whoa! I didn't expect her to shake off her Nemesis so quickly and so easily. Did it really go to the Generous Ones? And if so, does it now free her of her Gees? And do the Generous Ones Appreciate such a troublesome gift? Will it satisfy Death? Or will it scamper around the Lands Below until Alex comes to visit, and then pursue her once again? And … poor Larry.

And I still don't get why John wants to kill Alexandra, though next chapter may give us a clue.

Anyway, upon continuing to reread the series searching for clues, I am increasingly convinced Inverarity is setting Alexandra up to fight a cosmic struggle. In AQ2, we have the following scene:

“Okay, Mr. Know-it-all. So what is corn doing in the Lands Below?”
“Dying,” whispered a sad voice.
Maximilian and Alexandra both blinked, and looked at each other.
“So cold,” whispered another voice.
“So dark,” whispered a third. And then a chorus of voices drifted up to them, in the still air.
“Our father the sun,
our mother the moon,
our brother the wind,
oh, how we miss them!
We fell through a crack,
and here the stones are our brothers,
snakes and scorpions our sisters.
We lonely and forgotten ones.”
Their sad lament filled the air. Alexandra found herself feeling sorry for the dying plants.
Maximilian stood up. “Come on. We'd best not meddle with what we don't understand.”
The voices of the corn plants continued chanting, dirge-like:
“Where is the sun? Not here.
Where is the moon? Not here.
Where is the wind? Not here.
Only we are here.
We lonely and forgotten ones.”
“Can't we... do something?” she asked.
Maximilian shook his head. “We can't help them, Alexandra.”
“How do you know? Maybe they can help us!” She knelt next to one of the wilted plants.
“What do you need?” she asked.
There was a pause in their chanting, and then a tiny voice said, “Bring us the sun.”
“Bring us the wind,” whispered another.
“Tell our father we are here.”
“He will crack the earth and split the sky!”

Is this perhaps foreshadowing that Alex will call on the Sun and the Moon - are they among the Stars Above? - to fight Death, so that the Deathly Regiment becomes obsolete?

--Geneva