THREE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN: What Grows Unseen VII
Next Chapter: October 7 (approximate)
“With the next one.” Emban’s words were soft. The bolt of magic soon to be released from her bow would be anything but.
Sitting a couple of paces away from her, the same as the others, Alden watched the goat she was aiming at through his lenses.
When she’d come back to the squad after her first look at the valley and said she’d snipe all of the visible demons in it, nobody had argued that they should stick to sneaking or running instead. Alden liked to think his descriptions of blocking one and then smashing it to death with a load of dirt had helped give them a sense of the goats’ power level.
Emban had seemed confident it was doable, and she hadn’t been wrong. The goats had gone down one by one. Slowly.
He was surprised by how she’d paced herself. It was more than being careful not to miss the faraway targets. She set her bow down between each shot and picked it up again, rewrapping her auriad around it in the same way every time. He supposed this might be how she preferred to work when circumstances didn’t force her to be fast. Every action being influenced by her skill and feeding into her purpose reminded him of himself trying to do Bearer right.
She’d taken the nearest goat down on the third shot, which had made him think that subsequent kills would require either fewer attempts because she’d already built up a bow-firing groove, or more because they were farther away.
But every demon got three shots, with the first two falling short and the third being lethal.
There was a degree of flexibility and potential in her skill he hadn’t considered. She could choose whether she just shot better and better, or she could do something more like this.
I think she might be defining herself as a being whose third shot delivers death. From this particular hillside, in this particular way. The farther her bolts travel through chaos, the bigger the chance should be of weirdness influencing them, but they’re completely steady.
He wanted to ask her about the specifics, wizard to wizard.
I’ll ask Stuart.
Spectating like this had been a soothing experience compared to the rest of the night. Alden had had ample time to focus on his sensing without having to worry about moving or speaking.
He was almost certain they were stationed just above the spot where he’d last seen the mouse. It wasn’t around anymore. His disappointment at missing out on it was small compared to the satisfaction he was getting out of being able to tell, with a high amount of confidence, that it wasn’t here.
Long minutes of stillness and receptivity had had positive effects, as he would have predicted. Less expected was Emban’s repetitious magical performance giving him a way to gauge how well he was sensing. He could feel her so much more clearly now than when she’d started. And the bolts that had once seemed to disappear the instant they were fired could actually be detected at a significant distance, especially if doing it was his focus.
Alden had imagined himself in the position of a spider, picking up information from a web. He’d felt the last shot Emban fired until it blurred into everything else at a point at least a quarter of the way across the valley. And it wasn’t that he couldn’t feel anything farther away than that so much as it was a matter of comprehensibility. Emban’s shots were potent and he’d become familiar with them. In repeatedly trying to pay attention to something at that distance, he’d found his sensitivity to what was going on at nearer distances improving.
The mouse had been more subtle, so he wasn’t going to notice it way out there in the valley. But near him up here, where Emban and the others were now as obvious as signposts, he was sure he’d know its presence.
He felt the release of the last invisible bolt. All the way on the other side of the valley, the final hazard mimic was doing its best to act like a demon, swinging its horned head in violent arcs that looked painful and senseless. A beat after the bolt passed out of Alden’s sensing range, it struck its target. That tossing head disappeared, and the body fell. No creepy sound effects made it to them this time.
Several seconds passed.
“Well done, Emban,” said Bithe. He was sitting a short hop downhill from Alden.
“You’ve certainly improved,” Tilliver said.
Alden decided it was fine for him to speak since the others were. “Good shot.”
“There’s nothing else you know about down there, correct?” Emban asked, looking at him as she lowered her bow.
“Running down into this valley earlier, I thought something impacted my shield. I had the kelsithe preserved. But whatever hit it didn’t cause problems and it was too small for me to see. Maybe just a fragment that was left of something the griveck took care of? I don’t know of anything you could fire on from up here. I wish I did.”
“Enjoying sitting?” Divin asked.
“No. Who wants to sit when we can walk more? Or even better—run!” Alden rocked up onto his feet and stretched.
Divin and a couple of the others gave him wounded looks.
“I’m not serious,” he said. “If Emban could fire me like an arrow toward the nearest bed, that would be perfection.”
It took a while for them all to get up and moving. Seth continued to use Driftseed to help make the trip easier, but Alden didn’t get to float any because he was the guy in charge of picking their way down and the rope.
If he’d been able to choose how everyone else used their skills, he’d have been tempted to try gliding long distances with Driftseed despite what a disaster it would be to be attacked by something like the bird demons while airborne.
Only a little farther. It’s been a crazy night. I want to end it right.
He was used to this travel style now. My Body Becomes My Assistant had done its part to take some of the load off.
He decided that ending the trip right meant maintaining as much of his sensitivity as he could until they were out of here.
There had been so many high points. Finding and saving Bithe. Meeting a new griveck. Getting to fire the wegyta rings. Winsterminating something with a kelsithe that he now owned.
He glanced at his arm. He was still preserving the kelsithe and the backpack full of all the important stuff together.
I really own a kelsithe. That’s fantastic.
Compared to all of that, keeping himself tuned into the spiderweb wasn’t going to be a flashy finale. Nobody other than him would even know he was doing it. But Alden was pleased.
My entruster is safe beside me. I’m just preserving a few supplies with my skill.
It feels right to end the night trying to be a better wizard.
Like all of me is involved even if my auriad isn’t out in the open.
When they reached the floor of the valley, he turned his night vision off briefly so that he could see things as they were. Sensing made the darkness feel less powerful, like it couldn’t hide as many dangers from him.
The third Rapport is really gorgeous, he thought. Even the stupid hills.
******
******
Being a guest in a Rapport is so much more stressful than I thought it would be. Where are the dulcet whispers of corner poets? Where are the calm and proper welcomes? Why was the wine served with dishes of pressure and delusion by the son of the Primary?
And not the son of the Primary who was supposed to invite me to a Rapport one day. A son I don’t even want to know.
On an observation station above Rapport III, with cold scratching at his cheeks, Eeaner-ket had begun thinking this way again. The deck Stu had brought him to had been calm enough, and Hn’tyon Ryada-bess had been so convivial that he’d begun to enjoy himself earlier. Enjoying oneself required effort sometimes, but Eeaner was used to making that effort. He’d been succeeding in spite of the confusing and alarming things that had happened tonight.
But then Stu had come back from talking to two of his parents. He wasn’t showing the improvements Eeaner had imagined a family visit with better family than Jozz-art’h could bring about.
Instead, there were signs of imminent…something.
Explosion or collapse.
Like steam from a potion that was supposed to have cooled off by now. Noise from the alcove that should have teleported the dangerous experiment away.
And that embodied tension was currently beside Eeaner, under the same blanket. Since sitting down, he had said nothing mean to Eeaner and done nothing wrong either…if Eeaner didn’t count him taking the spot in the middle beside Ryada-bess as a wrong.
But when he’d first returned, he’d asked to speak to Hn’tyon Esh-erdi. They’d gone down to the bottom of the stairs to have a conversation that Eeaner had tried not to eavesdrop on.
Esh-erdi and Lind-otta seemed kind. They were also so powerful they made the air feel dangerous to inhale.
So Eeaner had tried not to eavesdrop, but the bottom of the staircase wasn’t that far away. And Stu wasn’t whispering.
Someone named Azeeda-und’h wanted Alden Thorn to go to classes to learn to be more mannerly and attentive to instructions. It sounded like Stu’s parents had agreed to that, and it sounded like Stu was going to do violence to the Septenary’s entire bloodline and his own if it occurred.
There had to be parts—many parts—of this story that Eeaner was missing.
Esh-erdi and Lind-otta had left soon after. They hadn’t seemed to be worried. But they hadn’t told Stu he was being unreasonable either.
Is he not being a little unreasonable? Why is everyone here so involved with an Avowed? A Ryeh-b’t. Why is the Primary’s family rupturing over him? Why is a human Ryeh-b’t on a mission with a squad of knights anyway? That’s not what they usually do.
Through his eyerings, Eeaner was watching the squad. Stu’s cousin was good at shooting things from far away. Now they were on the move again, and none of them were looking very impressive, but Alden Ryeh-b’t had been impressive earlier. Ryada had shown Eeaner what she considered the best parts of their quest tonight. Many of them had featured him.
Mother blistered my ears about being involved with asking him to catch a mishnen. And he definitely wasn’t able to handle a mishnen back then. All he did was wave his pants at it then call Ro-den. And act like he was smarter than all of us. And slap Stu in the face.
He was probably more proper than we were that day, but I see why people might think he needs comportment training.
Eeaner thought again about how Alden Thorn had moved to end that fake demon earlier during his quest.
It seemed so smooth. And competent. But it wasn’t long ago that he couldn’t do anything about the mishnen.
I guess he changed very fast.
“I will never—”
Eeaner jolted at the suddenness of Stu’s voice in his ear.
“—take what you tell me about your future lightly.”
“Ah…good,” said Eeaner.
Stu sounded like he was swearing an oath.
“I will make sure you have every opportunity you need to consider all ways in which you might serve our peoples’ cause against chaos. And I will never tell you that you can’t do it.”
Don’t say that like that. I was speaking…a little…too lightly when we met and I told you I’d considered Rapport service. Maybe not by regular standards, but lighter than you’ve ever spoken in your life I think.
“You would make an excellent knight. Or a brilliant scientist. Or perhaps you will become a senator who votes alongside us,” Stu said, as if he was trying to make Eeaner into those things at once through speech alone.
“My mother hasn’t even managed to become a senator yet.” She was closer than ever, but Eeaner didn’t think now was the time to point that out. He needed Stu not to go too far in the taking him seriously direction. “The only future plans for Rapport service I have at the moment are plans to help you keep up with your schoolwork. Won’t you need someone on campus to do a few things for you? After…”
After he did the unspeakable thing to himself.
“I could be that person,” said Eeaner. “Since we don’t have any votary students at LeafSong.”
“I will consider that offer with the seriousness I have promised you,” Stu said. “I thank you for making it.”
Eeaner was afraid not to keep one eye on him. In this mood, he seemed likely to pull out a brush and draw up a contract tattoo right here that would obligate Eeaner to a decade of service as a homework assistant.
What else did his parents say to him? It can’t just be the manners lessons for the human.
But Eeaner caught that thought and looked closer at it. There was the way Stu had been distracted all day because he was watching what was happening here. And then his brother trying to break up his friendship. His dearest friendship, as he’d put it, which wasn’t an insignificant way of putting it at all.
He’s never mentioned that he was weaving a friendship with a human. He doesn’t hide a lot. Or I didn’t think he did.
One of the easier things about Stu-art’h was that if you really wanted to know something he knew, direct questions usually resulted in direct answers.
“How long have you been friends with Alden?” asked Eeaner. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Stu smiled.
That’s a good sign. Maybe he’s not going to explode after all.
“I’ve been weaving something with him since my aunt sent him back from Moon Thegund. He appeared in Rapport I, near our house, and we had wevvi together. And he met my pet ryeh-b’t.”
For some reason, Ryada-bess giggled at that. “What did he think when he met your ryeh-b’t?”
“That she was hyektch,” said Stu, his eyes focused on what he was seeing through his eyerings even though the squad wasn’t doing anything all that exciting now. “He’s very fond of the word hyektch. And he doesn’t mind her name. He likes it.”
“He had wevvi with him today, too!” said Eeaner. “Real wevvi. He shared it with Ryada-bess’s squadmates. Who aren’t her squadmates anymore. He said you made it.”
“I did make it. This morning at Esh-erdi’s house.”
“What I mean is how much ceremonial wevvi has Alden Thorn had?”
Ceremonial wevvi was the kind of thing you were supposed to get when you were a knight’s guest, or a declared’s, in a Rapport. Ceremonial wevvi had not been offered to Eeaner-ket.
“I don’t know,” said Stu. “We usually drink a boiler full together at some point during his visits.”
Multiple boilers full!
“My friendship with Alden is one of the most treasured relationships of my life. That’s why I didn’t tell you about it,” Stu said.
Eeaner had endured too many stabs from Stu today to even wince at this one.
His direct answers might be easy to get, but they’re rarely fun to possess.
“If you’d told me, I wouldn’t have thought less of you. It’s not like I’d confuse you having an alien friend for the way Bayab behaved with his family’s ewtwee.”
“Why would you make that comparison?”
Eeaner was certain Stu would feel even more affronted if he knew how distressingly weird Bayab actually was about the ewtwee.
“My point is that you could have told me,” said Eeaner. “I know what a friend is. And I have no reason to be bothered by who you have as one. I’ll treat Alden Thorn as someone dear to you.”
Maybe he’d have made a mess of it without all these missteps by Stu’s family to serve as warnings. But he didn’t think he would have. Stu-art’h being friends with an Avowed was peculiar, but it caused no trouble to Eeaner.
Just don’t ever summon that Avowed, and don’t say anything disparaging about him, and if he happens to be around, treat him like I’d treat Stu. That’s not hard. The art’hs couldn’t handle this in the obvious way?
Thinking an Avowed wasn’t the perfect choice of friend for the Primary’s son was one thing. Thinking Stu would tolerate any amount of disrespect toward someone he liked was another.
“It was disrespectful of your parents to suggest that Alden Thorn should be met with some kind of behavioral correction the moment he finished fighting,” Eeaner said after he’d taken the time to consider a few more angles to make sure he wouldn’t be stabbed by Stu’s tongue yet again. “Surely that’s not how they’d treat your cousin or the others. Or you if you were down there.”
“No. Emban’s convenience and bond with her squad was to be sheltered at Alden’s expense,” Stu said.
Eeaner imagined he could feel the tension increasing in the body beside him.
“They might not have thought of it that way,” Ryada-bess said gently.
“They would have thought of it that way if they’d been truly curious about Alden and his efforts,” Stu said. “They would have thought of it that way for my sake if their minds weren’t distracted with trying to find new ways to make me behave like a votary.”
What’s this? Eeaner wondered.
“If they knew me,” said Stu, “and believed me…if my parents and my brother haven’t been able to believe me, after all this time, then when they say they love me, who are they even talking about?”
That question threatened to swallow everything. Eeaner didn’t dare try to answer it, and he thought that after it, there would be nothing to do but sit in silence and endure until this night was over.
But after a while, Stu smiled again. “Alden’s noticed something.”
“Has he?” Ryada asked.
Desperately. She must have felt like they were being swallowed as well.
“I mean he could have noticed something,” said Stu. “I think. Perhaps.”
Such a proud smile.
“That’s great! What has he found?” Eeaner was searching the scene down in the valley, hoping Stu’s human friend was about to doing something so extraordinary it would erase all of the trouble up here. “I…don’t see what he’s done yet…but if you see it, I’m sure you’re right.”
Alden was just turning his head back and forth. Eeaner didn’t see anything special about his behavior at all.
Do something better, please! he thought, magnifying the video so that he could see the Avowed more closely. Hurry it up, won’t you?
Then Alden lifted one of his hands and pointed toward a pile of dirt.
Eeaner blinked. “Is he wearing my rings?”
“They are not your rings anymore,” said Stu.
******
******
They were so far from where the mouse was supposed to be that Alden didn’t even have it in mind. He was sensing his surroundings with no expectations, just a wizard on a slow walk with a few others, practicing his awareness. There was a certain feeling to the crushing of the grass, a certain feeling when Tilliver prodded the ground ahead of them with his skill for some reason, a certain feeling to Seth adjusting Driftseed.
He didn’t have words for any of it, and he was rarely sure he was identifying what he noticed correctly. The sensitivity had begun to combine with his exhaustion to make this trip across the valley almost dreamlike.
New sensations jostled the web around him, all of them equally important and mysterious to a spider who’d barely been able to do this before. He paid special attention to one thing and then another, passing by many more he could have considered if he’d had infinite time.
A bug—a real one—that landed on the back of his hand got sensed for at least a full minute. The remaining magic on a hazard mimic Emban had shot drew his attention for even longer. Anything he or the knights with him interacted with directly seemed louder somehow.
His brain was trying to keep up and identify, and mostly it was failing. But this wasn’t an overwhelming experience. He could choose to not be in this strange mode if he wanted. He was enjoying it still.
And then, when they were closer to the other side of the valley than to the hill they’d left behind, his brain finally found something it knew how to label.
Mouse.
Alden didn’t even get excited about it at first. No more so than he had about the bug. It was just another existence out here being observed.
I know the mouse because I felt it earlier.
Hold on.
He turned his head toward it.
Yeah, that’s the mouse…the mouse! Oh no. Fuck, what am I doing? I’m not supposed to look toward magical things I can’t see with my eyeballs. Why am I turning my head in the first place? It’s not necessary. How long have I been doing that? Should I keep doing it so that I don’t look like something’s changed?
THE MOUSE!
His dreamy sensitivity exercise came to a crashing halt while he spent the next minute trying to not look flustered and figuring out what to do.
Okay, so, the mouse is cool, but it’s not so important that I can act any more suspicious than I already have about it.
He still hoped it was this field’s equivalent of the treat they’d missed out on. Or some really important clue that would help other knights when they delivered it at the end of the mission.
He turned his head from side to side while he thought, like he was being vigilant. He hoped that was what he’d been doing all along.
The mouse was up ahead. To their right. Not far, but too far for him to lead them off in that direction instead of going in a straight line.
Wow, Alden spontaneously turned toward the mouse he couldn’t shut up about earlier! How did that happen?
Yeah, no that doesn’t work.
When his eyes naturally landed in the mouse’s direction again, he looked for other reasons to turn aside.
There’s my dead goat. Under that pile of dirt. Mouse is over that way.
Divin and Tilliver were talking quietly behind him.
Can I be like, ‘Hey, guys. Wanna see the goat I killed? It’s different than all of Emban’s dead goats. My dead goat’s better.”
That’s stupid. At least it gives me an excuse to stare in that direction though.
He turned his head that way.
“My demon goat’s over there,” he said, pointing. “The one I killed myself.”
“Is it?” Bithe asked. “I see the dirt.”
Alden waited. Nobody showed signs of wanting to look at his hazard mimic corpse.
They were nearly abreast of it now. That was no good. They definitely couldn’t backtrack to go see it.
“Maybe it’s still twitching,” he said. “It twitched earlier, so I hit it again.”
“Did you see it twitch now?” Emban asked.
Can I lie?
“No,” said Alden, refusing to let himself sigh. “I just realized that was it. I’m watching it through my lenses. In case.”
That gave him an excuse to keep staring that way even after they’d passed.
Why can’t they feel the mouse if I can? They promised they’d keep all their eyes and senses alert, but they’re totally failing me here. Come on. I fed most of you. Do wizard stuff.
They didn’t oblige him.
Well, it’s just not going to happen, he thought, staring toward the pile. The goat’s legs were sticking out. Not twitching. I’ll count it as a personal victory since I noticed it and be happy with that much.
And then something small, but still very visible thanks to the night vision and magnification features of his lenses, scurried up onto the top of the dirt pile.
Alden stopped walking. “Mouse.”
It was cute. It had a tufted tail.
“What?” asked Bithe.
“Mouse!” said Alden. “That’s the mouse. I can—”
He spun and grabbed Bithe’s shoulders. “Don’t you want to entrust me with the mouse? I told you about it. Look, it’s making itself really obvious again, because maybe it’s an important mouse. Say I can catch it!”
“Where…if you want to, that’s fine, but—”
“Oh, I’ve found what he means. I think that actually could be something,” said Divin. “Tilliver, doesn’t it—?”
Alden missed the rest of what they said. He was bounding toward his prey, hands and kelsithe ready to make the grab.
It was almost ridiculously easy.
The mouse made an attempt to run away right as Alden landed from his final bound, but he just slammed a kelsithe shovel down in front of it to block its escape, then picked it up.
“Yes!” he said. “Come here, and tell me if it’s something! I bet it’s something!”
He was so thrilled it took him a fews second longer to process a fact about the mouse that he hadn’t been expecting. He’d already started running back toward the group. And they were hurrying toward him. They all looked properly interested now.
This…ha…okay…this cute little bastard is…
Alden looked down at his hand. The mouse did seem to be a device of some kind rather than a purely magical creation. Maybe even a modified toy. It had soft speckled fur.
“Alden!” Divin said, as they approached. “Don’t drop it! That could be the treat for this field.”
“Let us see it,” said Seth.
“You caught it so quickly!” said Bithe.
“Yeah, I hoped…” They were all surrounding him. “You should know this thing is heavy. To my skill.”
Heavier than it should have been. He’d just been sensing it, and on its own it hadn’t felt like it was as much as the bolts Emban had been firing off.
It felt like something minor, but it wouldn’t be heavy like this if it was a simple enchanted object.
“Turn it over,” said Emban. “Can we see its stomach?”
“Its stomach?”
He flipped it over. There were logograms on the mouse’s belly. That was neat, but he was more concerned with how he was going to tell them that the mouse might be connected to some kind of bigger magic. Without sounding like he knew too much.
“The treat for finding this is a growing pot made by Olorn-art’h!” Divin said after reading the logograms. “We’ll be able to trade that for anything. Maybe we shouldn’t trade that for anything though. We could use it ourselves. This is very good.”
“It’s very heavy,” said Alden. They were all grinning at each other and talking excitedly about the growing pot, which was a better treat than they had expected from their original quest. “I’m trying to explain. One time I picked up this bowl a student made in the lab at LeafSong, and it exhausted my skill very quickly because it was more than it seemed to be.”
Bithe finally heard him. “Your skill is being exhausted?”
“Not instantly, but I’m trying to let you know that this is…” Part of a greater whole. Possibly some kind of a trap. “…not something I can hold for long. I can tell. And I can hold something like the wegyta rings or the kelsithe for a long time. So what does that mean?”
They settled down enough to give each other looks.
“You don’t have to preserve it,” said Bithe. “It was thriving out here, from the looks of it. And we’re heading toward lighter chaos than this. It’s not going to die.”
“That’s right,” said Tilliver. “Just put it in your backpack. Maybe in another container.”
“The bottle that held the wevvi!” said Emban. “Put it in there.”
Alden nodded.
In almost no time, they were all looking at a mousey creature. Unpreserved. In a bottle.
It pressed its paws to the glass.
Maybe I was wrong about the trap.
“It’s adorable,” said Seth, taking the bottle from him to see it better. “Isn’t it?”
The adorable mouse whistled. Piercingly.
Alden took a step back.
Seth held the bottle away from her. “That’s so loud for such a tiny thing!”
The mouse whistled even louder.
A minute later, while they were chuckling about the racket it was making and tucking it into Alden’s pack, other whistles began to answer it from around the valley.
Hundreds of them.
Alden felt his stomach clench.
He could see his own dread mirrored on Divin’s face.
“Oh,” said Tilliver, wincing. “The treats in harder fields wouldn’t be so simple to pick up, would they?”
“I’m sorry,” said Alden.
“Why?” asked Emban. “It’s still a treat. And we have him.”
She flicked an eye toward Bithe, who was taking the bottle out of Alden’s backpack to give the mouse another look.
“So all the ones of your kind who have become demons still respond to your calls for help? That would be a tricky problem for some knights. But you’re not much bigger than a vatha.” He smiled. “I’m grateful you found this, Alden. I was sad you didn’t get to see my skill at its best earlier.”
******
Comments (397)
'When she’d come back to the squad after her first look at the valley and said she’d snipe all of the visible demons in it, nobody had argued that they should stick to sneaking or running instead. Alden liked to think his descriptions of blocking one and then smashing it to death with a load of dirt had helped give them a sense of the goats’ power level.' >:) 'But every demon got three shots, with the first two falling short and the third being lethal.' Hmm 'I think she might be defining herself as a being whose third shot delivers death. From this particular hillside, in this particular way. The farther her bolts travel through chaos, the bigger the chance should be of weirdness influencing them, but they’re completely steady.' :D 'His disappointment at missing out on it was small compared to the satisfaction he was getting out of being able to tell, with a high amount of confidence, that it wasn’t here.' :D 'Less expected was Emban’s repetitious magical performance giving him a way to gauge how well he was sensing.' :D 'And it wasn’t that he couldn’t feel anything farther away than that so much as it was a matter of comprehensibility. Emban’s shots were potent and he’d become familiar with them. In repeatedly trying to pay attention to something at that distance, he’d found his sensitivity to what was going on at nearer distances improving.' :) '“I’m not serious,” he said. “If Emban could fire me like an arrow toward the nearest bed, that would be perfection.”' Heheh 'but Alden didn’t get to float any because he was the guy in charge of picking their way down and the rope.' :) 'He was used to this travel style now. My Body Becomes My Assistant had done its part to take some of the load off.' :D 'He decided that ending the trip right meant maintaining as much of his sensitivity as he could until they were out of here.' :D 'There had been so many high points. Finding and saving Bithe. Meeting a new griveck. Getting to fire the wegyta rings. Winsterminating something with a kelsithe that he now owned.' :) 'Compared to all of that, keeping himself tuned into the spiderweb wasn’t going to be a flashy finale. Nobody other than him would even know he was doing it. But Alden was pleased.' :) 'My entruster is safe beside me. I’m just preserving a few supplies with my skill. It feels right to end the night trying to be a better wizard. Like all of me is involved even if my auriad isn’t out in the open.' :) 'When they reached the floor of the valley, he turned his night vision off briefly so that he could see things as they were. Sensing made the darkness feel less powerful, like it couldn’t hide as many dangers from him. The third Rapport is really gorgeous, he thought. Even the stupid hills.' :D 'Why was the wine served with dishes of pressure and delusion by the son of the Primary? And not the son of the Primary who was supposed to invite me to a Rapport one day. A son I don’t even want to know.' >:) 'Instead, there were signs of imminent…something. Explosion or collapse. Like steam from a potion that was supposed to have cooled off by now. Noise from the alcove that should have teleported the dangerous experiment away. ' >:) 'Esh-erdi and Lind-otta seemed kind. They were also so powerful they made the air feel dangerous to inhale.' :D 'So Eeaner had tried not to eavesdrop, but the bottom of the staircase wasn’t that far away. And Stu wasn’t whispering.' >:) 'Someone named Azeeda-und’h wanted Alden Thorn to go to classes to learn to be more mannerly and attentive to instructions. It sounded like Stu’s parents had agreed to that, and it sounded like Stu was going to do violence to the Septenary’s entire bloodline and his own if it occurred. ' >:) 'Now they were on the move again, and none of them were looking very impressive, but Alden Ryeh-b’t had been impressive earlier. Ryada had shown Eeaner what she considered the best parts of their quest tonight. Many of them had featured him.' :) 'He was probably more proper than we were that day, but I see why people might think he needs comportment training.' Heh '“I will never—” Eeaner jolted at the suddenness of Stu’s voice in his ear. “—take what you tell me about your future lightly.” “Ah…good,” said Eeaner. Stu sounded like he was swearing an oath.' >:) 'Don’t say that like that. I was speaking…a little…too lightly when we met and I told you I’d considered Rapport service. Maybe not by regular standards, but lighter than you’ve ever spoken in your life I think.' HAHAHA '“I will consider that offer with the seriousness I have promised you,” Stu said. “I thank you for making it.” Eeaner was afraid not to keep one eye on him.' xD 'But Eeaner caught that thought and looked closer at it.' >:D YES, EEANER! >:D 'His dearest friendship, as he’d put it, which wasn’t an insignificant way of putting it at all.' *nod* 'One of the easier things about Stu-art’h was that if you really wanted to know something he knew, direct questions usually resulted in direct answers.' :) '“I don’t know,” said Stu. “We usually drink a boiler full together at some point during his visits.” Multiple boilers full!' >:) '“My friendship with Alden is one of the most treasured relationships of my life. That’s why I didn’t tell you about it,” Stu said. Eeaner had endured too many stabs from Stu today to even wince at this one. ' ha 'His direct answers might be easy to get, but they’re rarely fun to possess.' :) '“Why would you make that comparison?” Eeaner was certain Stu would feel even more affronted if he knew how distressingly weird Bayab actually was about the ewtwee.' Ha 'Maybe he’d have made a mess of it without all these missteps by Stu’s family to serve as warnings. But he didn’t think he would have. Stu-art’h being friends with an Avowed was peculiar, but it caused no trouble to Eeaner.' :) 'Just don’t ever summon that Avowed, and don’t say anything disparaging about him, and if he happens to be around, treat him like I’d treat Stu. That’s not hard. The art’hs couldn’t handle this in the obvious way?' HAHA 'Thinking an Avowed wasn’t the perfect choice of friend for the Primary’s son was one thing. Thinking Stu would tolerate any amount of disrespect toward someone he liked was another.' >:) 'Eeaner said after he’d taken the time to consider a few more angles to make sure he wouldn’t be stabbed by Stu’s tongue yet again.' :) '“They would have thought of it that way for my sake if their minds weren’t distracted with trying to find new ways to make me behave like a votary.” What’s this? Eeaner wondered.' :D 'Such a proud smile.' :) 'Then Alden lifted one of his hands and pointed toward a pile of dirt. Eeaner blinked. “Is he wearing my rings?” “They are not your rings anymore,” said Stu.' >:D 'They were so far from where the mouse was supposed to be that Alden didn’t even have it in mind. He was sensing his surroundings with no expectations, just a wizard on a slow walk with a few others, practicing his awareness.' :) 'The sensitivity had begun to combine with his exhaustion to make this trip across the valley almost dreamlike.' :) 'New sensations jostled the web around him, all of them equally important and mysterious to a spider who’d barely been able to do this before. He paid special attention to one thing and then another, passing by many more he could have considered if he’d had infinite time.' :) 'Anything he or the knights with him interacted with directly seemed louder somehow.' :D 'But this wasn’t an overwhelming experience. He could choose to not be in this strange mode if he wanted. He was enjoying it still.' :) 'And then, when they were closer to the other side of the valley than to the hill they’d left behind, his brain finally found something it knew how to label. Mouse.' Yoooo 'Should I keep doing it so that I don’t look like something’s changed? THE MOUSE! ' xD 'Alden stopped walking. “Mouse.” It was cute. It had a tufted tail.' :D 'He spun and grabbed Bithe’s shoulders. “Don’t you want to entrust me with the mouse? I told you about it. Look, it’s making itself really obvious again, because maybe it’s an important mouse. Say I can catch it!”' eHAh 'Alden missed the rest of what they said. He was bounding toward his prey, hands and kelsithe ready to make the grab. It was almost ridiculously easy.' :D 'Alden looked down at his hand. The mouse did seem to be a device of some kind rather than a purely magical creation. Maybe even a modified toy. It had soft speckled fur.' :) '“Yeah, I hoped…” They were all surrounding him. “You should know this thing is heavy. To my skill.” Heavier than it should have been. He’d just been sensing it, and on its own it hadn’t felt like it was as much as the bolts Emban had been firing off. It felt like something minor, but it wouldn’t be heavy like this if it was a simple enchanted object.' Yooooo 'That was neat, but he was more concerned with how he was going to tell them that the mouse might be connected to some kind of bigger magic. Without sounding like he knew too much.' :D '“So all the ones of your kind who have become demons still respond to your calls for help? That would be a tricky problem for some knights. But you’re not much bigger than a vatha.” He smiled. “I’m grateful you found this, Alden. I was sad you didn’t get to see my skill at its best earlier.”' :D Thank you for the chapter >:D
This part right here "Thinking an Avowed wasn’t the perfect choice of friend for the Primary’s son was one thing. Thinking Stu would tolerate any amount of disrespect toward someone he liked was another." Like it's such a simple sentence but it truly dhows more understanding of Stu than like 90% of the people he interacts with, everyone from Earth who has interacted with him. And his Father, and this guy, and his Magical therapist... thats all I can think of.
...it was the druid like side of the MC? Since resistance to chaos seems like being a "proper" being a field of unbalanced ones. (I certainly could be wrong).
Joyous Approximate day to all the brothers, sisters, uncs, and aunties in the soup line. Join me in our vigil until the approximate hour
Happy Approximate Day! Your not in the most recent week, jfyi
12pm here, perfect time for some lunch soup...
I'm starting to think Sleyca fell asleep while composing a message to tell us they're sleepy and will update tomorrow.
I should make posts like this more often. The new chapter went up within minutes!
What an excellent opportunity to appreciate Patreon
Still approximate october 7!
As a young 'frequent flyer' for teleporting who owns a Traveler's bag and belongs to the Rabbit/Ryeh-b't class, is Alden more vatha-like than most? Wonder if Alden will feel a sudden pull towards Bithe when Bithe starts actively trying to attract all the small mammals in the area to come find home with him.
I do think Bithe is an unusually good entruster choice for Alden in multiple ways. Bithe clearly *trusts* Alden, and has previously trusted him with an urgent situation that involved Bithe's heart and his honor, and Alden came through with a miracle when Bithe didn't know what to do. For Bithe, *Alden* is a source of direction in desperate times, and warm support - a guiding light for the Vatha Lantern himself. Bithe in turn serves as an extra potent 'sun' for Alden's skill - Bithe can boost his own signal to lure potential enemies, and that same boosting of himself to attract may also make him easier to access via the magical connection Alden forges with his skill.
Refresh Patreon Hungry for ryeh-b’t soup My clicking thumb hurts
what if breakfast soup
Probability that "manyadeeth" occurs in the next chapter?
50/50
Ok, I have officially hit the 'check every three minutes if Sleyca has put a delay notice' point. Probably the most pointlessly time-wasting point of my week. :)
It’s 7am here. I woke up at 3 then at 5 then at 6 always checking 😅 no alarms tho just my brain hoping “‘maybe soup is ready “
Soup gonna be good
For whatever reason, this chapter made me think, did Boe feel Alden's first affixation, or did the contract hide it. What about the other mind readers? Other affixations?
Not first affixation because Alden didn’t have the ability to fully sense authority, and Boe was with Alden post affixation for less than a hour so maybe if he wasn’t summoned, eventually? But Alden gain the ability to sense his authority around chapter 45. But after Alden’s second fixation and a bit of recovery time Boe does feel Alden struggle with himself though they were with each other for a very short amount of time with Boe feeling those around him. But the next day Alden feels better so we might see that aspect return in the future. Regarding mind readers, what Alden and the other knights feel is more feeling than mental/logical so they don’t have much to touch on let alone interact with a knight, and mental intrusion is a big no no anyway.
I love how the squad nicknaming themselves the Vatha Squad implies they're all attracted to Bithe.
I think so far it's just the "we're considering making this our squad symbol," with Alden running with that and pretending it's a done deal. I don't think we've heard any squad referred to by a name yet, just by who is in it. (Read: any team Kon joins instantly becomes Team Konstantly Awesome, and even our vatha-themed squad is susceptible to this basic law of the universe.)
U'nda uncle sounds strong enough to bully votarys and young knights but apparently has no accomplishment other than who sired him. I hope Esh invites him to contemplate the virtues of a late night swim.
@TheLady, Zakathee is probably eavesdropping on Uncle-und'h. And that und'h has expressed low opinions of Esh before, and there is very likely history between them. From 'Bonus Points for the Straightforward', Ch 299: > “That’s correct,” Esh-erdi repeated, staring at the child he’d caught. “I’m their uncle. And I’m also a Knight of the Mother Planet, aren’t I?” > “Yes. And you’re Hn’tyon Lind-otta’s, so you must have more to you.” > “More than what?” Esh-erdi asked. “No, don’t answer that. I can guess who you borrowed those words from. Avowed Alden Thorn of Earth is someone I like. He’s been commended by the Quaternary, who’s a knight. He was trying to greet you, who are no knight at all. So whatever idea you have that makes you say knights don’t like him as you try to run away is improper.” > “But I heard…” > “Perhaps you heard something with half your thoughts asleep or an ear turned to a door crack,” Esh-erdi said, setting the child down. “I know all the knights in your house, and they would say hello to Alden. Not, ‘Your eyes aren’t interesting.’ And he recently saved your cousin’s life! He could ask your family for her weight in manyadeeth, but he hasn’t.”
I would still love some lrpg stats My take is Alden boab 10 overall affixed 11 3 unbound ( at least LVL 13 ) in less than a year He might ask for a rank up for his false id next The magic system has amount, quality, control, sensitivity and some resonance quality so 1(*)/1/1/0with Alden only low on amount, Kibby started being crippled low on control, average+ on quality, average+ on amount, sensitivity, resonance. Now after baptism in chaos and Alis training and shining - don't forget her instructor gently readying her for how her peers and ordinary class will react in envy and expectation ( reread chap 101 ? And add instructor votary selftalk like O no little nuclear bomb launched into the highest strata ) why ? The unclimbing beasts the sacrifice forest of the arths wizards and chaos the mass breeding of knights And little Kibby. So if an ordinary child was 1(*)/1/1/0, Kibby was 1(*)/0.25/1/0 And Alden is now 3(***)/5/5/+ And was LVL5 magic when rebound so 5(***)/3/5/+ Kibby now would be at least 5/1/1/0 as control can improve if amount can stack high enough for training and possibly more as her genius unfolds. When found she was 4/0.5/1/0 . But the next primary might well be 6+(*+)/2+/1+/0+ by now and on a 4 LVL/year growth binge by now. Probably making her like Stu. But, far more like a legend of old. Fell off the trees one day got chased away by demons months immersed in the chaos climbed back up as a wizard. Bonus points if a knight rescue and a princess of the arths are a romantic sideplot! Avowed servants and undhs! But still now with auriad at least a primary school graduate so at high school level already. Also adopted by the arths.
this story isn't a LRPG though, and strength is also based on vibes as much as numbers, Alden paused Klien for a moment despite a massive authority/level gap because he aligned with his skill, no math can help with that. and we have no idea if kibby was barely a wizard, or just not trained because ro-den didn't think it was worth it to class shift if she wasn't going to be a prodigy. tracking Aldens growth specifically though... thats trackable whether sleyca intended it or not lol. but theres not really enough info on him yet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ygo4kVuw6w-BjkBgZJ76hjXvkbe7YdCiUpKfrl3qy94/edit?gid=0#gid=0
As Lute said, words have meaning Today’s word is: approximate
"People die when they are killed."
Hopefully next chapter Alden will compliment Bithe on his "mouse moves".
Cue Bob Seger.
Since Bithe objected to the Va'tha, Emban's squad emblem should be a Demon Goat with the words DEMON GOAT in English around it, in some Heavy Metal Album font.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Heavy_metal_magaz_logo.png
next chapter predictions in haiku, or otherwise? displeasing und'h shouts need Esh etiquette lessons don't be mean-mean, sir
Drusi-otta shines Well-timed Zone of Silence forms Shout to yourself, und'h!
I'm just now realizing that Alden was basically meditating, and that might not be something Artonans can really do because of their multiple thought processes.
He was in the zone, like when he was catching and returning tennis balls with Morrison Walker.
Perhaps Stu has had confidence in his decision to be a knight. What he had to gain was the confidence to live his life without support from his family. He's starting to find out just how strong he really is. His family has yet to realize his current strength and real potential.
Okay, up next, Bithe, the Pied Piper, Anisidora style. Gather and Burn! ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Can we cue Through the Fire and the Flames?
Alden is acting very young since this started. I think it's mainly due to the thrill of everything, but maybe there's an element of language and authority (not Authority) gap.
Might also be related to his trying to be a good Bearer.
I woke up this morning with the amazing mental image of Esh-erdi methodically repeating the same etiquette lesson he gave to Zakithee-und'h to progressively more senior und'hs. There may or may not be more sophisticated vocabulary words involved.
I'm starting to wonder if the real reason Zeridee-un'h left her home Rapport to pursue work on Earth was that she was repeatedly told 'it wouldn't be proper' for a hn'tyon or a votary or even an ordinary wizard of the und'h family to closely associate with Avowed- so she went right for the escape hole of pursuing becoming an *ordinary member of the non-wizard class* so her associations would be proper. I don't think anyone in the und'h family would have thought to forbid ordinary class members of the family from making friends with Avowed and living among them because they wouldn't even think such a talented young wizard would ever want to put aside her wizardry on such grounds.
We know there's a prize trading session when the knights cash in their treats. I wonder if the squad will invite Alden? It doesn't seem *extremely* likely to happen, but it is possible. And it would be pretty neat to see what kind of things are handed out as prizes and how the knights value them.
Alden says quickly: "How about another study earring?"
Was it all just foreshadowing, or was it a promise when Esh said "I don’t plan on having you meet any (Und'hs) old enough for that to matter on this trip". The scope and expectations for the trip are completely different to when Esh said this, but it could also be why he didnt comment on the reasonableness of Stu when he found out what was being planned by the family. I look forward to finding out.
He had already decided that avoiding Adult Und'hs would be the reasonable thing
This is shaping up to be Snow pt2, where it is extremely obvious that Stu is going to affix shortly and somehow non-patreon readers will have no idea until it happen.
I disagree, I think it is leading to Alden sharing he is a wizard more first. Maybe a dozen others total?
Oh man I need this approximate day to come through for me this time. I had the absolute worst day today of down right no good lying liars and fluff brained egotistical so called arbitrators such that I am ready to shrill. Pray for me, soup lovers.
May reheated Soup soothe thee until new Soup revives thee!
I keep wondering what kinds of advice wizard parents give their wizard children before they go off to a top-ranked wizard university like LeafSong. Study hard, don't contract lightly, start amassing your powerbase now for becoming a Grand Senator someday?
Eeaner seems to act like the tattoo he shares with Worli Ro-den is his most prominent one, and not being able to remove it without losing access to his allowance for non-essentials is the greatest trial he currently faces. But Eeaner also seems to think more deeply and act more cautious, in some ways, than his predilection for dramatic shenanigans around Stu might imply. Don't take me *so* seriously, Sina Stu-art'h, that you whip out your contracting ink and demand we tattoo ourselves into a friendship of oath or votary-like servitude before I know what I want for myself or who I am outside of my mother's expectations.
Next chapter prediction: Victor POV: Evil kyat on the loose!
Yes, that is obviously what this entire arc has been building towards. How did I not see it before??
So far only Jel-nor and Bithe have reacted to Alden’s targeting. Alden also commented on how he didn’t think he was poking with it like other avowed’s targeting. I wonder what’s so special about it ? Bithe said it felt nice and that he didn’t feel alone. Jel nor smiled. Can’t wait to hear what Stu has to say about it later
Stu has also reacted to Alden's targeting! When Alden brought a fruit basket to share with Stu during the 'I See You' chapter, Stu reacted to Alden targeting him as if Alden had spoken aloud offering to hold the partially eaten pear with his skill. I suspect Stu's action to bolster Alden during the Here-to-There arc was partially inspired by Stu wanting to reciprocate how he felt receiving the connection forged by Alden actively choosing to support Stu.
So I had a random thought I can’t let go of. Do you remember that film Millennium where they save soon to be dead bodies in the present to repopulate the future? What if that’s what happened to Hanna! They can’t say anything about it because duh, but saying the was dead or missing would be a lie, so they just say nothing!!! And it was all “handled properly” If the Millennium theory has been posted before, I apologize. I am doing a reread and haven’t been reading all the comments. 💕💕 —Edit: I probably meant to comment on the RR chapter, and not the most recent one, but the one where he asks about Hanna 😭😭😭
Artonans do not have revival skill. If they did, there would not be only 40 thousand knights.
Is Emban Stu's Boe? I had been thinking of her as similar to Everly (latest scion of the royal 'cold-blooded' art'h family - sounds ice princess-themed to me!), but actually 'spite-fueled perfectionist who seeks out arts and crafts opportunities to mess with rich people' really sounds more like Boe, doesn't it. Both Emban and Boe have a tendency to get stuck in bad emotional grooves. Both have picked a charming, sensitive idealist as their preferred hero partner and they're both working hard to catch up to and support that person.
I think that would make her Ryada's Boe, but I like the comparison!
The worst thing about re-reads is all the author's notes saying things like 'and the patreon chapter will be up tonight'. It's like a dog that you make the mistake of saying 'walk' to. I know it's practically archeological history, but I can't help getting a little adrenaline spike.
Was re reading and was wondering if the timeline people could help me out Are both Stuart’s party and Lutes birthday this upcoming week in story?
Yes, currently sunday, Lute is Tuesday, Stu's party is "this artonan weekend" which is TBD a few days from now. https://terrestrialbiped.github.io/Super-Supportive-Timeline/patreon-latest.html
I wonder if the hazard mimics for this exercise were modeled on Earth creatures? The mimics have been immediately familiar to Alden (goat, mouse, eagle) and yet now the squad has seen all three and we still don't have Artonan words for them. Like there just aren't Artonan words for them. I think the mimics are a mix of different Earth animals. Birds of prey with eagle build, condor size, and goose behavior. Mice with jerboa aesthetic and bee behavior. Cow-size armadillos with deer behavior, maybe.
What got me thinking of this was the weirdly echoing goose honks in 312. In real life, you hear geese and it sounds like one goose going “honk honk honk honk honk,” but you get in the middle of them and you'll hear the honks coming from multiple directions. It's always two soundalike geese perfectly synced with each other, each making every other honk. Maybe that means they're mated pairs, or rivals, or sometimes there are more geese in a round, IDK. I'm not a gooseologist. It's a real thing, in any case. Perhaps that magical effect was designed to be an approximation of the real experience. Maybe all the magical effects are.
This isn't specifically related to this chapter, but I've been thinking about choosing seasons and the path of highest onus a lot lately as I've been going through life transitions myself. Choosing the path of highest onus *because* it's the path of highest onus feels like a path straight to burnout, especially if that path is irreversible. I think it works for Alden partly because he's Built Different but mostly because he's not actually seeking the path of highest onus but accidentally walking it through his own choices grounded in other values. I think it's easy to underestimate the danger that Stu and the newling knights are really in, because mental exhaustion and pain is easy to handwave in a work of fiction. They can try harder. They can be better. They can appear normal enough for long enough in text that readers forget what "existential agony" means. But if this world were real and there were viable alternatives to being constantly in pain, I'd personally need a more compelling reason than an unspecified threat from chaos and the self-belief of those seeking responsibility to advise anyone to become a knight.
I do think this is part of the purpose of the oaths ceremony that declared go through. By looking through memories and participating in group values they have a stronger basis for their choice. It would also allow knights to reject those who don't hold to the purposes that will sustain them.
Came to appreciate how Alden has an old alien skill and now, an old alien tool to use with his old alien skill
"Can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?"
I wonder whether talking with an Artonan is slightly offputting because their version of eye contact involves their left eye looking at your right eye and vice versa.
Where was that mentioned? I would say no either way. My third grade teacher was permanently cross eyed and it wasn't much once you got used to it (which did take longer with a third grades maturity level)
Eaner seems like a perceptive and sensitive person whose parents have pushed him into social climbing. He is naturally charismatic and socially aware, but is morally injured by social climbing for the sake of social climbing. The emptiness of that approach to life has lead him to nihilism and partying. He is attracted to the rapport, the idea of service to the rapports and to Stuart because of the lure of a life of meaning. He just doesn't quite know all this himself. His cynicism is beginning to lose to his altruism. Oh, and perhaps Eaner has been pushed into being not himself by his parents in a parallel way to Stu.
Have you considered he just likes Stu and wants to get to know him better? He doesn't seem all that interested in non Stu family members, Primary's son or not.
“It was cute. It had a tufted tail.” Is this the raintail? We know there were burrows in the field…
Nah, Alden looked up what a raintail was. If the mouse was a raintail he'd have called it that.
I'm having a bit of trouble parsing Alden's motivations during the last conversation/internal dialogue. Specifically, why he is trying to obliquely lead the Knights to the conclusion that the mouse may be connected to some bigger enchantment/entity. This is one of the few things he has verifiable experience with, and has heard an explanation of, as an avowed. So like, is he 1) overcompensating due to his need to hide his own wizardry, 2) unsure what is appropriate for him to suggest (especially regarding magic) in his role as an avowed, 3) absorbed in his mentality as "bearer of all burdens" which is changing his behaviour related to his burdens and/or entruster, or 4) something else? All the above, plus he's tired and hyped on adrenaline? Anyone feel like they have a clear read on this?
Just seems like 1) to me
This is quietly IMO an important line for Eeaner’s motivations: “And not the son of the Primary who was supposed to invite me to a Rapport one day. A son I don’t even want to know.” For those thinking he’s a bit too socially aware/manipulative, if he were too self serving/political, he’d be sucking up to Jozz as a son of the Primary. As it is, he likes our prickly Stu, and dislikes our prick-like Jozz, so he’s acting on his own feelings rather than being purely calculated.
He also told Stu to avoid mentioning him to any more interfering family members - not what someone would say if they just want to make connections with the Primary's family.
“Maybe I want to go with you and discover what enlivens and distracts Sina Stu-art’h. If it’s a person or an activity, I should include it at our party. There’s still time.” So Alden might really get invited
Ash, next coursing class: “You didn’t spend all weekend figuring out more about the most radical new development we’ve seen to Recall Weapon!? What could POSSIBLY be more important!?” Alden: “I made some new friends. We caught a mouse.”
“I got a kelsithe. I pissed off the son of the septenary. I carried a general like a stuffing. Killed some fake demons. Met a griveck.”
For Vatha Squad, this whole arc could be well-described as 'the importance of taking Alden Thorn seriously.' This latest twist will be manageable because Bithe is there - but Bithe is only there because Alden came to rescue him, expertly sniped the swooping hazard mimic with the wegyta rings, and used the special kelsithe Bithe got for him to haul back up to safety at the top of the hill to recover, physically and magically. Alden fed Bithe, towed him while he was floating via Driftseed, and continues to bolster him with his support even now.
It's ironic that in parallel Stu is finally finding the words to tell his parents that if they're going to persist in treating him lightly like a child, disrespecting the adult he's becoming, he's going to stop talking with them about anything serious or important to him. Maybe Stu will unbend and starting sharing some more of what he treasures with Eeaner-ket, now that Eeaner has affirmed *he* respects the importance Stu places on his friendship with Alden, and will be scrupulous about treating Alden as someone dear to Stu.
I’m excited to read Lexi’s reaction when he sees stupid globie knight-friender Alden’s not-a-meister-weapon Artonan Kelsithe multi-tool that Alden controls with his mind like a meister. With better control than he has over writher. Probably while being meister-floated by Ignacio.
Lexi, making a visible effort: "T- *typical*."
We know Alden asking Bithe for permission to go catch the mouse here has to do with getting his entruster to entrust that mouse to him, but I bet it looks like Alden is *very* obedient to the squad and to Bithe in particular now that they're reunited again. Will this shift the watching und'hs' assessment of whether he "needs" supplemental etiquette training? Would they think he's acting more 'proper' (for an Avowed) now?
I read it as Alden having already decided to preserve the mouse and running towards it, telling his entruster what he should be entrusted with - allowing no room for discussion on what Alden should do or whether the mouse is actually a trap and whether the team should prepare contingencies or leave it alone and focus on evacuating/energy conservation
So, we are finally back in Demon Goat Valley. And a long walk back, everyone was less tired and started calling the place Demon Goat Valley, in English. And they wanted to know what creatures the demon goats were based on. Because clearly not earth goats. And now we are here, they are not in a mood to think about it. And I'm sitting here thinking. Is the Mouse being called a mouse in Artonan or English? I hope that when they are back to safety we revisit the Demon Goat question. Such a light-hearted topic would be satisfying to see rounded off.
I also want to know who won the bet on what the demon goats were originally (besides mimics)
"a certain feeling when Tilliver prodded the ground ahead of them with his skill for some reason" - he has good reason, Alden! *You* may be very mouse-focused at the moment, but Vatha Squad has recent bitter experience with what potent dangers can lie hibernating undergreound to unexpectedly attack them. I bet Tilliver, the Inspired Sculptor, can reach out with his skill to assess potential enemies and what characteristics they have that he could use as target sources for inspiration. He's got his own version of Alden's radar for his chosen entruster, and Bithe's radar for enemies available to target with his skill.
His sculptures are also made from earth. He might be testing what kind of material he has to work with should something come up.
Have we discussed the fact that whatever the obligation a summoned Avowed has to follow summoner orders, that doesn’t apply to Alden in this situation. He is a volunteer. While Tilliver likes people to follow orders, Tilliver isn’t Alden’s entruster at the point Tilliver told Alden to stay put, and he isn’t Alden’s summoner. He isn’t even the squad leader. (Aka Uncle Und’h can suck it.) I liked Alden’s focus on entruster Bithe over a panicking Tilliver. I understand that most of the observers don’t know the situation and how Alden got involved. So maybe they are assuming Alden was summoned? But if two different military groups sync up by coincidence in the field, you may expect one group to follow the other’s orders if they agree to it. But not by default or for the reason that the other group / person outranks them - they aren’t in the same hierarchy. I don’t follow instructions from some VP in another company just because they outrank me. Otherwise, and I’m curious if this is true, it would mean that the Artonans expect Avowed to always obey them regardless of summoning or other way they came to interact. That would imply a formalized “Avowed are second class” that I don’t see in the story. There are a lot of Artonans that may think it, and may act like it, but I don’t think it is expected, right?
People have discussed that, mostly to claim Alden would/should suffer no consequences for ignoring Tilliver's orders. Nothing he could do, they say, could be failing to follow a legitimate order, because not a one of these people is his commanding officer right now. However, to follow on your analogy, Alden agreed to come to this exercise *acting* as their summoned Avowed. He stepped into the role of their summon deliberately, and then acted as he did. Can he be officially punished? Fined, imprisoned, what have you? *Probably* not, because the squad aren't *really* in his chain of command and he was never *actually* summoned. Can any or every knight here look at how he acted, draw conclusions about whether he is reliable, and respond accordingly? Yes, absolutely. Note that the und'h manners lessons are very officially *not* a rebuke; they are "an invitation to an opportunity". Likewise when the und'hs quietly blacklist Alden among themselves and their friends, that's not an official rebuke but *is* a perfectly valid (and in a certain light, reasonable) consequence to Alden's actions. It would probably even be possible for one of the Vatha Squad to put a black mark directly on Alden's profile - a "does not follow orders" demerit - if they actually wanted to, and were also willing to publicly go against Alis about it. They probably couldn't prevent other knights from summoning Alden, but they could tar his reputation to anyone that reads his profile. I just don't think it protects Alden in most of the ways that matter. A much better defense in my opinion is that *Alden was right*. The order was bad to start with (issued in panic with inadequate information by an inexperienced summoner), that circumstances changed (meeting the griveck), that attempts to update the squad and seek new orders failed (comms were down), and that the choices he made had good results (success washes away a multitude of sins).
Off topic, but have we gotten any hint of what the 'consorting with demons' in the first few chapters could be(Ch16)? Was rereading the beginning and I don't understand what could be considered a "true demon" and also be something all high-clasa Artonans engage with to some degree. The specification of "what 'some' may consider true demons" is strange, and the ex-wizard chaos demons have been said to retain some measure of intelligence yet I can't imagine them being something you can consort with, since they'd still be actively corrupting everything, no?
I still wonder if that was Gorgon being intentionally flippant with his translation choices. We learned from Kibby that there are at least a dozen technical terms in Artonan that all get translated to English as the single word "demon". She included, as the very worst category, "things that come from a broken dimension" (ch 49). Compare what Gorgon thought of his own world in ch 11, "Our home lies dead beyond the gates of space and time." That sounds awfully like a "broken dimension" to me, and oh look, Gorgon is publicly labeled a demon. So we know "demon" suffers translation issues, and suspect it applies to at least one entirely non-chaotic creature. I suspect another variant of the word also applies to Uniques. They are, after all, beings altered by chaos, even if they don't spread chaos and are now at lower risk of further alteration than the average person on the street. "Associating with demons" could be Gorgon-speak for "summoning Uniques". It seems unlikely Gorgon's supervisor would be in trouble because of a System-moderated summon of a U-class Avowed. But maybe her crime was something entirely different, and Gorgon was just using the translation ambiguity to badmouth the Artonans without technically lying.
Man, Postor is going to be kicking himself. "Hey, did you hear? This Level One team just earned themselves a Level Three prize!" "Interesting! What team was that?" "They call themselves Team Vatha." "D'oh!"
Perhaps that will give him a kick in the... Postorior.
The title gives me some small anxiety because it reminds me of that time I had mold growing in my attic
Being under Mother’s zone of control is actually basically plot armor for Alden Like as long as he puts in his full effort, which he will because that’s part of what Stu likes and therefore why Mother chose him in the first place, Mother will tweak everything behind the scenes to make sure things go well for him. So there’s no way this squad can fail, and no way Alden gets outed unless it’s good for him So, the mouse climbs on top of the goat
In a way it’s like Stu’s moms power, except actually real and without negative side effects outside the bubble
>>> Esh-erdi and Lind-otta had left soon after. They hadn’t seemed to be worried. But they hadn’t told Stu he was being unreasonable either. This is such a small moment in the chapter, but I like it a lot. Having a hard time articulating why. Maybe because it comes in contrast with how every family member seems to think Stu is unreasonable in everything he does and is. It leaves open the point that Stu might or might not be unreasonable in this instance, but EshLind are willing to meet Stu where he is and act on his behalf without demanding he change his expectations, and they are modeling this behavior for Eeaner -- that adults take Stu seriously. It reminds me of Ryada saying the mouse may be something or nothing, but they should take it seriously just because it matters to a squadmate. Stu's family is not in it together with him. They see him as a forever young child who must agree with them on all points, accept any correction, and consult them before making decisions; not part of the family squad, but a dependent of the squad, an eternal passenger/burden.
that’s really insightful. particularly the parallels between alden’s position in the squad and stu’s position in his family, I wouldn’t have caught that
Prediction: the Alden Stuart squad will be with Ryada and it will mirror the original squad of the primary +his 2 siblings. His dead brother also had Bearer, right? Stuart will mirror his father's instant death skill and ryada will mirror the 4th's AoE skill.
It's only a fan theory that the dead art'h sibling had Bearer, at this point.
I'm loving all the Stu development, and just remembered this scene from chapter 59 when Mother shows Alden Stu's memory of Sina dying. Noh-en is a votary, not a knight, but it feels significant that both she and Asay-tor were asked to leave that ceremony because of being visibly upset and Stu was not. In-world, I'm sure that would not be strong evidence that Stu could make it as a knight and Asay would not, but as a reader, it feels significant. Like Sleyca showing us that Stu is more able to handle terrible things than others think and sometimes even more than those same people who don't believe in him. “Noh-en,” he said, in a voice no louder than his students’ own, “you have been crying. Leave.” Alden glanced at the girl he’d spoken to. Her eyes were a little red. He wouldn’t even have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out. But No-en turned without a word of complaint and walked toward a line of tall trees in the distance. “Asay-tor,” said the instructor to a boy on the edge of the group, “you are clenching your fists. Leave.” “I’m sorry,” the boy murmured. “I—” “Your feelings of inadequacy are far less important than you imagine. Leave.” The boy paled and headed off after the girl with a stiff gait that suggested he really wished he could run.
Is nobody else concerned that the squad may have underestimated the mice? This is an area for more experienced teams. Maybe the mice friends are dangerous or their whistles may attract the big boulder monster?
Alden: There he is! Emban: Where? Alden: There! Emban: What? Behind the mouse? Alden: It *is* the mouse! Emban: You silly sod! Alden: What? Emban: You got us all worked up! Alden: Well, that's no ordinary mouse. Emban: Ohh. Alden: That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on! Tilliver: You tit! I soiled my armor I was so scared! Alden: Look, that mouse's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer! Seth: Get stuffed! Alden: He'll do you up a treat, mate. Seth: Oh, yeah? Tilliver: You manky Human git! Alden: I'm warning you! Tilliver: What's he do? Nibble your bum? Alden: He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones! Emban: Go on, Seth. Chop his head off! Seth: Right! Silly little bleeder. One mouse stew comin' right up!
Eeaner: What is he, some kind of What Grows Unseen VII?
I hope Victor get's a mousy souvenir. I wouldn't mind one either ^^
Lovely idea... Then Alden can wind it up magically to train his free authority.
Are there any competent young Artonians? They all seem undertrained, unreliable or emotionally unstable. This is probably due to the the ones we have seen being spoiled rich kids or maybe due to problems affixing. Its hard to see how they become powerhouses like Esh, Lind or even Roden.
Socially, they're all still underage (except, technically, the young knights). They won't have the right to act as full wizards for years. I don't think it's surprising that they seem a bit childish; they've never been given the opportunity to act unsupervised nor have they needed to clean up their own messes. They've neither power nor responsibility. ...Also, have you met young humans? Most of them are a mess in one way or another.
With all that is happening, maybe we will get to see Jozz deploy to the DGV and use his skill either with Alden or to Save Vatha squad.
I wonder what's so eekeekeek about Bayab and the ewtwee. And if Eeaner would find Alden and Stu dipping bread into ceremonial wevvi similarly eekeekeek. Poor Eeaner, he's just surrounded by roommates who have weird relationships with aliens. He just wanted to party and enjoy life in college. And maybe some ceremonial wevvi for this stressful experience. (No bread on the side thank you very much)
Ask risky questions, get horrifying answers. Here's a few fun possibilities I came up with! - The ewtwee is basically the maid who got stuck with raising Bayab. In contrast to his overbearing and/or neglectful parents, he is extremely fond of her. However, because of the skewed power dynamics between a servant and the young master, his emotional dependence on her is unhealthy and not based on a clear understanding of her as a person. He thinks she's an angel and will talk about it at length. He barely realizes that she has five other kids whose upbringing she has regretfully neglected to keep food on the table and/or pay for their education. - Bayab thinks she is physically attractive, and will say so to people he suspects will empathize with his monsterfucking tendencies. Like, say, Eeaner, after he enthused about people giving Alden gum at the Honors Society Gala. Bayab, sadly, is not bright enough to draw the line between "attracted to humans" and "attracted to quadrupedal, fox-like aliens with two prehensile tails". Learning about Bayab's porn collection is something Eeaner dearly wishes he could forget. - Bayab very nearly thinks of her as a literal object which his parents have taken away from him, and it shows in the language he uses. She's been tucking him in since he was knee-high, when it was cute for him to cuddle with her while he fell asleep. He would still be doing that if his parents hadn't pulled the plug. He has a lifesized ewtwee-shaped teddy bear that Stu hasn't seen because he stays out of his housemates' rooms. Bayab discussed the best spells for warming his stuffy to ewtwee body temperature with a horrified Eeaner.
I wonder why Eeaner said Alden was acting like he was smarter than all of them during the mishen incident?
They were on their way to get expelled from school, getting the first Avowed they summoned killed and be banned for life from summoning Avowed.
Beyond Stuart being apalled that Alden is pushed into etiquette lessons with an undh teacher, Esherdi himself has reason to disagree those etiquette lesson. For as long as we know Esherdi, he has told to Alden that disagreement has its place. Even when Alden's disobedience led to a worse outcome for Zeridee and him both, Esherdi said that Alden acted on his best intentions and it's not his fault it went awry. He did not say "Little Avowed, you should listen to your better and be an obedient Rabbit." Instead Esherdi told Alden to challenge any new Contract and told him to outright insult a wizard if they want a tattoo Alden dislikes ("If someone insists as shape I don't like is necessary, accuse them of having a weak imagination and ask if their poetry suffers from their inability to grasp metaphors beyond the obvious.") Basically, Esherdi does not think Alden owes any Artonans his unconditional obedience purely because they are his summoner. I think he'd expect Alden to make informed decisions and bow to authority when they are more experienced, have all the information and make good orders. In fact, I'd argue that Alden is acting like a good Avowed, acting in the interests of the summoner instead of blindly following orders that were given in haste without sufficient information. A guide dog for a blind person has the concept of intelligent disobedience and will refuse to lead a blind person into a road full of traffic or into a hole. Therefore the undh etiquette teacher would highly likely mess with Esherdi's lessons and contradict them, which Esherdi would find rather annoying.
That is a very good point insightfully made!
Im imagining the last two chapters from Esh’s POV, we know Esh can see fractures in things including people and their relationships. So we have Stu chillin a little upset with his family but a new life will join soon, so a small fracture for potential to mend with new growth. A message arrives from Stu’s parents, a wavering of the fracture unknown for the future. He arrives shortly after with Eeaner in hand with fracture widened noticeably, but not due to his parents but his brother. Then he comes back after meeting his parents and it is a chasm where once was a trench. Esh has to be aware what Alden means to him if he can FEEL the cracks forming and already formed if Eeaner can SEE it.
Oh man I totally forgot about that aspect of Esh-erdi’s skill!
EDIT SUGGESTION: "took him a fews second longer" change to "took him a few seconds longer"
The S is for luck
Oooooh, time for someone else to shine
Scary mouse has friends......they have CC skills????
Better, Bithe has the perfect swarm-killing AoE skill.
I wonder if there's something about how Emban builds her grooves that is akin to how Stu builds his bean spell - repeating it again and again until it is undeniable. Maybe she's laying down echoes and connecting them into a kind of stacked record that she can reuse herself or share with others to Repeat to Record like Kon would Recall to Record.
Iirc that was so the spell wouldn't take so much time or resources. I'm not sure which chapter, but it was a few chapters before the Ro-den encounter. Since Stu hasn't affixed yet he can only do the wizard version. One of the reasons a wizard becomes a knight is so they have that one spell they can do even though chaos makes it difficult->impossible for a wizard to do the same.
Divin as Recaller of Storms is going to want to group with Alden all the time because a) mud-bouncing trait and b) an endless supply of ponchos, so he can show his true human beauty. He’s perfect for her party.
Jozz appears to have sown the seeds of succeeding in part of his aims despite bungling his own first impression on Eeaner - but at what personal cost? Can't wait to find out who will be the first person to tell Rel-art'h about his younger brother Jozz's ham-handed intervention outright terrifying the youngster Jozz summoned on such short notice 'for' his youngest brother.
I was thinking that the parents, after seeing Stu walk out on them, might have fit when they find out what Jozz had done. Because even they at least tried to acknowledge that Alden will be Stu's lifelong friend - they know Alden is really important to Stu, they just couldn't manage to treat him as equal to them. But if they hear Jozz outright dismissed the friendship, even they would know that that was a huge faux pas
- A minute later, while they were chuckling about the racket it was making and tucking it into Alden’s pack, other whistles began to answer it from around the valley. - I suppose Alden is going to have to leave the pack unpreserved now, otherwise he'll exhaust his skill... but... he's using the pack to protect the other important items from chaos, right? I don't get it.
Maybe the mouse treat is connected to its fellows, and objects to being separated from the others by Alden's skill. If they grab all of the mice, maybe the load will be easier for him to bear.
Oh man, wait til Eeaner finds out about the bread!
The delicious wevvi-dipping bread? He's going to die on the spot.
RE: Gym, I'm developing the theory that it's actually way more intensity 99 than real Knight Newlings training. These are kids that the adults are trying to keep their spirits up so they don't get depressed, and they are going to spend years fighting like level 1 Pokemon on Goldbush. They need lessons in camping, wilderness, and basic equipment use like the environmental sensors that Ryada was checking. Meanwhile, gym is like, today we are going to teach you what the feeling of your own femur being crushed is like. Here, go try to kill this other child. A speedster is going to smash your head in like a pumpkin so you learn what it's like fighting a super powered terrorist. Basically, it's possible Newlings are training to tie knots and camp cook and shoot little demons a lot of the time. Avowed are immersed day one in the expectation that they are going to be fighting powerful, dangerous, human level intelligences.
Good argument, but of course that's the kind of stuff you need to learn to be effective in a chaos zone. And Avowed are probably less prepared for being attacked by 20 demon mice at once. That might change, though, if Esh-erdi gifts CNH a bunch of hazard mimics and tells them to add chaos-fighting courses to the curriculum, to help Alden out.
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I feel that Alden etiquette training May be offensive to Esh. He invited alden as guest, And now they want to send his guest to training?
To be fair, he, as a guest, already willingly chose to participate in training for fun.
From Eeaner’s and Ryada’s POV Stu tells them Alden found something, a couple second later he points to a pile of dirt, the knights look at it not seeing anything interesting same as Ryada and Eeaner but then a couple seconds later the mouse pops out. A coincidence it seems to the knights as Alden didn’t mention the mouse shortly before appearing. A premonition to Ryada and Eeaner because Stu warned them moments before it happened purely from Alden’s reaction. Ryada is surely wondering how Stu knew something would happen and why Alden would notice something before any of the knights. Any they don’t have the audio from Alden trying to distract from his actual focus so it’s much more point at the hidden mouse and it pops up, and it actually is magically special. Too many coincidences with Stu saying something as well.
They have audio, they heard the bithe krethkan comment. Also, we don't know if the transition happened at the same time. The description from Alden's perspective could have started a bit before Stu's comment.
Is a "growing pot" a pot for growing things, or is it a kinderwizard pot, still growing, about to embark on its journey to become the pot primary? We should ask Kibby.
The Pot Games - May the Pots be ever in your favour
Reminds me of Jeremy actually.
“They are not your rings anymore.” Stu is so funny! This made me laugh. Also, I am VERY excited to see Vatha Lantern out in full force.
I laughed so hard at Stu saying that the rings are no longer Eeaner's! Trust Sleyca to take a very heavy emotional point in the story (Stu distancing himself from his family) and managing to make it hilarious through this magnificent POV
This is such a brilliant POV choice. Esh, Lind, Ryada would all be too heavy. Stu would be impossible. Eeaner is the perfect blend of self centered and yet insightful.
There is a contrast between how the Vatha squad views Alden and how the spectators view him. He already, in auch a short time, made himself a proper member of the squad. They also are now treating him as such. That's Alden's real magic.
The real und'h pissing-off was the squadmate we made of our Avowed along the way.
A lot of kids feel like their family doesn't understand them, and it doesn't devalue their love. The issue with Stu's family is that they don't try to understand, and don't respect his thoughts and feelings.
How many real world autistic kids have had the moment where they realize their family members see them as 'a problem they are trying to mold into a real person'?
Oh hell yeah, oh fuck yeah, magic lamp time
Artonan Pied piper time
Alden and Stu will probably meet in the next chapter or the subsequent. Alden will immediately clock in on Stu cold rage
- The remaining magic on a hazard mimic Emban had shot drew his attention for even longer. Anything he or the knights with him interacted with directly seemed louder somehow. - I wonder what this means. Does their power/authority leave some sort of residue? It's interesting to think about.
I think it relates to the "attention issues" that Mother warned him Sympathy for Magic would give him. (Chapter 60 Mother, pt 3)
I wonder if the impact Alden felt on his kelsithe the first time went through this valley might have been an insect hazard mimic, similar to the one he studied using his spider senses on the back of his hand. - A bug—a real one—that landed on the back of his hand got sensed for at least a full minute. -
I reckon it was a demon mouse
“No. Emban’s convenience and bond with her squad was to be sheltered at Alden’s expense,” Stu said. I don’t understand how this line connects to this : “They would have thought of it that way if they’d been truly curious about Alden and his efforts,” Stu said. “They would have thought of it that way for my sake if their minds weren’t distracted with trying to find new ways to make me behave like a votary.” Does Stu want his parents to shelter the squad’s convenience at Alden’s expense ? I’m confused
He's describing the family's mentality, and what they told him they wanted to have happen.
- It took a while for them all to get up and moving. Seth continued to use Driftseed to help make the trip easier, but Alden didn’t get to float any because he was the guy in charge of picking their way down and the rope. - Still love the image of Alden towing the knights along like floaty balloons.
Hey, I seem to recall another floaty balloon that was used to excellent effect in a burdering scene. We won't tell Vatha Squad that it was made of candy, nor that it was shaped like a food animal. The K'rethkan Carry was indignity enough. Probably classifies as "years-funny". 😉
- Alden had imagined himself in the position of a spider, picking up information from a web. He’d felt the last shot Emban fired until it blurred into everything else at a point at least a quarter of the way across the valley. And it wasn’t that he couldn’t feel anything farther away than that so much as it was a matter of comprehensibility. Emban’s shots were potent and he’d become familiar with them. In repeatedly trying to pay attention to something at that distance, he’d found his sensitivity to what was going on at nearer distances improving. - I wonder if this training will help Alden do better with his skill at longer distances. I remember him having some issues preserving things at the end of a long rope.
This is particularly sensing, rather than actually bringing his authority to bear (pun not originally intended). Still, one can hope! Between this, and his actually being able to tell the real Olive from her illusions because of her "life" feeling, Alden's wizard-y senses sure are coming along, so it wouldn't be too surprising if he's able to figure out some other things that happen around him...
All Contracts provide the OG 300, so presumably there could be a Griveck out there looking quite proudly on the new cub using their pickling skill in the obviously designed way - murdering demon goats.
Must have missed the part where it was explained like that. My interpritation was that skills where the love childs of some wizards🤔
Given the trap, it's a good thing Alden made the choice to avoid the mouse the first time.
Why can't he say it's part of a greater whole? He learned about this prior to having an authority sense and it's a clear implication of his avowed skill feedback, it's not suspicious or incriminating unless he's just worried about knowing too much in general.
Well he did learn about that during one of Joe’s lessons… not sure it was proper discretion… so maybe that’s why Alden avoids mentioning that ? “The tree has a natural right to remain connected to the bowl, like an organically occurring contract between the two. Your skill preserved the bowl and its portion of the magic, but having one part of the ‘contract’ out of temporal synch with the other would have put the stability of the connection between the tree and its wood at risk eventually.” Chapter 28
Hm. Alden was described as "bounding" towards the mouse, which usually means he's using Azure Rabbit. Was he already holding something preserved, or is simply correctly accepting a task to preserve something enough to let him trigger it?
He's been holding his kelsithe and backpack+contents preserved this whole time.
TFTC!
“No. Who wants to sit when we can walk more? Or even better—run!” Alden rocked up onto his feet and stretched. Divin and a couple of the others gave him wounded looks. “I’m not serious,” he said. “If Emban could fire me like an arrow toward the nearest bed, that would be perfection.” Alden, in the process of teaching all the knight TV watchers that humans can joke around in painfully morbid ways. Maybe morbid isn't the right word, but he does like his sarcasm here.
I bet humans (plains based endurance runners/hunters) have better natural stats on endurance than artonans (tree based omnivores/scavengers(?))
Stu’s family dismissed his anger toward their attitude, they will now get cold, dispassionate resolve: “Demons run when a good man goes to war Night will fall and drown the sun When a good man goes to war Friendship dies and true love lies Night will fall and the dark will rise When a good man goes to war Demons run, but count the cost The battle's won, but the child is lost” made me think of this quote from The Doctor
"Wait, which doctor? Doctor what?" ... OK, it has to be said. "Doctor Who?"
I think Eaner's and Stu's random thoughts concerning Ryada are slightly weird. Noticing things about her or concerning her, that are more detailed than normal. Does it have anything to do with her being compatible with most people? Eaner managing to catch that one thought about Alden and have the capacity to analyze it in his situation is extraordinary. Bithe coming through with not just hearing Alden, but listening to him. Stu managing to listen to Alden, before Alden even said anything. Ryada listening to Stu saying heavy things about himself that are applicable to her own life. Stu telling Eaner 'I will take what you say about yourself seriously' before dropping 'how can they talk about loving me when they don't take me serious' is an invitation for shippers. I liked how Mother gave Alden the choice to run past the mouse. She could have just let the mouse emerge before he made his choice, but she waited. While her waiting could be seen in a more sinister light, I think this was actually a great kindness to Alden. Stu is great as always to drop information that needs to be heared. He could improve his timing though. Not everyone is ready to hear something important for them as soon as possible. There is a time and place. Just because for Stu that time seems to often be "now" and the place "here", he shouldn't assume that it is for others. I hope he'll be able to create these times and places for other people in the future. Edit: Oh yeah, how could I forget the growing pot as reward during the arc "What Grows Unseen". :D
I read the Ryada situation a bit like the way humans are weird around very attractive people: something just is just a bit wonky about everything they do.
"Thinking an Avowed wasn’t the perfect choice of friend for the Primary’s son was one thing. Thinking Stu would tolerate any amount of disrespect toward someone he liked was another." Damn, the random classmate Stu doesn't even really hang out with and who hardly knows him *still* knows him better than his own family thinks they do.
Stu's family: Why can't we get Stu to accept that there will be times he must treat his best friend like a social inferior?
The idea of non Chaos creatures still having control over corrupted ones is kinda scary. Like a chaos wolf pack still responding to howls.
I've been wondering for awhile now about what happens when corrupted Artonans are captured alive. I think the researchers talk to them.
Prior to actually landing in the field, many of us in the comments had thought Alden would be a mobile world-keeper for the treat. I don't think any of us considered (nor Alden when he first saw the Mouse and realized it was magically animated) that it would be magically-heavy/taxing to preserve. Nor that the ground under it being riddled with burrows might mean there were others of them, and that they might object to one being taken from their post. In retrospect, we had the clues.
“If they knew me,” said Stu, “and believed me…if my parents and my brother haven’t been able to believe me, after all this time, then when they say they love me, who are they even talking about?” Holy shit this is such a raw line. Sleyca continues to impress with their writing. Man I feel so bad for Stew. Also Eeaner is being really relatable here tbh.
Stu’s situation with his parents cant help but remind me of Lute’s mom. She might say she loves her son, but without understanding who he is as a person she really just loves the idea of her son that exists in her own head. A broken ‘I love you’ growing ever more cracked and distorted as it’s repeated again and again.
This Is Just To Say I have found the treat that is in the valley and which you were probably saving for Jozz Forgive me it was wonderful so great and heavy (with apologies to William Carlos Williams)
Love, love, love this!
Mother crashing their transport and preventing them from telling Alden what he needed to do to release his chair in a timely manner seems both hostile and overly contrived for her. Also completely unfair. I'm voting chance, too.
I choose to believe that all Mother has done to meddle was encourage Alden to greet Stu that first time at the siblinghold. All the rest of the fallout from that has been observed with something like glee.
🧐 me wondering at the number of arrows Emban carries that she can miss two for every kill she makes….
She uses magic arrows. Alden mentioned a few chapters ago that she had a bow but he didn’t see any arrows
It’s interesting to note that Alden *did* notice that the mouse was trapped there at the end! He just didn’t understand how to tell people that. I didn’t catch that in first read, but Alden’s doing so well!
It wasn't trapped when he caught it, it had scurried to the top of the demon goat dirt pile.
"He’d already started running back toward the group. And they were hurrying toward him." how does this make sense logistically if they were all tied to alden via rope for driftseed? they would have been pulled along when he ran to the mouse, no?
Must have untied once the terrain improves? Or after getting confirmation from Bithe on entrusting it?
A throughline in Soup: Boe's insight that suspicions stack over time. Alden has thought about it, and has tried to keep things in the 'plausible deniability' zone. Yet he keeps doing weird stuff. Alden does something unusual? Well, it's a skill that's new to us. NBD, really. Alden does something unusual (again). How odd. There's certainly a rational explanation for this. Alden does something unusual (again ×2). Very odd. What's going on with this Avowed is interesting, but not important. Alden does something unusual (again ×N). What's up with this, anyway?!?!?!
Lexi's response is the best: "Typical."
I just made a connection in retrospect. I might know why Emban’s line about “our week for visitors” was a problem. Back when Alden sort of snuck into the siblinghold, Stu made a distinction between guests and visitors. Guests were invited as friends of a knight or declared. There were rituals for congratulating the inviter and for introducing the guest to the family. They would be part of the community going forward. Visitors were there on business. They were hired or summoned, and just passing through. Visitors got tattooed to secrecy; guests didn’t. Now, calling Alden a visitor is a little bit shitty of Emban. Calling Divin a visitor, though, was mega shitty. No one would consider that cool, treating a fellow knight like they’re disposable and untrusted. No wonder Seth and Tilliver flipped out on her.
This is from an earlier chapter when they are arguing on the boat?
I did mentally play Owl City - Fireflies at the end, there, while imagining the Tony Stark T-posing as the world explodes behind him... Bithe's skill is a weird combination of cute and terrifying.
Truly the embodiment of both Fairy and Flarey.
Y’know, I think the Primary, Alis, and Stu really overly colored our perception of the A’rths. The Artonans are already so, well, *alien* in some ways that it’s occasionally difficult to catch what’s outside of their norms and what’s just wizard weirdness. What I’m saying here is: a good number of the A’rths are kinda dickheads and seem to be leaning hard into the “I’m a shitty blue-blood and inherently better than all the rabble” thing. The other Families are seeming more and more justified in not particularly liking them, even before the possible “scary magic warlords Oop North” thing they might have as a backstory
I don't get the sense that they are widely disliked, tbh. I also don't get the sense that how they treat Stu is a normal thing for them. The fact they would never treat anyone else that way is part of why it hurts Stu so much. It's understandable why Stu's friends in particular (Alden and now Eeaner) who both witnessed and were target to such machinations against him would have feelings about it.
Yay, Bithe's time to shine!
Hn'tyon Esh-erdi's skill may multiply cracks, but his passion is being the most uncle to ever uncle. Hn'tyon Azeeda-und'h grumpy uncle und'h, son of the Septenary, is about to be utterly outclassed.
I love that so much of Esh's behavior around Alden can be understood as him trying out his toolkit of uncle skills that he's cultivated for his nieces to figure out what might work for Alden. That whole silly prank where he and Lind had themselves and their crunch teleported into the Matadero summoning area so Esh could zoom forward while his cup fell veeeeeeeeeeery slowly behind him so he could offer to risk his life for Alden's problem of universal concern- I can totally imagine his nieces giggling at being taken so very seriously if Esh and Lind did that for them! (Alden was overwhelmed and initially scared by it, but Lind helped set his mind at ease.)
I want someone to hire me to be a corner poet. Place me in the Rapports to rhapsodize poetically!
Good way for a Rabbit to get tatted, I'd think.
Eeaner being *deeply* judgy about Jozz's poor behavior is giving me life. "Why was the wine served with dishes of pressure and delusion"? A son of the Primary Eeaner "doesn't even want to know" - a diss so potent it takes a moment for the full sting to land. Having met Jozz, Eeaner wishes they were never acquainted.
I wonder if this will be *Divin's* first time seeing Bithe properly break loose too. I wonder what she's been looking for in a hoped for one.
Are we fully shipping yet?👀
One thing I'm starting to notice is that Stu's way of thinking and acting is not representative of his race and culture. I though Artonans in general were always serious and cerimoneous with things, but seeing Eeaner's pov made me realize that Stu is unique even for other Artonans
I think Eeaner is more unusual himself than he typically lets on - he's showing himself to be both open-minded and tolerant of even extreme differences in others with a very 'live and let live' attitude. He is curious and adventurous, sensitive and discrete. He keeps trying for friendship with Stu despite Stu's devotion to embodying prickliness. He wants to help, and the most he seems to be angling for in return right now is to get to try some real wevvi with Stu, especially after Stu made it clear that he started seriously weaving friendship with Alden after they shared real wevvi together at the siblinghold.
It occurs to me that Bithe is almost the perfect counter for the situation on Moon Thegund. He'd draw in demon grasshoppers and healthy ones alike almost instantly, killing the swarm before chaos could spread through them like a wildfire. His skill would make a firebreak in chaos' path, a place where there was no material it could feed on to spread. I wonder if Alden will see it, and how it will make him feel.
I was just wondering if Alden's (k)nightly training dreams might shift to include Bithe for one of the runs!
Looks like the training is just about up. Then Alden returns to Anesidora... where he also has to hide his abilities. For the most part, MPE doesn't seem like better magic perception would be important, but in Coursing there might be times where it could help the team out, but Alden can't explain how he knows stuff.
You know, not to Ash, but I think Konstantly Awesome wouldn't question anything Alden does or says now.
Eeaner may be the most likely person in the story so far to guess that Alden is a wizard (knight). Stu came back and asked for the rings - that was important to Stu so much so that Stu agreed to a party. That means it's important to Stu. Stu then gave the rings to an Avowed. That's such a strange present, even for Stu. There are way more great things he could have given if he wanted a good present. The rings that protect hands. Why does an Avowed need hand protection in particular? Eeaner has noticed Alden is so much more capable and powerful than before. He's not YET made the leap about such growth being abnormally quick, but that is such a small step to take from where he is. That growth is something that happens to knights not avowed. Alden's noticed something, when ther was nothing to notice. Stu called it out before Alden "noticed" the mouse, and it was unusual. Alden then saw the mouse. Eeaner was watching closely at that - and saw the rings on Alden's hands. Eeaner is intelligent and creative and young, that's more likely to make him think about avowed->knight than older, more rigid thinking people IMO. He's in a knight environment of the rapports and Stu has hinted about the binding, so such things may be more to the forefront of his mind. I'm sure Alden will now be invited to the party that Eeaner is throwing for Stu as Alden's been called out as Stu's closest friend in the conversation. If Eeaner is even slightly suspicious this would be an excellent time to test his (wild) theory. The Artonan's must have testing devices or some such similar spells to look for wizardry in people. A spell that reveals peoples strength or notes or stuff like that.
Eeaner and Ryada both have enough clues, and the subject of affixing came up. I found it really interesting that Eeaner echoed Esh's, "You change very quickly". There's going to be a lot of "Oh, of course" realization when Alden is outed.
unlikely hypothetical: everyone who notices Alden noticing the mouse before he could see it comes to the assumption that Grivek Ryeh-b'ts have been impressing the prey sense into the class itself because only the strongest of them get that class. So Alden now has the same kind of prey sense, which is kind of how he reacted here...
Damn, Vatha squad was veeeery lucky this time. - Alden saved Bithe despite orders, - Alden insisted on equipment they would not have taken otherwise, - Alden triggered a trap that they just so happened to have the perfect person to handle. All of these are very lucky, and things that they should learn from going forward.
I wonder if Alden's 'spider web state' is a first example of Alden being good at magic similar to his skill. Because the way he describes it sounds very similar to me to the way his targeting has been described in the past. Just opening up to interaction, basically. Especially since finding the mouse after it had been entrusted to him was incredibly easy this time, and Alden pretty much describing it as basically what he was doing both before the entrustment, except MUCH easier this time, and with his earlier soup-finding experiment.
Alden might be easily able to enter a state close to magic. He is susceptible to paintings and magic labyrinths, and he can spend hours pondering on food bowls - I think it's all related.
Great chapter, thank you! Pacing is good, and looking forward to seeing how the more perceptive folks react to Alden noticing the mouse. Also woot woot for what feels like exponential improvement at authority sensing
Had to pause reading just to type this. Ahem. GAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAH “Is he wearing my rings?” “They aren’t your rings anymore.” HAHAHAHAHAH
I have been waiting for this! :D
I'm so curious to know if the connection Alden's magic has formed between himself and Bithe goes two ways: Will Bithe be able to do more here with Alden and Alden's magic backing him? Show us who you are, Vatha Lantern. Make the coming swarm burn like stars in the darkness.
Interesting theory. It would fit with Alden's entire hero support philosophy—two partners becoming greater than the sum of their parts—if it went both ways.
It's definitely funny that Alden has probably had more ceremonial wevvi than 99% (or more) of Artonans at this point. Frankly with all of their technology and magic you'd think they'd be able to make artificial wevvi that tastes closer to the real thing. It's possible there's active intent behind how dreadful the artificial stuff is, given the social stratification they have going on.
It could be one of those things where lots of people are raised on the fake stuff and consider it a comfort food, and it's only those absurdly privileged people that were raised on the real stuff that come to dislike the fake. Like, I dunno, hot cocoa. The Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets that can be bought in bulk at, like, ten bucks for twenty are legitimately tasty to the average human. Who doesn't have good associations with hot chocolate served on a cold winter's day? Maybe as a kid you realized they were even *better* when made with milk instead of water and got snooty over that. ...Meanwhile anyone who grew up being served hot cocoa made with cocoa powder and real vanilla on a hot stove would think that stuff was weak, tepid, and an offense to the name of cocoa. Alden never liked thick wevvi, but Alden isn't the target audience. Artonans are, and they seem to generally agree that the stuff is great.
Eeaner is so well-practiced at believing Stu. He *knows* Stu is going to affix, and he offers to make the aftermath easier on the LeafSong side of things - that is no small thing, and a promising start for more someday. Stu should definitely make a boiler-full of his silken thin cup of real wevvi to share with Eeaner to seal the deal- just a a little cup, Stu, some sign that Eeaner gets to be special in your regard too. Eeaner, like Alden, is a lot more sensitive than he lets on.
Dang, I think Stu just outburdered Alden with that comment about his parents
Favorite part of the chapter is how EshLind hear about the plot against Alden and just fade into the shadows like anime villains. It's like when you haven't heard noise from a toddler in five minutes. Call FEMA. You may not know what disaster will greet you when you round the corner, but you know it will require more than your own resources to remedy.
I think they would have to be very careful (socially and politically) around the primaries family. I feel like Esh would definitely go seek them out to correct the situation but in the usual Esh fashion he would turn the tables on them somehow. He would probably take blame for building Alden's self worth up so high that he could act with reason and strength to save newish knights. And arent we all proud that he saved the mission and brought together a team that was falling apart? We should actually send Alden a gift! To thank him! Im not sure how he would handle the scary Uncle/son of the 8th. That man seems so full of prejudice.
“when they say they love me, who are they even talking about?” I feel like I was punched in the gut
That was rough, and showed how deeply Stu is feeling this. Something was lost, indeed.
translation of what the mouse is whistling: yummythingy has been caughty-caught! (182)
🤣🤣🤣 I’d love that
I wonder if Mother is prodding the mouse's actions to help Alden out? It was hiding and out of vision, then just hopped up on top of the dead goat right as Alden was giving up on it, giving him an excuse to go catch it? Very suspicious. It wouldn't surprise me if Mother was slightly tweaking things during the exercise to help Alden help Vatha squad. Giving them opportunities for growth is very important but she probably also thinks having them come together as a squad and appreciate Alden is a worthy goal.
I thought so too!!! I think it’s very likely. A more paranoid thought I had chapters ago, was that She made the rings disappear from the storage so that Stu goes to Eaner and receive the hint about Roden (it sounds more likely when you realize it happened exactly when Eaner and Bayab were in agony over Roden coming back so the subject had more chances to come up ) or I’m just paranoid
For some reason, I thought that Stu's strained relationships would already be old news to his peers and other important Artonans, but Eeaner's reaction proved that wrong. I guess privacy of the house is a pretty serious thing, and it's not like Stuart is out there confiding in everyone like he does with Alden about the pressures his family is putting him under. Love that Alden is continuing to MVP. I hope that Esh and Lind step in if that pushy und'h does anything. I do feel a little bad for Azeeda, though, she was trying to fix a situation with access to subpar information.
It makes sense to me. If you want to escape a nasty nickname, you don't tell new acquaintances about it. Instead you show up in a totally new crowd and take the opportunity to impress your preferred name on them. Likewise, if you're trying to escape your family specifically because they treat you like an idiot baby, you don't go complain to new people that your family treats you like an idiot baby; instead you luxuriate in every opportunity to show yourself in a different light.
Alden stopped walking. “Mouse.” It was cute. It had a tufted tail. “What?” asked Bithe. “Mouse!” said Alden. “That’s the mouse. I can—” He spun and grabbed Bithe’s shoulders. “Don’t you want to entrust me with the mouse? I told you about it. Look, it’s making itself really obvious again, because maybe it’s an important mouse. Say I can catch it!” “Where…if you want to, that’s fine, but—” This part gave such Golden Retriever vibes, but I wonder if to the Artonans if gives off Grivek vibes.
Alden in general has been really obsessive about the mouse. Look at how he thinks about it, how he talks about it. It's THE MOUSE. I'm not sure if this is some kind of magical effect or just pride + exhaustion.
Alden already preserved the wand that was broken before Kon fixed it. They should already know his skill preserves magic and the metaphysical. I don't think they would find it weird his skill can get impacted by how strong the magic he preserves is.
Yeah. He also has sympathy for magic from the contract. Alden is really overthinking this. Totally understandable in context! It's a weird situation full of unknown ways to accidentally reveal himself. This is one of the places where you can tell that he's still a teenager after all.
Birthday soup!!!! Thank you for the birthday soup!!!!
Happy birthday! Hope you have an awesome one.
“My friendship with Alden is one of the most treasured relationships of my life. That’s why I didn’t tell you about it,” Stu said. Eeaner had endured too many stabs from Stu today to even wince at this one His direct answers might be easy to get, but they’re rarely fun to possess. I wonder why this comment hurt. Does Eeaner want to be the closest friend, and an alien who he sees like less than got closer to Stu. Ordoes he have a crush on Stu? Or is it just the weirdness of having such an important relationship with an alien?
I think it hurt him because Stu didn’t tell him about it. And the reason is because it’s too dear to him. It’s like saying “it’s important to me that’s why I didn’t tell you”
Stu smiling when someone calls Alden his friend. I remember when he used to count how many times Alden called him a friend.
Oh my fucking god this is so good. Alden and Stu's friendship! Stu is just bursting proud right now. Eaener finally being someone other that esh and lind who sees the Stu situation clearly! VATHA LANTERN!
Damn - that didn't take long! - Ryada really is super attractive to everyone: "Since sitting down, he had said nothing mean to Eeaner and done nothing wrong either…if Eeaner didn’t count him taking the spot in the middle beside Ryada-bess as a wrong."
I loved this part! Eeaner and Ryada so comfortable under the blanket and then Stu comes back to join them BUT instead of sitting next to Eeaner or Ryada he squeezes himself in between both of them!
Alden and Stuart are failing SO hard at being inconspicious. Let me provide them both with plausible excuses: 1. Alden has heard some high pitched sound with his human enhanced years that no one else could hear. 2. Stuart has given Alden some magic detecting tool that Alden used. The reason why Stuart purples and avoids the question how Alden could sense it, is because Stuart gave Alden something from the arth library that he shouldn't have. Easy explanation. Now stop being suspicious, Quiet Rabbit! I will not have an excuse for you every single time.
Alden already got plausible deniability, he was looking at his kill. A B rank Rabbit being proud of their kill on a knight battlefield is eminently reasonable. The Griveck would certainly agree, they intentionally left the demon goats there for Alden to fight!
When Eeaner-ket thinks of Stu's binding as "the unspeakable thing" I think he's being literal. It's the thing he's not allowed to speak about.
Maybe? We've seen that some number of Artonans view the knight binding as a mutilation of the self. Because it literally is, but it's impolite to talk about it that way because they're doing it to defend the people.
As expected, soup that was allowed to simmer longer tastes better. Such an excellent chapter! Thank you, Sleyca!
„‚…then when they say they love me, who are they even talking about?‘“ „I press my soft belly to once-familiar stones, asking, ‚Why do these not fit me?‘“ Stu‘s old skin has been shed, a future knight standing in the place of a child who would have been a votary. He has grown unseen since Sina’s death. His family tries to make the torn skin fit him, because they loved the child and did not see the growth.
Ive got a friend that eaner reminds me a lot of. Super socially aware and always making sure his friends are having a good time while being completely “not my business” about everything else. My friend also is willing to pin someone to a locker for calling a pal of ours “tripod” when they were on crutches and wearing a cast. Im wondering if we get to see the “cruel” side everyone is worrying about come out as more a “defense of the tribe” mechanism than some kind of shadowy sabotage. Im hoping for it.
Seeing some of the other comments, trying to imagine how much of a complete disaster Alden not showing up would’ve been for the squad. To my reading of events, Alden essentially forced the squad to be civil with each other after a failed mission. Insisted on proper equipment for himself and by extension the squad. Also resulting in the official team name lol. Then rescued them when things went wrong. Even identifying the nearby treat and dangers. So without Alden team vatha might have been squabbling the whole day, likely still would’ve tried to fly over the demon zone on their way. Then getting shot down. Falling into the kill box that was that hill. Bithe at minimum “dies”and everyone else is stranded with the demon geese. Likely followed by a continued cascade of bad emotions from everyone being pissed off after Ryada and back to back failed missions. Alden Might have legitimately uno reversed the entire vatha squad trajectory
All because he happened to see Vatha boat going down the river. Absolutely 10/10
Wonderful! And yay friendship can be hard when you don't instantly click
Found a little typo >>> He was so thrilled it took him a fews second longer He was so thrilled it took him a FEW secondS longer
> hoping Stu’s human friend was about to doing something so extraordinary about to do something
The Bromoliad in Alden's apartment could use a new pot. Maybe they * will* have to take over the apartment above and knock through, both for the stylish high ceilings for Huntski lodge AND the growth space.
Thanks as always for the treat! Hopefully wont have fight any mouse demons for the next one
I do find it somewhat ironic and kinda wholesome that as weird as Alden found Stu initially (and Stuart found Alden) is being essentially recreated by Eaner viewing them lol
Who won the bet tho? The Knights betting which animal the demon goats really were
Which bet?
"eaner was certain Stu would feel even more affronted if he knew how distressingly weird Bayab actually was about the ewtwee." This small space in the Universe is reserved for speculation about the EekEekEek things Bayab does/says regarding his Ewtwee Avowed. Example: Bayab refuses to use toothbrush gum unless the piece is individually blessed by his Ewtwee, who for convenience I will henceforth refer to as "Eektree"
Bayab demands Eektree keep a small bowl of Artonan sweets much like Skittles filled in the private area of their dwelling house for him to enjoy whenever he finishes school. Because of a past incident causing lasting enmity, the green ones must be removed and destroyed in a ritualistic furnace carried by Eektree for this purpose.
>>> so powerful they made the air feel dangerous to inhale Love this description!
The vibes Alden felt from them in the Matadero TC?
So I'm pretty sure that Ryada - being the perceptive persion she is - has enough information now to put 1 + 1 together. Alden noticed something which Stu noticed, he stalled then pointed out the goat corpse, and was immediately super excited about the mouse. It's going to be super suspicious if she rewinds. I sense a charming wizardly greeting in the near future, with all the complications that will entail.
Naw. This one’s easy. Alden claims to have heard some soft but suspicious sound. He started turning his head side to side, listening for more sounds, to try to locate the source. After looking back and forth, he spots it with his eyes and rushes over. Since we already know that none of Vatha Squad has significantly enhanced hearing, no one could have a serious problem with this explanation.
I mean this the most respectfully, Stu you are so autistic. And Eeaner is not! and it's making me realize the specific way they're different and it's so cool! I loved getting Eeaner's pov this chapter! Especially getting to see Stu and the art'hs from his perspective. I'm also really hoping this is setting up for Alden at the party! 🥳 🎉
eeanor is getting the rhythm of it. and he can tell that to stu a lot of important shit is happening all at once. eeanor spent this chapter watching and listening. Stu has been our main narrotor for what eeanor is like and has made him out to be light hearted oblivious and with a tendancy to force his opinions/recreations on others. what we are seeing is that eeanor is actaully capable of listening and watching when given the chance. and he definitely was trying to help stu lighten up before but just going about it wrong.
I can see another VIV on the horizon.
It was probably a once off though, forever remembered in our book club lore
How can they look into my eyes And still they don't believe me? How can they hear me say those words And still they don't believe me? And if they don't believe me now Will they ever believe me? - The boy with the thorn in his side (the smiths ) I mentioned this song 10 chapters ago and how it fits Stu and Alden THORN
New name for the song: The boy with a Thorn at his side ;-)
Damn, Eeaner-ket really just nailed it in one shot, didn’t he. Two hundred odd chapters of stu’s family being stupid, and his roommate who he doesn’t even particularly like or understand gets it literally the first time he hears about it.
Facts!
This quietly might be one of the only times Stu’s had someone calmly accept he will affix and plan around his success: “The only future plans for Rapport service I have at the moment are plans to help you keep up with your schoolwork. Won’t you need someone on campus to do a few things for you? After…” After he did the unspeakable thing to himself. “I could be that person,” said Eeaner. “Since we don’t have any votary students at LeafSong.” Points to Eeaner, up there with Ryada offering to go with him to the trees.
I assume his classmates will know his plans, but don't know his special history enough for them to consider it a high risk for Stu specifically.
So awesome! I’m so excited to see this play out!
Emban's personal growth is so subtly introduced here. She who used to paint hundreds of cards while deepening the grove of social awkwardness just a few weeks ago. The same person is now limiting herself to three shots - no more violence than strictly necessary for the instakill.
Ironically, improving her odds of getting closer to Ryada.
Thank you for the chapter. Stu asking who his family loves when they refuse to know him is truly heartbreaking.💔 I hope Eeaner can get over all the weirdness of the situation and truly be a better friend to Stu and I’m glad to see that Stu doesn’t define rapport service as just knight or votary but also services that won’t require vows like scientists or politicians. Essentially Stu is actually making sure not to close the door on any future Eeaner might want which is sweet.
At a time Stu is mourning that his family members are willfully looking away from and refusing to see the person he is forging himself into being, Stu goes out of his way to promise to recognize and respect the full range of possibilities open to Eeaner that might still make him an ally on Stu's chosen path.
Have we gotten offical number ranking for esh and lind? I dont think we have, everyone keeps implying that its really high. High enough to join the real war with the primary at the very least.
Also thinking about it, Lind keeps being implied to be old. No other knight really has, was she apart of stus grandfather's generation? Or is that too old, and she was a survivor of the affixiation year grinder. Of the original generation.
What a great chapter! I loved the part from Eeaner’s point of view. Why can’t the Arths do the obvious thing in re Alden? Even Eeaner can figure it out, and I’m pretty sure his name rhymes with wiener. And then Stu just absolutely burdered the vibe by having an existential crisis out loud. Enjoy your party next weekend, Eeaner! Let’s hope your guest of honor isn’t too honest. — Edit: I’m not saying Mother nudged the mouse to make itself visible, but if she did, it wouldn’t really have been cheating. Alden already found it fair and square. She just gave him an excuse to point it out. If she nudged the mouse. Which I’m not saying she did!
can you honestly look me in the eyes and say that mother wont cheat to ensure her knights learn the best lessons they can? that happy little troll absolutely would. just like she would absolutely bully vantah squad all night so that they have ample chances to learn to work together instead of pulling in different directions.
Amongst so many great bits, this insight into Eeaner’s thoughts approaches perfection in particular: “He definitely wasn’t able to handle a mishnen back then. All he did was wave his pants at it then call Ro-den. And act like he was smarter than all of us. And slap Stu in the face. He was probably more proper than we were that day, but I see why people might think he needs comportment training.”
I agree! I liked the self awareness. “He was more proper than we were that day.” Eeaner is ok in my books.
Hilarious how quickly Eeaner picked up on Alden's importance to Stu and his complete bafflement at how badly Stu's family was mangling the situation. It does make me wonder just how insular the some of the Rapport families are, because his family seemed almost as weirded out when Stu chose to go to LeafSong. And Jozz clearly didn't approve of Stu making friends with any students there until Alden entered the picture and they suddenly appeared as the lesser of two evils. They grow up in the Rapports, go to Rapport schools, and pretty much only socialize with other knights/declared/votaries. And then we have Stu casually dropping knowledge that his family does not support his declared status. I wondered if any LeafSong folks had managed to put that together yet, but Eeaner's surprise suggests that hasn't happened yet - at least among the students. As if that weren't enough, then he drops that heartbreaking line: "if my parents and my brother haven’t been able to believe me, after all this time, then when they say they love me, who are they even talking about?" Poor Ryada and Eeaner. Poor Stu too, obviously, but man Stu is just the king of awkward. Even Alden would have been hard-pressed to navigate that field of social landmines. Good thing Alden noticed the mouse when he did or the awkward tension may have proven too much for Eeaner and Ryada to survive. I also love Alden's confusion and slight hurt that none of the others noticed the mouse after they promised to keep their senses open for it. Baby wizard assumes all these more experienced wizards are 100x better than him at everything, when it's clear that Alden excels in this area. Just not as much as Stu excels at it, which is also skewing his expectations. Also interested by that Authority-sense flow-state he went into. Will look forward to digging deeper into that in the future. I'm glad Bithe will get a chance to show off as well, and I'm also digging the 180 he's made with regards to Alden. They ended the Here-To-There on good terms, but I didn't really expect him to show more interest in Alden besides casual acquaintance based on his closeness to Emban. I'm still rooting for Ryada to join Team Klerm, but I wouldn't hate it if they eventually get folded into Team Vatha.
Mother, the psychosurgeon, has improved Alden's sensitivity (the Defogging Package) and his processing (he's probably about 1/4 way through the improvement). Bithe's probably also influenced by seeing Alden, who he rightly id's as saving the HTH, right after bondy sex.
So everyone who said Eeaner Eeaner would be contrasted with Stu’s family was right. That couldn’t be clearer. Just don’t ever summon that Avowed, and don’t say anything disparaging about him, and if he happens to be around, treat him like I’d treat Stu. That’s not hard. The art’hs couldn’t handle this in the obvious way?
Great chapter. Thanks! Subtlety is not stu's thing. Lol and Eaner gained some respect for knowing how to treat someones friend.
Bithe really is all in on Alden, isn't he? He'll be a friend for life, I think.
He's very eager to show off after Alden's unconventional rescue method.
If only Eaner-ket had shared his thoughts about Alden's growth; he'd have made a lifelong friend then and there
Unless he was foolish enough to say out loud the part about Alden thinking he was smarter. It’s definitely an honest take from Eeaner at the time, but Stu can be very defensive of his true friend.
Alden with the mouse is like Dwight Schrute trying to get people to notice the smoke during the fire drill.
10/10 will laugh again XD
Eeaner-kets perspective was legendary. Ryada’s giggle made me happy for her. Crossing my fingers and hope to die that we get to see Esh and Lind’s* actions on Stu/Alden’s behalf. Bithe about to go Vatha mode Thank you for the soup, it was awesome
Stu's takedown of his family here goes so hard. Just because someone's behavior is understandable doesn't mean it's good. If Alden's haters had been paying attention they'd notice he was the mvp of this faux operation. Kind of makes you look like a racist asshole to reward that with a dressing down
Which, I suspect EshLind will damp. Not 'handle' as in wreck the offender, but just make quiet.
Whoever the mystery und’h is, it’d be a hell of a take to have the number one takeaway from a successful mission where Alden pulled the squad’s bacon out of the fire to be: “Well the successful mission is irrelevant because Alden should have stayed put without direct orders, even when a Grivek let him know his squad was in trouble and communications were down” when in practice there was no bad outcome from his actions. How important is his voice where that could be taken by a room full of senior knights as the major takeaway? If the mission was a disaster that’d be one thing, but it seems like one hot take/arguable opinion of a knight shouldn’t be so stress-inducing without more context. It’ll be interesting to learn more.
I think the difficult uncle is number 7. As in only 3 down from Alis. So pretty important.
Chef’s kiss!
So perfect before I sleep. Go go Bithe!!
kinda funny how desperately Alden was trying to hint that the treat was a trap lol. “The mouse is kinda heavy” *hint hint* “last time i carried something heavy it was a pot. And that was because it was more than it seemed to be” *hint hint* “I wonder what it means that the mouse is similarly heavy” *hint hint* And the knights are just: “poor avowed:( his skill is getting exhausted :( let’s let him drop the perfectly normal treat we got”
I think they are panicked that an avowed FEELS anything in the first place.
The primal abhorrence of wizards towards binding, as seen first with Olget and now Eaner... it just occured to me that wizarding society likely sees the knights as castrati. Self-inflicted ones at that, in the name of sound, the perfect croack. And being repulsed and abhorred by the obvious is the litmus test of who the characters are - will they stay focused on the mutilation of self, or appreciate the music / power the sacrifice was for.
It is a mutilation, though. It seems to be a necessary one, given the state of the universe, but you're letting something bend your fundamental self into something different.
Nobody would have thought it weird alden noticed a mouse, but combined with stu outing him for *early* notice…. I’m putting my money on ryada, but eeaner wouldn’t be a bad bet. Nice job, quiet rabbit. :)
He’s been as loud as that mouse in this arc 🤣
Edit suggestions: (there are two instances of "had had", which is slightly awkward phrasing, even if it's technically correct from a grammar perspective - it's a minor quibble) Alden had had ample time to focus on his sensing without having to worry about moving or speaking. ->Alden had been given ample time to focus on his sensing without having to worry about moving or speaking. or ->There had been ample time to focus on his sensing without having to worry about moving or speaking. Long minutes of stillness and receptivity had had positive effects, as he would have predicted. ->Long minutes of stillness and receptivity had created positive effects, as he would have predicted.
Yeah, repetitiveness that can feel jerky... It reminds me of a Bulgarian bragging joke. When people from different nations compare difficult language quirks and British and Germans take out their Future Perfect / Plusquamperfect, the Bulgarian trumps them with the example of past forgotten tense which is *very* repetitive in the original: Бил съм се бил напил и съм се бил бил (I apparently got drunk and got into a fight). It is particularly funny if you know that in my language, good wording means avoiding repetition as much as possible. So even "had had" grates my sensibilities a bit.
I wonder if Alden hasn't blown his cover a bit to any experienced knight happens to pay close attention. I'd guess the mouse may not be something a regular, very young human avowed without any authority awareness ought to be able to spot and catch. Nor hold so easily with how much he's already used his skill and how strong that skill is *supposed* to be.
He has plausible cover by having seen the mouse directly for most knights. What he *doesn't* have an excuse for is Stu saying he had noticed something well before the mouse ever showed itself. I'm increasingly thinking the theory of Ryanda being the one to figure out Alden first has some weight. She is one of the few to see him clearly, after all, and she does know he had a yell in his throat.
Alden said 'Fuck it, the mouse is over there.'
I think the mouse is the one who said “fuck it! I’m over here!!!!!”
Welcome to the madhouse ride that is Stu and Alden's friendship, Eeaner. There is no exit. Mind your head. And Alden took your protective rings, so keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times.
Team Vatha is gonna return covered in glory, wearing sunglasses and an explosion behind them. Ok, the glory might be fake-demon-combat-mimic mouse bits and the sunglasses will just be blacked-out eyerings and less an explosion, moreso giant conflagration- but you get the point
Unrelated, but: Is that a hognose snake in your profile pic? I love hognose snakes. They have the goofiest faces of the snek world.
Bithe! Bithe! Bithe! Bithe!
ah yes this will be a fine way to end the night thank you very much 🫶
"Why is everyone here so involved with an Avowed? A Ryeh-b’t. Why is the Primary’s family rupturing over him? Why is a human Ryeh-b’t on a mission with a squad of knights anyway? That’s not what they usually do." Intensity level: 97.2
True, they should be at home right now practicing synergy between their own skill and another skill by using their authority sense to bridge the gap until their classmate gets it right.
Oh man, another chapter that rachets up the tension. Alden got to show off, Bithe is about to show off, even Eeener knows the Arts fucked up and Esh-Lind is on the move.
is that the jaws theme i hear? why do i hear the jaws theme? -jozz, ayameg, und'hcle, etc
EEANER STONKS RISE! seriously though it's such a delight to see him learning and accepting stu. a very comforting and cathartic chapter after last weeks emotional turmoil
Because he already thinks about Stu as a future knight. Stu’s family’s problem is they can’t see him as one.
Hrmmmmmm.... This is interesting. I have a feeling Eeaner is definitely going to notice more about Alden than he should, and might well be a part of what outs him. But something about his POV makes me verrrry worried. I hope it's just paranoia but it struck me as perceptive but very self-serving. Especially how he felt about knights and binding. I have a worry that he is going to introduce us more thoroughly to some of the nastier aspects of Artonan society after gaining Stu's trust. I was dismissive of the idea of the mouse being a treat. I didn't comment about it but I did think the comments about it were kind of a stretch. Turns out I was wrong!! But, part of the reason I suspected that was because I thought a simulacrum of a living creature wouldn't*just* be some kind of reward. So, half wrong half right I guess. Alden has come so far in his sensitivity training! He must come across as slightly eekeekeek to those who don't know, but we can be proud of him with Stu! I hope EshLind are tearing various people new assholes right about now. I kinda wish we had more of Ryada's POV, but also acknowledge it's unnecessary. Ryada-best for a reason. Whatever vaguely sinister vibes I got from Eeaner I know she will help offset in the future.
I didn't pick that up with Eeaner, but I did feel his dread at the idea of affixation.
"Just don’t ever summon that Avowed, and don’t say anything disparaging about him, and if he happens to be around, treat him like I’d treat Stu. That’s not hard. The art’hs couldn’t handle this in the obvious way?" Damn, maybe Eeaner really is a genius. Alden is so hilariously bad at not being subtle. I'd say he's taking too many risks, but making Stu smile was worth it.
Risks? He just told a group of knights on knight TV he can sense his skill is taking heavy load.
Nice. We get to see the Blithe skill really work. And Eeaner should be on the list of Stu’s friends. Even he knows Stu better than his family seems to.
Perhaps Zeridee Undh would make a good etiquette teacher for Alden- thats even better than body weight in Manyadeeth.
I'm convinced that when Alden meets Trouble-und'h, rather than the manyadeeth, he's offered Zeridee herself. And he accepts, to be a colleague of great value.
"...then when they say they love me, who are they even talking about?" Powerful stuff...
Totally agree. Super powerful and heartbreaking. Also, shades of Lute’s relationship with his family.
Tftc! Excellent treat!
Oh so they get to clear Jozz's friends harder field instead of their own easier field? YES please keep loading up the ammunition for the absolute destruction of this dumbass plan to scold Alden.
I totally forgot he was bound for that field. I wonder if Mother set this up intentionally, or if it's just excellent luck
I’m really hoping Eeaner could be the kind of friend that Stu wanted his family to be
There’s a problem. Stu has a bit of class-ism himself. Eeaner likes Stu and accepts what he says about himself and wants to be friends, but Stu really wants the belief and support of knights and knight-adjacent votaries. The awkward and distant admiration/revulsion from the ordinary wizard classes doesn’t help. But good luck to anyone trying to figure that out when his biggest most public friendship is with an Avowed of all people, rather than a junior knight who might support him from a place of knowing what affixation is like.
So many good things!! Eeaner noticing the rings. Eeaner realizing how Stu wants to be treated Stu voicing aloud his concerns while surrounded by friends Esh and Lind taking his concerns seriously Alden learning to be sensitive Emban successfully defining grooves in a powerful and new way The whole squad’s dynamic Bithe preparing to burn the corrupted treats (mice) It feels so good to read about Alden and the team’s successes. I’m thrilled to see the results of this and Stu’s conversations off the practice field
I feel like Esh-Lind will be ready to fight over their own concerns by the time they get down there
His thoughts are easy to have, but hard to possess. Eeaner did a good job of handling Stu's simple words.
This chapter rocked. Eeaner instantly understanding the situation better than Stu's family, with less context, is so funny. Alden desperately trying to steer the squad without giving the game away is incredibly funny. Observation Haki unlocked.
The best part about Alden’s feeble attempts at deception is that Stu, bless him, gave the game up before either of them realized they needed to lie
I SO needed the knights in the field action. But…did Stu just out Alden’s specialness a bit? In a way only perceptive people would notice…glad he’s not sitting with multiple of those, heh Other things: - I love how easily Eeaner knows how to treat Alden (albeit, as he mentions, with lessons in how NOT to do so from the local art’holes). So socially aware. Good thing his parents gave Eeaner the extra “E” for extrovert, Marks could have used one of those. - I love Bithe’s joy in being able to fit the squad’s need with his skill. - Has Emban been mishandling her relationships for two times each before she gets it right? Alden, Stu, Ryada…I can kinda squint and see it. So much to like here, the social and the action both! One of my favorite chapters.
Ryada is already convinced Alden breaks down barriers between people.
Now we have more reason for Alden to not need that training since Alden and Stu will be a pair anyway
Bithe time!
“His direct answers might be easy to get, but they’re rarely fun to possess.” Oof, hard to make friends with Stu. Hang in there Eeaner!!
Honestly this says at least as much about Eeaner-ket as it does Stu-art'h
Eeaner seems like he’ll be a wonderful friend for both Stu and Alden to have. And despite Jozz’s machinations, I’m glad Stu has him. Mouse was Special Mouse !!!!! Yay !!!!!! >>if my parents and my brother haven’t been able to believe me, after all this time, then when they say they love me, who are they even talking about? Genuinely felt my heart ache when I read this. Poor Stu. And poor Eeaner and Ryada who are so ill-equipped to handle the gravity of such a question.
Oof is right! I felt that deep in my soul
Yay a most pleasant bold rabbit surprise!
Thanks for the chapter! Eeaner gets how to treat Alden without pissing off Stuart, it's simple! The dismissive treatment from Stuart's family is really a them issue. Stuart should also offer some ceremonial wevvi to Eeaner. Yay Alden found the mouse, and now we get to see Bithe in action, doing something other than being k’rethkan filling.
A k’rethkan filling that can attract more toppings is a next level k’rethkan filling.
Chaos Rodents, perhaps of unusual size?
...I don't think they exist. 😎
Let the bug-zapping begin!
Eeaner is being so fucking real in this chapter. He may think it's unusual to befriend an avowed and for a human rye'bht to join chaos exercises, but he respects it and knows it's stupid to do otherwise, and he's fully souring on Stu's family and getting to understand why Stu decided to abandon communion with the rest of knight-adjacent society and go to school at Leafsong instead with how disastrous every interaction involving most of Stu's family seems to be.
Now I'm a bit curious about the eekeekeekness of the other roommate with the ewtwee. Stu has said he did this whole nighttime routine for him, if I remember right. But didn't seem super weirded by it. What is the more usual wizardly view?
Eeaner is so perceptive of the social situation. The kind of votary Stu REALLY needs more than the theoretical assassin type.
Maybe. I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what to think of his thoughts here. Some of them seem very self serving and maybe on the edge of the bad kind of manipulative, fortune seeking, groupy-esque behavior. I don't know the best way to put it into words, but I definitely got a weird vibe here and there from a lot of it.
Thank you! Ah, Bithe's time to shine. (And by shine I mean burn ALL the things)
Mọọ!!
“Are you two mooing at each other?” Lute asked from the hall.
YEEEEES
On my recent reread I was reminded that we still haven’t gotten an episode of Kwoo-pak, Klee-pak’s older cousin.
Stu and Alden talked about the one where Kwoo-pak's parents decided not to get married.
Thank you, cant wait for a work break to read!!
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
So many juicy little nuggets to chew on from this chapter. We're all in agreement that since Alden saw and captured the mouse himself, rules are he's the one who is awarded the magic pot, right? I hope it's the right size for the bromeliad. Jupiter is going to murder him and the entire huntski lodge for something like that. Not even Sunny will be spared. I think this is the first time Alden has mentioned he can feel exactly how much things exhaust his skill, and he just did it in front of hundreds of people. That's not a normal avowed ability, MPE was telling them they need to learn their limits through repeated trial and error to refine their estimations. If his skill wasn't designed for him to feel his burdens, or he wasn't magically aware, and they simply just left with the preserved mouse, I wonder how far they'd get before triggering the trap? An animal call like that is designed to carry over long distances. Or maybe it's for them to hunt a certain Seasonal Jatontan Pest?
I dont think the pot is a plant pot. My guess is something like Kon's mug but for food - put a tiny bit in and it generates heaps - like a super specific cornucopia.
Starting spooky season off right.
If Alden’s authority sense is this much higher than the squad, how sensitive is Stu’s when he is even much better than Alden?
Last chapter or two he mentioned sensing a pregnancy a full week before the person decided to mention it to others
Approximation came and went
Thanks for the soup!
Yesssssss
I have been waiting dearly! Time to read.
Thanks for the chapter!