Ask Luna #159

From: Kevin

With the benefit of hindsight have you and the gang figured out why Richard and Morden would waste all that time and effort on getting Morden a Council seat, only to have it stripped away for a hundred imbued items? Couldn’t they have just conducted the operation with a coalition of Dark Mages and try to overthrow the Light Council more directly? I mean I believe that would be easier than agitating the Light Council with a Dark Mage on it and putting them on their guard unless there is something I am missing?

And for that matter why would Richard and Morden want the latter imprisoned for so long? Considering how powerful and unlike his Chosen smart and effective Morden is, it seems like a huge waste not to have him help manage unruly Dark Mages.

Also do you think Morden would have been imprisoned if Onyx did not show up at the raid on the Vault? I only ask because I don’t know why they would be mad at him if Alex being there would have already implicated him already.

Not really, no. I’m assuming Morden and Richard have their reasons for doing what they do.

I seem to get quite a few of these ‘why did Richard/Morden do X when they should have done Y’ questions. It’s a bit strange when we don’t know what their goals are.

From: Kurt Von Bosse

Hi Luna.

For personal and professional reasons I was only recently able to read what happened to Alex in Fallen. All I can say is wow!

I would love to ask you a bunch of questions, but I’ll keep it to just one this time. Have you thought about, or have you and Alex discussed the current situation with Rachel/Deleo and Richard Drakh?

In street terms Alex played Rachel, brilliantly. However, I’m not certain that Alex actually succeeded in his goal of turning Rachel against Richard. We know they are both angry with one another, but Alex may have unwittingly pushed Rachel and Richard closer together. Alex removed Anne from Richard’s service. Alex removed any possibility
he will work for Richard again. That ship didn’t just sail, Alex ran it into an iceberg and sank it.

So Richard needs a plan 2. He needs to compensate for his loss of control over Anne and the jinn, and no more dreamstone to make that happen again. Rachel wanted power before she became Deleo. She hasn’t changed in that regard. Richard and Deleo might decide they need each other. Richard has probably figured out how Alex was able to manipulate Deleo. It’s possible Richard could decide to clue her in, just to ramp up her anger towards Alex and cement whatever deal he may plan on offering her.

I hate to be so negative, but it seems like a reasonable concern to me. What do you think?

I think Alex probably played Deleo for as much as he was going to get. More than I was expecting, to be honest. I thought the whole thing was just a bad idea, but I guess dragons do know what they’re talking about.

As for what Richard’ll do . . . I don’t know. I mean, what you’re saying makes sense, she does still want that. But I get the feeling Richard took Deleo turning on him really, really badly. I don’t think he’s used to people sabotaging him like that.

Last I heard, Richard and Deleo aren’t on any kind of good terms. He could definitely patch that up if he wants to, but maybe it’s personal for him now?

From: Dakota

When Vari used his fire blade in one of Drakh’s bases, Alex mentioned that he heat was uncomfortable, but Vari seemed fine. Is Vari immune to heat in general, just immune to heat he creates himself, or does he just deal with it better because he’s used to it?

The first. Heat just doesn’t touch him. Kind of unfair when we go somewhere in baking hot weather and I can barely breathe while he’s not even sweating. He claims he’s not totally immune to heat, but the kind of temperature it’d take to burn him is probably more than it’d take to set the air on fire.

From: Christian

Dear Luna,
this is Christian from Germany. Thank you for your great PR work. My question is about Hermes. I always wondered about his loyalty and why nobody else ever wondered about his loyalty. As I understand it he was the familiar of some unknown mage before Alex met him in Sagash’s shadow realm. I see why Alex allied with him in the moment but why does he – and you – trust him? You let him into your life, in your sanctuaries and you never seem to wonder why he was in that realm or who his master was or is. I am just curious, because it seemed like a weird blindspot to me.
Sincerely
Christian

It’s actually one of those things I’ve picked up from Alex, I think. He just treats every magical creature as a potential friend/ally. It’s kind of weird how trusting he is of them compared to how he treats humans. Seems to work for him, though.

I think a lot of it is that Light and Dark mages tend to treat magical creatures as slaves/fuel/cannon fodder, so it’s really rare you hear of them actually recruiting one. Plus in Hermes’s case, any mage he would have been the familiar of would probably be long gone.

From: Alexis

Hey Luna I heard that there are different types/styles of divination named after Greek gods. Are there different styles of chance magic in a similar vein so to speak? Have you heard of other styles of magic that elemental or living mages uses or is this limited to specific types?

Also apparently Richard can set up a shroud that affects Alex’s divination. Do you think Chalice could do the same and affect your use of chance magic as well either with a shroud or more directly and could you do the same to her magic?

There are definitely different styles of chance magic, but they’re not named after Greek gods. It’s complicated.

Chalice can mess with anything I could do chance-wise, but then I could probably mess with anything she could do as well. Chance magic vs chance magic is very different from divination vs divination. Less about shrouding, more about interacting.

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