CricketforChris

Like, did anyone ever teach Janet how to get dressed on her own?

When she hugged Cat for the first time did he have no idea what was happening?

The Worlds of Chrestomanci: Witch Week (1982)

Story: Diana Wynne Jones -- Art: Tim Stevens

The Wraith trusted him by then. Mostly, anyway.

Christopher was the most valuable asset the Wraith had, even more than Mordecai, spy and dream-walker, was. The Wraith was hardly going to let the boy gallivant around the worlds without briefing Mordecai on who and what they would encounter and what they were to do.

And Mordecai was responsible for the boy. He tried his best to keep him safe. That disaster in Asheth's temple had been quite enough; he did try to find out what they would face so he could plan for it.

He had known very well what those fishy-smelling packages contained, and his stomach had turned for more reason than the strong smell.

But when Christopher asked him if he'd known, forsaken or betrayed by mother, father, uncle, wide eyes desperate and hopeful and beseeching, and he couldn't say it. He couldn't shatter the light in Christopher's eyes. He couldn't be yet another person in Christopher's life to have betrayed him.

So I just noticed this subtle parallel in incident in the Pinhoe Egg with Gwendolen's use and abuse of Cat in Charmed Life.

Gwendolen has been stealing Cat's magic from well before he was old enough to notice it or consent to it, and she gets angry with him when he takes back control over it. She feels she's owed it, she only cared about him for how useful he is. This also suggests that it's a relatively easy piece of magic to do (she's said to be a fairly average witch in terms of raw power), and that conscience/law are what hold most people back from doing it (though Cat being an infant at the time probably helps. It's also possible that Gwendolen herself, being a small child, didn't really realise what she was doing until later on).

Contrast this to the egg-hatching scene in PE, where Millie helps the egg hatch. Irene, Cat and Millie lend the egg their strength; Irene doesn't know how, so Cat 'does it for her'. The 'strength' required by the egg is physical, but it does seem that they're lending it magical strength and it's certainly done by magic. Again, this is the taking of someone's strength/power by someone else, but the difference is that Irene very clearly wants to help and has consented to lending her strength (by placing her hands on the egg), so Cat is only facilitating the process, and the power is ultimately being used for good, to save the griffin's life.

I'm sure there are other instances of strength-lending in the novels, but the ones I can remember involve a willing and deliberate lending of your own strength to someone else.

“Franconia Grant: Now all of my family is to be taken from me! Gabriel de Witt: That, madam, is what tends to happen when one neglects people. The same thing can be said to myself.”

without even going into THAT, janet is like "hey ive just decided that i want the girl replacing me to have a better life, which means I'm never ever going to see my parents or home ever again"

and cat is like "ive just discovered that im possibly the most powerful enchanter on this or any other world despite being like nine years old, and also that the only person i had to care for me in the world kept me in the dark about my magic, stole it from me, killed me at least four times for her own petty gains, and was actively aiding in my being ritualistically sacrificed before she abandoned me"