Shippers got their amortentia fix.

Spoiler

"Fallen leaves and cold breeze and something faintly burning" point straight to the hodag. A worthy match!

Interesting peeks on magical New A'dam and other Confederation cultures.

Spoiler

LOL at every single task becoming a life-or-death situation for Alex. Old pal Larry to the rescue, that guy is such a softie...

 

So after reading this chapter a nagging theory crept into my head, starting with a fact many people probably suspected after reading the prologue chapter, but was just confirmed in this last one:

Spoiler

Jezebel Hucksteen joined the Deathly Regiment some odd amount of years ago.

Spoiler: spoilered for long rambling below:

Facts:

1. Jezebel was a contemporary of both Livia and Claudia Thorn
2. It was known, or widely suspected that Claudia was a squib even at this time.
3. Quimley was the Hucksteen's House Elf.
4. Quimley had chosen to stay with the Generous Ones rather than live with Wizards.
5. The Generous Ones only care about the bare details of the compact with Wizards:
   a.) A child from a wizarding family.
   b.) A seal from the Confederation
   c.) The compact is renewed every seven years.
   d.) They don't care about the lottery/secret-letters amongst the Elect, the actual identity of the child, or anything else aboveground so long as the above are met.
6. Gov-Gen. Hucksteen loathes Abraham Thorn personally.

Theory:
Jezebel was not the originally selected child for the Deathly Regiment. Livia or Claudia was chosen and Abraham did shenanigans to swap the sacrifice around.

Presumably not as ham-fisted as Darla Dearborn's attempt, but I would imagine that somehow subverting Quimley was involved.

Unconfirmed thoughts/possibilities:

• Quimley personally feels that he betrayed wizarding kind and deserves to exile in the Lands Below (which is why he is free to come and go if he truly wants to, but would rather not).
• Alternatively, he's been Confunded by Thorn into having a great deal of respect/subservience to the family of Thorn and was ordered to stay out of the way where he can't spill the beans. (Alexandra is fine, since she's a Daughter of Thorn.)
• Abraham Thorn truly is fighting against the Confederation and the Deathly Regiment, but he prioritises his family over nameless innocents.
• Therefore he will totally flip his lid if he realises Alexandra's personal geass with the Generous Ones.

edit: If the above is true, Alexandra really put her foot in her mouth with this latest task. Yeah, she wanted to make a point, but she probably has no idea just what point she actually just made. At worst, Hucksteen considered her to be a non-entity in his grudge, just a source of information on Abraham. Now he's probably wondering just how involved she actually is and Alex just painted an even larger target on her back.

Of course, that's par for course for her.


and just for fun...

Really far-fetched theory with no basis other than gut-feeling:
The Alta-California champion is Thorn or Medea under polyjuice.

 

Medea is polyjuiced as Hela, trying to teach Alex about trust and fools. Hela'd better check her tampon box for cactus curses, you don't hex and insult Charlie and expect no payback.

 

This latest chapter was really good. In fact after a bit of lull during the Pruett school chapters I think this story is on track to be the second best of the series.

 

Guess what? American wizards of old (the 80s?) had transfiguration rap battles. Gangsta!

 

I have a hard time with some parts of this last chapter.

Spoiler

Like, Alexandra has been casting doggerel verse exceptionally well for her entire life, but loses to Larry in this part of the competition? Larry and Harriet were too good at this. That type of casting does not seem like something people would have practiced right?