#which happens to be my favorite chapter

[miodiodavinci]

taking a break from working to say man. if the end up having to cut content to fit everything in 24 episodes, my favorite chapter of dungeon meshi is almost certainly getting cut skdjfhglj

[rainbowsandwhumperflies]

The Winged Servant - 8

Content warnings: life threatening situations, sword fighting (written by someone who knows nothing about it), minor character death (not super graphic but does have some description), royal whump, whumpee is sooo desperate for validation, let me know if I forgot anything!

prev chapter | masterlist

Get it together.

Stay on your feet, and stay behind me.

Get through tonight.

Stay on your feet.

Get through tonight.

I was not a soldier. The princes weren’t either, but they’d spent their recent years becoming agile in a way that I’d spent the recent years getting trained out of. I wasn’t supposed to flinch away from things, wasn’t supposed to react to things. My job was doing what I was told, and thinking it through later.

“If someone aims a weapon at you,” Prince Ryan was saying, “then you do your best not to let that weapon touch you. Should be simple enough. Can you do that?”

I nodded slowly. “Um- Your Highness. I can- yes, but, uh, you have trained me not to react to weapons.”

He frowned. “I am giving you a direct order to ignore that training for the given moment.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Just-” Just, it wasn’t exactly my first instinct to get away anymore. “I just don’t think I will be very good at it. My apologies, Your Highness, I don’t mean-”

“For fuck’s sake, Onyx,” the prince snapped, and I shut my mouth. “Yeah, I know about your training. Just follow me and try not to get hurt. Can't you manage that?”

I nodded again. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Good.” We'd split up from everyone else, wandering up two staircases and through a dark hallway. Prince Ryan seemed to know where we were. “What we're doing here tonight is overthrowing an idiot who thinks he has more right to the crown than us. It shouldn't take long, because again, he's an idiot. The country is weak, now, under his rule. But he's going to try to kill us anyway, and all you've gotta do is avoid the people trying to kill us.”

“... Yes, Your Highness.” The country shouldn't be under someone else's rule. It should be under the Queen's rule. That's what it had been under, forever, since as long as I could remember, right? Sixteen generations back. Her Majesty, of course, and her father before her. And his mother, and her uncle.

Prince Ryan stopped abruptly, and I didn’t notice quite fast enough to keep myself from running into his back. He spared a glance at me, rolling his eyes before poking his head around the corner. “God, Onyx, stop thinking so much. We have more important things to be doing.”

“Yes, Your-”

The sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway ahead of us, and we both fell silent. “Stay here,” the prince breathed, “until I explicitly tell you to move. Don’t talk, don’t move, don’t breathe too loudly. Do you understand?”

I nodded, too frozen to think of a proper response, and he turned around just in time to see two guards turn the corner.

The prince had the obvious advantage—the guards hadn’t expected anyone to be here. He didn’t waste any time, shoving his sword through the throat of one guard and knocking the other flat on his back.

The guard coughed and started to raise his shield, but hesitated for a moment. “Ryan?”

Prince Ryan blinked, but quickly recovered his composure. “If I stab you, you will not die quickly. Stabbing doesn’t have a high mortality rate, but the blood loss will get you eventually. Unfortunately, the time in between the stab and the death won’t exactly be fun for you. Stay quiet, and maybe we won’t have to do that.”

“But- but I-”

The prince slit the throat of the guard.

As was… his right. Of course. As a member of the royal family, his right was to do whatever the fuck he wanted, just- this was the third person tonight that I had watched die. And that was fine because I could be a good servant, I could, I could let this happen.

Get through tonight, Prince Ryan had told me. We’ve gotta get through tonight.

I could do that, couldn’t I? I was a good servant, he’d told me that so many times, I could be a good servant and shut up and stop thinking and do what I was told.

“May I assist you with anything, Your Highness?” I didn't say please, because I wasn't supposed to beg, wasn't supposed to want anything enough to beg for it, but I would've liked- I would have been happy to help. Good servants didn't have likes, but I would’ve been happy to help. Happy to serve the royal family. Happy to be given a task so that I could focus on that instead of the bodies on the floor.

Prince Ryan pulled at the edge of the guard’s shirt, using the fabric to clean the blood off of his sword. He ignored the blood pooling on the floor, soaking into his pants. I let my mind wander for a moment, considering whether or not I’d be able to get rid of the stain.

Probably not. There was- god, there was so much blood. The prince’s hands shook slightly as his sword was resheathed. Barely a few hours ago, those hands stroked my hair while Prince Ryan told me what a good boy I was.

Good servants didn’t have likes and didn’t have wants, but selfishly, I hoped that he would give me an order, a use.

“Just… hold on for a minute,” he said eventually. “Let me think. Lucas shouldn’t- um, the guards shouldn’t have been here. Cardan’s neutralizing the guards. Or… he’s supposed to be.” He let out a long sigh. “Except he probably isn’t, because it would kill him to listen to anything I say. Okay. Okay. I can still fix this.”

He rose to his feet. “Alright. Same plan, I’ll just have to take care of the guards myself. Fine. Fine. You know what? Keiran’s the type to let his castle get understaffed on a Monday night. I bet we won’t even run into any more guards on the way. This will be fine.”

I winced as more footsteps sounded in the hall.

Prince Ryan’s sword flew toward the noise, coming to a stop at the throat of Prince Cardan.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Prince Ryan said, not moving the sword away.

“Oh, like I’d let you have all the glory of killing Kieran. Come on, let me through.”

“I’m taking him captive. I’m not killing him, and neither are you.”

“Mom said you could if you had to. I’ll make something up. Besides, we’ll kill him by the end of the week anyway.”

Prince Ryan was starting to look bored. “You are supposed to be neutralizing the guards. Please do that.”

“It’s actually a very boring job, just waiting for guards to show up. And honestly, it’s easy enough that Onyx could do it.” Prince Cardan leaned slowly away from his brother’s sword as he talked, but it followed closely, pressing further into his neck at the mention of my name.

“Are you sure that this is the hill you want to die on?”

Prince Cardan smiled confidently, even as a bead of his blood ran down his neck. “You make it sound like you’ll be killing me yourself.”

“Don’t tempt me. Can I interest you in doing your job for once instead, so that I can go back to doing mine?”

“You’re no fun.” Prince Cardan pulled his own sword out, knocking away his brother’s. “I’m the better fighter anyway.” 

“What, because you can hit harder? That doesn’t make you better.”

“It does in a situation where all I have to do is hit hard.” 

He swung at Prince Ryan, who dodged effortlessly. “We both know who’s going to win this, Cardan. You’re rash, impulsive, and careless. On top of all that, you’re predictable. You’re much more interested in hurting others than you are protecting yourself, which means that each time you try to attack-” He sidestepped a thrust and whacked Prince Cardan’s torso with the flat side of his sword. “You leave yourself completely open. That slip-up could have meant your death. I don’t have time for play-fighting.”

“Yeah. Me neither.” Prince Cardan waited until his brother had turned around to lunge toward him, letting his sword dig a gash into Prince Ryan’s arm.

“What the fuck, Cardan? All I ever ask from you is listen to what you’re told, and you stab me for it?” Prince Ryan’s voice raised, and I flinched as the other prince matched his volume.

“Yeah, well, I won! So let me go kill Kieran.”

“You won? Really? You are so fucking petty. We weren’t fighting for who gets to kill Kieran! I was proving a point. And even if we were fighting, I won! You played dirty because you’re a sore loser!”

“I wouldn’t have done that if you’d just let me kill Kieran! We’re going to kill him anyway. I don’t understand why you’re being such a whiny bitch about doing it at exactly the right time and by the right person’s hand!”

“Oh, this is my fault now? If you’d just neutralized guards like you were supposed to- like you agreed to, then the plan would be going along just fine. If you’d neutralized the guards like you were supposed to, they wouldn’t have had to die!”

There were more footsteps. Not loud, not close, but loud enough. Close enough. And both of the princes had dropped their swords in favor of arguing with each other.

“Your, um, Your Highnesses-”

“Stay out of this, you stupid bird,” Prince Cardan growled at me, and I nodded quickly.

“My apologies, Your Highness.” I pressed my back up against the wall as the footsteps got louder.

~

taglist (let me know if you'd like to be added/removed): @kaleidoscope-of-thoughts @toyybox @rainydaywhump @risk606

[pagesofkenna]

doing the math and i'm pretty sure chilchuck is getting his bow back next week, and we might finally get to meet the canaries (the elves), if not next week then definitely the week after!

[snow3dirtyrain]

Ariel just stared at him. She felt something warm on her cheeks, something warm and wet, but it was a distant thought, not as important as the look on his face.

“Do you understand what I am saying to you?” he asked, his chest heaving. “I will not leave you — ever. I will never not want you, because you are mine, you ridiculous girl. I have no choice. You need only say the word.”

She felt her heartbeat thrumming in her ears, but the vault of her heart felt so full, so —

“You did it — for her?” Ariel didn’t even realize she’d spoken until Snape’s eyes slid shut. “Even after she Obliviated you?”

“I did it for her,” he sounded like he was clenching his teeth, trying to bite down on the consonants. “And I do it for you. Everything — every fiber of my being — is for you.”

from aim & ignite, by @shostakobitchh

(open for better quality :p)

[everyryuujisuguro]

[neixins]

the sword and shield part of the prophecy is soooo vague that i’ll rotate every possible theory inside my silly little head and then go “or it could be smth else”. absolute net zero conclusions reached but i had fun.

[desperatepleasures]

guhhhh i am struggling so much with ch3

[libertyreads]

I would apologize for the person I'm turning into while reading Fourth Wing but it would be a lie.

[regallibellbright]

I’m rereading alongside a Tor.com reread club from back after Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen was first published.

Some excerpts as they pertain to the current book:

“In most cases where I’ve only read the book once, it’s because it hasn’t been convenient. I lost my copy, or it came out after A Civil Campaign and I was busy rereading that. Whether I’ve read the book one time or a thousand, I usually give it a thoughtful skim before embarking on the reread. This time, we’re flying blind because Mirror Dance is terrifying.” - Staring Into the Abyss of Mirror Dance

“Nothing clearly bad has happened yet. Mark gets on the Ariel and no one gets tortured or dies. That’s it. We’re OK. Everyone is OK except Mark.” - Chapters 1-2

“As of the end of chapter four, no one has been killed.” Chapters 3-4

I share Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer’s sense of looming dread. Here it comes.

[ajdrawshq]

8 days until the 8 game ................

[butmakeitgayblog]

https://open.spotify.com/track/7t3Xdbufg7q2onVsR8RBdY?si=hsyVHotZTLGNH1ruOCpohA

Just finished demon!AU and This song popped up on my playlist and now all I can think about is your Clarke and Lexa with this song.

Fire on fire would normally kill us

But this much desire, together, we're winners

They say that we're out of control and some say we're sinners

But don't let them ruin our beautiful rhythms

'Cause when you unfold me and tell me you love me

And look in my eyes

You are perfection, my only direction

It's fire on fire...

...Maybe it's all that I've been through

I'd like to think it's how you lean on my shoulder

And how I see myself with you...

Ok I have to stop or I'm just gonna quote the whole damn song. Dude. I'm gonna have a breakdown at 12 at night 🥺

Yes. Yes jesus fuck yes this is their entire mood. How did I start this stupid story as a smut story and have it turn into just a gay feelings fest (with murder and such but you get me)

[world-of-fire-and-flight]

(pg 97) You idiot baby boy that is not what you're supposed to do!

paused reading after this so idk how valid my concern for this is, i.e. if this is resolved on like the next page

Both poor babies need help and smothering!

🤣🤣🤣

All I can say is that these two are so good to each other and that I've loved watching their friendship unfold. Is this a good example of how strong their friendship is? .....probably not cause it's still early on, but the last two pages of chapter 13 is one of my favorite interactions between the two (besides the entirety of chapter 20 😌) because that whole scene is the official start of their undying friendship in my eyes🥰

The chapter 13 scene is also where the "I'm sorry almost being stabbed" line featured in the Characters Out of Context tag game comes from and it's even better with the whole context*

(*None of my MCs were actually stabbed in the making of chapter 13.....BUT! I can promise they stop being idiots and become utter dorks when it comes to the other😜)

But yes, Nyla and Xander deserve all the smothering and help and comfort💜 My poor babies are working through their emotions, a thing they've never had time to do/have never done before, and they are not coping well despite their witty one liners but their budding friendship will change that😄

[wanderingandfound]

Me, with a stack of [pre-ordered and library] books to read, multiple television shows I'm in the middle of, favorite fic authors I've somewhat abandoned and want to return to, and many podcasts I'm behind on and many more I have yet to start, completely sick and tired of audio input: Well, I guess I can listen to each segment one by one, episode by episode, of the 50-odd Zombies, Run! episodes I've played so far. That way when I finish the couch to 5k program in three weeks I will remember what's happening.

[aberooski]

Okay I have enough fics and shit to write right now as it is, I currently have 4 in the works 🙃, but last night while I was trying to sleep I had a thought. I think I came up with a very baseline very bare bones idea for a possible OUAD 2.

A possible title for which I came up with was Once Upon A Kingdom OUAK if you will. And literally as I typed this out, Once Upon A Winter OUAW akskskskk and it would take place months after the events of OUAD, Chazz and Atticus are officially a couple now, and Atty takes him on a trip to see the Northern Kingdom or the Crystal Kingdom if ur in with the OUAD deep lore 👀 where he and Lexi are from and with Jay, Sy, and Hassleberry in tow, winter wonderland hijinks and capers ensue 👀

Now I have no idea what the actual greater plot would be but I really like the idea of visiting another kingdom since in the 'deep lore' there are 5 kingdoms that exist in the world, but since the Kingdom of the East was canonically destroyed by Slade and Jagger before the events of OUAD, there's still 3 other kingdoms outside the Golden Kingdom. The northern, western, and southern kingdoms if you will. The Golden Kingdom is the central kingdom. So we get to see more of the world, and open the door for more of the ensemble cast to get involved, I fully intend to include Jesse and Bastion at the very minimum if I wrote this I fully imagined a whole conversation with Jaden and Jesse last night, immortal magical fairy Jay gets to flirt with the cute human boy 👀 so I have thoughts happening ☺

Like I said I have no idea what an actual greater plot would look like yet and I have way too much to work on right now to put too much thought into it right now, but I promise babes. OUAD 2 may be on the back burner right now, but it is also very firmly on the table 😉

[icemankazansky]

A Simple Guide to Not Being Afraid to Write Comments to Fic You Read

I've seen a lot of posts about the current state of fanfiction comments. Writers, especially writers who have been in fandom for a decade or more, are frustrated by the lack of comments, and have noticed a definite decline in comments (and all other forms of reader interaction) in the past ten years or so. Many readers feel daunted by the expectation of leaving comments, afraid they'll do something wrong. As a fandom old maid, the latter confused me for a while, until I realized that most of the people who feel that way probably have not been taught this form of communication.

But your loving fandom elders are here for you. Come along as your auntie tumblr user icemankazansky makes this shit easy.

The easiest way to think of fanfiction comment etiquette is to compare it to something you likely already know: Gift Receiving Etiquette.

Fanfiction began as largely a gift economy. And a lot of it still is! You'll see authors participate in exchanges like Yuletide and Id Pro Quo; those are ficswaps in which authors write for a specific person to specific prompts. And even outside that, fanfiction is not written for money; authors write and post it simply for the joy of creation and community with fellow fans. Fic is posted free for anyone to enjoy. Is that not a gift?

So. When you as a reader finish the chapter or story you're reading and you are faced with the comment box, try to follow the same etiquette you would when receiving a gift. (And even if you didn't love this gift and it's not your favorite gift ever, we already know that it's more useful than the products from your cousin's MLM that they're passing off as gifts, because you read the story. At the very least, it entertained you for the time you took to read it.)

The big rule of gift receiving etiquette is not to insult the person who gave you the gift, either directly or indirectly. That's it. Full stop.

I've been seeing a lot of comments lately that are just along the lines of, "Thank you for writing this story and sharing it with us." A+, top of the class, full marks, you're doing amazing. If you don't feel comfortable commenting on the story itself, that is perfect feedback. And that's the most basic way you respond to a gift, yes? Thank you for the gift. Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for sharing.

Does this rule mean that you cannot say anything at all that might be negative about anything? No, absolutely not. What you want to avoid is saying something that is, at its core, a negative evaluation of the author or their work. Let's do some examples.

Character A's obliviousness about Character B's MASSIVE crush on them made me so frustrated! I was tearing my hair out internally screaming, "JUST LET HIM LOVE YOU."

✔️ Excellent comment! You're allowed to have all sorts of feelings about things that happen in the story, and in fact authors LOVE to hear about any emotions they made you feel. Yes, frustration is not a positive emotion, but the thing you are expressing frustration about is not the author themselves or their shortcomings.

Contrast that to:

I was really frustrated that it took you so long to post this chapter. The cliffhanger at the end of the previous chapter had me tearing my hair out, and then you just left us hanging FOREVER!

❌ Nope! Here what you are expressing is frustration with the author and how fast they come out with new chapters. Imagine your sister buys you a gift for your birthday, but she isn't able to give it to you until the next week, and you respond with: "What took you so long?" I think Emily Post would frown on that.

Reframing

The way you say something and the point of view from which you give feedback can have a HUGE impact on the message you're sending. Let's take the last comment (the one about wanting an update) and see what happens when we reframe the same sentiment as a positive:

I was SO EXCITED to see that you updated this story! I have really been looking forward to seeing what happened after the cliffhanger in the last chapter.

✔️ Now it's not an insult. The author will be happy to know that you are happy to see new work from them.

This idea extends beyond the story itself: to the fandom, the characters, the pairing, the tropes, etc. Let's do some examples.

I looooove reading about these sexy boys SO IN LOVE even though the movie you're writing about is SOOOOO problematic.

❌ Nope! Assume that the author enjoys the canon, characters, pairing, etc. in the stories they write. This comment is insulting to the author because it basically says, "That thing you love is not great, and you should probably feel bad for liking it." Imagine your aunt gifts you a sweater from a popular retailer, and you respond with, "This is so cute, I love it! It's a shame that it was made in a sweatshop." Do you have a valid point about the canon or the retailer's business practices? You very well might. Is this the proper time and place to talk about it? Absolutely not.

Let's do a reframing exercise. You should be very careful about how you approach commenting negatively on anything in the story that appears in the tags list, but you can make it a compliment and good feedback if you have the right perspective. See the difference with these two approaches:

I kind of think frottage is disgusting, but I liked it in this story.

❌ Nope! You just told the author you think their kink is disgusting. That's like telling your poor aunt who is just trying to keep you warm this winter that she has awful taste in knitwear. Try again.

Frottage normally isn't my kink, but I love your other stories with this pairing, so I decided to give it a try, and I'm SOOOOO GLAD that I did! This story was 🔥🔥🔥

✔️ "This normally isn't my thing, but you made me expand my horizons!" Authors love to hear that. That's like telling your aunt, "I never thought this color looked good on me, but I look so cute in this sweater! I'm so glad you helped me step outside my comfort zone, because I'm the better for it."

thank u, next

The last thing I want to address is this new trend I've seen in commenting lately: placing an order. If your mom surprises you with new headphones, you don't respond with, "I wanted the white ones 🙁," or, "You should get me a new phone, too." It's easy to see why that isn't appropriate in a gifting situation, and it's also not appropriate when commenting on fanfiction.

Let's do some examples:

This fic was soooo cute, but it would have been a million times better if Character A had been with Character C instead of Character B.

❌ There are a few things going on here. Number one, you're telling your mom you wanted the white headphones, not the ones she actually bought you. You're also disparaging the A/B pairing that the author chose to write about, and as we discussed, we can assume that the author wrote the pairing because they liked it. Even if it's not their favorite and/or they also write A/C, they made a choice for this story to be A/B, and the comments section of a fic is not the place to question choices the author made in their own work.

You should write a story where Character Z who is not even in this story does [thing that is vaguely referenced in the B plot].

❌ "You should get me a new phone, too."

I want a sequel. 😞

❌ "Thank you, next!"

You can reframe this kind of sentiment if you are careful about it, and it's not all you say.

I really loved this story. I would be so interested to see these ideas explored further if you ever decide to write more in this universe.

✔️ Not "gimme." Not "more." This is, "If you build it, I will come." It is a HUGE difference.

You already know how to do this. You know how to graciously accept a gift; just use that same etiquette, and boom! Now you know how to fearlessly write a comment to fic you read. You're doing amazing. Go forth and comment.

[tofixtheshadows]

Id love to hear ur interpretation and analysis on falin! She’s one of my favorite characters and and I was wondering what ur thoughts on her are

Man, I struggle to think of anything I could say about Falin that others have not already said. But she's one of my favorite things about Dungeon Meshi too.

So much of the story revolves around Falin, and she's not even there. Tumblr loves to talk about haunting the narrative, but Falin might be one of the best examples of it ever put to page. She's dead. She's alive. She's dead. She's alive. She's alive but she's missing, she's alive but she isn't herself. She's dead but she might wake. She's dead but she's frozen in ice. She's alive but she's sleepwalking. They chase her ghost and they chase her body all through the story.

I think what Kui does with her is fascinating. Not just as character with a personality we can analyze, but as an object in a narrative- that's why I say she's one of my favorite things about the story, because I also mean it in a mechanical sense. As a writer, Kui's really good at misdirection- that is, setting you up to believe or expect something about a character or a plot, and then turning that on its head. It's most apparent with Kabru, but it works really well with Falin too.

Because the precious little sister is a very well known character archetype, right? So is the gentle healer. The heart of the party. The white mage girl. The damsel in distress. The martyr.

And this isn't a Laura Palmer situation, where we find out that beneath her wholesome surface there's something dark and troubled. No, Falin truly is a kind and gentle person. That isn't where the misdirection leads (and that, too, I think, is another misdirection- it's not "Plot twist, she isn't as nice as you thought!", which would almost be too easy).

The misdirection here is more about structure than about character (but also, yeah- a little about character).

What I mean is, with these archetypes firmly in mind, along with a whole other host of fantasy genre expectations, I think anyone who goes into Dungeon Meshi un-spoiled probably expects Falin's rescue to be an endgame event; at least on a subconscious level, where you're not really thinking about it but in the back of your head you're already stretching out the story to place Falin firmly in the distance. Fire breathing dragon at the bottom of the dungeon is perfect final boss material, right? Slay the dragon. Rescue the princess.

And Falin is the perfect prize in the traditional old school fantasy that the concept of the titular dungeon is a send-up to. Blonde (white), soft-spoken, sweet-natured, beloved by everyone. An angelic figure.

Maybe that's why Ryoko Kui gave her white wings.

It is sort of jarring when chapter 23 rolls around and it's already time to fight the red dragon. And it takes a few chapters, but they succeed. And then Falin's impossible resurrection succeeds. But by then you guess that this is not going to be the story you expected it to be.

I want to point out that Falin spends a lot of time getting, well, babied, post-resurrection. Marcille washes her in the bath, despite Falin stating that she's capable of washing herself. Marcille schools her about her mana use despite Falin demonstrating that she is not hurting for mana, and brushes aside Falin's explanations. Both Marcille and Laios refuse to actually tell her what happened. Laios scruffs up her hair like she's a little kid and scolds her for something she can't remember doing. Marcille explicitly calls her a little kid when Falin tries to talk about how much she's grown.

Of course I'm not saying that Laios was wrong to act like a big brother, or that Marcille shouldn't be worried about taking care of her shell-shocked friend in the bath. But the framing of it clearly shows a Falin who is struggling to be heard.

If you'd like to address the big gay elephant in the room while we're here, I want to state for the record that- whether you read her as gay or not -I think Marcille is completely oblivious during this. Because Falin is her little friend from school. Her best friend, yes, but also the young tallman student she, in her infinite elven wisdom, had to mentor and look after. Marcille has not yet accepted that Falin is an adult now, nor has she accepted that she, herself, is only barely past teenagerhood developmentally and is not nearly as mature as she believes. Of course she'd scrub Falin in the bath and fuss over her.

Falin, meanwhile, seems more than aware of her own adult body and the inappropriate way Marcille is treating it.

The mana-sharing scene is, I think, Falin trying to get a little of her own back. How do you like it, Marcille?

And she tries again in bed.

Maybe she's wondering if their relationship will change now that they're grown ups. If Marcille prefers her as a little girl, or at least as a woman who lets herself be guided like one; if Marcille will react badly if Falin keeps trying to assert herself. She also might be subtly trying to signal to Marcille that bed sharing, like bathing, carries a different weight to it when you do it as adults rather than as children.

With all this in mind, the decision to turn Falin from the precious prize they rescued into to the vicious dragon they have to slay, hits a lot harder.

Falin with a powerful, monstrous, destructive body. Falin, who couldn't even stand to cause people pain from using healing spells, slaughtering half a dozen people in brutal ways. And that's not her, she's being mind-controlled, but as an object in the story she has completely flipped. From damsel to threat.

And I love that she carries a little bit of that with her when she's resurrected again.

Because she's no longer the girl who's going to let herself be stifled by her brother's and her best friend's co-dependency, no matter how much she loves them. She's different now: stronger, eyes open, forging her own path instead of following in their wake. Falin is still going to come back to them again, but this time it won't be because they chased her. It'll be because they let her go.