Chapters 15 & 16

[Justin]

We're off to confront Redolfo! As I'm already caught up when this section, I'll toss in some discussion points on the big reveals.

First, it's not really Redolfo! But as Amadea notes, this Changeling can only really be as good a match as he is by knowing the true Redolfo. Has he set himself up as king of Changelings now? Or is Redolfo a prisoner of the Changelings, and this is their strategy to finally invade on this side of the wall?

As for Amadea being a changeling herself...call me skeptical. She works with so many artifacts on a daily basis. Is it reasonable that she has never encountered iron or salt?

Finally... We may have lost Yinii. What a way for Rosangerda to go! Yinii's either going to shut down the tunnel and follow Asla to sainthood, or maybe Quill and Amadea can talk her back. This sure looks like a spiral past the tipping point, though.

[Michael]

I seemed to have underestimated the power of ink a bit in my last post. Ms Glass was a unique case, she's a sorcerer not just a specialist like Yinii. Seems I was wrong on 1 account definitely, probably the 2nd as well.

Let's start off, Ibramo did in fact not tell the empress what is going on. Which explains why he's even there. He's feeling for Amadea even at the expense of his own kids is a bit worrying, for both the crown and his judgement. About the miscarriage, Amadea calls it a "her" and he says he thinks about the baby every day. Granted I'm not completely up on all the pregnancy stages, but it must have happened pretty far along. (Going to put an "if" here. I alluded to it before, but want to call it out now. I trust nothing! Still have no idea who the "her" would be though... Unless Amadea was talking about the empress? Or her past self?)

Although it's been decades since she was last truly active the Shrike can sure still move.

I didn't see Redolfo being a changeling, again. I wonder if he was really there at any point, need to read back and see if I missed some unblinking comments.

I know these changelings are (probably) monsters, but damn all 4 of them believe they are a teenage girl getting murdered. That is hard to think about no matter what. I agree with Justin, I highly doubt Amadea is a changeling. She touches salt, is also in the area of the cold with no effect. At first I was thinking "wait, what if one of them was the real one!", then realized they wouldn't be asleep.

Quill continues to have moments of heroism, and then is swatted down seconds later.

Yinii is something else then the spiral we saw with Zoifia. With her it was her melting into the material. With Yinii it was full control.

[Justin]

I think we'll let this be the last of the chapter-by-chapter updates. We'll just conclude in the "I've finished!" thread. Happy new year!