Not entirely true. At least with the Leanansidhe.
Grave Peril: Lea manipulates and throws faerie fire
"Treacher!" spat my godmother. She rose up from the ground, blackened and burned, her fine dress in tatters about her waist, her body and limbs stretched, knobby, and inhuman. She clenched her hands into fists at her sides, and the fire from the building around us seemed to rush down, gathering in her grasp in a pair of blazing points of violet and emerald light. "Treasonous, poisonous child! You are mine as your mother swore unto me! As you swore!"
"You shouldn't make contracts with a minor!" I shouted back, and shoved Michael forward, into the rift. He wavered for a moment on the narrow opening, and then fell through and vanished back into the real world.
"If you will not give me your life, serpent child, then I will have your blood!" Lea took two huge strides toward me and hurled both hands forward. A thunderbolt of braided emerald and violet power rushed at my face.
I hurled myself backwards, at the rift, and prayed that it was still open enough to let me fall through. I extended my staff toward my godmother and threw up whatever weak shield I could. The faerie fire hammered into the shield, hurling me back into the rift like a straw before a tornado. I felt my staff smolder and burst into flames in my hand as I went sailing through.
Grave Peril Chapter 6, Page 51-52
"You shouldn't make contracts with a minor!" I shouted back, and shoved Michael forward, into the rift. He wavered for a moment on the narrow opening, and then fell through and vanished back into the real world.
"If you will not give me your life, serpent child, then I will have your blood!" Lea took two huge strides toward me and hurled both hands forward. A thunderbolt of braided emerald and violet power rushed at my face.
I hurled myself backwards, at the rift, and prayed that it was still open enough to let me fall through. I extended my staff toward my godmother and threw up whatever weak shield I could. The faerie fire hammered into the shield, hurling me back into the rift like a straw before a tornado. I felt my staff smolder and burst into flames in my hand as I went sailing through.
Grave Peril Chapter 6, Page 51-52
And I threw it all at the second Lord from the left - the one whose will seemed the least concrete. He staggered and made a sound that I'd once heard from a boxer who'd taken an uppercut to the nuts.
With that, the last Lord of Outer Night to enter the temple - the one wearing the mask I had seen once before, when Murphy had sliced it from its owner's head - raised her hands and sent ribbons of green and amethyst power scything through her apparent compatriots.
The blast killed two of them outright, with spectacular violence, tearing their bodies to god-awful shreds and spattering the inside of the temple with black blood. All of the remaining Lords staggered, screaming in surprise and pain, their true forms beginning to claw their way free of the flesh that contained them.
My godmother, too, discarded her disguise, flinging the gold mask at the nearest Lord as she allowed the illusion that concealed her true form to fade away, taking with it the clothes and trappings that had let her insinuate herself among the enemy. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed. Bloodlust and an eager, nearly sexual desire to destroy radiated from her like heat from a fire. She howled her glee and began hurling streaks and bolts and webworks of energy at the stunned Lords of Outer Night, spinning power from her flickering fingertips even as they brought the force of their wills and their own sorcery to bear upon her.
Changes Chapter 48, Page 518-519
With that, the last Lord of Outer Night to enter the temple - the one wearing the mask I had seen once before, when Murphy had sliced it from its owner's head - raised her hands and sent ribbons of green and amethyst power scything through her apparent compatriots.
The blast killed two of them outright, with spectacular violence, tearing their bodies to god-awful shreds and spattering the inside of the temple with black blood. All of the remaining Lords staggered, screaming in surprise and pain, their true forms beginning to claw their way free of the flesh that contained them.
My godmother, too, discarded her disguise, flinging the gold mask at the nearest Lord as she allowed the illusion that concealed her true form to fade away, taking with it the clothes and trappings that had let her insinuate herself among the enemy. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed. Bloodlust and an eager, nearly sexual desire to destroy radiated from her like heat from a fire. She howled her glee and began hurling streaks and bolts and webworks of energy at the stunned Lords of Outer Night, spinning power from her flickering fingertips even as they brought the force of their wills and their own sorcery to bear upon her.
Changes Chapter 48, Page 518-519
So we see with Lea here, second most powerful noble of the Winter Court.
And its not her alone. The Redcap is a skilled broad-spectrum combat shapeshifter, despite it seemingly having no relevance.
COMMENTARY
Ooh, thats useful.
Admittedly it does seem to only be used in rituals.
But for a wizard, being able to guarantee success in a ritual by spending a mote of Essence is a pretty major deal.
I wonder if he can do the Essence = Faith conversion for donating motes to Lash.
Regardless, Bob is going to have All The Questions.
It does imply that we might well run into Nephandi with Awakened Essence.
Just to make our life extra-spicy.
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Its an Investment.
You can get that sort of Investment by trading with a sufficiently powerful god, or spirit, or Yama King.
You deal with that sort of thing by not casting magic directly at the target.
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@DragonParadox
QUESTION:
Since this can be taught, to who can it be taught? Wizards only? Or Path sorcerers? What of Shih?
Red Court and Black Court sorcerers?
Because that has implications, both ways.
Both for things Molly can teach her people, and potential upgrades to the OPFOR
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^^^
For example, finding Margaret Angelica Rodriguez-Dresden suddenly becomes significantly easier.
