Ask Luna #181

From: Celia

Hi, Luna! Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I am wondering what happens if one fire mage goes up against another? It seems like fire mages can’t be burnt – by their own flames, at least. So would two fire mages going mano a mano even be able to hurt each other by magic? I don’t think we ever saw two fire mages engage, since you and Vari were… unavoidably detained… when Ares and the other crusaders burnt down Alex’s shop. What do you think would’ve happened if Vari had confronted Ares and the little flame critters?

Sorry to bring up an awkward subject! And thanks in advance! 🙂

Technically fire mages can still be burnt, it’s just that the temperature you’d have to get to is so insanely high that it’s not worth trying.  

Usually the way fire mage duels go is that they both try regular fire- and heat-based attacks on each other to see what happens – they know it probably won’t work, but hey, doesn’t hurt to try.  Once they’ve established that no, they’re not getting an easy win, then they start looking for alternatives.  Every fire mage who lasts any length of time picks up at least one backup trick for when burning things doesn’t work.  Some learn a non-heat-based attack spell, some get good with swords or close range combat, some just carry a gun.  At that point it comes down to who did their prep work better.

From: Alex

Dear Luna,
I wondered how old Onyx is in fated because Alex said he was somewhere in his early twenties but he was still Morden’s apprentice, right?

We don’t know.  I think Alex guessed 21 or so, but Onyx didn’t tell us his age and we weren’t exactly on good enough terms to ask.  Technically I think he wasn’t Morden’s apprentice at that point, he’d “graduated” already.

From: Alan

1. This might be an odd question but can Alex stop himself from seeing the future? Like preventing information overload if that makes sense?

2. I remember one time you said most mages can do something unique to their magic type that other similar mages cannot do/are not as good at. Are there any mage skills you, Alex, Anne, or Vari have that are original/rare skills?

1. Yes, and he does it all the time, for exactly that reason.  It’s the first thing diviners learn.  

2. In Alex’s case, he has a whole bunch of combat uses for divination that are super rare and unusual (most diviners take the attitude that fighting’s something that they get other people to do for them), like his throwing skills.  In my case I’ve specialised more in the bless/curse application of chance magic.  Not that I really had a choice, since to begin with I literally couldn’t NOT it, but it’s meant that I’ve gotten way more experience with it than usual.  From what Chalice says, I think most chance mages are much more “directed” with the ways they use their magic, if that makes sense – they have something specific in mind.  In my case I’ve found that it works better if I don’t try.  My curse works more like water flowing downhill – you know roughly which direction it’ll go, but it’ll figure out the best way to do it faster than you can.  

From: ChicagoWitch

Hey there luna.

I can’t share my name, I’m sure you understand. But you can call me ChicagoWitch. I had a question about your experiences with the fae. See, here in Chicago we seem to have an absurdly large presence of fae, demonic, and other dangerous beasties.

Honestly pretty damn dangerous when you think about it. So I was wondering, do you guys over in london have similar problems? How do you deal with it?

I know a guy here for hire who helps out a lot, he’s been teaching me about my powers, how to sense out magic and control it, so I don’t hurt myself. But I’m curious how magic society works in other countries. Let me know!

ChicagoWitch

We used to.  From what Arachne and Alex have told me, as recently as the early 1900s there were still quite a lot of “beasties” roaming around.  It’s just that the same thing happened to them that happened to most other big dangerous creatures that compete with humans.  

I grew up with things being like this, so I’ve never known it any other way.  When I hear the stories, though, having magical/demonic beasts on one side and humans on the other actually feels as though it’d make life simpler.  At least you’d know who your enemies were.

From: Sierra

How do you feel about how Alex handled Caldera and Deleo? I mean on the one hand it feels like they brought it on themselves and I don’t think Alex did the wrong thing but at the same time it seems such a waste. All of their actions were to gain respect/power/recognition and the Light Council/Drakh barely gave them a second thought in life or even in death. They both gave their lives to evil men but I still feel sad for them and I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing. What do you think?

It does feel like a waste, and it’s not something I’m happy about.  On the other hand, if I’m being completely honest, I prefer a world that doesn’t have Deleo in it to one that does.  It’s a lot easier to feel sorry for someone when you don’t have to worry about them deciding to kill you for some incomprehensible reason. 

But like you say, it does end up being a pretty sad story.  I think a lot of the time this sort of thing is more straightforward for me because I don’t really feel as though I’m on the kind of level where I get to make decisions about this stuff – I have to worry about staying away from people like that, not about whether they deserve what they’ve been getting.  Doesn’t make my life any easier, but it does make it a bit less complicated.