As some of you know, I’ve been keeping up with the Araura series for some time now. Volume three continues with the duel between Renzia and Odin. It’s clearly a one-sided fight, but as it goes on, we really get a grasp of the morality of everyone involved.

The story takes a turn that focuses on the duel at hand and the emotional weight that comes with it. As Anea watches from the sidelines, she roots for Renzia as an infallible hero, but the commentary of the characters around her presents a different perspective. One of the things I like about this volume is that it shows neither Renzia nor Odin fits the mold of hero and villain completely. Instead, both of them are like anyone else, right in the middle with both good intentions and mistakes.

Many stories like to paint a clear line between the protagonist and anyone they are up against. A very clear good-versus-evil type story, but that’s not entirely the case here. Instead, what we have is a clash of two people who genuinely have the desire to do good, but are not able to do so perfectly. These imperfections make everyone involved much more captivating to watch as the story unfolds.

Speaking of that, we get to see more about characters working behind the scenes for their own goals. Though this time, these goals end up clashing as we see the return of a dangerous adversary. We don’t get a lot of progress on this part of the story, but it does an excellent job as it continues to build the world of Araura beyond what is seen from Renzia’s point of view.

Volume three includes quite a few additional short stories that further build on the already massive world that is in progress. While these stories are not part of the main tale, they are still important bits of information, as many of the events told here have a noticeable impact on the story to come. Think of them as side quests to get a better understanding of everything going on.