Incredible
I had not read your work for some time (years, probably), but had recently stumbled upon your site again. You were always an excellent writer, but clearly weren't satisfied with being merely excellent.
On matters of presentation, this chapter approaches perfection. It's difficult to analyse characters or plot from the first chapter, but your work, released freely, trumps that of many authors I've paid good coin to read.
It may be true that it is a little difficult to grasp who is who in the first handful of paragraphs. However, this has the (intentional?) side effect of forcing the reader to think about the characters. Laiskaiss seems to be someone I could grow attached to, and Corissith amuses me.