"Kawan tied the last knot" -- perfect opportunity to hint at the sprawling tree of the story itself.
I also like the idea of comparing AX's spread to one. And Xever'a gryphons to a lesser extent. Everything is a tree indeed.
More foreshadowing of the main plotline, *particularly* the messages aspect of it. And AX too I suppose. Inhatcheta has one now but I optimally need more so it's smoother.
AX ate all the plotlines like a vine. I should make some reference to this somewhere.
Some kind of tongue-in-cheek reference to the rush song would be great. A chapter with NIU makes the most sense, and some line about equality or whatever. And a rush of thoughts or something. Or just using that word in N, I and U.
If the ashes turn yellow in 26-Q, then I should make a reference to yellow ash trees (bonewoods). Actually this works better in Valeska's POV because she's in the crypts of Faeheim.
I think there should actually be some reference to Ryden's father during the first swell sequence. Very very subtle, and important to book #2. Looks like the best seed are Ryden's twin knives, which were held in hands of opposing blood at the peak of the swell -- I need a subtle reference when he pulls these out later, and/or during his "my family believes in myths but I don't" sequence, and then some mention of them during the ending too. Zoelle is already giving a very subtle clue here with "reach back into that swell you shared with Jadzia". He had the knives on him while fighting the first chimera, so they may have ended up with Qadira and Thelma, or BYSELF. Maybe both! It ending up on Francis's men makes the most sense actually because of the three three three and the Hayden nine-knife thing. Francis' men finding the knives inside all the trade goods makes that plotline relevant later on. Also, Qadira interacts with Rosamund at some point and should pass her version of the knives on after they fall out of the first chimera encounter. And Yusrah should pick up the one Frankie *didn't* stab into Aetos. And Rosamund should stab one into Unsaw too. This conveniently creates a "frau" word. I think getting the knives to interact with both sides of a Spriggan is important here (just like the JR/tree that happens very early on). Also, weird spatiality stuff clones the knife in Aetos in Vastwood, and morrigan in book #2 clones Rosamund's knives, bringing the total up to nine knives, which either has something to do with the nine realms or the nine barriers between the six worlds (does that work?). There's ten barriers, but nine knives for ten barriers sure does work well because of the 90 thing (and tons of other references to 10). Also the knives should be referred to as hrönir at some point. Incidentally, the phrase "nine or ten" is an excellent way of pairing the two in a 90 reference. Also ten by itself is perfectly okay, because there are ten barriers between the worlds. Pairing standalone "ten"s with the word "gate" would be nice.
Having a Rosamund vignette at the end of 26 makes a certain amount of sense because of the cutting of life-trees. Definitely kicks off book #2 too. Also this will have something to do with the hrönir she buried in Unsaw, so a late fix. Also the fleuron here would be different (it already is because of the double chapter, but different from 28 too). Could do something subtle like "the life of the freeman ended" so life-tree is technically present in the vignette (it doesn't have to be in all of 26 but it would be neat if it was). Additionally, should make it more clear that Naggirps is breaking the barrier between life trees too. It's a bit glossed over. I no longer like this idea, but there's other stuff in the note now.
Make sure I'm using Valeska's (and likely Xever's) words accurately
I really like the coincidence that the life-tree chapter is 26 and there's all these references to the number throughout. Maybe Valeska could be one too -- K has a reference to her (though I think that section is getting redone). It's also the gematric number! I can also do some reference to it in the Ferritinium -- it's the element number for iron. Theres also 26 sporadic groups, I'm sure I can find a reference to add there. Maybe Ellis is 26. With some tweaking the source Ygg message could be 26 characters. Or messages 26 words. Or 26 word intros to each branch -- might be too tricky though.
Color significance like the rest of my books. I'm doing a lot already. Should be straightened out now.
"The same thing" appears to be arc words, particularly when emphasized. Figure out what this means and cut all other uses of the phrase.
"Right back" is arc words too. J in the climax and the Spriggan stuff around Zoelle are the main references. Right back is actually a 90 degree turn if you think about directions. The Zoelle ones don't fit into this.
Make sure there are in fact 16 life-branches implicated in AX (Winifred and Yusrah are also involved because of the Orlovs if nothing else). Needs to be done after all major revisions. Doing a full echo of the climax poetry line for Ellis would be neat too.
A final word count of 121680 is equal to 26*90*52, basically all three things that are important in the story (the life-tree, AX and yellow fire). I'm trending on the high side of 125k though and that'll likely go up with pacing and description edits. Also this would be the kind of thing I'd need to work on during (or after) the fourth draft. If it turns out this simply isn't possible, then making it a multiple of 26*90 would probably be easier, or just 26. 126901 would be pretty cool. Also currently trending close to 126090.
Find the "gates" and "ten" note and change it to "connection" or "connected" instead. Better foreshadowing and easier to use too
Interestingly, there's a 52 aspect with the morrigan too (the 26 sons and 26 daughters). I'm also thinking that Rosamund is descended from her, and Melia+morrigan=Pholus, which explains a lot of the lore around fae not taking bonds of love / the whole hangup with Zoelle. That would make Zoelle's descendents derived from her, Cuyler and morrigan simultaneously, which just makes way too much sense. And Pholus being related to the morrigan explains a lot of what that fae's line is capable of.
Eshu is a great renaming of Ellis -- has the trickster aspect of it *and* foreshadows his connection with the source Ygg at the end. Also colors that are red and black -- the first one fits perfectly with his heritage. Hats, clothing, skin color, etc should match in Valeska's description.
Going Yoruba for Jadzia makes more sense than anything else. Jafojo works, need to keep looking in the giant database though.
And add in some Yoruba mythology somewhere to even things out.
Forward/forwards, downward/downwards / etc. Mostly just needs to be consistent.
"That that".
"is is", if it exists.
Inconsistent capitalization of "the" in things like The Ferritinium, The Rhizarium, The Sanguineum, The Boundless Tree, etc. Do a case sensitive search for The to find all instances.
Do a search for second person pronouns outside of dialogue
Number significance. Not just the obvious ones like 26/13/7/52/90.
Oh and watch for capitalization of words after dialogue with ? Or !. I doubt it'll be a problem these days, but you never know.
Mass punctuation errors when quote marks follow an em dash. Likely the other way around too.
Make sure all uses of "literally" are grammatically correct; I shouldn't just be using it for emphasis.
Make sure "stair" is used in the grammatically-correct way too, not the way I was using it in bCoD.
