Tag Archives: Elyana Rominkoff

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 49

1 Reply

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 48

2 Replies

Shipyear 65
Tripday 182
Second Shift
8.30 hours

In which Priscilla is welcomed home.

There’s a moment in “Moonphase” where Priscilla stands in front of the Temple and speaks her name, and the reaction she gets (or doesn’t get) drives home to her the fact that she is no longer Priscilla Mendoza, Maiden of the Circle. The moment in this chapter where she stands in front of the mirror and speaks her name, and adjusts her self-image to accept the person she is now instead of defining herself by the person she was, feels like a bookend, or the far end of a period of transition.

I wonder where Lina did get the clothes she gives Priscilla. If they’re handmade to specification, it’s unlikely that they were ordered and made in the time Priscilla’s been asleep. It was mentioned earlier that she was head of her Line, so she’d have clothes of that kind for her own use, but would they fit Priscilla?

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 47

Leave a Reply

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 – Chapter 45

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 181
Third Shift
14.00 hours

In which Shan receives the news from Sintia.

Have I mentioned that I have a lot of respect for Mr dea’Gauss?

It’s not mentioned here, but we know from “A Matter of Dreams” that the incident that led to Priscilla’s expulsion involved not only the saving of three lives but also the ending of one, under similar circumstances of defense-under-pressure as the death of Dagmar Collier. It’s possible that, when Priscilla gave herself up as a murderer Shan would no longer wish to be associated with, she had the earlier death on her mind as well as the recent one. A person might be able to persuade herself that one slaying was an aberration that might be discounted as long as it didn’t become a habit, but then to find herself doing it again…

There may not be a more appropriate time after this to make an observation about Priscilla’s name. In full it is Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza, following the form of a Spanish naming custom in which a person’s surname is in two parts, one inherited from each parent, and connected with “y” (which means “and”). In the Spanish tradition, the important part of the surname would be the first half, inherited from the father, and the short form of Priscilla’s name would be “Priscilla Delacroix” — but in fact, as we’ve seen more than once in this novel, the short form of her name is “Priscilla Mendoza”, giving precedence to her mother’s surname, which fits with the matriarchal nature of the society she hails from.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 44

1 Reply

Precinct House Detention Hall
Crown City, Theopholis
Hour of Fools

In which Shan takes Priscilla home.

And now the Hour of Fools, which makes me wonder if the naming of the hours is drawn from the Arcana of the Tarot. And also whether we’re supposed to infer that one or more of the characters in this chapter is a fool, which would be rather uncomplimentary (though not, I suppose, any more so than the previous chapter being the Hour of Demons).

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 43

2 Replies

Precinct House
Crown City, Theopholis
Hour of Demons

In which the legal system of Theopholis does not show itself in the best of lights.

This is another chapter where I would probably have had more to say about it on first reading, but on re-reading my main reaction is “Yes, that’s about how I remember it”.

I’m curious about how the hours are named on Theopholis. I thought at first, with the Kings and the Knaves, the theme might be card-related, but then there was the Viscount, so I thought it might be rulers. And in this chapter, there’s a mention of the Regent’s Hour, which would fit, except that there’s also the Hour of Demons, which doesn’t. (And I wonder whether it’s significant that there are multiple Kings and Knaves and Demons, but only one each of the Viscount and the Regent.)

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 42

1 Reply

Master’s Tower, Theopholis
Viscount’s Hour

In which Shan receives more bad news.

It occurs to me that events on Theopholis are echoing events on Arsdred: a confrontation involving Collier, Priscilla, and Gordy; Priscilla taken into custody; Shan called away from a pleasurable negotiation to straighten matters out… Some of the echoes are deliberate on the part of the characters (Collier deliberately picking on Priscilla and Gordy together because it was Gordy who intervened last time), others not. Bookends.

I appreciated it being mentioned that Daxflan officially has still not arrived at Theopholis. After Arsdred, it would have been spectacularly foolish for Priscilla and Gordy to be wandering around by themselves if they had known Collier was also in port.

Conflict of Honors – Chapters 38, 39 & 40

1 Reply

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…