Ask Luna #47

Long delay with this set of questions. Sorry. Been a busy couple months. I’ll try to get them all done over the next month or so.

From: D

Hello. I have a couple of questions I hoped you would not mind answering.

1. During the Rakshasa wars, who were the Rakshasa fighting, the Indian light council, the British light counsel, (was their a part of the British light counsel that governed India like the British raj) or everyone from the magical world human magical world?

2. was Ravana and Kumbhakarna part of the conflict. ( I know that they were suppose to have been killed by Rama and his army, but they struck me as the kind of chaps who might have a back up plan in case living becomes difficult)?

Thank you.

I’m pretty sure they covered this at some point or other in history class and I missed it – actually, maybe they didn’t, they tend to concentrate on British and European history and forget everything else – so I was just going to say ‘don’t know’, but luckily for you, I felt bad enough about taking so long to answer this one that I looked up Vari and asked him.

According to Vari, the Indian Council had been fighting the rakshasa on and off for thousands of years – there were breaks, but it wasn’t so much a case of peace as putting the war on hold until they had time to get back to it. The Indian mages had a lot more numbers, but the rakshasa tended to get the upper hand by playing the Indian factions off against each other. When the British arrived then it was a three-way fight. The rakshasa did their usual thing and manipulated the British and the Indian mages into attacking each other – it worked for a while, then the mages found out and decided they’d team up and kill the rakshasa instead. Things went downhill for the rakshasa from there.

Ravana was supposed to be one of the old rakshasas – or maybe the original rakshasa, it’s kind of hard to tell since it all happened way back in legend. Like you said, he was supposed to have been killed by Rama, but Vari also says that he was supposed to have been unkillable, so your guess is as good as mine as to what actually happened.

From: Sven

Hey Luna, a quick question can Alex see things that are certain but a long time away? For example, could he see whats going to be on an exam 2 months from now if it has already been written? Thanks

In theory, yes. In practice, tracing a path that far would be nearly impossible. The exam might be fixed, but there’s be so much uncertainty in the two months between now and then that it’d be almost impossible to find a stable route.

At least, with the methods Alex uses. Apparently there are other ones which work better for that kind of thing, but it’s not the sort of divination Alex specialises in.

From: Phillip

Hi Luna! Big fan of your (and Alex’s) work. But a couple thoughts had occurred to me which I really hope are not too … impolite.

The first is about your Curse. It’s connected to the blood right? As in it is past down through the generations from one to the next. From everything shown it is pretty deadly for anyone to get too close to you, physical contact is basically out of the question. So how (and sorry if this is indelicate) do members of your family ever get close enough to someone, to you know, continue the curse? Just seems like keeping the family line going has some big obstacles.

My other thought was about Arachne. I think she is a fascinating individual on so many levels. And I’ll admit that my own inhibitions regarding spiders is playing a part here but I couldn’t help thinking if I was in that cave that she is one very LARGE spider – so, um, what does she eat? It must be an awful lot to support an animal of that size. Or would there be a form of magical sustenance?

Thanks for tolerating the impropriety. I’ll work on some more magically germane questions for next time. All best to you and Alex! (the rest of the group included)

Sigh. Everyone keeps asking that.

Yes, my curse is a bloodline one. Yes, it gets passed down through generations. And yes, physical contact is generally a very bad idea, and yes, for that reason, the women who have it die childless, usually after a very long, healthy, and miserable life, assuming they don’t get tired of waiting and take a short cut. However, the curse doesn’t just go down the family tree, it also goes sideways. So when someone with the curse dies, then the curse just finds the next youngest girl who’s a blood descendant of the curse’s original target. And so on.

As for Arachne, I asked her that once. She said that she used to eat the same way as other spiders. Problem was, she had to eat a lot. I got the impression that she had to not be all that picky about where her food was coming from, if you know what I mean. Anyway, over the years, she developed other ways of getting energy, and she eventually managed to get those to work well enough that she switched over completely. I asked her if she ever missed eating the natural way, and she said no. Which is kind of a relief, to be honest.

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One Response to Ask Luna #47

  1. Jimmy says:

    Whoever wrote this, you know how to make a good artceli.

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