There was a lot of ‘were starting’, ‘were subsiding’, ‘was walking’, ‘was taking’, etc, through the chapter. It took the pace of the piece down and there wasn’t a lot of it to begin with as the chapter is mostly setup for the coming battle.
I didn’t really understand the interaction between Jhuz, Ezlio and Rince. It all comes back to discipline, which I’ve harped about before. Rince is a minor officer, he takes a great risk by doing something offensive, even a joke; Jhuz is a superior officer and can reprimand him, it’s well within his rights. Pissing off, or risking pissing off, your superiors is by and large not a good idea. The fact that Jhuz worries about offending the troops by taking measures against a minor officer who is doing wrong tells me discipline is far to be found. I expect this army to break when it gets into a fight. Aside from Jhuz’s behaviour I also don’t buy into Rince’s, since I don’t think it’s likely that lower ranking officers are so easily invited to sit with the higher ranks, or even approach them, especially when they’ve had no prior contact.
I’m having trouble with Rince’s power. The effects of the other metsi such as how the birds can fly, the porcupine can create spikes, bee metsi use their sting, etc, are all based on the animals. The the plant metsi use the aspects of the plants to create an effect, like Ela who listens through plants. Changing or redirecting emotions is not a power a real fox possesses, even though foxes in mythologies (such as kitsune) are portrayed as tricksters it’s not a physical aspect of the fox itself. This power is also different in that animal metsi effects are only applicable on the metsi himself, not on someone else, but Rince’s does affect others. Also, his explanation is for the reader’s benefit and not the story, there is no gain for Rince in telling the others exactly how his powers work; now that people know they can figure out his weaknesses.
Jhuz is supposed to be a high ranking officer, but he doesn’t act like one. He shouldn’t be glad Rince reprimanded the bee-metsi, he shouldn’t think that because Rince did it the reprimand was valid. Jhuz is their superior, he doesn’t need excuses or proxies.
I’m not a fan of war councils, instead of people talking about how they’ll do battle in the coming chapter(s) I’d rather see the battle. Also, an hour to have both the war council with all the troop leaders and array the troops afterward before the battle begins is very short, too short perhaps. They should be setting up right away and prepare for advance troops to harry their lines and probe for weaknesses, not talk about how they’ll set up.