Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
Chapter 52 (A Path Toward Saving)
It's cool that Venli is devising a written language for the listeners from scratch. I forgot that she was basically their head scholar before all this.
Oh dear. The senility is setting in, and it's so much more apparent in someone whose role in the community is to remember the oral tradition. 
That contrast of the sisters standing on the scout tower is a good image. Very symbolic of their characters, if a bit unsubtle.
 

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It didn’t take long for Venli to find the humans tedious.

 

Yeah, it’s not just you, Venli. That happens to us humans all the time, too.

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Lines of people of all varieties of skin patterns stuffed the streets.

This is the description used to emphasize that listeners from lots of different families were present to see the humans. But until this point I don’t think we’ve seen any indication that the skin patterning is familial at all, right? Certainly not in coloration, as closely related individuals have been shown to have different mixtures of white, black, and red. I guess we don’t have any more detail about the actual patterning. Is this a real inheritable trait or am I reading too much into this possible throw-away line?

It’s also still surprising to me that warform wasn’t known to the listener families prior to contact with humans.

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She attuned Peace to check the time.

I had not considered that as a possibility. The period of some of these rhythms must be quite long to allow for that. I wonder if some are linked to the moons? Or, more mundanely, the sun.

Holy surprise Terriswoman, Batman! Hello, Axindweth. As much as I am predisposed to like the Terris, you are acting mighty suspicious. On which secret society’s behalf are you approaching our soon-to-be-betrayer / Odium’s patsy? Ghostbloods seem most likely at a first glance, but Sons of Honor is also possible given the timeframe. I will withhold judgement until we’ve at least gotten past introductions.

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“Inside, you will find a path toward saving those you love.” 

 

Oh dear. That is a very painful lie to read when we already know how that turned out.