Vandar
Winterfair

In which Cory and Meri and Hakan are Heroes of the Realm.

I wonder if the king’s doing Zhena Trelu as much of a favour as he’s presumably trying for; she mentioned a while back that she was thinking of selling the farm and moving into town once it had been fixed up enough to be marketable, and now she’s pretty much stuck with it. With free upkeep and a guaranteed income, admittedly, which makes it less of a burden, and maybe a few months with Val Con and Miri around have added enough good new memories to the place that she’d have reconsidered anyway. Whatever she might think of the arrangement, she clearly knows that there’s no point arguing about it once it’s been publicly announced.

And then Val Con gives the king the bow between equals, which is interesting. Presumably the Benish don’t know precisely what it signifies, but from the zhena’s reaction it still reads to them as being not as respectful as they’d expect. Or is the zhena’s reaction because Miri, following Val Con’s lead, bows instead of curtseying?

I like the bit about the quarterweight of hontoles; it gives the investiture of the Heroes of the Realm a feeling of being a tradition that’s been around for a while. I wonder if a quarterweight of hontoles is worth more these days, or less, than when the first Hero of the Realm was invested.

The king is another of this series’ minor characters who makes a brief but impressively deep impression. I always feel like there’s more going on with him than we ever get to see.