Okay, I’m totally late as ever!!!!  Me, late, with my reputation.  Yes, always.  So, straight to the point.  This is the second week’s readalong of Shadow of the Sun being hosted over at Dab of Darkness.  It’s not too late to join in everyone – come on, you know you want to.  Plus, don’t read further because there will be spoilers!  Questions and answers follow:

1) Ellion has quite a mystery on his hands with yet the third assassination attempt. The assassin is the same dude, and once ‘dead’, he proceeds to disappear once again. What do you make of this elusive, reappearing, dead guy assassin?

Well, I don’t understand it.  Clearly a lot of magic is involved but I don’t know how he disappears.  Does he get up and walk out when Ellion isn’t looking or does he disappear.  It’s a bit of a mystery to be frank.  Plus, he’s dead already so how can he bleed – you need to have a pumping heart.  All very mysterious.

2) Throughout this section, Ellion and Amien have several exchanges of words. Did you have the urge to ask them politely, yet firmly, to step out back and settle the matter for the duration of the trip?

Well, they got on my nerves a little bit because partly they were acting like they don’t want people to know about their past history but then they’re acting so obvious that I want to shake them.  Just have the discussion already.  Also, Ellion annoyed me slightly.  I get the whole thing with his past where he’s hurt people unintentionally but frankly by withholding his magic now he’s almost allowing people to die just by being in denial.

3) The Tanaan suffered a great loss in the past, calling it The Deluge, believing it to have been brought upon them by a wrathful goddess. Do you believe this Deluge was due to a goddess striking a disobedient people? What could the Tanaan have done to warrant such action?

I don’t believe the Deluge was an act of God.  I think it’s something that people don’t understand, like tidal waves and volcanos – look at Pompeii for example, nobody knew what to expect and we all know that happened there.

4) The Tanaan are use to fighting in tourneys, one-on-one, and not in formations with team goals. How do you think they will take to Ellion’s attempts to school them in real combat tactics?

Fighting, working or acting as a team isn’t easy to people who are used to acting alone, particularly if they’re ambitious or used to trying to be the best.  The Tanaan are used to tourneys where it’s all about oneupmanship however, I think that all of them have fairly quickly adapted to Ellion taking control of the situation.  Clearly, even though he doesn’t want to be a leader it seems to be his natural way.  That doesn’t mean to say they are going to be successful.  Working in team situations can’t be learnt over night as we are quickly learning.  Too many people are running off doing they own thing which we can see isn’t helping.

5) Letitia has been wearing her mother’s diamond on her torc, which turns out was a gift from Amien. He crafted it himself and says it is a tool. What kind of tool do you think it is?

Maybe it’s channelling tool – who knows, it could be whats leading the bad guys to their camp all the time.  Alternatively, maybe she’s contacting someone??    What is all the meditating.  Sometimes I don’t totally trust Letitia.  Not because she’s not innocent but she does go off meditating quite a lot – no matter what’s going on??

6) What is up with the Tuaoh Stone having a strong reaction to Ellion?

I think it’s reacting to his own magical abilities, like maybe it’s attracted to him or drawn to him.  Like the voices in his head maybe are related to the stone. Actually, I’m just making everything up because I don’t really know.  So, don’t pay to much attention to me.  Sometimes I get lucky and through pure dumb plucking at answers hit on something – so who knows!