Wow. I’m usually quite good with the less commonly-occurring words, but you had me reaching for a dictionary more than once here.

Well, dictionary-scurrying wasn’t what I was intending to trigger, so hope that doesn’t distract too much from the story. Reading it back, I appear to have gone all BBC I, Claudius with the dialogue for some reason – but I guess it fits the mood, so I’ll stick with it. Interestingly, this is one of those rare examples where I actually have an idea of where the story is going for the next few installments, rather than writing each episode on the fly which is what normally happens.

Oh, I think the rich vocabulary very much adds to the atmosphere. It also had the pleasing side effect of enriching my own knowledge. Great job!

Conversely, I usually have a good idea of future developments, but this time I’m winging it. Should be fun!

Very dramatic back-and-forth. It reads well and establishes a solid, desperate tone.

Some relateable emotional psychology in this piece.

(Relatable? I’m too sick to care.)

Rel[whatever]able sounds good to me – thanks for the comment.