An Unfound Door, Chapter Fourteen
Mar. 31st, 2024 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingAgnes and Fhiad have a brief conversation with Galien and Caelif before departing from Faloren Castle. Fhiad’s personality becomes warmer and more open as they travel across the countryside. He’s friendly to travelers, and he shares his memories of the university in Cretia with Agnes. In the evenings, Agnes stretches and practices the sword forms that she learned from Mylah, who left the castle shortly after Fhiad’s arrival and hasn’t returned since. On the first night after they enter the northern forest, Fhiad watches Agnes practice and confesses that his magic won’t be useful against what they’ll face in Erdbhein. He asks that Agnes remember him as human before transforming himself into a boar.
.
This chapter is the transition stage between narrative acts that Jessica Brody (of Save the Cat fame) calls “the eye in the calm of the storm.” It’s a seemingly extraneous but actually extremely important part of the story in which the characters take stock of their situation, their relationships, and their goals.
Even before I read Save the Cat, this was always one of my favorite chapters in any longer work I wrote. This is especially the case with romances, where this chapter is almost always the first night the characters spend together. If An Unfound Door were a different type of novel, Fhiad and Agnes would have gotten hot and heavy before Fhiad decided to transform himself into a boar, but he just kisses her hand. Which is plenty romantic enough.
I end this chapter with a suggestion that Fhiad is going to be reckless and violent as a demonic boar, but this is misdirection. When Fhiad says “remember me as I am now,” what he actually means is that he wants Agnes to remember him as being brave. Even as a boar, he’s not equipped to handle action, and Agnes is going to have to forcibly transform him back into a human in order to drag him forward in the next chapter.
Even to me, as someone who ostensibly knows how this story ends, it’s been interesting to watch how Fhiad has developed as a character. He initially seems strong and dangerous, but he becomes weaker and more pathetic as the reality of his trauma sets in. He slowly unravels as he goes from one set of bad behaviors to another, which is always fun.
In this chapter, Fhiad is a completely normal person, which I think is the key to the story. As long as Fhiad doesn’t have to feel the unwanted pressure of being involved in some sort of quest, he’s fine. The goal is to get both Fhiad and Agnes to the point where they’re able to accept that they can just leave. They’re going to fail spectacularly at the end of the story, and I did my best to create foreshadowing in this chapter that makes it clear that this is the best possible outcome for them both.
I guess I’m back to writing these chapter summaries. It feels a bit odd to be the only person in my own fandom, but someone’s got to do it.
.
This chapter is the transition stage between narrative acts that Jessica Brody (of Save the Cat fame) calls “the eye in the calm of the storm.” It’s a seemingly extraneous but actually extremely important part of the story in which the characters take stock of their situation, their relationships, and their goals.
Even before I read Save the Cat, this was always one of my favorite chapters in any longer work I wrote. This is especially the case with romances, where this chapter is almost always the first night the characters spend together. If An Unfound Door were a different type of novel, Fhiad and Agnes would have gotten hot and heavy before Fhiad decided to transform himself into a boar, but he just kisses her hand. Which is plenty romantic enough.
I end this chapter with a suggestion that Fhiad is going to be reckless and violent as a demonic boar, but this is misdirection. When Fhiad says “remember me as I am now,” what he actually means is that he wants Agnes to remember him as being brave. Even as a boar, he’s not equipped to handle action, and Agnes is going to have to forcibly transform him back into a human in order to drag him forward in the next chapter.
Even to me, as someone who ostensibly knows how this story ends, it’s been interesting to watch how Fhiad has developed as a character. He initially seems strong and dangerous, but he becomes weaker and more pathetic as the reality of his trauma sets in. He slowly unravels as he goes from one set of bad behaviors to another, which is always fun.
In this chapter, Fhiad is a completely normal person, which I think is the key to the story. As long as Fhiad doesn’t have to feel the unwanted pressure of being involved in some sort of quest, he’s fine. The goal is to get both Fhiad and Agnes to the point where they’re able to accept that they can just leave. They’re going to fail spectacularly at the end of the story, and I did my best to create foreshadowing in this chapter that makes it clear that this is the best possible outcome for them both.
I guess I’m back to writing these chapter summaries. It feels a bit odd to be the only person in my own fandom, but someone’s got to do it.
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Date: 2024-04-12 03:52 pm (UTC)