Sorry to keep you all waiting on this, I certainly don't like delaying the story any longer than I have to. That said, I think my recent vacation has helped to shake up things a bit; I got a lot of this chapter done over the course of my holiday in Vancouver, despite some technical issues hampering the process. Admittedly, at this point, I'm emotionally done with this chapter and ready to move on to the next, but I hope this installment was worth the wait nonetheless.<br /><br />With regards to the Hard Line's brutalities, rest assured that this is likely to be the most in-detail I get with them. They're going to be a background presence for much of the story, and play a role in Leliana's character arc, but it's not going to be the case where you're going to get&nbsp;a first-hand sight&nbsp;of them raping, pillaging and burning every other chapter. One massacre can be a powerful and horrifying scene; a dozen is a statistic, or even worse, white noise that quickly loses all meaningful impact.<br /><br />And we finally get a sight of the often-mentioned Nimue Surana. Will she play a larger presence in the story? You'll just have to wait and see... <img src="https://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/smile.gif" width="15" height="15" alt=":)" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="391" title=":) (Smile)"/><br /><br /><b>First Chapter:</b> A Day for Celebration - <a href="https://thephoenixking.deviantart.com/art/The-Grey-Path-Chapter-One-A-Day-for-Celebration-311164927">The Grey Path - Chapter One: A Day for Celebration</a><br /><b>Previous Chapter:</b> Jowan's Mistake, Part Two - <a href="https://thephoenixking.deviantart.com/art/The-Grey-Path-Chapter-Seventeen-Part-Two-595290274">The Grey Path - Chapter Seventeen, Part Two</a><br /><b>Next Chapter:</b> Broken Circle, Part One -&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deviantart.com/thephoenixking/art/The-Grey-Path-Chapter-Nineteen-Part-One-629943549">The Grey Path - Chapter Nineteen, Part One</a>