Dutiful Passage
Langlast Departure

In which Shan and Padi get some rest.

Now we have some familiar faces, and a sense of where this story fits in the series. It’s only a day or two since the end of Alliance of Equals, so this is taking place around the same time as Neogenesis. (At least to start with.)

One consequence of that is that we don’t know if Priscilla’s misgivings about Tarona Rusk are accurate. We know what Tarona Rusk is like when she reappears in Accepting the Lance, but that’s still some way in the future and she may have more personal development to undergo to reach that point. (I say this, of course, having glanced over the table of contents to get an idea of how long the book is, so I know that she’s also going to be appearing in this book.)

It took me a bit to grasp why Shan now has two links to Tarona Rusk. The way I figure it, it’s because they’re now connected both ways: he Healed her, and then she Healed him.

When I said last chapter that I had a suspect for the cause of the psychic disturbances, I was thinking of Tarona Rusk. I still think Geritsi’s encounter sounds like her, but given what Lute says it’s possible that some of the disturbances may have been echoes of Padi’s awakening.

Lute should be careful — being diligent about a protection agreement with no specified end is what got Cantra’s grandchildren stuck on Liad for a thousand years. Although, to be fair, that was only because the Council of Clans didn’t take the matter seriously enough to provide an endpoint even when asked for one, and as one of Cantra’s grandchildren Shan is sure to be more obliging once Padi makes him aware of the situation.

Another thing about this chapter taking place near the beginning of Neogenesis is that Lute’s remarks about events heard throughout the universe and what a good thing it is that the Iloheen are still stuck in the old one take on the character of foreshadowing, considering how Neogenesis ends. I look forward to seeing how (if) that ending is reflected in this story.