Ask Luna #157

From: Kevin

1. Has the seats for the Junior Council and Senior Council that used to belong to Alex and Sal Sarque been filled? Or is full on panic mode and they are focused on finishing the war? I mean I doubt anyone on the Junior Council will do that much Alex seemed the only one doing anything, but I worry about a crazier Sarque or someone calculating like Levistus or Alma causing you guys more trouble.

2. So I know this might be a difficult question to answer but what do you is going to happen with the Light Council after all of this? I mean if Drakh’s Cabal gets taken out who knows what damage will be done in the aftermath, plus I doubt the movement with the adepts rising up is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon, and I imagine Independent mages now view the Council with disgust after all of the corruption and violence that Levistus and his ilk has created, and the small but possible chance that some Light mages feel the same. Do you believe that they will become less powerful, maybe open up to reform, outright collapse and leave a power vacuum that other mages or Light Councils will take advantage of or something in between?

1. So a general thing about the Council is that unless it’s an emergency, and I mean an EMERGENCY emergency, they don’t do anything fast. And they stick to their procedures unless they absolutely don’t have any other choice. As I understand it appointing a new Senior Council member is always super tense anyway since everyone’s worried about upsetting the balance of power, so it takes a long time for everyone to agree on anything. So as you can probably guess, no replacement for Sal Sarque just yet. As for Alex, that’s a weirder one since I think he’s technically still on the Council, just suspended, and again, deciding how to deal with that particular mess would involve a lot more arguing that they don’t have time for at the moment.

2. Christ knows. Depends on who wins. If Richard comes out on top then what the Council wants to do probably won’t matter very much.

From: Togsee

Hi Luna,

I was reading the encyclopedia entry for Charm magic and it only mentioned subtle manipulations of people’s emotions.

Do you or Alex know if it’s possible for a charm mage to make large changes to peoples emotions? Like for example “oh you want to kill me? Here’s a soul crushing panic attack that will leave you a gibbering, traumitised wreck”.

They can do that, yeah. It’s one of the standard charm spells – Meredith can do it and so can Lyle, and so can every other charm mage I’ve met (I think). They just throw a whole bunch of negative emotions into your head and like you say, it’s a lot like having a panic attack.

But it’s not really what they’re good at, and it shows. I’ve had a charm mage use it on me, and yeah, it’s unpleasant, but it’s something you can fight through. Like I think Alex told me that Meredith tried it on Cinder when he came after her in her flat and it knocked him back for like three seconds. So against someone really nasty, it’s like trying to scratch them with your car keys. Might make them flinch, but all it’ll do after that is make them come back angrier.

From: Charles

Do you think the Jinn that Anne has or Alex’s fateweaver could break through the White Rose encryption on that Data focus? It could be leverage they need to get the Light Council off your backs or negotiate a settlement of some kind.

Fateweaver wouldn’t work as far as I understand because it’s too inert. Not enough moving parts for the probability manipulation to get a grip on.

Anne’s jinn could probably do it if it really wanted to, but getting it (and her) to help is another story.

From: Eric

1. Can Alex use Elsewhere to gate to anywhere on Earth? Is is more effective at getting passed wards than the regular gating that mages use?

2. Are Dreamstones as powerful as imbued items or is it a case by case basis?

3. Have you ever heard of an origin story for how magic was created? Not looking for an in depth story, but do you think it has to do with other worlds and magical creatures giving it to us, or is it kind of like the Big Bang and it just appeared?

1. Yes, and no. Gate wards stop Elsewhere travel the same way they do any other kind of gate. It’s the fateweaver that lets him get past those.

2. No clue. I don’t know much about them honestly. If I had to guess I’d say they’re probably on the level of lesser imbued items.

3. Not really. Mages don’t really have an origin story for magic, they just take it for granted that it’s always been there.

From: Jamie

Hey Luna I was wondering, in the first book an air elemental would have killed Alex by forcing its self down his throat and asphyxiating him. Could an air mage do the same thing?

In theory, yeah. I’ve heard the odd horror story like that about air mage murders, but never heard of it actually happening. I think to do it they’d have to grab the person and hold them immobile first, at which point they’d have won the fight already.