Page Descriptions - Chapter 53

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This article contains all the Moonless Age page announcements made by the comic's author for Chapter 53 - Fading Winter. These often elaborate on or clarify details not explicitly stated in the comic itself, but regardless provide a sort of commentary for each page. These announcements are made in the *Moonless Age* channel of the Official Discord and can also be read on the comic's Official Facebook Page.

## Chapter Announcement

### Chapter Cover

**Kern**: *Chapter 53 begins at last! Fading Winter, which will focus on Shan and Chirinide's time in a different colony. It's a short chapter that'll only last about 20 pages.*

## Page Announcements

### Pages 1-10

#### Page 1

**Kern**: *The most tense moment of a peaceful day in the colony. Will Chiri burn the kitchen, the house, possibly the whole town through some disastrous cooking? Apparently she cooked it so much its now liquid lava, as Navian said.*

#### Page 2

**Kern**: *Struck by sudden pain, Chiri drops the dinner she had baked. Her feverish look wasn't just anticipation. There is no duck in the pot, don't listen to the duck cultist.*
*Editor Note:* I have no idea what the duck cultist thing refers to. Probably something from the Discord, but the context has been lost to time... Maybe that's for the best.

#### Page 3

**Kern**: *Shan, returning from gathering, is brought to Chiri's sickbed. Fight great battles that risk your life in the past, and yet in time of peace a simple sickness can cause a greater fuss. Plus you can't fight sickness with fire or blades.*

#### Page 4

**Kern**: *Forget religious schism, massacre, fighting off horde of demons; what makes Chiri cry is ruining what was cooking. At least Shan doesn't believe Chiri would cry for that.*

#### Page 5

**Kern**: *Chiri learns that she is pregnant. Yeah, I know it was easy to guess. The alternative was that she got the flower disease. Thankfully, this is a fluffy chapter...*
...next chapter isn't fluffy. :)

#### Page 6

**Kern**: *The nurse reveals to them that their baby might be born different, but only time will tell. Said time begins to flow onward as winter leads to an early spring, with Shan churning out the field outside. To know the baby is different is not going to help those two have good nights. What do you do? Do you go back and hope it won't become a pariah someday? Or do you decide to stay there? Shan is in a gloomy mood already and not talkative.*

#### Page 7

**Kern**: *Shan makes his mind up to marry Chiri. His brooding isn't only about the possibility of marrying her; having the two lovebirds talk next to him probably pushed him over the edge to do something to improve the current situation. And that bit about fearing the baby is tainted is a spillover from people's speculation. Well then, some characters who don't like tainted would speculate about that in the story too. Giving these two some grief about it.*
*Editor Note:* The "two lovebirds" are Abyte and Tir'ade, non-cameo characters that began a relationship in Chapter 31. The scene begins here and is continued in a short bonus arc here.

#### Page 8

**Kern**: *The wedding proposal isn't going as smoothly as he hoped for. Chiri is clearly pissed off at something. Maybe the whole wedding thing doesn't sit well with her or maybe it's something else. She is one to repress a lot of emotions; things tend to go on fire when she's pissed. Hopefully Shan father-to-be won't become a torch-to-be.*

#### Page 9

**Kern**: *She accepts his proposal to marry him in the end. Chiri still has a shit-ton repressed right now. Just a question of time before it all explodes out. Thankfully, the town is too wet from melting snow to be completely set on fire. YET! :D*

#### Page 10

**Kern**: *Chiri muses about her situation and resigns herself to the path they've chosen for her. As to why she smooch her face into the glass in the last panel... well... Vision from the goddess, clearly! Told her that pressing her face against glass is the way to go.*

### Pages 11-20

#### Page 11

**Kern**: *Under the quiet town life of the colony there is some resentment boiling among some who were exiled there. Tirade and Abyte are tainted; it may have been 3 years since Anahid came to power, but its far too few years for things to mend perfectly. If anything it'll need entire generations to pass before the whole "killing yourself is the right thing to do once tainted" comes and goes. If ever.*

#### Page 12

**Kern**: *Shan returns home to find Chiri playing with fire. Tirade's seed is bothering him and having someone constantly watching for him to fail has got to be nerve-wrecking. And Chiri is playing with fire. On the houseplants. Speaking of which, those plants are grown inside the house to help the colonists subsist there. The houses are built in that circular flat fashion covered with rock to help contain the ambient mana within.*

#### Page 13

**Kern**: *Chiri finally breaks down and vents out everything she had repressed. Shan meant well, but she doesn't want to be hugged and comforted when there's that fire within. In this case the fire needs to get out somehow. As for the tid bit of backstory, many may not remember, so here's a reminder: Chiri's father is a light elf, her mother died, and she ended up adopted into the clan. She spent years doubting her own purity because of her father, until the day the previous holy mother told her it was silly to worry about it, for she knew some among her own judicators were just like Chiri's father.*
*Editor Note:* The scene where Chiri expresses her doubts over her blood purity can be found here.

#### Page 14

**Kern**: *The argument between them leads to an unexpected result for Shan: The wedding is now due tomorrow! If anything, Chiri had hoped Shan would've offered many chapters ago. Now his punishment is speed-wedding! Then speed-honeymoon?.. hm, speed-babying. Gotta adopt fast.*

#### Page 15

**Kern**: *The town is busy preparing for the exchange of vows. Chiri get her own white unicorn to ride to her wedding. Sadly they couldn't find one on fire.*

#### Page 16

**Kern**: *Shan fidgets as he awaits his bride coming in riding a white mere. Chiri looks extra grumpy in the last panel after Kite colored it. Which is funny; she asked for the grumpy to stay. Claiming Chiri is grumpy to be dressed up in all those robes. Makes her feel like she's playing at being Anah. On a fat dawmere no less. And yes Merri is a troll.*

#### Page 17

**Kern**: *The wedding begins, basked in fire. Because fire would be needed at a Chiri wedding. Thankfully, the audience won't be on fire. I understand not much action is going on, or political drama. No worries (or worry, hey its up to you), its coming soon enough.*

#### Page 18

**Kern**: *The exchanges of vows and the joining of hands. How to make a wedding, and yet make it different from the typical wedding. First, no third party involved; they are technically clergy themselves. I tried to do some words that would better fit their cultures. And no one is wearing jewelry to symbolize the union, so here they wrap each other with their belt's ropes. White and black, ying-yang kind of thing to make a whole. The Dutan'vir have their rope thing, too, so I guess ssu are really into them (fetish gasp :P).*

#### Page 19

**Kern**: *The wedding's conclusion come with a new threat rising from the mist sea. Because yes this chapter is very fluffy, but it needed a little thing, right?*

#### Page 20

**Kern**: *The chapter wraps up with an airship arriving over the wedding. One with with tribal painting. The coloring of this one isn't going to mesh well with the others, as I had to color this page myself. The page was meant to go online prior to the chibi holiday special so we can have a nicely wrapped up ending that lead right to the next chapter after the break. Well, didn't happen. Sorry guys and happy new year!*

### Special Pages

#### New Years Wedding Revenge Chibi

**Kern**: *Happy new year! Because I had to color the last page, I fell behind on working on Chapter 54's first page. Kite stepped in to make this chibi of what happened to the airship after it ruined her wedding. Completely canon, she cooked it, the end. Or maybe not.*