With the much-awaited release of A Cauldron of Bitterness comes the release of discussions that were previously restricted to Patreon members. To prevent unwanted exposure to spoilers, make sure to read A Cauldron of Bitterness in full - available now on AzaleaEllis.com.
The chapter we’ve all been waiting for. The bottom of the cliff. Is Siobhan going to land gently, or splatter?
The way that last chapter ended, I don’t see how this can be a gentle landing!
You’re right. She’s bound to end up in an infirmary, but I’m hoping that she didn’t lose any of her pieces in this fall.
@Stef I know there’s some time switching shenanigans going on around the world, do you know roughly how many hours until the usual release time? I have to decide if I sleep early or stay up 
Edit: the Tomb of Dragons came out today so I may end up staying up by accident but I’d still like to make an informed decision
I’m with you on that, feel like she needs some duct tape (as that stuff is clearly magic) to keep all the pieces together for a while as she sorts stuff out
Well, Damien is definitely warming up to the Order ^^
I wonder how Deidre (or other people) are going to interpret not being able to get in touch with the Raven Queen.
I’m sorry, I don’t have an estimate at all. I don’t ask Azalea when chapters come out, I just get the patreon email like you do.
I would suggest you get rest as you need it, though. Unless you’re the lucky person who is fully functional without enough sleep, in which case I’ll tell you that’s a superpower. Use it.
Nevermind, @Hannah, looks like you better stay up!
It does look like they are still one person though so that’s possibly one crisis averted. (unless Siobhan is in the same situation somewhere else of course…)
I wonder when the rumors about Sebastien being “indisposed” will reach Lacer though and what he might do. (inb4 he search for the thing he gave him, find his apartment and the book :x)
maybe they interpret this as the Raven Queen giving him a trial inside hear realm. They already know she has a special interest in him and this seems like something they would find reasonable as a test for her to device to see if he is worthy of whatever she ahs planned.
I’m pretty sure you posted this before I even received the email.
HOW
Yeah, Lacer’s next actions are going to be very interesting I suspect. There is a decent chance he doesn’t hear all the details about events after getting into the carriage as it seems the Order are trying to keep it a quiet as possible.
That being said, if he does find a reason to look into Sebastians whereabouts during these days might he actually be able to put the puzzle pieces together finally and figure out what he did to Siobhan also had an impact on Sebastian? Will he be confused and finally tear into it to find his incorrect assumptions?
Probably not but we can hope!
I have a few tricks up my sleeves ! 
Oh boy, oh boy.
Sebastien is firmly in the driving seat and continuing to impress. Ana and Damien are being wonderful, as usual (and Nat, bless her paperwork savvy, what a good kid she is).
@AzaleaEllis thank you for not giving us an interlude from some other place and letting us breathe easy this week - I saw loopholes big enough to drive a truck through last week and I’m glad you’re not as mischievous as the Raven Queen. And I want you to know that rest is important and that with all these chronic conditions you really need to prepare for permanent, long term change. And that’s ok. You’re no less worthy or important just because you’re not as productive as you used to be.
Your writing brings me so much joy, I’d hate for it to become a source of stress for you because you hold yourself to unrealistic standards. Unlike Siobhan you cannot magic away your need for sleep or go to a healer to fix your problems.
Please be kind to yourself.
Oh, I know. It’s just that usually she posts somewhere between 1-2am my time (closer to 2am, usually) but if clocks have gone forward then it might be closer to 12-1am, which it seemed like it was today. But if I got it wrong then it might have posted at 3am in which case I’d be fairly wrecked if I stayed up
The problem is I don’t know her timezone to go look it up, or what time she usually posts in her time.
Tongue very much in cheek thought ahead:
Is anyone else wondering if the series title “A Practical Guide to Sorcery” is peddling false advertising at this stage? The core perspective of the book is of a character that repeatedly pushes the known bounds of magic and performs feats common and exceptional thaumaturges of the era consider to be impossible.
Some of her diligence and practice could be considered good and practical guidance for sorcery, but almost everything else she does would likely earn any normal thaumaturge a spot in the 100 Clever Ways Thaumaturges have Committed Suicide: How to Avoid Offing Yourself Through Sheer, Reckless Stupidity. This chapter for example, repairing your own mind without support or rest for 3+ days straight… sounds like content for the sequel to me!
Admittedly she is very good at finding many different ways to practically apply a single spell for varying outcomes but is that flexibility of spell casting yet another impossible feat that just hasn’t been identified as such yet?
All in all I can’t say it has been a particularly practical guide to sorcery for me - five books in and none of my spells have worked yet.
Ana is great. The way she immediately jumped to “I am going to murder whoever did this” reminded me of how Sebastian reassured Damien by offering to blackmail their teachers.
Lacer might think this was caused by the link that lets her use his ability to split his will.
Also given how she doesn’t need to rest she still has the raven bound to her. If she was split into two people as I saw theorised I would have expected the raven spell to either come undone or stick with Sihoban as she cast the spell in that body.
Is it still only one raven?
I’ve was doing some rereading recently. In 207, she asked Liza, in exchange for the notes on self charging artifacts, to help her redesign the spell to work with multiple ravens so it wouldn’t have a single failure point.
I can’t remember if Liza ever got around to holding up that part of their deal. Liza has been kind of missing in action since that dead shaman. I feel like the order might reach out to her? They have invited Liza to meeting before. I hope we see her soonish.
Still one iirc. Poor guy is working overtime right now.
It’s still only one raven, Siobhan asked her to research it, but she’s since gone to refresh the connection by herself and it’s only the one raven still. Liza is still away somewhere doing something the details of which we don’t know.
Liza is good but she can’t bind her to a whole flock remotely ^^