Benedict Jacka

From: Bruce Donohue

Hello Luna.
In your apprentice program, do you have to learn various languages both known or obscure?
In your assignments in your classes, did they ever explain the different levels of mastery of magic and what makes Master Level truly deserving of the title?
Would you like to be the fly on the wall during this conversation…
Where Richard and Alex are temporarily trapped in the same location, and they finally have a very long monologue heart to heart. Kind of like they like all spill all beans pertaining to the excess baggage they have been carrying around about the other? Now what event would cause them to be stuck in the same space together that they might have to work together to get out of would be very interesting in itself. I know hell yeah, I’d pay to be the fly on the wall to witness that long exchange.

There are a few language classes on the syllabus, but I skipped them.

Master level just means really really good. There’s no exam for it as far as I know. By the time a mage gets to that point their ego would be way too big for them to sit down to any tests, anyway.

And yes, it’d be interesting, but I’m not quite sure how safe it’d be to be a ‘fly on the wall’. Something Alex drummed into me pretty early was that powerful mages are usually pretty good at detecting people, so I have the feeling I’d get spotted fast. Not sure it’d be worth the risk. Besides, from all I’ve heard Richard comes across as a total bastard, so I’m really not sure I WANT to get to know more about his baggage.

From: Bruce Donohue

Hello Luna, hope all is well.

I was wondering… When it comes to Life Magic… Sensing is one of the things they are good at, and they can even do through walls. Now Manipulating life essence is there thing… what is preventing a Life mage to learnt to at a distance learn to pull that essence out of another, or push out so to speak that life essence effecting magic to others also at a distance? With enough practice and though to it, it should be possible, what the range they could effect I guess would be determined by their skill they have dedicated to master. I guess it would mimic what death mages do in some cases and strictly be bound by touch. I know if I was a Life Mage, it would be something that I would explore.

You can see other people at a distance, right? So what’s preventing you from learning how to telekinetically lift them up? By your logic it ought to be possible, right?

Just because you think a mage should be able to do something, doesn’t mean they actually can, any more than thinking that your car ‘should work’ will keep it driving when it’s out of fuel. Life magic can’t do the same things that death magic can, and vice versa.

From: R

Hey Luna,
Be honest, what do you think of Variam? I kinda ship you guys, so I’d love to know.

He’s actually a pretty good guy once you get to know him. Though don’t tell him I said that.

And apparently not only do I have fans, I now have shippers. That’s kind of cool.

From: A Fan

Hey Luna,

Do you know if Richard is single?

Okay, I take back the last comment. You guys are nuts.

From: Geli

Hi Luna,

how are you? Do you think there is a lot potential for your powers to grow and be refined in the future? Not that I want your curse to become even more powerful…

Wish you the best
Geli

Not bad. Pretty busy, but things have been going well.

I’m not sure if my curse is getting more powerful – I don’t remember it ever getting much stronger once I got past twenty or so – but then power’s never really been the problem. There have been lots of times I’ve wanted it to be LESS powerful, but that’s never been an option either.

Mostly what I’ve been learning lately hasn’t been about strengthening my curse, it’s been about exploring different uses and getting better at directing it. I think that’s how it usually works with adepts and mages. They don’t actually get any stronger, they just get more skilled and more efficient.

From: Nicola

Dear Luna,

“shadow realms” or (“universe”, I forget the correct term) do seem what other stories call “alternative universes”. When man-made, most often it’s stated there are machines that manipulate the space-time continuum, or even whatever there is between universes to create them or modify their properties.

This got me wondering, can a shadow realm be created exclusively by magic or can an eventual non-magical technology based on post-Einstein physics create them, also?

More generally, can what elemental mages do be done also by technology based on vanilla physics, chemistry and biology?

Many thanks!

I don’t even know what post-Einstein physics are, so I’m probably the wrong person to be asking. But as far as I know, no, if you want a shadow realm, you go to a mage to make one or you go home. Or I guess you could just find an existing one.

The kind of stuff that elemental mages do isn’t the same as what you can do with technology, but yes, you can do it . . . what I mean is, it doesn’t work the same way, but you can produce the same results. So an elemental mage can create a light, but you or I could do the same thing with an electric torch. And you can duplicate some of what an ice mage can do with a freezer, and some of what a fire mage can do with a flamethrower, etc etc.

The big difference is that if you want to do stuff the tech way, you need tools. Mages don’t need tools, they just make it happen. So I’d be kind of surprised if there are any tech-y ways of duplicating magic. It seems to work off a whole different approach.

From: Bruce Donohue

Hello,
Has there ever been a mage that is equally at home with all forms of magic? Meaning they are equally talented in all forms, death, life, elemental, mind, etc…

I think there are legends of mages who were like that, but there aren’t any alive nowadays. Given that mages are supposed to be stronger now than they used to be, that probably means the legends were made up.

From: Bruce Donohue

Hello Luna. How are you doing? Hopefully you haven’t been doing to many menial tasks under the guise of been the shop keeper/apprentice. Alex give you that pay raise?
I have a question that hopefully you might be able to pass onto Alex…
Magic normally is categorized in various families. Abjuration, Conjuration/Summoning, Invocation/Evocation, Necromantic, Illusion, Enchantment etc…
Having said that, we all know about the different types and mages being one thing principally but not another.
let me explain my question first…
If a mage was said to an Invoker/Evoker, that would make him able to cast a wide variety of spells as his main wheelhouse, fire,water,death so essentially battle-like, so my question is: Is there such a thing because that would make a mage much more rounded in the type than specialized as he is a Life Mage, or a Divination Mage etc. Because it appears rather limiting otherwise.

He did give me a pay raise, though it was for something different. Well, I’m not complaining.

As for your question, I’m not 100% sure what you’re saying. There are mages who are specialised in battle – they’re called death mages. But they can’t do everything that fire mages can. If they could, fire mages would be kind of redundant.

I get the feeling what you’re really asking is “can I have ALL THE MAGICS?”, in which case I’m pretty sure the answer’s no. Even if you did have the talent for all the magic types, you wouldn’t have time to develop them all. Diviners like Alex take years to learn how to use their magic – not all magic, just THEIR magic. And it takes them years more to actually master it. There’s no way you could learn ALL the magic types, you’d die of old age before you were halfway through.

As for it being ‘limiting’ . . . what, being able to throw fireballs or stop time or heal wounds isn’t enough for you? You want to be able to do it all at once? Seems greedy as hell to me, but then I guess that’s how a lot of mages think. No matter how much they have, it’s never enough . . .

From: BlackMass

Alex says helikaon with divination can do things he can only dream of has he ever specified also how is old helikaon these days

Guys, can you please proof-read these things before you send them to me? Trying to figure out the content of some of these questions gives me a headache.

No idea how old Helikaon is. I’ve never met the guy. Don’t think Alex sees him much these days.

From: Royd Burgoyne

Hi Luna!

Dedicated fan from Downunder here! Thoroughly enjoying your (and Alex’s) (mis)adventures but I’d love to know if we’ll be seeing more of the Blink Fox in future instalments?

He (?) seems like an intriguing character who will likely cause Alex some grief (eg. emptying the fridge) and we’d love to know more about him Bottom line, I hope he features in future adventures! Thanks for any info! Warm regards,

Royd Burgoyne
Perth, Australia

I seem to be getting a lot of fans lately. That’s kind of cool.

His name is Hermes, and yeah, he empties the fridge a lot. Though not from stealing it, mostly from just nagging Alex into feeding him. Anne’s the worst, though. I think she’s got some kind of motherly ‘feed everyone’ reflex and every time she’s around seems to be when Hermes shows up.

Can’t promise he’s going to be sticking around, but he has so far, and he doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of going away, so it looks like it’ll stay like this for a while. Alex seems to have been getting on with him better and he’s even taken him out on jobs a few times.

From: Blake

what emotions were you experiencing when trying to get the fateweaver from alex ?

Wow. That’s a walk down memory lane.

Scared, mostly. I was in a lot of pain and I didn’t understand what was going on. And the way Alex was acting was really freaking me out. There was just something wrong about it, and I didn’t know why and I didn’t know what I should do.

It’s really weird remembering that first year. I get chills looking back on it, sometimes. I had SO little clue what I was doing and I could have screwed up so badly. I was really, really lucky. But then, I guess that’s what I’m good at.

From: Kari

Whoa! You have another teacher for your luck magic? How did you end up him/her? Are they affiliated with the light council? I mean, not that you can’t have a light mage as a teacher, it’s just I can’t believe you’d find one to take you on given your aggressive personality and MURDERING MASTER.

Yeaaaaaah, about that. Let’s just say that there’s kind of a reason why the ‘letting them take me on when I have a MURDERING MASTER’ thing got bypassed.

I probably shouldn’t be saying too much just yet – there are some really good reasons that I don’t want to be shouting about her/his identity too loudly. You’ll find out why soon enough. Lessons are going great though.

From: Andy d

Hi Luna
Through much of Alex’s adventure, it seems as if his effectiveness grows by virtue of experience and additional magic items, such as the armor and the sword he recently acquired. Are there additional innate magic abilities he could develop as well to increase his effectiveness. Thanks so much.

Don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen Alex develop any really new abilities – he mostly just works with what he’s got. I guess he might have gotten better with his divination, but I don’t think he’s going to suddenly start throwing fireballs or anything unless he does something really out-there. And all the ways of doing that that I know of are extreme enough that I don’t think Alex would ever do them unless he got REALLY pushed to the wall.

Oh, and it’s mostly the armour, btw. I’m not even sure which sword you’re talking about. He’s got a bunch of them in his cabinet, but he doesn’t favour any one of them in particular.

From: Tom

Hi Luna,

Alex said Onyx is one of the most deadly battle mages he’d ever seen. Does this mean that Morden is stronger, as Onyx is his Chosen? And if not, why does he stay as his Chosen? Finally, staying with the Chosen theme, when would someone stop being a Dark Chosen and become someone’s master?

Thanks Luna, Tom.

I’ve never actually seen Morden in action, but if what I’ve heard is true, he could wipe the floor with Onyx any time he felt like it.  From what I’ve been told Morden’s one of the most powerful Dark mages in the country, and Alex agrees.

The idea of Dark Chosen is that they’re kind of successors-in-waiting.  So at some point, they take over their master’s business.  Or that’s the plan, anyway.  Sometimes they get sick of waiting and leave, sometimes things get nasty.  Not all Dark apprentices get made Chosen, and not all Dark mages with apprentices name Chosen at all.  

From: Geli

Dear Luna,

thank you, that you’re answering all of our questions. Also congratulations on getting more popular. It seems that you’re getting more and more letters.

Back to the purpose of my letter, I’m still thinking about Alex. In my first letter, we both agreed that there was a distinct possibility of Richard changing Alex to a harder, more battle-orientated person. (I said all diviners are naturally pacifists, but I guess we can’t know that until we meet some more.) In my second letter, I asked if Alex was kind of inexperienced outside of battle divination and you pointed me towards the different kinds of divinition and that Alex is following the Appolonian one, while his dreams / warning about the far future belong to the Dionysian one. I read both up by now and found it an interesting topic.

Having recapped our conversation so far, I wondered what methods Richard used to change Alex. The environment was of course a major part, as was the deadly race between the apprentices. But what stood out for me, was the matter of punishment for Alex’s attempted rescue of the girl.

First: A room with nothing but a diviner in it has been described several times as the “ideal” environment for a diviner. Even Alex admits that it was here he learned to throw things with 100% accuracy, and I’m sure he picked up some other tricks in there too. Second, the labyrinth and Tobruk: If I had to design a training course for a diviner to force him to adapt to battle conditions this would be it. Alex had the advantage of only one enemy, a labyrinth and the

future – and as he has proved against our unfortunate teenage Avenger group he excels now in this. Excels to a degree that a Dark Mage looked at him with respect.

So in short: Could it be that Richard had never really punished Alex, but simply created an enviroment that forced Alex to become better? Because if all mages so far agree on one thing, it is that Richard is a master manipulator. And it would fit neatly with why Richard isn’t at all angry at Alex… 

Hope you have a nice day!

Um.  

I’ve read that a few times and each time, it makes more sense.  Tried to find holes in it, but I can’t.  

I think I remember Alex telling me once that the one restriction Tobruk was under was that he wasn’t allowed to do anything permanent.  Looked at another way . . . training environment.  Which means that Alex might have been doing exactly what Richard wanted.  

So yeah.  I think you might be right.  That’s worrying to say the least.  

From: Little Watchmaker

Hi Luna,

firstly I would like to say congratulations on the huge progression with controlling your powers.

Secondly, I’d like to throw a theory at you, see what you think. I hope you don’t mind.

Say I was a mage, I knew another mage and we were friends, we shared similar goals we both respected each other. And I was dying. With my death, my power would be gone. It would be a useless waste. Couldn’t I elect to be harvested by my fellow mage? If the process was mutual and I was willing the process wouldn’t be as traumatic for me. I’d feel much better knowing my power and spirit had been given to someone else and a part of me would live on within him or her. Or perhaps my mind is too complex. What if a loyal magical beasts last wishes were to pass on a final gift of power. What would happen if a blink fox wished to be harvested?

My first reaction is ‘hell no’.  It sounds a lot like asking someone else to murder you.  Thinking about it some more . . . it’s possible, I guess, but it seems really unlikely.  I mean, if you were dying, and you had enough time to set up a Harvesting ritual, wouldn’t you have enough time to find a life mage and get yourself healed instead?  

I’m also not sure how much of the insanity-inducing side effects from Harvesting come from the target being unwilling, and how much just come from the fact that you’re trying to rip out a piece of them and graft it inside your head.  I suppose if you’ve thought of it, it’s a good bet that someone has tried it, but they’d have to be pretty crazy to be willing to give it a go.

Oh, and as far as I know, all attempts to Harvest magical creatures have resulted in permanent insanity and a fifty-percent-plus mortality rate.  For the mage, that is.  Obviously, one hundred percent if you’re the magical creature in question.

From: Royd Burgoyne

Hi Luna!

Dedicated fan from Downunder here! Thoroughly enjoying your (and Alex’s) (mis)adventures but I’d love to know if we’ll be seeing more of the Blink Fox in future instalments?

He (?) seems like an intriguing character who will likely cause Alex some grief (eg. emptying the fridge) and we’d love to know more about him Bottom line, I hope he features in future adventures! Thanks for any info! Warm regards,

Royd Burgoyne

Perth, Australia

Yeah, he’s around.  Mostly he begs food off whoever’s home and leaves hairs all over the armchair.  He’s started showing up at Anne’s flat and nagging her for food, too.  I suppose he’s friendly, more or less, but he’s kind of annoying.  All he seems to want to do is eat and sleep.  

I wish Alex had let me name him.  I was going to call him Vulpix but thinking about it, Garfield would probably have been better.  Oh well, he seems attached to Alex at least.