Vivulonj Prosperu
In which Daav and Aelliana explore the boundaries of their new situation.
It is a good question, how the Tree knew they’d need those particular seed pods; we’ve had cause to ask similar questions before, though usually not involving such a complicated and unpredictable chain of events. I don’t find the suggestion that the pods would never have ripened if they hadn’t been needed reassuring, because it suggests that the pods are themselves aware of their surroundings and capable of interpreting events, which is a disconcerting attribute to ascribe to (a) a small lump of vegetable matter with no apparent nervous system, and (b) something one has recently eaten.
When Daav wakes up, it takes him a while for his memory to catch up with the present, and when he hears Aelliana’s voice in his head he assumes the familiar situation where she exists only in his head. We then get little moments, scattered through the rest of the chapter, informing us or reminding us of factors contributing to the confusion. There are the memory issues connected with the revival process, there’s the fact that he’s lived more years after the death of Aelliana’s body than he knew her before, so that’s the context in which he’s most familiar with hearing her voice in his head… but then there’s also the reminder that it’s actually the only context in which he’s familiar with hearing her voice in his head, because she never used to be able to do it before she died. That’s something they’re going to have to get used to, and will probably find new uses for.
The numbers Daav gives for Aelliana’s life, that he’d known her for eight years before she died at the age of 34 (I like the touch of him expressing it as a couple of years short of the nearest multiple of 12, by the way), don’t match the old Partial Timeline, which had it that they’d known each other for four years when she died at the age of 30. I’m prepared to take the novel’s word for it over the Timeline, but I’m making a note of the discrepancy anyway because I suspect at some point there’s going to be an argument about it on the Liaden wiki.
The warning about the plateau period in the recovery process seems like it’s going to be significant; it’s the kind of thing that might happen dramatically right when a character needs their full faculties available to them. I notice the timing is being left vague, both of the plateau period and of the recovery period as a whole, but I don’t think that’s the Uncle dodging the question the way he did Aelliana’s suggestion of letting them call home; we’ve been shown that Daav and Aelliana have been provided with a schedule for the recovery period, so I think it’s just the authors leaving themselves with some wiggle room.
Speaking of the Uncle dodging Aelliana’s suggestion of letting them call home, it reminded me a bit of Inkirani denying Tocohl’s request: you needn’t exert yourself, I have already sent the message I’m sure you would have wanted to send. I don’t distrust the Uncle quite as much as I distrust Inkirani, though. Even after he casually reminds Aelliana and Daav that he knows what they’ve said when he wasn’t present.
I don’t think that the pods are independently deciding whether and how to ripen, but rather that the Tree can alter the effect and the ripeness of a pod at a distance.
Though I have no evidence to offer in support of this interpretation. But I think that’s a less remarkable explanation than the pods themselves being sentient.
Rather than either of those interpretations, I think I’d go with the Tree having a capacity for prophecy, so the pods embody the prophecy and will therefore ripen at the appropriate time.
I am surprised that no one has commented on this exchange:
Daav says to Uncle:
“There are resources available to those of Korval.”
“You speak of the ghost ships?”
Daav sighed.
“You might at least leave us the illusion of secrecy, ” he said mildly.
Wait! What is this “Ghost Ships”? Previous to this, the only Ghost Ship we knew of did not belong to Korval; it was Bechimo before he picked up Theo. But this exchange implies that Korval has an unknown number of ships that are considered “ghost ships.” What are they talking about?
Retired ships, I guess. The kind of ships Pat Rin took out of Korval storage for his defence of Surebleak and attack on Liad. The kind of ship he got for Quin.
Or do you think of anything else?
There have been other ghost ships than Bechimo; when Theo and her associates first start referring to him as a “ghost ship” in Saltation, they’re applying an already-existing term.
Othin, I couldn’t think of anything else, I was just surprised by the term itself and Uncle’s blasé use of it to show that it was no secret to him. However, I guess I should not be surprised by the authors slipping in a reference and explanation so offhandedly. It’s certainly not the first time (nor likely the last).