So hey, let’s check in with these two goofballs. When they are not crumbling under the weight of their problems, Byron and Syr’Nj are often cast as the responsible “parents” of the group, with Gravedust either the grandpa or uncle and everyone else the kids. This chapter and the last, though, have inverted that dynamic a bit: they’re separated from the others and their worries are relatively few. They’re mostly focused on making sure Byron gets better, and that’s going well so far. We won’t show them getting a full, uninterrupted scene of “just the two of us time” very often; tiptoeing into this grove of horrors is probably the closest they’ll get to a honeymoon.

I’d like to see “you’re all right” or some similar phrase introduced into the language to signify “don’t worry, I’m not offended and neither would any reasonable member of my group be.” We could stand to be more efficient in sorting actual offense from needless worry. I mean, someone like Naror’Nj is going to look for a fight no matter what, but that wouldn’t be because Byron told him his people loved nature.

From the script: “Byron doesn’t chop through these woods as he did at the beginning of Chapter 5, partly out of respect for Syr’Nj’s preferences, and partly because her guidance makes that unnecessary.”