Tag Archives: Chi yos’Phelium

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 13

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In which Aelliana and Daav communicate.

Now, this is more like it. I’m glad this isn’t one of those stories where the characters drag on in misery for chapters on end over something that could be cleared up easily if they just talked about it.

It occurs to me that Daav’s error is in some ways similar to Aelliana’s error of a few days earlier. Aelliana shut out her comrades for fear of them getting hurt, without giving them a chance to decide for themselves what level of risk they were prepared to accept for her sake, when as it happened they would have been prepared to accept the risk and to point out that the risk was less than fear made it seem; that also describes what Daav tried to do to Aelliana. Fortunately, this time it got sorted out before anyone got seriously hurt.

And in the midst of all that drama, a passing mention of a plan of the delm’s that will become important later. No, two passing mentions of projects of Daav’s that will become important later; this chapter is also the first in which the name of Kiladi is mentioned.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 8

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In which Aelliana meets Daav’s brother and Daav’s sister.

I’m intrigued by the ramifications of Aelliana addressing Lady Kareen in the mode of pilot-to-passenger. It’s understandable that that mode would come to her tongue before whichever tongue is appropriate for delivering a set-down during a social call (even if Aelliana had been taught that mode, I doubt she’s ever had a chance to practice it) but it’s not really appropriate — except possibly in one sense: as the lifemate of Korval Himself, Aelliana shares his melant’i as the Captain whose passengers are every other Liaden, including Lady Kareen. (I wonder if she was standing close enough to Daav at that moment to have unconsciously picked up an intimation of the mode he was restraining himself from using.)

I hadn’t really thought about it, but it makes sense that Anne would have a place for work at the University, perhaps working with people she’s met through her work finishing Scholar yo’Kera’s book. Certainly she’s not the type to just sit about the house all day. The reason I might not have thought of it, I think, is that I wouldn’t have expected the University of Liad to be accepting of a Terran, but perhaps it helps that she is of Korval as well.

There are several grace notes I love in this chapter, including the cameo by Shan’s Mouse and Mr pak’Ora’s evident relief at not being required to remain in the same room as Lady Kareen.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 7

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In which Daav and Aelliana take a scenic route out of Solcintra.

Another incident underlining the idea of Mizel’s house as a foreign and dangerous port is Solcintra Port Control welcoming Aelliana home. It makes sense as a greeting, considering that it’s the port she flies out of, and I don’t expect they’re aware that she’s just come from the place that ought to have been home to her, but I reckon she’ll have noticed the irony of it.

Jon’s twitch at the news of Aelliana accepting Korval’s protection is interesting. I suspect it’s because it’s not the offer he’d been expecting Daav to make and Aelliana to accept, after the way they were the last time he saw them together.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 27

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In which several people ask, reluctantly, “Now what?”

I’ve said this before, in the comments under Chapter 39 of Local Custom, but I might as well say it again so it appears in a post: I don’t believe that lifemating works on the basis of there being a pair of people predestined to join together. (Which is a relief, because it’s a pretty horrifying idea, as Daav suggests here: what if something happens to one half of the match before they meet, and the other is left forever incomplete?) Every time we see a lifemate bond form in this series, it’s a consequence, not a cause, something that happens to a pair of people who have already joined together in other ways. It makes sense that some people can’t form a lifemate bond at all, and that those can can’t do it with just anybody, but I don’t believe it’s as reductive as each person having one and only one possible partner.

Here’s an interesting sentence: “Jelaza Kazone had not spoken and he wished, with everything in him, to be at Binjali’s.” Is it that the Tree did manage to suggest an idea to Daav without him realising, or is it that the Tree didn’t speak because it knew that he was already, on his own initiative and by his own desire, going to do what it would have told him to do?

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 16

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In which Daav offers Aelliana more than one kind of life support.

Although Delm Bindan says she’ll remember the lesson about sending word ahead, I’m not sure she’s learned the right lesson. I get the feeling that she thinks Daav deliberately kept her waiting to (the phrase is inevitable) teach her a lesson, and hasn’t realised that he genuinely wasn’t in a fit state to receive visitors. One wonders how restricted her life is, if she never relaxes at home at any time when visitors might come by.

This being a prequel, and a genre novel, we know that Daav would have made his immediate future much easier if he’d succumbed to the temptation to break off the contract with Bindan, but he hasn’t realised yet where his future lies. Nor should he have, at this point; his relationship with Aelliana is still at an early stage where it would be presumptuous for him to be making plans in that direction.

Though, speaking of the development of their relationship, the gift he gives her in this chapter is freighted with all kinds of significance, for all that it’s just a hair-tie. (And apart from the fact that he offers her, along with it, the determination to keep fighting past the first fall.) A few days ago, she probably wouldn’t have accepted it from him, a near-stranger — and not so long before that, she, the woman whose habit had been to hide from the world behind her hair, would have had no use for it.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 11

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In which Daav and Aelliana meet for the first time.

Daav has part of his wish now: someone who knows him only as himself, without any idea of his rank and status.

Which is probably the only way they could have made a connection; if Aelliana had known he was Delm Korval, it would likely have been a disaster, though for the opposite reason from most of the women he’s had to deal with. She’s not the type to play up to him because of his wealth or rank, but she’d have been even more terrified of him than Syntebra el’Kemin was of Er Thom. And as Delm Korval speaking with one not of his clan, he would have limits on his conversation options that would prevent him from soothing her the way he is able to as just-Daav in the place where everyone speaks Comrade.

Local Custom – Chapter 35

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In which several people have urgent business at the Port this morning.

And Er Thom finds himself capable of setting out, without hesitation, on a course of action that would have been literally unthinkable a twelveday ago.

I notice that, just as when Er Thom took Shan, on the day Anne came home and found them gone, the authors are deliberately casting shadow on just what Er Thom intends to when he finds Anne — a last play of the shadow-Er Thom constructed on the model of Shan el’Thrassin. I think I understand why, but I wonder if there was ever a reader who knew Er Thom so poorly by this point as to be taken in by the deception.

Local Custom – Chapter 34

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In which nothing is beautiful and everything hurts.

I remember being told once by a connoisseur of heartwarming Christmas movies that a truly great uplifting ending must be preceded, for contrast, by a moment in which everything is terrible and it seems nothing will ever be right again. In the present case, this chapter introduces that moment.

(There are such moments in other Liaden novels, as well; the one that springs immediately to mind is Carpe Diem. On the other hand, there isn’t a moment in Balance of Trade that’s even remotely like, which I think is part of why I’ve never cared for Balance of Trade as much as most of the other novels.)

After the despair, I remember being told, comes the first glimmering of new hope, often in the form of one of the characters discovering that there is more in them than anyone had previously had reason to suspect: a bad person discovering a capacity for good, perhaps, or a weak person discovering inner strength. In the present case — well, we’ll see.

Local Custom – Chapter 32

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In which preparations are made for the gather, and for afterward.

I had wondered, on this re-read, at noticing that Er Thom’s first visit to Master Jeweler Moonel was before he knew Anne would need a party dress and jewels. But here is the answer: two pieces of jewelry, from two visits.

I’m not sure I’m quite clear on how many personages were involved in the drama of Eba yos’Phelium and her thodelm: is Daav yos’Phelium, Sixth Delm Korval, an extra player, or is he himself the thodelm in question? I mean, Petrella spoke of them as different people, but I would have expected that Delm Korval is also Thodelm yos’Phelium (has that ever been explicitly established?). And if they were both the same person, but he was acting in one melant’i at one time and in another melant’i at another time, perhaps a Liaden would refer to them as if they were separate people. (Look at how often, with our current Daav, Delm Korval and Er Thom’s cha’leket are treated as different people.)

Local Custom – Chapter 31

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In which Er Thom and Anne go shopping.

Things continue to be tense and unhappy.

After a nice bit of happenstance-tweaking by the authors, Er Thom now knows of Fil Tor Kinrae, at least by name, and Anne now knows of Jyl ven’Apon, at least by sight.