Extremely productive day. I drafted 27 and 28 -- the latter was already largely written, thanks to the day I spent with the game last weekend -- and whipped 26 into much better shape. That one may be ready by as soon as tomorrow. I have decided to keep the Paine and Baralai interludes basically as-is (as-are? since there are two?), even if they are as much nuggets of another story as part of this one. They do tie into Auron's tale, well enough that I am satisfied. 28 and I think 29 will both be Auron only, which will give me some time to work out how best to bring Liss back in to the story.
I am both excited about and afraid of 29. Part of me is tempted to go on, since I've been on a roll for the last few hours, but I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle it yet.