We’re another step closer to the end but not too much closer to answers with Radiant.  That we’re going to finish with lots of open threads and little resolution seems a fait acompli at this point, but if I’m holding out any realistic hope I suppose it’s that we at least get a better idea of who – or what – Seth is.  Cursed, a sorcerer?  Surely – but the Inquisition definitely doesn’t take this level of interest in random sorcerers.  And they’re not the only powerful people taking an interest, either.

As powerful as Seth is in normal mode, he’s certainly no match for Torque.  I’m still not sure what the difference between “miracles” and “magic” is (and maybe that was Valente’s point), but whatever Torque has is stronger than whatever Seth has (though the same can’t be said of his aide, Van Teppes).  When Seth goes into berserker mode after seeing Torque kill Hameline, Torque is about to put an end to him when Piodon is forced to step in.  I’m not sure just what exactly he does, but it unlocks something in Seth and makes him even more of a beast.  For long enough, anyway, for Grimm to wrap him up in bandages and flee with Melie in tow – but not before Grimm reveals that he’d actually saved all the missing citizens, stashing them inside a coffin-shaped box with TARDIS-like spatial properties.

Good and evil are getting increasingly fuzzy in this story (that’s a good thing), and whatever else may be said about them, it’s clear that Dragunov is a truer representative of their ideals than Konrad.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t the villains of the piece but it does mean Konrad was an aberration, even if they are.  And they do step in to save as many Rumbletonians as they can (especially Santori), even if it means letting the sorcerers escape.  As little as we know about Seth, we know no more about what the real goals of the Inquisition are.

One thing I don’t believe is that Piodon is Seth’s big brother.  He didn’t even raise the possibility, merely went along with it when Seth suggested it because it was the path of least resistance.  There’s a clear connection between them (maybe it’s no more than that horned sorcerers are a thing, albeit an extremely rare one), and it’s obviously important enough to Piodon that Seth not die that he’s willing to double-cross his nominal allies (though that seems wholly a marriage of convenience) to save him.

Ultimately it’s a ship (well, train) from Artemis that saves everybody on the sorcerer side.  Master Lord Majesty is no less interested in Seth than the Inquisition or Piodon, and it’s more than just his debt.  Seth seems to be the key to everything in some way, which means we’re deep in classic shounen territory here.  Perhaps Alma’s visit next week will provide a bit of clarity – in the meantime, I hope we get more of Baby Doc in the t-shirt with the little tie on it.