Nova, a couple of notes on your latest chapter:

Wesley looked at her piteously

Pityingly, as in, looking at her with pity - that's what you meant here, yes? Because "piteously", whereas it can be synonymous, reads very oddly here, as if Wesley is the one desiring or in need of pity.

Also, a couple of quickies: You have her examine the apartment, and then tell Wes she's examined the apartment; why are both needed? Second thing is small, but it did make me stop and think, thereby acting as a flow-breaker. Would Tara, the character as we know her, say something like "I examined the apartment"? That one line made me stop, trying to hear her saying it, and I had to stretch. That's especially true because otherwise, you've got a nice handle on her voice.

The story's moving right along. If the necklace is neutral, though, why her reluctance to touch it? Is she afraid of it, or herself?

Keep it coming.

She's wary of it. Not afraid that it will do something evil, necessarily, but afraid that it might affect her in some way she doesn't want.

I agree, pityingly is better. I forgot that was a word.

I'm sure I'll be changing wording on this chapter quite a lot on re-reads, that seems to be my m.o. I'll try to make her reluctance to touch it more clear, and also stop the flow-breaking of examination.

Thanks, again, of course.

Hon, you're doing some damned good stuff in there. No one to thank but you, really. Keep it going.

One way to show her reluctance and explain it without telling us is to have one of the other characters ask her. You illuminate two characters for the price of one that way: if Wes or Gunn notices her unwillingness and questions her as to why she's looking at the damned thing as if it was a puff adder or a widowmaker, you shed light on that character's perspicacity, as well as illuminating Tara even further.

Added a conversation to Chapter 4, extending it a bit. Tried to fix the addressed problems while I was at it. Not a lot of work, all told, had kind of a Career Crisis Panic Attack (see Natter) that blocked me from working much.

"The Fledgling" is 60 pages long today. Damn.

Ooooh, Deb. Fabulous. Gah.

t /inarticulate

FAY!

Hallo, darlin'.

I actually got some more work in on the Faith piece today. It's gone a bit clearer in my head than it was, in terms of what's actually going on with the sudden non-slayer awareness/terror of people who are slayers.

Conquest through dream. A very long road.

Chapter Five is available. Click here for the page again. It's shorter than the last two chapters (though longer than the first two), and I'll probably add to it some, internally. I'm trying to avoid overtalking and think I may be undertalking about Tara's emotional issues. We'll see.

Nova, some notes (still in editor's cap):

Capiche

It would be spelled "kapish", but truth to tell, I can't hear Lilah saying it. Just my take, but that doesn't strike me as her sort of comment at all, and it doesn't really meld with the sense of polished threat she's been conveying through the previous speech. And the previous speech, all of it, is really good - someone who had no knowledge of Lilah would read that and say whoa-uh, she's a high-powered bitch with layers.

Now, on that theme, I want to wave something here, as a writing sample, and make a suggestion:

After confirming that nothing new had appeared in the apartment,

Remember my spiel about showing, not telling? This is telling, purely the narrator's view; you're moving her around, but you aren't showing us things through her eyes. Who is Tara? Would someone not familiar with this character get a sense of who she is, why she's so fearful, her inner strength?

Show us the girl, her actions, her feelings. Light her up for the reader. This is a statement of what you want this character to do, not a picture of what she's doing or why. We need a picture. It doesn't have to be long, or involved, or nitpicky, but it does need to be there. Fiction, or fic, has to be more than statements to support a plot - there needs to be characterisation and story. And here's a spot where you did that, and did it really well:

...Tara, already quite familiar with the story, tuned the two out as she wandered around the apartment. [After confirming that nothing new had appeared in the apartment,] she stopped at the necklace she had seen earlier. If anything here was going to be important, she was sure this was it. Focusing on the charm, she began a meditative exercise that was supposed to elevate understanding of a mystical object...

"Tara!" said Wesley, suddenly, shaking her out of her trance. "Are you all right?"

Here, you've shown us the girl and her reasons, her actions, from her perspective. Perhaps taking that statement out and combining the flow - "Tara, already quite familiar with the story, tuned the two out as she wandered around the apartment, coming to a stop at the necklace she had seen earlier. " would work?