oh they thorny for this one

this is soooort of a redraw of something i drew in 2018. huuuge old art jumpscare warning. ive been about this theory forever. im in the trenches

plot: chise and elias return to gabriellas summons, and chise is eager to join the fray. her mana is drained from their meeting with manannan, but elias cant tell her no when shes got her mind set on action. he assumes his beast form and they bound off. yori ponders aloud that hes very soft on her, and gabriella explains the "two children" dynamic they have.

beast attacks the glashtyn, but its unaccustomed to its anthropomorphic form, and the glashtyn is easily able to blast it back into a puddle of goo. just then, chise comes riding up! she throws the sword fragarach to violet, but it immediately drains his mana. he has to be taken care of by robinthorn while ruth and the others continue pursuit.

jasmine and ruth catch up, and jasmine is about to deliver a face full of sword. but then we enter lapis' memories. she meets the glashtyn one night when her mentor is off at a gathering without her. he clocks that shes a lonely and scared child, but she follows her mentors advice and does not let him manipulate her. an older lapis is lectured about knowing the limits of what she must and mustnt do. and in the recent past, lapis is grieving her mentor. the fae seem to think shes a poor choice to succeed the previous mage, and lapis agrees in a dark moment of self-rebuke, but the glashtyn comes back to the door to offer his condolences. in the present, lapis turns on jasmine and throws herself in front of the glashtyn to defend him.

jasmine tries to reason with lapis - hes a man eater, and hes manipulating her as man eaters do. but she argues that no one can understand her, because shes the only failgirl among them. even though she has fae blood, shes still next to useless! just then, the eyeball chimera comes back and says that its target has been "accepted."

what we learned: despite bestowing fragarach to a hero she deemed worthy, it seems not just anyone can wield it. this is a return to form when it comes to "human/fae dysfunctional pairs that we may or may not be meant to contrast with robinthorn."

ch 121 | every cloud has a silver lining I

main cast: the investigation crew, lapis, the glashtyn characters introduced: none

tl;dr: lapis and the glashtyn unite to defeat a common enemy. the investigation crew sails back to the mainland with a new report to write.

plot: the chimera moves in to retrieve lapis, and the glashtyn is happy that she will be "set free." but all of a sudden, we see lapis' childhood through his eyes. hes primarily attracted to her loneliness and her inability to turn away fae. in the present, he inexplicably decides that hes afraid of the chimera and protects lapis from it - to the dismay of jasmine. the chimera thwacks them out of the way, injuring both jasmine and the glashtyn, whose right arm is missing. chise attempts to stop violet from wielding fragarach again, but he insists that this is his duty, and he is a little strengthened from the mana chise gave him. it should be noted that elias is here too, but he isnt doing anything.

the chimera transforms into a giant dog snout. violet and chise attack it together with fragarach and a big log, respectively. when it tries to retaliate, elias pulls them up and away in his two-legged form, after which he angrily scolds them for pretending hes not there (even though he wasnt helping to begin with). the chimera decides elias is not a target, and as he contemplates what to do with it - as destroying it would prevent anyone from studying it later - it flies into the air where his shadows cant reach it.

lapis says that since shes the chimeras only target, shell put an end to it by letting it catch her. the glashtyn reprimands her for throwing in the towel and says he wont let her take the easy way out, to which she is rightfully frustrated and confused. he planned it all to begin with! the glashtyn says that he will help her, and using his magic lapis casts a curse upon the chimera. it falls from the sky, and as violet contemplates using fragarach on it again... manannan appears! violet tells manannan that his duty is to protect, and manannan tells him that fragarach is a sword of retribution. its meant to be using head on, not to strike foes in the back. so thats what violet does. he splits the chimera in half and it dies. the glashtyn dissolves in lapis' arms before she can get his name.

we are already on a ship back to the mainland. chise and ruth join jasmine on the dock. jasmine feels doubt about the duty of her family. now that she knows that humans and fae are able to collaborate, shes unsure what to do.

simon is typing up his report. elias, in his female glamour, tells him to cheer up - its not his fault he slept through the whole incident. elias tells simon how chise and the st georges are doing now that its all over. elias supposes that the glashtyn will reform one day because its a nature spirit, but its unclear if he will be the same being he used to be. yori supposes that no one will believe they encountered manannan while they were here. simon summarizes what we already know - that there are chimeras targeting humans with fae blood and turning them into monstrosities... but theres someone or something else controlling those chimeras. fragarach is too much to handle and will need additional help to understand it, and since easter break is ending they will have to contemplate returning to college. there is not much to suggest that this chimera business is related to the red dragon.

as all of this is discussed, we change scenery to a dark cave-like area where someone has a frankensteined body on a slab of rock. the speaker states that another project has failed, but is pleased about the involvement of both the st georges and lindel. we see that the isla-monster is still alive and peeking out of a stream through the cave. a figure with long black hair states to a room full of glowing eyes that they must hasten building "the fortress."

what we learned: this is our first good look at the maker of the chimeras and where theyre operating from. we learn, or are rather reminded, that elias is more or less pretending to be a guardian so as to not be seen as childish. it remains to be seen whether robinthorn will have a serious conversation about this. lapis' story has come to an abrupt end. we are to assume she is resuming her role as the isles mage now that the glashtyn and moghrey mie are gone.

ch 122 | every cloud has a silver lining II

main cast: various college staff, chises friends, veronica, chise characters introduced: none

tl;dr: zoey learns he has a chaperone now, and philomela is formally signed over to house scrimgeours protection.

plot: torrey is scrubbing adolfs fish tank when his phone rings. adolf is going to take a while longer to get back, and is passing the care of his fish to other people. hes free of tank duty!

the cat camelia summons zoey for a brief talking to. theyve confirmed why the chimera attacked them in the city, and zoey is sad to learn that he is indeed the reason lucy was injured. he cant leave campus without a chaperone now. he leaves and is reassured by rian and isaac. they discuss how elias and chises sudden departure is related to the chimera attack, and rian figures chise will be fine with violet and elias around. fabio zaccheroni introduces himself as zoeys chaperone, to his great despair.

in the headmistress' office, the philomela matter is being settled. veronica signs over the rights to the sargeant household to the college, and they will hold onto it until philomela turns 21. house scrimgeour assumes responsibility for her. outside the office, veronica is pleased when philomela is able to look her in the eye. she hopes philomela will be watching when veronica "breaks her own cage." lucy interrupts them, and as she walks away philomela knows that veronica is planning to do something.

elsewhere, chise is alone in a foggy wasteland. she collapses in the grass and wonders who and where she is.

what we learned: this is mostly a peek into whats going on with chises friends while shes gone. the biggest nugget for us besides the ending is that we are being reminded of veronicas schemes at the end of arc 2.

ch 123 | two heads are better than one I

main cast: chise, yori, ruth, violet and jasmine, simon and gabriella, elias, and... characters introduced: a mysterious woman, and ✨THE HAND✨

tl;dr: the investigation crew have been stripped of their memories and scattered through a foggy wasteland.

plot: the dark figure of a woman is watching chise in a mirror. she deduces that chise is a sleigh beggy, and regrets that manannan forced her hand to do all of this... whatever "this" is. chise rouses to what she thinks is the sound of hoofbeats, but its just yori stumbling her way. hes lost his glasses, but he seems able to see anyway. they discover theyre both amnesiac and decide to travel together to learn more. they banter along the way. yori advises her not to drink the water in case theyre in the underworld, and they wonder if theyre alive or dead. both of them agree that a "spiteful woman" is watching them, and have a common memory of a black carriage, which is also on the cover for this chapter.

somewhere in the fog, chise hears familiar crying. she runs ahead of yori and discovers ruth, who asks her if she has seen his little sister isabella. he has reverted to the adult human form we met him in way back when.

elsewhere, the st georges gather themselves by a stream. in the waters reflection they deduce that they must be related. jasmines hair is now as long as violets. beast is with them. along their way, they discover some stones depicting the pictish beast, so jasmine re-renames beast... beast. the twins discover theyre loaded with weapons and are probably here because they were hunting goblins or somesuch, so they should keep their wits about them. jasmine is glad not to be alone, but violet would rather she didnt get caught up in this. they realize that although they must be twins, they arent alike in personality.

elsewhere, gabriella in a morticia addams dress has attempted to bite simon and is now wretching about it. apparently hes under protection by "one of her kind," presumably gabriella herself. simon is confused to realize that he already subconsciously knew vampires are real. gabriella is extremely distraught. keep in mind that she has told us in previous chapters how important names are to fae (see, moghrey mie). she knows that "the woman of this land," "the queen on the hill," has done this to her, and she intends to tear her limb from limb over it.

elsewhere, a black pool has formed. deep inside of it, elias' skull has fallen apart and drifted to the bottom. he wonders who or what he is, whether he can even see or hear. a woman steps into frame and picks elias' skull up to console him. the name given to him by rahab must have been precious, she says, for him to have regressed so badly upon losing it. elias' skull recognizes her and says he feels like he knows her. she answers that of course he knows her - SHES BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME! we get a full shot of the owner of the hand we saw in chapter 30. she tells elias that if he calls himself a mage, he must perform the duties of one whether he likes it or not.