There's nothing quite so much fun as having reached the payoff of your setup; while obviously the story has a looooooong way to go, the last bits of BASIC exposition are finally out of the way. The Conclave in this chapter has been rearranged and moved around several times, until it finally found a place where it could a) reasonably occur, 2) be explained to someone
This chapter and the next were outlined more carefully in advance, so I'm hoping to update again sooner rather than later. It's been a slow start, overall; but the pace is picking up...
Thanks for the reviews! If you read the story and enjoy it, the best thing you can give me is a review! If you read it and hate it, the best way to prevent me from doing more things you hate is to TELL me you hate it; i.e., WRITE A REVIEW!
EDITED: I just realized that this chapter is actually the longest so far, and that each chapter thus far had until now been slightly shorter than the chapter before.
My renewed enthusiasm for this project has one clearly identifiable source: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I don't think I can link it here, but if you've never read it, Google it, I guess? I'm several years late to that party, but it's really invigorated me, and I credit it with pulling me out of the writing slump I was in for a while there.
EDITED AGAIN: I just realized that my formatting was off; my horizontal breaks weren't present. If the flow of this chapter or the previous seemed odd, give it a skim again now that it's fixed.
