#and it must've itched at the back of his mind. what luna said about his fate

[pantherlover]

An Artificial Night Re-Read: Part 2

Hello again! Welcome to part 2.

Chapter Four:

I want to know how Cait Sidhe royalty works sooooo badly (Is it explained more in depth in Seanan McGuire's patreon stories? I still need to read those). Only certain Cait Sidhe seem to be able to be royalty; Tybalt says Raj is the first royal to be born in his Court in 60 years, and only one of Jolgier's daughters was strong enough to be a Princess. So there seems to be a certain threshold of magic that Cait Sidhe royalty needs. What do they need it for? I thiiiiiiiiiiink I remember Tybalt mentioning something about Kings and Queens being directly connected to the Shadow Roads, but I'm not 100% sure about that. Are they also responsible for anchoring their Courts to different physical spaces?

Something I'm curious about: Tybalt's old enough to have lived through at least one Ride, possibly several. I'm pretty sure he would've been a King of Cats during it too. Why doesn't Tybalt wonder if this was Blind Michael's Ride? Especially after he hears some of the Brown kids are missing too.

Lily's knowe sounds so pretty.

I know I've already said this, but I'm still holding out hope that Lily will come back - both because I love her (she was definitely one of the people most effective at calling Toby out), and because we still don't know anything about why she came to San Francisco/her relationship with Amandine. Given what we know about Amandine now, their relationship gets more and more confusing.

Chapter Five:

I think it's interesting that Lily changes Toby's clothes like the false Queen does, although a) she only does it after she's healed Toby and b) she does keep Toby's original clothes instead of transforming them.

At first I thought Toby was missing the *very* obvious by not realizing that Luna was who Lily was referring to when she said 'ask the moon'... and then I remembered that not everyone had a Sailor Moon fixation that gave them an instant (an permanent) association between 'Luna' and 'moon', and maybe it wasn't that obvious to everyone.

I'm very curious about how Lily's clairvoyance(?) works. When she told Toby to talk to Luna, I assumed she knew that Blind Michael was behind the disappearances. But then she hears that the smell of candle wax was left behind/saw the Roads in her tea leaves and was so shaken that she dropped her cup. Is she only aware of the general path that Toby needs to take, not the specifics? (I am also very curious about what/why Lily isn't allowed to talk about certain things.)

'I can't stand other people throwing my illusions on for me. It makes my ears itch.' I'm pretty sure this is hinting at how sensitive Toby is to magic.

I will give it to Tybalt this time; it wasn't really an unfair assumption that Toby wouldn't mind him avoiding her given that she keeps insisting that she wants him to leave her alone. (He doesn't get off that easy the other times he avoids her though.)

And even though she's still kind of mad at him, Tybalt's still the first person Toby trusts to tell about her Fetch!

Chapter Six:

Okay, so it is just the purebloods who send their kids to high school. That must really suck for changelings.

'I paused, amazement overwhelming my annoyance. "Etienne, is that you?" "Oh, blast. Hello, Toby," he said, wearily. "Please don't start." "Was the phone in danger? Did they have to get a big, brave knight to guard it?"' Is this the first time we meet Etienne in the books? He's been mentioned before but I don't think we've seen him on screen. The more I re-read the more I kind of want prequel stories? Pre-series Etienne and Toby must've been hilarious.

This book, even more than A Local Habitation, demonstrates that Toby didn't corrupt Quentin; he's just Like That. Getting shot could/should have been a wake-up call for him about how potentially dangerous associating with Toby could be - instead, he's *very* upset that she won't bring him along to investigate a situation that's starting out even more dangerous than the last investigation he helped her with. (I know that it would've been really bad in the long run, but can you IMAGINE if Eira had gotten her wish to have the Crown Prince of the Westlands under her thumb - and it turned out that he's just Toby without the healing powers to get him out of messes? He would be SUCH a headache for her.)

'[Luna's] laughter died, taking the light in her eyes with it. "I rather thought you might," she said, quietly. "I'd hoped that someone else would... but it's no matter. Come along." This is the moment that Luna accepts she's going to send Toby to die, right? She'd hoped someone else would show up on a fool's quest to stop her father, but it doesn't really change anything for her that it's Toby instead. (By the way if you haven't seen it before you should definitely read this meta on Luna and then go through @words-writ-in-starlight entire Toby Daye tag they have the BEST thoughts)

That's it for this part! As always please feel free to talk to me about stuff. See you next time!

[armigcr]

    current mood:  noct’s terror @ realising he has to die