Again, there are spoilers below. Proceed at your own risk.

1) I’m still a bit confused with all the fey names and allegiances but was Artemis on the Aesir or Vanir side?

The Vanir. Remember her forest in Tempt the Stars? One of the Æsir could not have grown that.

2) Getting kinda confused by the various houses and clans of the Fey. Would it be possible to briefly explain who’s who? I just can’t keep them straight.

Pritkin did a pretty good job of outlining the three main clans (of the light fey) in Reap the Wind, but I’ll summarize what the books have said so far:

Alorestri: They live mainly in the forests and like to wear green (as camouflage.) Came to be known to humans as the Green Fey as a result. The more correct term, and the one used in faerie, is Water Lords.

Basic characteristics: Forest dwelling, water bending, Excalibur giving group who like human women, like them really, really well, in fact, because they’re constantly fighting the dark fey and need warriors. Known to be slavers, mainly of human women, they are therefore the most common group of light fey seen on earth. Also ruled by a woman, known as the Lady of Lakes and Oceans.

Svarestri: They are known in faerie as the Earth Lords, because of their affinity for that element. They used to worship the Æsir, the gods of battle (Thor/Apollo, Tyr/Ares and Odin/Zeus) and were gifted by them with an ability with lightning, thunder, storms, etc. You have seen them use both in the Dory books.

Their royal livery is black, therefore they came to be known as the Black Fey to humans, not that they meet many as they rarely come to earth. They do trade with humans though (hence the portal you saw in RTW) mainly for food as they live in an inhospitable, cold, rocky land so are constantly
trading/raiding for food. But human traders have to come to them. They detest earth as a corrupt, polluted land and refuse to intermarry with humans.

They have the purest form of fey blood as a result. Ruled by Aeslinn, Æsubrand’s father.

Blarestri: The name means Blue Fey, both because the royal colors are blue and gold and because of where they live, which is high in the mountains. They worship the Vanir, the old fertility gods, and therefore have an affinity with growing things as well as with their favorite element of air. They are known in Faerie as the Sky Lords.

They are the strongest clan among the fey, and the current rulers. Their king is Caedmon, who had a son named Heidar with a human woman a century or so ago. But as half human, Heidar can never succeed to the throne. Heidar’s wife is part human, too (Claire) but also part dark fey, and has slightly more
than half fey blood. As a result, their son is more than half fey, allowing him to be the heir to the Blarestri throne. His name is Aiden, and he is currently watching SpongeBob in Brooklyn.

3) (This one came in late, to my email address, but it went so well with the overall subject that I added it).

I have noticed a significant change—and from what I know so far, incompatibility—between the light-fey magic systems, and their distinctions with respect to Svarestri vs. Blarestri, in RtW and the Dory(/Claire) books. It was Æsubrand who wielded the winds, not just earth. The Svarestri controlled THE elements, with most having ability in one or a few. Æsubrand was particularly gifted, both in strength and being able to command all four elements. What happened?

a) You must keep in mind what the fey had originally, and what they received from the gods they worshipped, when they became their followers. All fey can command the elements to a degree, but different clans tend to specialize. The Svarestri were always Earth Lords; their clan just developed a special affinity for that element. But the Aesir (gods like Zeus of the thunderbolt fame) also gave them ability with storms, the Aesir’s favorite weapon.

b) Aesubrand is a mutt, being a hybrid of different kinds of fey. Caedmon’s sister Effridis (of the Blarestri royal line) married Aeslinn of the Svarestri to end a war, and became Aesubrand’s mother. Plus various Water Lords turn up in both his family lines. He therefore has attributes of many clans, not just one. It was the reason he was thought to be the perfect heir to unite all faerie. There was also another reason Aeslinn wanted a son who was master of all the elements, but that will have to wait as it’s a spoiler. :-)

4) Early on in Reap the Wind (I think somewhere in chapter 12), Marco says to Cassie: “Four months ago you were answering phones and making copies at a travel agency.” Has it really only been 4 months since book 1 or did I misread that?

Yes. In fact, it’s not quite four yet. This has all been one long summer.

You know Cassie constantly thinks of herself as ignorant or not-as-good-as-Agnes, but in reality, she has picked up things lightning fast.

5) The only political body that seems to take Cassie seriously in RtW is the demon council. They listen to her about the acolytes and she even asks them to help in the battle at the end. Why is their attitude different from the Senate and the Circle?

Remember how Artemis used Cassie’s desire to save Pritkin (in Tempt the Stars) to get in front of the demon council? And remember how she acted once there? A lot of people seem to have missed the fact that she was a total condescending bitch in that scene. I guess they put it down to the arrogance of the goddess, as Rosier would put it. But there was a bit more to it than that.

Judging by Artemis’ comments, it was clear that she was not there for Pritkin. He’d been the excuse to get Cassie to do what she wanted, but Artemis’s reason for wanting to talk to the council herself wasn’t mainly to help him. It wasn’t even to warn them about Ares, which Cassie could have done as easily, like she could have pushed the idea of an alliance. Artemis didn’t need to be there so much for what she had to say but for how she said it.

The council was used to being the chief power in this realm. Neither the Senate nor the Circle could remotely match them, or their sphere of influence, which was definitely not restricted to one little world. They were used to being feared, respected, and kowtowed to. They were used to being the last word on anything they deigned to concern themselves with. They were used to being top dog.

And yet, in a matter of minutes, Artemis had destroyed all that, had them all but wetting themselves, because they suddenly remembered what it felt like to be the underdog. So small, so inconsequential, so powerless that she laughed at them, a dead goddess laughed at them repeatedly, and mocked the very thought that their so-called power could stand against any of her kind, much less the god of war. They were given a sudden, vivid reminder of the old days, vivid enough that they (after a brief period of all-out panic) went running to ally themselves with the daughter of their greatest enemy, because she was literally the only chance they had.

Why does the council support Cassie? Because they take her, and their situation, seriously. They were alive at the time of the last war—many of them, anyway—and they just got slapped across the face with a reminder of exactly how bad things were. Unlike the vamps and mages, who are still coming around, still playing power games, still vying with each other for influence, the Council is gearing up for all-out war.

And Cassie is the best ally they’ve got.

6) Why has Cassie never asked Mircea about the pictures she keeps finding?

The same reason he hasn’t asked her about the picture of her and Pritkin in the newspaper. They really do have two relationships; Mircea wasn’t wrong about that. And they’re in the middle of a crisis. Risking their political relationship over a problem in their personal one wouldn’t make a lot of sense right now.