History WMG / Castoff

** It's not impossible that the explodey person had been Nico (Sage's friend), either.

** Sage's scars (part of them, anyway), are caused by him [[ProfessorGuineaPig experimenting on himself]], but still.

** Frankie is fifteen [[spoiler: i.e. was activated (became sentient?) fifteen years ago. Possibly he was just a regular robot before then]].
** And Vector is also fifteen, HappilyAdopted by mrs. Jacobs who later tearfully admits to having nobody else - she specifically says she lost her husband, but doesn't say when. Perhaps the magical orb latched itself to her unfulfilled dream of being a mother, creating a WonderChild?

* And a product of a MalignedMixedMarriage, given the FantasticRacism we've seen towards elves.

* Arianna's brother. He died fifteen years ago, as far as she knows, executed for high treason she doesn't believe he would commit. But the medical report Zera's lieutenants found says something different (assuming it's not about Zera's sister, but Zera himself, who may or may not be Arianna's brother, or another fragment of Arianna's brother). Can we be sure her memories are accurate?

What's more, tracking spells don't work on them - Zera's spell for Arianna fails, and so do Arianna's spells for the other two ''and'' for Rori. Notably, Arianna doesn't interpret this as the boys having died (like Zera does), she just tracks someone else she thinks would be with them. So, since the boys are actually not dead, and neither is Arianna, tracking spell failing doesn't necessarily mean the tracked person is dead (and assuming so would be a ConverseError). It might be the most common cause, but not the only possible one. And if they are all the same person, then the tracking spell would be confused when one part of them is trying to track another (like tracking your own leg, only it appears to be on a different continent, and your kidney on yet another, and so on... confusing).

** Marina and Rori are over fifteen, but only a little - they may have been hit by the magical explosion shrapnel as a toddler and a baby, resectively.

* Specifically, the person in the prologue, the one who magically explodes into a bunch of colourful orbs. These orbs are seen to scatter in various directions, one of them enacting a meteor crash in front of the astonished mrs. Jacobs. This would explain why "fifteen years" recurrs in each of their cases:

What's more, tracking spells don't work on any of them - Zera's spell for Arianna fails, and so do Arianna's spells for the other two ''and'' for Rori. Notably, Arianna doesn't interpret this as the boys having died (like Zera does), she just tracks someone else she thinks would be with them. So, since the boys are actually not dead, and neither is Arianna, tracking spell failing doesn't necessarily mean the tracked person is dead (and assuming so would be a ConverseError). It might be the most common cause, but not the only possible one. And if they are all the same person, then the tracking spell would be confused when one part of them is trying to track another (like tracking your own leg, only it appears to be on a different continent, and your kidney on yet another, and so on... confusing).

We know that fifteen years back a magical experiment was conducted and it went bad (see: StuffBlowingUp). The experimentee might have been Arianna's brother, by the way, which explains her snooping and their Shroedinger's deaths. In any case, each member of the group (apart from Arianna, as far as we've seen) is unique in some magic-related way: Vector can teleport, Frankie is a sentient robot in a setting without those, Marina can heal in a setting without healing magic, Rori is impossibly (and, it seems, magically - her PowerGlows) fast. Maybe someone tried to improve magic, or give it to nonmagical lands like Ferrin? And the experiment created sort of magical golems, at least in some cases out of existing bodies (if Arianna and her brother died in the explosion, then the magic brought them back to life, they'd be revenants, Frankie might have been already built, but not activated, and so on).

* Arianna's brother. He died fifteen years ago, as far as she knows, executed for high treason she doesn't believe he would commit. But the medical report Zera's lieutenants found says something different (assuming it's about Zera, who may or may not be Arianna's brother, or another fragment of Arianna's brother). Can we be sure her memories are accurate?

What's more, tracking spells don't work on any of them - Zera's spell for Arianna fails, and so do Arianna's spells for the other two. Notably, Arianna doesn't interpret this as the boys having died (like Zera does), she just tracks someone else she thinks would be with them. So, since the boys are actually not dead, and neither is Arianna, tracking spell failing doesn't necessarily mean the tracked person is dead (and assuming so would be a ConverseError). It might be the most common cause, but not the only possible one. And if they are all the same person, then the tracking spell would be confused when one part of them is trying to track another (like tracking your own leg, only it appears to be on a different continent, and your kidney on yet another, and so on... confusing).

What's more, tracking spells don't work on any of them - Zera's spell for Arianna fails, and so do Arianna's spells for the other two. Notably, Arianna doesn't interpret this as the boys having died (like Zera does), she just tracks someone else she thinks would be with them. So, since the boys are actually not dead, and neither is Arianna, tracking spell failing doesn't necessarily mean the tracked person is dead. It might be the most common cause, but not the only possible one. And if they are all the same person, then the tracking spell would be confused when one part of them is trying to track another (like tracking your own leg, only it appears to be on a different continent, and your kidney on yet another, and so on... confusing).

We know that fifteen years back a magical experiment was conducted and it went bad (see: StuffBlowingUp). The experimentee might have been Arianna's brother, by the way, which explains her snooping and their Shroedinger's deaths. In any case, each member of the group (apart from Arianna, as far as we've seen) is unique in some magic-related way: Vector can teleport, Frankie is a sentient robot in a setting without those, Marina can heal in a setting without healing magic, Rori is impossibly (and, it seems, magically - her PowerGlows) fast. Maybe someone tried to improve magic, or give it to nonmagical lands like Ferrin? And the experiment created sort of magical golems, at least in some cases out of existing bodies (if Arianna and her brother died in the explosion, then the magic brought them back to life, they may be {{The Revenant}}s, Frankie might have been already built, but not activated, and so on).

What's more, tracking spells don't work on any of them - Zera's spell for Arianna fails, and so do Arianna's spells for the other two. Notably, Arianna doesn't interpret this as the boys having died (like Zera does), she just tracks someone else she thinks would be with them.

** And Vector is also fifteen, HappilyAdopted by mrs. Jacobs who later tearfully admits to having nobody else - she specifically says she lost her husband, but doesn't say when. Perhaps the magical orb latched itself to her unfulfilled dream of being a mother, creating a WonderChild?

** And Vector is also fifteen, HappilyAdopted by mrs. Jacobs who later tearfully admits to having nobody else - she specifically says she lost her husband, but doesn't say when. Perhaps the magical orb latched itself to her unfulfilled dream of being a mother?

** And Vector is also fifteen, HappilyAdopted by mrs. Jabobs who later tearfully admits to having nobody else - she specifically says she lost her husband, but doesn't say when. Perhaps the magical orb latched itself to her unfulfilled dream of being a mother?