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threekingdomsIt was sort of bound to happen. After all, I shipped Xanis and Ontameni in the original draft of Book One, as well, when Ontameni was still a boy-type. Even then, it was an insidious little ship of mine, as Xanis was just meant to be with Ysiad, Ontameni was canonically asexual, and the two - for lack of a better term - just hated each other from way back in the days of Heavenly War. The arc of Xanis and Ontameni is beginning a lot sooner in the rewrite (in the original draft of SbA, Xanis and Ontameni formally meet by the former pummeling the shit out of the latter). Xanis and Ontameni actually begin the story this time, and not in the setting of the Mourning Glory, which won't come into the rewrite until later (still undetermined on that one). Xanis is not presented automatically as a fiddle-playing charmer who makes eyes at Ontameni from across the bar, and is then explained away as a pansexual ne'er-do-well by Ausine. Nope. Xanis, I've decided, is an authority figure, a patrolman on the University campus.
Since I'm starting the rewrite in pre-catastrophic Valeyria, this seemed to make sense. I'm leaving out the whole "six months in" plotline and jumping right from the catastrophe into the action. No time for Xanis and the others to become hardened by the slums. They're warriors from the beginning (save Nangi, of course), so why not give them roles to match?
Ontameni will remain canonically asexual. Baradkiel is typical of the angels, it seems, in this regard. The longer they spend in the Kingdom of Mankind (such as Xanis, Anabiel, and most especially Phalec), the more curious and addictive they become to the possibilities of human physiology. Baradkiel/Ontameni's having none of that. This doesn't stop the tension with Xanis. And I think this is important as it implies that Unresolved Tension isn't only of a sexual nature. Though I definitely won't stop people from interpreting it that way. I want Xanis and Ontameni to be shipped to Hell and back (lol that was a joke) if people wish it, but I know it will never happen in canon. Their tension is intellectual, it is ethical, it is a game they've played since they were soldiers in battle. Think of them as reluctant partners, the old Kirk and Spock dynamic/trope, and you've got a good idea (however, as Ontameni regains her angel persona in the wake of the catastrophe, she shows her true colors, and they aren't all logic and numbers. Those were... let's say... safeguards).
