I actually appreciated how Erin was condescending and dismissive towards Lynnette at first, because it makes her behavior towards Toren feel more consistent and believable.
I could never get why Erin seemed to be so kind, friendly, polite, compassionate and open hearted towards most people and yet so immediately rude and disdainful towards Toren.

In this chapter, there’s finally a parallel that makes it feel more consistent. Erin didn’t realize how much Lyonette had grown, even though the evidence was there, and kept treating her like she would have treated her past self. This is the same thing she did with Toren – she didn’t notice that he’d grown, leveled, evolved, and developed sapience, and she kept treating him like he was a mindless tool.

Seen that way, it feels less like random out of character behavior (directed solely towards Toren,) and more like a consistent character blind spot Erin has.

I really hope that this experience with Lyonette will help Erin come to some realizations about how she treated Toren – and that this could help open the door for an eventual reconnection or redemption arc between them. Because yes, in my view, Erin also needs some redemption when it comes to Toren. Toren’s harm ended up being far more severe, and Erin caused harm too.

My issue with Erin’s treatment of Toren isn’t that she ordered him to do a bunch of chores – it’s the attitude behind it. Even if she saw him as a non-thinking, non-feeling tool, she could have related to him with more care. We already know that living things respond to the energy around them – for instance, people talk kindly to their plants to help them grow. And even with non-living objects, the way we approach them matters. An appliance used gently and with attentiveness lasts longer than one handled with frustration or disregard. Erin’s energy toward Toren wasn’t neutral. She often used him as a bit of an emotional punching bag and disregarded his well being, and that had consequences in his growth, development, and eventual rebellious-then-murderous behavior.

Dear Pirateaba, I just want to thank you for this masterpiece. You are truly gifted. Each of these carachters are alive, with souls of their own. I feel like I know them. I care about. It fills places in my heart that the struggles of life have left vacant. I’m just an up and coming opera singer and music minister in DC. But know you have people out there praying for you, wishing you the best. And though you don’t know me at all, I’ll say these in a sentimental way-thank you for you friendship. God bless you

The world is filled with mana, probably just drains it from the air, earth, sunlight, snow, etc. We know from the fae stuff even concepts contain magic so there’s no lack of potential points to drain from

Considering it’s not a new class, just an innkeeper who uses magic for her job is my guess, it’d probably held by failed college mages I’d imagine, she got it from the fae skills but magic cooking isn’t unique to her (that might be the specific skill required to merge) so who knows

To be fair, it’s the first day she’s back, and she already had an inn full of guests, plus bringing the Horns with her. Kind of silly to think she’d instantly have tons of free time for them as soon as she got back.

Even if she wasn’t running an inn, most people would probably just want to sit at home and relax, after a month+ away, not instantly get down to business with everyone waiting for her to return.

I don’t understand people being dissapointed in the way Erin treated Lyon when she returned. I seem to remember that Erin saved Lyon’s life, when pretty much every other person told her not to, and that she was making a huge mistake. Then after saving her life, and trying to teach her, Lyon was beyond insufferable. Erin even had Lady Magnolia telling Erin she should have let Lyon go. That is all Erin knew of her, before Tauren left her in the north. How was she supposed to treat her when she returned? When Lyon was telling Zel stories about Erin, did she tell him she was kicked out of city because she was thief, that she burned down the entire Liscor Market; that she ruined and entire Nol Clan’s chances of improving their station? Did she tell Zel Erin was the only person on this planet that saved her life, and gave her a chance? No, he let Zel continue to judge Erin, without giving him the full picture. I wish Erin would have told Zel to stick it, and kicked him out. He’s sitting there judging and lecturing Erin, on recency bias, when he doesn’t have a clue about what truly happened. Zel can get bent

Being unable to use magic can mean she is like MC of “Zero” series by mr. Nuttall. True zero of magic and therefore natural at some relevant fields.

they stopped fighting as all fives mages eagerly grabbed the snacks off of the plate.
Fives -> five

It was not easy how the Lyon-Erin relationship was solved. We witnessed all the mental rollercoaster that Lyon went through in the days after Erin had left her inn, including starving, loneliness, holding on her princess status and so on until she started to figure out how to survive and learned to run the inn and appreciate the work Erin had done in her inn and how Lyon was the opposite of helpful to her. When Erin came back, she didn’t see the change of Lyon’s character at first until Zel scolded her. Erin is a person who is able to admit when she made a mistake, and therefore was able to solve her relationship with Lyon.