Katalepsis, Eusebeia Epoche - placid islands; black infinity - 2-1.1

Chapter emerges from the cave of hibernation, into the deep, dank, dreary woods. It raises a snout full of teeth and hunger, and howls at the open sky.

https://katalepsis.net/2025/03/14/placid-island-black-infinity-2-1-1/

This week's password is: obsidian

An epub version of the chapter is also attached below!

Here it is! The very first chapter of Katalepsis Book Two! With an actual title!

And ... and ... uh, um, wow! I don't even know what to say, to be honest. This is almost more weird for me than finishing the first book. Here we are, it's the sequel! Hooray!

Ahem, anyway. I guess there are a few things I should say. Don't feel like you have to read any of this, though. Feel free to go straight over to the chapter. It's yours, after all. I hope you enjoy this new opening, dear readers!

First of all, thank you. To everyone who has stuck with the patreon during the wait between the end of Book One at the start of Book Two, you have my deepest gratitude. It is you who makes this all possible! Thank you so much.

Secondly, I do have some notes and thoughts and future things about Katalepsis Eusebeia Epoche itself.

This opening chapter is long, almost 10k words. I'm not sure if future chapters will be matching that kind of length, or bouncing back down to about ... 6k? 7k? And when I say "I'm not sure", I mean it - I'm genuinely not sure! This is one of those wildly unpredictable things about experimenting with new POVs, a new set of plots, new everything. I don't know what exactly these voices are going to come out like until they get moving. So, chapters will likely be a lot more variable in size than they were at the end of Katalepsis Book One.

Also! About intended structure and POVs: this first arc is going to be sticking with one POV, and then any switching will happen between arcs. This is different to how I've handled POVs over in Necroepilogos, but hopefully it'll make sense when we actually witness it happen.

This is partly because of how I'm planning to structure the story. Katalepsis Book One was a single long coherent narrative, all Heather, all the time. Eusebeia Epoche is going to be quite different; expect a series of smaller, interlocking, interdependent narratives, with character development and a larger plot brewing in the background. Again, this is the sort of thing I'll just have to do, on the page, live!

Some of the upcoming POVs in the future might be difficult, or weird, or experimental. So! I'm looking forward to those.

And I dearly hope that you will extend me the narrative trust that I've earned so far. I'll do my best with this, dear readers. Even I'm not 100% sure if it's going to work, or if I can stick this landing a second time. But I will do my absolute best. And I hope you're going to enjoy the ride.

And finally - you might be a little surprised by the POV of this first chapter. I know I was. I'd planned her, planned all of this, a very long time ago, and I thought I knew what I was stepping into.

But she still surprised me, you know? And I think that's a very good thing. Very promising.

Let's see what she does. She's in charge now, I'm just the conduit.

On with the show!