In which Aelliana has breakfast and messages.
The chapter heading quote is particularly pointed today. In theory, Aelliana is not without kin, and Daav is overreaching himself by offering her aid. In fact, though, none of Aelliana’s kin are willing and able to give her the care she ought to be able to expect from them (Sinit is willing, but not able), and if Daav had not offered his assistance she would have gone without. It ought not to have been only Daav who made sure she was clothed and fed, nor only Daav who came to see how she was doing. Even if other business prevented a visit, they might have sent a message; it says something that the messages from her colleagues outnumber those from her kin threefold, and that one of her students, a person who is not even so close to her as to be permitted the Low Tongue, sent a message when her own mother still has not. It says something that the one message from her kin is more than Aelliana expected.
It says something, too, that Aelliana herself compares the Mizel clanhouse, which ought to be her home and refuge, to a hostile port where she would be unwise to set foot without backup — and presents this as an obvious truth which she counts herself foolish not to have seen sooner.
“Daav is overreaching himself by offering her aid.”
Da’av, yes, but No doubt his reply would be that Delm Korval is never overreaching in aiding a pilot.
I’m not sure that would be his reply, actually: his actions here seem to be Daav helping his comrade Aelliana, not Delm Korval helping Pilot Caylon. (As demonstrated a couple of chapters later when Delm Korval puts in an appearance to confirm that Daav has been acting appropriately.)
And, on reflection, I think in this case Delm Korval would have been considered to be overreaching. Aelliana belongs to another clan; by Code, her problems are Delm Mizel’s to solve, not Delm Korval’s. Korval might always be willing to aid a pilot, but I get the idea he’s not allowed to aid another clan’s pilot without a specific invitation, else he be poaching on another Delm’s responsibilities. And Aelliana hasn’t asked for Korval’s help.
Daav, on the other hand, is Aelliana’s comrade and co-pilot, and may freely offer assistance if no assistance is available from her kin.
(To be clear, I don’t think Daav is overreaching himself, since it’s clearly the case that no assistance is available from Aelliana’s kin. I was more trying to point up the oddity that this should be the case when Aelliana’s kin are alive and physically present in the same city.)
Aelliana confidently declares: Korval would not coerce me. But she is not yet aware of how much she is affected by Daav’s thoughts and feelings, even when he tries to keep himself from influencing her.
It is also telling that not only her mother but her sister Voni doesn’t do anything. I find Voni – who is at least without any excuse of work for the clan (and time-consuming duties as Delm) – to be a much worse person than her mother. She must have seen the situation much more clearly than her mother and not only done nothing but actively supported her brother in his cruelty. Did she truly love him? Or was her support only her version of being afraid of Ran Eld too? Or a combination of both?
All this still doesn’t explain why she – who also must have noticed how grieving her mother was – didn’t find it in her to show clan’s care. And at least at all those talks at table and family meals – it is Voni who insists on proper behavior and decant comportment and sees it as her duty to correct Sinit in those points. So why doesn’t the clan’s expert on proper comportment show it? Or is Voni one of those that only voice her believes but doesn’t act on them?
Note that I didn’t say she cared about Aelliana – she seems to be oblivious to her. But she seemed to care about proper. And without any reason to prohibit her – that means without Ran Eld – she sees nothing amiss in her behaving as she always did. Were her statements on correctness only hollow statements? Or is she blaming Aelliana for her brother’s death too?