ONCE BROKEN FAITH open thread!

I think you may be right about the Selkies. We've already seen that there aren't enough skins to go around, so if the ultimate goal is to use Toby to somehow bring the Roane back, there's going to be a lot of unhappy Selkies. Make that devastated; under the current system, someone who was passed over still has the slim hope that another skin will become available, but that will end if the Roane are restored.

I like your analogy to the Luidaeg, cursed to forever serve a public that demonizes her. I'm pretty sure that would put me in a mood to eviscerate people after a day. Faerie is lucky, though, ironically, that may be because of Titania. The Luidaeg can't harm anyone claimed by her, so she'd only be able to massacre those claimed by Maeve and Oberon.

I believe her prices are discretionary; they have to cost the individual something, but how onerous that may be is up to her. Take Quentin, for instance. He got two favors from her, the first being his passage into Blind Michael's lands. The price for that was he had to come out with Toby, or not at all. She knew Quentin wouldn't have left Toby anyway, but it was still a price with very dire potential. The second was saving Katie; "There are costs and choices to be made - one choice, actually, but it's yours alone, and making it pays my fee." Quentin was the only one who could make the choice for Katie. Ultimately, as Toby said, the cost was Quentin's heart, but that was going to be broken no matter which choice was made. The Luidaeg couldn't spare him that, no matter how much she might have wanted to, but in making that her price she made certain Quentin would stay away, and Katie would remain free.

I think Arden actually earned some grudging respect from the Luidaeg. "You did something I wanted you to do, and you didn't whine nearly as much as I expected." That's practically a pat on the head and a cookie. And, as I said, I think this 'price' will be good for Arden, because she'll eventually come to the startling realization that she can be a good queen. In fact she's just the kind of ruler Faerie needs, someone to drag it, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. I'm betting Cassandra will help with that.