An Unfound Door, Chapter Two
Aug. 26th, 2022 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingAgnes wakes to find that the boar demon has transformed into a young man who identifies himself as Fhiad of Erdbhein, a notorious criminal who was accused of high treason after attacking Faloren a hundred years in the past. He is cultured and well-spoken, but he doesn’t hide his frustration with Agnes, who refuses to free him from the silver chain that bound him as a demon. He tells Agnes that he never had any intention of attacking Faloren. He claims to have had no interest in the kingdom at all; rather, he was only serving as an emissary because he was ordered to do so. Agnes doesn’t know what to think of him, but she’s exhausted and decides to stop for the night.
.
This chapter is about two tired people snapping at each other. Nothing happens aside from the initial meet cute and the reveal that the demon is a person, but the larger geography of the world and its history are established.
Agnes is from a kingdom called Faloren, Fhiad is from a neighboring kingdom called Erdbhein, and there is someplace called Cretia far to the south. Fhiad, who has no concept of how much time has passed, thinks he recently returned from university in Cretia, which establishes him as being in his early twenties while establishing Cretia as a center of culture at odds with what we’ve seen of Faloren. According to Agnes, Erdbhein attacked Faloren roughly a hundred years ago, and Fhiad supposedly instigated this attack. His crime is particularly notorious both because it was unprovoked and because he, as an emissary, was a guest in the castle. Fhiad tells Agnes that none of this is true, but he won’t be forthcoming with more details until the next chapter.
In other words, this chapter establishes the broader conflict of the story through the small conflict between Agnes and Fhiad, who are bickering. In their dynamic, Agnes is the straight man who is extremely pragmatic and emotionally grounded, while Fhiad is the funny man who is well-spoken but sharp and catty. Each of them gets a “save the cat” moment in which, despite their bickering, their first instinct is to be kind to one another when it counts.
“Bickering” may sound like an inappropriate response to the situation, and it is. In the next chapter, the characters will have a chance to reflect on their circumstances, and the more serious aspects of the central conflict will be revealed and discussed with a more appropriate tone.
As an aside, there are a lot of shitty things about being in your twenties, but one of the nicer things is being physically fit by default and being able to walk for miles without thinking too much about it. For me in my thirties, I exercise every single day but can still only walk for about 45 minutes before I need to sit down. Youth is wasted on the young etc etc etc.
.
This chapter is about two tired people snapping at each other. Nothing happens aside from the initial meet cute and the reveal that the demon is a person, but the larger geography of the world and its history are established.
Agnes is from a kingdom called Faloren, Fhiad is from a neighboring kingdom called Erdbhein, and there is someplace called Cretia far to the south. Fhiad, who has no concept of how much time has passed, thinks he recently returned from university in Cretia, which establishes him as being in his early twenties while establishing Cretia as a center of culture at odds with what we’ve seen of Faloren. According to Agnes, Erdbhein attacked Faloren roughly a hundred years ago, and Fhiad supposedly instigated this attack. His crime is particularly notorious both because it was unprovoked and because he, as an emissary, was a guest in the castle. Fhiad tells Agnes that none of this is true, but he won’t be forthcoming with more details until the next chapter.
In other words, this chapter establishes the broader conflict of the story through the small conflict between Agnes and Fhiad, who are bickering. In their dynamic, Agnes is the straight man who is extremely pragmatic and emotionally grounded, while Fhiad is the funny man who is well-spoken but sharp and catty. Each of them gets a “save the cat” moment in which, despite their bickering, their first instinct is to be kind to one another when it counts.
“Bickering” may sound like an inappropriate response to the situation, and it is. In the next chapter, the characters will have a chance to reflect on their circumstances, and the more serious aspects of the central conflict will be revealed and discussed with a more appropriate tone.
As an aside, there are a lot of shitty things about being in your twenties, but one of the nicer things is being physically fit by default and being able to walk for miles without thinking too much about it. For me in my thirties, I exercise every single day but can still only walk for about 45 minutes before I need to sit down. Youth is wasted on the young etc etc etc.
