Tag Archives: Mrs pel’Esla

Necessity’s Child – Chapter 4

2 Replies

In which Kezzi listens, and Syl Vor listens.

I like the bit where Val Con tells Syl Vor about Swan Lake, translating the concepts into their nearest Liaden equivalents as he goes.

(I also like the preceding bit with the music, but not in a way I can find specific words for.)

Kezzi summons Malda by snapping her fingers, which is not the way dogs are generally summoned where I live. It might just be a cultural difference without specific significance. On the other hand, remembering that we’ve already been told the Bedel summoning bell was designed to be difficult to hear beyond their walls, it occurs to me that a snap – compared to, say, a whistle or a voice call – would be less likely to carry to unfriendly ears, and less likely to impress itself on such ears as a sound of definitely human origin.

Necessity’s Child – Chapter 3

Leave a Reply

In which Syl Vor is certainly not having trouble sleeping.

Our third viewpoint character is, for a change somebody we already know, though not yet well: Syl Vor yos’Galan, Nova’s son.

A couple of other people we know, but not yet well are Syl Vor’s cousins Mik and Shindi, who sleep through the entire chapter and even so get more characterisation than in the entire series up to this point. Though that’s fair enough, considering they’re only about a year old and their life to date has largely consisted of their family trying to keep them away from the exciting things the readers are interested in.

On which note, we also learn this chapter that, although all the children survived Plan B physically untouched, the pressure of having to always be prepared for the other possibility has left its mark on Syl Vor.

(And an intriguing side-note: in Syl Vor’s thoughts, Lady Kareen is appropriately “Grandaunt”, but Luken bel’Tarda is “Grandfather”, without even as much justification as when Quin did it. Perhaps it’s been decided that Luken is Grandfather to all the children, since the clan has no other grandfathers to offer them.)