Chapter Twenty-Three Notes
Laurel: Zinni skipped out on her turn, so it's mine again...so...yeah, here's my first chapter. I may end up ducking the Gavin's-father part and leaving it to Ianthe, at this rate...will probably test D'rai, Daivi, and Sandra...possibly Piyteur and/or Elisay, 'cause they're the other two, but that's all up to Zinni.
I changed this chapter a lot from my first writing--in the original draft, D'rai spazzed, but not nearly as much, and pretty much just at Illuminati--not at Daphne and Maik. I assumed, for this, that the crew only knew of their two tests (things'd been happening pretty fast for a while), so the next chapter's where they get to catch up on the lot of it, as you'll see. Also involved will be a major Daphne-related flashback...and it really will tie in, too, so be patient about it. It's no surprise that I modeled D'rai's attempt at convincing the Applebus crew of Illuminati's supposed lies very loosely on the LOTR Two Towers chapter "The Voice of Saruman", but it surprised me--though it won't surprise anyone else--that when I wrote of his attack on Daphne, the character I ended up thinking of in writing her reaction was Pippin, late in the chapter "The Palant�r": "He said, 'Who are you?' I still did not answer, but it hurt me horribly, and he pressed me, so I said: 'A hobbit.' Then suddenly he seemed to see me, and he laughed at me. It was cruel. It was like being stabbed with knives...then he gloated over me. I felt I was falling to pieces..." Maybe no one else sees it, but somehow a line or two from that kept playing in my head... So...next chapter's soon, hopefully.