Amalie's Forum - Once Upon a Time

I finally got through all the questions on "Invalid Item" ! Feel free to read the whole thing and offer feedback. However, some are more developed than others, so I've copied the ones I'd most like your opinions on below.



The Basics:
What is the story's intended audience?
Adults, 18+
What is the story's genre?
Fantasy, LGBT
Summarize the story in two sentences or less (Logline):
When Alisandra loses her lover to the dictates of her tribe, she must decide whether to submit to its will or to take drastic steps to escape it. She then realizes that sometimes escaping oppression means exchanging one set of chains for another.


Plot:

Exposition, Initial Action, and Complication:
What initial action represents the primary complication for the protagonist?
          Alisandra learns that Ry'Shel is going to be handfasted to Sylvin, the son of the High Priest.
Is there a major problem that the character will need to solve?
          Alisandra honestly believes that she must save Ry'Shel from what she sees as a horrible existence. She will come to realize, however, that Ry'Shel has made her choice with her eyes wide open, and cannot save her. Alisandra must then decide how to save herself.

Conflicts:
Alisandra versus Ry'Shel
          Alisandra attempts to rewin Ry'Shel's heart, but will realize the two have incompatible goals.
Alisandra versus Society
          Ry'Shel and Alisandra's adopted guardian An'Alma plot to have Alisandra handfasted to Sylvin's younger brother, and Alisandra will have to fight expectations of the tribe for her to accept her freely offered place within it.
          Alisandra ponders the nature of Solaar and his expectations and finds him patriarchal and oppressive to women and must decide what to do about that.
Alisandra versus herself
          Alisandra desperately wants two things: to find a place in her tribe to belong and to be free to choose where she will fit in. As the two seem incompatible, she will have to discover what it is she wants more than both of these and how to make that goal a reality.

What characters might be involved in the conflicts?
          Ry'Shel, An'Alma, the High Priest (who still needs a name), an unnamed woman (TBD), Kieran herself

Rising Action:
What specific events occur in order to develop the conflicts and complications of the story?
          Ry'Shel informs Alisandra that she has accepted her father's plan to have her handfasted to Sylvin, the High Priest's eldest son.
          Alisandra goes to An'Alma for guidance, who shares a very unexpected story regarding a deal she had made with Kieran in her youth, and her belief that the consequences of that deal brought Alisandra to Re'Obsol.
          Alisandra spends a day at Famina's Well alone, pondering her choices, when she meets a mysterious woman, with coloring much like Alisandra's, who shares with her the secret of Kieran's savage wonder.
          Alisandra returns to speak with Ry'Shel, to beg her to change her mind and escape with her. Ry'Shel steadfastly refuses. She mentions that An'Alma is worried for Alisandra, and that the two, they think, have come up with a way to make Alisandra happy, and that she would discover its nature soon.
          The High Priest approaches Alisandra about marrying his second eldest son Tryvan, and with it assuring her a place in his tribe. If she will accept, he will ensure Alisandra will be allowed to attend the handfasting and consummation rituals, which are ordinarily witnessed only by accepted members of the tribe. Though she is wary, she accepts.

Climax:
What occurs at the climax of the story?
          Alisandra attends Ry'Shel's handfasting ceremony, and is taken in by its savage beauty. However, when the consummation portion of the ritual occurs, where the tribe chants in rhythm a praise to Solaar for fertility, ending with completion for both partners, Alisandra sees Ry'shel, realizes she will never have her back, and that she loathes the idea of being in her place. Mid-ceremony, she yanks out the decorative beads that had been braided into her hair for the occasion, and runs back to the lake. She manages to escape unnoticed.

Falling Action:
How do the story's loose ends come together?
          Alisandra arrives at the lake and falls to her knees crying out for the help of Kieran, who accepts her offer of submission and marks her as her own.

Denoument:
What type of ending will suit the mood and theme of the story?
          Melancholy but determined.
What events would best achieve that ending?
          Alisandra will receive what she wants, in a way. Kieran marks her as her own and sends her back to Re'Obsol as Kieran's messenger. She will have a place as a priestess in the society, which she discovers was the plan of the woman by the lake (an aging former priestess who had betrayed her mistress and left the tribe years before).