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i_read_what2025-06-21 10:20 pm
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2025-06-21 10:20 pm
A Cast of Corbies - Chapter Seven
I sometimes think this book is making me into a misogynist. Oh well. Maybe things will improve.
So we rejoin Magpie, who's in her room and trying not to burst into tears. Perhaps she has some self-awareness that she is making a scene about someone who isn't even her love interest?
Magpie fell back against her room’s closed door, biting her lip so hard it hurt, refusing to burst into tears. This was ridiculous, ridiculous, she didn’t care about Raven at all, it was just that she was worried about the safety of the group - Oh, really? Then why did the very thought of Regina talking so intimately with Raven stab through her like the proverbial iron knife?
She spoke aloud without realizing she had. “Why does she have to be so-so damned beautiful?”
Or maybe she's just going to wail about how Regina is awesome and pretty and admirable.
And I mean, I'd like to sympathize, but you're a grown woman, Magpie. And while you are, for some reason, a designated love interest, you're not actually dating Raven.
Honestly, these paragraphs are far more effusive about Regina than Magpie's ever been toward Raven, so I'm kind of wondering if Magpie's not dealing with some comp het misdirection here. But that said, Regina deserves better than Magpie too, honestly.
But anyway, we get paragraphs about Regina. Magpie conveniently has learned some of Regina's backstory from a stagehand. Namely the part where Regina's a commoner, but the Duke is legitimately smitten, but no one above the rank of Sire can marry a commoner and keep their position.
Aw. That sucks. And is a legitimate romantic dilemma, rather than whatever bullshit mess that Raven and Magpie have going on.
Magpie, of course, focuses more on how the Duke even reputedly respects Regina's mind and often solicits her advice.
Magpie, of course, is entirely rational about this whole thing:
Every time she let her thoughts wander, they centered on the sight of Regina and Raven sitting so suspiciously close together in the empty theater. They’d been laughing like two old friends. Or maybe two new lovers. Raven had given Magpie such a guilty look when she’d approached, like a man with something to hide, a man totally under Regina s spell.
Why wouldn’t he be snared? He’s a man, isn’t he? And she’s the most exquisite- Oh, damn. I haven’t got a chance against someone like her. Look at me! I’m usually so levelheaded, so controlled, but she’s got me acting like a-a shrewish little bitch! And for what? I can’t even fight for my man, because Raven isn’t mine!
Um, Magpie, I don't think Regina's to blame for you acting like you've been acting for seven chapters now. Also, maybe Raven looked guilty because of your general personality?
"Levelheaded" and "controlled" my ass. If that's what Lackey and Sherman are going for here, they've severely missed the mark.
And again, I don't even think she WANTS Raven. Like, at no point during this multi-page rant does she say a thing about his positive qualities. She doesn't even go for the lazy "he plays music really well" angle that you'd expect in a bard themed book. She's literally thought nothing positive about the man, except maybe his physical appearance in seven chapters.
Magpie does finally come to the decision that Regina would be the best source of information on what's actually going on in the kingdom, so she'll have to "restrain [herself] and do [her] best to cultivate the woman."
And if this book were at all realistic, Magpie's terrible attitude would be picked up immediately and she'd get kicked out. But instead, somehow she manages to immediately befriend Regina anyway.
But at last her chance came when the Manager grudgingly granted a rest break. As the other actors and musicians wandered off for some cool refreshment, Regina plopped herself down on the edge of the stage, pulling her hair away from her neck and fanning herself with her hand, plainly drained. After a nervous moment, Magpie hesitantly sat down beside her, legs dangling. “Acting looks rougher than busking,” she said.
The woman gave her a bemused glance. “I don’t know about that,” she replied matter-of-factly. “We have only the one performance, and once it’s perfected, all we have to do is repeat each day; the toughest thing is keeping it looking fresh each time. But you have to come up with a new program every day.”
Magpie shrugged. “Well, there is that.”
“Besides,” Regina said with undisguised satisfaction, a satisfaction that seemed just a litle odd from a pampered ducal mistress, “here I am, safe and sound with an established Company. Buskers have to be out in all kinds of weather, never knowing where the next meal is coming from.”
“True,” Magpie said, a bit more sharply than she’d intended.
So here's the real reason this scene exists though. Because Regina is one of those magic NPC type characters who immediately clocks what's going on with our lead character and can spell it out for the reader that we're not supposed to dislike Magpie, but rather sympathize with her.
Regina glanced at her, eyebrows raised. “Ah, you’ve been there, too, haven’t you? Out on the streets, I mean, scared and hungry and not sure what’s to become of you, but determined not to let anyone know your fright.”
It was Magpies turn to stare, but incredulously. “You’ve been there? You?” Regina nodded, and then chuckled a little. “Me.” Magpie felt her mouth gaping and strove to shut it. She was only partially successful. “B-but you’re so- so- “Beautiful?” the woman said wryly. “Do you really think beauty was an advantage on the streets?”
Magpie considered, then shuddered. “No. Not if you didn’t intend to be the prey of—” She stopped short. “I can’t believe this.”
“What? That we share something of the same background?’ Regina tilted her head charmingly to one side. “Tell me, were you a street rat like me, or a traveller?” Street rat! How could she be so-so casual about it? “A traveller, for a time at least.” To her amazement, Magpie heard herself pouring out her childhood history to this sympathetic ear, the long, lonely, perilous days on the road or scrounging for food and coin in whatever town the troupe’s aimless wanderings had brought it.
So yeah, there we go. I didn't like this kind of thing when it was Christian Grey using his sob story to be an asshole to Anastasia Steele, and I don't like this kind of thing when the genders are reversed either.
A sad backstory is a sad backstory, but it's no excuse for acting like a dick.
Anyway, Regina and Magpie continue to commiserate. And it's really all about shilling Magpie, to the point where Regina, all of a sudden, starts extolling Magpie's looks:
She didn’t expect the reaction she got-Regina chuckled, a low, throaty chuckle, and then patted her knee. “Oh, my dear, don’t be ridiculous! Haven’t you looked in a mirror?”
“Yes, but—” Magpie didn’t know what to say. But Regina shook her head. “No, I mean looked. Really looked? Yes, I have dramatic looks, I know that. It’s an accident of birth; whoever my parents were, at least they left me that much. But you’re a beauty, too, girl, even though you haven’t yet had a chance to be comfortable enough with yourself to accept it, with that elegant face of yours and that lovely, graceful body.” To her utter embarrassment, Magpie felt her face starting to flame. “I’m not—I—”
“Look you,” Regina said sharply, “one thing I don’t do is tell stupid lies. And I’ve been in the theater long enough to know beauty, and the kind that lasts beyond the flush of pretty youth.”
Look, Ms. Lackey and Ms. Sherman, my problem with Magpie has nothing to do with her looks and everything to do with her terrible personality. And I mean, you can fix that. Or at least make her a little more entertaining in her assholishness.
I can't even enjoy the femslash potential here, and I really wish I could.
Anyway, Regina wants to be friends with Magpie. For some reason. Fine, whatever. This of course immediately leads to her going to Raven to yell at him for being "unfair" to Magpie.
No seriously:
“I … learned a few things recently I think you should know.” Her voice had lost all trace of light humor. “I have made it my business to know everything about my troupe, and I think you should do the same.”
“Meaning?” he asked, very carefully.
“Meaning, I wonder if you haven’t been just a touch unfair to Magpie.” The serious tone of her voice left him no doubt but that she was completely serious. He couldn’t help his reaction; what business was it of hers how he and Magpie got along? “Oh now, your pardon, but I hardly think that’s your affair!”
But her voice and her expression were as stern as a schoolteacher’s with an erring student. “As long as it’s something that affects this Company,” Regina said with such sudden quiet ferocity Raven was astonished, “no matter how peripherally, yes, it most certainly is my affair. How much do you know of Magpie’s past?”
Regina, I like you, but you've known these two people for a day. And the last spat Raven had with Magpie was because Magpie was assuming that he was sleeping with YOU.
Back the fuck off.
Oh, but hey, remember in a previous chapter how Magpie mentioned her pleasant uncle?
Regina’s frown deepened. “Did she also tell you her uncle tried more than once to sell her for drink?” Raven stared. “No,” he said uneasily. Oh, he knew such things happened-but never among the [Roma]
“Or that her mother wouldn’t believe that when it happened?” Regina continued inexorably. Why was she telling him these horrid things? It had been so easy to be annoyed with Magpie before he knew much about her life, about what had shaped her. Knowing people-really knowing them- made it damnably difficult to make those nice, easy judgments; you were forced to keep thinking about why they were acting like boneheads, and - He tensed. There, her slim figure picked out by a stray, narrow beam of sunlight, stood Magpie, watching them, her face stony.
Okay, so now we're pulling new trauma out of our asses. Because apparently what was revealed in previous chapters wasn't enough. I do love the side note about how these things never happen among the Roma, so that we never have to wonder if maybe, just maybe, Raven and the other Roma could have trauma of their own.
You know, because being an oppressed and belittled minority in a culture that seems five minutes away from going after everything that doesn't fit in is totally easy.
This is really frustrating because it's a clear indication that the authors realize that they've written a truly dislikable character. And that'd be fine, if they owned it. Or, you know, they could always tone her down a little. I've mentioned Rune and Gwyna before, but that's because they're both examples of the traits that Magpie is supposed to have.
Practical? Rune is practical. Headstrong and a little domineering? Gwyna is headstrong and a little domineering. I've seen both of these authors do better.
And what exactly has Raven done wrong this whole time? He was a bit of a dick at the theatre last time, kind of pushing Magpie out of the way to take over the creative direction of the show. But it's also fair to note that, at least from what he says - and Magpie doesn't deny it - he's the character with the relevant skillset.
Oh, I suppose he's supposed to stand back and let her bully random innkeepers because her trauma means she can't possibly just pay for rooms she doesn't like. Or something.
This also makes me lose respect for Regina as a character, because, for all that I hate Magpie, she didn't confide in her with the expectation that Regina immediately go and spill everything to her co-worker! At least Raven has the courtesy to be uncomfortable.
He was more than uncomfortable. And he didn’t want to hear all this. “I didn’t—” Regina sighed, and her tense expression relaxed a little, although her patent displeasure and unhappiness were still there, beneath the surface. “She never had a childhood, Raven, or rather, she had a harsh, joyless stretch of life that’s common to all too many youngsters.”
Ugh.
And I know I'm a broken record, but again, Regina doesn't have any idea about RAVEN's backstory here. She has no way to know if HIS childhood was any better than Magpie's. And honestly, as far I recall, his backstory never comes up in the book, beyond the running gag with how he lost his eye. The fact that he has a REAL NAME doesn't come up in this book.
Oh, actually, don't worry. In case we make the mistake of wondering:
Raven shook his head in confused denial. This was one thing he never had understood about the Settled Folk. His people might not always have enough to eat, but they cherished their children, they cherished all children. How anyone could prey on their own young…
There we go, we can save all of our sympathy for Magpie. There's a really confusing mention of Magpie turning and walking away, her face blank and cold. So she's in this scene? Utterly silent as Regina spills her entire backstory?
I admit, a part of me would love the interpretation that Magpie actually made up the shit she told Regina. I might actually like her more if she was that kind of asshole, because at least that would be intentional.
This also segues into a critique on Raven's leadership skills:
“Damn.” Regina shook her head and swore softly. Raven blinked a little-who would ever have guessed the lovely actress knew those words?
“What is it?” Raven asked impatiently.
“Nothing,” she replied, though it was obviously untrue. “Raven, you’re not used to being the head of a group, are you?”
He shrugged again, not sure where she was going. I'm a [Rom]. [Roma] wander, often alone.”
“Then you probably can’t quite appreciate what it’s like being the lead in a theater troupe, making sure all those melodramatic personalities—mine included don’t clash, keeping everyone as happy as possible without compromising the play.” She looked off into the empty distance near the ceiling, her eyes unfocused. “This is an insular, artificial little world we inhabit, Raven, but we never can dare forget there’s a world outside.”
Raven snorted. “You wouldn’t get much of an audience if you did!”
I mean, again, Regina, you JUST met these people. And Raven doesn't seem to have any issue with Crow, or even Jaysen. Sometimes, when the only clash we see is with one person...maybe that person is the problem.
(It would be interesting to see where Crow or Jaysen would go, if the group did split.)
Regina asks if Raven's getting her point. And no, not really, but I'm not sure I get it either:
“That you’re the real head of this Company?” Raven hesitated a moment, then added warily, ‘That you’re as much the real business head of it as Magpie is of my group?”
“It’s the Duke of Kingsford’s Company,” Regina reminded him sternly, “not mine.”
She does end up agreeing to the characterization though, with the Manager being the creative head. So...maybe, Regina, you should have this discussion with Magpie?
I don't fucking know. This scene is kind of all over the place, IMO. Maybe I'm just too biased to see her point.
Raven, by the way, tangents into telling us that somewhere in the "strange discussion" he'd stopped reacting to her beauty on a "sensual level" but "as an equal colleague".
...which doesn't make him look great, admittedly, but there's really no point where I picked up on the idea that Raven didn't see beautiful women as equals anyway. Hell, he got name dropped by Gwyna in the Robin and the Kestrel as being one of the two men (Peregrine being the other) besides Kestrel who automatically treated Gwyna as an equal, without hesitation.
But that's actually a clumsy way to insert the idea that Regina has some kind of magic:
I wonder….can this be something intentional on her part? Not just the normal “I don’t want to get involved with you” of the average woman, but something … more? There was, after all, the special type of magic his people called glamorie: the ability to attract, fascinate, entrap. Might Regina be the master, conscious or not, of such a talent? Of a glamorie she could also reverse? Well now, if that’s the case, no wonder she’s been able to hold Duke Arden so long!
But lest we get the wrong idea, he immediately tells us that it's to Regina's credit that she hasn't used it to get Duke Arden to marry her anyway. And we reiterate the problem there, because even as a Roma, Raven gets the issue: nobles are status bound and if Arden married Regina, the best case scenario is that he'd be a laughing-stock, and the worst case is that he'd be disgraced and his children disinherited.
So somehow now, they're having small talk about music and acting so Raven can muse about Regina's access to magic. Then they get interrupted by the arrival of the Manager calling everyone to action.
Thank god, the chapter ends here.
So we rejoin Magpie, who's in her room and trying not to burst into tears. Perhaps she has some self-awareness that she is making a scene about someone who isn't even her love interest?
Magpie fell back against her room’s closed door, biting her lip so hard it hurt, refusing to burst into tears. This was ridiculous, ridiculous, she didn’t care about Raven at all, it was just that she was worried about the safety of the group - Oh, really? Then why did the very thought of Regina talking so intimately with Raven stab through her like the proverbial iron knife?
She spoke aloud without realizing she had. “Why does she have to be so-so damned beautiful?”
Or maybe she's just going to wail about how Regina is awesome and pretty and admirable.
And I mean, I'd like to sympathize, but you're a grown woman, Magpie. And while you are, for some reason, a designated love interest, you're not actually dating Raven.
Honestly, these paragraphs are far more effusive about Regina than Magpie's ever been toward Raven, so I'm kind of wondering if Magpie's not dealing with some comp het misdirection here. But that said, Regina deserves better than Magpie too, honestly.
But anyway, we get paragraphs about Regina. Magpie conveniently has learned some of Regina's backstory from a stagehand. Namely the part where Regina's a commoner, but the Duke is legitimately smitten, but no one above the rank of Sire can marry a commoner and keep their position.
Aw. That sucks. And is a legitimate romantic dilemma, rather than whatever bullshit mess that Raven and Magpie have going on.
Magpie, of course, focuses more on how the Duke even reputedly respects Regina's mind and often solicits her advice.
Magpie, of course, is entirely rational about this whole thing:
Every time she let her thoughts wander, they centered on the sight of Regina and Raven sitting so suspiciously close together in the empty theater. They’d been laughing like two old friends. Or maybe two new lovers. Raven had given Magpie such a guilty look when she’d approached, like a man with something to hide, a man totally under Regina s spell.
Why wouldn’t he be snared? He’s a man, isn’t he? And she’s the most exquisite- Oh, damn. I haven’t got a chance against someone like her. Look at me! I’m usually so levelheaded, so controlled, but she’s got me acting like a-a shrewish little bitch! And for what? I can’t even fight for my man, because Raven isn’t mine!
Um, Magpie, I don't think Regina's to blame for you acting like you've been acting for seven chapters now. Also, maybe Raven looked guilty because of your general personality?
"Levelheaded" and "controlled" my ass. If that's what Lackey and Sherman are going for here, they've severely missed the mark.
And again, I don't even think she WANTS Raven. Like, at no point during this multi-page rant does she say a thing about his positive qualities. She doesn't even go for the lazy "he plays music really well" angle that you'd expect in a bard themed book. She's literally thought nothing positive about the man, except maybe his physical appearance in seven chapters.
Magpie does finally come to the decision that Regina would be the best source of information on what's actually going on in the kingdom, so she'll have to "restrain [herself] and do [her] best to cultivate the woman."
And if this book were at all realistic, Magpie's terrible attitude would be picked up immediately and she'd get kicked out. But instead, somehow she manages to immediately befriend Regina anyway.
But at last her chance came when the Manager grudgingly granted a rest break. As the other actors and musicians wandered off for some cool refreshment, Regina plopped herself down on the edge of the stage, pulling her hair away from her neck and fanning herself with her hand, plainly drained. After a nervous moment, Magpie hesitantly sat down beside her, legs dangling. “Acting looks rougher than busking,” she said.
The woman gave her a bemused glance. “I don’t know about that,” she replied matter-of-factly. “We have only the one performance, and once it’s perfected, all we have to do is repeat each day; the toughest thing is keeping it looking fresh each time. But you have to come up with a new program every day.”
Magpie shrugged. “Well, there is that.”
“Besides,” Regina said with undisguised satisfaction, a satisfaction that seemed just a litle odd from a pampered ducal mistress, “here I am, safe and sound with an established Company. Buskers have to be out in all kinds of weather, never knowing where the next meal is coming from.”
“True,” Magpie said, a bit more sharply than she’d intended.
So here's the real reason this scene exists though. Because Regina is one of those magic NPC type characters who immediately clocks what's going on with our lead character and can spell it out for the reader that we're not supposed to dislike Magpie, but rather sympathize with her.
Regina glanced at her, eyebrows raised. “Ah, you’ve been there, too, haven’t you? Out on the streets, I mean, scared and hungry and not sure what’s to become of you, but determined not to let anyone know your fright.”
It was Magpies turn to stare, but incredulously. “You’ve been there? You?” Regina nodded, and then chuckled a little. “Me.” Magpie felt her mouth gaping and strove to shut it. She was only partially successful. “B-but you’re so- so- “Beautiful?” the woman said wryly. “Do you really think beauty was an advantage on the streets?”
Magpie considered, then shuddered. “No. Not if you didn’t intend to be the prey of—” She stopped short. “I can’t believe this.”
“What? That we share something of the same background?’ Regina tilted her head charmingly to one side. “Tell me, were you a street rat like me, or a traveller?” Street rat! How could she be so-so casual about it? “A traveller, for a time at least.” To her amazement, Magpie heard herself pouring out her childhood history to this sympathetic ear, the long, lonely, perilous days on the road or scrounging for food and coin in whatever town the troupe’s aimless wanderings had brought it.
So yeah, there we go. I didn't like this kind of thing when it was Christian Grey using his sob story to be an asshole to Anastasia Steele, and I don't like this kind of thing when the genders are reversed either.
A sad backstory is a sad backstory, but it's no excuse for acting like a dick.
Anyway, Regina and Magpie continue to commiserate. And it's really all about shilling Magpie, to the point where Regina, all of a sudden, starts extolling Magpie's looks:
She didn’t expect the reaction she got-Regina chuckled, a low, throaty chuckle, and then patted her knee. “Oh, my dear, don’t be ridiculous! Haven’t you looked in a mirror?”
“Yes, but—” Magpie didn’t know what to say. But Regina shook her head. “No, I mean looked. Really looked? Yes, I have dramatic looks, I know that. It’s an accident of birth; whoever my parents were, at least they left me that much. But you’re a beauty, too, girl, even though you haven’t yet had a chance to be comfortable enough with yourself to accept it, with that elegant face of yours and that lovely, graceful body.” To her utter embarrassment, Magpie felt her face starting to flame. “I’m not—I—”
“Look you,” Regina said sharply, “one thing I don’t do is tell stupid lies. And I’ve been in the theater long enough to know beauty, and the kind that lasts beyond the flush of pretty youth.”
Look, Ms. Lackey and Ms. Sherman, my problem with Magpie has nothing to do with her looks and everything to do with her terrible personality. And I mean, you can fix that. Or at least make her a little more entertaining in her assholishness.
I can't even enjoy the femslash potential here, and I really wish I could.
Anyway, Regina wants to be friends with Magpie. For some reason. Fine, whatever. This of course immediately leads to her going to Raven to yell at him for being "unfair" to Magpie.
No seriously:
“I … learned a few things recently I think you should know.” Her voice had lost all trace of light humor. “I have made it my business to know everything about my troupe, and I think you should do the same.”
“Meaning?” he asked, very carefully.
“Meaning, I wonder if you haven’t been just a touch unfair to Magpie.” The serious tone of her voice left him no doubt but that she was completely serious. He couldn’t help his reaction; what business was it of hers how he and Magpie got along? “Oh now, your pardon, but I hardly think that’s your affair!”
But her voice and her expression were as stern as a schoolteacher’s with an erring student. “As long as it’s something that affects this Company,” Regina said with such sudden quiet ferocity Raven was astonished, “no matter how peripherally, yes, it most certainly is my affair. How much do you know of Magpie’s past?”
Regina, I like you, but you've known these two people for a day. And the last spat Raven had with Magpie was because Magpie was assuming that he was sleeping with YOU.
Back the fuck off.
Oh, but hey, remember in a previous chapter how Magpie mentioned her pleasant uncle?
Regina’s frown deepened. “Did she also tell you her uncle tried more than once to sell her for drink?” Raven stared. “No,” he said uneasily. Oh, he knew such things happened-but never among the [Roma]
“Or that her mother wouldn’t believe that when it happened?” Regina continued inexorably. Why was she telling him these horrid things? It had been so easy to be annoyed with Magpie before he knew much about her life, about what had shaped her. Knowing people-really knowing them- made it damnably difficult to make those nice, easy judgments; you were forced to keep thinking about why they were acting like boneheads, and - He tensed. There, her slim figure picked out by a stray, narrow beam of sunlight, stood Magpie, watching them, her face stony.
Okay, so now we're pulling new trauma out of our asses. Because apparently what was revealed in previous chapters wasn't enough. I do love the side note about how these things never happen among the Roma, so that we never have to wonder if maybe, just maybe, Raven and the other Roma could have trauma of their own.
You know, because being an oppressed and belittled minority in a culture that seems five minutes away from going after everything that doesn't fit in is totally easy.
This is really frustrating because it's a clear indication that the authors realize that they've written a truly dislikable character. And that'd be fine, if they owned it. Or, you know, they could always tone her down a little. I've mentioned Rune and Gwyna before, but that's because they're both examples of the traits that Magpie is supposed to have.
Practical? Rune is practical. Headstrong and a little domineering? Gwyna is headstrong and a little domineering. I've seen both of these authors do better.
And what exactly has Raven done wrong this whole time? He was a bit of a dick at the theatre last time, kind of pushing Magpie out of the way to take over the creative direction of the show. But it's also fair to note that, at least from what he says - and Magpie doesn't deny it - he's the character with the relevant skillset.
Oh, I suppose he's supposed to stand back and let her bully random innkeepers because her trauma means she can't possibly just pay for rooms she doesn't like. Or something.
This also makes me lose respect for Regina as a character, because, for all that I hate Magpie, she didn't confide in her with the expectation that Regina immediately go and spill everything to her co-worker! At least Raven has the courtesy to be uncomfortable.
He was more than uncomfortable. And he didn’t want to hear all this. “I didn’t—” Regina sighed, and her tense expression relaxed a little, although her patent displeasure and unhappiness were still there, beneath the surface. “She never had a childhood, Raven, or rather, she had a harsh, joyless stretch of life that’s common to all too many youngsters.”
Ugh.
And I know I'm a broken record, but again, Regina doesn't have any idea about RAVEN's backstory here. She has no way to know if HIS childhood was any better than Magpie's. And honestly, as far I recall, his backstory never comes up in the book, beyond the running gag with how he lost his eye. The fact that he has a REAL NAME doesn't come up in this book.
Oh, actually, don't worry. In case we make the mistake of wondering:
Raven shook his head in confused denial. This was one thing he never had understood about the Settled Folk. His people might not always have enough to eat, but they cherished their children, they cherished all children. How anyone could prey on their own young…
There we go, we can save all of our sympathy for Magpie. There's a really confusing mention of Magpie turning and walking away, her face blank and cold. So she's in this scene? Utterly silent as Regina spills her entire backstory?
I admit, a part of me would love the interpretation that Magpie actually made up the shit she told Regina. I might actually like her more if she was that kind of asshole, because at least that would be intentional.
This also segues into a critique on Raven's leadership skills:
“Damn.” Regina shook her head and swore softly. Raven blinked a little-who would ever have guessed the lovely actress knew those words?
“What is it?” Raven asked impatiently.
“Nothing,” she replied, though it was obviously untrue. “Raven, you’re not used to being the head of a group, are you?”
He shrugged again, not sure where she was going. I'm a [Rom]. [Roma] wander, often alone.”
“Then you probably can’t quite appreciate what it’s like being the lead in a theater troupe, making sure all those melodramatic personalities—mine included don’t clash, keeping everyone as happy as possible without compromising the play.” She looked off into the empty distance near the ceiling, her eyes unfocused. “This is an insular, artificial little world we inhabit, Raven, but we never can dare forget there’s a world outside.”
Raven snorted. “You wouldn’t get much of an audience if you did!”
I mean, again, Regina, you JUST met these people. And Raven doesn't seem to have any issue with Crow, or even Jaysen. Sometimes, when the only clash we see is with one person...maybe that person is the problem.
(It would be interesting to see where Crow or Jaysen would go, if the group did split.)
Regina asks if Raven's getting her point. And no, not really, but I'm not sure I get it either:
“That you’re the real head of this Company?” Raven hesitated a moment, then added warily, ‘That you’re as much the real business head of it as Magpie is of my group?”
“It’s the Duke of Kingsford’s Company,” Regina reminded him sternly, “not mine.”
She does end up agreeing to the characterization though, with the Manager being the creative head. So...maybe, Regina, you should have this discussion with Magpie?
I don't fucking know. This scene is kind of all over the place, IMO. Maybe I'm just too biased to see her point.
Raven, by the way, tangents into telling us that somewhere in the "strange discussion" he'd stopped reacting to her beauty on a "sensual level" but "as an equal colleague".
...which doesn't make him look great, admittedly, but there's really no point where I picked up on the idea that Raven didn't see beautiful women as equals anyway. Hell, he got name dropped by Gwyna in the Robin and the Kestrel as being one of the two men (Peregrine being the other) besides Kestrel who automatically treated Gwyna as an equal, without hesitation.
But that's actually a clumsy way to insert the idea that Regina has some kind of magic:
I wonder….can this be something intentional on her part? Not just the normal “I don’t want to get involved with you” of the average woman, but something … more? There was, after all, the special type of magic his people called glamorie: the ability to attract, fascinate, entrap. Might Regina be the master, conscious or not, of such a talent? Of a glamorie she could also reverse? Well now, if that’s the case, no wonder she’s been able to hold Duke Arden so long!
But lest we get the wrong idea, he immediately tells us that it's to Regina's credit that she hasn't used it to get Duke Arden to marry her anyway. And we reiterate the problem there, because even as a Roma, Raven gets the issue: nobles are status bound and if Arden married Regina, the best case scenario is that he'd be a laughing-stock, and the worst case is that he'd be disgraced and his children disinherited.
So somehow now, they're having small talk about music and acting so Raven can muse about Regina's access to magic. Then they get interrupted by the arrival of the Manager calling everyone to action.
Thank god, the chapter ends here.