Heirloom

In which Pat Rin receives some advice, a history lesson, and a treasure.

With this story, we return to Liad, and Korval, about a decade after we last saw them. Nova yos’Galan is now twelve, and Pat Rin yos’Phelium, whom we last saw as a child on the day of her birth, is now a young man, and considering how he might make his way in society.

Reading these in chronological order does mean that the last time we saw Pat Rin was the day of Nova’s birth, which was also the day he demonstrated to his aunt an uncanny facility with dice — which makes it seem odd that in this story we’re told he’s been tested by the Healers and found to have no psychic talents of note. Perhaps in the intervening years the facility has faded away, or been redirected in another direction, or gone into hiding. While we’re on the subject, though, I did say I’d be watching whether he had much to do with dice when he took up his career as a gamester, which he does in this story, so I’ll note that his game of choice appears to be the card game piket, and no mention of dice at all.

Another trivial note, one of those connections the discovery of which are among my motivations for this project: Pat Rin’s new landlord is a textile merchant named bin’Flora, presumably a descendant of that bin’Flora to whom Jethri made his first sale way back in Balance of Trade.

I’m not sure what to make of Pat Rin’s dream at the beginning. It’s possible that it is, despite everything said against it, a prophetic dream foretelling Nova’s danger later in the story, but I don’t find that a compelling interpretation. I’m more inclined to think, given Pat Rin’s history, that if the endangered child in the dream had a face it would be Pat Rin’s own.


Tomorrow: “Intelligent Design”

9 thoughts on “Heirloom

  1. Hanneke

    I just enjoyed the whole vicarious reread; your comments are enough to recall the books and stories, even though I haven’t been following along, as Rolanni’s link only brought me to this blog today.

    I think it was in Lord of the Dance that we get a possible explanation for this disappearing ability of Pat Rin’s, when Daav talks about Kareen’s talent (a very limited dramliz-type talent) being to unconsciously influence people and block them from doing anything she doesn’t want them to do. She doesn’t want Pat Rin to be a pilot, so he unconsciously blocks himself when trying to do those kinds of things. I don’t expect she’d like it any better for him to have dramliz talents, as she doesn’t (not that are recognized except by Daav, and she appears jealous of other in the family having abilities she doesn’t), nor would she want her heir to be a gambler; so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find she’s unconsciously blocked him from realizing that ability.

  2. Ed8r

    I noticed a specific contrast mentioned in passing, between Kareen and Luken: Kareen apparently has no compunctions about denigrating Luken to Pat Rin, whereas Luken makes a point of not speaking ill to him of his mother. Little does she know, that she has likely had the opposite effect of what she intended.

    I would appreciate a brief summary of the Korval history that comes out during Nova’s experience. I found my brain tangled and must have missed the point I should have grasped. Also, what about the work of the male healer in smoothing and stroking the rug? Did the healer remove the “haunting”? Or had Nova’s experience already done so? Had the stain not been a physical one at all but only a psychic one? And if so, then Pat Rin has slightly more dramliz talent than just luck with the dice?

  3. Paul A. Post author

    The Korval history that Nova relives is the tale of how Line bel’Tarda came to be part of Korval. Del Ben yos’Phelium, who wasn’t as clever as he thought he was, learned that a family of merchants named bel’Tarda were in possession of an extremely valuable rug, and when they refused to sell him their family heirloom he came up with a plot to acquire it that resulted in the devastation of their business and the deaths of several people including the bel’Tarda’s heir and the heir’s heir. As part of its reparations, Korval took bel’Tarda into itself, supported it while it rebuilt its business, and gave Lisha yos’Galan the task of supplying bel’Tarda with a new heir. Del Ben did something when he was given the news — it’s not clear what, since Nova only gives us Lisha’s half of the conversation — that drove Lisha to stab him and get his blood on the rug; fortunately, Pat Rin dodges better than Del Ben so he doesn’t have to relive that bit exactly. The rug itself, now with a multitude of unpleasant associations attached to it, got packed away into a storeroom with Del Ben’s blood still on it and forgotten about until the house was sold and the storerooms emptied out.

    I think the blood stain was both a physical remnant and a signifier of the psychic stain, so that when the latter was removed the former went too. It’s not clear to me whether the Healer cleaned the rug of its contamination, or if that happened as a result of Nova drawing the memory out of the rug and the Healer just confirmed that it was gone.

  4. Ed8r

    So, causing the ruin of bel’Tarda was all in the service of obtaining the rug for himself? And then many years later perhaps . . . the not-so-clever-as-he-thought-he-was Del Ben happens to reveal all those circumstances to the woman who had no doubt been ordered to provide the heir?

  5. Paul A. Post author

    The way I read it, the sequence of events goes like this: Lisha discovered what Del Ben had done and reported it to Korval, who offered Balance to bel’Tarda, and then Lisha confronted Del Ben with her knowledge of his actions and its consequences. Nova-as-Lisha says that she “became aware of your perfidy” while acting in her melant’i as Master Trader, which suggests that she found it out and not that he told her, and also mocks him for being so self-absorbed that he hasn’t even noticed that Korval and bel’Tarda have been in negotiations, let alone wondered what they were negotiating.

    This means that it’s Lisha who discovered the problem and also Lisha who has to bear a large part of the burden of Balancing it, which is unfortunate and no doubt contributes to her anger with Del Ben. With some delms, I wouldn’t put it past them to have given her the burden as a punishment for the discovery (you know how some people are, who blame the whistleblower for bringing the firm into disrepute instead of the person whose actions the whistleblower brought to light), but I prefer to think that it was an unavoidable coincidence, perhaps due to Korval being in one of its small periods and there being no other daughter of the clan who could do what needed to be done.

  6. Ed8r

    Huh. Well, she says: I am old. I am slow. and then later: I had thought myself well beyond the time of my life where I must marry at contract. So apparently she must be, what age would you think?

  7. Ed8r

    I think I’m still a bit lost in the historical details here.

    I still don’t know what age we think Lisha might have been when she carried out this righteous—in Korval’s eyes—execution. Nor—except for its placement on the timeline—do I really understand how long ago this took place. Which bel’Tarda was actually Lisha’s child?

  8. Paul A. Post author

    this righteous—in Korval’s eyes—execution

    In fact, Lisha makes a point of mentioning that Korval has forbidden her to actually kill Del Ben — after she goes at him with the knife, while she’s mocking him for bleeding on the carpet, so it would appear that while blood was shed she didn’t actually kill him. Korval’s preferred punishment in this case seems to have been the “dead to the clan” kind of death that leaves the culprit alive.

    I don’t think we get any information about when all this happened more specific than “many years back”, far enough back that Pat Rin has noticed it’s odd that the clan has never reused the name Del Ben since.

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