Cynus

I hope so too.

"Do you understand yet, Prism?" Ghayle asked. "Understand what?" "Love," Ghayle stated. "That's what rules you. It is what has always ruled you." "Duty," Prism disagreed. "Duty ruled me. Duty stood in the way of love. I spent that time rationalizing every single decision by the will of the Order, instead of following my heart." "Duty is a form of love." "Spare me." Prism growled, tearing away from Ghayle again. "I gave up love for duty, we both know that. Just as Ma

That does seem intensely pleasurable.

I finally finished that for the first time recently. But in that world, too, there are drawbacks when one of them dies. The warders typically go mad and the aes sedai end up emotionally traumatized for a long time after.

The follies of youth, my friend. I'll speak more in response to your second comment. I'm glad you enjoyed it! There is certainly a sense of romance to it. Nor should you apologize. I see both sides of this equation, but my two youths did not at the time they decided to go through with this. We often fail to think things through when we're young and in love, especially when we think there's no way we can be together in the way we want. It's a balance to be sure. To approach it cautiously would be advised, but it is up to the individual to decide which set of consequences they desire. If I'd been in their position, would I have? I think the answer is yes. I put a lot of myself into Prism, and there's a lot of one of my past loves in Grim. I don't even know if I would've hesitated as much as Prism did, though I would know I was getting into something which would potentially wreck me emotionally.

I'm glad! It was a scene I had in mind since the beginning. This makes me very happy to read. I was really nervous about trying this format of story-telling when I decided to take this path, but I'm glad it's working. Thank you for this!

Such is life, eh? I really appreciate the speculation, it makes me happy that you're delving into it this deeply. There is a distinct difference between Kirra and Maxthane, of course, being that Kirra is from a long line of Elrhanadan's and Maxthane is Veil's son directly. I do know who is Styx's ancestor, but I don't know what point I may or may not confirm it. Marhys is definitely the Elrhanadan sword. The important thing is the specific wording of the binding. She's bound for the duration of The Trial, to ensure that her line survives to the end of the Demon war. Ghayle was not planning on the demon war lasting as long as it did, but unexpected circumstances led to it being prolonged for eight centuries. What price would a mother not be willing to pay to ensure her children survived a terrible trial? Khalis is remorseless, but why? This is the question I hope people are asking.

"How could you?" Prism asked, pulling away from Ghayle. "How could I what?" Ghayle asked. "My life should show you how much love remained in the world, how much goodness remained." Prism growled and walked away, throwing his hands in the air. "How could you destroy that?" "Why were purities harvested in Kobinaru? What is so special about that place?" Ghayle replied. Prism stared at her, but inevitably shook his head. "I don't know. Ego says because we were there, but we

"The bond between you was special," Ghayle said, pulling away to let Prism recover for a moment. "I think your relationship was one of the purest I've ever seen, across all the time I've guided this world. I wonder if Khalis ever considered the two of you for the Purity of Connection." "That's a frightening thought," Prism said, shuddering more from the thought of injury to Grim than his own potential peril. As thoughts of his own death crossed his mind, however, he added, "A poetic death,

"I can see why she had that effect on you. She was a remarkable woman. I'd not realized you were the one who put her into that sword," Prism said. "Kirra doesn't have the faintest clue what treasure he possesses." "I promised to protect her children to the end. Unfortunately, their family has a tendency to die young," Ghayle said, sighing. "Despite my best efforts, their line is far too reckless." "Reckless and pious blood mixed together. Zealots of their own natures," Prism said, ch

Ghayle sensed her coming from a thousand miles away, each step the woman took brought additional strength to Ghayle. She felt the purity emanating from the woman, shining like a beacon through a sea of dark fog. As the distance closed between them, Ghayle found herself growing more and more eager. Whoever this mortal was, she had a strength unparalleled among Ghayle's children. Faith propelled the woman forward, despite a corrupting sickness which had spread through her body. In tim

I'm excited for you to find out the path these boys take. They might surprise you, they might not. Grim's older brother was first in line for the throne. Prism's line about being a thief corresponds to some of the words he said to Styx in Shadow Honor, too. You'll find out on Saturday. thanks!

Yay! Right? And Prism is really into being honorable now, so will he try to live up to that decision, or will he risk everything for love? Selfaeth's already on edge. What happens now that he can't trust anyone? Where will Khalis go next?

If mine is any indication, this is close to an absolute truth... Selfaeth is someone I wasn't intending to love. I meant to make him horrible, an absolutely dreadful man on every level. he surprised me when he did a 180 as far as his kids were concerned, and it humbled me a bit. I love it when my children resist my attempts to control them. I probably haven't sold the idea too well within the writing, but the Fedain are unaware that their healing can work in reverse. Maybe at one point before they became so pacifistic, it was different.

I am planning on responding to comments today. I apologize for taking so long. I've been beyond depressed these past few weeks, up until a couple of days ago, anyway. But I'm doing better now, so hopefully I'll find the energy.

Grim wanted to fire Sharis. Prism had arrived an hour ago, and Sharis had kept the information to himself to ensure it did not interrupt their lesson. Grim understood the tutor's decision, especially since Sharis had no idea how important Prism's presence was, but it still annoyed Grim. But his excitement overrode any negativity, and Grim struggled to contain himself as he headed toward his rooms. Prism would be waiting for him, four months of separation would be over, and they could now s

Prism lounged in Kaeral's room, tired from a day of hard labor. Master Vinh had made good on his promise, working him from dawn to dusk every single day since Prism had sneaked out. Prism refused to tell the Master the nature of his visit and bore his labors in near silence. Today afforded him a rare moment of respite, as Valkean had called the Masters to council several hours earlier, and once Prism completed the tasks Master Vinh had already assigned him, he finished a few more for good

Prism's angry growl pierced the solitude of Ghayle's garden, and she pulled away from him, regarding him curiously. He stepped away from the log, furiously pacing. "That night . . . that day . . . Master Vinh and his bloody apple tree," Prism muttered. "The memory was more bitter than you expected? I don't understand your reaction. You wanted to see that day," Ghayle replied quizzically. Prism faced her and said, "Sometimes we have to face our demons." "Pertinent words."

Thanks! Marhys didn't want to be healed. She is embracing death. Her key words were "I won't betray the natural order". But... I can see how I could have definitely made this clearer. I learn more from these comments than from anything else. I'll respond to your other question at the bottom. This is part of it, in a way, though I'll explain my intentions at the bottom. There is certainly an aspect of this, though. Fedain hypocrisy is also part of it. If you're a fan of Star Trek (specifically anything Next Generation, DS9, or Voyager), then you're likely familiar with the Prime Directive. The system I envisioned here is sort of like that. The Fedain didn't come to power through violence, but through humans putting them up on a pedestal and treating them as gods. Since the Fedains were pacifistic healers who sacrificed themselves to help anyone, the humans thought of them as superior beings. Eventually, the Fedain started to believe that, started to accept themselves as superior over humans, and viewing the humans as 'primitive'. They won't interfere with their laws because that would mean tampering with their culture, and so only the laws which establish the relations between Fedain and Humankind are important to the Fedain. This is something I should have communicated better in the writing, and hopefully I will manage it better in future projects.

I'm glad. I was unfamiliar with Remo Williams, so I looked it up. Seems interesting. Vinh is my second-favorite character in the series, and he'll have more shining moments to come. Prism definitely knows, heh. Hopefully you'll enjoy it! Especially when the people at the top are worshiped as infallible for years and they start to believe it. Awww... I love the Tai Chi reference. I studied it for several years when I was younger, and Valkean is actually modeled after my teacher. Oh, just you wait! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Prism gasped for air as Kaeral gripped his bicep, pulling him from the tumultuous waves of the Ilivar Sea and helping him onto the buoy. Storm clouds overhead taunted them, though little pockets of moonlight filtered through now, allowing them some ability to see. Rain assaulting them during their swim had nearly brought them to a suffocating end. As Prism rested his back against the buoy, he wondered how they'd avoided drowning in the cold water. Not only had he swallowed more sea water t

I loved this story, Val. As you may already be aware, my significant other is asexual, and I'm gray-asexual. Despite this, I have rarely written any asexual characters into my work, and even when I have, I haven't announced them. To read something specifically designed with asexual people in mind is refreshing, and you handled the subject well. This is very similar to my SO's experience in many ways, and although not quite the same as mine, it's close enough that it rings completely true in my mind. You do great work, Val! Thank you.

I'm glad you caught the identical names. Not everybody does, though in defense of my editing team, several of them had read Shadow Honor years before and had simply forgotten the names. The dramatic future and who remains to be part of it will yet unfold before us. I know who I'm rooting for, personally.;) I'm glad! Hopefully I will continue to intrigue you. I'm planning on creating a wiki at some point, but since my wrist is still injured, I'm not able to do that much typing yet. Hopefully I'll do it in time for it to be useful to people. Those are all great questions to be asking, and I will have some answers for you. My goal here was for Ghayle to speak as if this was a cycle, but cycles can be broken...

Prism jumped from one wooden pillar to another. As they increased in height they also increased in distance from each other, and he'd yet to make it to the highest pillar. He reached the second highest, scrambling on the edge to keep his momentum before leaping toward the highest pillar with all the strength of his legs. He collided with the side of it, his fingers stretching for the top edge of the pillar, but they came up empty and he slid to the ground, once again defeated by the long j

I thought about that going into this, too. I decided I wanted to keep the names the same between them because it was mentioned in Shadow Honor that Kirra's family had been around during the demon war. Since he currently lives in the Everbright City, I wanted to give the feeling that his family had been preserved over the centuries.