Annotated 13-4
Interesting that we do this scene only four canonical pages after Syr’Nj and Byron’s first kiss. Most stories would let them savor their newly declared love a bit before diving back into the drama, maybe with a low-stakes picnic date or a doesn’t-love-make-us-silly comical misunderstanding.
But in this case, I think that’d feel like denial. Byron has a clear and immediate problem, and neither he nor Syr’Nj will truly be able to breathe easy until they’ve addressed it.
Some readers didn’t remember that the varryn was the garland from Chapter 8, but again, it’s clearer now than before that this was a more significant gesture from Syr than she immediately let on.
Note that Byron has doubts about Frigg, but not Bandit. Bandit may have made Byron’s life more unpleasant recently, but she has shown restraint in dealing with Byron without Syr’Nj having to lean on her about it.
Byron trusting Bandit more than Frigg at this point made me think he simply doesn’t consider Bandit to be a “real” part of the group anymore after their fatal split. Idea being that Bandit has kinda moved on and is now working with the group rather than being a part of it, subtle but noticeable distinction.
I doubt that. Going forward, he’s quite supportive of her as she takes the reins of field leader, and the two of them do seem to grow closer as a result. She also really doesn’t show any signs of the grudge she still carries, and she herself may not realize she still harbors it after enough time passes.
It’s really just that even though Bandit confronted him about it, she confronted him a lot less violently and with a lot less blame than Frigg did. She also doesn’t seem to be afraid of him (which makes sense considering that the only reason his attack against her worked is that her guard was down, as she’ll later prove during Round 2).
At this point in time, I don’t think anyone could have predicted Bandit would be the one to end up hating and blaming Byron for the berserker curse. And if the later events hadn’t played out exactly the way they had, maybe she never would have.
“I trust everyone with my life. Except the tank.”
Ooo boy, DPSes am I right?
Ungrateful, the lot of them.
I mean, the first thing Frigg tried to do with Byron’s life after they both woke up from their dirt nap was try to beat the consciousness out of it…
I can’t blame him for being wary.
Really, why would anyone trust Frigg at this point? I mean, even when she goes full paladin, “trust” is not the word that springs to mind. You can trust her to beat on her friends’ enemies more than she beats on her friends, and that’s about it. For now.