u/Edward_Warren

While reading and seeing Easthies and Vinanna's weird behavior during and after Silver Eve, I starting to get the feeling that there is more going on with the Pact than it being merely man-made. This feeling has been getting worse with all the hints lately that there's an additional ring of secrecy in the upper tiers of witch society, to the point I want to openly speculate about the true nature of the Pact.

The very circumstances surrounding the Pact are eyebrow-raising: at small sect of witches cast a spell that wiped the whole world's memory of magic in a DAY. That sort of doomsday device, basically, would render the threat posed by Brim Caps or the king's research moot. Why worry about outsiders and heretics spreading forbidden knowledge, and just do an annual "memory patch" recasting of the memory nuke every year to ensure the outsiders and any witch outside the Great Hall forgets anything they might have pieced together about about magic?

What if the Pointed Hats can't cast that sort of spell, and they had to contract with a higher power to accomplish it? Was the Pact a vow between witches themselves to never abuse magic... or a pact with something else to never use magic a certain way again or else?

• In Chapter 57, Easthies got told to shut up quick by the Wise of Principles when he said "these decisions are not ours to make" regarding making exceptions. Whose is it then?
• In Chapter 75, while discussing their loyalty to the Pact, Vinanna told Beldaruit she "felt a cold gust of wind" above town during the leech disaster, which briefly made him freak out. Later she says in Chapter 97 she "must have noticed something amiss" that made her okay with bending the rules, otherwise she would have been helping Easthies ruin the plan. Is she just superstitious, or is wind how whatever entity enforces the Pact conveys its will?
• Finally, you've got Easthies, general fear whenever someone threatens to violate the Pact. This could be just backstory trauma from whatever incident made Easthies the way he is, or else he's privvy to a secret that the order members beneath him aren't. While the others see their job as policing, does he know that the Pact being enforced is an existential threat?

Here's what I'm thinking the reveal will be that the original Three Wise, either as collateral to get a powerful entity to help them cast the spell or as a contingency against their successors straying from their teachings, put some sort of doomsday clause in place. Minor breaches in the Pact are tolerated enough that the knights are entrusted with clearing it up, but a widespread disregard of the rules will result in some sort of powerful spell triggering or dark entity awakening to ensure magic is never misused again.

I suspect this is where Coco will come into play. Either through Iguin's machinations or just her good nature, Coco will be the one who finds a true loophole for the system that lets witch society slip out of the Pact without technically breaking it, allowing for magic to be used openly again.

Has anyone else had similar thoughts or noticed any hints/holes I missed that could add onto this?