I was not expecting this story to balloon to the size it did, though to be fair, I did end up going through about a third of the story again from a different perceptive.  But I was motivated and really got into the flow of writing, so I managed to write everything in one go this time!  Still, this is longer than what I normally post by a wide margin, the previous commission notwithstanding, so once again I've split the story into two, more digestible parts.