Yeah, it’s retcon time. Although like a game that’s still in beta… is it really a nerf if a spell gets changed? Is it really a retcon if the chapter was still in draft?
So, back in sf01, Emily used Foresight to get a pile of images, including:
A fertile river valley, harrowing and winding, but ending in a welcoming land before a great hill shaped like a witch’s hat.
But as I’m planning out sf05, it’s clear this one’s not what I actually need for what I intended it to represent. Instead, I’ll be changing it to:
Three eyes looking to different horizons, but only one can see the promised land.
Obtuse! Although I’m guessing the cleverererer of you already has this one nailed and thus the surprises in store for sf05 are gonna feel like letdowns and I’m a horrible writer and I deserve to die miserable and alone. But hey! At least I’ll leave behind a heck of a completed fiction project.
sf05 is in the pipeline. Stay tuned for the grand finale. I will be done before this year is through.
TheEyes says
Oh, I’ve been reading through the archives, and I think there may need to be another retcon:
From SA09:
“Going through high school multiple times and a double-degree stampede through college meant that math at this level was trivial. Just because her mind was a perpetual emotional, teenagery, traumatized mess didn’t mean Carrie wasn’t sharp as a tack when it came to raw intellect.”
SF04:
“”That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Carrie wondered. “I’m stuck. I can’t be a hero. I’m sick of being a… a little kid. So. I guess it’s time for me to grow up. …I tried college before. I screwed it up, big time. Couldn’t handle the pressure alone. Mom had to pay my bail when a series of really bad choices led me to being caught holding when some frat party was busted by the cops.””
Lirazel says
Mmmm. Interesting catch. Maybe she earned double degrees while living at home? Not unusual for “underage” college students.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
I’m pretty sure SA09 also mentions a failed stint at college. That’s the canon I’m adhering to, that she tried and the pressure drove things to get out of hand. I can fix that, though; sure, the story’s finalized, but it’s not published on paper.
Jen Gagne, Psycho Happy artist says
Right — she wasn’t having trouble with the level of the coursework. She actually finished college. It was a maturity issue:
“Then she graduated, and went on to college, at the University of Paragon State. Which was a mistake. She could barely keep her secret identity intact, being stuck at fifteen years of age. They tried to pass her off as a child prodigy, but by the time she double-majored in criminology and sociology, people were getting suspicious to the point where her thick glasses weren’t fooling anyone.
On top of all that, college life was rough on her… her mind unable to mature properly due to locked brain chemistry, even while her intellect was expanding. It only took one weekend of very bad decisions followed by a nice visit to the local precinct for her mother to nearly consider pulling her out of there. She finished off her run on probation.”
So if you want to retcon anything, you could adjust it slightly to attribute the “locked brain chemistry” diagnosis to her mother.
Lirazel says
Okay, I’ll bite. Three eyes would be Hindsight, Foresight, and Insight, and…
Now, here’s where I get hung up.
See, Foresight is the obvious answer, and Emily does/has foreseen that (REDACTED FOR SPOILING) survives, but I am not sure it’s Emily’s Sight that we’re talking about here.
So, I’m going with Insight. And I’m not sure whose.
Schadrach (@Schadrach) says
Yeah, when I read that, my first thought was Foresight/Hindsight/Insight, although aren’t using both Foresight and Hindsight referred to as “opening the lidless eye”, implying that they might only count as one “eye”?
What Emily has seen with her Foresight as surviving doesn’t tell you anything. She could be argued as seeing “the promised land”, but she doesn’t so much see the promised land (in the sense of being able to find/locate it) as see that there is in fact a future with people and everything beyond the oft repeated vision of the world in ice and flame.
Personally, I’m still waiting on Kas’ memory palace to be wildly important. Those random coordinates that 2.5 shamanically charged earths were dumped at have to be important.
I do wonder what parts Anu and film-Mister will play though…
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
I will say that the shift coordinates of where they fled to weren’t loaded into the memory palace — that happened after she sent it off. What was sent was a complete archive of Kas’s work to date on various projects and all her personal notes. (Like the ones in sf00.)
Jen, Psycho Happy artist says
Could be Insight, could be Foresight — whichever she was using to talk to E. [SPOILER REDACTED]. I definitely think this is telling us that Emily specifically sees a promised land.
I like this adjustment to the prophecy because it is a little more mystical-sounding and less direct than the whole “river valley land” variant. Also, “promised land” could be misinterpreted as the Second Age itself, so I like that ambiguity.
As for whether they count as one eye… it’s only recently that Foresight and Hindsight have been inside the same head, so I expect when talking to Winter/Summer, “the lidless eye” was the one eye they had. Anyway, I doubt that difference should matter.
Stefan — we’ve had months to puzzle out the big surprise in SF05. A reader who picked this story up one day and basically read it all cover-to-cover would be focused on the story, not stopping to ponder it for lengths of time between updates. Anyway, even if people do see where everyone’s headed, that’s not a problem — it’s about how it happens, not just what. (tl;dr, There’s more to it than “WHAT A TWEEST”)
Schadrach (@Schadrach) says
I was basing my “one eye” interpretation on things like the following, from fs05: “As one of the most powerful Fae spellcasters alive today, Lilith held a bag of tricks with near bottomless depth… including extremely limited access to the lidless eye. That was her right as the (former) Archmagus, to be granted some of Lady Summer’s Hindsight spellwork, in exchange for her tireless and loyal service.
Although, and this was a fact she concealed well from the former Crown of Flame… Hindsight was not the only direction through which Lilith could utilize the eye. Seven generations removed from the Winterfae, she still had a lingering blood talent for Foresight, the other spellworking.”
If I recall (and I’m not near my print books for an exact quote), there’s similar language in the story you referenced in which Emily speaks with E. and W., each requiring a different “direction” of looking through the eye.
Schadrach (@Schadrach) says
Even then, I only go that far to suggest that it might be worth considering that Foresight and Hindsight are the same eye, leaving the question of what the third eye might be. Though I certainly expect Insight to know the answer, since that’s what it *does* — it sees the truth of things, assuming things are there to be seen.