And now we’re back to Yuyu. When last we left him, brain-eating chaos fairies were putting perfectly ordinary brambles in his way and then he went a different way they didn’t want him to go and somehow this meant the brambles stopped.
Today, he’s still in the boring woods with boring plants and no fun wyld-related monstrosity stuff. (more…)
The fifteenth chapter is an Unforgiven Blossom one, which again reminds us right from the first sentence of how nonexistent her motivation is.
The problem with the lands west of the forest and south of the ice, Unforgiven Blossom had long since decided, was that they were too damnably large.
Yup, a person currently trying to shake pursuer(s) is complaining there’s just so much land to hide in. (more…)
Last time, fucking Yushuv. Today, Ratcatcher!
None of the prince’s remaining servants paused to watch Ratcatcher go.
And who were they, and why was it apparently a valid concern to worry they might steal from Ratcatcher?
Who knows. Point is, Ratcatcher is a buttmonkey. But a buttmonkey with style! He rode off in the gloom of a misty evening, his two companions and a pair of pack animals trailing behind him like rags tied to a tattered kite. (more…)
Today, the many faces of filler.
A new character appears!
We open today with a thief.
She called herself Vicious Whisper, and she was dressed in black. Such was her wont when she was working, swathed in it from head to toe. Black boots muffled with black cloth were on her feet, and black leather gloves covered the constantly twitching fingers of her hands. She crouched in a patch of shadow and waited, patiently.
Minutes passed. A stableboy hurried past, rushing to an assignation with a lover, and never noticed her. A snake wound its way lazily by where she squatted, flicked its tongue at her twice, and then moved on. Still she waited, until the sound of snoring became regular and drifted down gently through the open window.
A competent, stylish thief, no less! She hops into the air and manages to land on a windowsill fifteen feet up, so she’s additionally one of the chosen magic user cool people. (more…)
We ended the previous chapter with Wren picturing the poor innocent survivor of the massacre, running away sobbing from the horrors, so naturally we transition to the actual survivor, who is doing no such thing.
The book, though, is attempting to walk back on Yuyu being a complete sociopath by having him dream of the time before everyone he knew was brutally murdered. (more…)
Ah, back to this nice, wholesome story of sociopaths and evil gods.
Today is a Wren chapter. A while back, Wren got into a fight with some people trying to loot the smoking remains of Yushuv’s beloved peasant village, took them out because they were just mortals, and took their horses. Now he’s trying to rest at an inn and see what new items the town has on offer. He decides to get a wide hat, which is a felt/leather hat because the book is boring and no one’s wearing conical straw hats or anything.
Let’s celebrate Freedom Explosions by more of this despite it not being a Friday.
Last time, the Prince of Shadows traveling! Today, Ratcatcher bumming about the Prince of Shadow’s castle, which he explains is basically empty.
The camp was set in a dry valley between two low hills, and offered as much luxury as the country north and east of Reddust could provide. Pelesh had fretted long and loudly over the possibility that they had set up camp in a flood gully, and pointed hysterically to the heavens on no fewer than six occasions to point out clouds scudding low overhead.
The core problem of Pelesh is he’s in the wrong subgenre. This sort of attention to what life is like traveling is really good – if you’re showing the humble details relevant to humans like the reader. But, nothing about abyssals should ever be humble. They more than any of the exalts should be above this kind of thing. Other exalts can deal with life’s problems easily, abyssals just shrug and remind everyone they noped out of dealing with life at all. The Prince of Shadows isn’t in any danger, and if Pelesh drowns, the Prince of Shadows shrugs and reanimates his corpse.
Back to comparatively interesting and reasonable Ratcatcher!
So, he’s still climbing the metal-thorn-rail steps and being all :D at how he’s jamming his hand into barbs without any injury.
Last time, Ratcatcher met the neverborn above the void itself. Today something much more horrible.
Yushuv.
It’s time for more Children of the Dragon, by which I mean more exalts who are not at all dragonblooded.
SO.
Precisely one year back, I inflicted the first chapter of this on you.
At the end of last year, I warned you of my plan to continue each Friday.
And there were delays, but today…
Today my threats come to fruition. Today, we continue Children of the Dragons.
Remember: It’s your fault for voting for Dresden and Unwind. You brought this on yourselves.
I decided to get on with the final book of the first Exalted trilogy!
The cover is depicting the climatic battle of Yuyu vs Ratcatcher, where for some reason both of them have apparently thrown away their soulsteel and orichalcum swords (after all the trouble of getting the +1 sword!) and either picked up mortal weapons or maybe white jadesteel ones. (more…)