beta
I agree its long and I get missing Ian, but the flashbacks are actually very well written. Despite it being kinda politics heavy, its pretty easy to understand if you read it lol. And its not like we're dealing with completely different characters, just different versions of them at a different time.
A lot of this flashback answers the questions Ian had been living with his whole life. We he has powers, why the priests treated him differently, why there's a divide between the lands. The author put a lot of thought into this lore and it wouldn't have the same impact in a few chapters or lore dump