Hey folks, Fethrblaka here. Just a quick PSA.

  This officially concludes the 'Introduction Arc' of the book.

  We got some dark-ish scenes near the end there, something I was holding off on a bit too much in hindsight. But moving forward, I'm looking to include more to really touch on that 'horror' and 'psychological' aspect. Not immediately, as you'll come to see. But, we're going to gear up for a lot more serious interactions. (As quick as Daegons mortal legs will let him, at least)

  With that said, I'd like to use this Chapter to truly respond to comments of any kind. As the story isn't over, I won't reveal anything too spoiler heavy. But, if you're confused, things don't add up, want my inspirations or favorite foods, etc, this will be the place to ask!

  As this is during the Write-a-Thon, you can expect the next chapter arriving shortly!

  Nothing of import will be told below, so you're free to skip this!

  Shoutouts

  I'd like to thank everyone who's made it this far! Originally, I never really planned to share my work. I've had a complicated past with prior published works, and have since distanced myself so much so from them that any proceeds they're making go directly to charity. But, being burned and burnt out on writing, a passion i've held dear for so long... Some people finally convinced me it was time to try once again, there's always time to heal. I shared this work for the first time on.... Feburary 6th, 2024, at 11:58am.... Thanks Discord, for keeping track of that!

  And over the year, casually worked on it on and off slowly gaining steam thanks to some very dedicated and lovely people who gave me words of encouragement, feedback, and called me out for my use of 'seem'. Sevictus, Justin, Sam, Dandi, Ildiko, Ninja(no that one), and many others who have helped and contribute to both the story and my mental... I wouldn't have started writing again, or gotten as far, without all of you. Thank you.

  Personal Shoutout

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I'd like to give a second shoutout to Justin, for putting up with my on-call need for feedback, and for literally building a Discord Bot for my book. It spits out random sentences, such as:

  > Graffiti-covered walls seemed to pulse with faint auras of abandonment and defiance.

  *Acknowledgements 12:190*

  like a 'bible verse', and is hilarious when you ask it questions. Like, 'Hey bookbot, do you think I should go for a jog today?'

  > It was a slow transformation due to injuries, but enough for the being within to still take full control.

  *A matter of Perspective 8:94*

  Sure, it wouldn't of made sense if I asked it if I should have Mac n' Cheese for breakfast. But, its such a beautiful thing. On top of that, it can auto translate into the Cipher I use on RoyalRoad for Cryptid Speak, and Decrypt it! OH, it also translates my book into a PDF, Watermarks it, gives me an Excel spreadsheet with word count, word count per chapter, and auto-dates all the files. It does all of this automatically, regardless of time of day, whenever I post my Doc to Discord. SHEESH.

  Fun Stuff

  I'd like to drop some fun 'most common words' used throughout this. If you have any specific questions or requests, I can even do this by chapter. If I had an author view, I'd also be sharing those stats here for anyone curious. Alas, all I have is views. So, for those curious, (As of April 4th, 2025) I have 150 views on Prelude, and 125 on Chapter 1. Pretty awesome if I say so myself! Honestly, just seeing a dozen of you viewing the newest release every time is enough for me to keep going.

  The most common word used was: 'the' at 3,577 times! For context, 'A' was only used 2,371 times and is in second place. Oh, and for anyone curious about 'seem', there's 158 variations overall used. It used to be over 300!

  Including Partial words, drawn out words, and singular letters, like 'x', 'wwwoooaaahhh', 'li-', There were 3,385 words used only ONCE. In total, there were 7,678 words! It's crazy to think almost half the entire words were only used once.

  Character Names! It really shows you how much certain characters had an impact on things. Not all characters are here

  Zylas - 384

  Daegon - 189

  Valia - 182

  Ainai - 110 / Luna - 56

  Jaskrim - 158

  Utagawa - 99 / Fuzu - 18

  Lord - 62

  Kalth - 60

  Seren - 57

  Layre - 54

  Carna - 47

  Arc- 34

  Yao- 27

  Asked questions

  I'll start posting common questions here if anyone asks, so there's no need to hunt for it below. I don't see myself being popular enough to need this section, but call it wishful thinking.

  FIN

  Aaaaaannnnnndddd, yeah. If you glanced through all of this, I hope you enjoyed this little breather as much as I did. Statistics are super cool, and I will never have problems sharing them. I hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters!