The Way Between
In which Miri and Val Con are not going to die here.
I’m not hanging around to think of something to say. I want to know what happens next.
The Way Between
In which Miri and Val Con are not going to die here.
I’m not hanging around to think of something to say. I want to know what happens next.
It isn’t clear to me if Val Con is actually with Miri, or still back in that warehouse where he passed out, or running towards Miri…,
My reading is that Val Con is not physically with Miri; when he’s described as running toward Miri and gathering her up, that’s a metaphor for what’s happening in their bond space, and when he’s described as shooting her assailant and calling for help, he’s using her body to do it, the same way she used his body to land his plane safely at the end of Plan B. (Notice the pronouns: “opened their eyes”, “brought their arm around”, and also that when he shouts for help it’s described in a way that attaches to Miri’s history and not his.)
Whether his body is running toward Miri or still lying on the floor of the warehouse is not explicit, but I incline to the latter as more likely.
Yes, I assumed that’s what was happening but wasn’t sure. So that means Nelirikk was the first responder on site, in corpus, and he prolly got Miri to hospital. I’d have liked to see that scene.
I had to re-read and re-reread and re-re-reread and . . . well, you get the picture . . . because I couldn’t quite follow what happened at the end, and *how* it all happened. The first time through I was confused because I thought Val Con was physically with Miri. Once I figured out that important point—that he was in their bond-space—then I could re-read for understanding of “their eyes,” “their arm,” “their palm,” ending in “they shot.” But then I didn’t follow the next part: “Nelirikk,” Miri whispered in his ear. . . . Miri whispered in whose ear? She hasn’t been “talking” to Val Con really, and I understood that, so now why did the text say “whispering”? I thought it meant that Nelirikk had found her and she spoke to him. Nelirikk obviously had been calling her, because the text shows us “Captain” in quotes and tells us “a big voice shouted and there were other voices too.” But then after that we have “He forced himself beyond the pain” . . . leading to . . . “he shouted.” I could not follow the switches in pronoun reference, and didn’t understand why Val Con needed to shout “with all the force of a merc captain” if Nelirikk was already there!
Anyway, Skip, when they first hear Nelirikk and the other voices, they also hear an ambulance. Then in the final chapter Val Con and Miri discuss what happened and we find out that there were medics on the scene before the hospital. Annoyingly, they don’t say anything about Nelirikk being the first on the scene, though.
Yes, I also found this confusing and had to read it several times, wondering where Val Con was.
@Miri whispering
– I take that as her having not enough strength for more than a whisper in bond space – and Val Con using her voice with maximum volume and merc captain pitch – so Nelirikk could know where to look through the fog.