Pure Victorian Excess

In Brave the Tempest and Siren’s Song, we finally get more perspective on Pritkin’s incubus side. This internal relationship is really interesting, considering all of the hybrid characters we already know pretty well. There’s Dory/Dorina (dhampir), Claire (part magic-user, part dragon-fey), Cassie (part goddess/part magic-user), and Casanova (vampire possessed by an incubus for centuries). I see them as a spectrum of integration, with Cassie on one end and Casanova on the other:

----Cassie (fully integrated, keeps discovering new facets of her powers, but does not feel like they are at odds with her psyche) 

----Claire (disturbed by her new dragon urges and feelings, which have not been present for her entire life) 

----Dory/Dorina (one psyche that was artificially split in half, so now they have separate personalities and desires)

----Casanova (two separate beings hanging out in one body in a mutually beneficial relationship. At least, until Rian decides to go her own way)

Pritkin’s interesting. His fey heritage is fully part of him, although he feels alienated from his fey relatives because of his part-blood status. When we see him as Myrddin, he’s not conscious of his incubus half but it’s not at odds with him, either. It isn’t until his time in hell, and more so after Ruth’s death, that he sees “the incubus” as an alien entity in his body. It’s like he made himself into a Dory/Dorina out of sheer stubbornness. 

In Shatter the Earth, Cassie experiences incubus-Pritkin as a separate being with its own agenda. It’s almost like Pritkin is possessed by an incubus who is permanently trapped in his body. Like Dorina, the incubus can only manifest himself a) when Pritkin is not in a position to control it, or b) when the incubus is fully desperate, like in the end of STE. 

I hope the next book finds Pritkin back in touch with Rosier to learn more about his incubus powers (and psychology). Cassie has really benefited from her time with Gertie, and Pritkin could do the same with an experienced teacher. I don’t see Pritkin/Incubus ever being as fully integrated as Cassie’s human/goddess combination, but I do think he could be more like Claire. He’s always himself, but sometimes he lets the incubus-self and its gut instincts manifest over the war mage. 

-Pritkin throwing a chair at a two-way mirror and diving through the hole

-Fred shaking his tush in his boxers and sideways tie

-Cassie running down a hallway, yelling “FIGHT ME!”

-Rhea and Rico broom-racing

of

fucking

water

manlikans

raining

from

the 

sky

while

Pritkin

cackles

and

Zheng-Zi

Ride the Storm, pp. 357-8.