What think of this that Marliese was the who recruited Cherry to the harem
If Dani built the watch, and the watch was the means by which the women were recruited, and Dani was the one who recruited them, then I think the timescales are too narrow for Marliese to have recruited anyone after Dani left. But there are a lot of ifs in that.
There seems to be a group of people - or groups of people - who know of each other. It's possible that the connection between them is magic, and that they are aware of each other either because of that shared interest or because of some deeper (hidden) knowledge that magicians have of each other. We don't know exactly what kind of books Marliese writes but she's "friendly" with Rain and Mallory, who both have an active interest in magic. Perhaps her books would sit happily on Mallory's shelves - and perhaps also on those of witches like Cherry and Erin. Did Cherry read them because she's a witch or because she's a lesbian?
If the glowing red shell is some kind of magic crystal then therein lies a reason for people with an interest in magic to be aware of it. It's not clear to me that just because the belltower equipment has glowing red scallops on the front of it, it follows that it's powered by the same red crystals. But perhaps it is. That would suggest that someone at Wilmot found a way of harnessing these crystals so as to be able to affect if not control women. The experiment was at Wilmot, which we could think of as being somehow Rain's institution. And the focus of the experiment appears to have been Adrian's father - someone in whom we believe Rain may have an interest. But the belltower equipment doesn't look like Rain's style at all. Was Jakob at Wilmot? Did he know about this experiment? Is the watch simply another device that harnesses the power of the crystal in much the same way?
Why would someone with the watch be looking to recruit magicians? Erin can heal people. Did Jakob want her to heal him, or was he looking for a way to "heal" his women?
If I keep praising PK and OM, they're going to start thinking I'm taking the piss, which I'm not. But, you know, this whole thing is just great.
