Tinsori Light

In which Tocohl makes a status report.

I found the jump from where Tolly and Haz were at the end of the previous chapter to where they are when they show up in this one so jarring that I actually flicked back a few pages to make sure I hadn’t accidentally skipped a chapter. Maybe it would have been a short chapter, and amounted to “Everything went according to plan for once”, but it still feels to me like its absence leaves a perceptible gap. Even a sentence or two from Tolly or Haz about what they’d been doing since the end of last chapter would have helped. (Maybe we’ll still get that in an upcoming section, and I just haven’t got to it yet because I stopped to write this entry.)

I don’t mind so much about how they got past the sentinel outpost, since in the absence of other information we can assume that it went according to the plan they outlined in the last chapter, but I would like to know what they and the light keepers said to each other when they arrived, and what they didn’t say.

I’ve been going back and forth on whether I think Tinsori Light will also be getting visitors from Surebleak before the novel’s over, but currently I’m tilting toward “yes”. The description of what might go wrong if the Light suffers a catastrophic failure sounds like the disaster Ren Zel is preparing himself to play a role in averting, and presumably it would be easier for him to do it on the spot. (Although, on the other hand, this is Ren Zel, who has occasionally demonstrated a blatant disregard for astronomical distances.)

Tocohl’s report to Tolly clarifies what happened in the attack, and that it was that Inki pushed her out of the path of the energy bolt. (And, as I read it, that Inki was the target of the energy bolt, but Tocohl happened to be in the way and the Light didn’t mind going through her.) It’s seeming more likely that Inki isn’t coming back — although if anyone’s in a position to figure out how the Light does its trick, it’s Tocohl. Only after the immediate danger is settled and it’s safe for her to explore the Light’s systems, though.