Dutiful Passage
Approaching Jump
In which the Master Trader and his apprentice return to work.
According to my notes, this is the first substantial mention of Gordy — not counting a couple of times when people have mentioned him while running through the members of Clan Korval — since I Dare. I hadn’t realised it was that long.
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In which there is some excitement at dinner.
I notice that when Val Con and Miri are rendering Korval’s judgement, the placement of the quotation marks indicates that they are speaking alternate sentences, but there’s a lack of dialogue tags indicating who is speaking which sentence. In a way, of course, that’s only appropriate because it doesn’t matter — either way, it’s Delm Korval speaking — but I’d be interested to know whether the judgement itself is spoken by the half of the delm whose idea it was or the half who had to be convinced that it would work.
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In which the cavalry rides out.
I’m trying to remember if the concept of “composite Jump” has come up before this book. It’s not mentioned in the scene in Alliance of Equals where Hazenthull is composing the message to Miri informing her of her intentions, but then that scene doesn’t include any of the details of Hazenthull’s intentions, just the fact of her composing the message. (Old writer’s trick: “The hero has a plan! … which we will tell you all about next time, when we’ve figured out what it is.”) The bit about Admiral Bunter’s kind of composite Jump coming with the risk of ending up somewhere completely unexpected might just be a detail to add excitement, but it sounds to me like something a story could be hung on — the question is, is it this story?
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In which lightning strikes.
I don’t think Ms ker’Eklis’s argument about time pressure really stands up. It’s true that a pilot may need to field an answer to a problem in less than thirty seconds, with lives hanging in the balance – but that’s one of the reasons why children Syl Vor’s age aren’t allowed to be fully-qualified pilots. At Syl Vor’s age, that kind of performance is a goal to work toward, not an ability to be expected.
(I wrote that sentence and then had to stop and think about why it sounded familiar. It’s because it echoes what Silain told Nova about one of the problems Kezzi has as the youngest sister with no near age-mates: people sometimes get impatient with her because they forget she’s not yet capable of whatever they want from her.)
I would also say that her example doesn’t actually fit the case she’s arguing, because when a pilot has to come up with a solution in a hurry, it’s the solution that matters, and Syl Vor got that; it’s not often necessary for a pilot to show his working in an emergency. In fact, it’s been made clear previously that a pilot in charge will generally get, and insist on if it’s not offered, authority to act first and explain later in emergencies, precisely because if you’ve got thirty seconds to implement a solution the last thing you need is to stop and give a detailed explanation.
Regarding the lesson that a person of melant’i responds to provokation by noting the circumstances so they may be Balanced in due time, a Terran might say that Liadens believe in revenge being a dish best served cold, but I think it’s more that for Liadens revenge is a dish best served with precision. If one gets angry and leaps to retaliate immediately, one may make a mess of things, and one may miss out on a better opportunity that would have come if one had waited.
The card Kezzi’s working on resembles the Tower card from the Tarot deck, both in the picture and the story it represents. The story of the card is another thing in this chapter that echoes: it’s the card Rys might have drawn if he’d drawn a card and if the cards really could see the future.
In which Kezzi sees Syl Vor’s mother.
Despite their differences, there are some points of similarity between the Bedel way and the Liaden way. “No Balance nor keeping of debts between kin” is one of them.
It’s been said that most of Korval’s children, if they’re not full Healers or wizards, have some small gift, a touch of telepathy or a persuasiveness that goes just a bit beyond force of personality. I’m trying to remember if Nova’s been said to have anything in that line, because it would explain why Kezzi actually answers when Nova asks for her real name.
No, it came back to me as I was typing: Nova’s gift is Remembering. But then again, it wasn’t her who instructed Kezzi to answer truthfully – maybe it’s Syl Vor‘s gift.
In which Nova has visitors.
I find myself wondering how much of Boss Schroeder’s apparent concern for the safety of his turf’s children is politically motivated, which is perhaps unjust. Presumably he has some level of genuine concern for his people, or he wouldn’t be in on the school project to begin with.
Continuing the theme of there only being so many names to go around, Nova’s assistant Veeno has a very similar name to Veena, who was one of Boss Moran’s ‘hands back before Boss Conrad took over. It’s definitely not the same woman, though, since Veena, like Boss Moran, was one of those who didn’t survive the initial free and frank exchange of views.
I am amused that Nova and Syl Vor are seen to be making the same assessment of Nova’s role at more or less the same moment.
In which Ren Zel dea’Judan has unfinished business on Casia.
The thing I find really satisfying about this story is how things turn out for Cyrbet Meriandra, the last child of Clan Jabun. I’m pleased for her sake her fate turns out not to be the desperate thing it sounded when it was foretold at the end of Changeling; she did no more to earn a part in the doom brought on her by Delm Jabun than Ren Zel did. And during the confrontation at the end of this story, it was her I was worried about more than Ren Zel; he’s a dramliza, he can take care of himself even if Anthora isn’t there to take care of him.
(I am of course also pleased that Ren Zel found a way to reconnect with his family, but it wasn’t such a subject of suspense; as soon as Anthora persuaded him to make the attempt it seemed obvious the attempt would succeed and it was only a matter of waiting to learn the details.)
There is something funny going on with Cyrbet, though. It seems to be implied that she’s too young to remember the death of her mother, and was raised from childhood with tales of Ren Zel the ogre, which would seem to fit with the mention in Changeling of a toddler identified as Elsu’s daughter. However, we have our choice of several not-entirely-consistent indications of how long it’s been since Ren Zel left on Dutiful Passage… not one of which is long enough for a toddler to grow into a young woman employed as an adult and contemplating marriage. The timeline published in the second Liaden Unibus has it that Changeling took place in Standard Year 1390, which would mean he’s been away a mere three years. Even if we ignore that, Changeling itself states clearly that Shan is the captain of Dutiful Passage, which places it absolutely no earlier than 1383, ten years ago (and probably no earlier than 1385, since Shan was nominally captain for a couple of years before he was actually free to assume the role). Finally, there’s a line in this story which can be read as indicating that it’s been twelve years (actually, it’s “a dozen Standards”, which, since it’s Liadens, might be an approximation the way a Terran would say “a decade”) and even that is not enough for a toddler to attain Bethy’s apparent age. Perhaps Elsu had two daughters, and Cyrbet was the elder by enough years to fix the maths, but then what happened to the other one?
Another oddity, but one which I think is more likely to be deliberate and meaningful than an oversight, is the Balance pronounced by Delm Jabun on Ren Zel. It’s stated clearly in Conflict of Honors that Liadens consider it inappropriate to Balance a transgression by seeking the death of the transgressor, except in really extreme cases where there’s truly nothing else that will do. So does this mean that Ren Zel’s alleged wrongs against Clan Jabun would, if real, constitute such an extreme case? Or is it a sign of Delm Jabun’s corruption, that he called for Ren Zel’s death, regardless of its appropriateness, simply because it was the outcome he desired?
There’s a lot of good parallelling going on in this story, especially on the subject of delms: so many different delms, each with their own approach to the delm’s duty of caring for their clans’ resources, allowing comparisons that cast light on what it means to be a good (or a bad) delm, and to be a good and obedient clanmember. There are also parallels between Ren Zel and his nemesis that are interesting, and instructive: we don’t get an explicit account from Bethy of why she makes the decision she does at the end, but perhaps part of it is similar to the reasoning behind Ren Zel’s account at prime of his Balance with Aunt Chane.
Tomorrow: “Code of Honor”
In which Er Thom yos’Galan meets Shan yos’Galan.
This chapter kicks off a major complication that lasts, one way and another, for most of the book, and illustrates a thing I’ve often observed in life as well as in fiction: that the most troublesome miscommunications often result not from something being said unclearly, but from someone assuming that the situation is so obvious to everyone that nothing need be said at all.