Luthe and story; Crown

Along darker lines, I think I've already made a hypothesis that Luthe may have been involved in Aerin's mother's poisoning, not "deliberately" but in arranging a trade-off. Another idea has been noting that Arlbeth gets lost in the battle right when Aerin crowns Tor; perhaps the logic of the Crown's magic arranged for Arlbeth to be killed off, so as to simplify matters, if the Crown feels that it should only be worn by the true king. (Aerin didn't wear it!) "Oh look, I'm on the heir. Let's get the old man out of the way, make my life simple."

My friend Liz, who suggested that Aerinha was based on Aerin's mother, has also challenged my idea that Aerin was simply freed from old age somehow. Taking the comment that Aerin was living on time not her own, and the fact that her hair doesn't grow back, Liz suggests that something more static was infused into her, so that in some sense she's being preserved rather than simply being ageless. This would give Luthe more reason to be apologetic to her, I suppose.