only one of him, and recently, I’ve thought of more questions. And bigger ones.”
“That’s a large basket to sort through!” Esh-erdi patted him on the back. “For some reason, I once worried you were nervous about asking me for things. I won’t answer all of those. We don’t have time.”
“I don’t mean to be grab-greedy. I know you’re a person who has things to do.”
“One of the things I wanted to do when I arrived on Earth was meet humans worth remembering. And I have. You’re one of them. A very good representative of your planet.”
“I’m not sure how many humans would agree with that.”
“You’ve shown me some of Anesidora,” said Esh-erdi. “I’ll show you some of my home.”
Alden looked around them. “It’s nice here. How do we leave this summonarium?”
There were no roads or paths leading to where they stood and no sign of vehicles other than the barge, which had just paused to have its cargo teleported off. He didn’t see any terackerins around.
Esh-erdi pointed up, and Alden heard a chime that reminded him of the carts at LeafSong. An airy bubble of a flyer dropped down to hover at the edge of the summonarium, its bottom brushing the tips of the grass blades. On the side facing them, a hole had already opened to allow entry.
Alden followed Esh-erdi into it and sat on the soft white bench. Looking up through the clear dome, he could see cloudless blue.
“A chance to appreciate the sky,” he said.
“A chance to appreciate the sky,” Esh-erdi echoed, taking a seat across from him as the bubble sealed. “So you’ve picked up that type of thankful saying? I was always in a hurry as a boy and never happy to make journeys in any way but the fastest. I was scolded once for announcing that my family could have had a chance to appreciate the sky instead of the <<marsh>> slipper we were boarding.”
“I heard some adults talking to children about manners while traveling during the Here-to-There. ‘A chance to appreciate’ was mentioned a lot. Is it always appropriate?”
“Some would say not to comment on the beauty of the sky while falling through it to your death, but I think that might be the best time of all.”
Alden laughed.
The bubble rose to a height just above the summonarium’s rooftop before it set off, following the river downstream. Esh-erdi crossed his legs. “We’ll have the night for more serious conversation. For now, I’ll tell you about this Rapport since you were surprised not to see the trees you expected.”
“I know those are ancestral art’h-related trees. My thoughts were just off.”
He definitely knew. After all, he was wearing one of their leaves against his calf right now, with his auriad. He hoped the forest would enjoy learning about his trip to another Rapport in whatever way it was that a forest enjoyed things.
“It’s understandable. Those trees leave an immense impression. We do have a few here, but that’s because they embody the connection between our Rapports. They don’t usually grow in sensible climates like this one.”
The weather was in the mid-nineties Fahrenheit and so humid it felt hotter. Alden’s pezyva and sleeveless shirt combo was doing its best, but he was glad most of this trip would be during the local nighttime.
“You’re familiar with the first Rapport,” said Esh-erdi, “which lies on land that fell under the rule of the art’h family long ago. They claimed even more than that once. And nobody ever took it from them, either. Their winters and their wizardry were too much to deal with. I think they were only tempted into interacting with the rest of our planet because they wanted better food. The first record we have of one of your friend’s ancestors in this part of the world is from somebody complaining that a woman with the power of a century storm had come from across the water to take all the summer’s bundlefruit and ‘the two men the vines loved most’.”
“This…would have been thousands of years ago?”
“Yes. The art’h name wasn’t recorded, but we know it was one of them because of the descriptions of her magic and language.”
I wonder if she carried a walking stick. I bet she did.
Another barge was on the river below them, heading toward the summonarium.
“Chaos happened at some point,” said Alden. “The center of Rapport I is mostly the trees because of a major chaos incident. They’re part of the magic that protects this planet. There’s some situation like that here, too?”
“There is, but you can’t see many signs of it from here. We’re near the edge of Rapport III. If you crossed the river and walked that way, you’d reach the border before sunset. If you go the other way, toward our interior, you’ll start to notice more obvious evidence that chaos once struck here. You might run into one of our training fields. And you’d find the homes of knights who enjoy the countryside along the way. This territory is smaller than the first Rapport, but we have a much larger population. Significantly larger than any other Rapport. Most of those people live in our city. Wathe. It stands near where this river, Wathe’s Ribbon, meets the sea.”
“How do knights decide which Rapport to live in?”
“As long as everywhere is <<well-guarded>>, it’s personal preference. Rapport III is in the middle of the most densely populated coastline on Artona I. It’s as exclusive as all Rapports, but more visible. I was born south of here. Not far. I saw votaries and occasionally even knights visiting places I knew. Their homes weren’t so distant from mine, but their lives were much more interesting and impressive. Eventually, seeing became desiring, and now I’m sitting here, the most interesting and impressive of them all!”
Alden wanted to agree with him since he held the all-time record for catching up to his partner in power, but he wasn’t sure how to say he admired that without it sounding wrong.
“So you weren’t raised in the Rapports. You came from outside before declaring.”
“No knights among my ancestors,” Esh-erdi said. “I chose the path of highest onus after a youth spent looking toward the edges I could see of this Rapport. I imagined something different than the truth of it, and that’s the same for many young people today. Most change their minds before they join us, but many become votaries. A few become knights. Wathe is primarily a city of votaries. A lot of boring necessary business is done there. I’m a knight, so I don’t have to help with any of it.”
The walls of their flyer briefly changed. Instead of a window to the real view outside, they suddenly displayed a sprawling city of low buildings with streets winding between them like rivulets on their way to the ocean.
“That’s Wathe,” said Esh-erdi. He waited for the scene to fade before speaking again. “Some people come from outside like me. But we do have our renowned knight families here in Rapport III. You’ve even helped save the <<wayward>> daughter of such a <<clan>>. If only we lived in different times! You could demand Zeridee-und’h’s weight in manyadeeth from her parents. Actually, you should try that anyway. It will be years-funny, and there are some und’hs old-fashioned enough to try to fulfill the request even if her parents don’t.”
Alden had to read the definition of manyadeeth. It was a pigment extracted from tiny sea creatures.
“What am I going to do with Zeridee’s weight in pink dye?”
“Well, you could’ve bought an estate with it at one point and still had enough left to stain every stone. Now, though, you could show it to her and see the look it puts on her face, which is much more valuable.”
“Are the und’hs like the art’hs?”
“No.”
Esh-erdi said it so quickly that Alden wondered about it.
“They’re alike in ways that all knights share. And the und’h name belongs to a more diverse group of knights and votaries than art’h does, so there are some running around here who might slide comfortably into the siblinghold. But I would expect them to be different. More difficult for you to get along with I think. Though I don’t plan on having you meet any old enough for that to matter on this trip.”
“Old enough?”
“I won’t be surprised if there’s a small und’h with my nieces. They get to select their own lessons later in the day. This season they’ve chosen to learn about rocks. We’re going to go rescue their instructor from them.”
“Are we really going to tell them stories?” Alden asked.
“You don’t have to, but a good story might be the only way to save yourself from their questions. It’s not enough to save you from mine, though.”
“Do you have questions?” Alden asked.
“I do,” said Esh-erdi. “I’m sorry to ask you to share what might be the private thoughts of a friend, but Lind and I would like to understand what his wants are without letting him know we’re thinking of doing anything about the matter.”
“You want to know something about Stu?” asked Alden. “Or is it Kon?”
“We could freely talk to either of them ourselves if we needed to. But Lute Velra…” Esh-erdi’s voice had an indecipherable note in it. “Does he prefer having only one eye?”
Alden’s answer was only slow in coming because his thoughts had been miles away from there.
“No. Of course he didn’t want for that to happen.”
Are they thinking of doing something about that? For Lute…this would be so, so great!
“He wanted to get it healed, but there was some reason he couldn’t,” Alden explained, leaning toward the knight. “He said something about his family lying to him about how easy it would be, then finding out it was really expensive in some way. He said he couldn’t afford it. I know he couldn’t have meant money because the Velras have too much of that. Because of how it happened, I assumed something magically complicated must be going on. It was a wordchain that made him lose it. It’s called— ”
Alden abruptly realized he didn’t know what the Gloss was called in Artonan. “It’s a big luck chain. Really big. It even affected me. I held the Chainer class during it for a while.”
“We learned how he lost it from your internet. We looked into it after we met him that day when you two decided to help Bash-nor find his way off Earth. The rumors weren’t hard to polish into truths.”
“I didn’t know you were thinking about his eye that day! I’d have told Hn’tyon Lind-otta right then if she’d asked.”
Esh-erdi’s mouth twitched. It wasn’t really a smile. “Neither of us were going to loudly comment on something like that. Servin-ith and some of the others were concerned, too. Because he’s a Chainer, the situation is more of a knot than it should be. Another question for you…does he follow the beliefs of the Palace of Unbreaking himself?”
“Their beliefs? About wordchains needing to be maintained so they don’t break?”
“Not that. Does he believe that protecting wordchains is his <<holy calling>>? Or that most ways of doing magic other than wordchains are <<sinful>> unless done <<in accordance>> with rules set by the Palace of Unbreaking? Does he view himself as a <<special existence>>, pure of the wrong kinds of magic, and therefore worthy of standing before the Palace’s followers as they prostrate themselves?”
“What is Lute’s job?!” Alden exclaimed. “What is it? Why does everything about it sound so weird? He hasn’t been able to talk about it as much as he should because his grandmother makes the whole family get loyalty tattoos before she lets them have the Chainer class. But I know he’s not thinking of himself as a pure existence who stands above people prostrating away the sin of…wizards? Is the Palace of Unbreaking against most wizardry? But his main summoner is a wizard! I think he likes that guy—Parethat-uur—from the way he talks about him. But I also think he thinks Parethat-uur is a little crazy.”
Esh-erdi closed his eyes. “His story yesterday would have been a strange one for him to tell if he viewed his own position as the Palace does. But Lind and I wanted to have your opinion to be sure of ours. The situation must be as we feared, though. <<Vile.>>”
He said the word as if he wished to splatter it, whatever it described, across the horizon. Alden leaned back.
“Did…the Palace do something wrong to him? Is that why he couldn’t be healed?”
Esh-erdi’s eyes opened. “Don’t tell Lute we had a conversation like this. The Palace of Unbreaking doesn’t approve of people mitigating the negative effects of wordchains through wizardry. Their Chainers occupy an exalted position in the organization, even above the leaders in some ways. I’m sure they regard him being maimed by a dangerously powerful wordchain as a sign of his dedication. They’d rather show him off than cure him.”
Alden was appalled. “They won’t let him have two eyes because it was a wordchain accident? But the chain is over! It’s done now. Esh-erdi, that has to be against the terms of Earth’s Contract! Doesn’t it?”
“It is,” said Esh-erdi. “The Palace of Unbreaking is run by wizards even if most of its membership is ordinary class, and those wizards have to follow the same laws as other summoners. Ordering an Avowed not to receive treatment for an injury isn’t something they can do. Your friend’s family wasn’t telling him the whole truth when they said he could be healed, but it wasn’t a lie either. For situations when one of the Palace’s leaders, or their Chainers, want to avoid the cost of a wordchain, a substitute is provided. The same can be true even for something like this. The wordchain Aulia Velra used and its injury to a Chainer who performs bestowal for the masses were probably declared a special occurrence. When Lute asked for healing, they must have told him he needed a substitute.”
A substitute. “If he gets healed…they’re going to cut out someone else’s eye.”
“There would be ten thousand volunteers for the honor, I’m sure,” said Esh-erdi. “But the first allowed to volunteer, and the preferred one, would likely be his symbolic Opposite.”
In the indigo blue messenger bag on the seat beside Alden, there was a crystal checker that blinked whenever a person somewhere else in the universe cast a wordchain.
Lute’s Opposite…he was so serious about the Opposite Stone. He felt ashamed for leaving his in the laundry once.
“No.”
“That’s how they think,” said Esh-erdi.
“Lute’s about to turn sixteen. In Earth years. We’re going out for his birthday next week. His Opposite is a child.”
“Lute is also a child,” said Esh-erdi. “One whose goodness I will remember. The Palace isn’t allowed to have Artonan childrens’ eyes removed, either, even if they volunteer. They probably would have let the Opposite’s mother or father sacrifice one until the Opposite came of age. That would have made it harder for Lute to turn down the offer, I assume. Knowing it would technically be adult fanatics paying a stupid price of their own choosing.”
Alden had a weight on his chest just imagining Lute in that situation.
Hurt because of a wordchain he hadn’t wanted to be part of, surrounded by family he couldn’t trust and alien worshippers he couldn’t possibly be comfortable with, maybe on a call or even in the room with his little blinky checker person who would have been talking about growing up to give their own eyeball to the Gloss so Lute didn’t have to.
“Can you fix it?” he asked. “You can, can’t you?”
“It’s not simple,” Esh-erdi said. “To do it in a way that doesn’t interfere with Lute’s decision not to have someone else lose half their vision in his place will mean making the Palace view his healing as right. One way might be to have him cast another wordchain that leads through a series of surprising coincidences to the restoration of the eye. As if the chain itself has decided to make him whole without him trying for that effect. Lind will give the problem to some people. It won’t happen quickly, but it can be made to happen. Your help might be needed.”
“A series of surprising coincidences. And another wordchain. And Lute…can’t know it’s going to happen in advance?” Alden frowned. “Are we talking about something like him casting a wordchain for luck, then me accidentally on purpose knocking him unconscious during it and taking him to a healer who accidentally on purpose fixes more than they should? Then he wakes up with two eyes, and we all swear it was a gift from the wordchain?”
“That’s a course of events that might work.”
“I’m willing to help however I can,” Alden said. “But isn’t there a less ridiculous and deceptive way?”
“We could borrow him from the Palace of Unbreaking and come up with some role for him among knights that allows us to claim he needs to be in near-perfect physical condition. But the role would have to impress the believers well enough to keep them from feeling the wordchain that cost him the eye was being disrespected. Lind and I are willing to lie to such people and invent acts of valor for him, but he’d have difficulty hiding the truth himself. They’ll question him whatever we do.”
Alden looked down at his hands. They were clenching his pants just above the knee. “It’s wrong. That he ended up hurt in this way and that he can’t just be healed. That he has to work for people who believe extreme things about him that he doesn’t believe at all, and that we’re probably going to lie to him to help him. It’s wrong, Hn’tyon Esh-erdi.”
“I agree.” Esh-erdi said. “Much is wrong.”
I wanted him to say more than that. To say he’d fix it all.
He knew that solving all of that wasn’t Esh-erdi’s job.
It meant a lot to me that Stuart figured out what was going on with the secrecy contract and helped me out with it behind my back. Doing the same for Lute…
Doing the same for Lute was different. Alden didn’t want it to be different, because giving Lute back what Aulia’s Gloss had taken away was great to imagine. But it was.
A minute or two had passed.
“We can’t do that actually,” he said.
Behind Esh-erdi, he could see the grass bowing and straightening in response to the wind.
“I think Lute would love to be healed. But I know that having control over his own decisions matters to him. Human Avowed have powerful forces blowing us around more than we would prefer anyway. For Lute, it’s even worse because his family is…you heard his story. The people who should have helped him have a good Avowed choosing season did everything they could to crush him into a mold they’d picked instead.
“Haoyu and I heard as much as he can tell without violating the contract Aulia had tattooed on him, and we think what happened to him is insane. They made him think he had to take the Chainer class to buy his mother access to one of the Healers that does life extension treatments on Anesidora. It’s complicated how that misunderstanding existed for them to take advantage of. But they surrounded him with pressure and lies ‘for his own good’…and now he’s a Chainer. Until he dies.”
Esh-erdi looked calm. It was the same calm look he’d used when Alden was telling him about the guys who’d attacked Zeridee-und’h, though.
That’s not real calm. It’s his carefully calm face.
“What I mean is, I think it’s even more important to Lute than it is to most people not to have the choices he can make in his current position taken away. What’s happened to him is horrible and more than he can handle on his own, but his friend manipulating him to interfere with a decision he’s already made might be worse. I can’t do that to him.”
“I hear what you’ve said,” Esh-erdi replied.
“I hope I’ve said what’s right and that I haven’t cost Lute anything. Can I tell him you’re trying to help him? Let him say yes or no? If he says yes, I bet Yenu-pezth could erase his memory or lock it away somehow so that the distressingly weird people he works for never find out. Or there are contracts to hide the information, right?”
And with contracts on my mind…
“You could break the tattoo he has with his grandmother, couldn’t you? He hates it. It was a decision he made based on other peoples’ lies, not something he ever wanted. And if I’m wrong…but I’m not about this at least…it’s much easier to get a new tattoo than to say no to a new eye.”
“Could I break it?” Esh-erdi asked. “I think you’ve offended me.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“A lengthy fart could finish off a contract like that.”
Alden snorted.
“All right,” said Esh-erdi. “I’m glad I asked for your opinion. You may tell Lute that Lind and I are concerned about him and share the ideas I just shared with you. And you may try to stop Porti from taking him away in the night to bury him in one of his favorite healing groves.”
“Oh. Porti-loth. He was paying a lot of attention to Lute yesterday.”
“Because a child’s eye could be restored but isn’t. He’s never seen such a thing. If he’s not burying Lute when you get back to Earth, he may be busy burying members of the Palace of Unbreaking instead. In a much less healthy way.”
“The Palace of Unbreaking. They’re really run by wizards who hate wizards?”
“They like themselves very much for following their own rules. It would take a week for me to explain their thinking to myself so that I could explain it well to you. Some of them are sincerely pursuing what they believe to be a better way of life for our species, and they are supportive of knights. They’ve decided we’re allowed to take wordchain halves as we wish. That’s a convenience.”
“But you don’t like them?”
“I can’t worship the balancing of a scale,” Esh-erdi said. “It’s too easy to ignore what’s being weighed and to feel righteous while you measure out harm.”
Those words were the last either of them spoke for a while.
“We weren’t supposed to talk about anything dark this early in our trip.”
“It’s all right,” said Alden.
“I thought I was giving you good news about treatment for your friend when I started.”
“It is good news. He has more choices now than he did. I’ll tell him you’re offering help, and I’m sure he’ll be glad someone understands even if he says no.”
Alden smiled to prove the trip hadn’t been darkened by the details of Lute’s situation. “This has been a very productive and educational visit already. For example, I’ve found out that I’d like to be excommunicated from the Palace of Unbreaking. That’s something I needed to know.”
******
******
The flyer put them out on a dock. One of the posts at the end held colored pegs attached to strings, and at Esh-erdi’s instruction, Alden took out the peg nearest to the bottom and dropped it into the water. It was a scent call for their next ride.
They went back to enjoying lighter conversation topics while they waited.
Esh-erdi didn’t think Alden needed to be excommunicated just because he’d been assigned an Opposite. Together, they reasoned that Lute wouldn’t have agreed to teach him if it gave him the same “special existence” status with the Palace that a Chainer had. But Alden would be quadruple checking before he ever uttered a syllable of his next wordchain. For now, they were both amused by the various things one could dramatically announce if they wanted to break away from the Palace.
Esh-erdi had had to ask the Contract for the information, so he was learning of the possibilities for the first time himself.
“‘I take my stench with me and go to shiver in yonder hole by myself, alone and unloved,’” Esh-erdi said to a vatha that was sleeping on the side of the post that held the pegs. “That one is so <<mopey>> it becomes humorous, don’t you think?”
“I like the one about ‘Dancing brazenly while drinking the power that belongs only to the stars,’” said Alden. “If someone said they were going to go do that when they left a group I was in, I’d think maybe I should follow them out the door.”
He’d just found another vatha, resting on the dock with its brown wings blending in against the boards. He stepped over it carefully.
“I like wordchains. It’s nice that they’re a kind of magic more people can learn to do. But it’s so disappointing that the organization that takes care of preserving that magic is this way.”
“They’re only imperfect,” said Esh-erdi. “Things I consider bad are entwined with things I consider good. You said yourself that Lute seems fond of his main summoner.”
“Parethat-uur. Apparently, he was excited that someone commended by Hn’tyon Alis-art’h wanted to learn some wordchains. And I’ve liked having an Opposite until now. Every time I perform a chain the stone flashes like they’re casting every one they know.”
“That’s because they like it, too. You’ve made something important to them more fun.”
Can it still be that simple?
He’d have to decide some other time. An animal was coming toward the dock. It was already surprisingly close by the time he detected the motion of its approach in the way the water moved.
“Hi, Ploomp!” said Esh-erdi. Only ploomp was a sound he made that Alden didn’t think he could mimic.
The creature seemed to recognize its name, and a smooth dark blue back breached the surface. It would have a head sort of like a catfish’s, Alden knew from looking at pictures of them. Also paddle-shaped fins. No gills.
This one was the size of a small bus.
“Bloat,” Esh-erdi said as the terackerin reached the end of the dock. Immediately, a layer of skin on its back expanded, turning translucent and electric blue as it stretched thin, like the animal was blowing bubble gum with its own body. The top of its head became visible even though its eyes and mouth were still underwater. There was now plenty of surface area to ride on above the water, though.
“Isn’t she an excellent terackerin?” Esh-erdi said proudly. “Ploomp, this is Alden. He’s human. New rider, new rider! Alden, stick a hand in the water so that she has your smell.”
Alden quickly laid down and dropped his hand over the edge of the dock, getting as close as he could to the nose, which he assumed was involved in smelling.
“She’s hyektch!” he said. “Can I really stand on her back, though? I’m not too heavy?”
She was large, but the skin that had filled with air looked fragile.
“They’re tough,” said Esh-erdi. “And this one comes from a long lineage bred to enjoy company. Say her name.”
“No. You just want to laugh at me.”
“I’m giving you a chance to practice,” said Esh-erdi. “Before you meet the harsher critics.”
One of the terackerin’s long whiskers brushed Alden’s hand. It felt firmer and sharper than he’d expected. Maybe she smells with these?
“This is really amazing, Esh-erdi. I hope your nieces won’t mind me riding her.”
“Let’s go ask them,” Esh-erdi said, hopping off the dock onto the terackerin.
Alden followed. Stepping onto the animal’s back was easier than he had imagined. It was just a slightly rounded, surprisingly firm surface.
“I think I’m the first person from my planet ever to do this. I looked on the internet, but even though there were videos of Artonans riding one and mentions from people who’d seen them in the wild, I didn’t find a single human who’d ever touched one.”
Riding them seemed to be an antiquated local hobby.
“Some things about being an Avowed are very special,” he added. “Can I try to give her directions?”
“Say ‘Oceanward’,” said Esh-erdi. “We’ll find out if she listens.”
“Oceanward, Ploomp!” Alden said. “We have a chance to appreciate the river!”
The terackerin shifted her fins as if she understood him well and began to swim downstream.
******
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Note:
Here's a link to the first chapter of "The Chainer" arc, for the convenience of anyone who just wants a reread of that part. The arc starts with Alden and Lute in the present. They talk about wordchains and the Palace of Unbreaking some in the privacy booth that looks like a train car. If you specifically want to get to the part where you get Lute's life story, it starts in Chapter 109.
I like to imagine that there's at least one person out there who skipped most of "The Chainer" on their first pass a year or two ago because they were bingeing and wanted to get to more Alden, totally forgot those chapters existed in the meantime, and now they're in the perfect mood for tens of thousands of words of Velra drama.
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'“I feel like I’m being ignored,” said Esh-erdi. “It’s such a strange feeling that I’m sure it can’t be true.”' XD 'He hoped the forest would enjoy learning about his trip to another Rapport in whatever way it was that a forest enjoyed things.' :) 'Now, though, you could show it to her and see the look it puts on her face, which is much more valuable.”' XD 'This season they’ve chosen to learn about rocks. We’re going to go rescue their instructor from them.”' XD 'when you two decided to help Bash-nor find his way off Earth.' >:) Thank you for the chapter :D
Edit suggestions: typos, grammar, style, misc. Feel free to ignore. - More difficult for you to get along with I think. -> along with, I think - The Palace of Unbreaking is run by wizards even if most of its membership is ordinary class, and those wizards have to follow the same laws as other summoners. -> ordinary-class - the indigo blue messenger bag on the seat beside Alden, there was a crystal checker that blinked whenever a person somewhere else in the universe cast a wordchain. -> a specific/particular person - The Palace isn’t allowed to have Artonan childrens’ eyes removed, -> children’s eyes - “We can’t do that actually,” he said. -> do that, actually - The people who should have helped him have a good Avowed choosing season did everything they could to crush him into a mold they wanted instead. -> into their preferred mold instead - It was a decision he made based on other peoples’ lies, -> [recurring typo, many dozen occurrences in the story: peoples’ -> people’s, unless we're talking about "peoples" as in entire nations/tribes/species, but when the phrase is used in this story that's ~never the case] - But Alden would be quadruple checking before he ever uttered a syllable of his next wordchain. -> quadruple-checking
Ploomp, there it isn’t 😢
A chance to wait
Sleyca definitely fell asleep. Right?
I wish for a chance to appreciate the next chapter
Once when wishing was having the next chapter.
that arc ended, you can read them all here on Patreon
When chapter?
when it is ready
Next chapter predictions in haiku, or otherwise? Honeylocust boy Leaf-eyed human, Kivb's savior Tell us everything!
An exit line: I will bend my minds towards the views that can be seen from higher branches, never again to think on you. A chapter prediction: Alden eats something without checking the toxicity.
I have an ominous feeling about the lack of Stu in the last several chapters. His weird mood/slip about doubting himself and suggesting he be Alden's votary, makes me think he's busy over on Artona I stewing in doubt and second guessing that he's suddenly experiencing due to how unfamiliar it is for someone his age to support him and make plans with him.
He may not be late in contacting Alden yet. Stu only calls on his weekends at home, his week is ~13 earth-days (per ch70). The confrontation with Ro-den happened 14 days ago, with them spending time together over Aldens weekend. so thats -1 or -2 days. Stu may join the tail end of this visit, or Alden may visit Stu after. We dont need to panic yet.
Yowkee und'h is tormenting sleyca!
Summoning Yookee from the phantom zone
I will be nice to see some younger artonans again. Its been ages since we heard from Kivb-ee, I also miss Gorgon he seems to be forgotten.
Nah, not forgotten. Merely waiting in the wings for the right moment to make his dramatic return
When the counter for comments goes up, I always fear that it is a delay notice by sleyca.
I am always grateful for those updates, lets me know I can adjust my expectations
What a wonderful chance to appreciate the refresh button.
Good soup is worth the wait
Words.
I feel soon
What a lovely evening it is! What a wonderful chance to appreciate this chapter!
Did somebody say Approximate?
Happy Approximate day everyone, today is also the 82nd anniversary of D-Day
Happy refresh day!
I just wait to get the email from patreon saying there's a new post.
Sleycaaaa, it's June 6, entertain meeeeeow!
Do not order author around, that is a meowtiny!
Lind feels very real in being amused by and supportive of her husband’s weird hobby (nurturing Rabbits) but not really participating in it herself as a rule.
They are explicitly said to not be married: The Artonan boy had been shockingly uninterested in whatever it was that happened on Matadero, and had instead wanted to tell Alden that the two knights who were there right now monitoring things and serving as backup were celebrating some kind of occasion. “They’re going to be on Earth for their < honeymoon >,” he’d said. “It’s very special. If you happen to see them, you should congratulate them.” He seemed to be under the impression that they might all run into each other on the street one day. “They decided to help fight a demon to commemorate their marriage?” Alden had asked. “That’s…" /So Intensity Level 99.9 of them/, was all he could think. “Marriage? No. They’re not married.” “Honeymoon is a bad translation then.” –Ch. 104
My pet theory is that Hazel popped Lutes gloss chain on purpose. I think Lute mentions that the chain snaped back earlier than they expecting and they were supposed to be in a bunker when it went off. Still bitter about the S Rank and eager to try out her new skill, Hazel she let the intrusive thoughts win. I really like Hazel (as an antagonist/heel character) i love the vision of childish spite and rampant egotism in a world of superpowers such a menace. I think its really hard to construct a character thats a horrible person, but not horrible to read. Kudos Sleyca
Oh, that'd be especially vile of her.
Esh’s neices as children, like kibby, won’t realise that Alden shouldn’t have magic. And I bet that they will Authority greet him. The danger is that Alden will greet them back. Adults of course don’t Authority greet Avowed, because why would they, Avowed can neither detect the greeting nor offer it back. Esh may not notice it in the bedlam that is multiple small excited children. The child may not realise it or say anything. But later a casual comment might reveal Alden’s secret. Oh the excitement and danger!
Yeah... no. You underestimate Artonans. First of all, they are really careful about their children interacting with Avowed, exactly for the reason you wrote. Too many greetings may create wizards. Second reason: Artonans are horny. Human men are sexy. The new meat, with more meat, untamed, wild nature and extra strength. With a sprinkle of stats to go all night. And humans are also extremely forbidden kind of treat in knight circles. Esh is pimpin'.
I wonder if they'll also discuss ways to honour Kibby's mourning name?
This is completely unrelated to this chapter, but do y'all think that Gorgon's species ability, to consume authority, could be used to get rid of (or undo) a knight's affixation? Or do y'all think that authority is tied to haecceity and that's why Mother told Alden that he wouldn't remember Thegund. Would it just straight up kill a knight if they are at a certain power level? Or would Gorgon's ability affect it differently?
Authority and Haecceity are the same thing from what I can tell. Authority is the space the universe allows you for existing as your own unique entity and demanding things of it, and affixation permanently defines a portion of that space - by necessity most of it because of what blowing an affixation does - and makes it The Way Of Things for you to have a certain kind of magic because your identity is the I Have That Magic Person now, which seemingly makes it inherently chaotic to get rid of that magic because you're violating the way of things, so the only way to free that authority from it is to become a demon by breaking the way of things. Haecceity, meanwhile, is the philosophical concept of the immaterial essence that makes a thing itself rather than another similar thing. The thing that distinguishes one human from another human, one Bearer of All Burdens from another Bearer of All Burdens. Their unique spot in the universe. Which is...what Authority is. Maybe destroying the bound authority would be different from de-affixing it, but I'm very prone to believe that you'd need to de-affix it in the process of destroying it. Alden's inability to remember Thegund after sealing his authority sense is probably just a matter of his experiences and knowledge gained there being the source of that authority sense - if he had the memories intact, he'd just gain it again.
Anyone else thinking there's a third path for Lute to get his eye healed? Esh mentions pretending to put Lute in a position that would require him to be in peak condition, then lying about his acts of valor. What if they just don't lie? What if the role they come up with to borrow him from the palace is supporting Stu's squad in the field? Hell, Lute knows about Alden’s plans; he could suggest it himself
There are safer spots. Like teaching new knights wordchains. But he need to be complete, to not remind them of things they lost to obtain their magic. Or, there is that Kon's spaceship, Lute can sit there, entertain knights and provide them with wordchains as they leave. Again, needs to be healed to be a merry companion on long voyage. Last one is training new Knights in tennis. He needs 3D vision for that. And Lute is the correct height to play against artonans.
This visit might be a good opportunity for Esh to drop the name of his skill. Any suggestions? I like “Crack Master” myself (Earth title “Let Me Split Your Crack”)
Are you trying to get banned?
Some dark stuff, but also yay for Ploomp! Best fish creature!
It's funny the things I have quietly come to expect and then find myself confused at their absence. I really enjoy the descriptions of Esh and Lind's matching braids, which were absent this chapter. I know that is because it was last described very recently, but it is a cute detail I relish.
““We could borrow him from the Palace of Unbreaking and come up with some role for him among knights that allows us to claim he needs to be in near-perfect physical condition. But the role would have to impress the believers well enough to keep them from feeling the wordchain that cost him the eye was being disrespected. Lind and I are willing to lie to such people and invent acts of valor for him, but he’d have difficulty hiding the truth himself. They’ll question him whatever we do.”” Whelp, I guess we know what the logic is for Lute joining Kon and Alden and Stu on the Sydellis branch oasis ship story arc. I wonder if there’s a way to finagle Lexi and Haoyu onto the ship too?
Haoyu asked Esh for ways to grow, and Lexi might volunteer so he can guard Kon. Both have plausible paths there, but it's a bit of a stretch for them to get there before college.
Named Meisters in school with Alden: * Reinhard * Lexi * Tuyet * Ignacio * Marsha * Andrzej Ignacio is mastering Rabbit Recall. Who do you suppose will be next to learn this recondite skill? My money would be on Lexi - IF I thought he actually had a Recall Writher skill. We haven't seen any indication that he does, and there's a suggestion he doesn't - Lexi never lets Writher out of arm's reach.
iirc, the recall skill is for "preventing disarmament", do we have any info on Meisters getting grip strength increasing skills for that purpose so they don't need recall? Also because mind writher is mentally controlled maybe it has a passive recall functionality built in? I hope Alden does give lexi some sort of assistance with controlling writher, even if its just tips via Esh or Stu. Maybe Aldens ability to grab on via BOAB will help Lexi learn his fine control skills like he was practising with the marshmallows.
Sleyca, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I want you to know that this story means so much to me. For about half a year It has been such an endless source of joy in my life. Super supportive has given me so many new shades of love and happiness to experience. In fact, I’m quickly running out of fingers to count how many times I have started crying because I just feel so grateful to have this story in my life. Silence has never felt as comfortable as it does now that I always have this little light in my heart and mind. The feeling of contentment finds me a lot more often and I live with more hope towards the future. Super supportive is something very special to me. You have wrote something truly incredible. To my subjective unique human taste Super supportive is humanly perfection. From where I stand Soup and perfection are so near one another that they could easily be mistaken for the same thing, for all I know they occupy the same spot in the universe. Ahem, sorry I got distracted because I’m literally talking about my favourite thing…. Fun fact! This chapter was released on the day of one of my final exams- and it magically made the whole day filled with sparkles and rainbows instead of stress and worrying. I did my best, but I got the chance to do it with a smile, since I knew I’d be getting the best darn soul-filling-soup in the universe.
>“You’re familiar with the first Rapport,” said Esh-erdi, “which lies on land that fell under the rule of the art’h family long ago. They claimed even more than that once. And nobody ever took it from them, either. This seems like more evidence that the Art'hs were at one point something like the de-facto rulers of the planet. Art'h -> Artona. The bit about no one ever taking 'it' from them is interesting, but ambiguous.
I thought "it" pretty clearly referred to their inhospitable northern territory.
Aulia’s Opposite is out there somewhere - limbless, one-eyed, scarred, disheveled, looking at their blinking stone going “nooooooooo….”
God, yeah, the Velras have created the global impression that chainers pay less for their chains and they mostly don't seem to mind the cost of getting substitutes for their injuries. You don't do that without hurting a lot of indoctrinated Artonan commoners - probably not just your opposite, at that point.
I volunteer Hazel to give up her eye for Lute. I’m sure Aulia could trick her into it. Then Ash could get Lute out of whatever Aulia demanded in exchange. Since Lute lost his eye in the Gloss for Hazel, that’d make it a literal eye for an eye.
I honestly think Hazel's getting enough punishment to recalibrate her course. If she still doesn't (lost in narcissism) then there is no recourse but mind-alteration.
How quickly is Lute going to destroy Aulia’s information monopoly on Chainer stuff when his tattoo is removed? Same-day? Or is he going to wait to get her arrested first? Once he goes nuclear, he’ll lose the opportunity to snoop
I don’t think they’ll actually lose that much chainer stuff. Aulia will still know all the military grade chainer stuff that lute probably doesn’t know. Even if he did know, I doubt anyone would want that stuff disseminated. I think it’ll just be the nice and handy stuff like my body becomes my assistant that they’ll lose a monopoly on.
Alden wanted to agree with him since he held the all-time record for catching up to his partner in power, but he wasn’t sure how to say he admired that without it sounding wrong. I wonder what someone could possibly say about that politely? Maybe “Yes! You are very impressive!” or “Yes, You’re my favorite knight! Stu told me a few words about your journey with Lind and it inspires me!”
-"If he says yes, I bet Yenu-pezth could erase his memory or lock it away somehow so that the distressingly weird people he works for never find out."- I could just hear him saying Eekeekeek here.
I've been watching with delight every time 'distressingly weird' shows up. So far: Defined in: He glanced at the spot where the tattoo had just been hidden, and then, for some reason, over at Alden’s bag. “Worli Ro-den is selfish, angry, and < distressingly weird >. I do not understand him well, and what I understand, I do not like at all.” – Ch. 207 Appearing: She set aside her ink brush and turned the other eye to him. “If he doesn’t < crave > your company, then his behavior lately has been distressingly weird.” “He’s not eekeekeek.” – Ch. 218 “Stuart, Bithe told me something. It was right before we heard Olget-ovekondo being distressingly weird with Uro-bor. I don’t know if he would appreciate me repeating it to you. I’m not sure he meant to tell me. He might have had emotions summoning his thoughts from him when he wanted to keep them private.” – Ch. 231 “I hope I’ve said what’s right and that I haven’t cost Lute anything. Can I tell him you’re trying to help him? Let him say yes or no? If he says yes, I bet Yenu-pezth could erase his memory or lock it away somehow so that the distressingly weird people he works for never find out. Or there are contracts to hide the information, right?” – Ch. 298
I'm getting real Sirius Black vibes from Esh. I dont think its gonna happen soon but I suspect he's gonna die.
How dare you
I talked about lute deserving to be a dual class avowed (partially as a joke) in an earlier chapter. And now it’s far less a joke, and upgraded to “please give him a full class reset”. I thought Lute might be avoiding getting his eye healed because it was gonna somehow give Aulia more leverage (what’s your second skill, etc). But nah it’s just the palace of unbreaking is way worse than I was giving it credit for. And lute is legitimately one of the nicest kids alive
Also (if I’m not just making this memory up) some of Lutes family acting like him not getting his eye fixed was a just a childish tantrum type thing. *Truly Vile*
It's like a savage joke. Aulia hitches her entire family's future to the Palace convinced the secret to unlimited wizardly power lies within. Turns out it's actually a weird MLM run by zealots who hate wizards and you might lose an organ. Oops.
I glad Mother’s favorite Prince is back. Sequel to God’s favorite Princess
This chapter is extra interesting because it implies that Aulia does not at all subscribe to the beliefs of the people she works for. She was trying to learn magic herself right? So she clearly is not a believer, and is having her family cozy up to the palace for influence and power and not righteousness.
No, no, Aulia will be one of those righteous wizards who do magic in the pure and correct way, just like other wizards at the Palace of Unbreaking. Once she learns magic, surely they will guide and protect her?
Alden forgot to mention one detail that makes Aulia look even worse! Lute was FORCED to take part in that big luck chain because of the Velra tattoo! He wasn't even a willing participant in the word chain that lost him his eye! Not the biggest thing to leave out, but Aulia's evilness should be known to its fullest!
I'd also like to know if Aulia also breached PoU ethics with her family contract. Lute was unwilling, but technically he accepted the system consent form because of it. I don't think Hazel missing out on chainer counts as abnormal circumstances that might have permitted it.
Thanks for the chapter!
"[...] so that the distressingly weird people he works for never find out" Who else is excited that Alden got to use "distressingly weird" in a conversation? Eekeekeek!
Ch218: She [Emban] set aside her ink brush and turned the other eye to him. “If he doesn’t << crave >> your company, then his behavior lately has been distressingly weird.” “He’s not eekeekeek.”
I hope Alden asks Esh to take the knight's oaths. It seems like the lowest risk way of revealing himself, if he reveals that he knows votaries and crafters take the oaths then he could imply that's why he wants to take them. Once his morals are proven I doubt there would be many Knights who oppose a human Knight.
I don’t think votaries take the oaths. Or at least, none of those taking the oaths plan to become votaries, though some may still change course towards that path. The oaths are for those who intend knighthood. And Alden is not and cannot be a votary in any case.
I've been waiting for a knight to hear that Lute was tricked in to his affixtion! Based on Stuart's reaction to Alden's pest control skill, we know knights are going to take any tomfoolery around affixtion seriously.
This is not very different from what Earth's contract is doing, actually. Pointing this fact out to influential knights in the middle of their emotional backlash from Lute's story might just catalyse a review of the design of Earth's Contract to withhold vital information. And Lute being so talented, his exotic story from Earth may become a hit on the Artonas, driving the point home for a wider audience.
Great chapter. I love Esh-erdi, but his approach to help lute, appears to be (in this case) as subtle as a bulldozer.
Who needs subtlety when they have the destructive power of a thousand bulldozers?
does the river meet the sea or does downstream meet the ocean? sea and ocean seem to be being used interchangeably here but they're not the same thing
Well, in general usage “sea” encompasses all large bodies of water, including oceans/the ocean so it could be both an ocean and a sea. But I doubt in casual conversation either Esh or Alden would be too formal in their usage in any case. A source if anyone gets intrigued waiting for Future Soup: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2021/12/22/differences-bay-gulf-ocean-sea/
Lute got a rough choice there, very noble of him to take the path he did. It's actually probably a lot worse for an Artonan to lose an eye than a human - for a human it's a loss of depth perception and redundancy, for an Artonan with independent eye movement and two trains of thought it does that and also kind of halves the number of things they can do.
Oh my, great observation! It must seem viscerally much worse to the Artonans than it does to humans.
I like Porti-loth so much. After this chapter he is my third favorite character.
After Garsy and whom??
Good luck to Aulia next time she tries to curry favour with Esh and Lind
I'm laughing evilly just imagining it
Alden must have got close enough to Ploomp's name for her to understand if she followed his instructions.
Oh boy, more juicy texture to add to my extensive running notes and theories about the Palace of Unbreaking. I'd thought something like this was probably going on, but I didn't have the details quite right. Quietly adjusting my fanon list of chainer skills to drop the one that reflexively intervenes to keep your wordchains from getting you killed to the lowest priority of all the skills, since it'd probably barely be tolerated if even that (clearly they were required to add it to the list for avowed welfare reasons, and they hate it), and drop the priority rating of the other ones that preserve the balance of chaining but in potentially the wrong ways as well.
What I can't puzzle out at the moment, is Aulia's pursuit in real magic. If she is in the position that she is with the Palace of Unbreaking and they look down on ALL other forms of magic, why would she want to persuade magic and unbalance herself and risk her special standing with the Palace? If she became a wizard she would become unbalanced in magic. She would be just another greedy wizard that not balancing out the universe like Wordchainers do. To risk her position means she not a true believor of the Palace's mission so she has not truly drunk the cult's Kool-Aid at this point. She values magic higher than her own position as a Chainer within the Palace. There must be something more that we do not know yet to just why Aulia would risk everything to learn magic. Or maybe Aulia is more alike to Joe and always grabs greedy.
Well, Aulia would've come under the Palace's ownership long before anyone had any way to know their goals. I think her desire for magic and desire to monopolize the class might be closely linked - that she might want to take over their favored sacred, pure class with her own family then use that as leverage to get her own wizardry accepted by the organization, or something.
“One of the things I wanted to do when I arrived on Earth was meet humans worth remembering. And I have. You’re one of them. A very good representative of your planet.” “I’m not sure how many humans would agree with that.” "Human judgements are very different," said Esh-erdi. "That is what makes them so alien, and so Artonan."
Wait, did you add that last line yourself, or was it previously in there then got removed?
Alden still has his invitation to go dine with Aulia. He absolutely should take her up on that, and bring the Generals she so badly wants to butter up. They will eat her alive. There would be no better birthday present for Lute. But Alden did miss the perfect opportunity to ask whether Knights ever are given Opposites. Having more information on how the Palace will react to him and treat his Opposite after he reveals himself is really important for him to know now.
More fun than riding ze shoopuf
I fully realize Ploomp looks nothing like a Shoopuf, but the rides themselves occupy similar inflection points in their respective stories, and offer emotional evolutions. Although I guess Alden's aunt never accidentally attacked Ploomp with a sword in a drunken rage, felt shame at the scar she left, and then never drank again, so it's not a 1:1 analogy. Still, though, the long travel on a large animal on the river as emotional topics get considered and weighed and dealt with, inexorably, placidly? It's a decent comparison.
I can't wait for Lute to lose his ass tattoo by Esh blowing a rasberry at it in protest to how flimsy it is... also takes me back to what the artist said to Aulia about not being in harmony and authority and her totally misunderstanding what was actually said because she assumed it meant power
I would prefer Lute growing a bit stronger and grasping dominance over the contract. Then using it to force Aulia to right her wrongs, by cancellung all her other V-shaped family contracts to begin with. And other stuff I cannot imagine now.
I can see the conversation with Lute now...... Hey Lute, have you ever thought about using a luck chain to remove your tramp stamp? Why????? Because this vase I bought at Rapport III might fall off the shelf knocking you unconscious. Alden....... Wait wait wait.....I only know one healer, he is a bit old school and anf a perfectionist. While he is fixing your head he will probably grow your eye back to fix the symmetry of your face, which will break the tramp stamp.
Thank you, Sleyca. Your chapter releases always make my day much better.
I had headcanon formed that the 'misleading' explanation for why no other avowed were allowed at the Palace was because the Palace wizards were only qualified to summon Chainers. But their dislike of the other type of magic put a whole new spin on that.
I think it's probably a mix of both. Nobody else wants them having access to the other avowed to teach them this stuff, and they don't want to summon the other avowed who've got sinful magical cooties installed in them in the first place (though I imagine they see the other avowed as mostly innocent in the sin themselves, and lay the blame more on the wizards who demanded they get the sin machines installed). Meanwhile, nobody else can summon chainers without permission probably expressly for the purpose of keeping those outsiders from 'corrupting' their sacred saints of chaining or otherwise forcing them to perform their duties wrong.
Honestly, if I was Lute, I'd have my eye restored, especially If the opposite is volunteering and gets sufficiently compensated and honored for it. Which I think he would.
it's really a question of whether you're willing to let someone suffer in your place. regardless of any volunteering or honor, can you tolerate someone else being hurt in exchange for your healing. Lute says that he can't accept that
Thanks for the chapter!!
I like how one of the first things Alden commentented on when visiting Rapport I was it's nice climate. And now we learn that Rapport I is apparently the Artonan equivalent of the cold north. (j) No wonder Stu-arth is so serious. He's a grumpy northener. (/j)
I think the rapport 1 climate is just the equivalent of northern Europe, which is perfectly livable for many people without too much consideration for the winter. If you're an artonan though, it's like you're in Central siberia or something
Knight use trait connections. It super effective. Rabbit knight use connections is super effective. Healer use connections it super effective. Nice sea creature use olfactory/brain synaptic connection. It is super effective
Just realized that Esh, Lind, and Porti-loth came in already having schemes for Lute and then they got blasted with Little Lute Riding Hood on top of that.
“Little Lute Riding Hood”. Love that. I so want to see him tell it. And you are right. They must all have OPINIONS on Alia Velra right now
Lute wanting to be a water shaper-- which is a kind of magic-- and then being tricked into a class which will never, ever allow him to do anything but word chains is genuinely cruel. I mean, being tricked into a class at all is cruel, but this adds another layer.
Looking forward to Esh, Lind and Porti confronting Aulia about Lute with this energy: https://youtu.be/B3TDK_mxfu0?t=2701
Okay, I love that it's a riding fish thing the size of a bus. Sleyca's alien imagination continues to exceed my expectations.
"Rare jellyfish which can grow to size of a school bus caught on camera" https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/science-jellyfish-argentina-expedition-video-b2913840.html
once again astonished by the incredibly complex, nuanced world-building of this story. salute.
Chapter 114: > He wouldn’t be getting spell impressions. There was an option for choosing a wordchain impression instead of points, but he didn’t see any reason to do that. It seemed like something you’d only want if you were prone to screwing up some particularly difficult and important chain. This makes sense now - Chainers don't get spell impressions because the Palace of Unbreaking sees spellcasting in general as heretical. I guess they don't see skills in the same way which is why they don't disapprove of Avowed and Knights as much.
Well, they have rules about when non-wordchain wizardry is acceptable, apparently. Interfering with or replacing wordchains is probably their red line in the sand there, for the most part. They probably do have some spells they'd theoretically be fine-ish giving to chainers from a spiritual purity perspective, but that don't contribute to the goals of the class at all and so weren't included, or that got rolled into chainer skills instead. Or maybe even the spells that they do allow are still a 'penitent sinner' sort of thing for their wizardly leadership, and they don't want to spiritually degrade the chainers in that way.
I knew Hazel was a special kind of messed up, and I’m starting to understand just where that all comes from. Obviously there’s Aulia, OG avowed, charismatic matriarch of the most exclusive family on the most exclusive island on earth, who considers her to be the future of the family, and gives freely of her time and attention, giving her quite literally anything she wants. And on the other hand is the Palace, the church of a vastly more powerful alien species that basically owns earth, who considers her to be pure and special and generally holier than thou, even more so than all the other Chainers, with people literally prostrating themselves, worshiping at her feet. Since she was a CHILD. Imagine spending your formative years being shuffled between those environments. Aulia is the dumbest smart person in the world if she didn’t see what a recipe for disaster that is. I’m also curious about just what Aulia was talking about when she was discussing becoming a wizard, and how her place in the Palace would help her when the time came. It seems like it should be the opposite, some I’m guessing there is still more yet to uncover.
> the future of the family Aulia intends to live as long as she can. Given the life extensions that S-rank healers can provide, that could be a LONG time. Even if she gets no further de-aging, she could live another sixty or seventy years. Aulia is looking for lieutenants, not successors. Hazel's rank would have been a bitter disappointment - for AULIA (as well as for Hazel, of course). Here is a kid that you expected to be a useful investment. She would surely burnish the family power and reputation. And due to an accident of fate, the kid will be useful. But not nearly as useful as she thought - a B-rank just isn't as good as an S. Poor Aulia! Hazel's B-rank was so inconvenient for her.
Burning questions on my mind for June 6 (approximately): 1) Will Alden get to bleed on the -erdi family altar? 2) Will he wash dishes with his skill in the welcome meet? 3) Will Yookee-und'h make an appearance to illustrate the ways in which his family is harder to get along with? 4) Will we meet Alden's birth three? What else, guys?
We will definitely meet Alden's birth three.
"I can’t worship the balancing of a scale,” Esh-erdi said. “It’s too easy to ignore what’s being weighed and to feel righteous while you measure out harm.” Sleyca is the only author I've ever read who can consistently drop hard hitting truth bombs without breaking, cheapening, or flattening the world of her story.
I can think of a noble job for Lute! Why doesn't he go train Earth's most commended on a chaos-bound spaceship? But actually he spends most of his time entertaining the troops
That would be important for the mental health of the knights and others who will be fighting though. Music and story telling would be his main jobs while doing a few chains on the side :)
I’m going to enjoy this arc
Oh, Lute's ability to use the long sight wordchain could come into play.
Hyektch! A chance to appreciate patreon comments!
"“I’m willing to help however I can,” Alden said. “But isn’t there a less ridiculous and deceptive way?” “We could borrow him from the Palace of Unbreaking and come up with some role for him among knights that allows us to claim he needs to be in near-perfect physical condition." Maybe like becoming the Votary for the first human Hn’tyon? It really feels like Esh-erdi knows about Alden and is being respectful of keeping his secret, while at the same time coaching him towards the reveal.
How could Lute be a votary? He's not a wizard.
I didn't think I could hate Aulia or love Esh more. Consider me shocked! I would also die for Ploomp.
“Some things about being an Avowed are very special,” he said. “Can I try to give her directions?” “Say ‘Oceanward’,” said Esh-erdi. “We’ll find out if she listens.” “Oceanward, Ploomp!” Alden said. “We have a chance to appreciate the river!” The terackerin shifted her fins as if she understood him well and began to swim downstream. Esh - we're going the wrong way!
correction - they *were* going the wrong way.
Thank you for the chapter
ohhhh this is AWESOME i love that we're getting to knightchat and are already getting distracted by dark topics. with some luck, Alden will make some juicy reveals later on.
More answers to mysteries I didn’t know I was trying to solve. More slice of life space adventures. More discovering Esh-erdi and what he is all about. What a great chapter
I'm super-sad that there are only seven Rapports on Artona I. Imagine if there were 9 Rapports. The ninth could be Rapport VIV.
I'm amazed there have been six additional chaos outbreaks on the Mother severe enough to warrant planting another Rapports down to further anchor the anti-chaos ward created by the first Rapports repair! Seven apocalyptic breaches is so many. Imagine if Earth had seven Mataderos with thousands of knights and many more votaries living there to guard and anchor them, and billions of wizards outside those guarded places able to back them up. One really gets a sense of how bad the chaos problem has been for how long, that the innovation of the first Rapports's repair and stabilization had to be exported so many times (and trees from the first Rapports transplanted to support that! Were art'hs involved to claim a patch of land for those trees to thrive in their new climes?)
“A lengthy fart could finish off a contract like that.” I chose to interpret that as Esh sees the structural weakness in that unbalanced contact. Lute will break it on his own before too long.
I feel like both Esh and Lute would be thrilled if Esh could coach Lute into breaking his contract concurrently with a lengthy (and odorous) fart. That feels like it would be a fun callback to the Palace leaver line "I take my stench with me and go to shiver in yonder hole by myself, alone and unloved", except better because Lute would be equating Aulia's words of family loyalty with foul wind, and leaving her control not to be unloved, but to seek out the company of friends and allies able to love him in better ways.
"Their Chainers occupy an exalted position in the organization, even above the leaders in some ways." No wonder Aulia is so confident. I feel like at one point Lute thought about expressing his discontent with Aulia to the Palace staff but worried he might be moved to a position under her instead. This explains how she has that much power there. It makes me wonder (and worry) about just how much power and influence she does have
If I remember right Lute also mentioned at one point that he thought Aulia wanted to be in control of all the chainers. Due to various reasons humans are preferred to other species by the Palace and if Aulia has them all as part of her family and tattooed then with her status in the Palace she may be much closer to it than I thought
Such richness! I appreciate Esh-erdi and his friends more and more every time we have a chance to travel with him along with Alden. Esh says << Vile >> like Stu would say << Shame >>, and Porti-loth is just as fierce in his way about wanting to address this injustice. Lind emphatically also, I expect. It is vile that people in power at the Palace can offload the unwanted consequences they exalt as significant onto others. I wonder if Orpheus encountered such a consequence, and chose to give it to a substitute, and has been choosing to pay his own penance ever since. I love meeting the terackerin! I'm so excited to meet Esh's nieces and their many questions. We should appreciate the sky and our rivers more often.
Interesting take on Orpheus. It would track that a teen would think of him, simplistically, as a useless person who chose addiction because he's shitty, no other explanation needed. But of course he'd have had some sort of traumatic experience, because who in the Velra family hasn't? From what we've seen of Orpheus, though, he is more likely trying to erase his memory than pay penance.
Alden could generate soooo many followers with the stuff he does. But then he probably wouldn't do the stuff if he would post everything.
Its also occurred to me that if Lutes contract tattoo is broken he can publish everything about chainers, the palace and the class that he couldnt before. That would probably hurt and upset Aulia more than anything else he could do. She thrives on the mystique
Except publishing too much will harm Earth's Contract. Lute will have to learn the meaning of proper discretion on his own back. What a conundrum...
I wonder if Esh thinks the situation is Vile because their refusal to heal Lute without a sacrifice, which would be in breach of the human morality concessions of the contract. or he thinks Aulia is the Vile one because she is treating her family the same way Renjen-art'h did, produce offspring and forcing them to affix Chainer no matter what their opinions are.
I think Esh thinks the situation is vile on multiple fronts, emphatically including Lute being manipulated and lied to by his own family to make him affix a class not of his own choosing. Aulia and Jessica's choices there feel like they're doubling down on a precedent already set by the Palace: Chainer the class is constructed to give no choice of primary skill for S-rank Chainers. They all have to take Mass Bestowal as their first skill. Lute was able to pick a skill only because he was powerful enough to affix two up front.
I love the idea of Alden returning home and telling Lute that Esh, Lind and Porti want to help him. Alden will say they should invite them to dinner so Esh can break his tattoo with Aulia and while he's here Lexi can ask them about mind writhers! I keep smiling when I imagine the look on Lexi's face when he realises that the dinner Alden suggested will happen after all!
It would be even funnier if it becomes Lute's birthday dinner 😄. Also looking forward to it.
I didn't imagine it would be something this strange and adorable, I certainly never imagined anything aquatic! Still, I knew if Esh-Erdi got if for someone's niece it couldn't have been even close to a normal pet, not even rich person normal. I certainly wasn't disappointed!
Lute becoming a kinda human votary equivalent would probably be gloss-balancingly important.
If anyone becomes Alden's human votary it'll be Lutes crush not Lute. After all she's already Alden's paid assistant.
Esh and Lind are willing to lie, make up acts of valor for, and go against one of the dominant religions of their people because they feel Lute has been mistreated by his family and the Palace. Alden should be very afraid of what they are willing to do for the human rabbit child that got abandoned on a choas moon for months... very, very afraid...
Does the Palace represent a dominant religion? I got the sense from Stu that it was a minority one more aligned with rural outposts like Moon Thegund than mainstream or elite power centers.
"More difficult for you to get along with I think. Though I don’t plan on having you meet any old enough for that to matter on this trip.” Do they still hold to the vote that the knights made to stay away from earth and not make it one of their resource planets?
That’s what I took away from it too.
:O
Not where I expected this chapter going :O Aulia is insane.
"Dancing brazenly while drinking the power that belongs only to the stars" Damn why these Palace quitters have such cool lines
I feel like everyone who creates their own exit lines has opportunity to be added to the grand compilation of other leavers' memorable exits. Best of Ask a Manager for Palace Leavers, heh.
Porti-Loth continues to prove that he's a great character with every mention of him. I can imagine a passionate healer being absolutely horrified at the thought of a child being prevented from being healed. ....And absolutely hulk-out worthy PISSED at the people that would prevent the child from being healed.
This is totally the whole no blood transfusion thing I’ve seen in medical dramas where a child is denied medical care and the doctors lose their shit.
I think hearing about Lute's situation might have Esh-erdi even more up in arms about his situation than before. It's amazing how much Lute's background parallels that of the previous generation of knights. They were both not TECHNICALLY forced to twist themselves into becoming something, but they were manipulated into it quite thoroughly. I half want to see how Esh will treat Aulia from this point on...
My guess is coldly polite.
This was a fantastic chapter. I wasn't expecting to find out more about Lute and the Palce of Unbreaking but it was all interesting and I'm very curious as to what will happen to Lute next. I hope Esh breaks his tattoo if nothing else. That would give Lute much more freedom to make his own choices. I'm also looking forward to listening to the rest of Esh and Aldens discussions. They have so much to talk about
Honestly, the tattoo isn't controlligf him that much. It's not just weak but poorly designed. It seems to have been designed like an earth style contract, binding on specifics but not actually enforcing the spirit of the agreeement like artonan contracts can. The way Lute has been talking to Alden shows that quite clearly. Furthermore, I think Esh agrees with me that Lute breaking free from it himself will be much more cathartic and doable.
Tftc! No matter the species, fanatics and politics are still the evil of society
A long time ago, the world was unbroken and everyone used wordchains. Then someone made a bad wordchain that never needed to be paid back. That bad wordchain broke the world and chaos crept into that crack. We remember his name and his name was Wizard. One day, one fine day in the future , the Palace of Unbreaking will mend the world and then everyone will use the good wordchains again.
“I feel like I’m being ignored,” said Esh-erdi. “It’s such a strange feeling that I’m sure it can’t be true.” I love Esh so much and this bit made me laugh 😂
Oh hell yes, this is the sort of chapter I live for!
What a beautiful chapter. And holy fuck I love Esh-erdi. The palace of unbreaking stuff recontextualizes *so much*. And Porti-Loth! "I can bury him or you, and you won't survive the process."
I'm like 50/50 on whether the peckish Century Storm Arth woman killed those two lovely men, the vines loved most or kidnapped them to be her husbands. Hard to tell with those freaks :)
She took them to the rapport 1 in order to cultivate excellent wine, what else would one do.
It's not a VIV-chapter but this might be even better
As incredibly delicious as this chapter is, the fact that this is what Esh decided would be a nice light starting topic before they get to the darker things that must be discussed later in the visit just makes me even more excited for the rest of what they’re going to talk about. With a start like this, I can’t wait to see where we end up.
Esh focused chapter! I love him so much! And the LORE! Part of why I love this story so much is how complex Artonan Culture is. And there's this sense of ominousness, a Huge Secret TM lurking in the background about Magic and Chaos and why Artonans are the way there are, and it all builds so delicously. The soup is good tonight!
This puts a different spin on what Hazel said when she was ranting. "I matter." It sounded like such a weird thing to say even when taking everything known about her at that time into consideration. But it seems this got reinforced by way more adults than expected. Someone that doesn’t naturally gravitate towards humility really didn’t have the best shot in finding out what a healthy self would look like. Anesidoran social dynamics + plus Aulia indoctrination + actual special sense + Palace of Unbreaking reinforcing and building up on already existing beliefs. Damn.
Well said!
“It’s too easy to ignore what’s being weighed and to feel righteous while you measure our harm.” Aren't we all... Aren't we all. As always, it comes down to presentation, method, and means. I suspect the Palace has something more of import of which we remain uninformed. Dang, you missed a chance to use "mete." Is that "measure out?" Edit suggestion.
It is measure out! I was so irritated by that typo. It’s updated in the post and epub now. 🙂
All Soup readers should adopt 'a chance to appreciate ' into their daily language. It will be a secret code to be able to identify each other.
Adopting, "You were yelling at me." And, "You spoke too me in a harsh tone." Works surprisingly well too.
"[...] until the newest Velra S-rank agrees to have his eye replaced. Based on what MBF has observed of him, that should be between 2054 and the end of time.” -- Elias The Informant, during his chat with Aulia in Chapter 188
Lute looking like an even better guy than he already did.
Hmm learning that many things are shades of gray and not black and white are part of becoming mature. Not letting grey things ruin your enjoyment of the parts you like is the height of maturity. I like stories where people mature to recognize that not everything is sunshine and rainbows. But also I like stories where people realize that just because something hurts you, or can hurt you, doesn’t mean it’s all bad. To be complex is to be human.Thus complex characters and situations are the most interesting. It’s fun to see how you present and unravel new complexities tied with old situations. I always respect a writer who can skillfully tie things together.
The other half of that lesson is not to let the things you enjoy make you give up on changing the things you despise.
Esh: It's freezing, and it's filled with murder trees and art'hs Alden: Murder tree leaf on his person, intends to become an art'h-by-existence, has already bled a pint or two into his future historically-significant house
Also, human from Chicago. Freezing for artonans is probably tolerable for Alden
TFTC!
Since the Gloss veers into the Eldrtich (and for all we know its effects may still be active), I think the plan to trick Lute into getting a new eye is fundamentally unwise. The Palace is probably in the right here. Don't drink brazenly from the powers, that only belong to the stars. Don't think to trick Chthulu into getting a better deal.
Word of god is that the Gloss ended when it ended. What happens after is just normal cause and effect continuing on.
Yay - I was sorta right with my prediction for this chapter!!! (I thought they would be talking more about the Aulia and Lute's contract rather than Lute's missing eye) but close enough for me
You were indeed!
Wholesome chappie ! Thanks, have a nice day and week until the next :)
Seeing Esh say "Eventually, seeing became desiring, and now I’m sitting here, the most interesting and impressive of them all!" right after finishing When Wishing Was Having feels like a chance to connect to Alden's story. Esh was an outsider declared, just like the klerm prince. I feel like he really might understand and be able to help Alden with his story (especially as his first and favorite storytelling instructor).
Also wait a minute, The story about the kid struggling to be good at things and being helped by the wise storyteller. Then it Being immediately followed up by Esh helping Alden in general and with storytelling Legendary Sleyca foreshadowing strikes me again lol
Y'know, the art'h name carries about the same cachet that Tlepes does on earth, if the Tlepes had actually been a venerable Russian dynasty that was so successful that they managed to gracefully retire from monarchy and all their old enemies were still too scared to come after them or their extensive private holdings. Puts a bit of a different spin on Stu's classmates mockingly referring to his vengeful ancestors.
Yeah, when Esh was talking about their history it was definitely giving off “These are a dynasty of conquerors” vibes. Hoary old wizard tyrants back in the day, descendants walking highest onus now to atone/protect/restore their family image, maybe?
I'm not done reading. I had to take a breather when Alden and Esh was talking about trading a child, that probably looked around kibby's age, if not younger to unnecessarily have their eye severed to for some reason justify healing Lute's eye. Then clarifying it would be either of their very brained washed parents, then when they come of age. Happy adulthood! Give me an eye! Like that's a cult. If I ever heard one. Does the parents eye get healed when the actual opposite get to perform the ritual? If not, isn't there still an imbalance in the universe? 😩 I've never had to push through until today.
Sure, it's a cult. But they're worshipping something real, so I wouldn't assume it'd be an unnecessary trade. Who knows what the Gloss does next, if you try to shortchange it. For all we know, the Gloss might have caused the Seeker Sender incident.
Do I spy a setup for Lute to join Kon on the space ship? It's a mission that is both safe enough to allow teenagers on it, and risky enough to sell it as a monumentous sacrifice in service to the knights. Stu's and Alden's team grows!
I'd be willing to bet that by the time the ship is ready Alden and Stu will be ready to go on it too. Now we just need reasons for Lexi and Haoyu and Ignacio to come along as well
So are we thinking the people prostrating themselves before chainers are offering to take negative effects for them? And Lute's thing about feeding himself is the way he has to insistently repeatedly refuse to let them? Or something along those lines?
I think the feeding thing is quite literal. Poor Lute has people standing over him trying to hand-feed him space grapes or something. But yeah, the prostrating business is almost certainly ordinary-class Artonans offering to take bad halves off Lute. Which is why "Chainers get more than they pay for", as Aulia has encouraged the rumors. If Lute is refusing that, as I suspect, it might make him seem even more holy to the PoU (facepalm) and it might be part of the reason wordchains answer him better than they do his relatives.
This story always go in unpredictable direction. Expected some lore drop about rapports, but got more about Lute and Palace of Unbreaking. There are only 7 rapports on Artona I, this is first time it's mentioned i think. Lute will definitely disagree with getting eye back with luck chains, he hate them. So i guess he will volunteer to do jobs for rapports, maybe with Alden. It would be most sensible action for him, he doesn't strike me as very selfless and bravest person, but we saw he can be quite brave in submerger incident.
And in following Alden's lead during the Snow arc to remove Bash-nor. I suspect we will see Bash-nor, Jel-nor, and Ro-den again. Maybe in concert, as part of the Beast of Burden -> Existential Threat coalition?
Esh is an outsider knight!! Makes him even more gloriously perfect. Learning about prostration was NOT on my bingo card! Also, Esh is a schemer. I love him more and more. He's my precious. Terackerin confirmed animal, not machine, a catfish-whale of all things. Nice!
Catfish/whale/blowfish?
wow what an amazingly dense chapter, thank you. I'm now wondering about the Palace of Unbreaking, wondering if their rigidity has to do with the consequences of magical practices long ago. Is it related to chaos? I'm reminded of Witch Hat Atelier, if you've seen/read it, there the witches are very strict with how magic should be used- a result of the consequences of the past. Of course they are really terrible with how its enforced, and it's interesting to see a possibility of that kind of institution here. Also, so so so curious about what exactly makes the Arth's different from everyone else.. Very much looking forward to see the rest of their conversation!
The feeling I get is that the Art’h’s differences stem from: 1) their strength and how they interact with others as the strongest family which maybe has an effect on their ideas of striving for greater success and what success looks like along with how they treat those outside their family. 2) past cultural differences based on geography being maintained because of how thoroughly the Artonans maintain stories of their past and cultural identities.
The WILD lore drops. The way several things are making sense now and new depths are revealed. The brand new desire to join Porti-loth in burying the hell out of some people. What a chapter!
He's going to start working on his klerm-ifying spell if he ever hears Lute's lore.
Wow, getting the lore on Lute's eye was NOT what I expected from this visit. :) Loved hearing it though. Especially getting a bit more details on what the Palace believes was interesting. Still looking forward to Alden hearing he's not just commended, he's the HIGHEST commended. I'm guessing Alden will freak out.
It'll be made sweeter once he realises that he won't be earning commendations from people less important than Alis Art'h
Lute and Alden are really competing in a "most tragic backstory" competition.
Oh, Lute wins that one hands on. Alden lost his parents but his aunt was honestly negligent and not manipulative. And the only weirdo in the family.
A lot to unpack here. I completely get the frustrations with organized religion. Legitimate good mixed with fanaticism and self harm. I can’t imagine trying to explain some human religions to aliens. “Yeah, these guys feed millions of starving people each year. Their leader also sits on a solid gold throne in a palace whose basements are filled with millenniums worth of stolen treasure. They call themselves the universal church. The other half of the religion calls themselves ‘the protesters’ in honor of how much they hate the first group.’ The palace of unbreaking has been one of my favorite things about this story from day one. I desperately hope we actually get to see Lute performing some strange ceremony. I’m also happy to see such a complex topic treated with the nuance it deserves.
Not to forget the church policy. When the Bulgarian king Boris I decided to adopt Christianty in 9th century (against the vocal protest of nobility, 52 families of whom mutinied and got massacred), he played the Roman and Constantinople churches against each other to maximise the benefits. One of said benefits was the permission to use Bulgarian in church that he got in exchange for making the country orthodox and not catholic. At the time, the word of god could only be legitimately heard in Hebrew, Latin or Greek, even by the most ignorant peasant - very beneficial for the flock. This level of dogmatism is on par with the Palace of Unbreaking nonsence in my books.
Well this is going in an interesting as hell direction. It's always amazing when this story suddenly turns out to be more complicated than it looked before. The Artonans have so many weirdo factions (realistic, lol), but at least Alden seems to have found himself allied to one of the more moral ones (hopefully).
Well we have had a few hints that the ancient art'h's were not nice people. With the reminder about the former chaos zone in the Rapport - I'm now wondering if it was an evil art'h ancestor that was the wizard that opened the door to the chaos dimension (or whatever caused chaos) and Stu and his family are trying to make up for it?
Lute wanted to go on Esh's field trip and now he just might be able to
good soup
I just had a terrible premonition of something awful happening to Esh and Lind in the distant but not so distant future
Nope. Don't even put that out there. Sleyca might hear you!
Great Chapter! Great character work, new lore drops, new alien environment and animals to liven the world, worth the wait! After setting it down and thinking about it a little I had the thought that if the PoU consider Chainers to be "blessed" and "pure", Hazel may not be in a healthier environment for her like I thought she might be. I'm sure that won't be a problem later.
If only she had someone that could tailor a better environment for her.
Wow I don't remember who, but one of you all really called it that Esh, Lind, and Porti would be worried about Lute and his eye. I'm impressed!
*One* of us? I recall it being seen as a plausible way for the events to go by plenty of people :)
Esh, Lind, and Porti are once again proving why they are my favorite side characters. I love Esh so much. Esh- "Ah a child... An injured child... An injured child that technically belong to an extremist cult... Come we must make plans post haste to kidnap said child and fix him!"
Not to mention Healer Yenu, who similarly kidnapped young Stu from an incompetent healer. Also, who can forget Instructor Kibby?
I had hope when Porti-loth was talking to Lute but I didn't expect the prostration to be so problematic
New animal friend!
Ploomp!
I wonder if will will see a nine edged mother during the visit.
A chance to appreciate soup!
Thanks for the chapter!
This chapter made me wonder again why Lute asked Alden how to say, “I want to feed myself,” because now I’m imagining even weirder possibilities.
They want to hand feed lute grapes while prostrating themselves at his feet? 😶🌫️
I want alden to desperately scramble to entertain the nieces, and find himself relating the story of standing on a stranger’s roof trying to find his invisible, evil kyat.
Sleyca, you have saved me from << souplessness >>. My parents are preparing 200 lbs of pink pigment.
I can only recommend the world pinkest pink but you have to confirm that "you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this paint will not make its way into that hands of Anish Kapoor. " https://culturehustle.com/products/pink-50g-powdered-paint-by-stuart-semple?srsltid=AfmBOorCU_k5ZAq6sYXucd71eMI1kVN4TSjzcBMP4r1CYSeTKySvUmBs
Well damn, no wonder Lute doesn't want his eye back. And holy shit Aulia being so convinced Lute will agree to get his eye healed feels vile.
She is once more proving that children, animals, and basically anything with a pulse doesn't deserve to be in her care.
More like A Chance to Approximate amirite
Bing bong approximate woo!
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
NOO!! we missed out on VIV
I felt the wind of it go by. A chance to appreciate a new arc will soothe the pain, I hope.
Soup
Morning soup!
Right on my refresh.
Literally two minutes after I finished my work for the day, as I was looking around for the next thing I wanted to do.
Soup soup soup soup soup!!! Edit: I had completely forgotten about Bash-norr (Former Artonian Ambassador) getting kicked from Earth thanks to Alden & Lute's antics, so the reminder of that glorious chapter had me chuckling through the chapter.
Soup! tftc
Thanks for the Soup!