The Hesitant Hero Volume 2 Recap

Volume 2 is probably my least good one of out the four drafts I’ve written up. I don’t want to be too negative about something I made myself, but I feel like it lacks a proper throughline and doesn’t really do much. It’s kind of like the second book in a trilogy where not much happens, but I also think the setup that I wanted to convey in the volume was a bit weak. If I can be frank with you, I’d like to change much about this volume before I ever consider it finished. Having said all that, I still think there are some good ideas here and the general journey from Saphestan through the kingdom of Rilodar all the way until the gang reaches Marsolin has to happen for the story to work. So with all that out of the way, let’s recap volume 2 of The Hesitant Hero.

Between the events of volume 1 and the start of volume 2, the gang travelled from Milinia back to Saphestan. In the process they left Cassandra behind, making it so that just three of them arrived in the palace. The gentle fall rain had been replaced by winter cold as Cobal and Mana started their investigation to figure out what happened to Sapher Blueyerd, the missing crown prince. It seems like he just vanished one day, but there were some signs of something more going on. Although his door was locked and his windows were closed, there was a strange runic circle on his bedroom floor which reminded Mana and Cobal of the magic circles they saw on their journey. The script still being a mystery to them and the circle being different but similar to the ones they saw, they decided to head to follow up on leads that he might have been taken to the Rilodar kingdom. Cobal had a heart to heart with his father and then the trio – accompanied by Mirgia who arrived a few days after them – started their sea journey north. 

On the open waters, disaster strikes and when trying to avoid a dangerous storm the ship that the gang is on ends up crashing into the Tidesetter, a pirate vessel that was hiding out in a cove. Now the captives of Eliana Tidescreecher, they manage to win her over by revealing that they also know Dionil, who is an old friend of hers. If they help her out by dealing with a group of cultists, she’ll accompany them to Jasodar, the harbor city they were headed to in the first place. Unfortunately, their raid on the nearby island where the cult is located goes poorly. They lose several of the members of their group to different magical traps and leave without making much impact. Both Mirgia and Kimi go missing during this process as well. Defeated, the group decides to travel to the eastern city of Marsolin, where three libraries contain more wisdom than the entire kingdom of Blueyerd. 

Now a group of three, Cobal, Mana and Eliana encounter some bandits on their journey east that seem to be connected to the cultists they encountered earlier. These bandits are holding an Irkan – a large species of humanoids – captive in a cage. It turns out that these bandits are holding his wife hostage. After taking out the bandits and saving Grac, they head to Marsolin to visit the library, figure out how to save their friends and hopefully save Grac’s wife in the process. There’s also still the issue of the magic circles and how they work and where they are coming from. The gang has a lot to figure out, but the city of knowledge is just past the treeline.