The name “Zag Palig” is an anagram of a Kickstarter backer from my last campaign, where I had a few higher tier rewards that involved having an anagrammed name used in-universe as a character, location, etc. I did the same with “Rune Mallyg” (Grissom’s ship) and “Lennig Niska” (the off-screen Tedeskian captain). I’m not sure if I’ll do the same thing with the next Kickstarter campaign though. While I do think it’s a very fun reward, it just took soooo long to actually deliver that I have no idea if some of those people are even still reading the series. So I think I’d like to stick to rewards that can be delivered on a much shorter time frame. But we’ll see.
On a separate note, I always find it fun when dialogue can be interpreted by characters one way and readers (who have a little more information) another way. In this case, when Jayd says the sculpture “does not leave my hands,” it is interpreted by the art dealer as her being overly cautious. But for readers who now know Jayd’s backstory, there’s a much clearer reason why she would not physically relinquish it prematurely.
I thought the next panel was going to be the sculpture dissolving or a new scene where another character makes a comment about things not lasting.
This scam scene is much funnier.