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Conflict of Honors – Chapter 49

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Master’s Tower, Theopholis
Witch’s Hour

In which Balance is achieved.

Not the usual sort of settling of accounts one might expect at the end of an adventure story, but one which suits Priscilla’s character, and also helps demonstrate that “Balance” is not necessarily the same thing as “revenge”.

On which note, Delm Plemia clearly expects Korval and Priscilla to demand more in balance of Sav Rid’s follies than they actually do. It speaks to his melant’i that he doesn’t try to argue his way out of anything; he’s seen the evidence and he knows it’s a fair cop.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 47

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Crown City Theopholis
Judge’s Hour

In which Sav Rid’s delm has words with him.

Seeing how unaware Sav Rid is of how far he’s strayed from the path of a man of honor and a trader whose actions reflect well on his clan, I find myself wondering if the trouble that’s about to fall on him from a great height might not be a fortunate event for him — though of course he’s not going to see it that way, regardless — and even if attacking Korval might have been, if not the wisest thing he might have done, the thing that led to the best outcome he could have reached. Supposing that he’d stuck to slightly less dramatic forms of dishonor, avoided the notice of his delm, and continued down his present path, I can’t imagine it leading to any better outcome than this, and I can imagine several outcomes for Sav Rid and his crew that would be much, much worse.

Conflict of Honors – Chapters 38, 39 & 40

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 177
Second Shift
9.00 hours

Master’s Tower, Theopholis
Hour of Kings

Raggtown
Local Year 537

In which a delayed shipment goes by another carrier.

If memory serves, this is the first time in this re-read I have scheduled multiple chapters on a single day, except for a one-page interlude in Crystal Dragon. I can see why I did it, though; the three chapters are each very short, and they all relate to a single situation. In a book that didn’t divide the chapters by location, they might well have all formed part of a single chapter.

It’s instructive to compare the responses of the two Olaneks to learning that Dutiful Passage has taken Daxflan‘s cargo. Taam Olanek’s angry (and ill-directed) initial reaction suggests that there may be a family trait contributing to the way Sav Rid is, but at least after the initial outburst he is able to take himself in hand and consider the matter rationally. Sav Rid, though, continues raging, and his grudge against Korval seems to have parted company with rationality entirely. Which leads to another point of difference between them: the delm’s first thought on learning that his clan’s ship has caused a situation is to take responsibility for seeing the situation resolved; Sav Rid on the other hand seems utterly determined to place responsibility on anyone but himself.

There’s some interesting handling of bad language in this portion of the novel. In the first of the three chapters, there is Ken Rik’s uncomplimentary remark about Sav Rid, which is left untranslated, presumably to avoid bruising the sensibilities of the reader. In the third chapter, there’s Sav Rid’s uncomplimentary remark about Priscilla, which on the other hand is given a direct literal translation that doesn’t make it immediately apparent how insulting it is in the original Liaden.

And now, with the Passage and Daxflan both headed for Theopholis, and representatives of both their clans waiting to greet them, things are beginning to come to a head…

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 32

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Trealla Fantrol, Liad
Year Named Trolsh
Third Relumma
Banim Seconday

In which the First Speaker of Korval has business with the First Speaker of Plemia.

Delm Plemia is a contrast to his kinsman. He does show signs of narrow-mindedness (such as judging Shan and Anthora because they don’t fit Liaden ideals of good looks), but he doesn’t dismiss them out of hand because they’re part-Terran, nor take it personally that part-Terran Korval thrives while old established Plemia struggles.

The moment where Nova invites Delm Plemia to precede her through the door (compare the moment a few chapters back where Shan waved Kayzin through the door before him, and their respective reactions to being thus singled out) is one of those bits of Liaden cultural worldbuilding that I wouldn’t have noticed if I were reading this at my usual speed.

I don’t think I’ve remarked before, though I remember it having been mentioned in earlier stories, that the Liaden fashion is for doorknobs in the centre of doors. That seems impractical; a position near the edge improves leverage and simplifies the locking mechanism. Perhaps it is only a fashion in houses high enough that practicality need not be the only concern of the architect.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 27

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Second Shift
6.00 hours

In which Sav Rid Olanek makes a countermove.

Just one of those details one notices: Near the beginning of the chapter, Priscilla wishes she might be told that she’d done something well, rather than the second mate’s understated “okay”. By the end of her chapter, she’s got her wish, although (as is so often the case with wishes) in circumstances that she might happily have foregone if given the choice.

One wonders precisely what instructions the mercenaries were given that their captain summarized as “he wanted you out of the race real bad”. I’d be inclined to assume that meant shoot-to-kill, but we were told earlier that death is not usually considered an appropriate way to achieve Balance, and I don’t think Sav Rid’s that far gone yet. Is he?

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 19

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 143
Third Shift
16.00 hours

In which Shan has some explanations.

This is a significant turning point for Shan and Priscilla, with Shan finally explaining what’s going on and the two of them agreeing on a future course of action.

We get another mention of that elusive person, Anne’s brother Richard, and perhaps the most extensive account of him, in Shan’s description of his conflation of Liadens with elves. Shan doesn’t say why Richard picked on Val Con for the role of “king of Elfland”, but presumably it’s because he had heard some account of the Contract which once prompted Anne to accuse Val Con’s father of being King of Liad. In which case, I’m pretty sure this is the first intimation, in published order, of the existence of the Contract.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 6

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 130
Fourth Shift
18.00 hours

In which Priscilla meets Shan yos’Galan.

Contrary to what I said last week, this must be where I first learned about Liadens and faces. It must be. Conflict of Honors was the first Liaden story I ever read, and certainly Gordy’s recital is the most detailed and explicit statement of the case to be found anywhere in the series. I don’t remember it, though. There is a difference, perhaps, between being told about a thing in the abstract and coming to comprehend it through being shown examples of it in action.

The dateline on this chapter is not consistent with a 28-hour day divided into four 7-hour shifts, in which 18.00 hours would be deep in Third Shift. It would, on the other hand, fit a 24-hour day divided into four shifts.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 3

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Shipyear 32
Tripday 151
First Shift
1.30 hours

In which we meet the second mate, who is a rounder.

A “rounder”, according to the dictionary I consulted, is a “person who makes the rounds of bars, saloons, and similar establishments; figuratively, a debaucher or roué”, which seems like a pretty apt description of Dagmar Collier. (Who, incidentally, also wears too many rings.)

Second Mate Collier adds sexual harrassment to the list of things Priscilla has to put up with on Daxflan. Not only is she not put off by the fact that her advances are unwelcome, that explicitly adds to her enjoyment. It’s worth noting that Collier is depicted as a sexual predator who happens to be of a particular orientation, with the presentation balanced by other characters later in the novel who share the orientation but not the unfriendliness or the disdain for consent. I can think of other works I’ve read which have lacked that diversity of representation, so it’s good to see here.

It’s three days since the previous chapter, and Priscilla’s off-shift has moved from Second Shift to First. If the ship day is a strict rotation of work-rest-work-rest, as implied by Shelly’s rant, that argues for an odd number of shifts in the day. On the other hand, maybe there are an even number of shifts per day and Priscilla had to work a double shift in there somewhere — perhaps while they were in dock at Alcyone, where they’d need the cargo master to remain available. (I dismiss out of hand the possibility that she might have been given a double rest period.) For what it’s worth, the single data point we have on shift numbers in Liaden trade ships, Jethri’s Elthoria, had four shifts per day.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 2

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Shipyear 32
Tripday 148
Second Shift
10.30 hours

In which we meet Priscilla Mendoza again.

Priscilla, who we last saw lighting out for the spaceport on Sintia, has worked her way up over the subsequent decade to cargo master on a trade ship. She hopes to qualify as a pilot some day (and demonstrates reflexes suggesting she has the aptitude). There aren’t many opportunities for professional advancement, however, on Daxflan, where the crew are treated badly, the mates are crooks, the captain is under the Trader’s thumb, and the Trader is a self-important jerk.

Something I’ve been noticing on this re-read but not been paying systematic attention to is the use of hand ornamentation as an insight into a Liaden’s character. There are the obvious cases of the narration mentioning the light glinting off a delm’s ring in a scene where the delm is exerting authority or asserting status, but there are other examples, and even instances (Fen Ris, yesterday, being one) where the narration makes a point of mentioning that a person is wearing no rings at all. On the other hand, a Liaden who wears many rings is usually a person with pretensions above his circumstances, like Ran Eld in Scout’s Progress and Trader Olanek here.

The detail in this chapter that caught my eye on this re-read that hadn’t before is the mention that Daxflan has dispensed with the services of a Healer. It might just have been penny-pinching — or the Healer might, like Priscilla’s friend Shelly, have chosen not to stick around — but I find myself wondering whether the Healer was got rid of to protect Daxflan‘s secrets, since among those which will be revealed in chapters to come there is one that a competent Healer would be sure to spot. (I also find myself reflecting that the holder of that particular secret might, in the long run, have been better off letting the Healer find out and taking the consequences.)