Okay, guys, the time has come for me to close this novel and move on.
First off, let me thank everyone who actually stuck through the entire thing and enjoyed the story so far. Don't worry, the end of the first tome doesn't mean the end of the story! It just means... Indefinite hiatus. Initially, I wanted to take a week off from writing 4 things at once and limit it just to 3... But there are huge chances I won't get back to this story for a bit longer. Not before I finish my first and biggest novel, giving it proper closure and getting it off my head. Once that will be dealt with, I might have enough time to actually think about writing the Phoenix saga again.
The next part will most likely happen after a relatively short time skip, bringing both those returning to the saga and the new potential readers that will start from the second part to a somewhat equal footing. Some of the mysteries will be only understandable for the readers of the complete saga, some will be obvious or capable of being understood by everyone.
What I failed to provide in this novel (Great thanks to Prrrgadilly even though he most likely won't see it and what he pointed out in his review) is that I mixed the third-person narration with the quirks of the first-person narration - instead of switching PoV's to shed the light on some events that might be confusing, I forced myself to keep it all in a single Point of View (of the main character) just to make sure all the mysteries are kept. I personally believe this is the reason for this novel's insanely poor performance so I hope I can do a better job with its continuation.
In the end, the break, the swap between different novels (first and second tome), the need to create a cover for it in one way or another, figuring out the starting point, the tense first few chapters, proper perspective and storytelling way... I can't say for sure when I will pick this story up, all I can say that it's definitely not concluded and that means I won't drop it. It might just take me a while to come back to Fen, Orsha, Victor or Firo.
Keep in mind that at most, only 15% of the entire story is covered, so as the saga will grow, you might expect this part to turn into something akin to a prologue.
Once again, thanks everyone for sticking with my shitty writing and I hope I won't disappoint you with the continuation and my next stories!
MotivatedSloth, signing out.