In which there are sparkles to touch, and sparkles not to touch.
The conversation with the shocked driver is an interesting illustration of mode. It’s not possible to directly express concern for a person’s well-being in Employer to Employee, but it may be possibly to express it indirectly. (There’s another similar demonstration of the restrictions of the mode, following a different kind of shock, in “Intelligent Design”, when we get there.)
It’s also an illustration of Er Thom’s melant’i: I bet it’s not every high-ranking Liaden would deal so gently with an employee who nearly ran his son over, even if it was the kid’s fault and nobody was actually harmed.
The epigraph for this chapter is interesting, since it relates to nothing that happens in the chapter. It does, however, help set the scene for chapters to come.
I liked this incident also for the”sparkles” description it gives us by way of the faceted gem embedded in the tarmac (which, by the way, I expected Er Thom to dig out and give to Shan). By showing us that Shan saw them as similar, we now have an idea of what he was seeing in someone’s “aura” or however we ought to put it. Even though he may not have understood clearly that there was a difference in “sparkles to touch” and sparkles above someone’s head, what he saw in the tarmac was similar enough that he saw “sparkles.”