Arsdred Port Magistrate’s Chamber
Local Year 728
Evening Bazaar

In which Priscilla sees the legal system of Arsdred from the inside.

One of the ways in which Shan is a better trader than Sav Rid Olanek, as demonstrated here, is his ability to find the smooth path leading to a conclusion satisfactory to himself and to the person he’s dealing with. Trader Olanek seems to be of the opinion that getting his own way is all that matters, without even the awareness that he might get his own way more easily if he paid some attention to what others wanted.

I like the slight hesitation before Trader Olanek says he’s willing to speak for Dagmar Collier. That’s a nice detail.

Another nice detail is that we have a Liaden expressing dislike of the fact that Shan is willing to acknowledge Gordy as kin, just a chapter after Gordy mentioned a Terran expressing dislike of the fact that Gordy is willing to acknowledge Shan as kin. (And Gordy’s explanation to Priscilla last chapter served a useful setting-up purpose, such that we now know what Trader Olanek is talking about without having to hold up the action here for an explanation.)

I also like the bit about the insult that can’t be understood by a person who merely knows what the words mean. A feature common to many of my favourite science fiction stories is cultures that have been sufficiently developed as to have figures of speech that don’t translate cleanly. (Two other examples that come to mind are Janet Kagan’s Hellspark and Cherry Wilder’s Torin series. You can tell a culture has some depth to it when it has its own puns.)