Like many (judging from the recent questions), I too enjoyed Last of the First a great deal. There are a variety of reasons for that, but two of them are the delightful humour (I was snickering along with our new Empress at “positively ashen”) and what, to me, seemed a completely appropriate reaction from various people to Alyiakal’s revealed power. One thing that has on occasion confused or frustrated me in previous books of yours is when vastly powerful characters, capable of feats that put numerous gods in traditional pantheons of our world to shame, are treated as annoyances or frustrations rather than awe-inspiring semi-deities. My question, then, is why you felt that in this instance, the people in power (particularly the new First Magus) immediately recognized this, acclaimed the new Emperor, and aside from a (very) small number of the most blind fools, assented and were properly frightened and wary of his revealed power? His abilities do not seem, for instance, to be greater than Lerial’s demonstrated abilities to destroy vast numbers of troops, and I’m curious why you felt the reaction would be so different?

First, Lerial’s powers don’t show up for another roughly seven hundred years. Second, most of those who recognize Alyiakal’s powers are magi’i and have more understanding, and those who don’t tend to get destroyed. Those outside the magi’i really have never seen those powers. Most merchanters certainly haven’t,not until the very end of the book, and Alyiakal has been careful to cloak his capabilities from his Mirror Lancer peers and superiors. Verinaar is a stronger mage than almost anyone except Alyiakal, and wise enough to know that he can never hope to be Emperor and that he’s effectively the second-most powerful magus in Cyador.