Tag Archives: Delm Hedrede

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 35

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Boss Nova’s House
Blair Road
Surebleak

In which Vel Ter jo’Bern appreciates art.

The drunken ne’er-do-well has a good name; an earlier Vel Ter jo’Bern was the head of House Hedrede during the Migration, and one of the negotiators on the Contract.

It’s nice to see the crisis pass with good feeling on all sides, though I do wonder if Vel Ter is able to view the situation with some distance on account of the distance that exists between himself and his clan; I suspect Delm Hedrede will be less appreciative of Luken’s artistry when the news reaches him. But less inclined to do anything about it, so there’s that.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 26

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Office of the Road Boss
Surebleak Port

In which Val Con pays an educational visit, and Miri has a visitor who just won’t learn.

Val Con is interrupted twice as he gets to saying “Now, I wonder–“, so we never do find out what it was he was wondering.

I think it might be too much to expect that all Val Con will find at the Road Boss office when he arrives is Miri grumpily shutting down her computer. Even if Smealy wasn’t inclined to push matters, his shadow is likely to have something to say (although whether that means that Val Con will arrive to find Miri under attack, or just to find Smealy bleeding out on the front doorstep, I’m not sure).

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 2

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Audrey’s House of Joy
Blair Road
Surebleak

In which Audrey and Luken discuss carpets.

What with Luken’s speech here, and Val Con’s reflections last chapter, we’re getting what might be the beginning of a theme: things change, and having changed can’t be made back into what they were before.

This is the first time we’ve heard the name of Luken’s daughter Danise. It doesn’t escape my attention that we don’t get her full name, and I suspect it may be relevant that just a chapter ago we were reminded that a Liaden daughter might not be in the same clan as her father. What with all the scattered parts of Korval wondering about what each other were up to while Plan B was in effect, not to mention the scene in Ghost Ship in which all the members of the clan were at last reunited again under one roof, it’s been pretty firmly established that the members of the clan don’t currently include anybody named Danise.

It might be that she went to her mother’s family instead of her father’s at the outset, like Theo did. Or it might be that she started out in Korval – there’s a mention of Luken having a child in Local Custom, and Liaden custom would have required him to have at least one child for Korval – and ended up in another clan later, like Aelliana did only in the other direction. I expect, given that this is a point being introduced in the early chapters of a novel, that we’ll be getting more details later.

(Another detail that doesn’t escape my attention is that Danise’s younger sister is not said at any point to also be Luken’s daughter. “Sister” encompasses many possibilities in Liaden custom, many of which don’t require that Danise’s sister be kin to Danise’s father, and some of which don’t even require that Danise’s sister be kin to Danise.)

We’ve been told before that Luken, for all that he’s a friendly fellow, is somebody you don’t want to be on the wrong side of when there’s a Balance to be arranged; I think this is the first time we’ve gotten to see it for ourselves.

I Dare – Chapter 57

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Day 59
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which the Council of Clans throws Korval into the briar patch.

The Delm Hedrede who delivers the Council’s judgment here is not the same Delm Hedrede who clashed with Korval thirty years ago in Scout’s Progress – different pronouns – but it does make me wonder if Hedrede has a personal investment in Korval getting booted off the planet.

There’s a neat bit of narrative sleight of hand with the problem of what to do with the dies: the problem is carefully laid out, then just as Val Con is about to suggest a solution, the conversation is interrupted. The reader is left to assume that a solution is found without the authors having to actually come up with one.

Tomorrow and tomorrow: Revisiting old friends and seeing how they’re affected by recent events, in “Misfits” and then the remainder of Saltation.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 14

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In which Hedrede calls upon Korval.

I am suspicious of Delm Hedrede’s attempt to discredit Anne’s scholarship. Certainly, prejudice may be found in all walks of life, but the description of Hedrede as a clan that usually keeps to itself and doesn’t start anything in Council makes me wonder if somebody put her up to it. (If it was the same people who were behind Fil Tor Kinrae and the earlier, more direct attack on Anne and Scholar yo’Kera, one would expect them to know that Daav could invoke Scholar yo’Kera to defeat the implication of Terran duplicity. Perhaps they did, but felt it was worth a try anyhow, as long as they had Hedrede to absorb the consequences if it didn’t work out.)

While Daav is busy defusing ticking social bombs of various kinds, Aelliana is having a much better day. Being around people who give her honest respect for her achievements — and are able to bring her to accept the respect she’s earned, which the Scouts are able to do in a way her students have never had the status for, however much they respected her — has been doing her some lasting good.