Lacer's Hypothesis [Chapter 211 spoilers]

We have a longer gap, ending in a cliff on this end, so let’s speculate on what Lacer thinks the significance of Siobhan’s eyes are to fill the time!

Does he already suspect that they might be the same person? Does he think they are related, despite them looking otherwise nothing alike, and Sebastien looking nothing like either of Siobhan’s parents? Is it something else?

My current guess is that Lacer would think that, logically, if Siobhan were capable of such transformations, she would be capable of simply transforming her eyes as well and there’s no reason not to, so he’ll skip right over that.

He already thinks Siobhan may have been the ultimate result of some human experimentation programs by the Blood Empire.

Perhaps the Naughts had managed to slip through the cracks, the secrecy of the People keeping them out of modern records, maintaining their abilities through careful breeding, or even inbreeding.
Or, perhaps the Blood Emperor’s experiments had not been so fruitless, after all.
This changed everything.

When conducting such experiments, they might choose to include some harmless marker to indicate to themselves who was from those lineages… I’m guessing that he will think that those particular eyes might have been a trait designed to do that.

And it lines up with the similarities in their stories too, to an extent. Sebastien has mentioned an old man who took in orphans and also a teacher who would demonstrates spells. From Lacer’s perspective, what if those were all references to the same person? And was just a guise for Raaz checking in on him? They both had contact with a village wiped out by blight-type aberrants as children? What if that was someone trying to erase the project?

Then Siobhan would be looking out for Sebastien as a fellow subject from the same program, possibly handed information on it from her grandfather.

I expect the most immediate result to be a LOT more digging into Sebastien’s past, and that might give rise to suspicions that are closer to the mark.

Anyway, what’s your take?

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Lacer seems to realize the connection through the following reasoning: Assume that Siobhan had not lied at all and that her interest in Sebastien was a connection other than Lacer

  1. Not only had Siobhan openly used a device designed by his apprentice, Sebastien, she had almost purposefully drawn their attention to that fact, even to the point of implicating herself.
  2. Her point about liking Sebastien was a “half truth”
  3. Her statement could have meant that she stole from the man, came in a disguised form and bought from him, or even took the schematics and made a copy for herself.
  4. Their eyes are the same.

So. There’s a couple of deductions he could make:

  1. Siobhan and Sebastien are one person
  2. They are relatives
  3. They have had some magic curse or treatment or experiment in common
  4. The Raven Queen possesses Sebastien and Siobhan in turns

The reason I think he may go with 4 is this line:

Thaddeus turned the thought of her over in his mind a few times. Who had he been interacting with? He found that the hoped it was some combination of both personalities, melded to become one. It would be a shame if Siobhan Naught were trapped away within her own body, screaming soundlessly for help. Or if the girl had been crushed out of existence by the weight of the Raven Queen’s consciousness. A combination of personalities might also explain why the Raven Queen sometimes acted with strange immaturity or made reckless decisions based on emotion.

The other reason I suspect he may go with the possession option is that he consistently thinks of his Apprentice as reckless.

Lacer may even believe that Sebastien is being groomed to be the long-term host of the Raven Queen, while Siobhan may be discarded.

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If he were to really think it will also occur to him that Sebastien wore the dress. He never mentioned to Sebastien that he knew this. And Sebastien never mentions it to him. How curious.

Will Lacer go all Momma Bear? He’s very possessive of Sebastien.

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I think that Thaddeus already came close in Chapter 89 – Hiraeth – Azalea Ellis with:

He gave her a small smile. “Good. I needed to be sure it was you. They say the Raven Queen is a shapeshifter, after all. I will admit I am slightly disappointed. Since you are indeed Sebastien, that means my apprentice is an incurable reckless idiot, and I am not about to have the opportunity to speak discreetly with the Raven Queen.”

He just has to get from there to realizing that there never was a Sebastian in the first place. He’s already noticed something that he didn’t understand, which is that nothing that Siobhan did showed access to more than 1000 thaums. But he also knows that she claims to be young. Too young to have the capacity that he believes she must have. Far too young for his past theories about her background.

Will he noticed that he is confused? If so, if he walks away from his previous conclusions, the right ones can’t be far behind.

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