The original plan for this scene had Syr’Nj contributing a lot less. Best’s arrogance and overall… Best-ness, losing contact with the others, the overall strain of leadership, and her suicidal quasi-boyfriend would have made her snappish, leading Best to curb his arrogance significantly and figure out his own plan to get them out. It involved playing a song her keen ears could follow wherever he went– the specific mechanics of the mirror trap and therefore how to escape it also took a draft or two.

That wasn’t bad, but it was the wrong moment to have Syr’Nj buckle emotionally, given what we already knew we’d be putting her through in a few more chapters, and there’s enough of Best saving other people’s asses in this arc. Plus, it kinda had GD, Frigg, and Byron not doing anything useful. It’s important in action scenes for everyone involved to make a respectable effort, if the writer wants the characters to keep the reader’s respect.

We casually establish, for I think the first time, that the team’s life forces have colors corresponding to their “players.” And once again there was frantic googling of music theory, a subject that’ll never come too naturally to me, as we tried to figure out the most useful instructions for Syr to give Best here.