On the bright side, adding in Dorrin's new squires is a help. Their personalities are filling up, except for Dar's. His older brother Roly is rock-solid now, but Dar (I couldn't get Roly for this mission) is less formed and is just being "nice." He's shy of Dorrin, but he needs to quit being shy of me. I'm his writer. He needs to open up to me and let me make use of his whole self. He's insisting he has no secrets and is just a plain, ordinary, sensible, good guy. No teenage boy is that bland! He thinks the other two are dramatic enough and he should just be the plain unsalted porridge. It's true that Gwenno and Beclan are inherently more dramatic, but nobody gets to lack salt and savor. I will have to keep poking Dar until he reacts.
On the less helpful side, Kieri's future father-in-law is not as forthcoming as I hoped in revealing information that is plot-critical. I can't tell if he really doesn't know, or he's just being a control freak about sharing data. Or do I have it all wrong and this isn't his future father-in-law after all? At any rate, he's annoyingly superior with his writer, and he, too, will have to learn that if he wants to stay in the book, he has to serve a plot-critical function. I don't need him for decoration.
Off to write more....