Stellar

There were tactical reasons for not sending him in, despite his prodigious abilities.

And there is so much more yet to come! Shay and Mira have brought me a lot of joy as characters to write, I will say that.

If you're referring to Mira dying? Yes, it absolutely would shorten things a great deal.

I think newer accounts might have restrictions on giving out likes until a certain point? I don't recall. You should be able to like/love or any one of about five other reactions on any individual chapter or comment or story page or forum post, etc. Feel free to comment yourself though, I still read and respond to them even years later. Glad you are enjoying the book and Shay's characterisation, and yes, as of chapter 10 -- this point -- there is a long way to go.

I genuinely have no idea what I did to be included on this list of luminaries, since I'm one of the least social people on here, but thank you for the mention all the same.

The interwoven pasts of the Mishith and Jzu Krrm are important lore, certainly. Though, as foundational as it is, the significant connecting elements that link to the rest of what is going on all occur in the time of the hybrid. Jasu Kirmith history can be broken into three basic periodic aspects. Firstly, the era of renewed scientific discoveries and sustained large-scale interstellar expansion achieved through hybridisation, eventually culminating in quantum-based technology. Secondly, the cataclysmic reality-splitting event itself that was produced by that technology and caused the enemy's introduction. Lastly, the course of the conflict up until the war's abrupt -- and not fully explained -- halt at Lucere's siege, and the Sundering being committed. It's those pieces that will be the most enlightening when you can slot them together with greater detail. As we work our way toward the story ending, the information will be less and less obtuse, I promise.

I'm glad I'm proving educational in any sense! Thanks for reading and enjoying my work.

ESCALATION "The next threat arrives unforeseen, with guarded balance turning instead to rising crisis." -o-0-O-0-o- The very moment Admiral Yasir Lugor heard the tactical officer's voice and saw the incoming notification appear directly before him, he understood the deadly peril he faced, and the depths to which they had all been deceived. In that single microcosm of time, it was plain to him. Layer upon layer of duplicity. Ahead was the primary swarm of Disciples a

This is Chapter 9.

Well, the Herald isn't technically dead. Not yet, and 'yet' is the important word here. As Shay says, temporal dilation means that the process of the Herald being crushed into the singularity will take some indeterminate amount of time that's probably greater than the universe's current age squared. This is not any exaggeration either; being so close to that much mass makes space-time absurdly warped to the point that time is near to stopped. In a very real sense, to the outside cosmos, all black holes are forever in the process of collapsing into their singularities, with the inrushing mass frozen in the slowest of slow motions as everything is dragged to the core. A nanosecond inside is equal to a literal eternity outside. However ... the Herald's fate is now sealed, and it cannot influence anything outside of where it is. So, though it's not dead *yet*, it has effectively been removed from the equation. Given that the alien swarm was already following the Herald's specific steps to attack Earth even as it went absent to chase Shay and friends, there's a good chance nothing major will immediately change after the snake's head is removed. The body -- the attacking armada -- has instructions and knows where, when, and how to act. As for the 'spy mission', I'm assuming you're referring to Iskandar meeting Lucas. That just didn't feature this chapter, but it will soon. Not going to say anything else about the Master, because at this point there is nothing for me to say. If your questions are ones that I can provide any commentary or insight on, feel free to ask away!

Even as we jumped to a new location within the Milky Way, the Herald's most recent words would not fade from my mind. Like a shadow that persisted no matter how much light there was, the creature's insight and precognition was insidious. It always saw a way to subvert every plan I made to beat it. It always knew how, or what, or where; even with my best efforts to throw it off. It kept adapting, no matter what I did. There had to be a way to break the sequence. Mira

Chapter 8.

Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy the rest of Spirit of Fire.

I'm delighted, and very flattered that you think so highly of Aspects of Dawn. Thank you for your kind words and for reading my work, I appreciate it greatly!

Of course Darren is playing some kind of game here! There's no way he'd give himself up without an ulterior motive. It's safe to assume his voluntary captivity has something to do with the meeting he had with his family when Mordred delivered the Fear. Araziah's solution to the impasse with Sebby was ... if Torsten won't choose between us, then maybe he'll choose both of us. As the last thing Torsten does is lock the bedroom door, you can assume he likes the idea very much.