2.8.9
on August 7, 2026
at 3:00 am
metaphorically stefan also did this to my drawing arm during the process of this chapter
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
metaphorically stefan also did this to my drawing arm during the process of this chapter
KENDAL NO
He’s yoinking Kendal?!
Heās yoinking half of Kendal. Iām very curious how a prolonged separation between man and sword might affect them. IIRC the only time heās been kept away for any amount of time was in Vash and that was just for a day maximum. And something tells me thereās going to be a way to track the man using the sword.
You mean Zuurith, right? He was separated from the sword for about a day while imprisoned with Dainix.
Maybe it’s like Thor’s hammer; the hammer returns to Thor when he commands it to. Kendal probably hasn’t tried summoning it when separated, but it’s the type of surprise power I would expect.
Lord Stefan knows that you don’t need to crack the safe onsite, you can steal the safe and crack it in your safehouse.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: this is fine
Image source: catch
Tumblr text: hey man paws off
Bluesky text: Well, see you on Monday!
that last panel is ominously similar to this chapter’s cover
KENDALL?????
You gotta appreciate a smart villain. Get annoyed by them, sure, but you gotta appreciate them.
I can’t remember all the times I’ve read “A villain captures our intrepid heroes and leaves them unharmed so they can easily escape later” narratives (instead of cutting a hand or a leg off) and almost screamed “Why? Are you not villainous enough?!” and I feel like this scene is payback for all those times.
Oh… well, given the Wyrm’s statements, something like this had to have happened before Alinua met her. I assume once Kendal is in one of their flying dragon-ships, Alinua will be back in time to see the mountain explode. That’ll be fun! (Not for her)
And we thought he was beyond her reach because he was too far inland. Turns out its because he’s airborne.
That looks nasty. Did Stefan just snap Kendall’s wrist? Does that imply him being strong enough to snap starmetal?
I mean, we’ve seen this stuff shear through tree trunks, so I wouldn’t be surprised.
Might not be broken, could be dislocated, but then I’d have expected a “pop” instead of a “snap”. But snap is so much more dramatic a sound effect, and gets the message of injury across clearer.
I don’t think he snapped the wrist, I think he snapped the ARM!
owww that arm
Okay, what do you think is going to happen next!
A) Stefan successfully kidnaps Kendall, and we find out that this is the reason the Northern Wyrm can’t help him
B) Tess with the Steel Chair
C) Falst Ambiguous Light MagicTM moment
D) Divine Intervention? Something no one expected?? Secret Fourth Option???
E) Volcano (but that’s going to happen anyway)
I feel like it makes sense for kendall to be successfully kidnapped, but there’s no way Falst is going to let Stefan leave, even if it reveals his position.
Wait, he’s just ditching his army?? What a dick move, wow
Oh gods he’s ditching his entire army.
I was so worried about Kendal that I didn’t even notice until you pointed it out!
Good ol’ villainous chin-grab from Lord Stefan, there
AHHHHHHHHHHHH KENDAL KIDNAP ARC
please come back Alinua and blow up everyone with the power of Tree. Trees can reach anywhere if theyāre big enough.
(deep sigh) What a shame, he was doing so well. Too bad Kendal is right and Stefan was only using negotiations as a distraction.
Well, look on the bright side. At least the Collector will try to besiege the Paladin Stronghold looking for Kendal rather than attack a Floof Squad that’s only at about half power and scattered. If Kendal thinks of that silver lining, he might subtly discourage Tess and Falst from trying to free him.
Nice catch!
(elsewhere, across the sea)
Pryder: My lord, we’ve heard reports from the Paladin archive that Vash’s former vessel has been captured by them and taken to their fortress on Helm.
Zuurith: (looks around at the cracked mountain, wreaked streets, and other calamities that befell his city when he did something similar) Poor foolish mortals. They will learn, as we did, the hard way.
Oh boy, the “kidnapped Kendal” theorists were right, and the chapter cover and title does neatly imply that. They’ll be transporting him via dragon to the Snowfast I bet; flying from land-to-land does fit with the Northern Wyrm saying Kendal is “beyond my power to help”. There’s going to be a few pages of anger/angst/blame-game among the party next chapter, isn’t there?
With the head of the Paladins doing this to Kendal, any remaining suggestion of negotiation between both sides is now truly gone; punches will still be pulled to try and prevent death, but the punches will be thrown nonetheless. Could be interesting actually, seeing the gang united on a planned and organised offensive.
Prediction for next week: Tess holding back Falst as he tries to go for Stefan; she knows they can’t win a fight with these odds and can’t afford to be captured too and have their minds read.
Wednesday/Friday will be a scene change to Dainix and Erin. Stefan’s retreat order will reach Calian who, like any cat, will accept it as a good excuse to break face and scamper off. Maybe those two won’t need Alinua’s intervention after all.
Oh, that’s a good point. I was among the people who thought Stefan might take Kendal to Snowfast, but I wasn’t sure what this retreat order would mean with Calian. I wonder if Calian will be too much of a goof, or too panicked about the scary fire monster, to tell Stefan that they’d found Erin, too? I also wonder what will happen to Falst and Tess during that final sweep of the island. Will they evade it successfully?
I still think Erin and Dainix could use a hand from Alinua and her new mer-friends. Together, they could help get Erin out of that glacier, more efficiently find his Bag of Holding, and hopefully provide some badly needed healing.
(I also just dearly want to see Alinua again.)
I wouldn’t be so sure on Alinua and mermaids helping Erin and Dainix. I haven’t forgotten the “We don’t want anyone becoming trapped down there” foreshadowing from 2.7.18… I suspect we’re re going to see Voidrin again, potentially wrecking some paladins and turning them even farther against the Floof Squad (but maybe Alinua will show up and kick his ass).
Yeah, I’m thinking extended sequence where the Floof Squad, minus Kendal, has to find a way to Helm, and use Kendal-the-sword to find Kendal-the-construct.
Really disappointed that Stefan is proving to still be a religious fanatic, after all the sensible leadership decisions he made earlier. I’m still waiting to see how Red makes “religious zealot” and “thoughtful competent leader” work together. It’s a powerful combination, but not one seen often IRL.
Cardinal Richelieu.
I guess Stefan can fly on his own like the Champion, he just choses not to?
Also it seems he upgraded to “Solo boss” for this adventure.
He might have a dragon with a boat all to himself, as one of the Sept. Or he’s taking a dragon with a boat all to himself, and the troops who arrived with him may have to squish a little to all fit in the other boats (like arguing over who has to sit in the middle seat in the car backseat).
This might sound a bit “out there” but I kinda got the vibe in this that Stefan grilling Kendall on how he’s doing it seemed a bit like he’s got a more personal interest rather than just “I wanna know so I can get around it and find out what you know.” Which has me wondering if the light dragon is controlling her followers to at least some extent and this was him seeing a potential “out” from a possible yoke he’s caught up in (under? Idk which one fits here). Highly improbable I know, and I’m probably reading too much into things, but… *shrugs*
I hope to see angry life avatare useing full extend of her power
please please please please Avatar State Alinua is so cool!
āAnxietyā from celeste would fit pretty well here.
Alas, no silksong. But I have to agree.
Donāt worry, the hyperfixation wheel will land on that sometime soon!
Oh yeah he’s so screwed when Alinua gets her hands on him
(Kendal’s snarky little “well now I’m very sure that I shouldn’t tell you that” was priceless though, my boiii)
His bones???? His metal bones?? Stephan did you just snap Kendal’s metal bones? And Kendal, we still don’t fully know how your healing works but I guess we’ll find out how it handles broken bones! I definitely have concerns about improperly healed metal bones, the usual method to fix that would be a Problem :/
the severed body of a god has been separated from his blade, which has been with him since he was born (a month or so ago), and also I’m pretty sure it’s literally part of the guy. This might…….. be a problem
“the sword is part of who he is and without it he feels incomplete” from a tumblr ask, linked at my username š¬ I really hope the Floof Squad is able to grab it, or maybe the paladins before leaving the island…
Oh please tell me thereās an Excalibur moment coming, that would rule.
Shardblade! Shardblade! (Stormlight propaganda)
iiiiii think that. perhaps. throwing kendal’s sword into the ocean. without kendal. where alinua is looking for him. is a Bad Call, stefan.
Has Kendal ever broken a bone before?
I think his fight with the Vash sentinel fractured some ribs.
Yes, but there’s a couple differences here:
1. That was during combat, not a negotiation/interrogation. He’s not in a battle-ready state, here (ie no adrenaline or more important things to focus on)
2. He wasn’t expecting a sharp and sudden break, and from the sound of things, this was all the way through and in at least one place.
3. He’s been changed by Alinua’s magic since then. Remember back in Zuurith, what Vash said about not being able to heal Kendal’s body the way he might have been able to before? It sounds like he’s less an incarnation and more “real” than he was before… With all the drawbacks that entails. Though, presumably, there’s going to turn out to be some upside to it, at some point…
Omggg that last panel looks like the art for chapter 8.
I hope it doesnāt get damaged from the flowing lava of the volcano D:
Return of the Villainous Chin Grab…
All hail the Villainous Chin Grabā¢
All hail!
Oh man, are Tess and Falst about to have a “We have to save him right now!” “We can’t, we’ll only get caught too and then we can’t help him at all” argument? I love those!
Man I knew Kendal was gonna get captured, I just didn’t think this would be how it happened.
Oh no. OH SHIT!!
This hit s very bad. At least we know what is happening on the cover now.
In other news I can’t say up to read the pages when they come out. It’s not good for me, and I don’t feel like staying up at two in the morning, at least.
I’ll probably start doing it again when it earlier.
I usually read them in the morning, which is 2-6 hours (timezone, daylight savings, and my personal sleep schedule shenanigans) after the page comes out. There’s no need to read it immediately, especially if it is damaging! Plus, I like waiting a bit because you can see a lot more comments ad in-depth analyses.
ok so kinda out there idea but hear me out: Kendal is about to be very seperated from his sword and its clearly going to be far away. considering red made a trope talk on heists like an hour its probable the floof squad is going to need to heist Kendal out of wherever they’re going to keep him. Kendal has been VERY reticent to be seperated from his sword (as seen near the start in the first town they visit) so what if Kendals consciousness was never in his body to begin with? my theory is that Kendals body is just that, a body. every other god has always made incarnations that werent people on purpose and Vash had no reason to do something different. However when he died his “incarnation” named itself after the SWORD and what is that sword made of? starmetal and a blue orb that we dont know the purpose of. Im guessing that once Kendal (the body) is away from the sword for an extended amount of time (or distance), it’ll just stop functioning, it wont die but it’ll just go into stasis or something. this would also explain why Stefan is just completely unable to read his mind, theres simply nothing to read as it its in the sword (mindreading the sword also wouldnt work cus theres no dragon in Chekov’s magical blue orb of plot relevance)
So, basically, an ‘Avatar’ situation. To be quite honest, I’ve been wondering what exactly would happen if Kendal and his sword were too far apart for too long, given the long-prevalent theory that he’s actually the soul of the sword, pulled into Vash’s incarnation after the latter was pulled out of it…
Is that a theory? Wild theory. I like it.
Yeah, it’s been around since at least midway through the Zuurith arc, I think. I don’t remember who came up with it, but I know I’ve been on that particular bandwagon since it became a thing. There’s a lot of little things in the early chapters that make sense if you reread them with that theory in mind, particularly given some things in the memory/vision Kendal experienced during the Tynan fight.
Concealed from sight are Kendalās thoughts
Answer me! Stefan yells, heāll not
Timeās run out with eruption
Cuts off starfire disruption
Heāll head home with the swordsman caught
Ok so Tess & Falst are definitely not fully attacking rn. However it happens, if they weren’t going to win with possibility of Kendal helping, they won’t win with Kendal’s arm snapped in half. That was really smart on Stefan’s part- both an easy disarm and it also wrecks the hope/possibility of him regaining the sword. Kendal IS ambidextrous, but I think the plot point is proven. We’re getting a kidnap arc.
the villainous urge to grab a protagonist by the chin