7!

I finished chapter 7, possibly subtitled "Crown of Storms," and oh, the humanity! Character deaths are fun to write, full of rich, crisp opportunities for character development and plot corners and last words ("It does not usually work in the rain," in this case), but I feel like I just shot a puppy. It wasn't something I'd planned on, but, in hindsight, it was exactly the right thing to do. There might be too much denouement, by a paragraph or two; I'll have to see if it works better in the pluperfect at the beginning of chapter 8. I tend to like abrupt chapter closes.

I also got to write a religious parable, which was an interesting stylistic exercise, then skewer it with the perfect in-universe sarcastic remark. The parable, as an illustration of the religious mindset in the book, occurred to me six months ago; the skewer popped into my head two weeks back, and made me laugh a lot.

Tomorrow: we limp into the floodlands!