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Removed Chapter (260 "Questions, Questions") (Patreon)

Published:
2025-09-25 04:46:56
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

This chapter has been redacted. Much of its content may reappear in upcoming chapters that I'm currently working on. If you want to see the original version and aren't worried about it spoiling your future reading experience, the epub below has it.

Comments

OldFishBoi

Thanks for the chapter.

puppy0cam

looks like your text centring hasn't hit mobile yet.

Jazehiah

Alas, Android Patreon still makes the asterisks left-justified. Thank you for the chapter.

Robert Mullins

It's my Greatest pleasure to inform you that Patreon continues to be Patreon because the center alignment doesn't work on the app (android at least).

Neal Mayne

Sweet soup thank you

Jack

Thanks for writing

abowden

WOOH! I was wondering if the story would ever address this way of thinking... Not ALL good things require danger, agony, and sacrifice! and this kid... he drives Porti, and me, to drink. What a lad. I love him already.

Sleyca

Noooo....I bragged about my center alignment and it still doesn't work for some of you! Curses. Foiled eternally.

Hugh Jass

I have some bad news about those center aligned asterisks 😭

Reege

Thanks for the chapter!

Sesharan

Ngl, I laughed at the powerful lead-up to centered text, the thing that Sleyca has apparently desired for so long and at last finally achieved, being immediately followed by a line of left-side asterisks on my phone. Flawless comedic timing, no notes.

세희

All avowed should listen to poti's program. Add it to the essential education list.

puppy0cam

> You’re not wearing your commendation from Alis-art’h, or I would have recognized you So this knight is familiar enough with Alis to drop the hntyon part, but not the family part. Methinks this will be a minor character who shall pop back up again.

Thadd B

Top 20 comments right here

Listerine

I'm happy to finally meet Zeridee's family but wow, he is super confrontational. Congrats to Alden for deciding to do good in ways that won't destroy his physical and mental health! And to Porti-loth for setting things right by making birth trees a thing on Earth

Eddie

I kind of want to see Yookee’s commentary on Kwoo-Pak.

MWF

LOL, omg what just happened? First I'm tearing up for Alden working through things and then I'm cracking up over portiloths prickliness and the drunken undh both...along with the uneasy feeling that there was some kinda alarming news delivered by the tipsy goofball. I don't know what to do with all this. Edit: also I do have centered asterisks on my mobile? Did I not before? Things I've never noticed before now.

Twara Sandeep

Thanks for the chapter! I think I could take some of the same healing advice the Alden's been getting from Yenu-pezth, about not being at your past self for the decisions they made when they were them, and not you. I've also been learning to be more grateful to my past self for the good things they have done, so I feel like my understanding of my past self comes full circle with what Alden's doing right now as part of his healing

Bob Ross

“I was eventually going to tie my questions to a different patuk’s tail,” Why does this sound like "I was going to pin that tail on another donkey"?

Skeleterr

Yay—an early chapter

Jazehiah

Yookee-und’h reminds me of a parent who deadnames and misgenders their trans kid. Or, in this case, a sibling, because it's the "right" thing to do. He's the brother who wants his sister to join the "prestigious" family business instead of working reception to fund her art. "I want you to have a better life, that's all!" he'd say. He's probably a very nice person. But, he seems to have strong opinions that everyone else needs to know about and agree with... or be made to agree with.

Josiah Greenwood

I love so much that this one doctor has visited this backwards place with very little in the way of modern medicine and has already managed, even if only a little, to establish one (1) principle of modern health care that just so happens to be his passion project, definitely just a confidence. It's giving "I have studied this extensively, so trust me when I tell you it is pivotal to far more aspects of your health than you will ever know."

Awesomepossum15

I FORGOT it was soup day! Almost went to bed on time. I love Yookee already, though I'm assuming he'll be less aggressive when he sobers up. Next arc- youngish knight needs help investigating something he's been explicitly told to leave off because he has no business or relevant experience with criminal investigations or with humans, but no one around has the rank or authority to properly stop him from sticking his nose in. Very exciting, always something new with Sleyca! Here I was expecting some post finals classmate events and the visit from Connie that was planned years ago irl lol.

CloudyBall

I think Alden is getting ready for a more esoteric upgrade for BoAB. The idea of comforting people in their time of need by being thoughtful allows Alden to carry the burden of their poor mood. The same way an orderly might sit and simply talk to patients to comfort them while the heal. There is no physical burdern being carried in this example, but rather an emotional one that carries immense weight. I could imagine Alden suddenly taking away all the anxiety/fear/paranoia/dread from his teammates during real combat would be quite useful, especially early on for young knights.

Sesharan

It’s interesting that Yookee can tell that Alden is “associated with the place where the weapon went missing” without knowing who he is. I wonder if he has some kind of skill that lets him perceive associations? I look forward to meeting him again when he’s sober— this is a fascinating way to get a first impression of a character. We’re probably seeing parts of him that he would not normally reveal to a human.

Alan Miller

"How close under the trees do they need to be? Would it work if we made the hospital roof a garden area with trees and kept track of which rooms were below them?"

ImNotHere

Soup on the subway with the most beautiful asterix line!

Terrestrial_Biped
>>188303911

The drunkenness probably isn't helping his personality, lol, but he does seem to be kind of a lot regardless. He came here to... investigate? Apparently intending just to tromp around asking things of random people? And investigate *what*? He wants the names of the dead Avowed that attacked Zeridee because... he thinks they'll lead to some wider conspiracy, maybe? Sorry Yooks, they were just terrible people and also dumbasses. It's an unsatisfying reason to almost lose someone you care about, but sometimes that's the way it goes.

Npf

Yookee reminds me of Makee-en. Checks out that Esh sent him to Porti loth to learn patience just like how he sent Makee to "talk to Lind" (at the oath ceremony) when that clearly wouldn't be possible. He's probably a pro at getting people annoying him or others to go away.

puppy0cam

A weapon went missing at matadero? and I don't think it's referring to the sinker sender.

Adam Woods

I'm trying to decide how differently this introduction would have gone if Yookee wasn't drunk. I suspect it wouldn't have changed much.

Terrestrial_Biped
>>188304487

Pretty sure Esh already grounded him, lol, and the goofus didn't have a way off the cube to start with.

Terrestrial_Biped
>>188304899

Huh, that'd be interesting, but it might be more straightforward than that. I don't think we know what weapon he's talking about, but if it was an item used to brain Zeridee, maybe it was being kept "in evidence" at Matadero? And here is Alden, one of a very short list of humans the goofus has met while stranded at Matadero.

Saerthas

I hope this arc leads to him talking to stuart about his authority/knight stuff

WhisperOfLife

> With the life-sized image of her displayed on the wall of his Matadero hospital room, it was almost like their chairs were right across from each other. I seem to remember that Artonan tech has a three-dimensional effect. I wonder if this is that

Jonathan Price

Resource world Chicago still has Meigs Field! I wonder if they never had a mayor Daley or if a city mayor in that world just wouldn't have the authority to secretly order the destruction of a federally funded operating airport in the middle of the night.

Matt DiMeo

This is where the real story begins. A buddy cop comedy with yookee and Alden teaming up to find the sinker sender conspirators.

JennP

Young stuppidnoggin. I'm way too old for that to make me laugh as much as I did.

MWF
>>188305943

Wait, what now? Is this like a Robert Moses thing but in Chicago? I'm overdue to read more about Chicago.

MWF
>>188304189

Oh wait wait wait, I did notice a thing though! "You're associated with the place the weapon went missing" the looter dudes "stealing stuff off of artonans doctors tables" "tell me the names of the looter dudes because that might help in the investigation for the weapon". Whoa! Looks like Alden's volunteer gig at the hospital just landed him smack in the middle of a mystery, gang.

bradley foster

Any bets on how long Christmas break takes? Will we reach the new year on Anesidora before we do here on earth?

Msharlo1
>>188304659

He could learn to bear the burden of Boe's ability so that Boe has more off-mode time.

Terrestrial_Biped

What's this about a missing weapon? Given Yookee's... whole thing, including being a newling from Goldbush... I don't believe he would have gotten boatloads of confidential details about the Submerger disaster itself, except as it relates pretty directly to Zeridee. Maybe he's speaking of whatever tool caused Zeridee's head injury? Looking back at ch 136, there was a two foot long thin metal stake and a magic stunner from a hospital used by the thieves during the confrontation. The stake got her twice in the torso and the thieves said they shot the stunner off at her three times. Additionally, an unknown object struck her head, and Zeridee used the escape pod itself as a weapon, closing it prematurely to lop off a guy's arm. Any of those might be the weapon in question, maybe held because it serves as a good focus for a past-reading skill to establish events. So. Why would it go missing? Option one: It proves Zeridee behaved with propriety, so Bash-nor wants it gone. Two: It proves a spell was cast during the confrontation (Alden, with the auriad, in the conservatory) which looks bad for Zeridee, so her friends or protectors want it gone. Alternatively, someone like Bash-nor wants to use it to blackmail her. Three: Despite the implausibility, this somehow has to do with the weird coincidences that surround the Submerger disaster, and it has walked off because it was incriminating or revelatory concerning those larger events.

Elo2Coon
>>188304379

It does mean that artonan attach things to patuk tails. Message, ruban, powder ?

Kooikerhondjelover
>>188305755

Sounds like the conference rooms where you can have video calls with members across the world without travelling. All rooms styled alike and making the experience like you all sit at a round table.

natalie

yookee... yowkew? What's with the name, is Alden gonna eat him? foreshadowing?

PhoenixPax

>>>"I am [[making corrective noises]] about this problem" Anyone else imagining hooting?

Schuh
>>188306115

Yookee keeps getting drunk and asking random people inappropriate questions. It works out just enough to make Alden wonder whether Yookee is a genius, or a fool.

Elo2Coon

Thx for the chap. Was it better or was it easier ? Great question like: if u could turn back time. Your life might be easier but not better as you’ll have a lot impending through about timeline erasure, butterflies effect, etc. This is not a thesis… This new “elevated” character is interesting. He’s alarming with his “I will question you” moreover when Alden have on forefront his fear inducing behavior and his fear of rejection and isolation by having his capabilities discovered… Capabilities that would maybe be discover by this tipsy knight if he have a weird inspector skills times to names like an Ouija Call… 👻 or a memory consultation of what they did, sayer, etc. By questioning their remaining authority still bound to their name. IDK. That mean we can theorize… Or maybe, he just want to do something to their remaining family 😱

Msharlo1

People are commenting on the weapon statement. I personally think it's the sinker sender and that the place is referring to Aneisidora, because that makes more sense to me than whatever Zeridee was stabbed with. Especially since the contract, while busy, wouldn't have anything interferring with investigating there if it wanted to (as opposed to the jammer on the sinker sender) and it's not like the events are some big mystery. I see this more as an overzelous young knight wanting to do what no one else has been able to do. I also see a lot of parallels between this and the last arc with Stu seeking justice (acting as an ideiological foil as Sleyca likes to set up so often).

Kooikerhondjelover
>>188306960

We have 22 chapters till year end. It should be feasible to align timelines by then and tie up loose ends.

Karl

Oh no, the way Alden spirals after making progress with himself is so real. "Why didn't I think this way all those years ago, things would have been so much better?"

Robert Mullins

`Wait. Is it subtly calling me stupidnoggin? Because it knows something about the yovkew?` That's the problem with being on a first name basis with the contracts. You can never be entirely sure of when they're performing in a routine manner that coincidentally seems insulting vs actually being subtly insulting.

The Icarus Collective
>>188307068

The stunner that went missing from the hospital seems a likelier candidate. Alden may volunteer at the same hospital.

Aspiring Moth
>>188308896

I think it's just one of those that will feel better with chapters to read either side of it. as people noted, many open plot threads have been resolved or are far enough into the future to not be immediately relevant. this chapter is both continuing Alden's move towards choosing honesty with Stuart and eventual public knighthood while adding some more immediate plot threads

HN

Ironic that, since I read directly in my mail, the asterisks are NOT aligned correctly for me. I got to read how happy you were, then bam!, misaligned asterisks.

Mag1cM

Small faux pas by not calling Yookee hn'tyon even though Alden wasn't told to drop the title. Incredibly disrespectful rabbit.

J
>>188303800

Have we seen knights call each other hntyon outside of formal contexts?

Guus van der Borg

"I should make you sit down with him and watch Kwoo-pak.” “Please don’t,” said Alden. Lol, yes, please don't Porti-loth. Just make them watch it separately. :)

puppy0cam
>>188308678

it might be insulting the knight in this case. Or it could just be doing its job as usual and the word is supposed to be a childlike insult against someone's intelligence.

Guus van der Borg

Wild thoughts ahead, beware: If Yookee-und'h has some kind of investigative skill that can find relationships between places and/or people. And if he's currently looking into the submerger incident, and more specifically Libra. Do you think he may find out that the roommates have a sinister plot in relation to Libra? In a way that's just vague enough that he might link it to the submerger incident? That wouldn't be good for them...

Guus van der Borg

Btw, I don't recall Earth ever refusing to translate swear words. In fact, I remember Alden saying he didn't think Earth would be as prudish as Artona III. So I don't think Alden has to worry about it being an implied insult. I doubt Earth has even developed the subtlety for such a thing yet anyway.

50cant12
>>188307278

Chapter 400: Alden consumes Yookee, but in order to ensure the ritual is not triggered he must consume the artonan whole

Sunden

I think the missing weapon is what Joe and his assistants were working on at the lab. Not the sinker sender or anything on Anesidora.

Tifer

Many of the things in this chapter directly touch or resolve things I wondered about last chapter. From Alden rationalizing his fear of being a knight vs. his desire to help people, to the fact that subtle differences could exist between Earth's Contract vs. Mother. I am satisfied. I can only guess that Yookee is looking into exactly HOW those Avowed died. Because that seems like it would be the most dramatic. It wasn't in my top 3 ways Alden's secret might be jeopardized soon, but wouldn't it be delicious if he ended up in a situation where Zeridee's dedication to not using magic anymore was being directly attacked because of HIS use of magic back during the waves arc? I would like to see that.

Лада Красильникова

Yookee is delightful and hilarious! I hope he'll grow up into a cool knight and Alden will NEVER let him live his youthful dumbassery down :D

Francis

Yookee is the Winston of the Knights

Maximus

I am sorry to say that at least on mobile your asterisks aren't centred.

The Icarus Collective

On mobile, using browser rather than the app, asterisks are centered as intended.

puppy0cam
>>188312489

Yuki (I'm calling them Yuki because its shorter) is likely going to struggle to magically figure out what happened. The place the event happened at no longer exists, all the topsoil will have been shuffled around to the bottom of the hill so the Ground that witnessed the event won't be reasonably attainable. Not to mention that Yuki is banned from travelling to Anesidora. A weapon (presumably one of the weapons used to attack zeridee) is missing. Zeridee's own memory of the event will be unreliable due to that head wound potentially causing some brain damage. Her body will have been healed in such a way that her body forgets it was hurt. The attackers are all dead, and the only part of their bodies left will have been a severed arm. The only witness who has a reliable memory of what happened is Alden, and he's politically difficult to interrogate because of his commendation. Yuki has their work cut out for them for very little reward to all observers except Alden who has transparently only kept one detail out of the record, and assured Esh-erdi that it would not sufficiently alter his understanding of the event to be worth mentioning. All of this to say that I think Yuki's efforts would be better spent on investigating the ambassador's long term, subtle, and ongoing mistreatment of Zeridee. And not the random uncoordinated attempt upon her life because she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maximus

Thank you very much for the chapter.

Demitas

I just want to emphasize how impressive it is that you can come up with so many idioms and colloquialisms that are so clearly foreign, but still understandable.

BelligerentGnu
>>188305599

I mean, the fear discussion heavily implies it but gods we are taking our sweet time getting there. I haven't minded the pacing for a long time but it's starting to get to me.

Jason Harpster

No, no she did not use a magic spell to punch a person. QUIT ASKING!!!!! -Alden

Leonhard R.

Thanks for the very enjoyable chapter! Loved the wording [...] "Alden didn’t have time to process it since the guy was on a roll."

Leonhard R.
>>188311601

Intressting theory! I first thought it might be the sinker sender and due to a spell (or it's his knight skill) yookee knows, that the improved beverage and Alden are related to Aulia Velra (... and the missing sinker sender). But i like your theory!

Jim

Very fun and enjoyable chapter. I was just thinking, shouldn’t Alden have a system tag showing at least his name? I wonder why Knights don’t use them? But there shouldn’t be situations where people don’t know at least your name or whatever other info you put in your tag.

Kemlion

“And being comfortable… can feel the same way as being right?” That hit like a brick to the face 🌝

Msharlo1

Avowed skills are based off of Artonan spells, so imagine getting a U-Type Affixation really young, only to be told that your OP healing skill requires the target's birth tree as an ingerdient because Porti popularized his healing methods on Earth.

Cliff

A lovely chapter. I was really hoping that Alden would grow to forgive his past self. It's something that took a long time for me during therapy, but what a relief to say "he was doing the best he could, with what he knew at the time"

Armo

I wonder what Yookee thinks about Zeridee’s refusal to use magic. He said he doesn’t think much of Zeridee shedding her und’h name, but is that the same as wishing to not use magic? Part of it? Completely unrelated? I have a feeling Alden might be getting another knight friend out of this. Maybe Stu too! He might be a little enthusiastic, but he’s certainly got the spirit!

Barrett Fogarty

I think there needs to be more asterisks, say maybe eight or maybe ten. Six is never enough.

David
>>188305204

“Little cracks in my schedule. So easy to fix…”

SinCinnamon

Now I am irrationally concerned about my birth tree.

Jazehiah
>>188325687

She's not just attempting to move to the ordinary class. It sounds like she's trying to distance herself from a rapport.

PatienceHoney
>>188306326

No... we are not too old!! Stupidnoggin brings us all back to our childhood and laughing when someone was called a poopoohead.

JKlarinet
>>188325989

You know, I have no idea what my birth would be, or where? And what if my birth tree was some short-lived type of tree (like a black locust)—or a really old old oak—that died! Then how would Porti-loth heal me? And there are so many trees that you wouldn’t want to be your tree, like Bradford Pear or Chinese Elm, which just get blown over in windstorms. My tree might already have suffered somewhere. And they put trees in hospital parking lots, but those trees don’t have very good care. I imagine this is a very serious concern.

Ano Ano

Meigs Field is still around? This alternate timeline is crazy.

Npf

I'm excited to eventually (soon?) find out why Zeridee is leaving the wizard class for the ordinary class. It would be compelling if it were out of an objection for the harmful practice of having a lower class with fewer rights and privileges. It could also tie in interestingly to the ethics of contracts with Avowed, which has mostly only been in the background of the story. For example, maybe Zeridee got this job on an Avowed planet bc she doesn't think the practice is ethical and would rather spend time with Avowed than Artonans in the wizard class. Idk how likely that is, but I'll be excited when the ethics of Artonan society come up more. I could imagine it being the central theme later on. Like, if Alden ends up with a lot of power in the Artonas socially as well otherwise, I think he will eventually need to reflect a lot more on how messed up the whole avowed processes are. He thinks about it sometimes like because of Kon, and Stu thought about it briefly too ("so many things about Avowed were so far from perfection"), but I think we could be in for a LOT more plot addressing this. Right now it feels like Alden is a little enamored with Artonan knight culture as the only place he feels like he might really belong if they let him. He mostly doesn't seem to be thinking about the harms it causes, just the justifications for parts of it that make more sense. I felt this most during the Olget / executioner part. Maybe he was already supposed to know all the details about Olget's likely punishment, but it felt very weird that he didn't ask or bring it up at all. Just sort of blind faith in the justice system (or more likely, Stu). I could imagine a version of the story where it even culminates in him for whatever reason having to fight against the Artonans or even try to end the Earth contract, even though it ending is currently one of his biggest fears. That might be less likely, but one way or another I'd definitely be into more reckoning with the many shortcomings of Artonan society and being an Avowed.

Brandon Steele
>>188317996

That is the premise of "getting out of your comfort zone" and how people in toxic relationships convince themselves to stay.

Eva
>>188317072

Alden puts his tag on as he seems necessary

PhoenixPax
>>188315154

It's possible any spell residue would show avowed spells. It's very possible Alden's spell is auriad only, and there's no way Zeridee has an auriad.

Elle

Porti makes fortifide wine/champagne. This is making a lot of sense to me.

John D Jones
>>188307910

I don't think so. The Sinker-Sender was pretty clearly a tool, not a weapon (even if it got used as an improvised weapon). Also, it's not really "missing," It's been destroyed. I think the weapon is something that's gone missing after that.

PatienceHoney
>>188307763

In my head it was the "Ahnt" noise I make when a pet is in the middle of an inappropriate action.

Elle
>>188305228

Yes, i was wondering too. What weapon went missing? A world self destruction bomb maybe?

Alex Scriber

I wonder if Zeridee leaving the wizard class for the ordinary class is supposed to be a stand-in for being LGBT? People seem to have a range of reactions to it that isn’t entirely dissimilar. Or maybe I’m wildly off base and reading something that isn’t there.

Aspiring Moth
>>188338622

it seems more to do with responsibility to me. the wizards have the ability to do more to help their people, so they're dissuaded and looked down upon for not doing so. zeridee is seen as the equivalent of a top cancer researcher deciding that she wants to work as a cashier instead of saving millions of lives, when only a fraction of people could do what she could do

SnuggleCat
>>188309963

Deserved rudeness, honestly. Super drunk knight does not have the dignity of his title.

SnuggleCat
>>188305320

He word choice would have been slightly different, and imagine he wouldn't have had the up-and-down swing to his voice.

Ian T Hathaway

Yenu's line about not being angry at your past self for not handling situations like you could now... hit really fucking deep. Thank you, Sleyca. And thank you for Yookee being a good palette cleanser with his ridiculousness after

Ano Ano

Glad we're finally meeting knights who are jerks.

PeasOfCrab

> You should wear it so that nobody mistakes you for one who sucks nectar while others hunger. I think the implication is that having the visible commendation inherently associates him/categorizes him as the elder brother. So without it, someone might accidentally think he is someone else allegorically, perhaps even the younger brother.

PeasOfCrab

I speculate that Yookee has some sort of informational skill. He might be the sort of Knight that helps evaluates demons’ stamina for capture. It seemed like he was able to tell something about Alden and also his insistence about knowing the names being helpful makes me think he might actually magically be able to determine some connections/extra details.

KB

Thank you for the chapter!

David
>>188345868

I think it refers to the girl who left the (relative) safety of the village to pick the thrumming flowers instead drawing the nectar out. She wasn’t one who would suck nectar. Alden isn’t either. The commendation is the proof of his sacrifice.

J Reynolds
>>188346556

Yookee-und'h, private eye! It's possible, I suppose. It could be that he's just an Artonan kid who's read the Artonan equivalent of police procedural fiction / listened to true crime podcasts, and thinks he can Solve This Mystery. We'll find out, I guess.

J Reynolds

> despising people named after breakfast meats Okay, I did NOT get this reference. Can anybody help me here?

Lyssur

Yookee-und'h, Zeridee's brother. Him bringing up the issue of her name was interesting to me, as his take on it is that it is motivated primarily by her desire to move into the common class. Previously, I had taken it instead as Zeridee choosing to integrate with humans on Earth- as it seems common on Anesidora to use first names (or chosen names) as the way of addressing each other. It also brings to mind Alden and Zeridee's interactions, and wondering if there may actually be some unintended closeness implied to Artonans. (I mean, he calls her Zeridee only when first referring to her to Esh-erdi, but calls Stu 'Stu-art'h.' No wonder Esh-erdi congratulated him when he started referring to him as 'Stu'.) When they first meet, they speak English, and Zeridee treats him like any other human Avowed- which is when she tells him to call her Zeridee only. Now, she knows he is weaving a friendship with Stu, often traveling to Artona, and dealing with knights and wizards- all in Artonan. Does it mean the same if he refers to her as Zeridee? It'd be a transition between Anesidoran social norms, and Artonan ones. But it would also mean something if he suddenly chose to call her Zeridee-und'h, as that would have implications for how close they feel to each other, and also apparently whether he chooses to accept her decision to become a member of the common class. So Yookee-und'h first wants Alden to call her Zeridee-und'h, before he can reframe Alden calling her Zeridee due to personal closeness. And yes, it seems in part due to Yookee-und'h's wanting not accept her decision to become a member of the common class. But it can also be a way of protecting Zeridee- we know Bash-nor is not her friend. I wish we knew what he called her. Ultimately, I don't think we know enough information about why Zeridee is choosing to become a member of the common class, so it's difficult to know how to take others' acceptance of the decision. Esh-erdi calls her Zeridee-und'h, and refers to her as the 'und'h girl'. He says he does not agree with her reasons, but accepts them- interesting, since Esh-erdi comes off as pretty open-minded. (Ch 146) Now Yookee-und'h says her reasons are to 'perform humiliation', and refuses to accept the decision. But he refuses to accept it, calling her attempts stupid and insulting. Is he calling the fact that she's attempting to do so stupid and insulting? Or the effectiveness of such attempts? And insulting to who? I am feeling curious about Zeridee choosing to become a member of the common class. It's especially interesting given the glimpses we saw of the Welcome End ceremony- then, some people suggested that maybe Zeridee failed her oaths. At the time I took it as wild speculation, but now I too am starting to wonder....

Tori, Writher #1 Fan

I feel like this is the beginning of a mystery arc, and 20 details in this chapter are going to pop out in a future reread once we've learned how it all fits together. In unrelated news, I just got an unexpected free hot chocolate just outside my door. Wish me luck tonight.

AnonymousBlob
>>188357051

Some guy online named wakeuptheresbacon (or something like it) had opinions about things related to body drainer and Alden’s parents. I think…

Leonhard R.

Does Alden hate Xmas?

ender

Sadly the center alignment doesn't seem to work in e-mails – the asterisks were still left-aligned.

MWF
>>188324503

I dunno, my working theory is that Uniques aren't affixed by the system, they get their powers spontaneously for reasons that have yet to be revealed and the system helps make them more manageable afterwards. That's why they don't usually get spell impressions to start with.

Quivo
>>188363462

Just want to point out that Alden basically had no reliable family for many years after his parents died. If he wanted Christmas to be a thing, he'd probably have had to do all the planning, buying and decorating himself, and it might have felt like too much work for an experience that fell way short of what he could still remember. It makes perfect sense to me that he'd see Christmas partly as a sore spot to ignore and also partly as an extra couple days off from school rather than a hugely important holiday that needs plans made for it.

Catherine

Alden needs to add stupidnoggin to Lutes vocabulary!

PeasOfCrab

I’m very much looking forward to the best-selling children’s book across the Triplanets and resource worlds: The very good Ryeh-b’t, Alden

Poiuy

That was a bit emotional. In an intoxicatedly confused way. But still sweet.

Beau Headley
>>188364664

yeah, it didn't work on mobile either, but i get the feeling not may people use mobile on patreon.

Terrestrial_Biped
>>188310600

I think he's trying to find a sinister reason his sister was attacked and almost died, because in some ways that feels better than it happening at random. He speaks specifically of the names of the dead thieves leading to something else, and of the missing weapon (the stunner used against Zeridee, stolen from a hospital) from a place Alden is associated with (he had just told Porti-loth he was volunteering there).

Isak Mark

Can we have an age prediction thread? I think the oldest character we have been introduced to is probably Gorgon at thousands of years old. second would probably be murmur probably 300-1000 years old. third is Porti-loth he seems so old that he probably knew Lind-otta as a child, is comfortable with telling knights they don't have any idea of what they are doing, and is thus easily persuaded by what he thinks is a dedicated and loving child; guessing he is 500+ years old it shows in his healing methods especially his emphasis on renewal so that the body forgets. I'm guessing the knight who came to save Joe and family during the elders croak is Stuart's dad so probably him and alis-art'h next at around 200-300 years old. Maybe Joe after that? Then Lind-Otta and Esh-Erdi at a few decades younger than them.

Jonathan Price

> I decided on Goldbush to tell her so. It took me a few reads over far too long to figure this sentence out. I thought it was just drunk nonsense, but it's not. I was reading “I decided on [this potential option],” when he was really saying “on Goldbush, I decided to tell her so.”

Jonathan Price
>>188404407

It might be better this way. I don't think the Artonans should be easy to parse. That's just not their style. I normally have to read their chapters at least twice to fully get them. This one line just kept leading me down the garden path.

Gorane
>>188397803

I always assumed the primary is 90-140 years old Joe is likewise as old, as he implied to be around 90 years ago when Earth was contracted. I am not sure port-l9th is that old, I think it was implied living to 300 was a 0.1% accomplishment

Shining Moon
>>188313232

That’s what I was coming to say! Sorry Sleyca, you seemed so excited about it too 😂

Tori, Writher #1 Fan

Trauma can impair decisionmaking in a million random ways, but maybe malignant forces of chaos could nudge that impairment into a particularly insidious direction, with an Esh-erdi-like sense for cracks. Goldbush is a training ground for vulnerable young knights who mostly come from knight families with organized support networks, so it would be particularly devastating to take their random trauma and chaos-twist it into "I Know What's Best For My Sibling And It Will Definitely Drive A Wedge Through Our Family", as seems to be the case for both Yookee-und'h and Jozz-art'h. Whereas Alden doesn't have much family or a knight support network to exploit, so he got "Triggered Into Extreme Self-Sacrifice That Makes No Sense And Might Massively Backfire" instead (and so, it seems, did the object shaper on the submerger boat). This one can actually scale infinitely as it's one of the Original 300 Traumas.

VP
>>188379737

(and her also good but not as great friend, Punzee-thorn)

Tacit Candor

On the topic of secrets getting out, how many characters do we have that have a chance of knowing some - or better yet, all - of Alden's Big Secrets? Boe is of course on the list, but others? Like, I cant help but think that Tuyet's brother has a decent chance of knowing it all.

Mike

I appreciate that the current chapter does not have much to do with this but I’m very curious about the direction Alden’s mental health recovery will go. It seems like he might struggle in the long run which it has been bugging me and I have no one to talk to about it! So I’m wondering if I have misunderstood the nature of the therapy he is doing and what the thoughts of other people are? I think that a really interesting part of Alden’s character is that his self-sacrificing, helpfulness, work ethic and desire to improve seem to serve dual functions of protecting against his feelings towards others and to enacting his healthy desire to protect himself and people he cares about. But in regards to the therapy he is doing, on the face of it, it seems like the work on his dreams and the general approach to therapy would make Alden worse off in the long run. Alden is often an avoider of his mixed emotions, particularly when he is angry with people who he likes/loves. His go to avoidance strategies seem to be self-sacrificing, self-criticizing, staying silent and intellectualizing/rationalizing, and then when these fail he moves into venting (e.g., snapping at people) or panic. When it comes to processing the events of the Moon Thegund, he has a duel problem. First, it was a very scary experience. Second, he criticizes himself for his response. The treatment for the first would be facing these feelings (fear etc.), learning that he can have his emotions and be okay (see exposure therapy for PTSD, cognitive processing for PTSD, EMDR etc). The treatment for the second would be addressing his underlying feelings towards the people in his life that he has been using the self-sacrificing/self-criticizing to avoid. Separate from these two problems is his healthy desire to be stronger to improve his capacity to protect himself and other people. The dream altering doesn’t seem to address either of the two problems here. There is no processing of his emotions about the events on the moon or towards other people in his life. The dream altering and his general development of strength will only work to make him feel better right up until he is in a situation again in which he cannot cope behaviorally and/or he feels major fear. At which point he will have no skills in place to help him tolerate the fear. In addition, it doesn’t seem to help him separate out his healthy desire to be stronger and to protect by working hard, sacrificing etc. from his desire to avoid his painful mixed emotions towards the important people in his life by sacrificing etc. That’s my two cents and I’m interested to hear what other people think?

Mike
>>188500645

I wondered about Tuyet's brother as well. Does he spend his attention monitoring Tuyet and other people important to him or does he ever snoop at other people? Is Boe the person who damaged Tuyet's brother (by accident) and now Boe has to avoid Anesidora!?

Casey
>>188501715

That's damningly accurate... They say a lot of therapy is about really just getting to the point of being able to sit with your memories and look at them calmly and objectively. I think Alden is a point where he can do that most of the time. But that objectivity leads to more learning, more realizations. Like, what are the odds that Alden's parents didn't have magic. And if they did, the foundation of his life is a lie. I'd be curious if he looked up the odds of that and really thought about it for a while and decided it had some merit. What if he mulled over it for a few weeks and decided it was true. How would he react? What would a healthy response be? But you are right, Alden does need to work on his avoidance tendancies. However, his heroic spirit might lead him to avoid people in his life that can be put in danger. Even with the good and selfless Artonians he knows, he puts people at higher risk of getting noticed and ground up in the fight against choas. Furthermore, it's not like the Artonians are a selfless species. Sure, their culture encourages being selfless. But it also takes those who are selfless and isolates them from the rest of society. I mean, imagine the Elder's Croak but with the elder in his own gated community of opulence... it's not and never could be the same. And he did get duped pretty hard by Joe. And I'm not sure how many people understand how insidious people like Joe are. What if the Knights like Alden and accept him but the wizards don't and actively plot against him? Wizards seem to most often take the benifits of their social position without the responsibility of said position in this story.

puppy0cam

it's not a chapter day, but just saying it would be very funny for the next chapter to be titled "answers, more questions"

jg
>>188523035

I heard a bell .... Pavlova puppy! Porti-loo gets revenge Leo discovers Porti-loos Some questions have vile answers Inquire within Answers, with << questions >>

puppy0cam

Chapter Predictions!

puppy0cam
>>188614315

Sleyca finally succeeds at giving us centred asterisks Esh-erdi slips on a banana peel Emban calls to apologise to Alden Alden gets bit by a dog Alden *does not* spread the good word of birth trees and healing groves While Alden is on shift at the healing hospital, he has to preserve someone for an entire hour Winston cuts himself off from the internet cold turkey (he's addicted, it won't last even a day) Yuki sneaks onto Anesidora by using an invisibility spell to get on the nine edged son when Alden leaves. The matadero tattoo is a big M on Alden's butt to compliment Lute's V tattoo. What does MV stand for? uh... how about VM? cause VM stands for virtual machine mmhmm Alden shares the new insult he's learned to get revenge on the percieved dig the contract made at him. Ro-den turns himself into a pickle for Alden to preserve.

SnuggleCat

I am Porti-loth and I speak for the birth trees!

PeasOfCrab

Champagne had never been his first choice of indulgence. Perhaps that would change after today. He sank deeper into the sweet warmth of the healing mud and drank some more. He had decided the bottle should be empty when they called to give him the terrible news about his plotline. That would happen very soon, wouldn’t it? Yes, soon. He would be the last of his writer’s characters called, but he would be called. And his readers’ faces would be filled with disgust at the state he was in. His writer…she would be too distraught to notice. Of course. Weeping. Regretful. Poor Writer. But this would pass. Yookee would comfort her and make it up to her.

Sleyca
>>188700493

This is hilarious to me. And I love writing from horrid points of view like Olget's.

puppy0cam

Because there is no longer proof to the contrary I can say that this is the chapter where Stuart slipped on a banana peel HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA