I officially like captain Tona now, he knows when to change perspectives and reevalutate— and his aims are genuinely heroic (unlike a certain white haired trafficker).
Speaking of, I think I finally figured out why I dislike the bug guy, and how he's a contrast to Duane; whereas Duane is around so as to protect a child and attempt to dissuade her from endangerment, the plat goes out of his way to bring himself and his child into harm's way, outright refusing to go to where they might be safe when persistently asked (and lying about it). I commented before that his ‘charity’ of wanting the captured youths was suspicious and felt that he was putting on airs— he's now stated outright that he believes those kids are doomed t slow deaths (and that he doesn’t plan on helping them make it faster). He just wanted the silver inside of them, methinks.
I loved the scene where Duane wakes up, that was an excellent moment of levity tying flawlessly into what we knew had happened rather than being a contrived comedy (lookin' at you, modern Disney).
I also love the lion imagery in Duane's flashbacks. Lions on flags, lions in lore, lions with pride and stride and lions to fight. Gee, I wonder if there is an character we know of who has a relation to lion???? I see you, setup, I see you. -_O
(It ties in well with how Sette an touch the ephemeral, and I love the concept of the afterlife being comprised of memories.)
Side note: So the cousin-boss Rummagen is behind the traffickers, who are using captives to fill with parasitic magics which feed on pain, wit young children as their preferred targets. And Sette is a child. And she's told her dad outright that she'd die for the family.
Geepers, I wonder what that all implies for future chapters. (If I'm wrong as to what may follow, I'll have a laugh).
One complaint I ave is that Jivi is awfully okay with staying with the plats, who had been trafficking him, who have confessed after the fact that they (by which I mean Bug Daddy) had no plans on actually helping, and who are ongoing liabilities. Staying with them helps him maintain the heroism title, which is why the ghost ventures to aid him, so that could be a decent answer? I think I need to reread that fight scene, because Sette was oddly quick to help Jivi, who was weirdly fast to help the plats. I figure that he was actually aiming for freeing the other two wagons, as he's promised to help free the rest of the captives?
Did Sette just help out of habit, was it an enemy-of-my-enemy thing, or did she see something in Jivi that she identified with? Their interactions were cute and I hope they become friends.
Of something mentioned in a prior post, Sette now has a new explanation for why Duane cares about her wellbeing; she reminds him of his lost daughter. She is painfully fast to take on Mikala's speech patterns in that escape scene (or at least jumping to call him “Papa” when trying to direct him). Given how she views things and interprets life, I wouldn’t put it past her to assume any future kindness from Duane isn’t for her, but for normal, human child he wishes she'd be. When she hugs his neck during the escape, was that relief or anguish? Does she pity him for his losses, or herself for what she could never have?
