There wasn’t a huge word-count jump this time — maybe 10–15,000 words added — but that was never the point.

  The real work was smoothing.

  I went through the notes you guys sent. Tightened pacing. Cleaned transitions. Clarified a few scenes that needed more grounding. Trimmed spots that dragged. Strengthened the parts that deserved more weight.

  So this version isn’t “longer for the sake of longer.”

  It’s sharper.

  Now you get to read the final form and think, “Yeah. That’s how it should have felt the first time.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  That’s always our goal on RR

  ***

  First editor has finished, which means we’re sitting at about 99% complete. That’s the heavy lift. The structure is locked. The story is tight. No major surgery left.

  Release is scheduled for around February 23rd–24th (Amazon time likes to play games, so give it a small window).

  If you’ve preordered, it’ll drop straight into your Kindle automatically. If you don’t preorder or don’t buy books, that’s fine too. No pressure.

  What’s left:

  ? Second edit pass — final typo hunt and consistency check

  ? Formatting pass — this is where the big fonts, clean spacing, and the little ?? ?? ?? get polished into the final version

  ? Upload of the fully prettified edition

  If you don’t want to wait for all the cosmetic polish, the early release version will still be live in a few days.

  The polished first chapter Book 6 cover is up on my Patreon for you to see!

  and here’s the Amazon link