The biggest challenge when a group investigates is to get everyone up to speed while not boring the audience. The body and the knife stuck in it are clues, but not everyone was at the crime scene. If this was modern day, Jyslyn could just text a message to Kazi and Nyssa, all done with a sentence or two. "Jyslyn shot a quick text message to Kazi and Nyssa, updating them." See?
The Elf's Prisoner, though, is a fantasy. While there is magic that can send a message - Kazi used that in Chapter 24 - Jyslyn doesn't know how to cast the spell. Kazi used a wisp of light before, since divine magic uses the special effect of the divinity to shape the spell. Jyslyn has to study or create her spells and she had no reason to have a messenger spell.
To avoid retreading on ground just covered, I had to add other tidbits, like character interaction. It's not the what, but the why and the reactions. It's not that Jyslyn found the body, it's that she brought the younger members of the team to a dangerous part of Silver Trailings. There was movement on the investigation, but the risks were higher than what Kazi wanted. Wren is innocent of the ways of the world, so she gets to ask the obvious questions. Why did someone stab an already dead body?
The other obvious question is from Kazi. Just how involved is Jyslyn's family? Being essentially an outcast, she doesn't know. Dark elven society is matriarchal, just like Wildwood, so Jyslyn's mother and sisters would be in charge. Her sisters don't really like or trust Jyslyn, though Valenzia doesn't like or trust any of her family, so no surprises there. Jyslyn also went out on her own to learn how to use magic, pulling her away from family discussions. She's guessing, really.
Long term plans for the story, characters, and setting include having Jyslyn and Kazi become an item. The relationship isn't going to be resolved quickly for two reasons. The first - I'm not that great at writing planned romances. Laura and Mackenzie in Unruly are suffering from that, and the first actual romance I tried to write failed spectacularly. I find it easier to have a couple start as a couple. The hard part is done, now they're together and have to deal with new challenges.
The main reason, though, is that Jyslyn and Kazi aren't in a rush. They're elves. Elves have a long lifespan. A whirlwind romance might be just a decade. They are feeling something for each other right now, but both have baggage. If it helps, their children will be cute.
A quick reminder - The Elf's Prisoner is not complete. Not incomplete like The Devil You Know or The Soul Blade, where I had a couple of chapters to finish to wrap things up. Incomplete, as in, "why has HBO wrapped up A Game of Thrones when George RR Martin hasn't written let alone released the final books" incomplete. The story, which was completely pantsed, sort of got away on me, especially once the villains started showing up. There's more to come at some point, including a trip to the crystal elves.
Friday, nature and magic, in The Elf's Prisoner Chapter 32.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, Playstation Productions.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, surprise adaptations.
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