Ask Luna #72

From: trillian

Hi Luna and huge congratulations on passing your journeyman tests! How do you see this affecting your relationship with Chalice? Also, how to do you find Chalice and learning from a dark mage that doesn’t seem anything like the other dark mages Alex has encountered (Drakh, Morden etc..)? She comes across as a really interesting character btw and i’d love to know your views on her background, history and the path she may taking with regard to the ongoing dark and light political shenanigans?
Many thanks for taking time to read this and I wish you and Alex all the best in what must be difficult times – stay strong.

So far my new status hasn’t affected it very much and I’m pretty sure it’s going to stay that way, since Chalice (like most Dark mages) really doesn’t care very much what label the Council gives to someone. She’s got her own judgements.

Chalice is . . . well, like you say, interesting. She’s a good teacher, but kind of dispassionate, if that makes sense. She’ll tell you what you need to know, but you’re never quite sure when she’s telling you everything and when she’s just waiting for you to figure things out yourself – she’s a big believer in the ‘burned hand teaches best’ school. As for the path she’ll be taking, I THINK she might be on a similar side to Alex . . . maybe. She’s not on Richard or Morden’s side, and she’s definitely not on Levistus or the Council’s side, so that’s positive. From some of the talks we’ve had I get the feeling there’s a story behind her leaving India and coming here, but she always seems to steer the conversation away whenever I get too close.

Oh, and thanks. I’ve got some ideas for the future, but things are going to be difficult before they get better.

From: Jupiter Flytrap

1. In the earlier books, Morden tells Alex that whatever happens between him and Onyx is their own business and he wasn’t going to stop Onyx from trying to kill him. But when Alex nearly kills Onyx with the fateweaver, Morden never mentions it ever. Does that mean the same applies to his own Chosen? And if so, how does that factor in with the whole “picking a fight with Onyx is like picking a fight with Morden because he’s his Chosen”?

2. Why was Barrayer and Levistus trying to take Alex alive at the end of Burned? Especially after they went through so much trouble to make it legal to kill him

1. Not sure what you’re getting at with the first question, since Onyx is Morden’s Chosen. On one level that means they’re on the same team, and getting into trouble with one is like getting into trouble with the other. But at the same time, Morden isn’t going to step in to help Onyx except in pretty specific circumstances. I dunno, I can sort of understand it, but it’s hard to explain. It’s like, if a Chosen can handle something, then a Dark mage won’t interfere, because he doesn’t need to. But if a Chosen can’t handle something, then a Dark mage wants them to be able to, so there’s a good chance they’ll just leave them to sink or swim. Of course, Dark mages aren’t all the same, but Morden’s whole ‘sort out your own disagreements, guys’ attitude is one I’ve seen more than once.

2. So they could interrogate him, then kill him. They were going to do the second anyway, the first was just a bonus.

From: Jim

Hey Luna,

Has Alex talked to you about the plan he was going to execute when he was “giving himself” to the Light Council after your Journeyman Tests?

He noted that he was going to be able to “cut loose”, but we did not get a chance to see that happened. I was wondering if he gave you any clue what that meant.

I think he was just going to take as many of them down with him as he could. Alex has collected a lot of items over the years, and some of them are the kind you don’t want to use because of the long-term consequences. If he ever decided he didn’t care about long-term consequences, he could do a hell of a lot of damage.

I still need to talk with him about that. Knowing that all that happened because of me is not a good feeling.