Comic for January 27, 2019: Lifting the Veil

[CrRAR]

We’ve encountered most all the other Master Templars. But! Do we ever know of what happened to Master Mage? Perhaps his magical acumen was required to be... harnessed... to pull off magic the likes of what powers the estate. Still, could be Rose floating there, but that does seem awfully cruel. To evil Trace though probably anything made sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wasn't Trace Master Mage before he violently overthrew Mary?

Maybe my timing’s off ...but what of Trace’s Master Mage? We haven’t seen him out and about.

Suppose for a moment they were to have a... minor disagreement.

[aitaituo]

However i will be the devilś advocate for the moment and argue against the "supended animation" idea:
We now Keidran can teleport with magic as Raine has already demonstrated so Rose being everywhere might be simply a case of: "I am a magic butler", the reddish glow might simply be her aura, Raine blue, Rose red, etcetera, after all we have not seen that many spellcasters in the story.

Where are Rose's crystals? Something magically unusual is happening. Maybe not suspended animation, but Rose is at least tapping into some kind of unnatural magic here.

[Panther]

Those aren't tentacles, they're tubes. Bet the Rose we've been looking at isn't her body but an image. I'm calling it now, Rose is wired into the manor like a central computer, only instead of a bank of server blades, it's Rose's body and it's all wired into all the magical systems old Trace setup. Old Trace limited her access to those systems, probably because he didn't trust her because she's a Keidran. It'd also explain her sudden ability to teleport Karen/Maddie out of trouble, remember the teleporting table? Those tubes probably also supply her body with needed life support and mana to keep her alive and power those systems. He probably got the idea when he discovered Euchre's magical power, both as a useful tool and a way to keep Euchre in check. Now she's free of Old Trace's controls.

We can link too the fact Rose is surrounded by red light in the fifth panel , and the "thing" being the same ............. Whatever , Tom can't let us like it now : he needs to reveal who or what it is

[steelabjur]

Those aren't tentacles, they're tubes. Bet the Rose we've been looking at isn't her body but an image. I'm calling it now, Rose is wired into the manor like a central computer, only instead of a bank of server blades, it's Rose's body and it's all wired into all the magical systems old Trace setup. Old Trace limited her access to those systems, probably because he didn't trust her because she's a Keidran. It'd also explain her sudden ability to teleport Karen/Maddie out of trouble, remember the teleporting table? Those tubes probably also supply her body with needed life support and mana to keep her alive and power those systems. He probably got the idea when he discovered Euchre's magical power, both as a useful tool and a way to keep Euchre in check. Now she's free of Old Trace's controls.

We can link too the fact Rose is surrounded by red light in the fifth panel , and the "thing" being the same ............. Whatever , Tom can't let us like it now : he needs to reveal who or what it is

There's also rose petals blowing into the guardroom (for want of a better name) when the doors opened. Perhaps they're not tentacles or tubes, maybe they're vines?

[Ecthudan]

Yeah, my first thought upon seeing this is that it's some attempt to bring Saria back to life gone wrong. He may have used dark magic on her actual body and instead created a terrible abomination that he had to lock away, since he couldn't bring himself to actually destroy his wife's body.

But that's just one of many possible theories.

And it seems like Maddie was able to get a brief glimpse of it, so I wonder how she'll react. After all, wasn't this the secret that Euchre said Trace was not allowed to know? So what if Maddie told Trace about this? What if Trace became curious and tried to see it for himself? Would that somehow bring back the old Trace? Questions over questions... I guess we'll just have to wait for now.

[CrRAR]

Those aren't tentacles, they're tubes. Bet the Rose we've been looking at isn't her body but an image. I'm calling it now, Rose is wired into the manor like a central computer, only instead of a bank of server blades, it's Rose's body and it's all wired into all the magical systems old Trace setup. Old Trace limited her access to those systems, probably because he didn't trust her because she's a Keidran. It'd also explain her sudden ability to teleport Karen/Maddie out of trouble, remember the teleporting table? Those tubes probably also supply her body with needed life support and mana to keep her alive and power those systems. He probably got the idea when he discovered Euchre's magical power, both as a useful tool and a way to keep Euchre in check. Now she's free of Old Trace's controls.

We can link too the fact Rose is surrounded by red light in the fifth panel , and the "thing" being the same ............. Whatever , Tom can't let us like it now : he needs to reveal who or what it is

There's also rose petals blowing into the guardroom (for want of a better name) when the doors opened. Perhaps they're not tentacles or tubes, maybe they're vines?

inb4 it turns out to be just an overgrown rosebush there to commemorate Rose. xD

(Feeeeeeed me Seymoooooreee~)

[TheMouse]

My assumption, little as I like it, is that what's in the room is what's left of Rose. As old as she has to be by now, and with her stuck to the estate as she has been, her influence over most areas, and sundry other indicators, Rose feels more like a ghost in the machine than a living being. Though it's possible she doesn't quite know that, or didn't.

I hope I'm wrong. I like Rose.

[Cosmacelf]

The next comic is ... scene change to Mike and Evals

(Please no!)

[Rafe]

The more I look at the shadow of... whatever that is in front off Maddie, the less it looks like some robed figure, and the more it looks like a head on top of a column or something. (I may be wrong, of course.)

Another thing to note is that Maddie is still on the floor, and hasn't been able to get to her feet. If anyone could (and would) force themselves to get up and fight it would be Maddie. She has to be very badly injured.

[Hulk10]

What ever it is, it could be very dangerous.

[MuonNeutrino]

Something I just noted, going back through some of the previous comics in this chapter...

Back in strip 1033, while Trace is trying to reassure Rose that she doesn't have to act formally around him anymore, he says:

"If I ever hurt you, I'm sorry."

At the time that looks like a relatively innocuous line, sandwiched between and simply serving to reinforce the sentiment of the preceding and following statements. But now, depending on what exactly *this* new development ends up being, that line could turn out to be one hell of a lot heavier in hindsight. Just how much hurt *is* he apologizing for there, all unwittingly?

And Rose had a pretty strong reaction in that middle panel, too. Is that really just a reaction to Trace's sudden personal space violation, or could it be more - the sudden reminder, perhaps, of just what he did to her? The magnitude of the hurt that he doesn't even remember inflicting that he's so casually apologizing for and offering to make right? Maybe I'm just reading messages that aren't there in my instinctive search for patterns, but maybe...

[CrRAR]

Maybe I'm just reading messages that aren't there in my instinctive search for patterns, but maybe...

You're not wrong. Especially considering the tone of the group's return to the estate. Remember the way Nibbly reacted? Animals are far more in touch with nature and the order of things. Her reaction should still be at the back of everyone's minds. I would be quicker to suggest that she detects something odd afoot. So much of Rose's stilted statements up to this point are eerie without context. Context that Rose evidently accepts as understood without prejudice... despite serving such a master... in such a place. Makes you wonder what liberties Trace took in mangling life forces and wills to suit his goals. To be fair, there is the Saria x Rose link to lean to considering Rose's commitment. (Something to exploit though. Hmmmm. )

...and just a page before. Notice the petals leaves. Feel familiar? Quite similar imagry to what Maddie uncovered in the Rose room. Tumbling petals~

Trace's premature apology may become a footnote to what will come to light.

I see one or two things happening with Rose. 1) She is aware somewhat in the nature of her existence and was offered a deal too good to NOT turn the other cheek about how she continues existing, or 2) Large parts of the truth have been occluded from her consciousness and she's not programmatically allowed to seek out what makes the place tick, and therefore is blissfully unaware. Discovery of such things, and she'll be in hysterics or worse.

One calming note that I brought up before is that Euchre talked directly to Rose via projection. He knows something of the affairs at the estate... He's not horrified. Unless he doesn't know details... or accepts artificial life-extension as normal. He's not alarmed about Rose's position. That said, he is a very means-to-an-ends type of guy.

[Candycat]

Ok, that's pretty unsettling, right? It's really giving me some Full Metal Alchemist vibes with those.. tubes or wires or whatever they might be... omg Trace turned Rose into a philosopher's stone
I get the feeling that if it isn't Rose or her body, it's at least related to Rose somehow. The rose motif is too strong for that to not be the case. Perhaps it's somehow related to Saria? Actually, maybe what if Saria is literally the reason she's still there like she said earlier? Could it be a chimera? Now we're really getting into FMA territory. Crazy theories aside, that thing is, or was, a person. It's got a head at least. We're about to finally explore the deep dark of Trace and his manor, right? Please?

[Tyger42]

The next comic is ... scene change to Mike and Evals

(Please no!)

Unless Mike and Evals ship finally sails, then I'll forgive it.

[Hulk10]

I doubt old Trace would have been so cruel as to harm Rose in anyway since she is in a sense one of the only things he had left of Saria.