I am actually a bit surprised that Keris still harbors feelings for Rat and her role in his death. I assumed based on the brief description of her final encounter with him that she had used Freedom Lets Go before she killed him. That seemed like the explanation for her willingness to kill him and Sasi's desire to create protections against treachery from Keris.
Why didn't Keris use the charm before killing him? If she didn't use it against Rat then when has she used it?
Because Keris is a character, not a perfectly optimal machine. She used FLG to flense away the part of her confused feelings that hated Rat for leaving her after he was dead, but she killed him out of love, because he was trapped and suffering and enslaved to the Mask of Winters with no way to get free. And when she used it, she kept the part of the Principle that loved him, and missed him, and grieved his death.
Keris has "Be Loved" at 5 dots. She literally considers living a life where she's unloved and has nobody who cares for her to be as scary as the thought of dying. She may have Freedom Lets Go, but she clings tightly to her love for people. She won't use it so indiscriminately on them.
And I sort of think that makes her love for people mean more, in a way? She
could have stopped loving Rat and left only the hatred to kill him and then flensed that away too. She
could stop loving Sasi on a whim, at any second. She could do either of these, mechanically, and she
knows that she could do these things in-character. And she doesn't. Even when they make her confused or upset, even when they hurt her or keep her awake for days with fear or guilt, she makes a conscious choice every time the prospect arises to
not let them go. Because she considers the love worth the price it comes with.
(This is, incidentally, why Sasi is so wary of her. Keris wouldn't
need to use FLG to hurt those she loves. It's an unpleasant part of herself that she doesn't like all that much, but she is perfectly capable of hurting and, yes, killing them to spare them greater pain. I don't think it's something Adorjani either; it's something she's always been capable of. She's probably going to bud a soul that expresses that, at some point. It won't be a pleasant experience.)
I'm amused that Keris managed to pick up two full styles and two malfean charms, but still no summoning.
She's getting round to it!
Also it's only technically been a week and a bit of downtime, which she largely spent crafting. She still has a bunch of xp to spend after Calibration and the Althing are over.
I'd argue that Keris is following the teachings of Adorjan very well. She's completely insane, after all.
Really? How?
Like, seriously. How? "Insanity" is defined as being "a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behaviour, or social interaction; seriously mentally ill". Keris certainly isn't the latter, and I'd argue that she isn't the former either. Oh, some of her high-level Principles like Be Loved and Get Revenge seriously skew her situational behaviour, but even then they do it in understandable ways, and when she's not exposed to them she's perfectly capable of blending in, behaving in line with the crowd and interacting socially without raising undue suspicion. Her actions are generally rational - impulsive and poorly thought out as far as consequences go, yes, but rational in their motivations.
Given her paranoia and trust issues, Sasi probably skews as far away from "normal" as Keris does. Any definition of insanity that includes Keris would probably have to include her as well.
