Second Son Read Along: Chapter 12
How's everyone doing with the read along? Keeping up? Already done? Struggling and getting behind? Remember that we're going to slow down a bit in February - only getting new chapter posts on M/W/F to leave room for some February is Fantasy Month posts, so don't worry if you're getting behind, you can use the extra time then to catch up!Yesterday's chapter was pretty long, but we have a nice short one today to make up for it and we're just about halfway through the book!Faithful friendsFriendship and loyalty are big themes in all of my books. Loyalty is important to me, which is probably why it is often a theme (along with betrayal, because it's easy to take the things that are important to us and flip them around to create awesome conflict in our writing). Dru and Calla have an opportunity here to let Rhoyan go on alone, but they staunchly insist on coming along. Calla's loyalty means even more when we remember that Kiernan Kane gave her some unsettling information back in Chellayn."I wanted him to be dead."Oh, Seamas! It was easy to ignore the prophecy, the things you learned about the darkest corners of your heart in the Corridor, and all the whispers (real and imagined) when you believed Rhoyan had perished. It was easy to remember him fondly and tell yourself you'd step aside if he returned... but now... after practically running the kingdom for the past few months or so... news of the possible survival and return of your brother has become much harder to take. Those things that were easy in your mind are not so simple in practice."I can only assume the best of you."We all need a Jhasen in our lives.That is all.Yorien's HandUnlike the Corridor, showing Ky possible futures and the darkest recesses of his own heart... Yorien's Hand here chooses to show Rhoyan his family and the things that have happened to them in his absence. It is important to note that if this were a test, Rhoyan has failed it. Though he tells his friends that he has done the same as Lewstor, he does not actually take Yorien's Hand with him like Lewstor did. He did not remain and see all it had to show him, he cut the visions short, and refused to accept them, though it showed him the truth. This is why he cannot comprehend Lewstor's decision to return and live in the palace near the star... where Lewstor accepted the truth of Yorien's Hand, Rhoyan has rejected it.Calla had disappearedAnd we end the chapter with a "dun dun DUN!"Discussion Questions: