Aequitas
Hel’s Gate
Rannibic Station
In which Sleak has things to say.
Shout out to Lute and Moonhawk, whose story continues to be told even when the Temple would prefer it to be forgotten. I wonder if the version Sleak knows includes the two things that must without fail be said. (I would bet good money that whatever version the Temple currently tells doesn’t include either of the two – if they tell the story at all.)
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Aequitas
Hel’s Gate, Rannibic Station
In which there is a change of plans.
There are a couple of resonant names in the dateline of this chapter.
Wikipedia describes aequitas as “the Latin concept of justice, equality, conformity, symmetry, or fairness”. Also, I see from my notes, in the Liaden Universe aequitas is the name of those tokens used by traders to ensure a fair exchange of information. So Aequitas is a plausible thing for a trader to name her ship, and it also echoes the broader issues of justice in the situation in which Lomar finds herself in this story.
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Melepomine Court
Alpraise City
Dayan, in the Irrobi System
In which Lomar Fasholt makes her move.
This, also, I read a few months ago and have been putting off because I didn’t know what to say about it. Apart from, obviously: Hurray! It’s good to see Lomar Fasholt again after all this time.
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Dayan
First Sunrise
In which Priscilla has speech with a sister.
Dayan, like Sintia, worships the Goddess; it does seem to be the same Goddess, with a common basis indicated by Priscilla’s expressions and gestures being recognised by the women she speaks to. Like Sintia, too, the priestesses of the Goddess are apparently the temporal as well as spiritual leaders, and possibly not handling it as gracefully as they might. In some ways it’s worse than Sintia; there are hints in some of the Moonhawk stories that men on Sintia are second-class citizens, but on Dayan their status doesn’t even reach that high. There are signs of hope: that Lomar Fasholt speaks with Shan as an equal says something, and that she considers it (and without any apparent doubt or hesitation) appropriate to secure her husband an education says something more. (And that echoes something in the Moonhawk story “The Wine of Memory”, come to think of it.)
Shan notes that Priscilla shows signs of her continued education in proper Liaden in her ability to produce an appropriate phrase; it also shows, I think, in the way she is able to put a name to the bow Shan offers Lomar Fasholt.
According to my notes, tomorrow’s schedule calls for doing the next three chapters in one go.