I don’t think Azune is a psychopath. I just think he isn’t good at regulating his emotions. He is probably picking his words carefully to get a curated response to try and influence an outcome, but I don’t think he’s willing to bend arms and break bones to get his way. Vindictive? Yeah. Petty? Maybe.
When Azune first saw Teor and Kattigan, he immediately puffed out his chest and stood taller to look like a man as opposed to the young boy they remember. Luis’ own description of that moment was along the lines of “two people I’ve tried to emulate as.” Seems for the longest time Azune is just used to being passed around and appearing as whatever others expect.
Murray isn’t Teor and Katt. Her relationship with Azune is very mentorship based. She’s a Professor who taught this guy his first magic lessons and he taught her some fighting. Transactional. Murray has consistently referred to Azune as “my boy” so she clearly sees him in a protective manner, someone younger, someone beneath her years of life and experience to guide. So it makes sense Azune would go to Murray and allow himself to break down and cry and try to have a moment of vulnerability. However, I don’t think Murray is that type of person.
Everything we’ve learned about Murray is conflicting. She’s a Mag’nesson with access to family name, but not that much money. Money they used to get from the gem mines, but they don’t mine gems anymore so what do they mine now? She tries to pass herself off as an old criminal contact to Pimley who calls her out on that attempt basically saying she’s lost the right to claim that status these days. She gets in a hoot about rich kids and the sundered houses but she also tells Thaisha she’s money just not “as rich” comparatively. Murray went from working with her cousin to building a school and tracking the funds for it for some odd 25? years. Marisha also claims Murray had a bit of a “ho phase” in her years, partnered with her saying the whole ‘love flies out the door when money leaves’ type thing she likely hasn’t allowed herself to have emotional romantic relationships and has kept things strictly physical. All this adds up that Murray is a go-getter unwilling to settle and slow down and not wait for other people to get what she wants. She seems to be moving from one thing to the next all to better herself and position in life. She is definitely transactional. Anything to get the job done. And maybe that’s why Thjazi relied on her. He knew she could set emotions aside to do the real work and get the job done. Murray keeps herself busy the same way Thimble keeps flying. It’s a coping mechanism for something we don’t know yet.
I think we see a deeper truth of Murray when Azune picked her of all people to go to and confess in a break down about how he feels. He probably expected that soft mentorship touch, maybe not as soft as Hal’s fatherly presence, or maybe he subconsciously picked the person who wouldn’t let him break right now. That whole awkward moment really does come down to that Azune isn’t reading Murray properly at all. How could he? They don’t know each other personally, on a private life/behind closed doors level of closeness. None of them know where he lives or eats or who he hangs out with. Which means Murray’s dynamic with Azune has been transactional and work based this entire time, whereas he probably thought it was more, something on a personally friendly-family level where they could be real and messy with their imperfect emotions. Azune is tired, emotionally exhausted of having to pretend he’s fine, he is desperately trying to reach others for a deeper connection and is unfortunately hitting emotional brick walls. So Murray’s “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality patched things for now but doesn’t fix the root problem.
Azune didn’t go to Hal because Hal already told him to do better tomorrow. Azune isn’t certain he has a tomorrow. He didn’t go to the two men he emulates for comfort because he sees them as strong, so he refuses to let them see him break down and maybe look weak. He didn’t go to Bolaire because Bolaire self identifies as a thing and not a person, things don’t panic so Bolaire can’t relate to Azune.
Then he turned to Occtis. He asked for help, threw out an idea (the same way Occtis pitched theories and hypotheticals during Seeker’s arc), got told no and immediately respected boundaries because Occtis made it clear that was a boundary.
The biggest problem with Azune is that he’s deeply reflective of whoever he is with, which is fine for surviving war, but not the best for interpersonal dynamics and friendships which he clearly craves and desperately needs. He doesn’t know who he is. How can he be whoever Azune Nayar is when he’s spent the entirety of his life mimicking other people? This boy needs emotional enrichment, someone who will actually talk things out with him instead of telling him what to do. Yeah, he’s 27/28 and a grown adult with his own bachelor pad, but emotionally he’s stunted and lost at sea. He wants to be soft, but there’s no one around he can mimic that from.
Until Thaisha hugged him.
