Things that could be if only the World of Five Gods books all took place in the same timeframe:
Hallana has a copy of Rauchia’s book on the use of demon magic in healing, and Pen obligingly sits there nibbling pastries while she and Desdemona talk shop
Desdemona really really dislikes Ista. Nothing personal, many of her sub-personalities would really get along with the dowager royina. But, you know. Really really dislikes her.
But Pen and Foix totally get along? Swap sorcery tips and book recs.
And there’s no way Pen doesn’t write bad poetry, okay, you know he does. So he comes by Cardegoss someday - he and Des travel a lot - and somehow he and Caz end up comparing attempts. Alcohol was almost certainly involved. It may have been Foix’s idea, too.
Ingrey spent time in Darthaca; maybe he met Pen and Des there. She would have examined his wolf and remarked something along the lines of, “how odd. I haven’t seen that before.”
They meet again years later, after the events of Hallowed Hunt, and Ingrey explains Weald shamanism because Penric is interminably nosy curious, and Pen asks if the wolf lives accumulate like a demon’s, if he can talk to it, etc. They also compare Horseriver’s experience.
I’m fundamentally amused by the idea that Iselle and Bergon’s daughter be engaged to Biast, or maybe his son depending on timing, and Ista accompanies her with her usual team, including Foix who’s not openly being a sorcerer for this trip because that makes it much easier to catch troublemakers unaware. But then Ingrey notices there’s a unacknowledged sorcerer among the royesse’s guard and assumes he’s up to no good, while Foix and his bear notice Ingrey’s wolf and assume he’s up to no good, and poor communication inevitably leads to a confrontation in the palace hallway at like 3am one night, with actual injury to either party averted by Ista emerging from her room in a dressing gown and demanding to know what on earth they think they’re doing.
Tbqh I’d be 100% okay with Liss getting a horse spirit, like, I don’t know why Ingrey would agree to do this but it’d be great.
When Ista dies, the Bastard is absolutely going to guide Fafa all the way from Easthome to Cardegoss to crash her funeral. Absolutely. With Ingrey and Jokol on his heels, because Ingrey keeps getting pulled into these things, though at least this time the main participants in the funeral procession aren’t completely surprised the Bastard arranged something…special.
Somewhere in the afterlife, Ista is completely fed up with her God’s shit.
What if Pen and Des were spying in visiting the Roknari princedoms when Joen started doing her thing, and she caught them and leashed Desdemona, and it was terrifying but obviously much more okay than pretty much any of Joen’s other pet sorcerers because Den&Pen are a team. They don’t know what happened when the leash snaps (they were left behind in Jokona rather than taken to Porifors), but they stick around to see if they can find out, and that’s how they meet Ista&co.
If anyone wanted to, you know, fic any of this, I would love you forever and ever.
