Hello, if you don't mind some more questions.. 🙈 I keep thinking about Notte/Sundered meeting which brought me to the question: can a claimed human/Harry be made Night Child? Ignoring whether Aakesh would let it happen, is it simply possible? If so, what would be the consequences regarding the Beast and its control?
Hi, there! Gosh, you can ask me anything!
(I should let you know that world-building is kind of... my thing? I've taught classes on it, so I tend to go a PINCH overboard when it comes to Thinking A Lot about story. :D)
Anyway, your questions are absolutely A+. :)
As to whether or not this fascinating scenario (which, you should know, COULD HAPPEN about three books from now) is possible:
If Aakesh did not interfere, yes. Harry could be made into a Night-Child. For now.
The key difference is this: Aakesh has not yet stopped Harry aging. He hasn't really messed with his genetics yet at all; Harry is NINETEEN in The Sundered; he's not done growing, and Aakesh wants him to reach peak health before he stops that process.
And yes, the plan is to stop the process. He intends to keep Harry with him forever. But he doesn't want to do that until Harry's at physical peak.
As long as Harry is purely human, he can be made. When Aakesh stops the aging process, Harry's DNA will have shifted. He won't be human anymore, not purely. At that point, he could no longer be made.
As for the consequences, unless Aakesh chose to HELP Harry deal with his Beast, Harry would have to handle it himself - and it would be rough on the poor guy.
I adore Harry, but he's not the best when it comes to self-control. It's a work in progress, shall we say.
Funny thing is. for Harry, it would honestly be... glorious.
The Beast is simple. No conflicts, no conundrums. One clear goal - Get The Blood (preferably human). There's joy in it. Absolute abandon. I think Harry would have a GREAT time giving in to his Beast.
And absolutely torment himself after. He's like that.
As an aside, Notte would not want to make Harry because Notte loves found family, and would recognize that Harry has his.
As another aside, part of him WOULD want to make Harry because - thanks to Aakesh - Harry is genetically perfect right now. Oh yes - Notte would sense that. He was designed to hunt humans.
He wouldn't act on it, but it would be tantalizing.
See, Harry is fully human, but Aakesh has gone through his body, repairing any little minor faults, so that Harry is basically... uberhuman. Perfect.
Not that Harry knows that, of course. He's just being him - going through his day, trying to process things he doesn't fully understand.
Sometimes crying at night, which means cuddles from Gorish, which is pretty great - or being held by Aakesh, which is also good but totally different in some way Harry is not quite ready to grok.
You and your question. You are making me RAMBLE. :D I hope this satisfies! Feel free to ask any. This is a blast.
i know you're not here to auth so feel free to ignore this but unsundered aakesh vs notte: who is more powerful?
Love the question. Thanks for sending it! I may not be here to auth, but I mean... talk about my characters? ^_^ With gusto.
I love this question because their powers are so DIFFERENT.
Notte
Night-Children are, as a whole, difficult to kill, but Notte is unique for the same reason queen Mab is unique: they were both exposed to a singular meteor many thousands of years ago which mutated them in very specific ways. (I promise this'll be expounded upon in Notte's upcoming book.)
The result is that he grows more powerful, in his specific skills, every single year.
Thanks to his little going-to-dust trick - very much a quantum physics thing - he can't be captured. Physical barriers don't mean anything to him, which is why he can rip just about anyone with a body apart.
While he doesn't technically have any offensive magic, the problem for his enemies is they can't stop him, or outrun him, or keep him out of a place he wants to get into.
At his present age, Notte is resistant to most spells, to poisons, and - apart from damage done by wood - is now impervious to physical harm.
There was a time, long ago, he could be bound and hurt by offensive magic. He once even spent a couple of years in a cave, agonizingly pulling bits of wood out of himself and insane from the pain of it - but every year that passes, he's more of whatever he's becoming.
He doesn't seem to have an upper limit. Yes, it scares him. He's begun to truly fear that he cannot die. He is one weary super-monster.
Aakesh
This is where it gets a bit tricky. Aakesh is objectively more powerful because he can play with matter at the atomic level, as long as he can understand that matter's nature.
He can explode people, mutate them, turn them to stone. Build edifices out of nothing, create new land, recreate chemicals and machinery. Repair flesh.
Aakesh is Motherwater's firstborn; he's the most like her, his maker, his god. He's not quite at the point where he could create his own race of new life, but… he's not far off, either.
If he and Notte were to fight, he could certainly disperse Notte's physical form - but it would initially have the same effect as Notte going to dust, leaving him unharmed.
It would actually take Aakesh a little bit of time to figure out how to dismantle Notte completely, and it would take a great effort of will. It would require a serious energy transfer, and a negation of some deeply weird space radiation.
Funny enough, Aakesh wouldn't want to. He's got that whole appreciation-for-unique-lifeforms, and Notte definitely is a one-off.
Random thoughts!
Could Notte kill him? You know, that really depends on when they fought. Aakesh has been very depressed at certain times of his life.
Then again, so has Notte. Cue image of the two of them sitting on the edge of a cliff, in silent solidarity, wishing they could die, but choosing not to because they are so needed by those they love. They've both been there, more than once.
Under ordinary circumstances, would Aakesh win a fight? Yes, he would. It has to do with the kind of power Sundered Ones have, and eventually - currently - he'd figure it out and finally give Notte release.
Under ordinary circumstances, could Notte defeat Aakesh? Not right now... but if enough time passed, he could.
There would come a point in which Aakesh wasn't strong enough to pull Notte's being apart. Aakesh does not grow stronger every year. Notte does.
If that happened, and Aakesh chose to keep fighting and keep fighting and keep fighting, Notte could wear him down, damaging him enough and depleting his energy from constant healing that Aakesh might have to return to Motherwater.
You may recall from the short stories that there are twelve Sundered Ones so damaged they could not heal. They currently rest in the heart of Motherwater, returning to her. They are mourned.
If Aakesh had to return to her in that condition, he would be gone. Absorbed back into that from which he came.
However, it would take a long time to get him there. Before that happened, every single one of his siblings and their Mother would have poured themselves into him. If they actually fought to the point of Aakesh's death, it could take eons.
It would be an absurdly epic battle. Not like a Dragon Ball Z, blowing up planets kind of thing; but I doubt anyone could get near them.
(stares) Hello, essay I didn't mean to write!
I hope that answers your question! I think way too much about this stuff...
