An update on the short story - after slashing about two thousand words that no longer really fit (a result of my radically changing direction in midstory, which however correct a decision it was extremely painful to execute nonetheless), I've gotten it back up to about 9k. I'm now smack in the middle of the third act, and hoping to finish it either tonight or tomorrow at the latest, so that I can finally return to the novel, which has lain fallow for a good month or so now. Here's to a swift and terrible resolution!