Wow cool.

Thanks so much! I appreciate the support!

Oh man. This is certainly a very interesting chapter, and a very intense one as well. Especially at the end! I have to say you took me by surprise with this one!

I really liked the initial meeting between the Cearnach and Talwyn forces as the Talwyn ship sails up. It really kind of shows how nothing has really gone as planned, especially for Lauren and her group, and that even though the do manage to forge an alliance it really isn't in the way that they had anticipated. Which I thought worked quite nicely to maintain the air of danger that had already been established in the first chapter. Plus I liked that the two forces didn't automatically trust each other completely. This showed especially clearly with Nessa and her little feud with Isabelle over whether or not to give the Cearnach soldiers weapons. For knowing so little about her, you've actually captured Nessa's basic personality quite nicely, and I really like the intense, dedicated feel you've given her, as well as the stubborn streak. All of which is pretty true to how I've always imagined her.

As I said earlier, I really like the scenes with Brigit. Having her explore the big Talwyn ship and indulge in her fantasies a little was really quite charming, and I really liked the way Isabelle was kind enough to cover for her. I liked that you kept going back to Brigit now and then, too, and that you focused so much on her desire to help her sister. Though her running out into the thick of the fight at the end was both alarming and, ultimately, heartbreaking. I have to say that David's death came as a complete surprise, and that it was heart-wrenching that he died while protecting Brigit. I can only imagine how awful she would have to feel after that, and it was quite a startling blow for everyone, I suspect.

The combat with Sean and his compatriots was really nicely done. It went about like I expected, but you have a real knack for writing very intense combat scenes so that even when you know it's way too early in the story for the conflict to end, there's still enough of a feeling of uncertainty to put the reader on edge. The same goes for the fight in the prison, even though it was much shorter. Both made it clear just how dangerous the enemy was, and how powerful the keystone can be when wielded by someone who knows what they're doing. And both certainly made me want to see Leaven and especially Sean get taken down hard. But that's a definite point in favor of the story as a whole, I'd say. It's always more fun when you have characters who can provoke such strong reactions.

The cave with the thirteen crystals is quite an interesting little item as well, and I'm very curious to see what will happen with that, and just what, exactly, Bennett will end up doing and who he will ultimately side with. Whether that's ultimately answered in this story line, or in a future one, it definitely has me interested!

Lovely work on everything so far, and I've enjoyed every word!

Oh yes. :) That was the idea, once I'd figured out how to break down the story into four parts, and what clusters the characters needed to be in it was surprisingly smooth determining who would be where and in what order. I'll get into that more later.

Every time I'd attempted to get the groups together in part 1 the story just never gelled. When I kept them all apart for part 2, it worked much better. I thought, what better way to open part two than to have the Talwyn and Cearnach contingents meet? Both of them have reason to be cautious, Ciara having been forced out of her castle and Lauren losing track of Bennett due to an unknown cause. Though Ciara is trusting, I knew neither of them would be open at the moment but nor would either be aggressive. Lauren would never attack a clearly less advanced ship and Ciara and her advisors know that it wouldn't be wise to challenge this mysterious metal hulled ship without at least trying to talk to them first. While after they talk both learn pretty fast that neither intends harm, by that same token they're not sure if they can turn their backs on each other. The enemy of my enemy would seem to apply here. Both sides are not entirely altruistic either. Like real people, they have things they want, Ciara being her kingdom and Lauren getting Bennett back and eventual aid in her own issues. To get these things, they have to extend a little faith. Trust, however, comes later. I wanted General Nessa and Isabelle to have at least one scene together and it seemed like a logical argument. However, as any good firearms user will tell you, it's better to have someone that knows how to use it than a bunch of people that don't. The time frame plus the fact that they're still tenuous means Isabelle would say no. Even though I had little to go on with Nessa, she came together pretty quickly for me when Ciara literally ran into her. Once I thought, who is this woman she bumped into, I started thinking of the crimson armor, the black hair, and since you indicated she was more serious than Ivers, Nessa became the formal half of the pair.

Brigit hadn't been planned, but it seemed like a fun way to get the Cearnach perspective on their ship as well as give her some 'screen time'. I didn't want her to just be 'in the way', so she had to have some things to do like the rest of the group, and I thought kids like to explore, so.... :) Given how close she and Ciara are it seemed inevitable she'd want to help, or try to, despite Niamh's efforts to keep her safe and sound. While later she'll probably grow up to realize she's lucky she's alive, it's part of the family trait of being foolish and young. As for David's death, that was planned for a while. Topaz's parents have always been dead when she was rather young, in all versions of her history. When I started filling in the backstory, I decided on her mother's death on the last day of the war, both to get Topaz in the right starting position and to set up the main story for arc 1. It also got Chris into his position. While I always knew David would die at some point, I did not know how until I started working on Blue Symphony. I decided that this story, set during the occupation, would solve several plot points in my continuity. One of them was David's death. Since I wanted it to have significance and emotional weight, and part 2 is the middle, the worst thing had to happen so far. Not wanting his death to be just a casualty, it seemed the most fitting that he die doing his duty.

Thank you for the wonderful comments, I like to think that even though I don't kill characters willy nilly, I find the story is much more involving if you don't know for sure who will make it and who won't. After all, if you know the character will survive without even a little doubt, you aren't worried for them. I write the action scenes in my head trying to make the reader realize that there is a risk and anyone could die, though they won't necessarily. Still, like a gun, you always assume it's loaded, and if even major characters can be killed, you worry for them all.

The scene with Siobhan and Bleu in the prison was a lot of fun. I'd had the ending of the scene in my mind when I started, especially the fact that if Bennett hadn't been there, Leaven would have killed Bleu. However, while Bennett's loyalty is in question, he's not yet ready to kill just for the sake of making someone bleed. Leaven, however, is another story. As for Leaven and Sean's fates, you'll just have to keep reading! ;)

The cave with the crystal lock is a keystone (no pun intended) to the Iridescence mythos as a whole, and it's why Caspian came to Viridis in the first place, though you'll have to wait to see why. :)

One more week until part 3. :)

I was definitely on Isabelle's side about the weaponry. As much as I sympathize with Nessa, and as much as I'd have had her do exactly the same thing, I like to think that if their roles were reversed Nessa would have been the one to refuse to hand over advanced weapons to people who were wholly unfamiliar with them. Regardless of how much they might or might not trust each other, the risk of friendly fire would have been too great. I do think that Nessa would understand this given time, but her passion in the heat of the moment and her pride were spot on for how I envisioned her character. Not to mention, she and her fellow soldiers are used to knowing that they are the most powerful military force on the island, so a bit of bruised ego would be inevitable.

I think I've said, but I like the idea of giving her crimson armor, too. I don't know why I'd never really thought of what she might wear before, with her being Cearnach's top General. Though I suppose that, up until my recent project, Deirdre has always held that position in my mind, even if it's not true past the prolog of Oseille. But it does sound very striking!

David's death really was surprising. I'd even go so far as to say it was shocking, because up until now there have been no major characters among the casualties. But I really do think you handled it well, and it was a very powerful scene and one that, I'm guessing, will serve as a powerful motivator not only for the alliance between the Talwyn forces and Cearnach, but for Lauren and her group to want to stay to finish the job. I agree that you shouldn't just kill characters left and right. A lesson I have kind of learned the hard way. But that there should be enough uncertainty and enough of a risk even to your major characters that they don't seem like they're just going to waltz through the story. At the very least, there should be a risk of them losing something, or some risk to their failure that goes beyond the superficial.

As for Leaven's threatening Bleu, I will have to admit that it probably affected me a bit more than it might anyone else, given how fond I am of Bleu. But I liked that it showed that Bennett does still have some scruples. It's a part of what keeps him sympathetic despite his questionable motives. Whatever path he may ultimately choose, he seems like he might still be a decent guy underneath.

Oh yeah, given that they want to retake the castle as quickly as possible they don't have the time to train them how to use them safely. I would be surprised if Nessa didn't ask though. I imagine it would be a rather humbling experience to have to work with a tactically superior force when you're used to being that force though of course Lauren knows the value of expertise and works with them to plan the attack. She's not foolish enough to think she knows their lands better than they do.

It just looked good in my head, like I said earlier I thought about what Ciara would see when she looked up from the floor and that image just worked for me. It's striking and makes an impression, and reflects her inner fire and determination.

That was one of the three major plot points for the Iridescence continuity I wanted this story to accomplish. :) By now you can probably guess on the other two. They were things that obviously happened based on later continuity but I had never figured out how or why. This gave me the opportunity to explain all of that in a story that actually mattered, so I jumped at the opportunity once it all started to fall into place. Given that there is a large amount of characters that I can't or didn't want to kill for one reason or another, someone had to die in a conflict this large, and since David was dead by the time the first season starts, he was the logical choice. In the first version Siobhan died, but I wanted you to have access to her later so I changed that when the plot changed. Of course, now it's personal for Lauren and her people to want to end this and bring David's body home, though she has no idea where either of David's kids are to tell them, though she will tell them both eventually. She has an idea where Starr is, but obviously travel is difficult at the moment. I think that if the story is major enough it may be appropriate to kill characters, but it has to be at the right time and be given emotional weight. No one expects to die, but there is always the possibility. As you say, risk must exist or there is no point to winning or losing. It's the law of the universe. Everything costs something.

Out of all of Caspian's allies, Bennett is one of the few that hesitates before needing to use violence. At the moment he's still undecided where his loyalty lies. That said, he doesn't want to make any steps that will seal that until he talks to Caspian. That said, this is the only time this scene could've happened, when Bennett would hesitate but Leaven would not have.