Aequitas
Hel’s Gate, Rannibic Station

In which there is a change of plans.

There are a couple of resonant names in the dateline of this chapter.

Wikipedia describes aequitas as “the Latin concept of justice, equality, conformity, symmetry, or fairness”. Also, I see from my notes, in the Liaden Universe aequitas is the name of those tokens used by traders to ensure a fair exchange of information. So Aequitas is a plausible thing for a trader to name her ship, and it also echoes the broader issues of justice in the situation in which Lomar finds herself in this story.

Hel, with one l, is the afterlife in Scandinavian mythology, and also the name of the goddess who oversees it. Symbolically, Lomar and her family are passing out of their old life through Hel’s Gate into the new existence that awaits them.

There may be a more specific metaphor involved, too: apparently, the most prominent reference to the Gates of Hel in the old sources is in the Prose Edda’s account of the death of Baldr, the beautiful and beloved, and how his family attempted to bring him back from Hel. There’s a parallel there with Sleak’s situation and the attempts of his family members in the next chapter to revive his spirits.

On a more prosaic naming note, we get the name of another of Lomar’s husbands: Nathin. He’s described as being at the younger end of the collection, but I can’t quite make out whether he’s the previously-mentioned youngest.

As a fan of Clan Korval I naturally want to see Lomar reconnecting with Shan, but I can’t fault the reasoning for deciding to steer clear.