Ch 24 - So I’m assuming that Bella is with Allirea. I’ve been wondering about Allirea—it’s kind of a neat reading experience to have this important knowledge that the characters themselves can’t retain in their heads.
Smart of Allirea to go and find Bella once she got loose. So Bella knows about the trap in Denali, and probably knows that Edward is alive (unless Allirea chose not to tell her that for some reason) -- but that also means that Bella and Allirea must be dealing with Demetri, which is dangerous and could take a while.
When Allirea extends her field over somebody, does it have the kind of range that Allirea’s own shield does? In other words, if she happened to cloak Bella, would it then cause Siobhan and Elspeth to forget about their plans to contact Bella for as long as the cloak was in place?
When Allirea extends her field over somebody, does it have the kind of range that Allirea’s own shield does? In other words, if she happened to cloak Bella, would it then cause Siobhan and Elspeth to forget about their plans to contact Bella for as long as the cloak was in place?
Allirea’s aura of unimportance propagates in a way that I can best describe as “really, really weird”. It’s retroactive and has arbitrary range for anyone she has interacted with while faded. Observe:
1: Bella and Edward learn Allirea’s name from Nahuel. Nahuel would only have been able to remember that Allirea bore mentioning if she were unfaded at T1, so this was one of the times when Allirea happened to be unfaded, so her brother could list her. However...
2: Bella and Edward continue remembering Allirea’s name without any trouble, even when Allirea fades, because they do not interact with (faded) Allirea directly. Bella successfully passes on the name and description to Elspeth later on.
3: Elspeth never experiences any issues remembering Allirea’s existence when she knew it only as hearsay (see Radiance ch. 1 narration).
4: Allirea and Elspeth actually meet, and Allirea spends time actively diverting Elspeth’s attention by fading.
5: Thereafter, Elspeth does not consider Allirea important except at times when Allirea is unfaded. (These times are very uncommon, especially now that Allirea is not typically with her family, who were historically the only people she routinely wanted paying attention to her.)
6: This applies to her interpretation of her memories (e.g. if Elspeth were asked to repeat aloud the conversation where Bella told her for the first time that Allirea existed, she would no more reproduce Allirea’s name than she would any time Bella said “um”; it’s just not worth putting in).
7: However, if Elspeth transferred that memory whole cloth with her power, Allirea’s name would be included. Any person she gave the memory to who’s never been around a faded Allirea could notice and consider important that third name on the list Bella gave.
8: It should go without saying that Bella’s just completely immune to Allirea, and will assign her importance independent of Allirea’s fading.
9: If Allirea fades Bella, then this will not inhibit anyone’s thoughts about Bella until and unless they interact with faded Bella.
So since Siobhan has never met Allirea, she’d be able to factor Allirea into her plans if for example she does go ahead and request the full memory-blast from Elspeth.
I understand her point about not wanting to be out of commission right now, but I expect she WILL want the memory blast sometime pretty soon, since tacticians are generally quite hungry for all the information they can get.
(I had to stop here and think about whether Siobhan’s power would actually get better with access to more information—if I’m understanding it right the answer is “only so far as that information would help her clarify her goals,” which, y’know, is far from insignificant.)
Anyway, after the memory blast, Siobhan would be able to remember and plan for Allirea while Addy wouldn’t, which I could see making for some critical differences down the road.
I’m also consumed with curiosity about how Bella and Allirea are getting along. Will Allirea feel threatened by Bella’s immunity to her power, or will they be BFFs by the time we meet them? Bella and Allirea and Pera all have sort of negative/shieldy powers—which, come to think of it, might have some bearing on why Pera registered as a singer to Bella. (None of this is an honest request for spoilers, I’m just musing aloud.)
It would be polite to flag guesses as guesses, for those of us who are spoilerphobic. ;)
But yes, that seems like a possibility. It would probably require something like Allirea being in the camp when they were discussing Bella’s line of approach, but it would neatly explain it.
Ch 24 - So I’m assuming that Bella is with Allirea. I’ve been wondering about Allirea—it’s kind of a neat reading experience to have this important knowledge that the characters themselves can’t retain in their heads.
Smart of Allirea to go and find Bella once she got loose. So Bella knows about the trap in Denali, and probably knows that Edward is alive (unless Allirea chose not to tell her that for some reason) -- but that also means that Bella and Allirea must be dealing with Demetri, which is dangerous and could take a while.
When Allirea extends her field over somebody, does it have the kind of range that Allirea’s own shield does? In other words, if she happened to cloak Bella, would it then cause Siobhan and Elspeth to forget about their plans to contact Bella for as long as the cloak was in place?
Allirea’s aura of unimportance propagates in a way that I can best describe as “really, really weird”. It’s retroactive and has arbitrary range for anyone she has interacted with while faded. Observe:
1: Bella and Edward learn Allirea’s name from Nahuel. Nahuel would only have been able to remember that Allirea bore mentioning if she were unfaded at T1, so this was one of the times when Allirea happened to be unfaded, so her brother could list her. However...
2: Bella and Edward continue remembering Allirea’s name without any trouble, even when Allirea fades, because they do not interact with (faded) Allirea directly. Bella successfully passes on the name and description to Elspeth later on.
3: Elspeth never experiences any issues remembering Allirea’s existence when she knew it only as hearsay (see Radiance ch. 1 narration).
4: Allirea and Elspeth actually meet, and Allirea spends time actively diverting Elspeth’s attention by fading.
5: Thereafter, Elspeth does not consider Allirea important except at times when Allirea is unfaded. (These times are very uncommon, especially now that Allirea is not typically with her family, who were historically the only people she routinely wanted paying attention to her.)
6: This applies to her interpretation of her memories (e.g. if Elspeth were asked to repeat aloud the conversation where Bella told her for the first time that Allirea existed, she would no more reproduce Allirea’s name than she would any time Bella said “um”; it’s just not worth putting in).
7: However, if Elspeth transferred that memory whole cloth with her power, Allirea’s name would be included. Any person she gave the memory to who’s never been around a faded Allirea could notice and consider important that third name on the list Bella gave.
8: It should go without saying that Bella’s just completely immune to Allirea, and will assign her importance independent of Allirea’s fading.
9: If Allirea fades Bella, then this will not inhibit anyone’s thoughts about Bella until and unless they interact with faded Bella.
This is fascinating, thanks.
So since Siobhan has never met Allirea, she’d be able to factor Allirea into her plans if for example she does go ahead and request the full memory-blast from Elspeth.
I understand her point about not wanting to be out of commission right now, but I expect she WILL want the memory blast sometime pretty soon, since tacticians are generally quite hungry for all the information they can get.
(I had to stop here and think about whether Siobhan’s power would actually get better with access to more information—if I’m understanding it right the answer is “only so far as that information would help her clarify her goals,” which, y’know, is far from insignificant.)
Anyway, after the memory blast, Siobhan would be able to remember and plan for Allirea while Addy wouldn’t, which I could see making for some critical differences down the road.
I’m also consumed with curiosity about how Bella and Allirea are getting along. Will Allirea feel threatened by Bella’s immunity to her power, or will they be BFFs by the time we meet them? Bella and Allirea and Pera all have sort of negative/shieldy powers—which, come to think of it, might have some bearing on why Pera registered as a singer to Bella. (None of this is an honest request for spoilers, I’m just musing aloud.)
It would be polite to flag guesses as guesses, for those of us who are spoilerphobic. ;)
But yes, that seems like a possibility. It would probably require something like Allirea being in the camp when they were discussing Bella’s line of approach, but it would neatly explain it.
Sorry! I edited to make that clearer. For the record, I am spoilerphobic too, so all of my speculations are always just that.