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DF Spoilers / Re: Plot twist-ish Elaine
« on: Yesterday at 02:42:54 PM »How's this for a likely scenario, no WoJ, just speculation.I agree, I also think that's pretty much what happened. Only thing I would add is I don't think Elaine was there when Harry came back for her and ended up killing Justin.
Harry wins the duel and Justin is consumed in the fire (probably killed but...). Harry searches the burning house for Elaine and doesn't find her but does find Bob.
Bob realizes what's up and tells Harry to hide him before the Wardens, who'd destroy him, or the mundane police, who'd confiscate him pending investigation, arrive and tells Harry how to do so in a manner that he won't be found easily.
The Wardens arrive and take Harry away and the start to investigate but then police and fire fighters arrive on the scene. They don't linger, but the mortal investigation disturbs the area enough that a proper magical investigation isn't possible, plus they have Harry in hand to give them the story.
Since the Wardens don't know about Elaine or Bob, they never ask those questions, and Harry can go back and retrieve Bob. Not a very exciting story but a simple one that doesn't require incompetence or stupidity on anyone's part.
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I think that magic can surpass not only the human senses, but very-fine doggie senses, too.
I admit that we don't know how rare such magical abilities are (or are not), nor how difficult the magic is (or isn't) to search for buried remains. I do observe, however, that magic isn't susceptible to being overwhelmed by the pungent smell of fresh fire, the way dogs' noses are. Might even make things easier, magically speaking: as a magic-purifier, fire should have burnt-away most magical distractions, leaving a "blank slate" effect (from which the enchantments on the skull would have stood out brightly).
You walk by a bakery, you are overwhelmed by the smell bread and pastry, a dog can smell each bakery good and it's ingredients. However back to your point, unless they knew before hand that Justin had the skull, why would they look for it? Is Bob even considered "magical"? He is a spirit.
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Because the only way Harry did not get the chop, is if there was substantive evidence corroborating his story that "the real black magic was done by Justin." Telling a good story doesn't get a warlock excused; not even with a WC-member willing to stand the Doom.
Or having the Blackstaff stand up for him at trial.. They had the body of aformer Warden supposedly killed with magic by a sixteen year old apprentice in a duel. That was all the evidence they needed because they couldn't believe a sixteen year old could defeat let alone kill a former Warden without black magic.
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Case not closed with the "capture," there's always an investigation before an execution. Even with "the Korean kid" -- who had gone far-enough down the black-magic path to actually become a frothing lunatic (and God-only-knows what that soulgaze looked like! ugh.) -- they tracked down a bunch of his victims, and evaluated them, too.
Did they? My impression is by the time they had tracked down the Korean Kid he had already did the damage, the soul gaze merely confirmed it. At Molly's trial they asked Harry to testify about his soul gaze with her, that was all the evidence needed. That was Harry's whole point, the trials for these kids had in effect become kangaroo courts where the conviction rate was nearly 100%! In Harry's case, I think Eb's argument was that Harry did indeed have enough talent to over come Justin. Apparently enough of the Council agreed and Harry was declared a wizard, though under the Doom and as a minor sent to live with Eb.
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The final form of Harry's ceremonial circle, in his (totally-not-a-villains-lair) basement lab, was of course FAR beyond anything he could have done at first. But scrap metal is CHEAP (often free; trash that can be picked up in any run-down urban area). Many scraps can be melted in a home kitchen, or with inexpensive gear; and molded essentially for free.
Given that Harry summoned Chauncy in book 2 (and it was far from the first time: Harry felt they had established a "working relationship" of sorts... enough so to be shocked when Chaunzaggoroth finally showed his true colors!) we know Harry was working on getting & improving his circles from very-early in his career; it is one of the fundamental wizard-tools (much like a staff is).
All of that could be true, however when he lived with Justin as a teenager I doubt that Harry had built himself a nice summoning circle.. I also doubt that Justin would have allowed access to the one he had, if he had one. So no, I still don't think Harry was busy summoning up anything while he lived with Justin.
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Was that explicitly WoJ'ed, or was that a conclusion from our favorite Unreliable Narrator?WoJ. He may have revealed it to Eb or he saw it in a soul gaze.. Which to my point, maybe seeing that, Eb decided that Harry needed a little bit more education on the subject of the Fae and their bargains. So a lot of assigned reading on those quiet nights on the farm..
In either case, however, it isn't actually salient, whether Harry did or did not get more power from his deal with Lea (for power to fight Justin): at that point in his life, Harry did think he got power from her, did think he had a deal with Lea, did think she had a special "faerie bargain" handle on him... and did not reveal any of this to his mentor/protector Eb.