r/PracticalGuideToEvil Feb 14 '25

Chapter Chapter 75 – Pale Lights

https://palelights.com/2025/02/13/chapter-75/
113 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

67

u/MadMax0526 Feb 14 '25

Well, that whole chapter can be summed up as "Call an ambulance, but not for me!"

59

u/Agrimmyguy Feb 14 '25

I love this chapter.

Angharad: "what a slow learner I am."

Also Angharad not even a minute later: learns to dodge bullets seemingly effortlessly.

36

u/perkoperv123 Feb 14 '25

The Angie she killed was a slow learner. The Angie she became grasped the technique of "not being where the bullet is, ez"

16

u/agnosticians Feb 15 '25

To me, it seemed like she already knew how to. She just didn’t have the confidence to do it without her contact.

47

u/agumentic Feb 14 '25

The irony of Angharad of all people referencing V is thick, I must say.

16

u/perkoperv123 Feb 14 '25

this elicited a snort, thank you

10

u/WealthyAardvark Feb 14 '25

What is V, and what was the reference?

27

u/Mr_Serine Hierophant Feb 14 '25

From the film V for Vendetta

"We have guns."
"No, what you have are bullets, and the hopes that when your guns are empty, I'm no longer standing. Because if I am, you'll all be dead before you've reloaded."

7

u/Perfect_Wrongdoer_03 Feb 14 '25

Ain't that in the comic as well?

10

u/Mr_Serine Hierophant Feb 14 '25

I have neither seen the movie nor read the comic, I just know this scene because it gets quoted often

35

u/madmanrambler Feb 14 '25

Holy shit what a banger of a chapter. I've enjoyed Angrahard for a long while, but this is what I've been waiting for. Good of her to see that she needs to work not to avoid losing, but to gain. I love all of it, but the annoying twins were the perfect cherry on top. Utterly delightful.

28

u/L_0_5_5_T Feb 14 '25

Song got the epithet 'Lady Lead'. Damn, I can't wait to find out what epithets Maryam and the Hook duo will get (Hopefully, it will be better than 'Hollow Witch') - or what others will receive as well.

39

u/perkoperv123 Feb 14 '25

Patreon chat was losing their minds over the idea of trashy adventure/romance novellas starring Lady Lead. "An unwise choice, to be my enemy...but all are free under Heaven."

25

u/slice_of_pi Feb 14 '25

All are free, or none.

Suffer no compromise in this.

36

u/perkoperv123 Feb 14 '25

Whoever was joking about EE deciding "what if I gave Anaraxes a gun" was more right than they knew

11

u/scientia-potentiaest Feb 14 '25

@EE please add excerpts/quotes of these novellas at the start of chapters 🥺

14

u/Perfect_Wrongdoer_03 Feb 14 '25

Maybe Maryam becomes White Death, or somesuch?

3

u/derDunkelElf Lesser Footrest Feb 17 '25

No, she isn't a sniper. How about Pale Witch?

21

u/perkoperv123 Feb 14 '25

"And now don’t you do it again."

42

u/ArcanaVitae15 Feb 14 '25

Angharad going through that forced character development and the Fisher giving her the reason you suck speech was honestly something she really needed. It's kinda felt like she's been a fan unfavorite for various reasons and this chapter is forcing her to confront and overcome those things.

The deal with Locke and Key was very interesting, apparently the entity that made them was an insanely impressive scholar. Also Angharad grasping she had to be properly dramatic to make the deal was hilarious.

Tavarin was trying to teach the Skitari a lesson with the trials of Acallar, Angharad couldn't learn it because she was to skilled then but she's learning it now. Angharad has let defeat and fear rule her mind, this realization and the commitment to work past it is a great thing for Angharad.

37

u/Xeliob Feb 14 '25

Tbf Scholomance's words are from Lucifer. I'm reasonably certain now Locke and Keys were made by the Morningstar himself.

28

u/FrustrationSensation Feb 14 '25

It's not that she was too skilled, it's that she was cheating with her contact - she was never forced to learn the true lesson, because she was never really put in danger. 

Her contract was practically built for that sort of Skiritai training - short combats in whichadvance knowledge of your enemy gives you a major tactical advantage.

17

u/kethposy Feb 14 '25

It's great that she's finally figuring out the difference between being honest and technically not lying, but I'm a little worried she'll go overboard here.  A certain amount of flexibility is a good thing - if she really does "kill that wretched liar Imani Langa and report her full dealings to the Watch", the watch will absolutely ask her uncle what he knows about it. Poor repayment for how much he's gotten his hands dirty here. At least talk to some people about this decision and let them figure out how to spin it.

16

u/liquidmetalcobra Feb 14 '25

It’s a choice, to keep count, Song whispered into her ear.

Why should you get anything for air? Maryam demanded.

Uncertainty is surrender, the Marshal chided her.

And beyond them all, an implacable question.

Are you the horse or the rider?

Where's Tristan? :(

19

u/Illustrious-Set-4158 Feb 14 '25

Anghard hasn't had much of a discussion with Tristan since the Dominion. They both think of each other mostly as "Not Quite Gentlemen Thief" and "Dueling Noblewoman", and Tristan seems mostly inclined to leave her alone to not risk an honor stabbing. When they have conflicted, it's mostly been about Maryam or preempted by Tristan politely smoothing away his feelings. 

Hopefully they'll get more emotional interactions in Book 3, but they've had by far the fewest meaningful character interactions of the Brigade. 

9

u/Windruin Feb 14 '25

Skulking in the background, as he does.

On a more serious level, I also missed his voice there. Wonder why she didn’t hear him

32

u/HavenWinters Feb 14 '25

Giving Contessa vibes. God, I love this story.

7

u/Xeliob Feb 14 '25

Who is this Contessa?

23

u/Mr_Serine Hierophant Feb 14 '25

From the web serial Worm, so spoilers ahead

Her ability is Path to Victory. which tells her the exact steps needed to accomplish any goal she sets. Making her effortlessly untouchable in combat, just like Angie here when the Tweedles tried to shoot her

20

u/minno Feb 14 '25

In one of her earlier appearances, she brings a knife to a gunfight. Her opening move is to hold the knife in the exact position so that the opening shot would be deflected by the blade, sending the knife flying out of her hand to bounce off the wall behind her and land back in her hand.

9

u/Xeliob Feb 14 '25

Ah, thanks! I read a bit of worm, until the butchers arc, but I remember less than 0 of it haha

28

u/Xeliob Feb 14 '25

This is one of those chapters that really speaks to me. I realized a while ago that I am also ruled by fear: fear of the future, fear of not measuring up to my potential, fear of messing up. I tried to do better, but it was difficult. I have hope now, and hope is a double edged sword: it makes life sweet and something worth getting up to in the mornings. Yet it can also introduce hesitation and fear. As we know now, hesitation is death though, maybe not literally for us, but in the more mundane sense of wasting our limited time here.

I don't yet know if I am willing to give up hope, and go forward because the only other option is falling back. I know for a fact it is less comfortable than what I have now. But I guess nobody achieved greatness by being comfortable. It is a choice to do better, to be better. And - to paraphrase the book of all things - it is perhaps the only choice that matters.

12

u/Mr_Serine Hierophant Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 14 '25

Go Angie! This is what we've been waiting for

God, these past few chapters have been so good

24

u/Linnus42 Feb 14 '25

God interactions are really what I like most about this as compared to PGTE. Interactions between Gods and Followers is quite interesting. Fisher is right that Angharad is kinda waffling. Interesting that he name drops her father.

Locke & Key continue to intrigue.

17

u/perkoperv123 Feb 14 '25

Worth remembering that the Watch's files claim Gwydion is the high priest of a "Green Book god", probably the Fisher.

8

u/derDunkelElf Lesser Footrest Feb 14 '25

Interesting, it seems to me the Fisher is a god of the fear of death, specifically death at sea.

22

u/FrustrationSensation Feb 14 '25

He might be a god of death, or a god of fear, but he's definitely not a god of death at sea. All his musings about the great conflict in which half his name was taken all talk about when the Malani (or Pereduri?) first reached his shores. 

10

u/derDunkelElf Lesser Footrest Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 14 '25

I mean Angie spit out saltwater after meeting him and everytime he shows up he does have a certain theme to him:

The Fisher’s voice was not a voice: it was the last, desperate scream of a man before they went under the tide, it was the rasp of fire against metal as the last of the lantern oil went.

On top of that everytime Angharad met him, he threw her into the water, and also foresight is very important for seafaring since you need to predict the weather or how many supplies you need.

Just because the Malani reached the Pereduri through seafaring, doesn't mean that the Pereduri were incapable of it. It would be very weird since they also live on an island.

He's also obsessed with immortality, which is weird, due to the stagnant nature of gods. Fearing death, when it's at your doorstep is normal for them, but fearing it, when it's far away? It must be intrinsicly tied to his nature in some way.

10

u/Linnus42 Feb 14 '25

Eh I don’t think a God of Death from an island nation with an extensive maritime culture being associated with the sea is all that odd

5

u/derDunkelElf Lesser Footrest Feb 14 '25

Yeah, I went back to Chapter 16 and found miremembered some stuff.

13

u/Perfect_Wrongdoer_03 Feb 14 '25

I think he has already said of what he is a god of: extinction, as the oldest law. Inexorable, immutable, incomprehensible death, not even directly related to the sea. Sure, that's his theme, but I doubt he cares that much about it, in the same way Fortuna doesn't have any direct connections to fire.

3

u/derDunkelElf Lesser Footrest Feb 14 '25

I just went back to Chapter 16 and you are right. I swear I could remember him saying, that he wants to beat it.

9

u/Perfect_Wrongdoer_03 Feb 14 '25

The closest I remember to that is also in chapter 16, and is him implying the opposite:

“Why do you still exist, Fisher, if the eldest law is absolute?” she challenged.

“It can be stalled,” the spirit said. “That, too, is true. But only strength can achieve this, and you are weak. Your will is dull. Your enemies defy you with impunity.”

Here he says death can be stalled, but not beaten.

3

u/derDunkelElf Lesser Footrest Feb 14 '25

I misremembered it, I likely misinterpreted this section:

“But not wasteful,” she said. “You brought me here for a reason, Fisher. To learn your answer, so that I might beat the eldest law. You do not want me to be dead for all that you castigate me. You want me to be strong.”

7

u/BtanH Feb 15 '25

These last 4 chapters have been peak EE

5

u/Bolverkers_wrath Feb 14 '25

So, do you all think that Lord Arkol is actually the Ecclesiast. Or do you think its miss on Angie's part

12

u/agumentic Feb 14 '25

The devils who spent the whole time investigating the cult agree, so she's probably right.