In the first half of the tenth chapter of Wizard’s Holiday, everything is revealed, and IT IS A LOT. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.
WHAT THE FUCK, HOW IS ALL OF THIS HAPPENING IN ONE SINGLE CHAPTER. I HAVEN’T EVEN READ THE SECOND HALF YET!!!
The Truth
Look, Dairine and Roshaun had been building to a confrontation for a long time. I’ll say that I’m not quite satisfied yet, but I also know I still have a lot more to read. At the very least, what we learn of Roshaun and his people in this chapter goes a long way towards explaining why he is the way he is. The events at the end of the last chapter made it clear that wizardry revolving around starts was Roshaun’s speciality. How else would he have known that Earth’s sun was about to go critical? Thus, the Powers must have known that he needed to be on Earth specifically during that time in order to help save it. (Thereby stopping a massive bit of entropy in the process.)
However, Roshaun has not exactly made it easy for Dairine to come to this realization. Indeed, her fear, frustration, and ignorance all combine into a whirlwind of anger, and she and Roshaun LET LOOSE. Again, not surprising, but also not helpful. Filif ends up being the voice of reason, and I loved this moment:
She watched this with both confusion and satisfaction, but at the bottom of it was a kind of scared awe. She had been fooled by Filif’s diffident manner, and had been treating him as a bush in a baseball cap, someone faintly funny. She’d had no idea there was such raw power underneath.
This chapter is (so far) about shifting perceptions. Because as Dairine’s idea of Filif changes in a matter of seconds, her perception of Roshaun makes a monumental change, too. And it’s important to note that this is partially because Dairine didn’t prepare as she should have:
“How would you like it,†he said at last, “if your star flared up just enough to roast one side of your world? That happened to our planet once. I’d have thought you’d noticed. Or maybe you didn’t read the orientation package. It’s right there on the first page of the historical material–“
YEAH. OOPS. That’s on you, Dairine. I don’t think the rest of what Roshaun reveals was in there, but that context is crucial in understanding him. It’s bad enough to know that his world once suffered because of a star’s flare, and I’ll skip the gory, horrifying details here. The important part is that practically all the wizards on Wellakh died to save the world, and then spent years and years and years fixing their world. Oh, and those wizards and non-wizards were from Roshaun’s family. Meaning that all of Wellakh relies on Roshaun and his family to protect their world, even if that means that they must all die to save Wellakh. This one bit, though, hit me the hardest.
And she found herself thinking of the view from the balcony of Roshaun’s family’s palace, right across the very flat, strangely featureless landscape… right in the middle of the sealess, mountainless, melted-down side of the world. Who built that there to make sure that the “Sun Kings†never forgot what they were there for? Dairine thought. As if to say, “We’ll give them everything they want… but when the bad day comes again, they’d better deliver!â€
Which explains Roshaun’s reaction to Dairine teasing him about Mt. Everest. Oh my god, OF COURSE HE’D BE UPSET ABOUT THAT. Now, I don’t think this explains everything, and this massive tragedy doesn’t exonerate his perpetual assholeness, but this helps me understand him a lot, lot more. So, is this the thing Tom was talking to Harry about? Is that why all the Senior Wizards in the area are gone? WHO KNOWS.
The Pact
Look, we knew something was wrong, we knew something was missing, we knew Diane Duane would do something like this to us, and it didn’t matter.
“What’s the ‘Relegate’s Naos’?â€
Quelt looked at him in some surprise. “Uh, it’s where the Lone Power lives,†she said.
Kit stared. â€It lives here??â€
WHAT THE UNHOLY FUCK. WHAT??? DON’T YOU THINK THAT DETAIL WAS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD HAVE REVEALED EARLIER? JUST MAYBE? Except that’s sort of the point. This is so normal for Quelt’s world that it never seemed worthy for her to make note of it. How did things end up this way? How did the Lone One finagle a permanent presence on Alaalu?
Nita’s dreams make even more sense, and now we can surmise that the Lone One was speaking to her through them. It’s been waiting a long time for her to arrive, hasn’t it? Of course, there’s a more general meaning there:
“Simply leave me a foothold in your world… a place where my essence can lie dormant until the day comes when you do need it for the Change that is to come.â€
The Lone One has been waiting for Druvah, too. This has got to be the thing that haunted Quelt in the last chapter, right??? She never knew what Druvah promised during the Choice, or that Druvah has existed in many forms since then. But what can they do? I see no solution to this problem since Druvah already made the deal. How would they even find Druvah at this point??? I HAVE NO CLUE. They may have made a mistake, but can you undo a Choice??? Is that even a thing???
I am thrilled to confirm that I will be a Guest at CrossingsCon 2017! Badges are now available, so COME HANG OUT WITH ME THIS SUMMER.
http://youtu.be/VorQ1A-tR9o?a
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