In which Daav yos’Phelium dies and Jen Sar Kiladi returns to teaching.

Thus, Daav’s Balance: Having identified ignorance as the enemy, he will take the fight to the enemy by sending out Professor Kiladi to battle ignorance. In so doing, he will also remove himself from the clan and hide in a place where nobody will look for him, so that news of his death might be believed, and the Terran Party be given what they want before anyone else is harmed.

(And while a teacher with Kiladi’s accomplishments might surely have many grateful former students, given the name of the university involved I like to think that the influential alumnus who arranged for Kiladi to be given a place was Chames Dobson.)

Thus, also, the truth about Daav’s blackouts: through the lifemate bond, Aelliana lives on in him, in the manner of Rool Tiazan’s lady in the old story. Incidentally, it’s interesting to note that the last time Rool Tiazan’s lady was mentioned, it was Daav himself recounting that very story in Local Custom. Of course, knowing the story doesn’t mean he believes it, and even if he does one can understand why he might not think of it being repeated in his own case. Rool Tiazan and his lady were of the dramliz, and planned for the eventuality, neither of which are true of Daav and Aelliana.

I see a whole bunch of things going into this being possible. Daav is doubtless correct that the Tree had a hand in it (or whatever the corresponding metaphor is for Trees), but I don’t think that’s all. I think that, however it’s possible for Aelliana’s mind to be hosted in Daav’s head, it can’t have hurt that he already had from his Grandmother the ability to hold other personalities in his head, nor that he’d been keeping that ability in practice with Professor Kiladi. (It’s interesting to think that perhaps, in a sense, Professor Kiladi is responsible for saving Aelliana.) Another thing, which I noticed for the first time on this re-read, is that Master Kestra makes a point of mentioning that Daav no longer overflows with mental whatever-it-is that previously caused Healers to have to keep their distance: whatever it was he had too much of for one person, apparently it’s now been chanelled into sustaining two.