Once again I really liked the way you worked things in so seamlessly with the canon scenes - I admit to having a great fascination with what's happening "off stage" while the main characters are doing their main character thing!
Personally, I'm glad you went for the canon ending - I think it's the braver choice - obviously there's a huge temptation to give them the Joyful Reunion And Happy Ever After ending, but this feels more real, and the bitter-sweet conclusion seems right and natural after all the preceding angst.
Incidentally, I've never been of the opinion that Pell's seduction of Vaysh is in any way non-consensual; when Pell says "I'm going to take advantage of you.." he means it in a sort of joking, cliched sense. For some reason, though, people seem to see a lot of rape in Wraeththu series which I don't really think is actually there. I think it may stem from the fact that there is a lot of - for want of a better word - functional sex, which is what Wraeththu do, after all!
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Personally, I'm glad you went for the canon ending - I think it's the braver choice - obviously there's a huge temptation to give them the Joyful Reunion And Happy Ever After ending, but this feels more real, and the bitter-sweet conclusion seems right and natural after all the preceding angst.
Incidentally, I've never been of the opinion that Pell's seduction of Vaysh is in any way non-consensual; when Pell says "I'm going to take advantage of you.." he means it in a sort of joking, cliched sense. For some reason, though, people seem to see a lot of rape in Wraeththu series which I don't really think is actually there. I think it may stem from the fact that there is a lot of - for want of a better word - functional sex, which is what Wraeththu do, after all!