Ask Luna #116
From: Richard Lee
Hi Luna,
Why can’t anyone see that Richard is a diviner? A while ago when Alex was debating whether to grab a knife off himself table and stab Richard … Richard just sat there – I think henwasndoingbexactkynwhatbLaex does and diving the situation.
I had to squint and read that last sentence about three times before I figured out what you were saying. I’m guessing it was meant to be “he was doing exactly what Alex does”.
From: Kevin
So I have a few questions about diviners other than Alex such as..
1. Why did Helikon teach Alex when he seems so focused on survival? I don’t see him as the helping someone for nothing kinda of guy, nor as a teacher but I have only seen him a few times so maybe he has a softer side? Unlikely but that is all I can come up with.
2. Do you know anything about Alaundo, who seems to be the premier Light Council diviner? Alex seems to be the exception when it comes to active diviners in politics so why does Alaundo seem to take a greater interest in them when all the other diviners seem to hide out and work on a case to case basis?
3. Is Alex also an exception when it comes to short term divination? It seems the diviners we have met seem to work better with mid-to long term, while Alex seems to do better with short term futures?
4. Also are Helikon and Alaundo similar in that they work better with long term divinations, or do they specialize in a different sort of divination. It could be that the Council just wanted a second opinion in Burned and that they are long term specialists I just thought I would ask to be certain.
1. It’s more common than you’d think. There are a lot of mages out there, and from personal experience, very few of them are the ‘something for nothing’ sort. But despite that, most mages take apprentices at some point or other. As to why, your guess is as good as mine. Either they do actually care about the next generation, or it’s about ego.
2. Don’t really know anything about him. For whatever reason he works with the Council when the others don’t.
3. Yeah, pretty much. Your magic isn’t just based off your personality, it also grows with you, and the more you practice something, the more your abilities develop in that direction. Alex spends way more time getting himself into dangerous situations than most diviners, so he’s gotten really good at short-term precognition.
4. Again, this really isn’t my speciality. Sorry.
From: Kevin
So I wanted to break my questions off and to wanted offer a theory on Richard and his potential magic type. Now this question has been asked so many times and all we can do is speculate, but have you ever thought that Richard using that strange universal magic for lack of a better term, is also shielding others from detecting his magic by way of deflection? He also seems to want people to think he is a mind or enchanter mage, but what if the source of his power grants him other abilities we have not seen such as enhanced mental abilities that go with manipulation as some mind mages can do. He is already physically enhanced so why wouldn’t he enhance his mind as well. As for his true magic type I think he is a diviner but unlike the others he is only good at path walking and not short or long term predictions. He seemed quite surprised when Alex rejected his offer in Hidden, along with Rachel attacking Alex, Onyx’s presence during the break in at the Vault and Alex striking him in Bound and I don’t think he predicted Alex helping Anne get away from the jinn in Marked. Perhaps a side effect of that power he has gained is that only certain types of divinations can be granted towards him, power does have a price as Arachne points out. Plus free will can be hard to sort out in general
as people can make split decisions and it seems to be harder for long term diviners judging by what we have seen thus far. Plus awhile ago someone pointed out that Alex being confined in the mansion was a great way to hone his combat divination perhaps he wanted a resourceful diviner who could do the types of short term divination that he could not? This is just speculation but every mystery is solved little by little and this seems to be viable what do you think?
Sure, I guess. I have a bit of trouble figuring out how to answer all these ‘I think Richard’s magic type is X’ questions. I mean, yes, it could make sense. But we’ve spent a long time talking and thinking about it and we’ve basically all decided that the answer comes down to ‘don’t know enough, have to wait and see’.
From: Grey
How big is the Light Council in Britain? And how does it compare to the other Light Councils based in other countries? Thanks.
Depends. If you mean “how many mages sit on the Junior and Senior Council” then it’s thirteen. If you mean “how many mages are involved in the Light Council in some position of power or other” then it’s hundreds, maybe as many as a thousand. If you mean “how many people does the Council employ or can call on” then it’s easily ten times that number, since the Council has way, way more sensitives and adepts than it has mages.
Councils in other countries are pretty similar, and their sizes are more or less proportional to the size of the country as I understand it.
