Equi Rerelease Changes, Vol. 3
This is a fairly short part of the book and should not have taken me this long, but I've been working on several other side projects that I needed to focus on... more announcements about those coming soon! But anyhow: we've officially arrived in Csenfeisna. This part is where a lot of the lore changes come in, especially around auras and magic.
• First off, Alexander and Cylestra land pretty close to Grensfei and just walk into town. It's a lot less chaotic, which gives Cylestra time to absorb some of the basics of Csenfeisna's environment and allows both of them to notice a shimmer where their auras touch.
• Obviously with the changes in time dilation, Alexander's been gone for months in Csenfeisna. So when his mother and Skyla get home and find him there, it's more of a bewildered reunion. Tess's character has also undergone some workshopping to be a bit more in-depth; the biggest change is that after the presumed death of her husband and now with her son walking into the exact same situation, the woman's traumatized. She's more emotionally distant and skittish, which is going to leave room for character development later on.
• Dustkeepers are now referred to as "auratenders," because the former description just... made no sense. (Many thanks to Reilly Prescott for coming up with that term.)
• I added some more worldbuilding around auras: every living thing has one, but faeries are the only ones who can use magic with them because they're the only fully sapient species in Csenfeisna. And as of right now, they can only transfer aural energy from their own auras into the atmosphere in the form of spells. Auratenders can manipulate the aural energy in the atmosphere, basically moving it around, which means they can concentrate certain types of energy around a faerie so their aura will absorb it more quickly. (Of course, this all changes in later books, but we'll get there when we get there.)
• Alexander and Cylestra explore Grensfei for the first time in the middle of the night. They're both already awake from not being adjusted to the new day/night cycle, so Alexander takes the opportunity to show Cylestra around and help her get her bearings before the village gets crowded during the day. In addition to giving her some exposition about Csenfeisna, he also tells her more about his experience on Earth.
• They encounter Elias for the first time on their way back to Alexander's house, and we get a little bit of information on storms through him. They're now split into transit storms and eclipse storms; both can be predicted by celestial patterns, and transit storms are much milder and more common. The storm that happens in Equi is a transit storm.
• The picnic scene with Alexander's family is obviously a different conversation now, with Alexander and Cylestra brainstorming what to tell the Council and how to prevent them from figuring out how to get to Earth. They don't argue about anything, and later go into town to buy supplies.
• Cylestra's dream is no longer about Joseph in the gymnasium. Instead, she dreams about Jason, ripping her out of what she thought was going to be an escape from what happened. It shakes her up and sets the foundation for her anxiety around the first faerie dance she goes to with Alexander.
• Alexander helps the village prep for the transit storm during the day, but then settles calmly into the house with Cylestra and his family when the storm arrives. It's mild enough that he and Cylestra can watch it through the window and hold a conversation; at that point, he tells her about the terrible storm from his childhood that left the scar on his leg. That one was an eclipse storm.
• The cleanup the day after the storm is about the same, but Cylestra spends most of the day by herself, thinking about things and ultimately cleaning up the footpaths as a way to distract herself. She returns to Alexander's house to get ready with Tess and Skyla helping her.
• Alexander picks Cylestra up at the house before taking her to the dance, where the first thing they do is meet up with Elias. He's the one who brings attention to the shimmer between their auras while talking about aural matching (which there's a bunch of new worldbuilding around), but Alexander doesn't acknowledge it. They also only see Oliver from a distance while he's singing with the musicians.
• The dance is still colorful and chaotic and magical, and as Cylestra feels the same trance that she did at the winter formal, she gets triggered and flies out to the beach in a panic. She starts shouting and throwing rocks in the water, finally releasing all the anger and grief she felt after Jason's assault and the school's lack of action. Alexander tells her he's glad to see that she's finally letting herself feel it so she can move forward.
• There's no slow dance on the beach, but Cylestra does hug Alexander and they have a very intimate moment between them as she feels safe with him for the first time.
• The last chapter now consists of Alexander and Cylestra's goodbyes with his family and their first flight out of Grensfei. The timeline of them leaving the village is much quicker (days rather than weeks) because the longer Alexander stays in his family's home, the more he's putting them at risk of being collateral damage if the Council comes to find him there. It's also much harder for them to leave, with both of them knowing subconsciously that there's a chance they'll never come back.
• I finally changed the last sentence. The whole "suffocating void of doom" thing has bothered me for years. It's too intense for the circumstances at this point, it doesn't match their emotions, it's overly omniscient, just... ugh. I'm so relieved to change it.
So now we get into the journey to Skefeina! I'm really excited to see where the rest of the book goes, and hopefully will make much faster progress now that I have a little less on my plate.