Then I think, in character building, I only have a couple more thoughts to suggest you keep in mind:

1) Early twenties is good, but when she became a Cursor is still relevant. Remember that we don't know who trained Cursors after Killian's death in Book 2, and Tavi is all of 24 in the last book, so 'early twenties' doesn't hit up the key point. Is she older than Tavi? Did she finish her training before he did, or was her training approached differently than his thanks to the circumstances? If she finished after book two, the question of who trained her becomes relevant; his Cursor class is the last that we know of graduating, but it's unlikely Sextus would have just let it go merely because his primary teacher fell. Still, we don't actually know what happened, and we know the Cursors were getting decimated as the Vord War approached.

So, did your Agent graduate before Tavi did, or after? And if after, given she likely studied in Alera Imperia, who contributed to her training once Killian was dead?

2) You mention she's not a member of the Citizenry--so, I assume, not born so. If she's a strong enough crafter, she might have become a Citizen based on that crafting (the way some Knights become Citizens rather than just being freemen thanks to being incredibly strong crafters; it's mentioned Bernard could have been a Citizen prior to becoming Count Calderon if he'd wanted to, he just hadn't bothered). Is she a Citizen now, born a freewoman or not, or has she not challenged for full Citizenship?

3) This is purely a question that came up for me when thinking about a Cursor-cum-Agent, and takes several sharp turns into serious and more detailed character development territory, but it's a question I thought I'd share. The only two Cursors known to quit within-world are Fidelias and Amara, and they both did so... spectacularly--and in both cases it didn't last very long. If you think about the job of a Cursor, they first and foremost serve the Crown, approximately to protect the Realm (and that's where the idealism can lead to conflict of philosophy)--and the House of Gaius does not let go of talent easily. Cursors serve as the First Lord's eyes and ears, and frequently mouth and hands. Does your ex-Cursor still carry the coin that marks her as a Cursor? Does she have that life waiting for her should she leave the PPC, and if she does, is it because she simply never bothered to 'abandon Real Life,' as it were? Whether or not any of this is the case, how does her previous loyalty to Lord and Realm currently play into her view of her duties as an Agent?



In case you can't tell, the idea of an ex-Cursor for an Agent is hugely exciting. These are just the questions which arose in my mind immediately upon reading your premise.

The reading of the series as being a good idea.

Alera is a world with highly practical and tribal not!humans who occasionally have giant badgers and feathered mini-T-rexes for soul-bonded companions, abominable snowmen, giant wolf-men summoning eldritch abominations, Zerg, and a Lost Roman Legion with Pokémon.

It also has tons of highly competent, intelligent, charismatic, deadly characters, and a central hero who is the illustration that you can do Standard High Fantasy Tropes and still do them entertainingly, interestingly, well, and without falling into complete Stu-dom traps. Sure, the big solutions are helped along by having magical nukes to drop, but it is always about brains with the power, and the lovely thing is that people are shown to be charismatic and clever, not just stated to be, and in situations which flow naturally.

I love both Dresden and Alera, though Alera far more, but a guy who works at the gaming and sci-fi/fantasy store I frequent prefers Dresden. That said, he described the last Alera book as virtually flawless. It's a fantastic series, all told.

Also, it was written practically on a dare.

It is fantastic.

Is Jim Butcher's other series- the first book I think is a bit rocky, personally, if better in quality than the first Dresden Files book- but it is excellent.

Very enjoyable series overall, though I am not quite the utter fanatic that FractalDawn is.

I really like to co-write things, and a pet normally-miniature dragon sounds like the perfect companion for a MGLN character. However, here too you need to write it well, after all we're still talking about a dragon here.

As I recall, Hayate had almost no magic before she fixed the book-it's why it was eating into her body. And while she can still cast spells, then she'll be really limited--I'd guess that a severely depowered Bloody Dagger or Diabolic Emission--enough to fight with, yeah, but no city-destroying (I'm fairly certain that Diabolic Emission was intended as an anti-warship weapon, even if Rein Eins and Hayate use it as an anti-personnel attack). Her equivalent would probably be enough to cover a large room-no where near the ToNS equivalent.