Ask Luna #188

From: Kevin

Hey Luna this might be a really silly/stupid question but do you know if the Gate Rune could open portals to Shadow/Bubble realms? I know it’s supposed to open portals to other worlds, but it seems like shadow/bubble realms would be more likelier since they are more connected to our world and you wouldn’t want to go to a world filled with vampires or jinn?

And do you know if it is still around or destroyed? Or have you heard rumors that even though it is “officially” gone some mages might have it?

No, I think the Gate Rune was something else.  Reason for that is that mages can open portals to shadow and bubble realms already.  It can be hard, especially if you’ve never been there or if the realm’s warded, but you can get into any shadow realm with enough time and brute-force use of gate magic.  The Council has a whole script for doing it.  Bubble realms work the same way . . . well, unless they’re ‘lost’, but in that case no-one can reach them, even their owners.  There’s no such thing as a shadow realm that’s impossible to reach, it just depends how many resources you’re willing to sink into it.

From: Celia

Hey Luna,
How’s the gang holding up? Hope you are all well.

I had a couple questions, though it is possible they are outside your knowledge.

I was wondering what happened when Morden approached Anne with his “employment opportunity.” We couldn’t hear this conversation of course, since Alex wasn’t there, but Alex did mention that Morden had spoken to Anne, and given her the same choice he had given Alex.

So I wondered if Anne had told you anything more about that conversation with Morden? It seems like given her personality Anne probably wouldn’t have been nearly as defiant as Alex – especially if Morden told her Alex had already agreed to cooperate – and thus probably wouldn’t have gotten blasted by death magic or choked? But then again Morden didn’t resort to threatening Alex’s friends and family until Alex had already refused him, so maybe Anne also refused initially? I do kind of wonder how upset Anne would actually be if anything happened to her family – they certainly didn’t treat her very well! But I suppose she still had some friends she met in the apprentice program.

Also, I am curious what would have happened if Morden had ever tried to blast Anne? Alex mentioned that if there’s any magic type that can withstand the touch of a life mage, it’s death magic. But would a life mage be able to resist a strike from a death mage as well? On the one hand, Anne doesn’t have any shields, but on the other hand she held out against Vihaela, but I am not sure if her holding out against a life/death hybrid would necessarily indicate she could stand against the full force of a killing strike from a death mage. Any idea? 🙂

Thanks so much! I am sure you are all kinds of busy lately. So if you don’t have time for questions, no worries.

Morden and Anne is something I don’t know much about.  Anne wasn’t willing to talk about it at the time for obvious reasons, and she wasn’t very keen on bringing up the subject afterwards, either.  I don’t really want to push her on it – I’m wary of poking Anne these days.  

As for a duel between the two of them, Anne could shrug off death attacks easily enough, but master death mages like Morden can use kinetic strikes as well, and I don’t think Anne would do so well against that.  Mostly I think it’d come down to range.  If they were fighting in a phone booth or something, Anne would come out ahead;  if they were at opposite ends of a duelling piste, Morden would.  On the whole I’d give the edge to Morden.  He’s a lot older and has a lot more experience.  Once Anne gets to that age . . . well, that might be a different story.  

From: Dominique King

Hi Luna, I hope everyone is ok. I know this maybe personal but will Alex ever think about marrying Anne as I think they are a good couple. Sorry to bother you as you are probably busy.

Thought about and did.  

From: Gabben

Dear Luna,

This might seem like a strange question but up until a particular event that took place near the end of Fallen, did Richard ever really plan to kill Alex?

Aside from how Alex factored into plans involving a Jinn and influence over a Mage of interest, I always got the impession that Richard thought of Alex as a creation of sorts. It would be like asking an artist to destroy his ‘greatest masterpiece’ he could but you would have to give him a very good reason to do it and I was wondering if Richard viewed Alex in a similar way. No matter how difficult his former apprentice could make things for him I often felt that Richard would have killed Alex if he felt it had to be done to but up until Fallen didn’t really want to.

He doesn’t often give second chances and he gave Alex two. Richard doesn’t feel things the same way that other people do and I don’t believe he could care for something other than himself, but could he maybe feel somethimg like pride?

Gabben

I think you’re probably right.  Alex and I spent a long time talking about how to defend ourselves against Richard and his cabal, and we spent a long time setting up defences and fall-backs and contingency plans, but Alex admitted to me in private more than once that if Richard had ever really wanted him dead, he could have done it plenty of times.  The biggest reason that he didn’t was that Alex alive was a lot more useful to him than Alex dead.  Richard was always good at manipulating people, and he obviously thought that he could get Alex to do what he wanted . . . and he was right, too, at least right up until the end.  But maybe your last guess might be right, too.  Richard was definitely the proud type, and by the end, Alex was the last of his old apprentices.  I think killing him would have been like admitting that he’d been a failure as a teacher.