Teres

- I do like that Azhure thinks this and that she does not simply get over Hagen’s death… but it is more than a bit silly, since it is plain to see she could not possibly have led to his death! I can kind of see it here, though.

I can let this slide, because when you've been both mentally and physically tormented for years, it can change the way you think. You can start to believe that everything that goes wrong is your fault, even if, logically, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with you.

- While I do not think having Belial guard Raum is a bad idea per se, it is very foolish to have him be the only guard.

Oh, look, another instance of Axis being an absolutely shit commander. How very shocking; I never would have seen this coming. It's not like he's ever made bad decisions before--OH, WAIT.

- He also finds her “very attractive”. He is usually shy around beautiful women, he says, but Azhure does not “flaunt her beauty nor seek to use it to intimidate”. Alright, then.

...Douglass just can't seem to make up her mind, can she? People who are unattractive are gross and disgusting and are made to be looked down on and sneered at, but if you're beautiful, you're a demon who likes to flaunt your beauty and use it to intimidate others.

- So she widens her smile until she thinks “she must look like a grinning idiot”. Then why do you do it, Azhure?

Belial must be as dense as concrete. If someone starts grinning at me like that, I'm not going to be charmed and think how brave and strong she is. I'm going to run for the hills, because that kind of smiling is creepy as hell!

- Azhure puts Shra and follows him across the cellar and Belial bends to grab the keys. And he does not look back at Azhure following him or keep an eye on her as he does this? No, naturally not.

Where are the keys; on the floor or something? Shouldn't you have them within easy reach in case you need them? How convenient that they're located aaaaall the way over there and require you to bend down to retrieve them, putting you in perfect skull-cracking position. Azhure really didn't think this through. What if Belial had said no? What if he said yes, but (like any fractionally intelligent person) didn't turn his back on her, thus allowing her to whack him over the head? This is all way too convenient.

- Has he really never seen “such wanton cruelty”? Not even in some places the “summer raiders” of Coroleas attacked? After all, this “cruelty” mostly consisted of keeping Shra and Raum prisoner and letting them slowly die (along with beatings). Is this truly beyond the scope of what raiders might produce?

Maybe I'm just desensitized from reading things like A Song of Ice and Fire and the Stormlight Archive, both of which can get extremely violent, but locking someone up to starve and occasionally beating them seems kind of...vanilla to me. It's still a horrible way to die, make no mistake about that, but saying that's the worst thing Axis has ever seen makes me think that Douglass was too chicken to come up with anything more severe.

- Axis thinks that whoever hit him “[has] done a good job” (a good job for them, not for Belial).

Only because Belial is a complete and utter MORON!

- And yes, I know this is meant to make this scenario possible,

It makes it absolutely ridiculous, is what it does. The chain of events that had to go precisely one way for this to work is...is... I don't even know what I'm saying anymore! I think this broke something in my brain!