All Comments on 'Slave Unbound Ch. 28'

Another brilliant chapter. Can't wait for the next one!

Thank you. I meant to have this one submitted some days earlier, but health issues keep popping up. I'm hopeful the next one won't take all that long to get out.

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

Great chapter (as always). Read it more than once now. I hope your health issues are improving.

They are coming and going. It's mostly an issue with neck and shoulder pain. I'm thinking it is carpal tunnel or rheumatism in my back. Some days it is not so bad, other days it is near crippling. I don't have a proper desk to write on, mostly just a small tray that has no arm support, and my glasses are so out of date that I have to hunch over my screen in order see anything. It puts me in a position where I quickly begin to hurt.

I can't afford to do anything to improve it all, since my Patreon doesn't actually make any real money and I have a very poorly paying job. So, I pretty much just have to deal with it and try to make the most out of what time I can get before the pain starts.

Sorry to hear about that. With me its arthritis. Came on very suddenly and basically crippled me (couldnt even hold a cup) for a couple of months. Eventually saw a specialist who literally took five minutes to go, "Oh, I can fix that". He sorted out a medication and within a few weeks I'd just about returned to normal. Course, I have to take meds until I drop dead, but cest la vie I guess. Thankfully in Scotland that doesnt involve any additional cost which is good. On a more positive note my dry spell has ended a couple of days ago and Ive started writing again. On page 17 of Chapter 38 of my fantasy story and still going strong. I'll have to check out your Patreon.

I wish things her in the States were as easy as it is across the pond. I went to a doctor about my own issues a year or two back. They suggested that I try yoga, then charged me $200 for the consultation. American Healthcare sucks. :(

I keep meaning to click onto your page and finally read your stuff. I swear I haven't forgotten you. Hahaha. I just get caught up with things. I will make sure I finally get to it this week, even if I have to set reminders on my phone to go off every day. :D

And I deeply appreciate you checking out my Patreon. I am very grateful for everyone who tunes in there, whether they become an official patron or not. It makes me feel better about my work to know people want to check me out. :)

Welcome back! Hell of a story as always. I do think my earlier assessment from a few chapters ago, when this fight was revealed to be in the works, was still correct as of this chapter - Trinka is the only one of Leita's kills that I still read as sympathetic and undeserving at the moment of death. Maslo there was a ton of description as to all the vile things he did, the magician tried to cheat in that very fight (and still lived to show for it), even Cookie (who certainly wasn't by Leita's hand) had been quite nasty to people and largely got what was coming to her. Trinka is the first one I feel like genuinely only died to further other people's plots, and just got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was half expecting somewhere between the end of the last part and now that some other thing would have come up to prevent this fight from being a thing.

Not to say that's good, bad, or indifferent - it's a fantasy story, plenty of deaths happen where the death wasn't "deserved" as such (cough ASOIAF cough) - it just kind of changes the tone of things a bit for me when it's a good character, the main character at that, being the one to perpetrate the death. If an evil (or morally ambiguous, tending evil) character does it, it's different to me than something like this. This is a world where things like that happen, but I'm used to the "free person gets caught up in slavery by accident or some other person fucking them over" being a major character and having a little bit of plot armor most of the time, or if the character dies, an evil character doing it (again though not always, plenty of stories are specifically going away from that trope).

Even if the specific thing I was hoping for didn't happen (some plot diversion preventing the fight) it's still an impeccably written story, one of the best on the site, and I'm definitely looking forward to whatever comes next.

JG

Trinka was most definitely meant to be a partially sympathetic character. She had her faults, but was very much a victim as well, I agree. Her arrogance and denial of acknowledging that Leita was more than what she wanted her to be were certainly flaws, but I agree that she was not the same kind of villain that others have been. She was a creation of the world in which she lived, a world where nothing is very fair and one has to become tough to survive. Sadly, it wasn't until she found herself with no way out that she finally managed to come to terms with her own follies.

To that same end, part of why I didn't want her to be a 'slam dunk bad bad guy' was because she also represented the fact that Leita can't always be the shining beacon of virtue, nor is she really meant to be. While certainly the hero of the piece, she isn't meant to be always come out clean. As things go, Trinka may not have been some 'innocent life' that she took, but this chapter also shows that she is becoming effected by the world she lives in, is developing a little bit of arrogance herself. She is still the kind of person to want to show mercy, even when her opponent hates her so much they they would not even consider returning it. However, she too will have to grow harder if she is going to make it in the end.

That said, do know that Trinka's story hasn't yet been just swept aside and Leita's tale will not just move past it so easily. What happened in this chapter will still have some later repercussions and the time I put into Trinka's character and backstory wasn't just to toss it away now. :)

I didn't see Trinka as a villian, but she was definitely um, lets say "Lawful Evil". She was a professional gladiator who would have been quite content to slaughter a novice (first fight) and/or kill her enemy in the second. So, she knew the risks, and in that game its pretty much a case of "you pays your money and takes your chances". She was interesting enough that I didnt actively want to see her dead (like you root for a real bad guy to get chopped), but I didnt shed any tears.

I think Lawful Evil definitely describes her well. She was an assassin before she got stuck as a gladiator, so killing people was always what she did. However, I purposefully made her someone that could be sympathized with. In many ways I felt kind of sorry for her, getting stuck into the situation she did.

Sadly, she would have found herself in that match even if she had been a better person and half the point was that Leita wasn't given the chance to show mercy. I'm sure that, had Leita known more about Trinka and what had brought her there, she would have been more inclined to find a way to spare her, even if she still wouldn't have had much of a choice.

Well you know the saying: “There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.” Lots of people mistake mercy for weakness. And at some point I suspect Leita will illustrate the error of that assumption.

Unrelated (eh, semi-related) I can't wait to see Venge in particular suffer some horrible twist of fate. Probably my single most hated character at the moment. Also, I signed up to your patreon earlier when I saw that there was a new chapter.

JG

@Gortmundy - I suspect you are correct in that assumption and I love the quote. Leita is no stranger to being underestimated, much to the detriment of everyone who does so. :)

@JG - Venge will very soon by making a very big swing, but the whole plot against him that will involve Verdant will be touched on, not this coming chapter, but the one right after it. That chapter will catch us back up with both Verdant and Venge, as well as finally introduce us to Oscar Bellock, who has, so far, only been mentioned by others or seen in background.

Venge is certainly meant to be a very hated character and will only grow more so as time goes on. Amusingly, most people have cited the Baroness as their most hated villain, though she won't have much influence on things (directly at least) for most of the rest of the book. (Not to say that she won't be circled back to eventually...)

And I did notice the both of you joining the Patreon, for which I am deeply grateful and appreciate. Thank you for that very much. I set it up years ago and the lack of real people who ever deemed it worth donating to has really dented much of my confidence of these books actually being good enough that they could have ever managed to make money in a professional sense. Having some new patrons always does a lot for my self esteem. :)

Yeah I kind of discounted the Baroness as she seems largely irrelevant at this stage, except as motivation. Generally pretty powerless in the gladiator circuit. She's terrible, don't get me wrong, but far less of a threat.

JG

I dont like this Donovan guy. Dude doesn't realize how deep in the system he is. Got his freedom and became a slaver. Leita doesnt need to be broken down, she needs to be built up. She was already ground to almost nothing. I dont think her current "master" is good for her either necessarily but this guy needs to back off

@JG - Yeah, I agree, at this point she's much better used as a kind of disembodied specter of motivation, rather than a direct villain in the piece. She was honestly never meant to factor much in, aside from the initial vehicle by which Leita found herself in this world.

@Plutoburns - I agree that Leita deserves far more than she has gotten from her world. There is still a lot more sides to Donovan that has yet to be shown, but he is certainly not meant to be someone who will be 'good' for much of anyone that falls under his thumb. In the end, none of the HouseMasters are meant to be entirely good people, Verdant Crahka being the closest to it. (However, even he has his hypocrisies and follies.)

Hmm, I'm going to take a guess here: Donovan Solivier will scheme and plot and all that, and inevitably, if he gets his way Leita wiill be in his "stable". But ultimately, after all is said and done, once he's trained her as best he can, molded her into the deadliest thing he can make he will free her, and he will do it by fighting her, either in private, or on the sands. There are no other challenges for a man like him, everyone else is just so much "meat". The winner will own House WarForger, the loser will be dead. That's my guess.

To best avoid any significant spoilers, I feel it best to make no official comment regarding your supposition, my friend. :)

Excellent, enjoying the journey.

I am very glad you are. I have a lot planned for this story (like several books), so I just really hope I don't jump any sharks along the way.

It's surprising how fast Leita is able to learn her opponents' fighting stance and skills, makes her that much cooler.

Her ability to pick up fighting skills is one of her special talents. It is what makes her a survivor and what makes some people particularly interested in her.