Chapter Summary and thoughts
The story takes place inside a framework of 10 Events Occuring:
- A convening of ships at sea
- An execution
- A boxing match
- An accusation in scarlet
- A hiring of an employee
- An assassination
- A fine
- A duel
- A delivery service opening
- A crossing of borders
Teriarch and Valeterisa get some character development. Valeterisa attempts to create a teleport network to replace Erin’s door to House Sanito. There’s a lot of use of the [Parallel Thoughts] which gives her inner monologue a unique style to say the least.
There’s another framing device for Valeterisa with her remaining budget for the project, which slowly dwindles as she runs into issues.
Eventually her teleportation circles fail due to sabotage and incompetence, she blames Montressa and gets really mean about it, Larra of the Haven steps in for Montressa and slaps Valley and she flies off. There’s a chase to bring her back, with Ryoka almost getting electrocuted, but Ieka hires Fierre who uses Ieka’s Unmarked Coach pass to get the djinn who runs it to chase down Valeterisa. Valeterisa shows emotions and apologizes in a funny, train-of-thought dialogue section. She alters Valmira’s comet to launch herself and the cargo the hundreds of miles instead of teleport and it takes 4 mages to [Featherfall] her landing, hilarious. Also at some point Pirateaba mentioned a rival who alters time and memory in Terandria so that might be interesting.
Teriarch is desperate to prepare the world to fight the dead ____s once more. He takes Rafaema to try to teach her some things. This is a parallel to Valeterisa in that he tries so hard but fails time and time again. He meets with people who were spoken to by ghosts at the conclusion of Volume 8 and tries to inspire them. It has mixed results. The funniest bit was when he was trying to prepare the farmer with a magic sword and the tropes that were lampooned a bit there.
At some point, we get some insight into the Vampire attack on House Byres. Ylawes being so driven to just try to feed his people was rather touching. Delanay the Runner / Vampire Hunter shows up and is set to go hunting the Vampires, which Ylawes clues him into the Lischelle-Drakle family from his previous encounter with them.
The real highlight is Tolveilouka trying to plague the only remaining Byres farm. The way he has been stopped at every attempt to spread a plague is getting comical. For such a strong villain, I wish he actually accomplished some destruction to keep the stakes real. This time, it’s Taletevirion who stops him, dueling him almost to destruction at the same time. I like the unicorn.
Teriarch has another failure when he confronts Tolveilouka, who had sensed his presence and is ready with a weapon designed for dragonslaying, causing Teriarch to flee. Reasonable, but again, a villain who can make some of the strongest heroes flee but can’t even get revenge on the Horns or start the plague he’s designed for? Seems weak to me.
Teriarch drops some dragon lore, gets depressed, and meets with Magnolia. This was the most eye-roll section for me because she mocks him relentlessly, then gives him a couple lines about how he’ll always fly again, but the narration treats it like the combined worst roast and best pep-talk ever. I remember thinking that when she “slew him with a lance of words” that this might be my least favorite part of TWI, the over-dramatization of what’s almost a filler chapter.
Teriarch also is highlighted in being physically out of shape, which is what inspires him to box Alber at the end of the story. He gets the shit beat out of him which helps somehow, but then takes some fancy deep breaths and so watch out, world! Also Rafaema is living in the High Passes so I hope we get some exposition on the mysteries there.
Overall rating: 6/10. A lot of words on characters who aren’t my favorite, giving them small arcs that people that old shouldn’t need. “It’s OK to fail” jeez I’m 28 and I got that in spades.