Karen Chance, author of the infectiously fun fantasy Cassie Palmer series, posted a new Q&A about the books and characters on her “The Cassandra Palmer Series by Karen Chance” page on Facebook, and in it she answers some burning questions fans had about characters and events in the books.
*** Spoiler note: If you have not read the Cassie Palmer series but plan to, and want absolutely no knowledge of any goings-on before reading, skip down the the “It’s all in the shorts…” section of this post. ***
Fan Q&A with Karen Chance
What exactly is a warlock?
Charley Sheen. It can also be a term for a mage who specializes in demonology, can summon demons and can put some of them in thrall.
In Claimed by Shadow, Pritkin confronts Cassie and Casanova in Casanova’s monitoring room, Billy comes in and starts making wisecracks, and Casanova takes a swat at him. Cassie explains that Casanova is able to hear Billy due to “his demon senses.” Pritkin is also in the room, though, and he cannot hear Billy.
They’re both Incubi. I would put it down to Casanova being in a vampire host while Pritkin’s other half is human, but other vampires cannot hear Billy either. Does this have something to do with Casanova being an Incubi possessing a vampire (thus being a spirit, sort of) while Pritkin is a half-Incubi, half-human physically living in this world?
Firstly, Casanova isn’t in a vampire host. The vampire who calls himself by that name does so because his incubus (or succubus, if you prefer, since he thinks of it as female) used to possess the real Casanova. But the incubus isn’t Casanova and the guy who calls himself that isn’t either. Basically, he’s being pretentious.
Secondly, Pritkin isn’t a demon. He isn’t even possessed by a demon. He’s a human-demon hybrid, and like all hybrids, he received some of each parent’s abilities while missing out on others. Some of the incorporeal demon races can interact with non-demon spirits, but Pritkin didn’t inherit that particular talent.
As for Casanova, when his demon is in residence, so to speak, he gains a good deal from it, including extended senses that other vampires do not have. It’s one of the reasons he made the deal in the first place. Hope that helps.
What did Pritkin think Mircea thought he was? If this question is a little confusing, I’m talking about Cassie and Pritkin’s conversation in the restaurant. When Cassie tells him Mircea thinks he’s a warlock, Pritkin seems to feel that there was something Mircea wasn’t telling her. What did Pritkin think Mircea actually thought?
Pritkin and Cassie were having two very different conversations in that instance. Cassie thought they were talking about the recent attacks on her life. Pritkin thought they were having a discussion about the few times they had…gotten close. So he wasn’t thinking about Mircea’s claim that he was a warlock, but rather the motivation behind it—namely a reasonable sounding excuse for keeping Pritkin away from Cassie.
In Touch the Dark, when Pritkin and Cassie first make eye contact in the Senate’s chamber, “something that looked almost like fear crossed” Pritkin’s eyes. What was it he saw that shook him up?
You need to recall why Pritkin was actually there. He said it was to claim Cassie on behalf of the Circle (since she was a human magic worker, the vampires had no real right to her). But in reality, that wasn’t his mission at all. Of course, the Circle would have been happy to have the vamps merely hand her over, but they didn’t really expect it. And Pritkin was hardly the man they would have sent for a diplomatic mission in any case. He was there to investigate Cassie, and if she was determined to be a serious threat, to eliminate her. In other words, he was there in his usual role as an assassin.
The Circle thought it was being clever. It would kill two birds with one stone—get rid of a pythia who was outside its control and remove one of Jonas’s chief supporters at the same time. Because the vamps would almost certainly kill Pritkin after he took out Cassie. It never entered their minds that Pritkin might have a problem going through with the assignment. He was, after all, a well-known demon hunter. But killing dangerous rogue demons is a little different from killing A) a human being, B) a woman and C) someone who was about the same age his late wife had been when she died.
Of course, Pritkin hadn’t really thought about it, either. He was focused on the logistics of the mission and the fact that he was going to have to deal with the Senate, which never made anybody’s day. But then he came face-to-face with the reality of his situation. Which was a young, unarmed human female with big blue eyes, tumbled blond curls and a happy face t-shirt. Who was staring down Jack the Ripper despite having absolutely no way to defend herself. She was tiny and delicate and courageous and vulnerable and obviously mental for not cowering in a corner and…
And he was appalled.
He was also afraid, because he’d never had a target like this. And because, to protect the Circle, he might be called upon to kill another young woman, this time on purpose. And because, for the first time in his career, he wasn’t sure he could do it. So, since he was Pritkin, he proceeded to act like a dick to hide his fear and to steel himself against her.
Are demons that are incorporeal on Earth (like incubi) corporeal in their own realms in Hell?
First of all, it depends on which realm you mean, because in my universe, “Hell” is a human catch-all name for many, many different areas. Are you familiar with Buddhist cosmology? Because if so, the Cassie Palmer universe is structured something like that. Basically, lots and lots of hells, each one different from the others. And some of them can support corporeal life (because some demons are born with bodies), but others would be toxic for anything other than a spirit.
Second, it depends on which demon. Some of the usually incorporeal types can save up enough power to form themselves a body (like Saleh). Others are spirits wherever they are (like the incubi, except for Rosier, who’s special like that). And still others are what is called two-natured and can take either form (like Sid). See “A Family Affair” for an explanation of how it all works.
Pritkin got a pretty nasty wound from a Fey weapon while he was in Faerie. Will it leave a scar?
No.
In HTM, Mircea told Cassie that he borrowed the limo from a friend during their date in London? Who did he contact?
A member of the European Senate who lives there. Her name—and you knew it was going to be a woman, didn’t you?—is Marsilia.
It’s all in the shorts…
If that wasn’t enough Cassie Palmer goodness, there are three new “coming soon” shorts listed on Ms. Chance’s “Freebies” page on her site. The cover art for all three is there, and we get to see two delectably smoldering cover images of everyone’s favorite dirty sexy war mage, John Pritkin, and one of the inimitable master vampire Mircea Basarab. Check ’em out below and drool to your heart’s content (tip: click to open the full-size image in a new window for optimal ogling)…
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Not yet a fan of the Cassie Palmer series by Karen Chance?
You’re missing out on some seriously hair-raising, skin-of-your-teeth, preposterously droll fast-paced action and a witty, charming, steamy, riot of a good time! Want to learn more? Check out Ms. Chance’s Cassie Palmer website and meet all your soon-to-be-favorite new characters. Or you could just pick up Touch the Dark and get started RIGHT MEOW! You should probably do yourself a favor and just go ahead and get all 5 books while you’re there, and save yourself an impatiently harrowing trip back out after you finish the first one in record time. Seriously, good luck putting these down to do something so annoying as, oh, sleep or eat!
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