Tag Archives: prena’ma

Local Custom – Chapter 20

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In which Petrella yos’Galan is surprised by her guest.

A reward for the detail-oriented, here: the golden hair ribbon that Anne remembers losing in this chapter is surely the same golden ribbon that was among Er Thom’s treasures, way back in the first chapter, threaded with a scrap of silk the color of the silk they used as a ground cover. Which suggests that Er Thom remembers that night at least as affectionately as Anne, if there were still any doubt on that point.

Liadens clearly take hospitality seriously: even knowing that his mother does not in the least want Anne as a guest, Er Thom sees nothing remarkable in the lengths she’s gone to to ensure the guest’s comfort. (It is surely, as Anne hints, sometimes an expensive standard to live up to; Korval can afford it, but how do less wealthy Liaden houses manage?)

Local Custom – Chapter 6

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In which Er Thom passes a major hurdle.

Anne appears to have an exaggerated view of the Liaden need to protect one’s melant’i. I suspect she’s not familiar with the anecdote about dessert that’s at the head of the chapter. Instead, she’s taking the tale of Shan el’Thrassin as her model of Liaden conduct, and in so doing she’s misleading herself in several important ways. In general, great literature can be an unreliable guide to how real people act, tending as it does toward dramatic instances. Not every hurt or insult must result in a great big debt-war. In specific, Er Thom is not Shan el’Thrassin, and, crucially, Anne is not Lyada ro’Menlin: Anne’s model is a story about two Liadens, with nothing to say about the possibility and ramifications of one party acting from a strong but alien Code. Anne looks at the story and sees that Shan el’Thrassin had no way out of harming his love to achieve Balance, but she doesn’t see that Er Thom has an out that Shan el’Thrassin didn’t have.

Unrelatedly, Shan yos’Galan is such a cute kid, isn’t he?