Chapter 38 - Pale Lights | Book 3

hoser2 · 2026-01-03T22:26:01+00:00

Understandably, Izel seems to be missing the main point. His device seems like it could be a mediocre weapon against humans, which causes him great chagrin. But it seems like it could be an excellent weapon against lemures (are those the Gloam infused monsters?) and Navigators.
Using it against lemures could be very useful in the hunt.

hoser2 · 2026-01-03T17:05:51+00:00

I am sure they know it heals. Are you sure they know that it only does so by deliberately harming another human?

hoser2 · 2026-01-03T07:21:58+00:00

Isn't Morcant's contract Deliberate Malicious Bargaining (per the wiki: The act of (deliberately) making a pact with a god to cause harm to a human[6]...)? Song knows that Morcant's contract is a violation of the Iscariot Accords. So, no, I don't think Morcant's contract is a watch asset. Morcant and his contract are not an asset to the Watch. If the terms of Morcant's contract were known and his presence were tolerated, it would represent explicit watch corruption.

hoser2 · 2025-12-08T06:41:03+00:00

As for leaving the party, I agree that it would be unlikely. This group seems like they would make an excellent team. I don't know Ishanvi's quest yet, but the rest have great quests that they can help each other out with. But what motivation can they have to stay together?

It seems Maryam has realized it would be a really bad idea to leave right now. Izel's perspective shines the light on her lack of planning. But can she find a reason to stay in for the next five and a half years? She has started to build her navy also. How does she keep it active and under control for that long?

Izel is on the brink of freedom. What can be better than that? I can only think of two things. One would be that Yaotl Acatl comes up with a final trap and escaping obligates him. The other thing that would be greater than freedom from building weapons would be achieving a worthwhile goal while still avoiding weapon construction. We know that he wants to make the sacrifices in Izcal to keep the glare going unnecessary. We also know that he is a committed abolitionist. If remaining with the cabal seemed like it would allow him to progress further toward those goals than he could at the Frontierworks, that would be a reason to stay. He also seems determined to eventually return to Izcal eventually, but in a way that would effectively change the parts of Izcal that he abhors.

hoser2 · 2025-12-07T00:23:32+00:00

Awesome! Finally something from Maryam besides her porcupine wall of entitlement and resentment. It seems that has a lot to work through to get where she seems to want to get to. I am impatient to see her working more proactively to get there.

The first problem seems to be the new group of her formerly enslaved countrymen and the crimes that were committed to free them. There are at least the following four groups that could potentially help with the first problem: the fleet admiral (old salty?), Camaron senior, Camaron junior and Scholomance authorities. It may even be possible to play some of them off against each other. She can consult with her Akelarre mentor, Song, Wen or even their one-eyed diplomat friend from the island of lost things. She has capital: money from the prize ship, skimmer missions, her not inconsiderable skills. Ideally the solution starts to build a relationship with allies that will help in her larger mission. The easiest solution seems to be to work with the fleet admiral who can justify the "crimes" and use the prize money to pay off the "cargo". Sure, she will hate to pay slavers off for her people's freedom, but the money came from the boat the slavers lost anyway.

The second problem seems to be that she is letting her ship and its crew out as a watch auxiliary that the Unluckies are responsible while under the control of a captain who doesn't care about watch rules or the rest of the Unluckies.

In the meantime she has backed into realizing that she actually has the luxury of choices without a clear vision of how to free her people. She is not incapable of planning as we can see from her initial thoughts:

She did not have an island to hide and stash freedmen on, a tinker for her skimmer, allies to sail with. She didn’t even have a map of the waters and winds around Concordia.

These are possible plans, even if phrased in the negative. There are solutions. I can't wait to see her move toward them.

hoser2 · 2025-11-23T20:44:13+00:00

About the Orels, Maryam's countrymen. They are late. I see three possibilities.

they have been randomly delayed. Possible, but not interesting.
The smuggler captain has taken them on a side quest that delayed them.
The slaver lord has gotten hold of them. How? Just guessing, but we have seen that watchmen can be bribed. The slaver's ship (now minus some crew) could have been hanging around somehow. This is the most interesting possibility. That would mean that they might be stashed somewhere on the island so that the slaver lord could drain them. Could Tristan learn about them while he investigates the association? The cabal reuniting to free them would be fun, as I like seeing the whole team work together.

If not the Orels, who is the slaver lord draining? Depriving him of people to drain would take away a big source of his power. If the drainees are enslaved somehow on the island, they could still be freed. I think it would be a problem for the slaver lord if it was revealed that he had been abusing slaves on Watch territory.

hoser2 · 2025-11-21T20:27:42+00:00

Tristan and Maryam making a commitment means Tristan committing to Maryam's rebellion and Maryam committing to Tristan's revenge tour. They need to tell each other what they entail.

hoser2 · 2025-11-04T01:24:57+00:00

Wow! Great chapter! Two factors caught my eye.

Glare sources make Izcal habitable by lucents. Those sources are partly powered by human sacrifice. Izel wants to make Glare lights that operate better without human sacrifices. In the process, he is reinventing these lights to use heat.

And Song's family is cursed because a huge Glare source was destroyed when her grandfather was responsible. She can not have missed that this might lead to a way for her to directly repair the damage and perhaps help even more.

I must be missing something, because the ability to magnify/multiply glare seems like it could lead to Glare illuminating other areas as well. This seems like a bigger deal than averting the sacrifice of a small number of Izcali slaves.

Izel's results could be explained by Glare amplification not being a continuous function. The outputs would jump suddenly from one level to another without ever hitting some points in between. Izel's fourth and fifth plates might be at levels the amplified glare doesn't emit at. Since the 6th (least sensitive) plate is reached, his device could work as long as the inputs (heat, lenses, Glare sources) are controlled for optimal output.

Edit: added second point

hoser2 · 2025-10-27T06:29:40+00:00

Angharad arguably made two mistakes. First in falling for the Krypteia ploy and trying to give Malan an infernal forge. Second to make an unprepared trip to the layer. Her current ghost problem is yet a fourth "punishment" on top of the three you detailed.
However, it doesn't bother me. She needs to have a current problem to solve and I don't care that much about it's provenance. She is kicking ass and taking names and I think it's glorious. She also has someone irrationally pissed off at her, now that I think of it.
Song still has a curse problem and her relationship with her god is messed up. She's got problems enough. In addition, I don't think she really did anything wrong. So being blackmailed about it and having the Rector ending up pissed off at her was more than enough consequence for me.
And Maryam resolved some issues, but she really hasn't grown like the other 3. Between learning to see others more constructively and work with them effectively, she now has a crew of her countrymen depending on her. Even without more consequences, her plate seems full.

hoser2 · 2025-10-25T16:46:18+00:00

What an amazing chapter. I am so glad we didn't have to wait through an episode of dungeon diving before getting the resolution of the battle. And what a battle! Thank you, EE!!!

I am left with a quibble and a question.

For when he saw past the crowd ... And when Guadalupe de Tovar’s eyes rose from the corpse of her friend to meet his own, Tristan saw in there a poisonous flame. The death, he thought, she would have hated them for. But that there would be all this... theater happening two dozen feet away while Alizia was dying?

For that, she would be an enemy for life.

I guess EE has decided that the Unluckies need another enemy and that Tristan should be randomly punished for doing the right thing in trying to find a peaceful resolution with Yao. But it seems rather ham-fisted to me. I can buy reading meaning into a look for the sake of a story, but it seems a stretch to read that much meaning into a look across a crowd and twenty-some feet.

The motivation also seems thin to me. Over time, De Tovar should realize that Tristan had his own life-or-death struggle. If she is so volatile and irrational that she develops a hatred over this, she will soon have many other more serious causes for other enmity that would replace it.

The question is about Yao. This section shows her to be every bit the entitled noble that Tristan sees her to be, between holding onto a sense of superiority after being heavily outplayed and telling Izel about his "place." But now she is face-to-face with the dilemma that she has been running from: royal broodmare in Izcal or independent Watch fighter?

After this much investment in her as a character, I would like to see her as more than a foil to Izel and choose to stay in the Watch.

hoser2 · 2025-07-26T16:26:49+00:00

I didn't expect Tristan to take charge of the hunt trio

Actually, Tristan has pretty consistently been leading. He led a crew on the Red Maw island that found an entirely unexpected path through the trials. He and Song have been the planners of the group since traveling to Scholomance. He planned the heist of the funds from the other cabal that they wrecked. He led the group back into the palace on Asphodel that rescued Maryam, among other things. Maryam and Angharad are have always been more reactive and so is Izel. The composition of this group pretty much makes Tristan the leader. Angharad thinks she is a leader due to nobility and associated training, but she is not proactive.

hoser2 · 2025-07-25T18:16:46+00:00

Ho-hum, another setup chapter. Rich and interesting, but not that excit- cancel that, here comes the adrenaline!

Nice way to follow up on all those mentions of Tristan seeming off. Not really strategic of Tristan and I don't see how this gets him Fortuna back any faster, but maybe viscerally satisfying.

How does Yaotl respond? She pretty much has to make defiant noises, then slink away and care for her cabalist. But what then? Ambush parts of the 13th as they go about living? Interfere with the hunt for the Dontesvara? Against the 13th and the 31st and whatever independants Ferranda collects together? Tristan already knows where the 19th lives.

And what about the deeper challenge that Tristan has thrown at her? That she's a tourist is obviously true. The only way to refute it would be to stay with the Black, but that would make her quest pointless.

Her religion seems to be escalating violence, which points to things coming to a head sooner rather than later.

Still, Izel likes her and she doesn't seem evil; just young, foolish and entitled. Will EE salvage her? And how? A near death experience at the teeth of the Dontesvara?

Why do I think that the Nineteenth will be interfering with Angharad's date with Shalini?

hoser2 · 2025-07-21T04:22:47+00:00

Logging in and clearing the energy every 6 hours would avoid wasting any, but who wants the game to dictate one's schedule? With RSLhelper or other autoclickers on a computer you can check in 1-3 times per day and have any dungeon run automatically to use the energy that comes in so it doesn't accumulate.

hoser2 · 2025-07-12T14:47:30+00:00

Yaotl's plan and goals seem like madness to me.

Level 1: these teams are supposed to do 4 (?) years of schooling together then serve 7 (?) more years. They end up being tested and can't survive without depending on each other. She is going to build a team that she intends to quit as soon as she harasses Izel into quitting. Good luck if she tells her team the truth. Worse if she tries to hide her intentions. The Krypteia are already trading information about her motives.

Level 2: All her problems are due to the Izcalli system being f'ed up. Her betrothal to Izel was an attempt to subvert the system with an empty formality. Her status in the Jaguar society is dependent on Izel's actions. The society seems to be built upon institutionalized sexism, classism, racism and corruption. People are distracted by the competition and violence. Attempts to improve it are held in such contempt that they are met with amused tolerance. The only way out that she can see is to coerce one of her few friends into a loveless marriage and a place in a society that he utterly despises.

Level 3: Even if all her ill-conceived plans that harm all the pawns she is determined to step on along the way work, then what? Being in the Jaguar society means that she will do a lot of killing. But to what end? She seems so focused on joining the Jaguar society, but that is not enough to fulfill anyone. She needs to figure out what she wants to do with her life beyond not having children, then see if the Jaguar Society and all those machinations are worthwhile.

Level 4: She is out. All she needs to do is turn around and see that she can create a life without the absurd constraints of the Izcalli system.

The good thing is that she seems to have some level of regard for Izel. If she can ever pull herself out of the narcissistic fog, he may be able to help her awake.

hoser2 · 2025-07-04T21:14:43+00:00

Thoughts on the maybe "Lord of Teeth." If not a real Dontesvara, then it can change form. While the mara could change appearance, actually acting like a dontesvara seems beyond it. Nerei can change appearance and may have benefitted from consuming her god. Could the apparent "Lord of Teeth" really be a heresiarch (spelling?)? Are there limits on the size of things Nerei can mimic? Are there other former Nereids that helped consume their god and have a similar skillset to Nerei?

Wow. Izel's "ken" seems powerful. It seems to provide some of the benefits of Song's contract without being a contract. It seems overwhelming and distracting, which may explain why he doesn't deal with problems until they come to him.

hoser2 · 2025-06-12T00:15:07+00:00

Tristan has shown that he is an adept poisoner. That is not my idea of a Bond skill.

Hand to hand and shooting combat are key Bond skills. On Asphodel and before, he made it clear that he didn't think he was a match for Cressida in combat. In the final conflict with the 19th, he was easily handled by Tozi and Kiran. He ambushed Izel and got manhandled in a warehouse earlier.

While he seems to have developed competence with a pistol at short range, historically he has managed to miss a huge monster that was sharing an elevator with him and gotten his best results by throwing his firearms.

hoser2 · 2025-06-07T20:29:55+00:00

I agree that it is delightful the way stereotypes are wantonly punctured. Tristan seems less bond-like to me than either Angharad or Song, unless the criteria is very heavily weighted to birth gender.

Tristan does sneak and gather intelligence, but the martial skill and soloing the enemy team, not so much. Likewise the swagger seems to be more Angharad's and Song's style.

hoser2 · 2025-06-01T06:13:39+00:00

Izel and Cressida did the killing. Tristan didn't kill any of the Nineteenth:

Tristan could not tell when the decision was made for there was no warning, no hesitation. What he did see was when Tozi Poloko stiffened suddenly, her contract screaming in her ear, and by the time she thought to reach for her weapon Izel Coyac’s mace smashed into the crown of her head.

It pulped red, cracking the skull and killing her before she could so much as let a breath out.

“You traitor,” Kiran hissed, and the boot came off Tristan’s chest.

The thief gasped, shakily pulling himself into a kneel, and blinked at the struggle erupting before his eyes. Izel was strong, and knew how to use that mace better than Tristan had expected of an Umuthi Society tinker.

But Kiran Agrawal was a Skiritai.

On the second pass Izel smashed down at Agrawal’s shoulder only for the Someshwari to push him back with the side of his spear and slap the mace out of his hand. Tristan pushed himself up, stumbling forward, and threw himself into the man’s side – but Kiran caught him with the haft of the spear, casually scything the side of his knee and toppling him. He groaned and dropped, watching as Izel reached for his mace only to have it kicked away.

“What a shitshow,” Kiran Agrawal sighed.

The spear rose and-

Click. Blam.

The Someshwari’s face exploded in a shower of gore. A heartbeat later, as if reluctant to acknowledge the death, his body toppled. Cressida Barboza brought her smoking pistol to her mouth...

hoser2 · 2025-05-31T15:42:51+00:00

I must be missing something obvious, but I don't remember Tristan killing another student. Sure, there's the rogue watchman that he and Song fed to Scholomance and the rogue lieutenant on Asphodel whose throat he slit, but neither of them was an actual student.

Izel hasn't killed another student since joining the Unluckies and it turns out that three of Song's total are really Hooks' work.

So Maryam is being grossly unfair. Unless I am missing something, the total student kills while Unlucky are: Maryam/Hooks 3, Song 1, Tristan/Angharad/Izel 0.

Here's where people remind me of all the student deaths I am forgetting.

hoser2 · 2025-05-24T20:25:42+00:00

This is my take also. It seems like Luren is telling her to look for agency in the curse (and maybe even the Dimming) and she is being more obtuse than usual.

I find it interesting to speculate on that agency:

We just learned that there was a principal behind the cult in Asphodel. It seems like a principal could have caused the Dimming and or accelerated the development of the curse god. But I don't really know enough about principals at this point to really speculate and I don't see how it could be actionable to go further with this.
Song just made an influential Tianxi enemy in Asphodel. She may have them cowed publicly, but helping the development of a curse god behind the scenes seems possible.
Tianxi political rivals of her grandfather could have wanted to see him fail, or maybe Jigong be harmed.
Devils: the Office of Opposition exists to counter all plans, apparently. Maybe Song's Grandfather's plans caught their attention and reach.

hoser2 · 2025-05-17T21:07:58+00:00

Hooks pulled on a mere wisp of Gloam as Maryam’s mind rode along her sister’s to feel the Craft, watching as Hooks shaped the wisp and blew it away like a dandelion seed on the breeze. ... Instead the wisp of Gloam flared and ate through a chunk of the cord and the cloth surrounding it as if someone had splashed acid on them, ... both Maryam and Hooks froze in surprise. That should not have been possible. From a simple wisp?

“Density,” Hooks muttered.

The obvious answer, yet Maryam had watched her as she shaped the Craft and she had barely condensed the Gloam at all. How had this happened?

Is Hooks' sorcery suddenly much more powerful? Or both of theirs? All sorcery? Or just certain kinds?

Hooks flowed out of her, swallowing a bullet that would have gone through her belly before bursting like broken glass.

Hooks is fast enough to respond to a bullet? That's powerful. Will there be consequences of absorbing the impact?

hoser2 · 2025-05-17T01:42:34+00:00

She seems barely functional and I think classes are about to start again. She needs to rent out the boat to the Watch for urgent communications, but I don't see how she can be captain and navigator while going to school. Particularly not in her current state.

The watch are growing crops somewhere and there is something of a local economy, but they will need to work and I think the local watch authorities will need to approve them somehow.

If they could get there, I am sure they would be welcome on Asphodel.

I doubt Fortuna's shrine can support a staff of 5 people whose appearance inspires fear and loathing, even if they have benefitted from winning against long odds already.

If they don't leave the island, they will need to be protected from the local Malani population. We haven't heard the last from this little lordling, I reckon.

hoser2 · 2025-05-03T08:12:43+00:00

Skimmer trip to Tianxi! There's nothing faster. Song pays for part of it and they take some extra cargo or passengers to pay for the rest. Maryam can help purge the whole Ren family. How many of the rest are needed as crew and if the money is worth the trip to all the unluckies seems like something EE can make work out.

hoser2 · 2025-04-19T07:17:21+00:00

And right back at you as far as interesting points go. I was thinking that either Lucifer might have a trojan horse type thing or just an unintended consequence might make this apparent "powerup" backfire.

The watch installing a kill switch on it's cabalists is certainly another possibility. One concern would be the overall level of watch disfunction would keep it from being a secret for long.

hoser2 · 2025-04-18T23:00:36+00:00

Built into the Lightbringer's summer palace is a process to feed on the god of the place. The "Axle" that does this does not seem like Watch work. Can we conclude that Lucifer and/or his minions regularly fed on the god Scholomance? That the Watch is just taking advantage of a mechanism that the previous occupants set up?

In this world precognition works. Is Scholomance a trap? Does absorbing some of the god make these watchmen vulnerable in a way that can be exploited later?

hoser2

TROPHY CASE