In which Delm Korval goes visiting again.
This seems like a good time to mention a thing I like about this novel: Aelliana rescues herself.
She has had help along the way, and wouldn’t have done as well without it, but her achievements are her own, seized with her own hands. This isn’t a story about how she needed someone to save her. It was her own idea and decision to seek an escape, her own skill that won her her ship and her license. And, in these later chapters, she escaped from the house by herself, after rescuing herself from the worst effects of the Learning Module.
I love the bit where Daav is politely but firmly establishing his intention to stand in Mizel’s hallway as long as necessary.
(And speaking of Daav, it’s interesting to note at which points in the chapter Daav is “Korval” and at which points “Daav” comes to the fore.)
I emphatically agree that one of the finest things about this story is that Aelliana rescues herself, from start to finish.
Yes, she has help, but the help is somewhat interchangeable – it’s not one single Knight in Shining Armor but rather a whole class of people (pilots, scouts) that would have been there for her as soon as they realized her difficulty. And no one could know until she stepped out.
You see what a strong woman she is, and also what a cage she ended up in, and how that kept her from even knowing what might be outside it until she was squeezed so hard she had no alternative.
That Aelliana also ends up as the rescuer for Daav, and is probably the only person who ever could have done so, is perhaps more subtle and not terribly obvious when reading the novel as a standalone.