In which Inki and Tocohl are made an offer they can’t refuse.

The last line of this chapter is one of those interesting cases where it’s just one more piece of new information to the reader who hasn’t read any earlier Liaden books, but it will have considerable significance for a more experience Liaden Universe reader. (Though what significance, exactly, will depend on which earlier books they’ve read, and remembered.)

I mentioned already that I knew Tinsori Light was going to come into the story somewhere because I saw it listed in the table of contents. I’m not sure if, without that, I’d have figured out before now that it was the Light that the Uncle referred to. I might have; the authors foreshadowed its return to significance by including its origin story in The Gathering Edge. And before that, there was a reference in “Roving Gambler” to Tinsori Light being on Korval’s list of emergency hiding places — which is interesting for two reasons.

One is that this opens up the possibility that Tinsori Light is the emergency hiding place Daav and Aelliana are planning to head for when they part company with the Uncle, which could make things (more) interesting.

The other is that the single largest clump of information we have about Tinsori Light is the short story “The Space at Tinsori Light”, in which a pilot of Korval makes use of the emergency list and winds up at Tinsori Light, receives the same offer of repairs and lodging that Inki and Tocohl just did, and accepts it, not being in any condition to refuse — and then, having learned more about the Light’s nature, sends a message home recommending that nobody ever come near the place again, and destroys his own ship (a pilot of Korval, deliberately destroying a ship!) to ensure that nothing “repaired” by the Light will escape into the wide universe.

So I have some questions. Why is Tinsori Light still on Korval’s list of emergency destinations? Will we learn what became of Jen Sin yos’Phelium after he chose to remain at Tinsori Light and do what he could to prevent it being a menace to others? Does the Uncle know what became of Jen Sin — or, indeed, does he know Jen Sin was there at all? (If his researchers are only watching and studying from a safe distance, there are any number of things they might not be aware of.) For that matter, what has happened that made the Light an object of outside interest when it’s passed largely unnoticed for so many years?