Day 107
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria and Tilene
In which Jethri attends an intimate dinner for two hundred of Master ven’Deelin’s closest friends.
Have I mentioned that I like Master tel’Ondor? I like Master tel’Ondor.
Day 67
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria
Protocol Lessons
In which Jethri learns a thing or two about melant’i.
There have been occasions when the scene-setting description at the head of the chapter applied only to the first portion of the chapter, before the scene shifted elsewhere, but I perceive that in this case the descriptor of “protocol lessons” applies just as much to the second scene in the corridor.
This is also one of my favourite chapters, or perhaps it would be most appropriate to say that the chapters concerning the visit to Kailipso Station collectively form one of my favourite episodes of the book.
It’s warming that Jethri has so many comrades. Some of them may have been involved less out of personal friendship than because the ship’s honor is at stake, but it’s still good to know that they consider ship’s honor to comprehend Jethri.
This is the first chapter since Jethri signed on to Elthoria in which he hasn’t thought about his family even once.
Day 63
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria
In which Jethri proceeds with his lessons.
Jethri has been on Elthoria for 21 days, which is three of our weeks, slightly less than that in Standard weeks, and a bit under two Liaden weeks. During that time the ship has been in transit, but it is now approaching a destination.
Ship-days on Elthoria are 28 hours long, and divided into four shifts; if the hours are divided evenly, that makes each shift 7 hours. (The preceding sentence is here mainly in case it helps when we get to the time-keeping in Conflict of Honors.) Ship-days on Gobelyn’s Market are 24 hours, which is suggestive, but not conclusive when the Market‘s masters are ship-people who call no planet home.
One of the things I considered mentioning but ended up not, two chapters ago, was that Jethri, as reflected in the narrative voice, was still thinking of Pen Rel sig’Kethra as “Pen Rel” even after he’d been informed that he was properly “Arms Master sig’Kethra”. Which I thought was a nice detail: it was only a few hours at most after he’d received the new information, and he’d had several days to get into the habit of “Pen Rel”. The extension of the nice detail, and the reason I bring it up now, is that in this chapter the narrative voice has made the transition to “Arms Master sig’Kethra”.
Jethri seems to be settling in. And taking something of a shine to First Mate tel’Dorbit.
Day 42
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria
Arriving
In which Jethri begins to find his place in his new home.
I like the bit at the end of this chapter where Jethri finds that his new quarters are in some ways very different from the old quarters he left behind last chapter, and in some ways just the same.
Between Norn ven’Deelin and Gaenor tel’Dorbit, there’s probably quite a bit of information to be gathered about how Liaden differs from English in the matter of sentence structure and so on, if one is of a mind to gather that sort of information.