In which business at The Friendly Glass is done properly or not at all.
Some years have passed since “To Cut an Edge”. Val Con is now a full Scout, and a First-In Scout at that. (Our point-of-view character here doesn’t know what that means, but there’s an explanation in Chapter Ten of Scout’s Progress, where it’s mentioned that one of Aelliana’s students achieved that distinction.)
I see that Clarence O’Berin is still in business, which is pretty good going, considering the impression we were given in “The Beggar King” about the expected longevity of a person in his position. I know I read “The Beggar King” before I first read this story, because I did the chapbooks in publication order, but I don’t recall whether I noticed his name there before.
I get the impression that Ceola and Min are the only two members of their family; when one of their relatives is mentioned, it’s in the past tense. That would seem to suggest that Min, as the elder, would be the head of the family, but she doesn’t go any higher up the pole than elder sister, even when she’s trying to convince Ceola to sell the bar, and the right to make it an order for the best good of the family would be an obvious tool to use. Perhaps such things as delms are only for families of consequence, and not for families that are reduced to two people living over a bar in the lower Mid-Port.
Tomorrow: “A Day at the Races”
I enjoyed the ambiguity of the “assignations” that were gradually revealed to have been used for self-defense training rather than bed pleasures.
Also, it seems Val Con is unaware that his father had built a relationship with Clarence.
This time, the reference to Clarence bothered me more; not that it wasn’t appropriate to the way the Juntavas presumably operates, but because 1) Val Con certainly ought to be aware of the relationship between Korval and the Juntavas, and 2) being aware, shouldn’t he have had some sort of reaction to seeing the name on the contract? And wouldn’t Val Con’s interest/influence have been enough to warn off the Juntavas?
After progressing this far in another read-through, I found the name immediately recognizable. And I imagine among all the documents the delm and even the nadelm need to be acquainted with, there are references to the unspoken agreement between Korval and the Juntavas. Meanwhile, Val Con also knew that the true villains were those further down the ladder, in fact: Min.
Clarence didn’t bother me since it was quite clear that it was Min who wanted to sell – and it fit his persona to buy such establishments, if reasonably priced. Also he didn’t send enforcers (I think Elby was either sent by Min or acting for himself (and convincing Min to sell by pushing the right buttons), having found a gold mine)