User blog comment:SaynaSLuke/Seven Tears Shed/@comment-2142396-20170224204355

So, it was Lutran who saved Grath in the previous chapter! I immediately thought that it was Shui or someone else of the dragons, considering how skilled at swimming they are. I also was a bit surprised at how shocked Lutran was to realize than Grath was on Sampetra – while I can understand him being too angry to pay much attention to Sayna and Durral’s words that she is alive and his surprise at the fact it was Grath of all beasts he had saved, but the very reason he had rushed to the city was because Clecky had told him that Grath was captured. But of course, Grath’s savior being Lutran makes for such a heartfelt reunion – after all, it’s not every day that you see Lutran shedding his usual callous shell and allowing himself to be genuinely nice and sincere with somebeast. Grath really means the world for him, and I only hope that she would be able to bring out a better side of him. After all, she was able to persuade Lutran to help her friends despite his reservations, though I indeed hope that she and her friends will reunite before they charge back into the city…

Romsca’s raid was quite a wild ride, in all senses of this word! :D The results were both good and bad, I suppose – on the one hand, nobeast died even though there were a couple of close calls, and the prisoners were rescued, almost. In the beginning I even thought that the things were going too smoothly – Romsca and the crew managed to get to the dungeons, locate the captive woodlanders and free them, and even though they had to fight their way through the guards at some points, the casualties were minimal. But despite their success, they still had to leave Grath behind, and that was the scene that was poignant enough and really impressed me. I mean, we, the readers, know that Grath had already been saved, but neither Romsca nor the woodlanders do, and even though Romsca thinks that Grath is already dead, for all they know, she could still be alive, tortured by Ublaz or locked up somewhere else… and yet they have no choice but to abandon her. We have seen the heroes sacrifice themselves for the other, but this is the first time the hero had to sacrifice somebeast else, because the real choice was between risking everything to save one and saving many.

The chase scene was the second element that added real tension to the story – after Romsca’s crew more or less successfully coped with ‘get to the dungeons and rescue the woodlanders’ part of the plan, they still had to flee when the danger of being straight up teared apart became real… even if that threat seemed to come from the Monitors rather than the ratguard. At least, the ratguard was surprisingly easy to get rid of, partly due to Rocks’ involvement, partly because Romsca and the others were good fighters themselves. By the way, I understand that the Monitors are extremely strong, but would it really be that easy to tear armor for them? I can see them being able to puncture and rip chainmail, but plate armor not so much… unless they would use the chinks of the armor to take it apart. However, I really like the idea that while the Monitors’ scales protect them from cutting wounds, they can still be bruised. I guess the scales work very much like a bullet-proof vest: it will protect you from the bullet if you are shot at, but the impact is guaranteed to give you bruised and/or cracked ribs. ;P

The way Shui dispatched those Monitors was scary indeed. :o At first I thought that was the power given to her by pearls manifesting, like it were with Xzaris and Martin, but the lack of any surprise or reaction from her and the other dragons make me think it were their natural weapon instead. I remember you saying that Zhanshi can spit strong acid, but the sheer effect of it… Did I get it right that not only the Monitors’ scale and flesh were melted, but nothing was left from their bodies at all? Because while there is no doubt that strong acid would burn through skin and flesh and even scale and leave a creature disfigured, but to outright melt three Monitors into a puddle? I believe that should take, like, a bathtub of the poison. :o And it was a surprise to hear that Shui is older of the siblings, because I always assumed that Jian was the older one since he had always seemed to be more mature. Because of that it was funny to see Shui and Jian argue in this way, because I honestly expect something akin to such behavior from Shui, not Jian. But maybe we just didn’t have a chance to observe him for long. :P

It makes sense that Xzaris would be the one to sense the darkness chasing them, though it’s interesting that while Xzaris had always been the most sensitive and thoughtful of the friends, he wasn’t exactly spiritual before his blindness. But it surprised me that the dragons could sense it as well, I guess they are also susceptible to the supernatural. Was it the taint of Ublaz’s magic on the Monitors that Xzaris had sensed? Because there wasn’t any other ‘darkness’ Romsca’s crew had faced that day. I love how you approached Xzaris’s blindness – while his gift of premonition allowed him to fight off the ratguards, he has a lot of difficulty just getting through the city on his own, and didn’t just adapt to his condition yet. All of that makes the loss of his vision more tragic and relatable.

Poor Val, though. :( It would be interesting to see how she would cope with her injury, since it’s obviously not something you can shrug off after a day in bed. I certainly hope her legs aren’t broken by the fall. At least I think that if they were broken, Val’s condition would’ve been much worse and she would’ve been in much more pain than she appears to be, so I guess her legs were just crushed/bruised, possibly with some bones cracked. Barranca didn’t have it easy either – true, he never was particularly loyal to Ublaz so turning on the ratguard doesn’t mean anything to him, but he has no reason to stick his neck out for woodlanders either. He is only doing this for Romsca, and it seems that he is reaching his breaking point already. I bet Barranca just kept thinking, ‘How did I ever get myself into this’ throughout whole enterprise over and over again. :D

And Inbar – sometimes it seems that Grath managed to get away easy when Ublaz decided to kill her quickly… :( I admit that I did expect Romsca to use her hair to heal Inbar when that question had risen, though I can’t blame her for not wanting to go through all that pain again. However, her mistake with Xzaris was that she had used too thick lock of hair, so I guess if she cut just a thin one, the pain wouldn’t be so terrible. Of course, the effects wouldn’t heal Inbar completely as well, but at least his wounds could’ve been patched up. Though I suppose a large reason to Romsca’s decision is also that she doesn’t know all about the Flowers and their abilities yet, and what she does know scares her.

Xzaris is right when he says that Romsca should stop being so harsh on herself because of all her ‘failings’ – while I suppose that the memory of her father and her promise to him is what urges Romsca to do better and keep fighting, I can’t deny that Romsca’s self-blaming is what makes her miserable. That’s ironic that Xzaris’s words ‘It’s not all about you’ echo the words Hood says to Ublaz, because I can see his and Romsca’s cases as different enough. Ublaz had no concern for anybeast but himself, either believing that anything he does is justified or not caring of it – and while Romsca can focus too much on her past, she is loyal to her friends, truly devoted to her family, has a sense of justice and mercy and a good heart. Whatever motivations she has, what she does is for the good of many beasts, not only her own.

I’m not exactly sure what to think of Lord Isan yet – it’s good that his approach to the rescue of the woodlanders is a practical one and he doesn’t blame Romsca, but I was still baffled when he stated that he doesn’t trust Romsca yet and she should do more if she wishes to be accepted. Okay dude, these beasts just broke into the most secure prison in the middle of the city swarming with soldiers and Monitors, fought their way through a score of ratguards, rescued the prisoners and actually got out of the city, almost died in the process – and they volunteered to go on this mission when they simply could’ve stayed back and follow the original plan of proving their loyalty in a much safer way by sniping some ratguards. What else do you really want, should Romsca actually die to prove herself?