Benedict Jacka

From: Pete

Whilst “normals” are either unaware or not taken serious about magical society, is this the same case with governments? Is there some tacit co-operation between normal and magical authorities?

Short answer is yes. Pretty much every government has a section that deals with magical stuff, and that section has some kind of relationship with the country’s Council. How well they get on varies quite a bit. In the UK there’s a group called SASU affiliated with the Met Police that does the liaising work – mostly the only time we run into them is if something goes wrong, and from what I understand relations are smooth enough, even if they’re not exactly friendly. In other countries it can get a bit messier. From what I’ve heard the US government has two or three competing departments that are supposed to regulate magic, and they don’t get on with the US Council at all.

From: Thorn

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions.

1) How much time has passed since the events of Fated? How much time has passed since the events of the most recent book?

2) Why do you think Alex is writing all this down? Do you think there’s anything he’s leaving out?

3) Could you explain what the difference is between the Junior and Senior Council?

1) About six years and about one year.

2) Would you prefer he kept it all a secret? And of course he leaves things out. Do you tell people every detail about your personal life?

3) There are lots of little differences, but the big one is that the Senior Council get to vote on Council resolutions, and the Junior Council don’t. So while the Junior Council get most of the same perks, the Senior Council’s votes are the only ones that matter.

From: Kurt Von Bosse

Hi Luna.

Now that you are no longer an apprentice will you continue to engage in competitive Azimuth duels or do you think your free time will be taken up with establishing yourself in magical society as a full Mage? On the other hand, might competitive dueling help you gain respect and acceptance from other mages?

I hope this hasn’t been asked before, but when you competed in various tournaments was there any type of magic user who was more difficult to fight than other types or did it simply come down to the skill of the individual opponent regardless of magic type?

I’ve actually gotten a lot less interested in duelling lately. For a while it was what you said, a way to prove myself, but looking back on it, I think I was partly doing it just to have something to keep myself busy. I didn’t want to have too much time to stop and think. Once I graduated, though, and I took a break, I found I didn’t miss it that much. The duelling world gets a bit pressure-cooker – there are all these Light mages who care about it so much and after you’ve been out and about a bit, you realise how artificial the whole thing is. I’m just not sure I care enough to put in the work I’d need to.

As for hardest magic type – obviously skill was the most important thing, but I always found ice mages really irritating to deal with. Very good defence and they always seem to want to drag the bout out as long as possible.

From: Jordan

Have you considered that Richard might be a Sound mage? From the way he’s described I get the impression that he was born with a relatively weak type of magic and that his goal has been to overcome that through planning, use of items and eventually somehow Iron Man-ing his way into being able to use other types. Sound mage would fit the bill, and Alex has mentioned more than once that his most memorable and noticeable feature is his voice. Plus it would fit with Alex hearing Richard’s voice when Morden was being elevated to the Council.

(Sorry for the double-post. Got mixed up on where to send the question)

Yeah, I should probably make it clear, in case it isn’t obvious – if you guys want to send me an Ask Luna question, use the form. Nothing personal, but I really don’t have time to search through comments and other email accounts to find questions sent to the wrong address, so anything that doesn’t go through the Ask Luna form just doesn’t get answered.

As for what your question, that’s actually one we’ve considered and decided was really unlikely. It’s not impossible, but sound magic tends to be distinctive – it’s not the kind of thing you can hide or pass off as something else. Alex also says that it doesn’t fit with Richard’s personality. Sound mages tend to be emotive performer-types, and they’d rather have attention than power. From what I’ve heard about Richard, that doesn’t sound like him at all.

From: Adam Jennings

Hi Luna or should I say Vesta. (Cool name)
I love to see how you’ve grown throughout your time with Alex. You have turned into a pretty awesome mage!
A couple of questions.

Starbreeze. Can’t Arachne make an item/focus for Alex to use to make contact with Starbreeze again. Alex hasn’t tried, but he found her once why can’t he do it again?

You have been to Elsewhere on two occasions, second time using the dreamstone.
Each time you have met a beast like creature what represents your curse.
Does this mean you could travel to Elsewhere to understand your curse and maybe control it more?

I believe Richard is a Diviner. He is smart, he knows what to say (probing different futures for the best outcome), he uses items like Alex, he says things like he knows the future in which someone was to attack him, Alex can’t detect a magic type aura ( Because divination is hard to detect), and he fights like a Diviner. I mean no other mage uses a gun apart from Alex, who is a Diviner. Richard used a world gate, maybe to travel to a different world or an alternative one. Which could mean how is is able to use an unknown magic type. Will we ever know where he went?

Anyway, keep up the good work. Can’t wait for the next adventure.

Take care,

Adam Jennings

Alex doesn’t actually know how to find Starbreeze; she finds him. Elementals don’t really hang around humans these days, especially air elementals – they’ve gotten shy over the years, for good reason. It’s not easy to figure out how to get in touch with someone when you don’t have any kind of device for contacting them.

Going to Elsewhere to help with my curse . . . maybe. The thing is, nowadays I’ve got a pretty good handle on my curse already. I think if I met that thing in Elsewhere again, things would go better this time, but Elsewhere’s pretty unpredictable and I’m not sure what else might happen. I might have to do it some day, but I’d rather not until I have to.

Re: Richard being a Diviner, it’s on the list. As for where he went, who knows. Probably the only way we’d find out is by tracking him down and asking him. If you want to do that, go right ahead, but none of us are especially keen.

From: Jakob

Hi Luna,

This is Jakob. I recently read an interview with Alex, and can’t helping wishing you had given the interview instead.

I had some questions for you, that I hope you can answer and are not too spoilery.

Please answer the ones that you feel like answering, and I won’t mind if you ignore the rest.

1. Did Richard Drakh kill Caldera’s mistress?

2. What did Richard Drakh find in the different world he traveled to?

3. Can Talisid shape-shift into a lion?

4. Where do/did magical creatures get their magic from?

5. Is there an “origin” story for magic? Has it always been around or was it gifted to humanity at some point?

Thanks a ton,
Jake

1. No. Caldera’s mistress is retired but still alive, as far as I know.

2. I’m not sure how you’d expect me to know that. What do you want me to do, forward him your email?

3. I seriously doubt it.

4. They’re born with it. It’s integrated into them in a much more complete way than with mages and adepts.

5. There are a few, but I don’t know if any of them are true.

From: Michael

Hello Luna,

I’m still fascinated by what happened when Rachel became Deleo. Richard was expecting it, but the only insight we’ve been given into the event was the description of that strange being. Was that from elsewhere? like a manifestation of magic somehow (similar to how your curse appeared in elsewhere)? Does it come from a deep shadow realm, summoned by the … ritual, I guess, of taking someone’s magic?

I realize this is a topic few people know anything about, given Alex’s narrative on the matter, but considering the promises he made to Shireen, and the fact that Richard must be using this somehow to enhance his own magical abilities, whether directly or indirectly, I would think that Alex’s Diviner curiosity would have pulled him back to this to do some further digging at some point, even if just to ask Arachne….

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing more.

This seems to be a day of people asking me questions I don’t know the answers to. Maybe? Possibly? I don’t know how this stuff works, and I don’t think Alex does either. Elsewhere is weird at the best of times, and most of the times I’ve gone there, trying to logically analyse stuff hasn’t worked very well. If you get hung up on the bizarreness of what you’re seeing, you end up freezing. Going with the flow works better.

I don’t know if Alex has researched it specifically, but I have the feeling he hasn’t. I suppose you’re right that it could be useful, but we’ve had an awful lot of things to keep us busy over the past couple of years.

From: AJ

Will Alex meet with Star Breeze again?

Okay, seriously. How do you people expect me to know this stuff? It’s Alex who’s the diviner!

From: Kurt Von Bosse

Hi Luna.

From what Alex or Arachne may have told you; back when Deleo and Cinder were trying to take the magical energy from the barghest, if they had succeeded would Deleo; I’m assuming she got first dibs, have simply received a big power boost or would she also have inherited the barghest’s shape-shifting ability? Deleo’s scary enough without werewolf like skills.

Good question, and I don’t really know. I think maybe she didn’t either. I don’t think anyone had managed to do it before, so it might have been a ‘let’s do it and see what happens’ sort of deal. If that sounds a bit crazy, well, it’s Deleo. I wouldn’t have bet against her, though. Probably just as well we didn’t get to find out.

From: Casey

Hi Luna,

I have a question about jinn. Last we heard, Anne was making a contract with a jinn. Once she wakes, will she be basically herself with the jinn’s powers (and its conscience — kind of like Shireen to Delo)? Or will the jinn take over her like when Alex had the fateweaver? I guess what I am trying to understand is what will the relationship between Anne and the jinn be? Once this contract is completed, will the jinn return to the artifact and leave Anne alone or be more like when someone uses the monkey’s paw? Or will she be a host until her death?

I’m concerned that Anne being a host to the jinn will hamper any relationship she and Alex can have. It’s pretty obvious that Anne and Alex care for each other. She said she wants someone who can take care of her…. And how many times has Alex pretty much done that? *ahem* Alex pretty much admits that he deeply cares for Anne when he tries to push the thoughts and feelings aside. Just sayin’

In your opinion, do you think we’ll see Crystal again? As Alex becomes a major power, and the fact that she’s failed twice — let’s not forget that Anne is a host for a jinn — does Crystal really have a chance to succeed?

Thanks!

Okay, so as regards the jinn, a LOT of stuff has happened since then, and it’s stuff that I really, really should not be talking about. So I’m going to wait until the cooling-off period has passed. Sorry. Let’s just say that that thing has not been good news.

As for Crystal, yeah, I haven’t forgotten that either. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure the answer’s yes. The way I understand it, Crystal still thinks that Anne has what she wants, and from all accounts she isn’t the kind to give up easily. Which means that I have a nasty feeling that she’s going to keep on coming back until we take care of her for good.

From: Casey

Hi Luna,

I have a question — maybe more like a prediction? — about Richard’s magic type. My first thought was that maybe he was an adept (probability or chance type) but then figured that was probably not the case. There are mages with combined types. Richard having mind and divination skills would make him the perfect manipulator and his magic to be hard to detect.

On that thought, are mages with two types of magic type as powerful as a mage with one of those magic types? For example, Vihaela has both life and death magic. Would she be as good of a healer as Anne? Do mages with two magic types basically two mages in one — all the abilities of each magic type? Or do they have just some of the abilities of each magic type?

Thanks!

For Richard, it’s possible. I’ll add it to our big file of wild guesses. Unfortunately it’s really hard to narrow down this kind of stuff without getting up close and personal, which none of us are keen on doing for obvious reasons.

For the second question, you can think of magic types as being like colour shades. If life magic is emerald green, and death magic is black, a life-death hybrid would be British racing green. Ability-wise it usually ends up being a mix, so they can do some of the things that both other types can do, but not all of the things that either type can do. How powerful they are is a totally different deal. Vihaela is crazy powerful, but that’s not because she’s a hybrid, it’s because she’s really really strong. She’d be just as strong if she was a pure life mage or death mage.

From: Svetli

Dear Luna,
I’m a fan from Bulgaria. I was hoping you could answer a question. Although Alex uses mainly Apollonian divination, can he use Dionysian as well? I am curious because of the dream at the end of “Chosen”, the one about the return of Richard.

He says he can’t. Apparently he tried studying it a few times and never got anywhere. I’ve wondered the same thing as you, though – every now and then he pulls something that doesn’t sound like the orderly Apollonian stuff. Maybe that other kind of divination is something you don’t learn the regular way.

From: Sam

Hi Luna (should I keep using that name?),

Congrats on passing your journeyman test!

I was just wondering, do you think things between Alex and Caldera will ever improve? And do you think she’s even someone any of the gang would want to work with at this point. She seems like a decent person, but she doesn’t really have the critical thinking skills your adventures need.

Yup, Luna’s fine. Some mages drop their birth name once they graduate, but I decided a long time ago that I didn’t want to do that. I use my mage name for official business and when dealing with other mages, but in the shop and with my friends, it’s just Luna.

As for Caldera . . . eh. I’m less keen on her than Vari and Alex seem to be. It’s nothing to do with thinking skills – she’s smart enough. It’s that she always seems to be on the side of whatever’s legal, and in case you haven’t noticed, the law isn’t all that friendly to anyone who isn’t a Light mage. Maybe she is a decent person, but I’d rather keep her at arm’s length.

From: Gaston de Foix

Hi Luna,

I’m a big admirer: you are one of the bravest people I know.

I had some questions about dragons.

Dragons clearly have powers beyond ordinary mortal powers including prophecy and clairvoyance and have seemingly existed for a very long time.

1. Were dragons sometimes understood by mortals as gods (i.e. Athena)?

2. If dragons can see the future so clearly, and are clearly impelled to protect fellow magical creatures, why are magical creatures well-night extinct?

3. Does the origin of magic have anything to do with dragons?

4. Anything else cool or unusual you can tell me about dragons that I can’t read somewhere else!

Thanks for taking the time.

That’s a nice compliment, thanks. As for your questions:

1) Yes. Given what they can do, ‘god’ actually seems like a pretty good description.

2) They’re not impelled to protect magical creatures, or at least I don’t think they are. This is where it gets tricky – they seem to be under some restrictions, but it’s really hard to understand how they work. There’s a reason they don’t run the world, put it that way. Arachne’s dragon is a special case, or maybe it’s that Arachne is a special case to the dragon.

3) Don’t think so, but no-one really knows what the origin of magic is, so could be.

4) Alex told me once that he has a theory that dragons don’t just see other people’s futures, they also see their own. Which means that for all their power, they have absolutely no freedom. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve always remembered it.

From: Kalias

Hi Luna
I was just wondering, how do elemental mages power their spells? – it seems like magic is still mostly subject to the laws of conservation of energy (e.g. with shield magic), yet elemental / force mages seem to be able to do things that would consume a lot of energy if achieved the normal way without it overly draining them. Are they subject to the law of conservation of energy and if so where does the energy come from?

Okay, so this is getting into ‘theory of magic’ stuff, which I did my best to skip whenever it came up in class. As I understand it, mages don’t create energy, they use what’s out there already. The energy for something like a fire spell doesn’t come from the mage, it comes from turning mass into heat. They can only convert tiny tiny amounts of matter, but apparently that still packs quite a punch. That isn’t how they actually describe it though – you get into concepts, so a fire mage can’t just mess around with energy directly, it has to involve heat or fire in some way. I’m probably not explaining this very well.

From: Dug Devine

Hi Luna…. Just curious, is a “Mage”(some Mages? Magi?) able to develop other magical skills / abilities or is it a case of ” you are what your are born?” 😀

Both. First you have to have the talent, then you have to train it. In practice it takes so long (years and years) to get really good with one magic type that most mages keep working on perfecting that rather than starting over with a new one.

From: Janice

Hello Luna! Given that divination is only really accurate in the short term and that it is complicated by human actions, is it possible to (theoretically) kill Alex Verus by spiking his food or drink with something that will kill him over a longer period of time (e.g. a day or a week, even)?

Theoretically, that would work, yeah. Alex would probably appreciate it if you didn’t spread that around too much.

From: Wyatt freed

Hello Luna. I’m very curious about dreamstones. It is fascinating how they allow one to enter elsewhere like a fish to water. Now that alex has one, what powers is he working on developing. Will he be able to physically transport himself, and influence thoughts, control people? It’s very exciting. I bet it will be a great tool to help bring deleo away from Richard as well since his life depends on it. And I assume that since the dreamstone is now attuned to him it can only be used by him. Does it have to be in proximity to use it?

From what I understand, he’s practising with Elsewhere manipulation in general – shaping the world, that kind of thing. It always happens whenever you’re there, but according to Alex, you can do it much more consciously with practice. Arachne’s also teaching him to step between Elsewhere and dreamshards (apparently they’re a kind of halfway house between Elsewhere and regular dreams).

And yeah, as far as I know Alex is the only one who can use it. Imbued items in general are picky about their bearers. As for proximity, that’s something he’s specifically mentioned he was working on. To begin with he’d always touch the dreamstone to use it, but according to Arachne that isn’t actually necessary – all you need is the link. Last I heard he’d gotten to the point where he could use it at arm’s length or so.

From: Eikfo

Dear Luna,

Apologies to rebound on your answer regarding division of magical and political border (Ask Luna #81) with such a minor detail, but as a local, I cannot help but wonder if you might have any insight if Belgian magical government is somehow divided based on spoken language point of view, as the rest of the country is.

In addition, for a broader subject, do you know if Chance magic can alter digital worlds, such as, for example, video games that have random components, or if it is limited to the material world?

Thank you in advance for your reply,

Yours Sincerely,
Eikfo.

Okay, this is kind of embarrassing to admit, given how close Belgium is, but I honestly don’t have a clue. I pretty much exhausted my knowledge on that particular topic back in that last article. In my defence, European magical history is really complicated, with the different languages and all the hundreds of years of shifting borders. They tried to give us an overview back when I was an apprentice, but I really had trouble following it all.

As for the second question, kind of. Chance magic can affect anything with a random component, which most computer games have. So not much good for a chess program, but pretty useful for messing with the enemies on something like Skyrim. Oh, and obviously you don’t want to play online poker against a chance mage, but you probably guessed that already.

From: Dances With Horses

Hi Luna,

I’d like to ask please how / where Arachne sells her clothes, given that she’s very security conscious and we never hear of you bumping into her other clients.

Secondly, I’d also be grateful to know more about ‘Unicorns Run’. Alex mentioned at one point that unicorns weren’t the sweet and friendly animals of tales and Arachne has a dig at him because his outfit for the event got ruined. So what are unicorns like and what’s the story behind Alex, his clothes and Unicorns Run?

Thanks Luna and good luck with the rebuild of the shop.

Arachne mostly sells her clothes overseas. Actually, ‘sells’ is probably the wrong word, since I think she mostly trades them for goodwill/favours. From what I’ve seen, though, she has less clients than she used to. The world’s getting to be a tough place for magical creatures.

Unicorn’s Run is a Light Council event that has no actual unicorns (as far as I know). It’s one of those names out of ancient history. As for the story, Alex seems kind of reluctant to tell me any details, maybe because he’s embarrassed about it.

From: Iksander

Journeyman Vesta

Certainly has a nice ring to it doesn’t it! Congratulations on finding your name. I have a couple of questions for you if you have the time:

1) Has Variam passed his/taken his Journeyman tests yet? Follow up, has he decided on a name?

2) What is a Devourer? Sounds rather ominous to me…

Thanks! I liked it too.

Yup, Vari took his tests a while back. Pretty soon after I did mine, funnily enough. It hasn’t made much different in how he acts around us – I’d been expecting him to be a bit more puffed-up about it, but his attitude was more like “good, that’s out of the way”.

Devourers are really nasty magical creatures that do exactly what their name suggests. They were supposed to have been exterminated a long time ago, but unfortunately some mages decided they’d make really good guards, so you still find them around from time to time. I’ve never seen one, but I’ve heard descriptions.

From: Fade

Hi Luna, I was wondering what constitutes a “Master Mage.” I assume that Dark Master status is similar Dark Mage status, where they declare themselves and dare somebody to contradict them. What about light and independents? Is there another series of tests that they need to pass? Or is Master Mage less of an official title and more of a tacit understanding amongst one’s peers? I know Alex has more knowledge of the dark side of the fence, but I’m hoping maybe you picked some knowledge up in the apprentice program? Thank you for your time!

The Council does actually have rules on when someone qualifies as a master mage, but it’s totally different from the journeyman test system – it’s just age. After a certain amount of years as a journeyman (I think it’s 15 or 20 or something) you qualify as a master by default. Sounds kind of stupid, I know, but according to Alex it dates back to when magical life was a lot more dangerous, and the assumption was that if you were a mage at 40 and still alive then you must be doing something right. I’m not sure how many people take it seriously anymore, though. From what I’ve seen modern Light mages are more likely to boast about their rank in the Council or the Keepers or whatever – they don’t seem to care about the master thing.

With Dark mages, it’s exactly what you’ve guessed. They just call themselves that and see if anyone takes them up on the challenge. Usually no-one does.

From: Blackmass

I have a few questions about Jagadev

I understand why Alex won’t tell Vari about what Jagadev has killed members of his family but what about Anne why has he not told her about this

also will Jagadev oppose Drakh an his plans for the council or remain Neutral

also unrelated but what will Arachne do if Drakh succeeds in his grand schemes

The way I understood it, Alex never actually had any hard evidence that Jagadev was responsible for that stuff. So I guess that was part of the reason. He probably also figured that if he told Anne, it’d get back to Vari. Or maybe he just decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

From what’s been happening lately, I think Jagadev’s been helping Richard. Not out of any kind of friendship, more that he thinks it’ll destabilise the Council.

And I have no idea what Arachne’ll do if Richard gets what he wants. Funnily enough, I have the feeling it might not affect her much. It’s more the Council that she’s worried about.

From: Zachariah Loranis

Do you know any Adepts that are very skilled in barrier spells?

I met one whose particular trick was creating force walls. Don’t know if that’s the kind of thing you mean, but she was really good with them.

From: Nick

Luna are there any universal combat spells. By universal I mean almost every magic type can use them.
-Thanks

Not really. Universal spells are generally ‘magic on magic’ stuff. Analysing spells, using focus items, that kind of thing. Combat spells are a lot more specialised. Closest I can think of is a light spell, but even that’s limited to mostly elementalists.