i’m in the middle of rereading gtn, and just got done w the avulsion trial, and i was wondering your thoughts on this: Pal and Cam are p adamant that gideon should be dead from that trial, is she not dead bc she’s god’s daughter and apparently doesn’t die or rot?? and if that’s the case, why would the original lyctors make a trial that is destined to kill the cav, rather than teach the necro how to use the cav’s energy and shit?

yeah!! i think general consensus is that she isn’t dead because she’s god’s daughter. it is not clear if she couldnt die, or if she just didn’t stay dead, but she couldnt be kept down by poison gas, she survived the avulsion trial, and the only reason her corpse is empty is probably because her soul got sucked up by harrow.

and i was thinking about your second point because of how ianthe definitely completed it, with no noticible effect on naberius nor coronabeth. and neither of them are individually More Energy Having than gideon. basically, i think she was able to complete it by drawing on both of them, and i think that might be the trick of it – it might actually require collaboration, i.e. drawing energy from multiple sources instead of just one, thereby spreading out the damage and not killing or brain-damaging anyone.

OR, honestly, it might just be designed to kill the cav. mercy never seemed enthusiastic about the prospect of more lyctors. avulsion means tearing away. maybe mercy thought that having your cav die mid-lyctor-trial was better than your cav commiting suicide and you then eating them, cursing you to a myriad of regret.