Solcintra
In which certain negotiations take place.
The two Solcintran negotiators both have names that recur in the Liaden Universe – which is perhaps only to be expected. Some of Nalli Olanek’s descendants will find themselves in dispute with some of Tor An’s descendants in Conflict of Honors, and Clan Hedrede is mentioned a couple of times in Scout’s Progress and Mouse and Dragon, with a Dath jo’Bern of that clan being an incidental character in the latter. (With thanks to the Liaden Wiki – my memory for obscure details is not that good.)
The Enemy have taken out High Command in its withdrawn and reinforced position, without having to pass through any of the intervening space, which just shows how much good that did.
We see the origin of Cantra’s logbook, which will become a tradition upheld by her successors; that answers something I’d been wondering aloud a while back.
Another thing I’d been wondering, though it never quite got to aloud, was about Moonhawk and Lute’s colleagues in the Great Weaving. It’s pretty obvious that Moonhawk is the same Moonhawk who is Priscilla’s guiding spirit when she’s a priestess of the Goddess, and seems clear therefore that the other guiding spirits from Priscilla’s religion are this Moonhawk’s sisters in the Great Weaving (I don’t recall that any of their names are ever given, in either context). What I’d been wondering was whether, since they’re presumably all a dramliza pairing like Moonhawk and Lute, all the guiding spirits have masculine sidekicks like Lute and it was just that somehow we’d never heard about them. The scene in this chapter where Lute learns that Moonhawk has made an independent space for him in the Weaving suggests that no, it’s just Lute.
(I think where I went wrong was at “dramliza pairing like Moonhawk and Lute”; there’s probably no other dramliza pairing that’s quite like Moonhawk and Lute. One of the other things I’ve been realising on this re-read is that my understanding of the dramliz from the first time through had been weighted too much toward taking Rool Tiazan and Lute as typical of their station, when as two of the few – or even, for all it’s said, the only two – free zaliata to have accepted the yoke, they’re each blazingly unique.)
You said, “Clan Hedrede is mentioned a couple of times in Scout’s Progress and Mouse and Dragon”
Hedrede gets a bigger role in I Dare. He is the one who delivers “the Council’s judgement” to Miri and Val Con — kicking Korval off Liad — at the Council of Clans’ meeting. In I Dare, Hedrede introduces himself with a reminder that his illustrious clan traveled with Cantra on the Quick Passage. But he is actually just a middle-rank clanhouse (I think I read that somewhere).
Non-pilots don’t understand the necessities of pilots, but Cantra’s not compromising on the important points. And Tor An understands those realities and backs her up all the way.
Real-time updates on Wellik’s star map? How?
Cantra may have been roped into saving the universe, or at least enough of a slice of Life to go on with, but she draws the line at being manipulated by a Tree. Well meant it was, surely, but Cantra isn’t having it.
Don’t laugh now, but I had one of those Ah-ha! moments about the Great Weaving. It’ wasn’t until reading about the Weaving being complete that it finally snapped together in my head…*that’s* what Moonhawk has been doing with a loom all this time!
I didn’t make the connection, ever. But I never cared much for the Lute and Moonhawk bits…so I skim…
When Moonhawk tells Rool that the Weaving is complete, she says “fourteen templates have been crafted,” and Lute makes a point about not having expected to receive one. Okay, but how about Rool’s lady? Is he able to separate from him to occupy a “template,” whatever it is? I had assumed that these templates were like Uncle’s “blanks”: human bodies to be occupied by the dramliza entitities. So if there are 14 of them, are we saying there are currently 13 pairs who will occupy these bodies as a pair, with the exception of Lute and Moonhawk?
Why won’t Cantra accept the pod from the Tree this time? She seems to refuse it merely so she can make a point…a valid point it may be, but merely a point, nevertheless. It seems to me though, that it *might* occur to her that if Rool’s lady noticed “the seed was not well-seated” that Cantra might accept the Tree’s meddling on behalf of her son. On the other hand, she does mention to the Tree: one tiny miscalculation and you’ve set twelve generations on the wrong course. Little does she know that 32(?) generations later . . .
It was all too obscure for me. The weaving, the templates…
But I totally understand a protective mama not wanting to mess with the good work the Gray Lady had just done.
“Okay, but how about Rool’s lady?”
The Weaving is a project by a specific group of (thirteen) dramliz, not involving all the free dramliz or even all the free dramliz who are planning to move to the new universe. Rool Tiazan and his lady have made their own separate arrangements. (Notice that when they’re talking about the templates, Rool Tiazan speaks of “your preparations”, not “our”.)
I don’t think I could wrap words around my understanding of what a template is in this context, but I don’t think it’s anything as straightforward or one-time as a body. Although I do see it as being connected to how Lute and Moonhawk keep coming back.
It may actually be part of the Tree’s long-term strategy that leads it to yield this point to Cantra. The Tree probably already knows what’s necessary for humans, because that is what it *is*. But it’s rather likely that by allowing her to refuse a pod that was grown for her…instead of increasing its temptation until Cantra yielded to it…that Cantra will be more likely to yield in the future just because she knows she *can* refuse.