I've been pondering this question for a while now. I had assumed that we had at least two villains (or groups of villains): the ones who tried to kill Cy and the ones who helped save him in order to collect his essence of fey. I think our readers will assume that as well because why try to kill Cy and then turn around and heal him? It makes no sense until you realize that they must have built the mechanical arm and had it ready when Moxie came to them for help. She wouldn't have had much time: Cy was wounded and dying. And something as complex as his mechanical with its apparatus that distills his essence of fey couldn't have been built in an hour.
There are only two reasons that I can think of that they would have had the arm, which by the way, had to be pretty close to the right length for his body.
- They're doing this to a large number of people. I think that's unlikely though because the fey have such an aversion to metal that they wouldn't willingly submit to having mechanical parts put on to them no matter how grievously wounded they were.
- Our villains intended the arm for Cy, which means they were the ones who orchestrated the attack, making sure that his left arm was rendered useless, requiring amputation.
- Our villains orchestrated the attack on Cy.
- Cy is somehow unique, which is why our villains targeted him specifically rather than a full-blooded faerie.
- Our villains cut off and how have his faerie arm.
- Our villains had some contact with Moxie prior to the attack, which is why she went to them for help in those moments of desperation.
Personally, I don't see Moxie going along with an attack on Cy, but I do see her being informed of his attack after the fact. With her skills in steam-tech, she would be the logical choice to save him by attaching the mechanical arm, but I wonder if she might be obvious about its uses in the long term.
ReplyDeleteThe attack could've been a ruse to mask their true intentions which was to attach the arm and distill his essence, so they might have attacked with intent to incapacitate him so that Moxie would unwittingly attach the arm. His wounds might have been accidental to their original idea since he put up a much tougher fight than they had anticipated, but it still worked out for the villans.
Maybe his fey arm is being used in a cloning experiment to create more fey to draw essence from as well.
As for them contacting Moxie ahead of time, they might have asked for her help in doing this, but left out the part that it was Cy who would be the victim, something she might not realize until later (as a plot twist against the powers that be).
I do believe Cy should be unique in some way that revolves around the essence he generates, but not sure what that could be. He could be just the last of a long list of experiments with other fey or half-fey that have failed before, but now it's working so he's the chosen one.
Just my thoughts. I like how it's turning out, Jenna. I see the process building and I hope some of this helps.
Um, I meant oblivious, not obvious, sorry.
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