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Chapter 115: Grief

🕑 Added 2025-09-11 22:34:29 +0000 UTC

Comments

Lars Nordbotn

I have to admit, the loss of a child does substantiate the irrational depth of Polina's sorrow. Personally I struggled a lot with reading this one, can't imagine how it must have felt trying to devise the chapter. Interrogations like these leave lasting scars on people, even if the intention is to test loyalties, in doing so in this manner, they run a larger risk of fracturing what loyalties they claim to aspouse for their cause, if they mistreat someone... Quite contrary to their purpose. "Loyalties only matter if continously tested" is a load of bullocks :') Given what they know about Polina's life, it shouldn't be difficult to look at the facts of why she did what she did(especially when the "leader" survived and later understood what had happened) and avoid this situation where they intentionally make her answer in this way, someone who is reluctant to speak talks about what they don't want to tell others. It does help to hammer home that Polina doesn't belong in that environment, and never did. A psych evaluation would have screened her from participating in the mission, and should have led to her never being a part of the situation at all, so it's odd to see that wasn't addressed in her recruitment effort(I bet they were happy to have people volunteering manpower) but yeah, I see what tone you were going for in the chapter Keene and it's definitely a good effort to writing about something like this but avoiding acts of violence. To me it shows the brutality of the human regime, doubly so because it's seen with the psychological lense, and I personally wouldn't want to live in a human region where interrogations amongst allies can go that far. Sometimes grief can underpine motivation, but the kind of grief Polina went through is more often crippling, not enabling... I'd like to add that you did a good job, and it made me reflect on some values I've not considered for a while, so appreciate the good writing effort Keene. I'd like to comment on the death of dumbledore thing being traumatic for a lot of people, so yeah, good example of character deaths haha. It's an apt comparison to draw towards beloved characters, and shows that you put a lot of your time and effort into the cast Keene. Nice job as always, now I need a cup of coffee to recover from that. Nice excuse to get into the next chapter haha. Talk again on discord or in later comments.

Ben Lockwood

Dang, the Communist Party is here in force. Poor Polina, it looks like they aren’t even going to be subtle with the brainwashing.

Keene

WIll be interested in seeing how Serena will deal with it if she sees Polina again and that detail is shared. Serena obviously knew she killed civilians, but I doubt she has yet to come face-to-face with it in that way... Dark times >.< Thanks for reading :)

Drasoini

Ooof, this was very hard. And would absolutely destroy Serena if she knew, perhaps not as much as before or perhaps more because she KNOWS someone involved. Polina's blessing activating during that conversation would hurt both of them I feel like.

Keene

Kind words, thank you :) And thanks for reading <3

Keene

Glad you appreciated it, even if difficult to read <3

Keene

Yes >.< Hopefully things cheer up for Polina soon... Thanks for reading <3

Keene

Mmm! It's going to shake things up over there, that's for sure! Thanks for reading! <3

Keene

Thanks for reading! ^.^

Keene

Ah... if only :( Thanks for reading! <3

Keene

Mmm it's interesting having the context now for Polina's actions and attitudes from so long ago. I wonder how many readers who didn't like Polina might change their opinion, or stay the same. Thanks for the comment, and thanks for reading! <3

Keene

Thanks for reading <3

Bast

This was very well written. Thank you

nvurhdeht

TFTC!! Thank you for this - it was lovely to read, though hard to digest

Veriaura

Tftc. Sad :(

Puppy Piranha Forever

Very interesting seeing things from Polinas viewpoint and what drove her thirst for vengeance. Very curious what the human church will do with the information they got from her.

bladepony games

Thanks for the chapter

Annora D.

Thanks for the chap, and word of necromancy when?/jk

pix

thank you for the chapter <3

SleepyKitten

Ty for chappy<3, very interesting this one actually, finally seeing polinas side, amelias ascelpius form being leaked utterly now. What will the pope do now? War? Maybe. Even her belief of peace between and humans and demons now known to the humans. Interesting information but what will they do with it? We'll see! And bless this poor.mother, the vengeance makes sense.