Turning to another matter, what if the lamp technician was a victim of the same ‘magic’ the soldier was? Would the ban still apply? That is, what if he was literally incapable of providing the information that Rowan wanted, even though he obviously possessed it?
And this leads me to question Rowans commitment to knowledge and truth and the way of the Steerswomen. Back to the lamp technician, she bans him but still answers one question from him. The jeweler refuses to answer her how does he make the tiny strips in the jewels? and she doesn’t ban him, she doesn’t even consider it. When finding out that Will knows how to make ‘magic’ she doesn’t jump on him like a chicken on a junebug to try and find how he makes it… probably she’s afraid she’ll have to ban him when he doesn’t tell.
And that’s other thing she does, she refrains from making some questions from fear that she’ll be refused and forced to ban the questioned; she stops looking for the truth… out of fear
. Or she tries to work around the spirit of the rules by volunteering information without being questioned.
To be fair, neither the wizards make a sterling job themselves. The young ones basically spill the beans to Rowan, showing her their satellite maps, telling her how the solar cells are used, and some other things that I don’t remember right now. Probably they thought she was going to die anyway, but what a James Bond Villain they pulled.
And then the wizard at Wolfsburg, talking about conflicts among his fellow wizards, volunteering information about the satellites, and to a Steerswoman to boot! If things keep going like this, the wizard’s secrets won’t last too long.
