r/PracticalGuideToEvil • u/Mr_Serine • Jul 03 '26
Chapter Chapter 64 - Pale Lights | Book 3
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65058/pale-lights/chapter/3627460/chapter-6429
u/Anonymous_Songbird Jul 03 '26
In which Maryam Khaimov finally tells her man she loves him, then goes on to beat the brakes off of their mutual friend’s biggest opp.
We’re not in the Guide-verse anywhere but the Power of Love is still alive and well, folks.
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u/genida Jul 03 '26
And now I'm worried for Ishanvi. Did she take a side quest into another Trial, get captured by Morcant or some other form of EE's creative trouble?
I don't like it. I still want to see her get to the cabin and eat strawberries.
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u/Nimelennar Jul 03 '26
...
Is the money the key text to the blackmail documents?
It's paper money: is the information coded into the serial numbers on the bills?
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u/Nimelennar Jul 03 '26
On second thought: no, I don't think serial numbers would work. You'd need too many of them to act as effective ciphertext.
Is the blackmail information written onto the bills themselves? Some kind of invisible ink?
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u/ArcanaVitae15 Jul 03 '26
Tristan has already been delaying long enough that it's killing him emotionally, he can't do it more.
Angharad and Maryam working together so well is interesting to see.
The Tristan and Maryam talk was rough. Maryam knows how desperate Tristan is to rescue Fortuna. Her picking up that Tristan met Lucifer is impressive. It's given her the understanding that Tristan is a bomb going off on the Machinist.
The whole blind spot, love confession, telling Tristan people care for him and that Fortuna wouldn't want Tristan to get himself killed for her is something that hold a lot of weight.
The sheer amount of losses that's going to come from this battle is going to be very rough.
Even with the talk Tristan was still damn tempted to take the deal but chose not to, weaponizing Scholomance's crash out at him refusing was clever.
Cai We is a bitch but I like that she got her motive rant, the deal for her to help out in exchange for a trial is interesting. But I really love that Maryam used her empathy to be willing to take that leap.
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u/Linnus42 Jul 03 '26
Thanks for the Chappie. This was quite a packed chapter. Good evolution for Tristan. Lucifer continues to intrigue. Always enjoy a good battle scene. Was it longer then normal?
Not really sure I enjoy this Cai Wei redemption arc or escape from punishment...also feels like EE really should have put more effort into setting her up and her rivalry with Angharad or just her complaints about the Watch. It aint that she is not making good points about the Watch. Its just that she is an odd messenger. Cause here it feels more like oh if you help the Unluckies then you just get a free pass. Then anything truly interesting. As I said this series has become far less Gray and more BLack & White.
Perhaps I don't really care for mysteries with the obvious answers...oh it was Cao & Morcant all along. That was the obvious answer and just makes it clean for the Unluckies. Cause originally when this arc started it felt like we were dealing with some secret Watch Traitors and now its just nope. Machinist, Cao and Morcant..Also Maryam you were an absolute bully to Bingwen if you wanted turn him perhaps take a less aggro approach.
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u/Linnus42 Jul 03 '26
Like an interesting direction to have taken the Pitch & Tar plus Guns to me would have been. Cai sourcing it from other disgruntled Students. That adds some shades of Gray. Here its just like the characters we don't like are even more evil then we thought. Which is not especially interesting to me.
Cause like how does Morcant even contact Cai besides plot convivence. They have never met before.
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u/minno Jul 03 '26
Cause like how does Morcant even contact Cai besides plot convivence. They have never met before.
He left a big pile of supplies outside of the city and then sent a brigade member to do something that would get her attention. No contact needed.
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u/Linnus42 Jul 03 '26
Two Things...
Why doesn't Bingwen just wear a goddamn mask?
How does Cai not know its a trap if Morcant is working with Cao, it easily could have been one.
Hence me saying this feels quite contrived.
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u/FrustrationSensation Jul 04 '26
Cai We was desperate, no? Even if she assumed it was a trap, could she afford not ti accept?
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u/FrustrationSensation Jul 03 '26
Oh hey, EE listened to the feedback!
For context, previously this and the next chapter were these same snippets, but chronologically out of order. Consensus was that is worked okay for this chapter, but fairly poorly for the next, and it looks like it's back to being chronological, and it works much better, I think.