Ask Luna #85

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.

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