QUESTION 1: How did you come up with the names of the Light Fey clans (Svarestri, Blarestri, Alorestri)? I read in “Buying Trouble” that these refer to the color of their respective livery. So how does “Sva” mean black, “Alo” mean green, and “Bla” mean blue?

Well, first, you have to remember that those aren’t really their names. The Fey are superstitious about giving out their real names, in case they be used in enchantments against them, and often use nicknames instead. Second, the terms are a bastardization of the Old Norse words for those colors (hey, if it was good enough for Tolkien, it’s good enough for me.) In Old Norse, blár is blue and svartr is black, so those were easy. Green was a little more difficult, since the Old Norse didn’t see a lot of it! I finally went with ǫlr, translated into Old English as Alor, which was an early name for the alder tree. It is a dark, beautiful green, it is commonly associated with magical rites, and in Scandinavian lore the alder was the tree from which the first woman was created. And the Alorestri are the only Fey race to have a female ruler.

QUESTION 2: If you were to ask Mircea about the following characters how would he describe them using one word each? Cassie, Dory, Pritkin, Karen Chance lol

Cassie—hope; Dory—regret; Pritkin—annoying; Karen Chance—who?

QUESTION 3: Hi, you mentioned in one of your previous answers the Mircea novella ‘Masks’ and I just wondered when we can expect this? I’d love to read more about Mircea.

And I will enjoy writing more about him! But I don’t give out a time line for the shorts. They are wedged in between my other commitments, and sometimes take longer than I’d like to finish–and I don’t want to risk disappointing you by being unable to keep to a deadline. All I can promise is that you will see it eventually, and that it will be a lot of fun.

QUESTION 4: First, thank you again for answering these questions, it is really generous.

Thank you for asking them. Q&As are only fun if I get good questions; fortunately, that isn’t really a problem with this group!

a. Does Rosier or Pritkin have any idea about Cassie’s heritage given what was witnessed at the end of the last book or was it too brief for all the pieces to fall into place?

Rosier wasn’t there. He had put a spell on Pritkin back when the exile was first agreed upon (otherwise, he’d have had to watch him every moment of every day, and frankly, he had better things to do). So when Pritkin broke the terms of the spell, it jerked him back to Hell. Rosier didn’t have to do it in person. Of course, that doesn’t really answer your question, does it? Don’t you hate when authors do that?

b. I have always wondered if anyone started asking questions after Pritkin’s wife died? Obviously, there was judgement and repercussions in the demon realms, so they knew, but why did no human authorities magic or otherwise show up asking questions? I guess I just assumed that his wife left no one behind to ask queries such as why the last time she was seen was her wedding?

Her family were part demon, if you’ll recall; they were just living on earth because they had zero chance of advancing in the hell regions considering their lack of power or powerful connections. They found out what had happened after the fact, but there was little to be done since Pritkin had already been tried and, from a demon perspective, harshly sentenced. And since they could hardly harm the son of one of the demons lords in any case. And since what he’d done hadn’t technically been against demon law. It was viewed as a tragic accident in which she had been equally complicit (remember, he wasn’t tried for accidentally killing her, but for attacking a member of council.) As for the human authorities, no one made a complaint, so no investigation was ever done.