Yeah you’re not wrong. This does remind me of her interview with the Red Guard in 208 though, where she answers the question about her being more of a threat to Gilbrantha than you’re standard thaumaturge and she just casually drops a “Yes” and follows it up with
… I will continue to actively improve my Will and explore new magic for the rest of my life, and at the moment, it seems likely that I will also end up in more than my fair share of magical conflicts.
I mean, why didn’t I think S would have a backup of her memories saved just in case? She does love to be over prepared, even if this instance doesn’t seem to be intentional!
Maybe it could be a bonus chapter about Ana attending one of the high society parties to network and plot and the centrepiece of this party is a magical chocolate fondue that falls onto itself like the MC Escher Endless Stairs?
Maybe when S finally goes into a coma/sleep, instead of the bad dreams, its just a conversation with her shadow familiar/demon/abberrant thing who fills her in on what happened for real and they develop a plan for when she wakes up. Since they are kinda working together now.
I don’t think she’ll give the token back unless she figures out a way to duplicate it. There’s waaaaayyy too much knowledge for her to pass up.
But that would be such a power move. None of them can read those books without her. She could totally just go to Kiernan and say she refuses to work with him anymore
Tbh, I knew something was up when she woke up tearing at her chest. I didn’t want to speculate because there were so many things it could have been, but this one is just so on brand for her, isn’t it?
Indeed, you could say it’s becoming her signature move to push the boundaries of what is possible because she accidentally found herself way out of her depth.
I mean, you could say that if her signature move wasn’t already the shadow familiar…
The truely cruel, thing would have been, if there is a break next week. It would have been my break event.
Jokes and cliffhangers aside, I liked that a lot in the previous chapters, that it threatened our protagonist very credibly, so as a reader it is extra exciting.
Hey! Big thanks to @Stef for fixing my account so I can finally see the discussion! I always saw great discussion but for like 10 chapters back, now I have something to time me past these cliffs!
Thanks Stef!
I am surprised folks aren’t speculating on the driver-- how would she know of Sebastian, was she sent by someone somehow? Her words seem to indicate that, not that the driver happens to recognize Sebastian?
Azalea writes such a smart MC, I love that she thinks through everything and is so survival oriented! But this defect or splitting of her #1 weapon is super worrisome. I sure hope it leads to even more mental strength and solid will.
Well the thing is that we don’t have enough information to speculate and there’s plenty of people who’d recognise Sebastien.
Considering she’s been in the paper three times (with pictures!) it could be a member of the public who’s a fan or, more likely, it’s a member of the Undreaming since they already decided to keep an eye on Sebastien since the Raven Queen appears to favour him and work to certain ends through him (e.g. punching the High Crown’s heir in the face).
If it’s the latter they’re probably going to deliver him straight to Healer Nidson who might just be able to keep her from breaking her own mind apart.
Oh, and for my obligatory tin foil hat theory of the week:
S tearing her Will in two has allowed her inner demon to kick her out of her own body and into the body of the amulet (Sebastien).
Now it’s going to run around as the Raven Queen in her form doing crimes and S is going to be trapped as Sebastien. This is why she ended up so far away from where she was and with no memory of the intervening period.
Either that or she’s split herself into two people and will finally have a partner who’s on her level and we’ll see a truly narcissistic romance develop.
I do love the story but am truly tired of cliffhangers. It is not like we get a new chapter every day.
Would it be possible to add the word cliffhanger to the end of each such chapter? Like in the “author note”.
That way I could search for the word and wait to read until there is a non-cliffhanger-chapter.
I am weary reading the comments as I can get spoiled on the contents.
It is just a suggestion of course and I am not saying you should change your writing in any way.
If the word cliffhanger might be used within the book, perhaps a safe word, like Siobpain, can be used.
I feel like S may have split her will in two but became two people. One part of the will went with Sebastien and one part of her will stayed with Siobhan. I mean the chapter title is “bifurcation”.
This reminded me of JKlarinets theory they mentioned in a discussion thread.
I feel like she might be forced down this path if her Will did split.
If she can’t dual focus her Will right now from strain then she can’t open the books right now.
Also I think it would play nicely into the whole.
‘When weak, show strength, ’
Advice she’s been using since the red guard meeting.
I think she will probably have to let her Will recover before she can dual cast / split her Will focus again. Maybe a long wait.
If they did split into two different people. I could imagine Siobhan keeping the shadow and the ability to dual cast. Her Will damage being temporarily unable to dual cast from strain.
Sebastien could have lost dual casting and have to relearn it.
Or maybe they both remember how to dual cast but need to rest before anymore dual casting.
Now my tin foil hat . Sebastien and Siobhan will merge back in the future leading to S being able to quad cast.
As two split people think how much more work could get done. Two people with minimal sleep needs. Remerged Wills in the future basically doubling Will growth and learning.
If they can’t remerge S will sort of get the trusted person they always wanted. Narcissistic romance would be crazy though.
So I contemplated that, (obviously, since I considered the narcissistic romance angle oh my god, she would technically have created Sebastien so she could technically be her mother - can you imagine? Narcissistic, vaguely incestuous and somehow both a lesbian and straight relationship all in one unless Sebastien starts thinking of herself as a man - physically they are a man and woman but they both consider themselves to be women…Sebastien would be the lesbian while Siobhan is straight…nah, at this point they’re both definitely bisexual, it’s the only way this works. Sorry, end tangent.) but if she really did split herself in two then surely she shouldn’t still be breaking down to this extent. Unless…
So, during the chapter Siobhan was feeling phantom pains in her left eye but as Sebastian she had lost vision in her right eye.
Possibly she did actually manage to bifurcate herself into two bodies and what’s causing the damage is the bleeding of her psyche and her Will after being rent in twain.
OR the demon took over S body for a while and she woke up when it gave her the reins back.
I will have to reread but nothing is giving an indication that S split her body? Is that sort of magic even possible in universe? Was this a hidden feature of the medallion that the demon unlocked ? Or that S unlocked? Then where is her body? A few steps away from Thaddeus???
I think what might have happened is one of these things:
she was in a fugue state. She was on autopilot. She doesnt remember changing back into Sebastian or changing her clothes
The demon took over for a bit and did God knows what else wearing the face of Siobhan or Sebastian
She stepped through the spirit realm without realizing and did time/place travel and found herself right by her friends.
Not only is she under will strain and stress and just coming out of mind rape/surgery but she just travelled through the spirit realm in her physical body and that is NOT supposed to be possible
. Sebastien and Siobhan will merge back in the future leading to S being able to quad cast.