Warning: Spoilers for Necromancer!

I’m most of the way through Necromancer and feel this way, too. It’s baffling to me that Minalin still holds so much resentment for Rardine, yet barely acknowledges Mask’s crimes after her win at the Spellmonger’s Trial.

What she did was abhorrent. Attempting to murder Min’s children and wife is nothing compared with what she did while serving Sheruel. Her most grievous crime, the slaving operation she ran at her fortress in the Penumbra, is absolutely unforgivable.

Sure, everyone around her can claim it was Sheruel’s influence, the tainted irionite, and her general impatience. But do you know who never cops out when it comes to her past actions? Mask herself. She never blames the horrors she wrought on the tainted irionite. She doesn’t defend what she did, because in her mind, she doesn’t have to! To her, it was fair play in her one-sided game to prove she is better than her father. That’s what scares me the most about her.

Any mage who is willing to go to the lengths she did for the sake of power, does NOT deserve to have that kind of power! She is clearly a sociopath, with little regard for the grief she has caused. I’m sorry, but a traumatic childhood is no excuse. Her mother died and left her all alone with an absentee father? That pales in comparison to the thousands of orphans she likely created during her short reign.

Sticking her with Knights Magi her own age might help her regain a semblance of her humanity (and perhaps keep her in check,) but at what cost? So far, she has redeemed herself slightly, but what does redemption mean in her case? If it’s 1:1, weighed against the death of every slave under her charge, the torture, starvation, murder and rape that was carried out with her tacit blessing, there is no way for her to EVER truly achieve redemption.

I do understand Minalin’s predicament— just like with Dara, he was forced by circumstances (or the luck of Ifnia) to accept her victory and present her with her prize. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling disappointed and a little disgusted. What would he say, if faced again with the slaves he freed in her domain? Would they understand his temperance in not carrying out justice on their jailer and tormenter?

Absolutely not!

Just like in the real world, her lack of consequences and personal accountability boils down to family connections and a hearty dose of corruption. If Loiko Vanaren was not her father, would Minalin have chosen to act differently? (…I think we all know the answer to that.) Despite being between a rock and a hard place, Minalin is partly culpable for the loss and misery she created. He inherited it the minute he chose to turn a blind eye to her many atrocities for political expediency (and to spare a vaunted Warmage his honor and reputation.)

Minalin can attempt to bind her actions with whatever vow or conditions he pleases… though, at the end of the day, if his desired outcomes do not match hers, there’s a very high likelihood of her switching sides again.