Guilded Age

This is one of my favorite chapters, though I’ll admit that its Sepia-World section is a bit stronger than its color section, and bits and pieces of it went over some readers’ heads. Still, we’re off to a good start here.

Frigg’s rant to the unnamed followers/talking rhinosaur in the last chapter means I don’t have to explain too much of her sour mood, but ICYMI, this scene is about all the Guilded Age couples and soon-to-be-couples vibing off each other in various ways, just flaunting in front of Frigg how they could get each other laid any time they wanted. And two of those couples (possibly all three, according to a later story) include people she’s wanted as her own lovers, so… yeah.

Some belated explanation for what E-Merl and Rachel were officially doing in Morganshire, that is to say, the tactical explanation for their activities and how they hoped those would help Gastonia. The Peacemakers are a loose organization, but even they aren’t going to just let four of their own go off on walkabout without a justification like that. And Rachel’s primary reason for trying to find her sisters was to try to find her sisters, but she also hoped that they’d see the obvious rightness of what she was doing with the Peacemakers and join her. My heart breaks a little for her all over again, thinking about that.