Leif is an orphan, and was sold into servitude to pay back the costs to the state of raising him.
He thinks how great it is that the Sønheim system means nobody has to be homeless, implying that was a risk for him at some point. He worries about Elisa's relationship with her father but never thinks about his own parents or wishes to be back with them. And let's face it, we all know this is the kind of thing the Sonheim government would do.
- Partially jossed. Leif did know his parents, but it seems that he wants nothing to do with them.
Time Traveling Future Thorn will meet Rhodon at some point.
For a "meet the real person behind all the myth and legend" storyline.
Ivy is the Woman in Black
It's somewhat difficult to tell, but Ivy and the WIB appear to have the same hairstyle and face shape. Additionally, Ivy's hyperactive nature is a perfect foil to the WIB's calm, calculating demeanor (meaning there's even fewer reasons for anybody to ever mentally associate them with each other), and her fangirlish obsession with Sonheic culture gives her a great excuse to be completely fluent in the language.
- Failing that, it might be a relative, particularly one near in age to her, such as a cousin, sister, or very young aunt.
- We've now seen Future Thorn and the WIB in the same storyline. This could foreshadow that WIB is Future Ivy, at an age when she's gotten calmer and more mature.
- Jossed, at least as far as Ivy being the WIB. Theoretically, they could still be related, but they don't look terribly similar.
Leif's parents rebelled against the repressive Sønheim government.
Leif believes they did something so awful he doesn't even like to think about it. That could be Sønska propaganda to cover for the fact that they were freedom fighters. The debt he's paying off could be a punitively large fine laid on his parents or some kind of restitution to survivors.
Kale is Kudzu.
They have
similar hairstyles, we’ve only ever seen Kudzu transformed (which can add color to your hair), Kale gets weird visions that may or may not be caused by a fire affinity and Kudzu’s domain was fire before he got good enough to go Star, and then there’s the fact that Kale knows Acai, who’s some kind of weirdly powerful star mage. Also, he's considered enough of a person of interest to be watched over by a "
handler" (who he knows about) as well as the WiB (who he doesn't).
Olive Romarin and Kudzu are related.
Admittedly we don't know how common the last name Romarin is, and admittedly it is a long shot given that the author has so far painted Ceannis as being positive in terms of government compared to Sonheim. Still, two points make it highly probable.
- 1: Romarin is already a politically-involved long-runner who would probably have need of a troubleshooter and problem solver capable of acting as a deniable asset.
- 2: Kudzu notes that the people who raised him made him think what he was doing was justified. If he wasn't strung along by his parents, a long-runner sibling with goals of their own certainly would be capable.
- Jossed. Kale Romarin is an alias chosen in honor of Peony Romarin, an anti-cult activist.
Valrún sank the Margaid.
To Stanczia, Valrún is "just a wrecker," but the humans of Sønheim recoil at her name. A "wrecker" is one who deliberately lures ships into danger. To a centuries-old vampire, a shipwreck, even one so bad Ceannic citizens talk about it like 9/11, might not seem so terrible. Moreover, it would be perfect dramatic irony for Leif's mother to have killed one of Thorn's.
