I really hope the next chapter is the same scene from S’s perspective, because I really want to know what went through her head when Lacer:
Suddenly pulled her to an isolated location where he has total control,
Activated a lie detector spell,
Asked a series of very precise questions on exactly the right trail,
Threatened to use a compulsion to force her to answer,
Took her to another, even more isolated location,
Revealed Sebastien’s ability to open the journals,
Wound up making a totally plausible yet absolutely incorrect guess about what her secret was,
And, finally, said ‘oh yeah, you were totally right to not answer me before in spite of my threats and menace’ without actually apologizing
I also feel bad for Ana. All that work she just did, and Lacer comes in and invites Sebastien to his cabin out of nowhere. The fangirls will be on this for weeks.
I hadn’t even thought of how the rumor mill is going to receive this, but, wow. You’re right.
The dorm is going to be convinced that they were playing grabby hands the entire way to Lacer’s cabin, and that Sebastien spent the night. And, probably, that Damien is in the middle of the love triangle, and that Lacer had to threaten him with a curse of unmentionable itching to back off.
I can imagine Ana flopping on her bed and trying to smother herself with her own pillows.
I have a feeling S has proverbial whiplash, and hopefully she’s considering telling him the truth.
Didn’t she try opening it as Siobhan at one point and found it only worked as Sebastien? If so, that would pretty clearly show it’s responding to the appearance, whether she is a descendant or not.
I did not recall this, unless it was in Book 1 somewhere? She only started working on the glyphs in the last book after Lacer told her about it, and she seemed to assume that the amulet was required for spoofing?
From Chapter 17, Decryption Clues:
“How else does one access a seemingly unbreakable locked box? Through the key,” [Lacer] replied simply, with a satisfied smile. “Which, I might add, is ingenious in its own way. The most basic protection to overcome was an identity verification. Those who worked on the project before me were able to find a loophole and spoof a positive result with a little effort. Interesting, but hardly the world-shattering innovations people often ascribe to Myrddin.”
This was disappointing, but Sebastien retained hope. The transformation amulet could place her into an entirely different body. ‘What are the chances that Sebastien Siverling’s physical form meets the identity requirements?’ she thought.
And, two chapters later, in Split-Will training she never even attempted this as Siobhan - she was in the Sebastien body throughout the chapter.
She assumes it is the amulet, but she doesn’t know.
Again, later in Nine Full Lights, she is still in Sebastien’s body. I don’t recall her actually testing it, and I think that’s because of her assumption right in the beginning.
But! she had no trouble retrieving the amulet from the book. And that makes me think she may have been Myrdin’s grandchild all along.