I truly want the first spell S casts to be the shadow familiar with Siobhan’s face coming to “check up on Sebastian”. It would be so useful to have so many witnesses including Damien and Ana “seeing” Sebastian and the Raven Queen at the same time. The RQ could indicate satisfaction with the order and an apology to Sebastian or something. Also, it would be so amusing if the story became that Sebastian was on a mission for the raven queen but she somehow forgot to keep an eye on him and protect him because of “mysterious reasons”.
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She did very well with her illusion, but that might be a bit beyond her when she’s fresh from a traumatic brain injury. The shadow is a simple, gentle spell in contrast.
I want to point out that both Ana and Damien are definitely consorting with criminals at this stage 
Ana just wrote a 2000 gold cheque for Sebastien. She’s going to have a hard time reconciling that when she wakes up - I don’t think she realises just how much her friends care about her. I’m still cackling over how naturally Nat just started reviewing their paperwork and going “we” need better preservation methods for the potatoes. She’s destined for a life of crime, that one.
I’m intrigued why Ana dislikes Deidre so much. Possibly her going to sleep to contact the Raven Queen (but then not producing results). Maybe because Nat liked her. Maybe because she was too close to Sebastien. Maybe because she felt an instant tug of attraction. Maybe because she’s a criminal and Ana is under a lot of stress…well…I don’t think Ana really minds the criminal part, honestly.
I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Does Lacer descend like a thundercloud? Is it really Sebhan (Sebastian Siobhan) fixing her own mind? Is the nightmare assisting and laying the foundation for its own escape? Or is she taking this opportunity to reclaim her memories but build a better cage? Do we finally get an Ana POV? Does Oliver come back from Osham to pine at her bedside? Does Liza curse her for forgetting to water the plants and animals???
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Liza is going to be very annoyed when she gets back for sure! Maybe we’ll see her put some watering artifacts in place to save her plants from future Siobhan catastrophes?
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I have a sneaking suspicion she might have already have such artefacts, but might have wanted Siobhan to have a safe space to run to.
She’s a softy like that.
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Lisa is still working on that I think.
My mother and I were discussing what might come next and my mother suggested that Lacer might think that the Red Guard could have attacked Sebastien.
He already suspected that Siobhan and Sebastien were working together. If he hears that Sebastien was stumbling around with Will strain (and possibly hears from others that Sebastien suffered a botched memetic attack) then perhaps he will come to the conclusion that it was the Red Guard wot dunnit.
Now that begs the question - how would they have known about Sebastien’s research? What if Lacer is being tracked? What if his oath secretly alerts them when triggered?
Anyway, I think we have fun times to come.
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My crackpot theory of the week: The Gervin women are incredibly competent almost exactly in proportion to the Gervin men’s incompetence. What if the women of the family have conspired to do blood magic to steal potential for competence from sons and add it to that of their daughters in infancy as a sort of revenge for the family’s raging misogyny?
Yes, it much more likely is just much more mundane entitlement that the boys have that leads to them not developing the same level of skill, but Nat just casually taking over a significant part of the bureaucratic administration of a cult because she happened to be restless in a waiting room was such a perfect little addition to this chapter.
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My sibling in crackpottery, you are cooking.
We know that women are treated badly in the Gervin family, to an extent that even other families think they’re taking it a bit far. This is necessary in order to build a suitable level of resentment in order to continue the blood magic between generations - much easier to get your daughters on board when all the men in the family are bastards.
This could explain why Ana was so uncharacteristically goody two shoes about blood magic - she’s already a blood magic user so she doesn’t want to come under investigation and get found out because of something unrelated.
(Also, I forgot to mention that I’m really amused that Azalea has introduced Jimmy, Sebastien’s arch nemesis. Alas, not by name, but that will come in the fullness of time, I’m sure.)
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Please let our next chapter be Oliver having a panic attack and pining obviously at her bedside, holding one of her hands in both of his, while Damien looks on like this: 
I need the drama.
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You are truly a chaos goblin. We would definitely be friends in magic university
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“Pssst… Damien… Is it true that Sebastien and Oliver Dryden are—” [gets tackled by Ana]
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I’m so worried how Thaddeus is gonna react to this whole situation. He could easily conclude that Siobhan is directly or indirectly responsible for Sebastien’s condition and with her unconscious, the ward won’t be enough to block him out. I’m normally not against him finding out the big secret but this is the worst time for that. It’ll be impossible to keep the nightmare creature hidden after its direct involvement in the escape attempt.
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It’s ok, she’s in the special warded room that Deidre explained earlier in this book. She should be safe from divination here.
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That’s a good point.
Another echo of men accusing women of being witches instead of acknowledging the women’s natural intelligence and competence. Perfect.
(Mostly /s)
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I really like this Idea. Lacer is extremely confident in his own abilities and he saw “proof” in his short conversion with S after she woke back up that his memory manipulation worked, so he wouldn’t necessarily draw the connection. He also know how frequently the Red Guard employ such tactics.
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Even if he did a divination that led him to Sebastien when his target was Siobhan. I can almost imagine a scenario where Lacer still doesn’t think Sebastien is Siobhan.
He would overthink things like when he saw they had the same eyes. Thinking that Siobhan was playing games with him again. Lacer coming up with a theory of Siobhan diverting his divination to Sebastian somehow through a combination of the anti-divination boon given to Sebastien and or their shared bloodline. lol
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She flat out told him she was 20, under a truth compulsion and in front of a lie detector artefact, and he still wondered if she might be Sebastien’s mother.
I’m telling you, he just wants her to be old and petty like him.
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I wonder what Ana is thinking about all this. Back in chapter 215 Damien told Lacer that Ana thinks Sebastien is maybe a descendant of Princess Krell. I wonder if she thinks the High Crown is trying to wipe Sebastien’s memories to prevent future claims to a kingship.
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Ooooh, that’s a thought. That could be very entertaining - especially considering Sebastien has been in the papers several times for his heroics, including defeating the High Crown’s heir (and everyone knows Sebastien punched him in the face).
She definitely knows Damien and Sebastien are up to something together, though. I feel like she’s probably going to lean on Damien a bit, which is going to be miserable for him.
Can you imagine the uproar if either she or Damien see the 13 pointed light coasters on the Undreaming Enlightened, though? Hoooooly, our girl is going to have to do some explaining when she wakes up
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