Chapter 48
Added 2024-05-31 04:00:07 +0000 UTCSong had not worn formal clothes this regularly
Comments
Izel is trans. Tupoc could be I guess, as his god could easily have perfected his appearance to make him unclockable, but that seems unlikely.
Jacob Burton-Edwards
2024-06-22 11:28:34 +0000 UTCWait so I was confused. Are Izel and Tupoc trans? Or was it implying that they lost their inheritance because someone in their family was corigdo(I already forgot the spelling)
Tristan A
2024-06-22 09:24:40 +0000 UTCNone that, at first glance, could be used to get to the Lord Rector up herE in his heavily guarded private suite. He even added how Lady Keys had grabbed him by the neck and tossed him down a window with strength unusual for a woman A skinny – though not, it must be said, impossible. The odds were good that for onCe he would be the one with the drop on Cressida Tristan taking it from a surpriseD young woman and heading back to the table along with Song.
O'Mally
2024-06-21 07:57:58 +0000 UTCThat would suggest the Lord Rector is dealing directly with Pandemonium, wouldn't it? Lucifer & co putting in a bid on the shipyard? I think that'd get a stronger reaction from Hage, though with the forge there, it'd be right for them to have an interest.
Lewis
2024-06-09 19:29:28 +0000 UTCMy assumption was that they're devils from the Office of Opposition, as it has been established that devils wearing human skin look like normal people to Song. Which, now that I think about it, kind of puts the lie to her contract letting her see the truth of things.
Oblivious Sage
2024-06-09 03:24:07 +0000 UTCThe bit where Song says, “You do not know the details of my contract,” and Evander Palliades easily replies "No, but my friends..." hits a bit differently when you read it in the context of Hage's opinion on Lord Locke and Lady Keys, the guests of the Lord Rector. Guests with some source of power that's not visible to Song-- something inside them, like Sakaas perhaps? Or something antediluvian? The Lord Rector is playing some deeper game here. Bit of a shame, seems like he'd make a fine Savant or Laurel to flesh out the main group if he could make it out from under that crown. Someone may yet throw that rock at Asphodel hard enough.
Lewis
2024-06-04 02:38:25 +0000 UTCWen is the best! So many green flags as a mentor that I'm worried they are also death flags.
York
2024-06-03 15:30:27 +0000 UTCAwesome chapter thanks
George R
2024-06-02 17:16:53 +0000 UTC"It was a false equivalence to compare a sword in the hand of a tyrant and a sword in the hand of free man, but the hand wielding it did not make the sword itself more virtuous." - a riff on the bit from On Political Morality, I assume? Quote: "Does your government, then, resemble a despotism? Yes, as the sword which glitters in the hands of liberty's heroes resembles the one with which tyranny's lackeys are armed. Let the despot govern his brutalized subjects by terror; he is right to do this, as a despot. Subdue liberty's enemies by terror, and you will be right, as founders of the Republic."
bolsh
2024-06-01 15:00:21 +0000 UTCEh, Song can see her, too. IIRC she's even learning lip-reading to understand her.
Qahlz
2024-06-01 14:05:08 +0000 UTCI have a feeling that one day in a distant chapter... Wen is gonna get got... and the 13th will burn a city to the ground
Mace
2024-06-01 07:43:50 +0000 UTCyeah, I'm not sure EE knows how to fit Fortuna into the story now that there's such an intertwined ensemble dynamic. She was interesting/comic relief, but she hasn't evolved with everyone else which maybe makes it harder to find a place for her that's natural and compelling. That said, for all intents Tristan is schizophrenic, he sees and talks to someone no-one else can percieve, and I think it takes away something for that to only come up when it's convenient
Notcreepycreeper
2024-05-31 21:40:48 +0000 UTCShe's certainly missed in Tristan's POVs this chapter, but I trust she would have derailed the flow EE was going for
Dominic Corbin
2024-05-31 19:09:18 +0000 UTCMy read was that it wasn't pity that shook Tupoc, it was the refutation of Tupoc's upbringing. Tupoc believes the horrors of his youth were necessary in order to obtain strength. Izel is saying that the way Tupoc was treated was not only immoral, but ultimately meritless and a detriment to Izcal. That every terrible thing that Tupoc went through was unnecessary and a symbol of WEAKNESS rather than STRENGTH. To a man who's entire self-worth is built on the strength he obtained through his upbringing, this is devastating.
Kev G
2024-05-31 18:16:54 +0000 UTCHas anyone also the feeling that there is a lack of Fortuna these last chapters? Fortuna should , with few exceptions, always be with Tristan but we rarely get a sentence where it is mentioned that she is even present. Maybe once a while a sentence of her being facinated by something or another. Those throwaway lines in the story have always been a highlight for me.
Jasus
2024-05-31 17:48:40 +0000 UTCfor tristan it would be after his revenge and all his goals are meet, thats why Hage is a good teacher for him, teaching him to be more than a Mask.
Ed
2024-05-31 17:45:07 +0000 UTCit feels like is the red axe's problem all over again, you hands cant be always been clean when you rule more than ten people and break the system just because you think its not enough. that and cressida sound like a toxic snowflake, what is the point of insulting in each and every opportunity.
Ed
2024-05-31 17:35:12 +0000 UTCto be fair to tupoc, he had to fight and kill to survive, izel life should have been hard, but to kill other to survive means you value more your life than the others, that and izel ideals are like oil and water and would have caused a lot of psicological problems.
Ed
2024-05-31 17:30:43 +0000 UTCThe HATED ONE just needs a hug.
primus
2024-05-31 16:34:35 +0000 UTCTupoc and Tristan have always been foils, they intuitively get and despise each other the that can only happen with deep understanding of the other person. They both follow the same script when dealing with each other, even as viscous as they are they dance to the same tune. Tupoc was raised to treat his life as if nothing wrong was done to him, and that informed his worldview. An apology to him is undermining the core of his worldview, and even if it wasn't, pity is against everything his created persona is meant for, hate, fear, obedience, those are what he chooses to bring out in people, pity means that he failed and he doesn't like that. It makes me wonder how Tristan would feel if someone honestly pitied him, or worse apologized. Masks aren't the type to apologize, but also don't pretend they aren't sorely using him for his own purposes. They acknowledge they're not being fair to him, and he expects it even as he privately wants something else, seen at the start of book 2 when he hates being told he's the one that'll have to treat his cabal as allies-of-convenience rather then family. It's an interesting dynamic, and I wonder if Tristan will realize what happened to Tupoc can apply to him, or if this will be buried in the themes and subtext later to be dragged out into the light after it has time to be forgotten about.
Mark W
2024-05-31 14:09:44 +0000 UTCPilgrim vibes - man's gonna redeem and horrify in equal measure.
Joe Rachman
2024-05-31 13:36:58 +0000 UTCHe's gonna chuck Izel at it.
Sean Boyd
2024-05-31 12:43:51 +0000 UTC"If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.” ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms Be afraid Tristan Abascal, your grin wont work on that one.
COR
2024-05-31 12:39:02 +0000 UTCMaybe they are also annealed devils?
StrollingEye
2024-05-31 11:00:39 +0000 UTCNo clue we don't know what sort of god it is yet. It's not a pleasant one clearly so maybe its Bane is nice? Somehow I don't think the 13th is that lucky though...
Joe Rachman
2024-05-31 11:00:17 +0000 UTCAnd what's the bane for hate?
Poop McScoop
2024-05-31 10:56:06 +0000 UTCI'm definitely thinking Wen is actually a Crypt, hence him being good with knives and sneaking. That would put him there to watch Tristan specifically.
Poop McScoop
2024-05-31 10:54:00 +0000 UTCI’m dying to know more about Locke and Keys!!! The most charismatic, terrifying, suspicious characters so far. I just know they are going to be involved in the best possible way when it all blows up
Musclerelaxant
2024-05-31 10:48:27 +0000 UTCWhere is Fortuna? As if she would miss this entertainment.
Jasus
2024-05-31 09:00:44 +0000 UTCLike the rest of them, Izel has been playing the game on hard mode, yet continues to have a Superman-level morality and empathy. I agree with Cressida, in this grimdark crapsack world it's terrifying to think how competent he must be to maintain it.
Kev G
2024-05-31 07:28:19 +0000 UTCLoved the chapter, always a pleasure seeing this updated
Henry Lindsay
2024-05-31 07:00:08 +0000 UTCUnfortunately, this one is also based in reality: the earliest acknowledged trans people in England weren't treated as objects of disgust or persecution, but as objects of fascination... Until a trans man tried to be eligible for inheritance. At which point, the landed nobility clamped down *hard* on us.
Lucy Severine
2024-05-31 06:20:17 +0000 UTCit's fascinating stuff to have the chapters subtly reinforce whose aligned with the 13th and which missing pov means they're still not a group yet. Love the way progress is being made by following everyone's strengths and getting progress personally and plot wise.
awakeatdawn
2024-05-31 06:00:16 +0000 UTCThe ending dinner scene was just... *chef's kiss*
Cosimo Yap
2024-05-31 05:41:21 +0000 UTCWe *can* be better. It's just easier not to be.
Aguido Horatio Davis
2024-05-31 05:25:35 +0000 UTCI absolutely adored this chapter.
Lucy Severine
2024-05-31 05:16:23 +0000 UTCHuh. A new and interesting kind of fantasy transphobia. None of this mucking about with lies about bIOlOgY, Izcalli society cuts right to the point: It's about property, and who gets to have it.
Jacob Burton-Edwards
2024-05-31 05:13:06 +0000 UTCWen Duan continues to be one of the best characters, despite his best efforts.
Machalt
2024-05-31 05:04:49 +0000 UTCI also I think that all the Watch contracts are going to collide. The exorcism will turn up the HATED ONE, who is sponsoring the noble cult perhaps using the old trick of using the Golden Ram name as cover like it was speculated to happen during the Ataxia, and the contracted killer will have the HATED ONE as their patron. The terriffying snake dragon lemure will somehow add to the mess.
Joe Rachman
2024-05-31 04:48:28 +0000 UTCSo Song is going to sleep with Evander or at least be very tempted to. Izel gives us a fascinating glimpse of a rare Izcalli reformist, appalled by the black ops Leopard Society. Oh and this book is clearly going to culminate with Tristan having to remurder the teriffying HATED ONE by use of bane.
Joe Rachman
2024-05-31 04:43:34 +0000 UTCWen Duan, ladies and gentlemen. I'm beginning to believe the Obscure Committee chose him on his virtues, and now I'm wondering what they thought turning the perpetrator of Tariac loose as the patron of the Thirteenth would get the Watch. It will be vastly entertaining to find out.
Aguido Horatio Davis
2024-05-31 04:37:05 +0000 UTC
