## [RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil Book 3: Chapter 65: Elision

* Author: u/Zayits *
* URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/chapter-65-elision/
* Score: 71

* Created: 2018-02-16T05:02:42

### Post:

[Link to content](https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/chapter-65-elision/)

### Comments:

> **u/panchoadrenalina** [+32]  (53 minutes later)
> 
> i just realized that the whole split in the chapter was an illusion, akua is not dead, yet. 
> 
> * just before the split: "What began as a broad procession grew narrow as it rose, leading to **tall gates of bronze** that now stood sealed. Behind them, I knew, awaited the woman I had come to kill."
> 
> * last words of the chapter: "My boot touched the stone. I looked up to doors of **bronze wide open** and began the climb..."
> 
> this chapter was either the monster, akua is too cool to use real monster and used mind games as the big scary thing you have to defeat before the BBEG, or is *the trial* the tribulation the hero must face before earning the right to challenge the BBEG. i am leaning for the trial.
> 
> also the chp ended with cat singing the girl who climbed the tower.

>> **u/sharikak54** [+14]  (3 hours later)
>> 
>> She wouldn't be dead anyway, her phylactery is ~~in another tower~~ somewhere else.

>> **u/None** [+3]  (10 hours later)
>> 
>> Thanks for explaining that; I didn't understand it at all.  I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

>>> **u/panchoadrenalina** [+13]  (10 hours later)
>>> 
>>> My understanding is that when Cat reached the doors a illusion of some kind triggered and showed her three different lives:
>>> 
>>> In one she became a Squire of good and lead the ragtag band of misfits into defeating the empire in a bloody war. When she was about to win procer came knocking she fought them off too. the empire was in a civil war Akua defeates Malicia and became empress; she comes at the head of an evil army and ask Cat to kneel.
>>> 
>>> In the second Cat became the leader of the shadow guilds. The empire entered in a civil war, and cat took the chance to screw with the empire. procer came with their crusade and cat fuck them too. Akua won the civil war became dread empress and came to command Cat to kneel.
>>> 
>>> In the third Cat went to the war college without meeting black. Rose through the ranks with lots of blood and help from Akua's mother. She became her general and helped her defeat each of the empire's armies in Callow with poetic beauty. Then the empire retreated out of callow to fight the civil war leaving Cat the defacto leader of Callow. Procer came knocking and she was in diplomatic talks with them when Akua apperared as the dread empress and a flying fortress and asked her to kneel.
>>> 
>>> Then she was shown the current future. she fights with akua and she seizes the weakness in Cat's soul and forced her to kneel.
>>> 
>>> Cat said fuck you and stabbed akua in all of the parallel lives. That broke the illusion and the doors were now open.

>>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+18]  (11 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> That's kind of cool. It implies that the only way to overcome this trial is to inherently be the kind of person who would rise and strike back, regardless of your life experiences. It says a lot about Cat that not one of those trajectories produced a version of her willing to kneel.
>>>> 
>>>> Edit: *Oh god.* It's the "trite and fairly common quality she had in her all along." Cat totally called this.

>>>>> **u/None** [+12]  (12 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Don't forget Black's words, way back when presenting Cat to the Imperial Court, the first time Cat entered the tower:
>>>>> 
>>>>> *We do not kneel*

>>>>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+7]  (12 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> And she really doesn't. Not even if she never meets Black. Not even if she's the one who kills him.

> **u/aerocarbon** [+14]  *NERV* (25 minutes later)
> 
> > “Kneel, Catherine Foundling,” Akua Sahelian ordered. “And rise my Black Knight.”
> 
> > “Fuck you,” I gasped. “He’s-“
> 
> > “Dead,” Diabolist said. “He was not the kind of man easily kept prisoner. Why take the risk?”
> 
> *oh*
> 
> A part of me desperately wants to think that Akua's bluffing ... but she's been avoiding the idiot ball thus far, and killing Black before Cat could ever have a chance to save him is *exactly* what someone sans idiot ball would do.
> 
> ... but then again, if we're following the narrative rule of "not dead until you see a body," Black might have a chance.
> 
> ---
> 
> Overall ... I am confused. Aroused, but confused.
> 
> I do know one thing for sure, though - the wait for the next update is going to *kill* me.
> 
> Also: "In linguistics, [**an elision**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elision) or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase." Any ideas on the significance of the chapter name?

>> **u/Zayits** [+4]  (40 minutes later)
>> 
>> Cat's plans consistently run on the unspoken plan guarantee, and the author finally named a chapter after it.

>>> **u/mojojo46** [+9]  (2 hours later)
>>> 
>>> I take it more that the other paths not taken have been omitted over. This chapter is forcing a joining of of the abstract possibilities on Cat, which interestingly, is another definition of elision...

>> **u/M3mentoMori** [+3]  (48 minutes later)
>> 
>> I'm pretty sure Black is actually dead (though he may not remain that way for long), as EE is heavily hinting at a transition here. Black's death here is a great catalyst for such a transition, regardless of if it's to Knight or Queen.
>> 
>> Edit: Reading this again, I'm a bit less certain on Black's status. Everything between Cat taking the first step and the last paragraph appears to be part of the split lives thing, and so Akua never said those lines. I still think Black's dying here, though

>>> **u/DTravers** [+1]  (8 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Black can't be dead, because Catherine specifically suspected he would die before she left him. There's no way the story would be that predictable.

>>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+3]  (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> Normally I would agree with you, but since this story is set in a universe that runs on narrative tropes, predictability is woven into the fabric of Cat's reality. I'm really not sure whether he'll live or die.

>> **u/None** [+3]  (9 hours later)
>> 
>> he was dead inside the illusion, check /u/panchoadrenalina comment.

> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+15]  (12 hours later)
> 
> Something that struck me about the Pyrrhic nature of heroic!Catherine's victories:
> 
> On a first read, this seemed like confirmation that Cat was right all along not to pursue heroism. Just as she expected, driving out Praes came at the cost of thoroughly wrecking Callow. 
> 
> But what's more likely--that this trap faultlessly extrapolates the alternate realities that would result from changing key events, or that it simply generates scenarios based on the memories and expectations of the person it's "splitting"?
> 
> I suspect that heroic!Catherine's victories were Pyrrhic because Cat *believes* they would have been--needs to believe it, even.

>> **u/Zayits** [+5]  (a day later)
>> 
>> Also I'd like to point out that by sending Lone Swordsman to stir up the rebellion Squire ensured that the uprising would be as small as possible, and so there would be relatively few casualties (even if the following campaigns turned out to be far more bloody). Even Akua's interference didn't inflict that much damage on Callow itself.
>> 
>> If Thief was right and the potential five hero band was to match the Calamities, then the Calamities would actually take the field alongside the legions - and there would be more legions, so the rebels would need more levies, and all knights would come out too. If Truebloods, and Heiress specifically, would interfere the same way to achieve their own goals, their contingent would have actual household troops and devils it it. If, best case scenario, the legions were driven out, Black would indeed order to scorch the earth and wait until Procer pounces on the opportunity.
>> 
>> But the problem, as both Black Knight and Squire understood it, was that sooner or later Heavens spamming heroes *had* to end up either in a heroic party or at least an open rebellion. In Southpool Assassin couldn't risk Thief manifesting a third Aspect or surviving in some other way that would allow her to become his mirror in the upcoming confrontation, and had to let her live questioning whether she's actually a hero instead.
>> 
>> So, when the first instance of meeting a rebel group ended with Squire facing the Lone Swordsman, the decision to spare him looks dubious both for her and the readers. But Catherine didn't pick just any hero. She picked William.
>> 
>> William "All my associates are knocked out in a burning building, time to brood" Greenbury.
>> 
>> William "Hey, let's play with goblinfire and take the entire Summerholm hostage" Greenbury.
>> 
>> William "Free brainwashing for everyone" Greenbury.
>> 
>> And she basically set him up to fail, too:
>> 
>> > If you want your way to beat mine, then come at me again. Properly. Earn your Name, hero. Run and hide and muster your armies in the dark. Make deals you’ll regret until you have nothing left to bargain with. I’ll be waiting for you, on the other side of that battlefield.
>> 
>> He came back at her, making his story not about freeing Callow, but about beating Squire (note how during the first rebel meeting he talks about blowing up Black Knight next, but after starting the uprising he focuses on killing Catherine). Her story, meanwhile, is about appropriating the Imperial system to rise to prominence and protect Callow. So he gets what he wants, and kills her - but that's the end of his story, and so *she* gets what she wants and leverages her claim into getting resurrected and crowned, and her story goes on. Cue Squire killing the Swordsman.
>> 
>> He earned his Name by entering Arcadia and getting all three Aspects there - but those Aspects' main function is just giving him the perks of an average hero (fencing that he was already good at, healing that the Gods Above usually provide anyway, inevitable victory) despite being a gritty antihero. Catherine, by the end of the first book, still had potential for growth - and so she outgrew the rivalry with William, while he was stuck in his tragedy that could only end one way.
>> 
>> He raised an army, something he was uniquely unsuited to do - and so had to ask Procer for money, hire Helikean and dwarven mercenaries and deal with the band he didn't know how to lead. As a result, most of the knights stayed in hiding, the main pitched battles had the mercenaries instead of Callowans suffering the biggest casualties, and the band was essentially just William and Almorava after Summerholm.
>> 
>> He made deals he regretted until he had nothing left to bargain with - not even his own life, sacrificed for a stunningly bad, if desperate gambit to turn the tide of the uprising. Squire basically straight up told him to lose undermine himself, and he did so, until the very end.
>> 
>> I'm sorry for this digression, but I wanted to lay out that Lone Swordsman was a terrible rebel leader, and Catherine had limited the scope of the conflict (and with it, the damage) by forcing him in a Role he was unfit for.
>> 
>> Back to the damages wrought, though. For someone who made a point of using devils and demons to set up her transition, Heiress did remarkably little damage. Her intervention was too limited by the scope of the rebellion, but also by the systematical undoing of every reliable piece of her forces. Even her carefully set up pattern of three went unnoticed by Catherine, and so affected only Akua.
>> 
>> She used human sacrifices, but instead of, say, taking the rebels for this, she purposefully lost two thousand slaves she herself bought (and about a thousand of her fantassins in the process), and sacrificed them for a pack of devils that was dismissed a couple of hours later.
>> 
>> The fantassins allowed her to take Dormer and pillage rebel holdings, but that only resulted in her mother having to pay the reparations for it, and later she decided to dismiss them to not pay for the campaign and to rush for the ritual site.
>> 
>> Even the demon she used on the mercenaries instead of Callowans, and while the casualties from it hampered the Fifteenth, the only long-term consequence of it was the gate in Marchford, which the Empress countered by positioning Squire, Apprentice AND the entire Fifteenth legion at it.
>> 
>> To sum it up - while I think that Catherine may be somewhat shortsighted in the areas she has no experience in, all her actions as the Squire were directed towards limiting the damage to Callow - and she was successful at it, too. If the Fate didn't have both Courts invading Callow to set up Squire and Diabolist as equals for their final confrontation, Catherine may well had rooted Akua out before she did irreparable damage.

>>> **u/Zayits** [+3]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> To elaborate on how unsuited William was to take decisions on his own: if you look back to the examples I used to illustrate his "brilliance", you'll notice that most of his bad decisions came after he was forced into the Role of a leader. The initial plan of smuggling out written-off munitions to catch the Praesi off guard and then blow up the key figures was viable, it just wasn't enough for his desired outcome to stir up the rebellion while the Praesi are on the back foot.
>>> 
>>> In contrast to that, aside from the earlier examples, I'd like to point to Interlude: Nemeses. Bard starts hinting that Heiress will have a role (and a scheme) to play in the siege, but William doesn't get it. She *physically throws hints at him*, but he ignores them. She all but says that Catherine still has to face Akua one last time before she can actually be killed, but William still ends up dismissing that. In the end, Bard sighs, and basically tells him: "Fine, if you don't want to actually think about the plan, do the stupid brainwashing thing".
>>> 
>>> The end result is that instead of sparing Catherine to let her die to Akua's trap and then killing Squire and Heiress, he puts her down for less than an hour. All because he refused to look beyond the limits of his personal tragedy.
>>> 
>>> Even the Hashmallim only try to save his life by making Cat the one to take decisions instead of him. Had he won, he still would die as the angel would enter Liesse.

>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+2]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> This is a strong argument in favor of the path Cat chose, and I want to clarify that I'm not saying pursuing heroism *wouldn't* have been worse for Callow. I just don't think the scenario presented in the illusion necessarily shows what would "really" have happened. Whether or not things would actually have gone that badly--and they very well might have--I'm speculating that the *reason* the illusion shows them going badly is because it's what Cat expected, not because the spell has actual knowledge of alternate realities or the ability to accurately predict them.
>>> 
>>> Personally, I think it would be more interesting that way. Cat's deals with the devil have more weight if there's always some doubt as to whether she's helping or hindering Callow in the long run. Having *proof* that, for instance, her heroic path would have ended with Callow in tatters would kind of take the wind out of those sails.

>> **u/Zayits** [+5]  (12 hours later)
>> 
>> Do you think that Cat would include the Bard in her potential heroic band after her talk with Thief in Laure?
>> 
>> Personally, I think it's something in between, a bunch of visions that mostly rearranges the past events but also adds extrapolations that would put the whole experience into a perspective benefitting the creator of the vision (kind of like Contrition's vision of Queen of Callow, only with "Kneel" instead of "Repent" as an inevitable outcome).

>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+6]  (12 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Cat might reasonably think that a version of her who worked with William, and never had that particular talk with Thief, would have the Bard in her band. After all, the Bard *was* in William's band. 
>>> 
>>> I agree that the spell must also force extrapolations that lead to Akua's desired "Kneel" outcome. Either that or Cat did it all on her own--she might be arrogant enough to believe Akua's ascending to the throne is inevitable without her intervention! But the spell would be kind of unreliable in that case, so it's probably built in.

>>> **u/werafdsaew** [+5]  (14 hours later)
>>> 
>>> If Cat was a Hero and not a Villain, and was doing a good job of making sure evil loses, the Wandering Bard would have no reason to be a jackass.

>> **u/um_m** [+3]  (14 hours later)
>> 
>> Don't forget the illusion reveals Ubua's two aspects.

>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+2]  (14 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Do we know those are really her aspects, were they confirmed elsewhere? Either way, as the probable architect of this spell it's not surprising that some of her knowledge is in there. She at least had to manipulate it enough to have every timeline end the same way.

>>>> **u/um_m** [+6]  (16 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> It was confirmed in the Ubua's battle against summer iirc.

> **u/CFCrispyBacon** [+15]  (11 hours later)
> 
> It amuses me that all the alternate Callows are worse off for Cat having chosen to do anything but embrace her villainhood.  For all her problems adhering to a consistent moral code, she's still the best chance Callow has, especially if she can dig in before the incoming Crusade hits.

>> **u/Zayits** [+10]  (12 hours later)
>> 
>> Yeah, it's Wildbow levels of "could have been worse".

>>> **u/Ateddehber** [+5]  (14 hours later)
>>> 
>>> That's exactly what I was thinking! The level of insight and worseness reminds me of the boar's WOG

>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+6]  (18 hours later)
>> 
>> I suspect this is because the spell based the scenarios on Cat's own mind, and *she* thinks this is the best she can do for Callow.

> **u/Zayits** [+13]  (3 hours later)
> 
> Somewhere in the illusion where Cat became White Knight, Bard screams in panic: "Triple fantasy! Triple fantasy!"

>> **u/None** [+5]  (9 hours later)
>> 
>> I'd love to see interaction between Hero!Cat and the Bard. I think she'd hate her and catchon to her shenanigans far faster than William did

> **u/Ardvarkeating101** [+11]  *Father of Learning* (an hour later)
> 
> The first step is the hardest, they said to her, you will have to walk through fire.
> 
> It will burn away what you once were, and always devour whole a liar.
> 
> The part they left out was where she stabbed Ubua in the face, like, at least twice, when she gets to the top.

> **u/Keyenn** [+12]  (5 hours later)
> 
> Today chapter is the 100th chapter of Book 3 (including prologue, interludes and monthly bonus chapters). 
> Book 1 had 30 chapters, Book 2 had 63 chapters.
> 
> We can expect the 4th and 5th book to be even longer, then :D

>> **u/zacharythefirst** [+6]  *Chaos Legion* (12 hours later)
>> 
>> Calling it now, book three will have 120 chapters and book four will have 240

>> **u/ProfessorPhi** [+2]  (14 hours later)
>> 
>> Hmm, I could've sworn that the fae section was its own book

>>> **u/FeluriansCloak** [+3]  (20 hours later)
>>> 
>>> I was sure that the book would end when she unified summer and winter, and thought the fight with akua would be the focus of book 4. Guess that's getting out of the way now.... but procer's still looming. (And based on the visions, nothing will stop them from invading)

> **u/Icare0** [+7]  (4 hours later)
> 
> Black isn't dead. Yet .
> 
> All that was an illusion. Black being dead in that scene is as true as Cat being the Tolltaker, or she and William killing Warlock. 
> 
> I do believe he will die by the end of this arc, but it will not happen painlessly and offscreen like this.

> **u/TideofKhatanga** [+7]  (5 hours later)
> 
> That was a *magnificent* chapter.

> **u/M3mentoMori** [+5]  (19 minutes later)
> 
> That was interesting. I wonder what caused Cat to see those other lives.

>> **u/Iconochasm** [+23]  (24 minutes later)
>> 
>> I assume that final ward was some kind of psy-op to convince her that kneeling was inevitable, that underestimated how much "FUCK YOU" Cat has in her soul.
>> 
>> Reminded me of the *flickerflickerflickerflicker* "I win again, Lews Therin" sequence from WoT.  Very good read.

>>> **u/M3mentoMori** [+6]  (44 minutes later)
>>> 
>>> That makes sense. I initially thought it wasn't Akua's doing since each life ends with Cat refusing to kneel.
>>> 
>>> I forgot about that part from WoT, but that's a good comparison. Repetitions of the same thing over multiple lives, all ending the same way.

>> **u/panchoadrenalina** [+10]  (30 minutes later)
>> 
>> there are three things to kill a villain: the monster, the trial and the pivot. i am tempted to believe this was the trial.
>> 
>> is like akua was saying "in tree lives you have knelt in this you will do so too."

>>> **u/Kawoomba** [+6]  (5 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Calling it, that was the trial and the monster is going to be Black.

>>>> **u/None** [+2]  (9 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> well there also that posibiliy, in wich case, the coming chapters are going to be brutal

>>> **u/Flamesmcgee** [+7]  (an hour later)
>>> 
>>> Honestly, this feels more like the monster, to me. It was something directly set up by Diabolist to attack Cat when she tried to enter, not really a twist within Cat to make her worthy of victory. She hasn't changed in any meaningful way, or made any profound conclusions, she just badassed her way into it.
>>> 
>>> The trial will look more like when she withstood the pressure from the angel in the climax of book two. "Justification only matter to the Just" was big character development at the time.
>>> 
>>> At a guess, I'd imagine the trial will be accepting that Black is really dead, and that she's the next Black Knight.

>>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+3]  (11 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> It's notable, though, that *every* version of her struck at Akua. That may in fact have been the test--"Without the experiences that have shaped you up to this point, are you still the kind of person who will refuse to kneel?" To pass the trial, Cat had to be able to retain that core of determination no matter how her life went.

>>>> **u/panchoadrenalina** [+1]  (10 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> you make a convincing argument. this might be the trial, but i think the trial will be not acceepting black's death but accepting the name of the queen/black queen.

>>> **u/M3mentoMori** [+1]  (44 minutes later)
>>> 
>>> Good point.

> **u/mojojo46** [+3]  (2 hours later)
> 
> I just want to point out, this author has really good vocabulary. I'm generally fairly well read, but I've learned a lot of new words from this story!

> **u/CouteauBleu** [+5]  *We are the Empire.* (6 hours later)
> 
> Okay, so the alternate Catherines were really cool, but *oh my god* I can't wait 'til this stories goes back to making sense again.
> 
> Seriously, I have no idea what happened, what will happen, what is important, what was real and what wasn't, how exactly the "Only one strike" thing worked, and what are the consequences of anything that's happening / not happening.

>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+8]  (11 hours later)
>> 
>> So I think what happened is that Cat experienced 3 illusory alternate lives, in which the day that began her story as the Squire ended differently, setting her life on wildly different trajectories. Every version of her life led up to a seemingly hopeless moment when Akua stood before her, in the fullness of her mantle, and demanded obeisance. In order to pass the trial, Cat had to rise and strike at Akua in *every* lifetime. She had to be the kind of person who would do that regardless of her experiences and her role. She had to be able to do it even if she wasn't Named, even if she wasn't Black's apprentice, even if she wasn't a villain at all.
>> 
>> Everything that happened between Cat approaching the sealed bronze doors and "splitting," and Cat proceeding through the now-open bronze doors, was most likely part of the illusion.
>> 
>> I'm not 100% sure about "only one strike," but it may have referred to the fact that all four lifetimes had to converge on a single shared decision, a single strike.

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+2]  *We are the Empire.* (12 hours later)
>>> 
>>> ... yeah, I kind of get that... but... I mean... what the hell? Did Akua or Black set up this test somehow? Or is it A Wizard Did It?
>>> 
>>> Seriously, magic trials that you beat by having the (actually fairly common) quality of wanting to stab someone really hard are bullshit. I hope the story moves on soon.

>>>> **u/CeruleanTresses** [+5]  (12 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Probably Akua set it up. I could be wrong, but I believe this was the "trial," one of the key story components you have to face when assaulting a villain's stronghold.
>>>> 
>>>> The quality was probably more than just wanting to stab Akua really hard, since none of the 3 alternate Cats had the kind of personal grudge against her that our Cat has. I'm guessing something in the vein of "determination." Which fits quite well with Cat's internal narration about how the trial tests you for a "trite and actually fairly common quality [you'd] had in [you] all along."

>>>> **u/Zayits** [+3]  (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> The illusion itself was Akua's doing, a way to force Cat's line of thinking into a groove that would fit her desired story (Cat losing her way and becoming Akua's Black Knight).
>>>> 
>>>> The bullshit is courtesy of Black, who decided to turn it into a trial and so set Cat on the path of eventually stab Akua for real, at the cost of being captured.

>> **u/sparkc** [+3]  (7 hours later)
>> 
>> I’m especially hoping that Black’s plan makes sense and is not some hopelessly convoluted plot that works via authorial fiat (though erraticerrata has earned my benefit of the doubt).

>>> **u/None** [+3]  (11 hours later)
>>> 
>>> If it does, I will be satisfied by the fact that EE has well-established narrative fiat as a legitimate in-world thing.

> **u/None** [+3]  (30 minutes later)
> 
> [deleted]

>> **u/Ardvarkeating101** [+3]  *Father of Learning* (43 minutes later)
>> 
>> That she's climbing a tower.  Like, she's at the base of one, walked through the gate, and now she's climbing the steps to go murder Ubua.
>> 
>> Duh.

> **u/Flamesmcgee** [+3]  (an hour later)
> 
> The Black Knight is dead. Hail the Black Knight?

>> **u/M3mentoMori** [+6]  (an hour later)
>> 
>> I'd be shocked if she wound up as Black Knight. There's a lot pushing her towards Black Queen.

>>> **u/Flamesmcgee** [+5]  (an hour later)
>>> 
>>> Black Queen is too wonky to be a name, tbh.
>>> 
>>> Edit: If she's going to go that route, my money is squarely on Queen of Blades for her name.

>>>> **u/Empiricist_or_not** [+5]  *Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm* (6 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Considering most of us have at least heard of the city of Sigil I support the sheer memetic badass implied by this name.

>>>>> **u/Flamesmcgee** [+4]  (7 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> It's also mentioned in story. Elizabeth Alban, I think, was some past queen of Callow who was referred to as the Queen of Blades. Whether it was her Name or just a fancy title, I don't recall.

>>>>>> **u/nick012000** [+3]  (20 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> IIRC the author stated in the comments to one of the chapters that Elizabeth Alban's Name was Queen of Callow. "Queen of Blades" was just a title/nickname that people called her by.

> **u/Zayits** [+2]  (8 hours later)
> 
> Also, in terms of power, we seem to finally see hard limits of Break.
> 
> Previously it broke the containment spell of Duke of Violent Squalls, a particularly inconvenient gate to the palace in Laure and what I'm assuming to be a ward the fairies made from souls of residents of Dormer. Here, though, all it could do was to kick the chair from under Diabolist.
> 
> My theory is that, assuming Akua didn't somehow find out about this Aspect and thought how to include it into her illusion, Break cannot affect Squire's opponents directly, only destroy their tools (possibly, the ones she can't Take).

>> **u/Keyenn** [+13]  (9 hours later)
>> 
>> "Break cannot affect Squire's opponents directly, only destroy their tools".
>> 
>> Damn, the Manton effect again.

>>> **u/Zayits** [+3]  (10 hours later)
>>> 
>>> I mean, it fits with the theme of breaking what she cannot use and using what she cannot break (at least I hope that she gets to use an aspect Taken from Akua in the coming war).

>>>> **u/Keyenn** [+1]  (10 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> It was a joke :p

>>>>> **u/Zayits** [+3]  (11 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dread Emperor Obvious to the rescue!
>>>>> 
>>>>> I understood that it was a joke, it's just that, obvious parallels aside, both stories have enough in common in how they treat powers, that I decided to take it in stride.

>>>>>> **u/Ibbot** [+1]  (15 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Dread Emperor Obvious, the Surprisingly Unsurprising.

> **u/haiku_fornification** [+1]  (3 hours later)
> 
> If Black really is dead this could be Cat's transition into Black Knight - with killing (fake) Akua being her Choice. It would fit with the "We Do Not Kneel" mantra too.
> 
> It seems like Cat has passed the Trial. I think this wasn't really Diabolist - just an illusion or a flesh puppet. It might be that Akua doesn't need her body to live considering how her soul is part of the Breach control mechanism. The Monster is either Black or the illusion was truthful and it will be a Summer fae.

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