Ask Luna #21

From: Margery

I love the books, they really make me think and help me relax. So thank you. How old is Alex?

He turned 31 last month. He never does anything for his birthday, so we ended up throwing him a party. Well, ‘party’ is a bit of an overstatement, since there weren’t that many of us, but everyone had fun, or at least I think they did.

A lot of people seem to want to know how old Alex is. I wonder if there’s a reason they’re asking . . .

From: Steve

It’s probably been asked a godzillon times, but has there ever been any romantic interest in Alex on your part?

What are your personal thoughts on Alex since the events at his old master’s house? Do you still respect and look up to him or has your personal view of Alex changed?

I actually figured most of it out the year before. I already knew Alex used to be a Dark mage, and I’d started noticing that he kind of had a thing about adepts-to-apprentices of about my age – whenever someone youngish who seemed to be on their own came to him for help with some sort of magical problem, he’d always seem to end up helping them, even if there wasn’t any really good reason to do it. And with some of the hints he dropped . . . well, it wasn’t too hard to put the pieces together.

So when he finally told me the story it didn’t bother me that much. The truth wasn’t actually anywhere near as bad as some of the things I’d imagined – you hear some real horror stories about Dark mages, worse than that one by a long way. I guess if he did it now I’d have second thoughts, but it was so long ago I just kind of shrugged it off. He’s always treated me well, and to be honest that’s what I really care about. Maybe that makes me a bit self-centred, but that’s how it goes.

And as for your first question yes, I do get asked that a lot. You know the thing about answering stuff like that on the internet? It’s public.

From: Kildayen

Hey Luna,

Any chance of an Encyclopaedia update soon? I’d love to see an article on shapeshifting.

Went up last week, you can find it here.

From: Helena

Hi Luna,
I live in Australia, and I am looking for an Arachnoid fae, as I desperately need to confer re a woven vest I need made. Are there any willing to converse with humans here? (I have mediocre seer ability – what good is a split second? – and am not of convict stock). I have several Haplopelma lividum that are more than happy to vouch for me, but I do not know if the fae associate with their smaller kin.

Sincerely H.

I’m not that well up on Australian magical creatures, arachnid or otherwise – Arachne once told me about one called the Redback, but from the way she talked I’m not sure you’d want to meet it (and if you did getting a woven vest probably wouldn’t be your biggest problem). I do know about a couple of mages who are supposed to have good contacts with the magical creatures over there – send me a private message with your email, and I’ll see if I can put you in touch with them. No promises, though.