In which the light keeper shares the gift of his knowledge.

Last time, I mentioned two things an experienced Liaden Universe reader might know about the light keepers that someone coming to this novel cold wouldn’t, and already both have been brought out in the open. Which is fair enough, because they’re both important things to know.

I wasn’t sure about the wisdom of Tocohl identifying Jen Sin in earshot of Inki, but on reflection I suppose she didn’t have a choice. At this stage in the operation, Inki’s probably going to want the two of them to stick together, and not allow any opportunities for Tocohl to have a private conversation with the light keepers.

That being so, identifying herself to Jen Sin as a child of Korval may have actually created an opportunity for private conversation: one of the other things we know about Jen Sin from “The Space at Tinsori Light” is that in his time Korval had, like Tolly and Haz, a set of code phrases for conveying important information while appearing to be speaking of something innocuous. That might be another thing Tocohl has in her databanks, and now Jen Sin is more likely to recognise if she uses one.

When Jen Sin says “I do not recall that Lorlin looks to Korval”, what he probably means is just that he knows which families look to Korval and none of them is named “Lorlin”, which is only what one would expect if Jeeves made up the name himself. My first thought, though, was that he meant he knows of an actual Lorlin family (which doesn’t look to Korval), which would mean that Jeeves, like Daav in the creation of Jen Sar Kiladi, chose for some reason to borrow an existing family name; that would be interesting if true.