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Balance of Trade – Chapter 22

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Day 125
Standard Year 1118

Modrid

In which Jethri and the master of Modrid Trade Hall make their opinions of each other very clear.

Jethri shows a couple of times in this chapter that he doesn’t expect the regard of others. As Master ven’Deelin notes, when the Hall Master refuses to accept him as Master ven’Deelin’s apprentice he’s more upset about the insult to her than the corresponding slighting of himself. And then he admits that it hadn’t occurred to him that his uncle might have genuinely considered that he had properly earned the right to hold the ten-year Combine key. Perhaps it comes of being the baby of a large family, with or without the addition of a parent who wants nothing to do with him. It’s something he’s going to have to work on; humility is well and good, but a trader is not going to get very far without a sense of his own consequence.

The historic tapestry of surpassing ugliness is an amusing detail.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 21

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Day 123
Standard Year 1118

Elthoria
Modrid Approach

In which Master ven’Deelin’s apprentice trades solo for the first time.

Did I say Jethri’s habit of nervously playing with his lucky fractin had disappeared? Not entirely, it turns out.

The partly-overheard conversation at the end of the chapter would sound quite portentous if I didn’t remember what it’s about.

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 4

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Landomist Port

In which Maelyn tay’Nordif encounters Landomist’s curious local customs.

Jela’s having a rough time of it, though presumably not as rough as he would have had if he’d tried going it alone. The portmaster’s first impression of him backs up what Cantra told him about how out-of-place he is.

In the process, we see that Maelyn tay’Nordif doesn’t regard him as Cantra did, though she does have some concern that her friend and patron’s gift not be too badly damaged. (I wonder if there is such a person as Panthera vas’Chaler, really?)

Incidentally, I find that I can’t refer to Scholar tay’Nordif as just “Maelyn”. She’s not that kind of person.

Though I notice the portmaster was warming to her quite a bit by the end of their encounter. I suspect the influence of the famous aelantaza pheremones.

Also, I just have to mention: carnivorous roses.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 18

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On Port
Ardega

In which Cantra goes shopping.

Cantra and Jela are getting comfortable working together in their roles as legitimate traders, and both occasionally having trouble remembering that their association is only a temporary arrangement of convenience (or least practicable inconvenience, perhaps, from Cantra’s point of view).

The rug merchant gives Cantra a hand-signal meaning “I’ll be there soon”, which is described the same way pilot hand-talk has been, but I’m not sure if that means the merchant is also a pilot or maybe merchants have their own hand-talk which Cantra, as a trader, also knows.