let them sing of others

Why join his father to double cross him?

I came up with this theory because my wonderful amazing friend @morethanfantasy is rereading and shared with me things she noticed on reread.

The first thing she mentioned that made me get excited about this idea was pointing out, in the myth, after the great god killed the godchild, the goddess tore out his eyes. I’d forgotten this detail, and suddenly it made something obvious click: the God’s Eyes are his literal eyes. DUH

Rae obviously speculates that wearing the gods eye made it easy to summon the great god when she hadn’t intended to, but, obviously, the main thing eyes do is SEE. It’s not that she just called for the goddess and got the god instead because she was wearing an item linked to him, he was watching her!

And my first thought was “well. That raises some questions about Key’s behavior in that final scene.”

So… how exactly does that change things?

Key revealing he’d joined up with his father didn’t sit right with me, not because it’s not believable based on Key’s actions in this book, but because it makes any ending where Key doesn’t die to be redeemed EXTREMELY difficult to pull off. But between killing Fabianus and Glacia AND joining the Great God and holding Alice and Caracalla hostage? Holy difficult redemption arc Batman!

Like Rae takes key not killing his father and throwing away the god’s eye as a sign she corrupted him. BUT in this version of the books, Key went into the ravine DEAD, several years younger, and WITH NO TRAINING. It may not have been an option for Key to fight his father and win even if he wanted to. So, if we assume that Key accepted the gods eye in a moment of weakness from his father (either in spirit or physically after dying, being resurrected, and having to fight Octavian with no practice using his powers before hand…) and then regretted it… with the great god literally able to watch and hear Key at will with that gods eye on the mask, Key would have to strategize pretty cleverly to get out from under his father’s thumb without raising the Great God’s suspicions.

And given all of that context… doesn’t it seem almost theatrical the way Key reacts to Rae before destroying the Gods eye like it’s nothing? He gets angry at her and says “stop telling me who I am” and then just… crushes it. It feels very natural and it very publicly allies him with his father, but it ALSO removes a direct channel for his father to spy on him permanently, which if you were Key and trying to double cross your father, you’d have been trying to find an excuse to do that all along.

Some more evidence

Once I suggested that idea, Mor pointed out two other times that fit reallly well with this idea.

1) Key tries to destroy the Gods eye basically on DAY ONE of resurrection.

In a fit of anger in the throne room, he throws the mask with the gods eye in it so hard that the mask shatters. I found this odd on first read because, it seemed to me from the way Rae associated the mask and gauntlets with the emperor and the fact that very few courtiers ever knew/used Key’s name, that the mask, like the gauntlets, was something Key chose to wear VERY FREQUENTLY if not all the time.

But again, this throw seems like a natural fit of rage, but if he had broken the gods eye ‘accidentally’, he’d be free of it without suspicion on his father’s part. And even though he didn’t succeed, the broken mask allowed him to choose to embed it in a sword something he a) can choose not to carry around with him whenever he wants and b) might not allow the great god as much physical access/influence to key as a mask he’s supposed to wear on his face.

2) Another part Mor pointed out that has a new tone if you keep this theory in mind is when Key destroys the bone room. He tells the story of his death in a mocking tone and orders for the godchild’s bones to be destroyed. To me, before this theory, the scene just gives general-unhinged-trauma-response, but if we know his father is actively watching Key with Key’s knowledge, it now gives: fuck you dad, you can’t tell me what to do + a general tantrum about how his father murdered him in a past life. Like it’s kind of like taking a baseball bat to his dad’s car while his dad watches for lack of a better comparison.

Bitch didn’t you think Lia was a double agent too? How many double agents are you going to theorize about???

I’m still confident in my theory Lia took the gods eye to kill Key and has not joined the great god in earnest, but I actually think that these two double crossing plots are COMPLETELY on brand for how SRB builds tension in this series.

In book 1 the grand reveal Key was emperor was possible to guess, but it was under layers of red herrings. Rae states the king is the emperor, and then even if you doubt that when you meet Key, the love interest, Rae reaffirms that misconception in the next chapter. Every time the audience has doubts about Octavian being the emperor, Rae has the same doubts and justifies her belief it’s Octavian despite them.

In All Hail Chaos Ink/Alice is the grand reveal, and even as a big believer Alice was going to be in this book, I STILL didn’t catch on until right when SRB wanted me to (at the cave) because of layers of misdirection. Ink is afraid of being caught because she’s a girl dressed as a boy, and then Caracalla’s speculation that the reason she’s strange is is because she’s a run away noble girl and not a stable girl from the cauldron like she claims. Even when Alice starts saying things from the books she shouldn’t possibly be able to know (that Eric blackmailed Marius) the book gives us a solid misdirection since Pio had recently mentioned he had a spy who came to him with that intel.

I think that Lia is the misdirect we’re meant to see: see she hasn’t betrayed Rae, she’s a double agent.