Because it is, indeed Thursday! 
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Welp, escaping from Lacer is indeed not an easy thing to do.
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I need to stop reading these before bed. My adrenaline is so high I donāt think Iāll be able to sleep 
Iām so proud of her, sheās got him gasping for breath chasing her and having to pull out all kinds of tricks. Not bad for a girl a less than a third of his age and with a fraction of his experience!
Edit: I was mulling over the fact that she should connect the memory and remind him she has immunity and then I just sat bolt upright in bed and shouted (mentally) Chekhovās [expletive] dazzler!
Lacer said it could modify memories as a side effect. Siobhan kinda worked that out.
Imagine if this is how she ends up using it!
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At this point I almost wonder if letting him know sheās Sebastian would increase her chances.
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What are you talking about, clearly she comes from the time of Mryddin :v
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At this point Iām thinking sheās probably not going to escape. Iām wondering if this is going to be Damienās time to shine, because if he realises Sebastian has had her memory wiped thereās no way heās going to remain on the sidelines while Sebastian assures him that āItās being handled.ā
P.s. I previously said I didnāt like Damien so much but heās grown on me a lot
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Oh, and Siobhan seems to have taken a big step forwards with her shadow familiar in terms of absorbing all forms of energy like Hannah theorised in the future growth thread. Perhaps practicing this will also cause her to investigate nature of magical energy and expand her skills more broadly. In a world where āknowledge is powerā can almost be taken literally, I cannot think there would not be an advantage to being able to answer āwhat is a divination ray?ā or even āwhat is a thaum?ā
She may have lost the fight but this feels like sheās really starting to live up to the Raven Queen persona.
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If she doesnāt reveal herself I wonder if seeing her fight, run (without teleporting) and use the staff thing to disintegrate stone will make him start questioning his earlier assumptions about her capabilities.
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The fact that sheās continuing to use low powered attacks even while fighting for her life/mind should probably make him pause and rethink what he thinks he knows.
That said, I think sheās probably impressed him with her ingenuity and ability to get away from him to an extent. Itās a damn shame she never figured out that barrier spell Tania was using so she could walk over the ground.
There are so many ways I can see this going. Her reminding him that she has immunity, her using the dazzler on him to confuse him and maybe wipe his memory, her using her shadow to stop him from messing with her memory (like with the Radiant demonstration) , him trying to get into her brain and running up against the Aberrant or grandpaās handiwork and possibly drastically misinterpreting it, or - and this is the possibility that has me running around and AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHing - he finds out that sheās actually Sebastien from her memories.
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
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The red guard was theorizing that she cant use higher powered spells because its not her original body and the one she uses now cant handle the thaums just yet.
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Yes, like a low powered conduit.
But Lacer felt sure she couldnāt free cast without a few thousand thaums at her command.
He also seems to firmly believe that sheās the Raven Queen and separate from Siobhan Naught.
Iām hoping? Wondering? If his confusion will make him re-examine everything from the ground up. Whereās the proof of her free casting? What has he observed? What are the potential explanations? What has she outright said that he dismissed as misdirection?
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Iām guessing that in his mind he just witnessed her freecasting a novel disabling spell that manifested outside of his field of view (the shadow spike to the ear, which wasnāt within the previously known capabilities of her shadow familiar). High power, flashy spells would also tend towards making the path of her flight obvious, and their previous exchange fits with them both taking pains to be non-lethal.
So I donāt think he would have enough to realize her limitations yet.
He specifically felt sure that she was unable to become a free-caster without a couple thousand thaums, not that you absolutely need that to be one should you already know how.
the exact quote was: āShe managed everything she showed us today with less than a thousand thaums, even though there is no way she became a free-caster without at least a few thousand at her command.ā
But they where unsure how it exactly works.
I agree though, he should be suspicious now at least. We will see. The next chapter can go so many ways that I have no idea which is more likely atm.
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Assuming it was the cold of the shadow that through him off then he did specifically think about how she could use her shadows heat absorption offensively.
I think more to the point he has never seen her free cast any other spell. Even in this chapter to disintegrate the stone she pulled out the staff she used to fight the last red guard agent and only uses a small number of thaums despite their being no advantage to only using low powered spells this time. Even when acting non-lethally he casts a stone moulding spell which presumably reaches every exit and tells him when it catches her then runs though walls.
She also doesnāt use any of her other rumoured powers like travelling though shadow or turning into ravens.
Even if he doesnāt jump to she is actually a journeyman level mage who is good at theatrics I think this should be enough for him to realise that her reputation doesnāt fully match her displayed capabilities.
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He could rationalize the lack of free casting with the fact that she was using her shadow familiar spell the whole time, so she was splitting her Will and thus canāt free cast that way.
Iām wondering how she will escape from that. Will she be memory-wiped? Then itās all on Damien. Will she escape, but how? The only crazy but possible thing I could imagine is that she manages to travel through the shadow by becoming shadow. Given her reputation it shouldnāt be impossible to lean on the public perception of the raven queen and transmogrify herself into a shadow.
I think she might not escape. If she reveals who she is to Lacer he might make more effort to resist his oaths. It could also lead to her being introduced to his research.
Speaking of oathsā¦ I wonder why it doesnāt seem to be an option: having her swear a very strong oath to not share the info that made Lacer attack her.
Maybe he thinks he canāt pin her to an oath. Sheās resisted them before.
Dunno, let me wash your brain out with the magic soap is kinda a big leap, honestly. Seems like she stumbled across a horrifically dangerous secret.
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Maybe yes, maybe no? Heās probably expending an immense amount of power, but she only had to absorb and deflect the bits that were touching her. His assumption may still be that she was deflecting or immune to his entire spell.
What sticks in my mind after the first read is that warning sheās getting from her memories, or whatever is trapped inside her head. Those flashes of flames and blood seem to come right before Lacer casts a spell directly at her. Or maybe Iām just confused from lack of sleep.
This is an interesting thought. Maybe? Maybe not? Iām not sure sheās willing to go there - she trusts him less than ever, but seems to be more desperate than ever.
I doubt sheās out of tricks up her sleeve, though. Perhaps she can modify his memory so he doesnāt have to modify hers?
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