Crystal Dragon – Chapter 31

Quick Passage

In which Clan Korval exists.

I had always assumed, before I read the duology, that the Tree-and-Dragon emblem of Korval was a combination of the emblems of the two founding lines, and that since the Tree was obviously yos’Phelium’s contribution, the Dragon must have been yos’Galan’s. This turns out to be true in a sense, since Clan Alkia’s emblem is a dragon (which is not just the mascot of Light Wing after all), but it seems kind of unbalanced when yos’Phelium has dragons of its own.

Though perhaps the way to look at it is that both lines are represented by the Tree and the Dragon. yos’Phelium is the tree (for the obvious reason) and also the dragon (because of the branches-with-wings); yos’Galan is the dragon (for the obvious reason) and also the tree (perhaps representing, for Tor An, the piata tree that grew by his family home, and by inference the home itself and all that went with it).

The Clan investiture (which reads very much like a wedding ceremony, which I suppose is not inappropriate) also gives us our first mention of melant’i.

It occurs to me that one of the side-effects of reading on a fixed schedule of one chapter per day is that it messes with the pacing. An author who wishes to give the impression that events are picking up speed might go for lots of short chapters, but at one chapter per day shorter chapters mean that events proceed slower (and the long, slow chapters zip by in comparison).

I had completely forgotten the wrinkle involving Mr dea’Gauss’s family. I look forward with interest to seeing what Cantra intends to do about it.

5 thoughts on “Crystal Dragon – Chapter 31

  1. H in W

    So how does the tree make enough wind in the piloting tower to whip Cantra’s hair? Previously, was it waving its leaves or was it generating a little local breeze to move its leaves?

    The documents make no direct mention of the tree (? is that correct?), but the tree seems to me to be as much a member of the clan as anyone. And Tor An and Cantra seem to consider it so.

  2. Paul A. Post author

    There doesn’t appear to be any mention of the tree, no – though Mr dea’Gauss does mention that Clan Korval’s internal affairs are to be managed according to its own written code of conduct, and I expect whenever Cantra and Tor An get the time to write one of those it will have a thing or two to say about the tree.

  3. Ed8r

    I like Tree’s imagery again, with a pod dropped across a thin river, as it acknowledges the creation of a subordinate line (although it bothers me that never, during this book, do we see a pod offered for Tor An).

    I was caught by the description of the ink color; “that same shade of purple that flickered along the far edge of the Rim.” For some reason, I thought of the blue-black ink that my mother used to prefer: neither truly blue nor truly black.

    Regarding the wind: In this case…although the Tree communicated a *sense* of wind in advance of his arrival…I think the actual wind was generated by the displacement of air at Rool’s appearance. Whereas earlier he was merely materializing, now he is inhabiting his “template,” apparently a “human” body on the physical plane (note his actual bloodied physical state after transition is achieved).

  4. Paul A. Post author

    The wind and Rool Tiazan’s dishevelled state are both, I think, expressions of the tumult in the Luck which he says picked him up in the middle of what he was doing and dumped him on Cantra’s ship.

    I’m confident that it’s not anything to do with the templates, because as I understand it they don’t come into effect until the transition into the new universe, and in any case the templates are only for the people who participated in the Weaving, of whom Rool is not one.

  5. Ed8r

    Cantra thinks about when she saw Sergeant Ilneri and he insisted she take another tour of work-almost-complete. Which work would this be? Stowing the cargo? Refitting the ship? Work below on the planet to distract the sheriekas for long enough to allow Quick Passage (and maybe others) to escape? What?

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