Tag Archives: Solcintra Healer Hall

Ambient Conditions

In which Kishara jit’Luso takes advantage of ambient conditions.

This is an oddity: a story retelling another existing story from another viewpoint. We’ve had stories that crossed paths before (“Quiet Knives” comes to mind), but usually that’s a case of two people on different paths that happen to intersect for a sentence or two. This is a special case, for reasons that are explained in the author’s note.
Continue reading

Trader’s Leap – Chapter 16

Tarona Rusk
Meeting Space

In which the Healers plan to excise the Department of the Interior from the healthy body of the universe.

It’s interesting sometimes considering how we think of fictional characters, as in what name we call them by. I generally refer to characters like Shan and Priscilla by their first names, because the narrative encourages us to think of them as people we know and are friendly with; on the other hand, I would probably call Mr dea’Gauss “Mr dea’Gauss” even if we knew what his first name was, because he has that sense of formality about him.

So far I keep finding myself always referring to Tarona Rusk by her full name, because it doesn’t feel right to just call her “Tarona”. (I might use a formal title and surname, like with Mr dea’Gauss, except I’m not sure she has a title that we know of.)
Continue reading

Trader’s Leap – Chapter 7

Millsapport

In which the Healers of Millsap are unhelpful.

That went… about as well as I was expecting, really.

There were moments when I had hope it would go better, but the point at which I became convinced it was going to go off the rails was when Healer Ferin chose to ask the question “What did you do to deserve this?”, which is never an appropriate thing to say to a trauma victim under any circumstances and especially not when one is treating them for that trauma.
Continue reading

Trader’s Leap – Chapter 4

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.
Continue reading

Trader’s Leap – Chapter 2

Tarona Rusk
Langlast Departure

In which Tarona Rusk takes stock of herself.

I think that when Tarona Rusk assumes that Shan intentionally set her up as a weapon against the Department, she’s making the usual mistake of the Department-trained of projecting their own methods and motives onto Korval. As accounted in Alliance of Equals, the two motivations for his actions that she dismisses out of hand are the two that were most on his mind at the time, and far from expecting her to take on the Department he expected her to want help staying away from them.
Continue reading

The Gate That Locks the Tree – Act 6, Scene 1

Exploring Inner Landscapes

In which Toragin doesn’t believe in adventures but does believe in promises.

There’s something going on with Toragin. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s something to do with her having been taught that she’s Not Supposed To Get Angry. And being “not of the usual type”, in a way that’s “barely socially acceptable” and which “the Healers would not heal”. And believing in social bonds as absolutes. And being “good at research”. Something on the autism spectrum, maybe?
Continue reading

Alliance of Equals – Chapter 26

Langlastport
The Torridon Hotel

In which there is conversation after dinner.

I don’t know if it’s significant that Shan describes the Liaden tongue as “the language of home” when speaking to the jeweller, after all the reminders there have been that the children of Korval need to stop thinking of Liad as home. Probably it’s just that that’s a conventional phrase and the situation is not appropriate for a more precise description.

I also don’t know if it’s significant that we’re getting a reminder now of Master Moonel, who appeared in Local Custom. That was back when Shan was a small boy, and Moonel was already the most respected jeweller on Liad, so it is not a surprise to learn now that he has since died. (Shan mentions that his shop stands empty; I wonder if that’s a sign that it happened recently, or perhaps that he was so respected nobody wishes to try taking his place.)

Possibly it is the death that matters — it makes two scenes in a row where the subject of death has come up in proximity with Padi, which helps things remain ominous even as her conversation with her father seems to be going well.

Chimera

In which things are changing on Surebleak.

Even granting that a public gathering of all the Bosses seems like a good opportunity to make a statement, it strikes me as particularly lacking in foresight for the disgruntled pack to try and start something at, of all things, a shooting competition. That’s right up there with the legendary criminal who tried to knock over the local precinct’s favourite coffee shop during the cops’ lunch break.

The old argument about the new consolidated school suggests this is set shortly after Necessity’s Child, though how much after would depend on the balance between the newness of the school and the oldness of the argument. Actually, it might even be during the late stages of Necessity’s Child, if the argument is “what to do when the new school opens” rather than “what to do now the new school has opened”.

(It might turn out that I’d have had more to say about this story if I’d read it after Dragon in Exile, the way Trade Secret turned out to contain details that clarified the situation in “Out of True”, but I had important pragmatic reasons for putting Dragon in Exile last in the schedule, namely that that meant I could schedule everything without needing to know exactly how many chapters there are in Dragon in Exile.)

I Dare – Chapter 7

Day 50
Standard Year 1393

Lytaxin
Erob’s House

In which Edger gives a demo.

A nice concise summary from Shan of what a Healer is, and isn’t.

An interesting touch in the med tech’s rant, the complaint that Edger and Sheather are “not of Erob’s house medical staff”. Separately, it’s reasonable to be concerned that they are not certified medical staff, and understandable to be concerned that they are not of Erob’s staff (and therefore are unknowns). But with that wording it isn’t just the sum of those two concerns, but has the flavour of an ingroup-outgroup bias (“Erob’s house medical staff are the best; I am of Erob’s house medical staff and these persons are not; I am obviously right and they are obviously wrong”).

The similarity Shan sees between the Turtles and the Tree is intriguing. It doesn’t mean they’re related, particularly since the similarity seems to be one of kind rather than detail, but more like another facet of their other commonalities, being very old and having more to them than meets the eye.

This House

In which Mil Ton Intassi tells a story, and it has an effect.

“This House” is one of a very few Liaden stories that have no connection with Korval and their doings, and few indications of where it fits relative to the other stories. (Though, speaking of relatives, Mil Ton Intassi has the same surname as someone who has appeared in connection with Korval, a fact which went right past me when I read the story in isolation but hit me straight between the eyes as soon as I started reading it this time.) The only time cue is that it must be set some time after “A Day at the Races”, since skimmer racing was a new thing then and is an established thing in “This House”. At that, it’s probably set further after “A Day at the Races” than I’ve placed it, but since it doesn’t connect with any other story, I decided that grouping the skimmer stories together would be more appropriate than being strict about chronology in this case.

The story was originally written for an anthology in which each story was inspired by a song, and is itself inspired by the song “This House” from Janis Ian’s album Breaking Silence. The lyrics of the song are on Janis Ian’s web site, if you’re interested in comparing them. (But watch out; that link goes to a page that autoplays music.)


Tomorrow: Conflict of Honors, picking up from the second chapter. (The first chapter/prologue, we did already, last week.)