Annotated 18-24
Fr’Nj’s reaction here is highly intriguing to me, looking back on it. She is a high druid, and we’ve treated B’ial Vezk as a one-faith state throughout, so she must believe in Graiya as her father did. What’s more, as we’ll see later, her powers are pretty close to the same kind as the ones Syr’Nj is wielding right now, though certainly smaller in scale and less violent in execution. So this is a bit like being the Pope when the voice of God Himself echoes through the Vatican.
But rather than try to speak directly to her goddess or ask Syr’Nj to do the same, Fr’Nj is just like “LET GO OF IT!”
She probably knows more about that bough than any other named character in this story. She may know more about it than anyone else alive. So maybe she knows what’s happened when other people have tried to wield it.
It’s weird to me that I do not remember this bit at all.
Me neither. Specifically just everything in this chapter from here forward. Up till the summoning circle it all came back.
You mean Syr’nj’s possession? I definitely remember it.
I forgot how much I laughed over the alt-text the first time.
I recall thinking that Fr’Nj’s reaction to this was pretty interesting too. I thought maybe she knew how pissed Graiya was about how the elves were using her artifact and was worried that there might be a smiting if anyone actually tried to wield the thing. I was about to ask about it, but I guess the specifics of her reasoning were never entirely certain.
Are we completely sure Syr’Ng is possessed? A lot of this sounds like stuff she might actually think. Maybe the bough is just removing he filters and allowing her to speak more bluntly than she normally would.
The anno for page 26 will address this very thing!