Tag Archives: Pen Rel sig’Kethra

Balance of Trade – Chapter 27

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Day 140
Standard Year 1118

Irikwae

In which the twins give Jethri the benefit of their vast, sorrowful experience.

When the twins are telling Jethri about how much Pen Rel loves his vines, they tell a story about the “mother vine” that echoes the events of “Necessary Evils” and the scholar’s hearsay in Crystal Dragon. Where those were reports of contemporary events, though, now it is just a legend of “the old days, when such things were possible”.

That’s a connection I didn’t make the first time I read it, probably because I hadn’t read “Necessary Evils” yet. If memory serves, I read all the novels Meisha Merlin published before I read any of the short stories.

The other thing I didn’t realise the first time I read it was that Jethri’s confidence that it wasn’t within his power to match the twins’ devastation of the vines was a sign of trouble to come.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 24

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Day 139
Standard Year 1118

Irikwae

In which Jethri is here to learn trade and mountains.

It’s interesting that Norn ven’Deelin speaks of this as “coming home”, and makes one wonder how she would characterize returning to the house of her own clan on Liad.

Meicha and Miandra have something going on: they’re able to pick Jethri’s emotions out of his head – but perhaps not yet able to not do it, given their reactions when Jethri starts panicking (and I wonder if Ren Lar was picking up on that when he suggested it was time to end the meal). “Healer Hall has taken an interest in them”. The Delm is firm that they are not, however, dramliz – but something about the way it’s said makes me wonder if that’s an objective judgement or if there’s a stigma being carefully avoided. (Also, I wonder what it is that tips Norn ven’Deelin off about them.)

The subject of Liadens considering it impolite to mop one’s face in public is one that we will return to in more detail at a later date.

I wonder if Flinx is named (not by the characters, obviously, but perhaps by the authors) after the protagonist of Alan Dean Foster’s series of young adult novels; I can see some similarities between that Flinx and our Jethri.

Master ven’Deelin’s mention of Korval in the parlor is the first time they’ve been mentioned since Crystal Dragon (and if memory serves it will be some time again before they’re next mentioned).

Jethri’s assessment of the parlor as “smallish – maybe the size of Master ven’Deelin’s office on Elthoria” shows that he’s made some adjustments in the time since he first saw that office: back then, he was struck by how large it was.

Incidentally, it’s been nearly exactly a relumma since then, which means that in depositing Jethri on Irikwae for two relumma, Master ven’Deelin is proposing that they will be apart for almost twice as long as the entire time they’ve known each other. I can see that being worrying even without the addition of a Spacer’s horror of being left stranded.

I have a feeling that when Master ven’Deelin remarks on how careful Jethri is of her honor, she’s very gently pulling his leg. He does genuinely want to avoid doing her disservice, and I’m sure she genuinely appreciates it, but she only really makes a point of it when he’s trying to invoke a desire to avoid shaming her to get out of doing something without straight out saying he doesn’t want to do it.

Which, as I said, doesn’t mean that they don’t genuinely care about each other, and I love the scenes in this chapter which show that care.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 22

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Day 125
Standard Year 1118

Modrid

In which Jethri and the master of Modrid Trade Hall make their opinions of each other very clear.

Jethri shows a couple of times in this chapter that he doesn’t expect the regard of others. As Master ven’Deelin notes, when the Hall Master refuses to accept him as Master ven’Deelin’s apprentice he’s more upset about the insult to her than the corresponding slighting of himself. And then he admits that it hadn’t occurred to him that his uncle might have genuinely considered that he had properly earned the right to hold the ten-year Combine key. Perhaps it comes of being the baby of a large family, with or without the addition of a parent who wants nothing to do with him. It’s something he’s going to have to work on; humility is well and good, but a trader is not going to get very far without a sense of his own consequence.

The historic tapestry of surpassing ugliness is an amusing detail.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 21

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Day 123
Standard Year 1118

Elthoria
Modrid Approach

In which Master ven’Deelin’s apprentice trades solo for the first time.

Did I say Jethri’s habit of nervously playing with his lucky fractin had disappeared? Not entirely, it turns out.

The partly-overheard conversation at the end of the chapter would sound quite portentous if I didn’t remember what it’s about.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 20

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Day 116
Standard Year 1118

Elthoria

In which Jethri opens his crate from home.

The dent in the B-crate has all kinds of interesting potential stories behind it, depending on just when it happened. If it happened on the way from Khat to Jethri, that’s one thing. If Khat just added her own few items to the crate Iza was already storing Jethri’s stuff in, and Iza put the dent in it herself at some point since Arin’s death, that’s another thing. If Iza was making use of one of Arin’s old crates, and it was already dented when he got it, that’s another thing again (and at this point a small voice in my head is muttering, speculatively, “Wildetoad Wildetoad Wildetoad…”). But no, it says some of the fastenings jammed when the crate was deformed, so it most likely happened since Khat packed it up.

There’s a paragraph in this chapter that speaks to some of the conversation that’s been going on in the comment threads: “Say what you would about Iza Gobelyn’s temper, and no question she was cold. Say it all – and when it was said, the fact remained that she was a canny and resourceful captain, who held the best good of the ship in her heart.” Gotta admit, though, we haven’t actually seen much of that side of her so far.

Jethri interprets the monogram on the signet ring box as “Arin Jethri Gobelyn”. If he’s correct to do so, does that mean that Arin was already a Gobelyn when he was still a commissioner, before he married Iza?

Another little puzzle: at the bottom of the fractin collection, a rack made of an unfamiliar metal; with Crystal Dragon fresh in memory, I wonder if it’s a data-case to go with the data-tiles. (Or perhaps just an attempt at re-creating a data-case, the way Nelirikk’s shibjela is not a real shib.)

All the focus on the fractin collection leads me to realise that Jethri’s lucky fractin hasn’t been making many appearances lately, and his old habit of playing with it when he was nervous has completely disappeared since he started protocol lessons.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 19

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Day 108
Standard Year 1118

Tilene Docks

In which Jethri tries his hand at cargo.

We are reminded that Jethri is most comfortable on board ship, or failing that somewhere with a solid roof over his head, a fact which is going to become salient in another chapter or two.

I had completely forgotten the detailed description of Tilene’s city, possibly because it doesn’t end up being relevant to anything later on (unless I’ve forgotten that, too). Nice bit of worldbuilding, though.

This was one of my least favourite chapters on my first reading of this novel; I have a tendency to feel it very strongly when a sympathetic character makes a mistake. I had forgotten, or it hadn’t sunk in, that his teachers judge him to have done well, all things considered. And surely this is the best kind of mistake: one that can be learned from and will not be repeated on some future occasion where the consequences of a mistake might be much worse.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 17

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Day 107
Standard Year 1118

Elthoria and Tilene

In which Jethri’s new status occasions some changes of schedule.

Norn ven’Deelin says, in word and in deed, that she trusts Jethri to behave honorably and do well, and not to make her regret claiming him as kin. I wonder how she’d have handled the situation if she didn’t trust him so well. (She wouldn’t have let the chel’Gaibins take him while he was under her protection, and perhaps she might have claimed him as kin anyway, seeing no other option – because I don’t think she’d have done that, even trusting Jethri as she does, if she’d seen another option – but perhaps she’d have arranged his schedule differently, kept him more out of the public eye, and let it be more in name than in fact.) On the other hand, perhaps this is a pointless question: if she didn’t already think well of him, he wouldn’t have been trading under her on Tilene and the situation would never have arisen.

The Master Trader’s concern over the unnamed practice lately surfaced on Tilene is ominous, especially once one starts wondering if it’s of a piece with the “climate changes” observed by her friend the Scout Captain on Kailipso.

Tan Sim’s family are seriously unpleasant people. Not that we hadn’t already been getting that impression, of course.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 15

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Day 106
Standard Year 1118

Tilene Trade Theater

In which Jethri has unexpected news of kin.

So much happens in this chapter, I’m not sure where to begin.

Why is it that things always go wrong just after somebody’s thought something like “I got through the day without doing something irrevocably stupid”? Though to be fair, Jethri didn’t do anything stupid, unless it’s stupid to do that thing he does of trusting people to be straight with him. Irrevocable, on the other hand, it certainly was. And it says a great deal for how highly Norn ven’Deelin regards Jethri that she was willing to take the irrevocable step she took to get him out of trouble.

I was amused to notice that Jethri gets to use the bow acknowledging a debt truly owed for real in this chapter, the more so since the narrator just says he bowed, “very precise indeed”, and leaves it to the reader to realise from context which bow he must have used.

I like Tan Sim pen’Akla, and I’m glad we’ll be seeing more of him. (One of the things I’m hoping for from the sequel is an improvement in his situation.)

Balance of Trade – Chapter 12

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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.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 11

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Day 66
Standard Year 1118

Kailipso Station
At Leave

In which Jethri is put at liberty to enjoy those things which Kailipso offers.

This is one of my favourite chapters in the book. It has the nice little scene with the bookseller, and the action and excitement of the incident later.

The bit where Jethri’s being chased by the two Liadens has echoes of Khat’s story about Byl. Jethri must be hearing the echoes, too, and it affects his judgement of the situation.

Jethri’s back to thinking of Arms Master sig’Kethra as “Pen Rel”. Maybe because he’s off duty?

I’m a thought puzzled about the name of Kailipso Station, which strikes my ear as a more likely name for a Terran establishment than a Liaden one.

Our first Scout, and our first mention of Solcintra City.

It must mean something that Iza never told Jethri how Arin died. Was she deliberately keeping the details from him, or did it just not occur to her that he might care to know them? Maybe she didn’t care to know them, and didn’t enquire into details beyond the fact that he was dead. (I wonder whether, if so, learning that Arin died a hero would make her feel better about it, or worse.)