Volume 2 is done. 111 chapters.
Wow.
I didn't plan for this arc to hit as hard as it did. Corvin folding a tent with Nym and finally admitting he'd spent his whole life just waiting to matter to someone — that scene came out of nowhere for me too.
Nym broke my heart a little, not gonna lie. Eleven years called a curse, and all it took to undo that was one person who refused to leave without him.
And Silas — did NOT expect to love writing him this much. Started as a guy flirting in a market, ended up quietly taking apart a trafficking ring alone for three weeks, then almost skipped the goodbye entirely because leaving is easier than admitting you want to stay. Climbed a tree instead. Classic.
Zelene held it all together, not because of Crimson, but because she never stopped choosing people nobody else bothered choosing first.
Four Auryns found. One stranger just called her "my lord" with nothing left but a bow.
I won't ever ask or force anyone to drop power stones, hit that like button, or add this to their library. If you got something out of this volume — if any of these characters made you feel the way they made me feel writing them — and you want to show that, I'd be genuinely grateful. But only if it's real though. Not because it's expected of you.
Thanks for pushing back on every draft of this thing — genuinely made it better. See you in Volume 3!!!