All Comments on 'Slave Unbound Ch. 18'

Awesome story. Can't wait for the next chapter.

Glad you are enjoying it. I'm already a good bit into the first draft of the next chapter, so it will hopefully not be a long time before it comes out. At the moment, the next chapter that should be submitted here will be a new chapter of The Collaring of Chloe, which I am currently in revision-work on.

I'm glad things with Leita are being well taken, especially as they begin to heat up. :)

your writing is exceptional

Thank you! :) I am glad you are enjoying the story. While I think more people know me for The Collaring of Chloe at the moment, my heart has always been more in favor of this kind of fiction. I've always been a big sword and sorcery person, so I've been thrilled that people have been responding positively to this story.

Great fight scene, between Leita, and the assassin, even greater behind the scene, power struggle, between Cornelius and Sabrina. I’m thinking that Cornelius’ obsession with Leita, is going to cost him his house in the end, if he doesn’t give up his little revenge game with our heroine.

I like the seed you planted with Verdant finding himself enamored with Leita, having a housemaster fall in love with a gladiator that a baroness, and her own master are trying to break, then kill, leaves tons of possibilities for story lines. You may not follow any of that, but it was a great plot line to open up, for yourself if you decide to pursue any of it.

I know you like to write slave stories for MCs who want to stay slaves, but I hope you leave a chance for Leita, to find her freedom, or at least find herself somewhere she wants to be.

Thanks for the effort. On to chapter 19 which has just been recently posted. KS

Leita's journey will see her change a lot in her perception and view of herself and her place in it. Right now, Leita has never known anything but being a slave, is almost afraid of the concept of being free, because she has no real context for it. However, the arena is starting to give her that context and help her understand that she can be more. It's not that she -wants- to be a slave, it's that, right now, she has simply accepted that she is a slave and has learned to live with it.

She's already starting to realize she is much more than just 'a slave' and can be even more.

And Verdant isn't actually 'enamored', but she definitely has his attention. What he sees is someone to save. :)

Thanks for the response. Okay I get it, if you have never had freedom, how can you know what freedom is, or even crave it, this gives me a different perspective to think about as I read. You may be the author, so you know what you’re trying to write, but as the reader, Verdant if not enamored, came off to me to be at the very least, very strongly impacted by his meeting, and conversation with Leita. Watch out or your characters might start writing their own story without your input.😀

Thanks. KS

Hahaha My characters often tend to take over stories on me and I do appreciate the insight. I might very well layer that into things with what I already have planned. I'll go back and see if I can see it from a reader's perspective. In the end, he WAS supposed to have been definitely aroused by her, just not so much 'enamored'. Still, such things aren't just all or nothing either. :)

If anything, you are correct that Verdant has been EXTREMELY impacted by these recent events, both with his meeting Leita and the unknowing part he played in luring her into the trap.

What is up with the betting, any bookmaker will always set up the odds so they will make make money. It is never reasonable that a person can bet on both sides (discounting a pittance on the losing side) and break even or come out ahead.

If you are referring to Cornelius's bit about how he came out ahead either way, I may have not worded that clearly enough. What he was saying was that he placed wager on the assassin winning (which is what he'd expected to happen) so that the winnings would cover the cost of the -assassin's- fee. As she was believed to be just a lot with absolutely no ability, versus a House gladiator, her odds would have been strongly against her, meaning even a small wager would pay out handsomely.

The bet he placed on Leita winning (which would have been more in her favor) so that it's payout would cover the modest amount he put on the assassin, who he would no longer really have to pay anyway. (Not that he would have likely actually gotten her out of the arena afterwards even if she did win, meaning he'd still not really have to pay her.)

Had the assassin won, he'd lose what he put on Leita, but that amount would pale in comparison to the assassin's fee, which his bet on her at her poor odds would have effectively paid for.

Hope that makes more sense.

So, having taken some time to try actually working out the math, I have begun to realize that, even with the point being that he wasn't trying to cover each bet with the other, your argument is still pretty a pretty good point. In the end, it kept coming out that the bets he'd have to place would mean, if the assassin won he'd still lose as much from the bet on Leita as what he'd have had to pay on the assassin.

Given this, I think I will be making a change here. Thank you very much for you comment and your insight. I hadn't really worked out the actual math, but it still doesn't make sense for him to have done it this way. So, I'm going to edit his response to better reflect this. Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention.

That last sentence gave me a chuckle.

Love when I am able to give someone a good one-liner. Cornelius is a character that I try to dance a fine line between being a master manipulator and the butt of the occasional joke, but he meant to always be dangerous.