In which Aelliana is taken under Korval’s wing.
So then, a slight but significant revision: it appears that the lifemate bond is active when Aelliana and Daav are in close proximity, but information flows only in one direction; Aelliana can feel Daav, but Daav can not feel Aelliana.
I know there’s the whole thing about how melant’i means that the same individual might be effectively a different person in different situations, but there are moments when it feels like Delm Korval really is a different person from Daav. (The scene in Local Custom where Korval calls Er Thom and Petrella to heel, the night of the gather, is another one.) I think part of it is the way Daav doesn’t like to step into the role of Delm if there is any way he can handle the situation in one of his more personal capacities, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; if the only situations where Delm Korval puts in an appearance are those which Daav can’t handle himself, it follows that Delm Korval must be somebody other than Daav. Or perhaps a less dramatic way to put it is that the role of Delm consequently brings out aspects of Daav’s character that don’t usually get expressed when he’s “being himself”. Particularly since, with Daav solving the easy problems and the personal problems himself, that leaves Delm Korval with the extremely formal occasions and the situations where duty must be placed before any personal considerations.
Well, we certainly see later that Daav is scary good at taking on a different persona, just as his relative Cantra had been.
“Particularly since, with Daav solving the easy problems and the personal problems himself, that leaves Delm Korval with the extremely formal occasions and the situations where duty must be placed before any personal considerations.”
I like your thought on Daav, the Delm and melant’i.
This makes me think of Thoe’s Book Tin Sens ugly day and it’s lesson. Daav solves for himself – because most problems are not big enough to disturb – or summon the Delm for.
On the other hand, there are a few times when Daav and the Delm align. Korval sees and rejoices with the clan and Daav when a new child is welcomed into the clan.
PA: there are moments when it feels like Delm Korval really is a different person from Daav. No different really from Daav becoming Jen Sar Kiladi, with even Aelliana recognizing that he was someone other than Daav.
Excellent actors have this talent. An actor who is merely “good” is still noticeably doing a good job of acting, and we all exclaim how good he/she is. But an excellent actor is so immersed in the role that he/she becomes that person, and we don’t think twice about the quality of the acting, we’re just reacting to the character as if they were a real person.
Meanwhile, in this chapter the authors use an expression I’ve never heard before…has anyone else? I’m referring to when Daav tells her it was clever to invoke Guild Law, and she says: Cat-ice I thought it, even for Sinit. Because Daav’s response mentions Thin as it was, I have to assume that “cat-ice” must refer to ice so thin it couldn’t bear the weight of anything more heavy than a cat. Were they just inventing an expression for Aelliana to use?
I think my point about Delm Korval seeming like a different person is less about Daav being able to make himself appear a different person, than that it says something that he finds it necessary; I presume that most delms, while they might adopt a more formal tone of voice and perhaps a stern facial expression, don’t feel the need to be an entirely different person when they’re discharging their duties than who they are the rest of the time.
I gather that “cat ice” is a real expression used in New England, specifically for a kind of thin and fragile ice formation produced when a small puddle of water ices over and then the water underneath recedes.