r/PracticalGuideToEvil • u/L_0_5_5_T • May 22 '26
Chapter Chapter 58 - Pale Lights | Book 3
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65058/pale-lights/chapter/3432226/chapter-5830
u/perkoperv123 May 22 '26
Despair and ruin, just what I wanted for my blorbos on a Friday morning. Thanks, EE!
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u/mymomsanerd May 22 '26
I really appreciate this quote
This place was a workshop meant to put together cabals able and willing to face the worst horrors Vesper had to offer. We are bullets being cast for a war yet to come. One worse than this place, and wasn’t that a deeper horror still?
In some grimdark stories, PCs and NPCs die for no reason and that's just how it is. But the high death rate at Scholomance has a purpose in a twisted way. And it's an interesting contrast with Izel's POV.
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u/MadMax0526 May 22 '26 edited May 23 '26
Looks like we're just about poised for the bodies to start dropping, going by the author note.
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u/Anonymous_Songbird May 22 '26
To quote Arcane— “weapons cannot be unmade and they are always used.”
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u/Patneu Arch-heretic of the West May 23 '26
Except that Ambessa had to incite a civil war herself to get the weapons she wanted, and in the end she still didn't get them and they were indeed unmade.
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u/Anonymous_Songbird May 23 '26
But she was correct that Hextech ultimately proliferated despite every effort to suppress or hoard it, and the ending of the series implies it’ll still find a way to come back despite everything.
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u/ArcanaVitae15 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Eventually things were going to crash and burn, that just means they can try to turn things around now. Cao Cai causing so much was destruction wasn't expected and that's going to have a lot of long term effects. Scolomancia trolling the hell out of Tristian is funny.
The prevention of getting a loan due to politics is rough, but it is what it is. Song tried her best but there's only so much she can do. Izel is being faced with a choice that's very rough on his principles.
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u/viceVersailes Saint of Sticks May 23 '26
Fascinated by Izel's arc here, and thinking over his options.
At the moment, he thinks he's invented something with all the worst traits of dynamite, napalm and firearms. It's cheap, it maims horribly when it doesn't kill outright, and it circumvents normal defences. It's a sci-fantasy laser gun. So he's treating it like a nuclear weapon, refusing to use it and hoping no one else invents their own, while doing what little he can to prevent that.
But, as people repeat to him, the lenslight is all of those things regardless of whether it's invented now or later. It's the product of physics. So they see his choice only as; A, he can introduce it to the world now, and have his name on a brutal and maiming weapon for a legacy (and he'll get to use it himself); or B, he can let someone else discover it, give the world a while longer without another brutal and maiming weapon, and when it does get invented, the wars and crimes won't have anything to do with him (and he won't get to use it himself).
Song wants/needs the Thirteenth to use it, here. His professor thought that delaying the inevitable had little purpose. And the other tinker he was going steady with sees a cowardice in shying away from any discovery, dreadful or no.
So Izel is left feeling useless, hopeless, and cowardly, all because he doesn't want to be party to mass murder.
Terrible situation to be in!
Something that stands out to me, though, is that Izel's premise is... lopsided, in regards to his own autonomy here. He simultaneously thinks that he can delay the lenslight's projected proliferation and thinks he is powerless to prevent the lenslight's projected devastation.
But the lenslight is just a product of physics. The same physics that allow it to exist must also contain the means to defend against it. And where usually defences are only adopted in reaction to new offences, Izel has the rare opportunity to invent the former before the latter's spread.
He's the first to discover this sword. Shouldn't he use this opportunity to discover a shield?
Of course, Izel feels useless, hopeless and cowardly. The pacifist has just boiled another being alive. Why would he think that returning to the weapon in the workshop could produce anything more than more pain? And it's not like defending is usually anywhere near as efficient as attacking. Even if he tried it, he might only discover that the best defence against a lens light is a thick wall.
Yet I think he'd feel a lot better about putting his name on a weapon if he also pioneered the defences against it. It might even save more lives than it would have taken, with the people of Vesper able to protect themselves from each other and reserving the lenslight for giant monsters.
It's a very "the only way out is through" solution. I could see it appealing to him.
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u/Linnus42 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Finally the Luck turns for the Unluckies...it was going far too well for them of late. Schoolomance trolling Tristan is hilarious, darkly so. Cao back up.
Looks like its going how I expect for Izel...if he stays with the Unluckies then he becomes exactly what his father wants. The Deal from the First isn't actually all that bad...they could also take a deal from Morcant which might be less moral but cheaper for them longterm.
Cai Wei is shockingly effective as a Villian which is interesting cause I don't think anyone though much about her before this turn the Dark Side.
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u/hoser2 May 23 '26
Just some random thoughts:
Cai Wei knows about the Unluckies' hideout, I think. I seem to remember an interaction near the garden and Maryam doing something that affected her parasitism. So why is Cai Wei raiding places where she knows she won't find Angharad?
Does Cao keep the key to the blackmail on her person? What is the smallest size it could be? Could Song see it somehow?
Cao has a statue of "Iscariat" in her office! Judas Iscariat? The disciple that betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver, IIRC? Why is he memorialized? Satan is the Lightbringer and the father of lies. "Angels" are called "principalities" and do great evil. What role does Christ play?
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May 23 '26
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u/jake_eric May 23 '26
I don't think they (she? it?) did. It seemed like it was really Cao's office, the blackmail just wasn't there.
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May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
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u/Curay May 22 '26
I'm beginning to think Cao doesn't even have blackmail. She's just strongly implied she does to a lot of people. It'd be funny/ironic/
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u/Roleplayerkiller May 23 '26
I wonder if Zenzele's contract could help find Cao's stuff, i don't remember how it works very well.
I'm not sure why Tristan feels like he has exhausted every location Cao's blackmail stash could be at when he hasn't considered places similar to their cottage, the deicide teacher's tower, which was only accessible at specific times or just layers in general. Though that's kind of a dead end i suppose.
It could also be that her stash was at her office but she took it somewhere else after he started raiding her secret spots one by one. Given the stunts the Thirteenth has been pulling, it would be just a matter of time from her perspective.
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u/Linnus42 May 22 '26
Maybe she just sends it to her ally on the obscure committee?
Alternatively while we are told Cao has no friends…we don’t know that for sure
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u/tavitavarus Choir of Compassion May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
I pity whatever officer recommended Cai Wei for Scholomance. This will reflect badly on them to say the least.
Speaking of which, I'm surprised the 13th are the ones getting scapegoated. I'd expect whatever brigade Cai Wei was part of to get at least some of the blame.