THE WINTER LONG open thread!

My pet theory is Eira is the Firstborn who betrayed the Roane. The Luidaeg plans to use Toby to restore the Roane at the expense of the Selkies, and Eira may want Toby dead to prevent that. For that matter, Eira may have been responsible for August's disappearance...

My other pet theory (and I haven't finished TWL yet, so this might be revealed or disproven by the time I'm done) links into this one - that Eira is holding August hostage somehow, and that the thing Simon wanted more than anything else was to have his daughter, August, returned to him, and for that he was willing to betray his brother and enfishenate his stepdaughter.

I don't know about the rest of it, but I totally think that's the Luidaeg's plan. WHEN WILL WE HEAR ABOUT THE SELKIES ALREADY?!?!?

I think Eira was confirmed in this book as the Roane betrayer.

My pet theory is Eira is the Firstborn who betrayed the Roane.

I was going to say something, then saw that you haven't finished TWL yet, haha. You're brave to be looking at this post, lots of spoilers around.

Not very brave - at this point I've done so much speculating that I don't think Seanan will surprise me :) She's laid a lot of clues out along the way, and I've re-read them all three times now, and I've speculated ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Having finished it now, I'm taking my pet theories a bit further. I think the Dochas Sidhe abilities will allow the Roane to be restored but that it would require a ritual to kill Eira. Amandine may have some kind of Firstborn prohibition against hurting Eira, and thus be unable to do it herself. I think August fought with her mother about this very thing - August would have wanted to help Auntie Annie, but Amandine wouldn't want her to risk herself.

I wonder if August has been elf-shot. Did it occur to anyone else that she's been gone right around 100 years? So if her disappearance was due to elf-shot, she would be waking up any day now.

I also wonder whether the Luidaeg is the one holding August's slumbering body, and if she's been doing some kind of experimentation on her magic while she's been asleep, to figure out how August and/or October can save her children.

Oh-- and I also think that whatever it would take to restore the Roane would come with massive risk to the Dochas Sidhe who performs it... and that the Dread Pirate Luidaeg's threats are very, very real. She WILL kill Toby one day (or at least, push her to the very limits of her life-force).

The thing the Luidaeg said to Toby after waking up, though, that's interesting. "I owe you a debt I may never be able to repay / say you understand." I have a feeling that once Toby kills herself saving the Roane, the Luidaeg will use blood magic to borrow Toby's powers and bring her back to life.

Also, since Amandine woke Toby up from elfshot by rebalancing her blood, and Toby woke up / revived Gillian from elfshot by rebalancing hers, I am curious why Toby rebalancing Raysel didn't wake her up, too. I wonder if it has to do with Gillian and Toby's mortality - that elfshot was fatal to them, and the Dochas Sidhe rebalancing was actually bringing the dead mortals back to life... that it didn't wake up Raysel because she's not mortal. But then, Toby brought the Luidaeg back from the dead, and the Luidaeg certainly has no mortality in her. Hmm. Curious.

That wasn't standard-issue elfshot, though. It had Dugan's little bonus poison thrown in.

I think the Dochas Sidhe abilities will allow the Roane to be restored

I think it's certainly possible; after all, something in those skins must still be "Roane" after all. Although I'm more curious as to if the Luidaeg will ever be able to mother more Roane? Or is it dependent on actually having the same father, for the offspring to be Roane (in which case, it really is a shame--since obviously the father is gone now)? Although I haven't heard of a Firstborn who created more than one race... (and would mean that August and October would be different races)

I don't think the Luidaeg would be cruel enough to withhold Amandine's daughter from her, especially given that her own children were slaughtered (pretty much). But it is possible that she may blame herself as well for what has happened to August, especially if it is HER candle (and not just a similar candle) that August is holding, and that if she was trying to make use of the Dochas Sidhe to bring the Roane back.

I don't think the Luidaeg would be cruel enough to withhold Amandine's daughter from her

Wouldn't she? 1- Amandine is as nutty as an almond tree, and 2- Amandine stole centuries off of Toby's life in her attempts to "protect" her. Given what we saw in "Never Shines the Sun" I absolutely think the Luidaeg would hold on to the slumbering August, if it meant protecting her from Amandine.

But then, that would raise the question of why the Luidaeg needs Toby if she's already got August. Being half Dochas Sidhe and half Daoine Sidhe, I'd expect August to be the greatest bloodworker in all of Faerie.

Wouldn't she? 1- Amandine is as nutty as an almond tree, and 2- Amandine stole centuries off of Toby's life in her attempts to "protect" her.

Amandine's current madness, to me, is brought about by actually losing August; certainly in the flashbacks we've seen in Simon's blood, Amandine seemed pretty stable. In fact both of them seemed pretty stable then, and August's loss seems to be the trigger for either's going down the dark path.

So if you mean that the Luidaeg "stole" August and caused her to sleep in order to find out more about the Dochas Sidhe, it's a possibility but a bit far fetched for me (of course, she could also have gone into her own madness, even if now she seems pretty alright...in Toby's eyes). If you mean she found August's body somewhere and then hid it from Amandine because she's gone bonkers, it feels more feasible to me.

Although wow too many people getting elf-shot.

Oooh, good point. I'd love to see a fairy wake up from elfshot at some point around here, too.