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File this under connection problems.  I'm connected for this communication via WiFi.  My flaptop is attempting to use the same WiFi service, but whatever is happening has convinced IE that I'm not connected to a network -- but I can make an IE tab connect to FreeBSD.org without difficulty.  (FreeBSD.org is one of the most reliable sites on the web.  I use it as a touchstone for connection problems.)  See my previous queries about jumbo frames and such.

Because it's a good scene or because it's not?

Instead of adding to Acts, why not put vignettes from Kha's arrival at the curses ward and his writing the letter to Anver in Mandatea, leaving the healing as a mystery for Acts?

Acts is already pretty long.  Even 1200 words would stretch things.

I probably won't be able to do serious reviews for 20+ hours.

In general, I still have all sorts of problems with the openings, less with the confontation.   Once we get to Tell Me True you have a compelling story, even if there are parts to be tweaked.

A few questions: How much do you want to depend on the reader having read Acts?  What do you want the reader to understand about Kha and the circumstances when he reaches Aerie?  What do you want the reader to understand about Kha and the circumstances that cannot be expressed in 120 words of clean exposition and narrative summary?

So, what state of mind was Kha in when he took the Black Staff?  Did he do it willingly?  What do other characters (like, say, Anver, but excluding Lucas and Maalok) know about how Kha found and said about the Black Staff?

How important, truly important, to the characters and the plot, are Kha's distrust of herbals?

On repeated words: In one of Shakespeare's histories, I remember not which, the King of England receives a barrel of tennis balls from the King of France, with a note: For the Court of King ((Name)).  The King of England takes no little umbrage at this, declaring "I'll turn his balls to gunstones!" and continuing something like this: "By this mock he shall mock husbands from their wives, he shall mock sons from their mothers ..."  The word 'mock' is repeated over and over, a half-dozen times at least (and I think more).  Note that the word 'mock' appoximates the sound of a tennis ball struck by the racket.

Repetition and parallelism are tools, to be used well or ill.

The most common words are function words: the articles 'a'/'an' and 'the', the word 'to' used to introduce an infinitive as well as as a preposition, words like 'as' (which I just used twice in a row) and other words that have assigned functions in our grammar.  It would be pointless to say 'Do not repeat these'; it would be easier to write a novel without the letter 'e' (and that has been done; see Gadsby).

Other nouns and verbs are very specific to their meanings.  You do not call John 'Helen' just for variety.  You do not say the driver of a bus is litigating his bus down the road for the sake of variety.  The word, whether proper noun or verb, is proper to its specific meaning, and can only be replaced by strained constructions

Between these extremes, the function words and the words proper to their referent, there are many words which could be replaced by synonyms, or by near-synonyms whose different shading refines the original meaning, or provides a contrast, perhaps humorous.  If the change of words does not actually achieve that, then why ask the reader to adjust to the change?  Ideally, your story will so occupy the reader that the extra work will weaken the story, or at least the narrative.

To the degree that variety is necessary or desirable, there are other sources of it.  The alternation of pronoun and antecedent is one such; varying the length of sentences is another

And sometimes repetition drives a point home, as in 'By this mock', above.  Or in my example:

I intend that the reader, for a moment, will be as fully occupied by running as my protagonist is.  Maybe I suceed, maybe I fail.  But I chose the tool meaning it for this use; it was not accident.

Sol, I ran a print copy of the inline review that Amy_s recently did of my Sorcerer's Progress Book 1, Chapter 5.  Starting on page four, a number of the comments were missing, even though the text was highlighted.

Some minor edits made in the flashback, and a little more of Amy's cherished description.  (Caneth Bound is another chapter entirely.)

So, KH, LOTR was about Aragorn and Arwen?

I'm not sure you do need that.  Your slow reveal seems okay so far.  It depends on what route you plan to take us on.

In the meantime, I wonder about how those memories were wrenched from Kha to harm his friends.  Did that happen before or after he was exposed to the Black Staff?

Has the Black Staff been burnt, by the way?

Maybe in those frescoes of Behira you could show Sil's transition to dragonhood and her assault.  Don't name her and don't give away so much that anyone could guess that she'll appear.  And maybe they don't even know her name.  You could have Lewellen tell Tazar the story.  We only need to see a line or two of dialogue.

Working on a flashback between Nikkano and Erevain.  For this backstory I've needed to create backstory for their building and location (so it makes sense) and to refine another bit of will-reveal-about-the-Academy.  And now I have to weave that, and character, back into my flashback scene, and without giving too much away.

It takes several hours to get myself into scene and story, and then I run out of time to work.