Tag Archives: Trilla sen’Elba

I Dare – Chapter 51

Day 54
Standard Year 1393

Dutiful Passage
Jump

In which various people spend time in transit.

I haven’t been noting it every time a relevant detail has come up, but I think by now we have to acknowledge that in the Liaden universe cats are sapient and capable of dramliz-type abilities. Some cats, anyway. Merlin, at least. (Come to that, I wonder if Val Con knew how appropriate the name was when he chose it…)

I feel like I should say something about the scene with Hazenthull and Nelirikk, but nothing particular is coming to me.

It’s good to see Trilla again.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 25

In which Aelliana takes decisive action in response to Mizel’s message.

I said in an earlier entry that one of the things worth noting about Scout’s Progress was the way it wasn’t a story about Aelliana being rescued, but a story about Aelliana rescuing herself. Even though she is now, for the most part, rescued, Mouse and Dragon has continued to be a story in which Aelliana makes the decisive moves in her own life. She was the originator and driving force of the idea of going for courier, and each time her personal relationship with Daav has tightened a notch, it’s been her making the move. (Which is an important thing, for a person whose life was for so long out of her control.) That continues here: the proposal that they cry lifemates comes from her, unbidden, when she’s ready and not before.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 15

In which Aelliana and Daav go to inspect their ship and make discoveries of several kinds.

Several important developments occur in this chapter, but they’re the kind of things I’m not good at stringing words together about.

I’m much better at the trivial observations, like noting that there are a few details in this chapter that have extra resonance for readers familiar with other books in the series, like Clonak’s choice of occupation, or the way Trilla apologises before wiping her face.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 7

In which Daav and Aelliana take a scenic route out of Solcintra.

Another incident underlining the idea of Mizel’s house as a foreign and dangerous port is Solcintra Port Control welcoming Aelliana home. It makes sense as a greeting, considering that it’s the port she flies out of, and I don’t expect they’re aware that she’s just come from the place that ought to have been home to her, but I reckon she’ll have noticed the irony of it.

Jon’s twitch at the news of Aelliana accepting Korval’s protection is interesting. I suspect it’s because it’s not the offer he’d been expecting Daav to make and Aelliana to accept, after the way they were the last time he saw them together.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 4

In which Aelliana has breakfast and messages.

The chapter heading quote is particularly pointed today. In theory, Aelliana is not without kin, and Daav is overreaching himself by offering her aid. In fact, though, none of Aelliana’s kin are willing and able to give her the care she ought to be able to expect from them (Sinit is willing, but not able), and if Daav had not offered his assistance she would have gone without. It ought not to have been only Daav who made sure she was clothed and fed, nor only Daav who came to see how she was doing. Even if other business prevented a visit, they might have sent a message; it says something that the messages from her colleagues outnumber those from her kin threefold, and that one of her students, a person who is not even so close to her as to be permitted the Low Tongue, sent a message when her own mother still has not. It says something that the one message from her kin is more than Aelliana expected.

It says something, too, that Aelliana herself compares the Mizel clanhouse, which ought to be her home and refuge, to a hostile port where she would be unwise to set foot without backup — and presents this as an obvious truth which she counts herself foolish not to have seen sooner.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 33

In which two women return to face that which they fear.

My reaction to the middle section of this chapter is rather like my reaction to Chapter 27 of Trade Secret (which, if you don’t recall it, consisted largely of the single word “Yes!“). Aelliana has come a very long way since the beginning of the novel.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 32

In which Nadelm Mizel demands to see Master Binjali.

I had not noticed on earlier readings how much Ran Eld was bothered by Clonak’s facial hair. (Nor, consequently, that when Clonak strokes his mustache he’s probably deliberately playing up to see how much more bothered he can make him.)

Frad’s remark that Ran Eld doesn’t appear to appreciate Aelliana’s flight points out another aspect of Ran Eld’s blinkered view that I hadn’t considered previously. It’s not so much that he doesn’t know how impressive the piloting was, since I can see where a non-pilot might not grasp that — but there’s no indication, in the last chapter or this, that Ran Eld has even noticed that Aelliana helped save somebody’s life. As far as Ran Eld is concerned, this is apparently an entirely irrelevant detail.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 30

In which there is dinner, dancing, distinction, and a difficult decision.

Aelliana’s speculation about Daav’s ringless finger reminds me that this is a parallel to Local Custom, where Er Thom also spent a significant portion going about without his ring of rank. Or perhaps not so much a parallel as a reflection, because in a way the situation here is a reverse: Er Thom’s lack of ring was a punishment, but Daav’s is more in the way of a much-needed vacation.

And when Aelliana asks him what he has around his neck, and he replies, “A chain”, it’s an obvious dodge into literal-mindedness — but it also works as an honest (perhaps more honest than he intended?) description of how he regards the delm’s ring.

I think I was a bit uncharitable toward Olwen sel’Iprith back in Local Custom. If Frad is any indication, all the members of Daav’s former team are very close, just not the kind of close that, say, Er Thom and Anne are. (Or, as we can confidently say after the happenings of this chapter, Daav and Aelliana.)

And here’s a fun thing I noticed for the first time on this re-read: the authors are ingeniously uninformative as regards the genders of Trilla’s and Frad’s chosen table partners. We learn that Frad’s companion is a redheaded Scout, and Trilla’s companions are both described as dancers, but do we get a single gendered pronoun between the three of them? We do not.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 29

In which Aelliana frames and tries a piloting addendum under stringent field conditions.

I have to admit that the details of Aelliana’s course addendum go straight over my head. But it certainly sounds impressive.

The quote at the beginning of this chapter is the fragment that eventually grew into the short story “The Space at Tinsori Light” (which, chronological order being what it is, we have already had). Here, its purpose is only to add another angle to the introduction of the pilot’s ring.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 28

In which Aelliana dances.

Daav doesn’t appear too put out that Aelliana has realised he tipped off Zan Der pel’Kermin, even though he asked that worthy person not mention his intervention. I surmise that he wouldn’t have minded Aelliana being told about Daav’s involvement, but wished to avoid any mention of that inconvenient person Delm Korval.

Things are going well for Aelliana and Daav at this point, but last chapter and this contain reminders that they both have troubles lurking in the background which, when they strike, are only going to strike the harder for having been successfully dodged thus far.