I have been thinking about how Lacer would resolve the “Fighting the Raven Queen => Sebastien gets Will-strain” series of events without coming to the conclusion that Siobhan = Sebastien.
My random crackpot theory is that Lacer will come to the conclusion that the Raven Queen and Sebastian made a magic pact that stipulates:
“If the Raven Queen uses magic against those closest to Sebastien, the spent Thaums will be drained directly from Sebastien’s capacity.”
This might sound crazy but hear me out.
Why would the RQ agree to the pact?
The Raven Queen has a purported interest in Sebastien (perhaps due to the Myrddin heritage?).
Perhaps she needs Sebastien to be a willing participant in what she has planned and due to her being known to strongly value personal freedom, she is ready to make a concession with this pact for him to agree.
The biggest threat to her currently is her equal Thaddeus Lacer. As an agent of the Red Guard with a strong will, there weren’t any mundane weaknesses the RQ can exploit through manipulation such as greed or a lust for political power.
That was the case until Lacer showed his hand at his “exhibition” where he directly threatened the crown to protect his protégé Sebastien (of course she would has found out about this).
Therefore the most effective tool to keep Lacer in check would be such a pact that involves Sebastien’s well-being - in other words - as hostage.
Why would Sebastien agree to the pact?
While Sebastien recognized the opportunity to further gain more knowledge and power, he isn’t completely oblivious to the danger the RQ presents and tried to negotiate such a pact that would prevent the RQ from harming anyone close to Sebastien.
Sebastien was only audacious enough to try this he has realized that the RQ has need of him as a collaborator of his own volition and most of all - alive - . Therefore he is moderately assured that she will not engage in any plots to directly harm his friends or his mentor.
While Sebastien is aware of the danger to his own life, his willingness to agree to this can also be explained by his lone-wolf trait where if he himself is dealing with an entity such as the RQ, he wants all the dangers to only reflect on himself, refusing to carry the burden with anyone (to Lacers and friends’ chagrin).
With the RQ’s capacity being limited by Sebastien, this explains the following:
- The RQ is never dual-casting two powerful spells due to the limit in capacity.
- The RQ excessively uses the Sebastien’s battle wand or mundane projectiles + potions which do factor into her capacity limit.
- Her greatest feats of power come from her ‘shadow familiar’. Could the familiar have its own capacity she can draw upon?
- The RQ is known to have extremely fine precision - being able to draw the maximum amount of effect from relatively few Thaums (which was one of the conclusions from the chapter wih the two agents, Lacer and Gera).
- She is pleading to resolve the situation peacefully due to the harm that will befall Sebastien should she defend herself.
Why has she not informed Lacer of this pact during the fight?
The possibility of such magic even existing that links two thaumaturges capacity involving conditions based on sympathetic connections such as “friendship” and “intent” is unheard of.
It sounds like a poor attempt to get away unscathed and Lacer’s mental bindings would have never accepted this excuse.
Even though Lacer has thought himself to have come out on top, such as being “3 steps ahead” by not chasing the RQ shadow illusion and flock of birds and returning to the ledge to find her, he was defeated on all fronts because the aftermath of the battle is the following:
- The RQ has received confirmation that her suspicions regarding the rise of break-events being true.
- The RQ has somehow reversed his memory manipulation.
- Sebastien is in critical condition and has almost died from will-strain.
This also fits into the RQ perverse sense of humour:
She might not see herself as responsible for Sebastien’s injury because she only created the pact between them but it was ultimately Lacer’s actions that caused Sebastien’s condition. The RQ was “only trying to escape”.
Of course the RQ has removed this pact and any of its traces after the fight against Lacer but it was essentially a cunning move to place this pact in the first place before asking her “forbidden question” since essentially she has shown capable of holding Sebastien hostage without being anywhere near him.
The only way Lacer could have won that night, was to never get involved with the RQ at all.
None of this is probably true though, so I’m really excited to see how the story will turn out!
