Headscratchers / Apprentice Adept

• If Stile hated being mistaken for a young boy due to his shortness so much, why didn't he just dye his hair gray so he'd look older? He's not bald, and personal grooming presumably isn't forbidden to serfs the way clothes are: public showers in ladies' rooms automatically spray perfume on their users, suggesting that it's expected for serfs to maintain good standards of appearance and hygiene. A bit of gray around the temples could've spared him a whole lot of aggravation.
  • Probably because being mistaken for a child didn't happen enough for him to take action to counter it, as opposed to being underestimated because of his stature (which happened far more, in-story).

• Why would Red try and kill Blue with a single cursed amulet, when she had to know Blue would be able to No-Sell the curse? Was she really that desperate to eliminate Blue that she'd basically try a Hail Mary? Or did she not know about the nullification factor either? And if she didn't, HOW? White's words to Stile seemed to suggest this was common knowledge among Adepts?
  • Perhaps she was hoping the fact the amulet used a mundane means of death (strangulation) would sidestep the null effect?

• If Protonite was so important to the galaxy's economy, why wasn't there ANY sort of military presence around to defend Proton from the very sort of invasion that happened in Phaze Doubt? At a minimum, the idea that the Citizens wouldn't invest major resources into protecting the literal source of their power strains logic.