Review Group discussion

The fire crackled in the stone hearth, casting long shadows across the hall of the Rathsûn.
Ryndålor leaned against the oaken chair, a half-smile playing on his lips, the kind of smile born
from shared long roads and hard-earned insights. Sælion sat opposite him with his hands
clasped, his gaze distant yet sharp, as though he were weighing all his entire decades behind his
weathered eyes.
“Tell me, Ryndålor—why do any of us seek out discourse when silence might suffice? Why the
endless weaving of words?”

Joseph wrote: "The fire crackled in the stone hearth, casting long shadows across the hall of the Rathsûn.
Ryndålor leaned against the oaken chair, a half-smile playing on his lips, the kind of smile born
from sh..."

The problem with putting a first paragraph here and asking for feedback is that the formatting is a mess, and first paragraphs should undergo a lot of changes between the first draft and the final draft that the author makes with every re-read.

The speech should be a second paragraph, and talking about talking isn't really an interesting subject. Also, it is not clear that only two people are in the room, so the reader can't assume the speaker of that paragraph is Sælion without being told specifically.

Having two difficult-to-pronounce, similar "R" names is also confusing, especially since one could be the name of the hall, the last name of the people who inhabit it, a race/country/etc. If it's Ryndålor's Hall, that's what you should call it, or if it's Sælion's Hall, that's what you should call it. Even though it's a fantasy, the author needs to ensure the reader can easily follow what is happening.

My advice would be to finish the manuscript in its entirety; go through it twice, setting it aside for a couple of months between each re-read; and then find a beta reader (or pay an editor) to give you advice for the whole thing.