Good point about Sir Giles! I may never identify who Cook is... it's sort of fun to imagine her.
As for the Night Guard, I'd assumed that they were sworn to the Guard itself, and not to a particular Monarch. I'd sort of hinted at that in BRD with Wrasse when Edmund reflects that the Night Guard takes a broader view of their protective duty. Dalia was sworn to Peter alone and that she gave up. In fact, in TPG, there are only 3 night guards on duty -- though I'm not sure if that's a temporary thing because Wrasse is filling in during the day and still working the night shift and so they are short staffed, or if, at this point, the feeling is that they don't really need a full 4 guards in the Monarchs' wing at night.
While in one sense, they are more vulnerable, unless there is a coordinated attack through the windows against all 4 at night, the Beasts know what's going on in the rooms, even with the doors shut. They can hear and smell, so they don't need to be physically in the rooms. I’ve also wondered if a few years in, the Monarchs start feeling safer again and pushback a bit on the Guard.
As for the different conflicts, the assassination attempts that get this rolling are not something I'd thought about much except as a device for getting the rest of the story moving. It was something coordinated, the 3 perpetrators all were killed (something they came to regret later) and maybe there's an investigation, but I've not thought of anything further than that. It could easily be tied, in some way to either of the two other plot lines -- the problems in Year 7 or the Lone Islands in year 10.
I have assumed that the year 7 and 10 events are unrelated. The problem in Year 7 is in the nature of a spies and agents -- what I really want to do there is explore the nature of torture, incarceration, justice, and capital punishment in Narnia. I've got some opinions on that and the subject matter was too intense and involved for a one shot.
The Lone Islands, well, that's the sort of thing where, when you are dealing with Jadis remnants, and Giants, and pirates, and suitors and tourneys, and visits to your Island nations and neighbors, are you really going to even delve into, WANT to delve into the tax code unless you can't avoid it? As I see it, the Lone Islanders have been paying, the Narnians have been receiving, and no one has wanted to upset the status quo. It's probably been on Ed's Brother Do list for a couple of years. Now, he finally has to deal with it and it's HARD and really complicated and they hadn't quite realized that there's a whole set of assumptions built into it that they had never examined before. For instance, the U.S. tax code favors married couples with children and homeowners, but if you didn't know that going in, it would be really hard to find and puzzle out that those values are built into it if all you have is a couple of books with the laws and regulations of the Internal Revenue Code of the US.
Ed's going to have to go to the Lone Islands to deal with it personally -- something stated in TSG Part 1. He'll be going with Morgan and he goes in undercover, as some other underling, with a reveal to come later. Sallowpad goes with them and Jina. So, maybe Ed is interning under Morgan in the House of Linch. oops. Did I just write that? She's very high up in her organization; and the worse manager ever.
So, does that help? Or just make you want to ask more questions of things that are still unformed in my brain?
Re: Untirely unrelated tangents coming up
As for the Night Guard, I'd assumed that they were sworn to the Guard itself, and not to a particular Monarch. I'd sort of hinted at that in BRD with Wrasse when Edmund reflects that the Night Guard takes a broader view of their protective duty. Dalia was sworn to Peter alone and that she gave up. In fact, in TPG, there are only 3 night guards on duty -- though I'm not sure if that's a temporary thing because Wrasse is filling in during the day and still working the night shift and so they are short staffed, or if, at this point, the feeling is that they don't really need a full 4 guards in the Monarchs' wing at night.
While in one sense, they are more vulnerable, unless there is a coordinated attack through the windows against all 4 at night, the Beasts know what's going on in the rooms, even with the doors shut. They can hear and smell, so they don't need to be physically in the rooms. I’ve also wondered if a few years in, the Monarchs start feeling safer again and pushback a bit on the Guard.
As for the different conflicts, the assassination attempts that get this rolling are not something I'd thought about much except as a device for getting the rest of the story moving. It was something coordinated, the 3 perpetrators all were killed (something they came to regret later) and maybe there's an investigation, but I've not thought of anything further than that. It could easily be tied, in some way to either of the two other plot lines -- the problems in Year 7 or the Lone Islands in year 10.
I have assumed that the year 7 and 10 events are unrelated. The problem in Year 7 is in the nature of a spies and agents -- what I really want to do there is explore the nature of torture, incarceration, justice, and capital punishment in Narnia. I've got some opinions on that and the subject matter was too intense and involved for a one shot.
The Lone Islands, well, that's the sort of thing where, when you are dealing with Jadis remnants, and Giants, and pirates, and suitors and tourneys, and visits to your Island nations and neighbors, are you really going to even delve into, WANT to delve into the tax code unless you can't avoid it? As I see it, the Lone Islanders have been paying, the Narnians have been receiving, and no one has wanted to upset the status quo. It's probably been on Ed's Brother Do list for a couple of years. Now, he finally has to deal with it and it's HARD and really complicated and they hadn't quite realized that there's a whole set of assumptions built into it that they had never examined before. For instance, the U.S. tax code favors married couples with children and homeowners, but if you didn't know that going in, it would be really hard to find and puzzle out that those values are built into it if all you have is a couple of books with the laws and regulations of the Internal Revenue Code of the US.
Ed's going to have to go to the Lone Islands to deal with it personally -- something stated in TSG Part 1. He'll be going with Morgan and he goes in undercover, as some other underling, with a reveal to come later. Sallowpad goes with them and Jina. So, maybe Ed is interning under Morgan in the House of Linch. oops. Did I just write that? She's very high up in her organization; and the worse manager ever.
So, does that help? Or just make you want to ask more questions of things that are still unformed in my brain?
Thanks again, Min.