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Claimed by Shadow
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Claimed By Shadow (Cassandra Palmer #2)
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Dec 19, 2012 12:09PM
One more day, one more day!
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I'm in the process of making baked goods! I wonder if Cassie knows anyone that can bake?
I bet Pritkin knows how to put a bun in the oven ...
hahahahahaha I'm sure he does!
I just breezed through this book. LOL I forgot so much happens in this book! I can't wait to discuss!!!!I'll just share some of my favorite quotes:
One of my favorite first lines--“Any day that starts off in a demon-filled bar in a casino designed to look like Hell isn't likely to turn out well.”
“Tony wanted to kill me, the Senate wanted to make me their stooge, and, oh, yeah, I'd also managed to piss off the mages. What can I say? I'm an overachiever.”
"I have to tell you,” I said frankly, “if someone is trying to mess with your conception or something, I’m not feeling a pressing need to intervene.”
And somehow this quote ended up in the Touch the Dark Quotes, but it's actually from Claimed by Shadow: “Once upon a time, when I was a child reading fairy tales, I'd ached to have my own adventures. Not that I'd wanted to be some dippy heroine languishing in a tower, awaiting rescue. No, I'd wanted to be the knight, charging into battle against overwhelming odds, or the plucky country lass who gets taken on as an apprentice to a great wizard. As I got older, I'd found out the hard way that adventures are rarely anything like the books say. Half the time you are scared out of your mind, and the rest your bored and your feet hurt. I was beginning to believe that maybe I wasn't the adventurous type.”
Zeenat, I love those quotes too! Especially the one about Pritkin!So, let's start discussing chapter 1-3 of Claimed by Shadow!
1. It's been a week since the events of TtD and Cassie is trying to get info about Tony's whereabouts from Casanova when Pritkin shows up and for the first time all Hell(lol) gets loose at Dante's because of Cassie being there.
In hindsight, the Hell theme of the casino that becomes Cassie's base of operations should have been a clue that one day she will go there on a mission.
2. What I wanted to bring to attention was how Cassie is really angry at Mircea for placing her under the geis until she meets him in 1880 at the theater. But even after the geis is lifted, Cassie allows Mircea to get away with a lot of stuff. How much of a role does the geis have in their relationship?
Now, KC has mentioned that she intended Casanova's inside joke as a foreshadowing, and I tried to find other stuff like that.
1. Cassie found a half of a decayed rat in Enyo's hair; in CtD she has a dead rat in her own hair.
2. The word "dragon" pops up a lot in just two pages, Cassie battles one in HtM.
Have any of you guys noticed stuff like this?
I think I'd forgotten that Cassie was basically on the run at the start of Claimed by Shadow, hiding from the Senate. I was amused that she uses Billy to cheat at the casinos for living expenses. Man, I wish I had a ghost! :)I think the symbolism of Dante's was entirely intentional. The first time you read the books, it just seems a bit gothic and supernatural, but we learn as the series progresses that there actually are different levels of heavens and hells in Cassie's world, so it works beautifully. I wonder if we'll learn any more about these different levels as the series goes on and if they have any greater significance, beyond being the places where certain characters come from (e.g. the demons come from the lowest level of hell, the fey are from the first heavenly level.) I presume the Irin were originally from a higher level of heaven than the Fey, and the gods were at the top? I find this aspect of the series very intriguing.
With Mircea, I think it's a case of Cassie picking her battles. He makes several dick moves and gets away with them, I believe, simply because Cassie has more important things to worry about. But I hope she's keeping a mental check list!
Also, I liked this quote from Casanova:
"Listen to me, little girl, and pay attention, because I am never saying this again. Mircea is the greatest manipulator I’ve ever known. There’s a reason he’s the Senate’s chief negotiator - he always gets what he wants."Do you think this means Mircea is an even greater manipulator than Rosier? I imagine Rosier would be no stooge in that department either.
One other sneaky piece of foreshadowing I liked is the way Cassie frees the Graeae. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal at the time, even though Pritkin says Cassie shouldn't have been able to do it. It's glossed over in Claimed by Shadow, and you barely give it a second thought. It's only later on you find out the significance!
I don't know whether that means that Mircea is a greater manipulator than Rosier, although since it's coming from Casanova, it might. I was wondering though, what happened to Chavez after this book?
I just find it weird that Pritkin cannot hear Billy Joe. Because Casanova can. Is it possible that he can? I think he can sense them though. He definitely seems to always know when Billy's around, but I can't remember whether he knows before of after she says something to him. Although he doesn't seem to sense Billy when he's picking his pockets!
I'm never quite sure with Casanova who's in charge, if you know what I mean. I think the vamp personality is dominant but the demon (is it Rian?) seems to be aware of what's going on. But I don't know if, when Casanova made that statement, he was only calling on his vamp memories and not the demon ones. I presume Rian is pretty ancient, so it would be pretty amusing if she also thought Mircea was the greatest manipulator ever!But, in truth, the more mundane explanation (and probably the more likely) would be that Casanova's indulging in a bit of hyperbole to scare off Cassie.
I think I read in Q & A that Chavez got banished back to the demon realm at the end of the book. I'll try to find it.
But on the subject of Chavez, what do you think he saw in Drac? Chavez seemed so ... nice! Drac is a maniac and I don't get the attraction.
A line that struck me a lot more on this reread [probably because I'm looking for holes in the Missie relationship] was:"I had been bespelled before, but it had never felt like this. Then I knew it was fake; I just hadn't cared. But even knowing this was due to a geis, it still felt unbelievably real. I could hate that he'd done this to me, but I couldn't hate him. The very thought was absurd."
To me, that really sounds like she wants to hate him for placing the geis on her, but physically cannot due to the spell. I wonder, had the geis worked a little differently whether Cassie would have properly hated Mircea for it- and what I mean by that is if it was somehow possible for him to have placed a similarly invasive spell on her when he had no right to do so, that didn't inhibit her ability to react as she would under normal circumstances whether she would have called him out on it and cut off any chance of a relationship before it began.
I feel like post-geis, after they had gone through so much shit because of it and the fact that Mircea ended up with the worse end of the stick that Cassie kind of overlooked it and moved on despite the fact it was such an asshole move on his part.
And Casanova's warning about Mircea was great! It even had me stop and think whether it's at all possible that Cassie and Mircea's relationship could be one big manipulation on his part- I know, it's far fetched but in every book powerful people quake in their boots and go on and on about how Mircea is conniving manipulator who manipulates, and yet Cassie just brushes it off. That in addition to KC's Q&A response where she says that between Cassie's perception of Mircea and everyone else's, everyone else is correct... Also the more I think about it, the more I have this sense of dread that in some way Cassie's going to seriously hurt by Mircea... They've got all these little issues that neither of them like to talk about it and eventually will come the straw that breaks the camels back and everything's going to hell. I know it!
It's my new favorite theory that Mircea's completely [completely!] full of shit, and I'm going to continue the reread under this assumption to see whether there's anything else to support that far fetched hypothesis.
My favorite part about the beginning of CbS is Pritkin showing up and Casanova freaking out. At the time, we have no idea why Casanova falls all over himself whenever Pritkin shows up and Pritkin basically ignores him. I can't remember if I paid much attention to that the first time I read the books. Knowing what I knew when I started the reread, the scenes whenever Pritkin shows up in Casanova's presence always made me chuckle.@Lia I always felt that Cassie was a bit more forgiving of the geis because Mircea ended up the worse off of them, too. Everyone started getting on her case about it like the whole thing was her fault when it was really Mircea's for putting it there in the first place. Cassie ends up feeling guilty as though it's all her fault somehow when it isn't at all. Granted, the geis never would have gotten doubled if Myra hadn't pulled her little stunts, either.
Aaaggghhh! I can't believe I'm so behind! My laptop broke so I completely missed all the great TtD discussion but I'll start rereading this week ready for the CbS talk :)I completely agree on Cassie's guilt. I think that and how busy she always is plays a part in her not blaming Mircea that much. I mean they were already "married" before they even spoke about dating so a lot of the time, Cassie's life is too out of control to discuss where the fault lies. Plus, I feel like Cassie is quite a chilled out and kind character. Seeing Mircea suffer, I would guess she was just pleased that he was still alive.
Regarding Mircea (because I love to talk about him), from what I remember from CbS, I really enjoyed getting to see past-Mircea because IMO he was slightly different. It might be because of the geis, but he seemed more playful with Cassie-the-witch. Such a flirt! I liked it.
After the first book, I thought Pritkin was a one-time character. I kind of felt how Cassie felt - he was slightly annoying but overall I was indifferent to him. As soon as he ran through Dante's, I knew! Him again!
lol Lannister, I totally blame you for all this Mircea and Missie hate ;)I love how Casnova tells Cassie that Mircea is the greatest manipulator. It's interesting because Rosier is an incubus, who could be more manipulative than that. But really, I think of Mircea as calculating. Someone who plans for years and years in advance. And from the TtS first chapter (view spoiler)
Mello--I TOTALLY caught that this time. Casnova freaking out about Pritkin. LOL I thought it was just be scared cause he was a freaky and scary war mage. But this time it made so much more sense!
As far as forgiving of the Geis, Mircea got what he deserved, tenfold. He paid for it. And he does say sorry, although words, you know. But he says it quietly and to Cassie, in a way where it seemed super sincere. But Mircea... ehhh. While everyone else is trying to keep her trapped though, he figures out a way to let her go. So... I am a Prissie fan all the way, and hate Mircea's manipulations. buttttt... I don't know, I don't quite consider him a sinister as everyone else seems to.
Scarlet, the foreshadowing in that first chapter is awesome.
Oh and as for Dory/Vlad and all of that... I just realized it's another reason for Dory to not like Cassie, LOL!
Exactly, Zeenat. I thought Pritkin being a rather tenacious war mage was Casanova's issue, too. Oh, but what we know now changes everything.I agree that Mircea got what he deserved. I guess after everything had run its course, Cassie felt no need to hold a grudge.
I think they genuinely love each other. They are just not right for each other, in the end. We can love a lot of people in our lives, some people just fit better than others.
I agree with that. Cassie even admits to herself during all of this mess with the geis that she loves Mircea. I already can't remember what book it was in. Probably this one. It was part of her motivation to make sure he didn't get killed.
I see the Geis as circumstances, not a cause.
I'm excited for my reread of this book :) I misplaced my copy of TtD and didn't get to participate in that discussion as much as I wanted to, but all subsequent books are accounted for, so I should be good.
I liked Scarlet's mention of symbolism and foreshadowing in the books, and I think CbS has a good amount of it. One thing I noticed this time around was that Cassie mentions playing games, and making up Latin mottos, with a ghost friend named 'Laura' as a child, in the first few chapters of CbS. In the teaser chapters for TtS (view spoiler)
Lia wrote: "It's my new favorite theory that Mircea's completely [completely!] full of shit, and I'm going to continue the reread under this assumption to see whether there's anything else to support that far fetched hypothesis. "Lia, you're my new best friend! :D
Zeenat wrote: "lol Lannister, I totally blame you for all this Mircea and Missie hate ;)"
LOL, this is absolutely not my fault! I can't help if Mircea's a sneaky sod and the Mircea Anti-Fan Club grows day by day. :D
Oh and as for Dory/Vlad and all of that... I just realized it's another reason for Dory to not like Cassie, LOL!
Nice pick up!! I hadn't even considered that. I think it's likely to make Dory quite contemptuous of Cassie, like she's a foolish little girl who can't be trusted. So, not that different from Daddy's opinion then, LMAO!
Josie wrote: "Aaaggghhh! I can't believe I'm so behind! My laptop broke so I completely missed all the great TtD discussion but I'll start rereading this week ready for the CbS talk :)"
Aw, that's rubbish about your laptop, but at least you haven't missed too much. :)
On the geis and Cassie's reaction, yeah, I think I agree with you guys. If Mircea had come out of it unscathed, Cassie would probably be angrier, but I think she perhaps thought he'd been punished enough for his scheming.
I did like this paragraph where Cassie thinks about Chavez hitting on her. I think it sums up her frustrations nicely.
It was a simple invitation, no more, no less—the knowledge that any advance I chose to make would be received with delight and would end in pleasure. It made me furious, but not with him. It drove home the point that, as things stood, I had less control over my love life than a nun. Even if I lost my head and decided to exchange a lifetime of slavery as Pythia for a brief fling, I couldn’t. Literally couldn’t, unless I wanted to risk going crazy. Mircea had seen to that.Cassie isn't taking the geis lightly at all.
Also, I loved this bit from Chavez too:
His eyes gleamed as he leaned closer, trailing a warm finger down my cheek. It was a light touch, but it caused me to shiver. "Pleasure is pleasure, after all."Chavez is quite delicious.
Lannister wrote: "Also, I loved this bit from Chavez too:His eyes gleamed as he leaned closer, trailing a warm finger down my cheek. It was a light touch, but it caused me to shiver. "Pleasure is pleasure, after all."
Chavez is quite delicious. "
Dude, KC writes her characters so well. I literally melted when I read Chavez' scenes. He was so delicious...
Here's another random thing:In the hallway next to the Dark fey kitchen there a picture of a Cyclops eating his way through a human army. It seems like a part of a big battle, but I am pretty sure it hasn't happened yet.
Also, in ancient times people were giving sacrifices to the gods on holydays and birthdays and I can't believe that I always shrugged the offerings that the Graeae gave to Cassie for her birthday, and I didn't evn seem surprized that they knew it was her birthday. I always put it to them being weird, with their childlike attention spans, when in hindsight they knew who Cassie was before anyone else.
I feel bad for Chavez, he only wanted to help Drac. I don't think Drac was always that much insane, and probably Chavez fell for him when he was...saner and probably had some redeeming qualities.
Why would Dory not like Cassie because Cassie released Drac? If she hadn't, Dory wasn't going to discover that Mircea had meddled with her memories. Plus, they have a lot of similarites, and I am not talking about personality or power: for a long time they were treated as outcasts. Everybody ignored Cassie when she was growing up at Tonys, even the lowlife mages that were working for the vamps, while Dory had vamps attacking her on sight just for the crime of existing, and norms running away from her because she seemed wrong even to them. Meanwhile, they are both unique and very powerful and both the Senate and (in Cassie's case) the Sircle have been and will be eating their words for underestimating them. We are used to Cassie sometimes doubting herself and her abilities, but she's kind of a badass: she killed a freaking god, and she dusted a dragon that had a resurrection power, and I am sure that in time, Dory will see Cassie in a totally different light than Mircea does. And since Dory isn't a vamp, and her vamp side is humaner than LC's, and I think Cassie will find that refreshing after Mircea's manipulations, and after the initial awkwardness, I am sure that they will find a way and probably will work together. And I admit, when KC gave us the special blurb, in which she mentioned reluctant allies, the first person I thought of was Dory(even though I knew it was impossible) then Caleb, Cassanova, Marco and Radella. Also, Cassie is a sensitive, so she probably knows that Dory is not a vamp, though I doubt she knows Dory is a dhampir.
Cassie says several times in the books that Tony didn't want a trained witch at court and had already made plans for her. But obviously, after Roger Palmer, the mages he was hiring had very little magic, so it seems kind of odd, doesn't it, that he had at least a potentially powerful servant that could become useful to the family, but that he would go to such lengths to stop that from happening. Is it possible that it was Mircea who forbade it? As Mac tells Cassie in the tattoo parlor, he did her a great disservice, and made her a target for dark mages. But Mircea knew this: if he had Cassie's safety and best interests at heart, why didn't he order Tony to allow magical training for Cassie? It all goes back to Mircea wanting to control her. He was probably aware that had she been trained, she would have probably sensed the geis, and been even harder to track and control. Another black mark in his resume if you ask me.
I haven't been able to start the reread since I'm in Boston dropping my sister off at college, but I am excited. I want to see the beginning of Pritkin's redeeming qualities :)Like Cassie, I kind of overlooked the geis in later books. I'd forgotten about it and the implications. Mircea really did do something unforgivable with the placing of the geis. Then again, he is the one that ended up suffering horribly.
Scarlet wrote: " I can't believe that I always shrugged the offerings that the Graeae gave to Cassie for her birthday, and I didn't evn seem surprized that they knew it was her birthday."Ooooh! Nice! I hadn't considered that at all, but yeah, that makes sense. I think The Graeae know far more than they appear to. They're still free in Hunt the Moon, aren't they? I seem to recall Cassie trying to capture them, but I don't think she succeeded, but I might be forgetting.
I don't think Drac was always that much insane, and probably Chavez fell for him when he was...saner and probably had some redeeming qualities.
I'm not so certain about this. Drac was committing atrocities even when he was alive. Radu talks about how Drac was tortured by the Turks and I think he went crazy at a fairly young age. Radu recounts tales of Drac slaughtering thousands of people even while he was still human.
It's possible our impressions of Chavez are wrong and he isn't usually so nice, but he was kind to Cassie because she inadvertently helped him. I don't get the sense of Chavez being evil or power-craving, but we see so little of him. Maybe Cassie will bump into him again if she ever goes to the demon realm, as I assume he still exists there.
And I admit, when KC gave us the special blurb, in which she mentioned reluctant allies, the first person I thought of was Dory
Oh wow, this would be frigging amazing!! I hadn't considered Dory but it could work. Dory might not get recruited to help Cassie until later on in Tempt the Stars (presumably after the timeline overtakes Fury's Kiss). She's probably not the most likely 'reluctant ally', but I don't think you can rule her out completely either.
But Mircea knew this: if he had Cassie's safety and best interests at heart, why didn't he order Tony to allow magical training for Cassie? It all goes back to Mircea wanting to control her. He was probably aware that had she been trained, she would have probably sensed the geis, and been even harder to track and control.
This is a very good point about the geis! If Cassie was more adept with magic, she likely would have sensed it. I don't think she'd have been able to remove it, but she still would have known it was there and it would probably have affected her decisions (i.e. knowing she could be tracked with it).
I'm not certain about Mircea giving the order that Cassie not be trained. I get the sense that magical children start their training fairly young (didn't those prison schools run by the Circle take quite young children?). I'm inclined to think that if Cassie were a regular magic user, she'd have begun training long before Mircea knew about her (he says he only found out about her less than a year before he met her). I think you're correct in your reasoning why Cassie wasn't trained (so she could be controlled more easily) but I think the blame lies with Tony this time.
Can I just ask for some quick clarification on something? Tomas explains the Geis, or as Marlowe called it "Mircea's lapse in judgement" as a method of protecting Cassie's virtue, so that she didn't sleep with some random dude. I was just wondering how that worked seeing as the Geis was not activated until Cassie and Mircea saw each other again as adults and had been dormant up until this time- meaning nothing was stopping her from sleeping with whoever up until that point...But this wasn't an issue for me on my first few reads of this book so I know I'm missing something.
Yeah I definitely think Vlad was crazy from before. The whole thing with Dory and her mom, and all of that was way before everything else. I don't think Mircea would order Cassie not to be trained. As a great manipulator, he would have trained Cassie I think, he would have found a way to ensure her loyalty and have her as powerful as possible without her being a danger to him.
as for the Geis and other guys, Maybe as far as activation goes, activating between them had to be when they saw each other as adults again, but it could still prevent her from other guys. Not sure though.
On the geis, it says that Mircea laid it on Cassie when she was eleven, but it didn't activate then because she was still a child. I had the feeling that it was tied to puberty. Cassie probably hadn't hit puberty at eleven, when Mircea was around, and I imagined it kicking in some time after her body matured. It may not activate immediately when a girl starts her period, but maybe starts within a few months or a year or whatever? This would mean Mircea could still be gone before the geis properly woke up, but it ensured that it was in place just about the time Cassie might have seriously started taking an interest in boys (well, if she actually knew any nice boys.)The geis spell has been around forever and was used no doubt when girls were married off at very young ages. That's why I tend to think it would start soon after puberty, when girls of ancient times were judged to be women.
My issue is just when the Consul says:"...and when the two of you encountered each other again, you were only a child- too young for it to manifest. But when you met as adults, it activated..."
A similar thing is said by a few people throughout, and I was just confused by the fact that it sounds as though the geis was not active until the two met as adults when she was 23... Meaning nothing prevented her from losing her virginity aged 14- 23.
Mentally I'm writing it off as the fact the Geis didn't really go to plan in any way at all for Mircea. It was a strangely stupid move on his part. Despite being assured by his fail safe of sleeping with her to break the spell, even a non-doubled Geis would mean a growing devotion / obsession on both of their parts, something I wouldn't picture Mircea risking..
I think it's because there are two elements to the spell.Firstly, it's to stop Cassie losing her virginity to some random guy. So after the geis is laid on her, let's say for the sake of argument that it becomes 'live' when she's 13. Any guy that Cassie got too close to after that age would cause the spell to bring pain to either or both of them. This is the 'repel unauthorised suitors' part of the spell.
The other part is that it inspires loyalty or devotion to the one who cast the spell. Casanova explains it quite well at the start of CbS.
"The originator of the geis can lift it for a particular person ... I’ve heard of instances when the spell was used on heiresses by their guardians, to ensure that they remained chaste until appropriate suitors were selected. The devotion aspect of the spell was supposed to guarantee that they would happily accept whomever was chosen. ... The geis fell out of favour because it tends to backfire ... Sometimes it worked, but there were cases when girls committed suicide rather than marry someone other than their guardians. ... The geis is designed to ensure loyalty, but how many human emotions do you know that have only one facet? Loyalty easily transmutes to admiration - for why, do you think, would I be loyal to someone who is not, in some way, admirable? Admiration becomes attraction, attraction grows into love and love usually leads to the desire to possess that which is loved."Because Cassie already had a crush on Mircea, her childhood fondness grew into obsessive desire. And Mircea was obviously attracted to adult Cassie too, and with the timeline shenanigans, it quickly got out of hand.
I think the Consul was talking about the geis Cassie placed on Mircea, not the one he placed on her. We never see the geis at work, except for Cassanova and Pritkin, because Cassie never took an interest in anyone, and was always keeping people away, never getting close. But the point is that had she become close to someone, the geis would have flared.
Lannister, I think you might be right that Tony was to blame for Cassie not being trained in magic, but eleven is not that old for magical children, though, Mircea probably didn't want to draw attention to her from other mages and the Circle.
Okay so I just got past the point in CbS where Casanova explained the geis. It does seem like a ridiculously stupid move for Mircea. Surely there were other measures he could have taken to ensure Cassie remained chaste? Casanova seemed to say that even a properly functioning geis would affect both parties equally. This means he willingly signed himself up for increasing devotion to Cassie. I mean, we see the effects of the geis in TtD, before Cassie goes back in time and doubles the spell.
Two explanations:1) He knew about Cassie from a time travelling past... Therefore he knew she was going to be his, he was just making sure she stayed that way?
2) This is more likely--Mircea is cocky. He probably thought he could control it. He probably thought once they had sex, or she had sex with one of them, it would be over. He never counted the wait to be this long or for it to double over centuries.
I agree with you on number 2. Mircea figured either he or Tomas could convince Cassie to break the spell before it became an issue. I mean, Mircea almost succeed if not for the attack on MAGIC.
I'm fairly certain that it's the second reason. Mircea was extremely certain that all would go to plan. That's obviously not what happened.
I just noticed something, and while it doesn't really fall into the foreshadowing category, I just can't get it out of my mind. In TtD, in the first chapter, Cassie is running away. In CbS, before Pritkin shows up, she tries to get info from Casanova. In EtN, she's running for her life, again, while in CtD she tries to get info from a past-Agnes. In HtM she's running again, while from the teasers we see Cassie chasing info at the begining of TtS.
Other thing I can't get out of my mind are Mac's wards. They were thrown by Billy Joe, but later Agnes says she showed him how to work them into attacking the vamps. That definitely isn't a Pythia's power, and I started thinking about the Pythia's acolytes. Cassie always talks about them as tame and brainwashed, but I never saw a hint of that in Agnes, or Myra. Do you guys think that they will cause time-related mayhem, or will they arrange a coup against the new Pythia? I got the impression before that the Pythias were trained in time-related stuff, but Agnes seems to have had regular magical training as well. So, how much mayhem can the acolytes cause?
She's always running for her life. LOLAgnes was pythia for 400 years... Acolytes came and went... I think the current generation they were brainwahsed. I don't know about being tame, but they are under the silver circles control. I think that's what they were talking about. I think the acolytes can cause all sort of mayhem if they have the "unfortunate" pythia as their teacher/boss (especially since some of them probably know more than Cassie!)
Wow, I didn't realize that Agnes was around for so long. Does this mean that Jonas is even older? I just read a part where Mac said Jonas ran the Circle for 70 years. I wonder what he was doing before that. I'm at the point in the book where they're about to break into MAGIC. I haven't read CbS in so long that it's almost like reading it for the first time again. I found myself speed reading through fight scenes to find out what happened next. Which is stupid, because I already know what happens.
I love watching Pritkin slowly coming over to Team Cassie. ALSO has everyone noted how strongly the geis reacted between Cassie and Pritkin? CLEARLY they both have feelings for each other! (Can you guys tell I'm pleased? I am pleased!!)
But then there was that scene between Cassie and Mircea in the ballroom. I'd forgotten just how sexy -Mircea is in my Pritkin-induced fog.
Zeenat wrote: "Agnes was pythia for 400 years... Acolytes came and went"This isn't actually the case, but it's confusingly worded in the book.
Agnes talks about her old sick body and she says something about 400 years being a long time. But she meant that it was a long time for an elderly Pythia to travel back to, not that she was 400 years old.
The only reason I really remember this is because there was a Q & A about it:
I’m confused about how long Pythias live. Agnes seemed to be a normal human, yet she apparently lived about 400 years. Also, since Cassie is a demigod, would she live longer because of that, or as her position as Pythia? Furthermore, would anyone be able to resurrect her like the sons of Ares?The comment about channelling a power meant for gods is interesting. I guess that (in theory) shouldn't affect Cassie so much?
I’m sorry, but where did you get the idea that Agnes lived for four hundred years? In fact, she lived a much shorter life than usual for a magical human (which would normally be about 200 years.) As Plutarch said, the Pythias’ lives were shortened because of their service to Apollo. Channeling power meant for a god when you aren’t one does bad things to your health. And, of course, Agnes had Myra helping her to shuffle off the mortal coil even faster than would already have been the case.
As far as the sons of Ares were concerned, resurrection was one of their special gifts (at least where each other were concerned). Cassie doesn’t possess it. If she came back from the dead, it would be as a zombie, and does anybody really want to see that?
Claire, I agree with you about that convocation scene. I don't get the sense that Mircea is usually so public with his affections but I think he was rather carried away and it was hot as hell!
Hmm, the channelling power is very interesting - I wonder if Cassie can do it? Maybe her demigoddess status helps her when Pritkin goes all demon on her? Maybe that's what Roger is doing for Cassie's mother?I love the convocation scene! With Mircea in all his Romanian gear!
I don't want to assume too much with Cassie's demigod status, as the children don't always inherit the godly parents' abilities. But, given that Cassie picked up the Pythia Power so easily, I would think she's going to have a certain amount of immunity to any negative health effects.Here's something I wondered about when re-reading (I still haven't finished yet, but I don't think this gets explained.)
So we know Myra, the former heir, is in Faerie. Cassie, the new Pythia, goes to Faerie but can't access her power there. How does Myra access the power to travel back in time? I can't believe that the Pythia can't reach the power but the heir can. Does this mean Myra has to return to our world first (presumably via a portal) before shifting? Do you think any of her evil friends are coming back too? I tended to think Tony and Rasputin were safely tucked away in Faerie, but maybe they're popping in and out too (maybe to shoot the breeze with Jonathan). And I wonder where this portal is? Maybe Ray will find it.
I assume that she uses the same portal Tony uses which is... I can't remember. Does he have a personal portal? Maybe in one of Tony's secret holdings? Or the one which Cassie goes to (view spoiler) I wonder if Mircea's had them thoroughly checked over. Or if Mircea has orchestrated this whole situation mwahahahaha!
Speaking of how long pythias live, is there any indication that Cassie will have anything other than a normal lifespan? This is always a tension in books where there are relationships between mortal and immortal creatures. And if Cassie is mortal with a normal lifespan, it's going to be an issue whether she ends up with Mircea or Pritkin.
I don't think it will happen, but in theory, Mircea could change Cassie. If that happened then it's possible that she would lose her abilities however.
Josie, I thought Tony only had the portal at Dante's and it required a death to power it. But yeah, I suppose he could have others, though Cassie seems unaware of them. I suppose Rasputin could have one too, and I guess the Black Circle will have plenty (given that Fury's Kiss started with a whole laboratory set inside a portal).It was just interesting to me. We've speculated a lot about ways Cassie & Dory's stories might come together, and I thought this might be another example. Ray's the portal master, and Mircea knows this, so if Cassie mentions to him that she needs help finding a portal, Ray would be the obvious person to turn to.
Bell, I think KC's been asked about that and she hedged in her reply. I guess the answer might give away too much. It's open to speculation. As a magic user, Cassie could probably expect to live a couple of hundred years, but there's no guarantee that her demigod blood guarantees immortality. But then again ... it might!
I haven't forgotten how Pythias get a new life after they've served. That may yet be significant.
I would love Ray to be a crossover character! I can imagine Cassie interrogating him over Dory and Mircea's relationship and them both getting the wrong end of the stick LOL!I don't think her demigod blood will give her immortality either but it would probably give her a longer life than say a magic user.
Josie wrote: "I would love Ray to be a crossover character! I can imagine Cassie interrogating him over Dory and Mircea's relationship and them both getting the wrong end of the stick LOL!"Oh god yes! There's so much scope for misunderstandings here LMAO!
Also, I'm picturing Cassie's face when Ray tells her he's a 'magnum' in condom size!!
One of the first things I thought about when the Demigoddess think sunk in was that this might be the way KC is overcoming the lifespan issues when it comes to Cassie's relationships.
LOL yes! He'll be jabbering on about how great Dorina is, how much Mircea loves her and how they're working together now, all while Cassie is getting madder and madder!Lia, it definitely makes it easier for the future of her relationship
I can't imagine that Cassie's goddess blood wouldn't help her life span. I mean, Cassie inherited her mother's ability with the power, which means she also inherited her ability to channel it. I don't know if Cassie will live significantly longer than other magical humans, but I do believe being a demigoddess will insulate her from negative health effects. If Mircea offered to change her, it really would be an ultimate declaration of his feelings. After all, becoming a vampire would eliminate her clairvoyant abilities, which means that Mircea just wants Cassie with him.
