This was a really long chapter. It might be better to split it in two, or try and cut things a bit – in fact, doing both might be a good idea. I’ll say up front that I liked the second half better than the first half, but on the whole it was good. Things are moving again, Jin is growing as a character, one of the problematic factions (Hesk) in the world are on the move, it's great to see movement of the plot.
That said...
Forging is explained
If I’m not mistaken the only times Forging is mentioned is back in Jin’Cathul chapter 1. We know Jin can do some ‘magic’, but it’s easy to forget that it’s called Forging. In fact, I had forgotten. It’s such a minor part of the story that before we see the Hesk using it here it’s not really clear why it’s important.
and the reason why I spend so much time on the children growing up. Oh yeah, and there’s ninjas
I’m with Lethalfalcon on this one; I too don’t see how this chapter explains spending so much time in the children’s childhoods. Now, maybe you rewrote those chapters extensively since I read them, in which case this point might be a bit moot, but the Hesk are only mentioned in one Anaiah chapter, Forging only in Jin’s first, and the rest is just fighting and thinking about fighting. We don’t need the other chapters for that.
For the chapter itself I’m going to give the advice to start cutting (I know you don’t like to hear it, but there it is) or at least change the distribution of what happens.
You spend a lot of time working up to Jin’s first gladiator fight, but the fight itself is over almost before it happens. Jin’s first attack (Jin, the amateur, who has never won a fight EVER) takes down Teruss (a coward, but one of muscle, armour, weapons, a bit of soldiering experience, and a lot of gladiator experience). Jin shouldn’t have been able to get so close so easily.
In the back of his mind, Jalean's final words came out. Focus on your heart.
Good advice that unlocks Jin’s power. Only Jalean never said that to him. Her final words, per chapter 7, are:
“I want you to remember, and think hard about, just how much I hate you, and I can't wait to skin you alive.” Jalean laughed and punched Jin in the stomach. He doubled over. “I can't say it was fun. But I did enjoy hurting you.”
The second part is better. With Teruss’ memories I can believe Jin has become a better fighter and knows how to use weapons. Again there’s a lot of introspection here, but given that the landscape of his mind has just changed it’s understandable. There often seems to be a reason why you have a lot of introspection, but that doesn’t take away the fact that Jin’s chapters in particular are slow because he thinks too much.
What I liked less is the other voice in his head. It feels too much like a plot device to explain Forging to Jin and to the reader. Maybe the voice will become more important later, maybe it’s even the voice of god, but right now you’ve got it doing two things: tell Jin to run and tell Jin how to Forge. For the first you’ve also got Teruss and for the second it would make Jin a stronger character if, over the last few chapters and the fight with Teruss in particular, he learned how to harness (at least in a rudimentary fashion) Forging himself.
The last conversation between Burm and Jin could use some fleshing out. I followed who was speaking relatively well, since Burm’s grammar is atrocious and Jin’s isn’t, but I’d like to have a better feel for the surroundings. The Hesk were so intrusive I found the way Burm and Jin got away a little easy.