Thank you for your feedback and insight! My story is definitely in need of revision, and I was concerned about the pacing, so I appreciate hearing about it from your perspective.
I'll think about where more overt romance options for Desma can be, and how that will shape the trajectory of the rest of the story. (At the risk of spoilers I just want to add that someone acting unhinged out of nowhere in a story with fantasy elements might not be too wild, if you catch my drift.)