Track of the White Wolf - Chapter 6
Apr. 3rd, 2022 12:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Lillith made a lot of enemies, Aislinn defended Ian, and Niall was given a choice with no real good options.
So now he gets to marry his cousin!
Actually, we don't see the proxy marriage ceremony. The chapter starts afterward, with Ian quoting the wedding vows.
“‘Will you, the Prince of Homana, promise to provide all things necessary to the station and well-being of the Princess of Atvia,’” my brother quoted. “‘Will you, Niall, clan-born of the Cheysuli, promise to provide succor and honor, respect and regard, to Gisella of Atvia?’ And so on, and so on.” He laughed. “You notice he left out the word love. For a Homanan priest, he has surpassing sense.”
Niall tells Ian, and us, that it had been hard to go through with it. He's marrying Gisella, of course, but he had to look at Lillith while saying the words. And now, per Ian, he's stuck:
“And now you are bound to her forever,” Ian mused. “Homanan law is an unforgiving thing, allowing no man—or woman—the chance to end a marriage that does neither any good.” He shook his head. “Foolishness. Look at Carillon. Surely he more than any man should have had the right to end his marriage. Had he been able to set Electra aside permanently and wed another woman, he might have sired a son. And you would not be Prince of Homana, in line for the Lion Throne.”
I mean, it is a pretty stupid restriction. Even in Henry VIII's time, divorce or annulments weren't completely unheard of. They were RARE, sure, and he couldn't get one. But I feel like ATTEMPTED REGICIDE would have been a reasonable exception!
Niall just thinks about how if he weren't Prince of Homana, he wouldn't be now married to his cousin. Who he still hasn't met yet.
So the ceremony has been done for an hour. The boys are hanging out because a servant had brought out celebratory wine. No one else wanted to share wine with Varien or Lillith so they left. The boys are alone.
That seems like a bit of a dick move, Donal and Aislinn. Even if you can't abide the Atvians, you should at least stick around for your kid. At least Ian's a good bro.
Niall thinks about his brother, and how much Ian looks like Donal. (He's never met Sorcha, as she died before he was born, so he doesn't have anyone else to compare him with.) It inspires Niall to ask an interesting question:
“Have you ever wondered what life would be like for you if you were heir to the Lion?”
Like me, he held a cup of wine. Unlike me, he did not drink. He stared at me fixedly over the rim. “Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “No reason, save curiosity. We are so different; I merely wondered how you would feel if you were in my place.”
“Deceased,” he said succinctly.
Ian is a bastard. And Cheysuli. ("More blatantly Cheysuli", he corrects himself, which makes me happy.) The way they discuss the hypothetical is fascinating to me:
I waved a hand. “Let us dispense with the first and say you are not a bastard. How would you feel then?”
He smiled a little. “You dispense with it so easily… well enough—I am legitimate. I am the Prince of Homana. I would still be dead, because the Homanans would see to it I was slain.”
“Assassinated?”
He shrugged. “If it was not an accident.”
I felt a cold finger brush my spine. “Because you are Cheysuli.”
“Aye.”
“Our father is Cheysuli.”
“Carillon chose our jehan. From him they would accept any man.” He did not look away from me. “Niall, you are in no danger. You are Aislinn’s son. You bear the blood of the man.”
a) "You dispense with it so easily" is an interesting, and telling, phrase. We've been told all along that bastardy doesn't matter among the Cheysuli. But Ian doesn't live among the Cheysuli. He lives in the palace, with his legitimate brother. With his father's legitimate wife. And while there's no indication of any cruelty on Aislinn's part, of course, there isn't a lot of warmth either. Niall notices it, and Niall tends to come across as a little bit (understandably) self-absorbed.
This is a first person narrative. We're never going to see in Ian's head like we do in Niall's. But I think there is at least some implication that illegitimacy is for Ian what the lack of lir is for Niall. We've seen that even a stranger, an Ihlini enemy, can hurt him with it. What has he heard from others?
b) The qu'mahlin only ended about thirty-six years ago. Legacy of the Sword did shit to show us Donal actually adjusting to kingship under this. We did see however that anti-Cheysuli hatred wasn't dead then. It probably isn't now.
c) The hero-worship of Carillon is an interesting factor. The fact that Niall LOOKS Homanan may be an advantage. Some racists will hate him regardless, for being the son of a Cheysuli. But he looks like Carillon enough that after a time, people may forget what else he is. Unless he chooses to remind him. History could unfold in a way that Homanans remember only one Cheysuli monarch before the proper Homanan line re-asserts itself.
d) But Niall's in a tricky position. Because he might look Homanan, he isn't. And the more he exerts his Cheysuli heritage, the less people will be distracted by his face. He's too Cheysuli for some, and to Homanan for others.
Speaking of, Ian uses this to transition to a new related topic:
“Do not mistake me, I do not accuse all Homanans of wishing to see Cheysuli dead,” he said pointedly. “More and more are reconciled to the reinstatement of our people, even to the succession. But there are some who would prefer it otherwise.”
“Oh. Those.” I grimaced. “The zealots.”
“A’saii,” my brother murmured into his cup. “Like Ceinn.”
A'saii is a Cheysuli word translated to zealot. But supremist might be a closer translation. And now Ian brings us to the real issue that he has with his sister's fiance. Niall had asked before, and Ian had dismissed it. Now, with a bit more pushing, Ian tells the truth.
And the gist is this: Ceinn is a Cheysuli supremist. He thinks Cheysuli should only sleep with Cheysuli to keep the blood pure.
Ceinn doesn't think Niall should be in the line of succession. He thinks Ian should be.
Of course, as Niall points out, Ian's blood isn't pure either. Ian's explanation is a little confusing:
“We have a jehan who claims the Old Blood from Alix, our granddame. That ensures my right. But on your jehana’s side there is Solindish blood in you; Electra was your granddame, never mine.” Ian’s face was a mask. “There. I have carved it out for you. Can you set the stone into place?”
I'm not sure why SOLINDISH blood particularly pushes Niall out of the running. There's no indication of anti-Solindish ideas among the Cheysuli. The mention of Electra makes a little more sense though. She was an Ihlini's mistress after all. Maybe there's a taint by association.
It doesn't really change the fact that Ian's not purely Cheysuli either, of course. His father was 3/4 Cheysuli, his mother 1/2. That would make him about 5/8, if my math is correct. But that's more than Niall's 3/8. And Ian LOOKS like his chosen one father.
Gosh, who could have predicted that Donal choosing to have a whole other fucking family before his arranged marriage could have caused fucking problems.
Niall isn't going to pass up the chance to angst about this, of course, as he realizes this is yet another example of not measuring up.
My clan will not accept me. My race reviles me.
“Niall.” Ian’s hands were on my arms. “Sit down—sit down!” He guided me to one of the chairs and pushed me into it. “Shansu, rujho, shansu. Such anger can harm the soul.”
As well as gripe the belly. Hunched over, I leaned against one of the padded arms. “How many, Ian? How many of the a’saii?”
“Too few, I promise you. And the canker is very small.”
“Cankers grow. Cankers can overtake the healthiest of men.”
“And cankers can be cut out.” He knelt down in front of me. “Do you think I would ever allow Ceinn or any other warrior to harm my rujholli? What manner of liege man am I? What sort of brother am I to you?”
Niall asks if Ian would want the Lion. Ian just points out, again, that the Homanans would have his head, and he doesn't feel like a martyr. Niall is grateful. And he's got something else to ask:
“I need you, Ian. Liege man, rujholli, companion… I need you with me, Ian. Here or in Atvia.”
“Atvia,” he said. “I thought it might come to that.”
“Even now the Homanan Council hammers out trade agreements with Varien as part of the marriage settlement. In a week the ship sails. And I must go with Varien and Lillith to claim my Atvian bride.” I forced a smile. “I have no intention of going there alone with that Ihlini witch.”
He sighed. “I suppose I have no choice.”
The smile came more easily. “You never have. Your tahlmorra lies with me.”
That does sound maybe a little ominous doesn't it?
So we time skip a bit. There's a week until they sail. Niall is a bit excited actually, since he's never been out of Homana. It would have been easy enough for Alaric to send her, but Niall agreed to fetch her himself as a mark of honor.
He's preoccupied by a few things. The A'saii, for one. And Lillith. Varien is apparently friendly, but easy to brush off due to differences in rank. But Lillith is sneakier, sexier, and Niall is a nineteen year old man.
Somehow this leads to Niall agreeing to show her the city. Lillith argues that it's appropriate, as they are wed...sort of.
“We are not wed,” I pointed out. “The union was never consummated.”
Lillith smiled. “We could take pains to see that it was.”
“No.” I said it coldly, banishing any attempt at politeness or diplomacy.
Lillith’s husky laugh rang out. “If you are frightened of me, my lord, why not have your warrior brother accompany us? His magic will prevent me from using mine.”
Niall notes that another man might have refused the chance to gain an ally. (See: Carillon. Donal.) He's not. He just had a confrontation with Strahan after all. He brings Ian.
And we do see a change. After thirty-some odd years, the Homanans have actually gotten used to seeing lirs. No one reacts badly to seeing a mountain cat roam the streets.
And it's crowded, because it's Market Day. Lillith appears surprised by the crowds. Atvia's a much smaller country and its cities are smaller as well. There's an odd little moment:
Ian was brought up short by a man on horseback, always questionable transportation in the Square. Lillith, still looking at me, bumped into him. Ian turned, intending to steady her; he stopped himself. For a moment they merely looked at one another, as if offering mutual challenges.
Then Lillith laughed. Ian looked away.
Then they're distracted by a furrier. They look at the pelt and there's a nice ominous bit here:
My hand had automatically gone down to brace myself against stumbling. It was buried in sleek softness; one look told me the hide had once clothed a living cat.
I recoiled. The color was Tasha’s, lush red tipped with chestnut brown. Though there is no tenet in the clans against trapping or slaying animals who are not lir, the likeness to Tasha sent a shiver of distaste and superstition down my spine.
The furrier immediately notes that Niall and Ian could afford his wares so he sets sight on Lillith. He offers her a black mountain cat pelt, but she wants a white pelt instead. The furrier is hesitant, as it's not ready. She's intrigued. It's a wolf pelt. A true white wolf, suspected to be a harbinger of plague.
There's no plague in Homana, but above the Bluetooth, the white wolf is now a pricy quarry. In the end, they buy nothing. (Ian actually gets pretty sanctimonious about the whole fur trade. He's not on board with the fact that they kill so many animals for a commodity to sell. And I kind of dig that. It's the kind of smaller cultural note that Roberson hasn't bothered to give us very often. But it makes sense.)
They head back to the palace, and the chapter ends with Niall wondering uneasily if Lillith had seen whatever it was that she'd come to see.
So now he gets to marry his cousin!
Actually, we don't see the proxy marriage ceremony. The chapter starts afterward, with Ian quoting the wedding vows.
“‘Will you, the Prince of Homana, promise to provide all things necessary to the station and well-being of the Princess of Atvia,’” my brother quoted. “‘Will you, Niall, clan-born of the Cheysuli, promise to provide succor and honor, respect and regard, to Gisella of Atvia?’ And so on, and so on.” He laughed. “You notice he left out the word love. For a Homanan priest, he has surpassing sense.”
Niall tells Ian, and us, that it had been hard to go through with it. He's marrying Gisella, of course, but he had to look at Lillith while saying the words. And now, per Ian, he's stuck:
“And now you are bound to her forever,” Ian mused. “Homanan law is an unforgiving thing, allowing no man—or woman—the chance to end a marriage that does neither any good.” He shook his head. “Foolishness. Look at Carillon. Surely he more than any man should have had the right to end his marriage. Had he been able to set Electra aside permanently and wed another woman, he might have sired a son. And you would not be Prince of Homana, in line for the Lion Throne.”
I mean, it is a pretty stupid restriction. Even in Henry VIII's time, divorce or annulments weren't completely unheard of. They were RARE, sure, and he couldn't get one. But I feel like ATTEMPTED REGICIDE would have been a reasonable exception!
Niall just thinks about how if he weren't Prince of Homana, he wouldn't be now married to his cousin. Who he still hasn't met yet.
So the ceremony has been done for an hour. The boys are hanging out because a servant had brought out celebratory wine. No one else wanted to share wine with Varien or Lillith so they left. The boys are alone.
That seems like a bit of a dick move, Donal and Aislinn. Even if you can't abide the Atvians, you should at least stick around for your kid. At least Ian's a good bro.
Niall thinks about his brother, and how much Ian looks like Donal. (He's never met Sorcha, as she died before he was born, so he doesn't have anyone else to compare him with.) It inspires Niall to ask an interesting question:
“Have you ever wondered what life would be like for you if you were heir to the Lion?”
Like me, he held a cup of wine. Unlike me, he did not drink. He stared at me fixedly over the rim. “Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “No reason, save curiosity. We are so different; I merely wondered how you would feel if you were in my place.”
“Deceased,” he said succinctly.
Ian is a bastard. And Cheysuli. ("More blatantly Cheysuli", he corrects himself, which makes me happy.) The way they discuss the hypothetical is fascinating to me:
I waved a hand. “Let us dispense with the first and say you are not a bastard. How would you feel then?”
He smiled a little. “You dispense with it so easily… well enough—I am legitimate. I am the Prince of Homana. I would still be dead, because the Homanans would see to it I was slain.”
“Assassinated?”
He shrugged. “If it was not an accident.”
I felt a cold finger brush my spine. “Because you are Cheysuli.”
“Aye.”
“Our father is Cheysuli.”
“Carillon chose our jehan. From him they would accept any man.” He did not look away from me. “Niall, you are in no danger. You are Aislinn’s son. You bear the blood of the man.”
a) "You dispense with it so easily" is an interesting, and telling, phrase. We've been told all along that bastardy doesn't matter among the Cheysuli. But Ian doesn't live among the Cheysuli. He lives in the palace, with his legitimate brother. With his father's legitimate wife. And while there's no indication of any cruelty on Aislinn's part, of course, there isn't a lot of warmth either. Niall notices it, and Niall tends to come across as a little bit (understandably) self-absorbed.
This is a first person narrative. We're never going to see in Ian's head like we do in Niall's. But I think there is at least some implication that illegitimacy is for Ian what the lack of lir is for Niall. We've seen that even a stranger, an Ihlini enemy, can hurt him with it. What has he heard from others?
b) The qu'mahlin only ended about thirty-six years ago. Legacy of the Sword did shit to show us Donal actually adjusting to kingship under this. We did see however that anti-Cheysuli hatred wasn't dead then. It probably isn't now.
c) The hero-worship of Carillon is an interesting factor. The fact that Niall LOOKS Homanan may be an advantage. Some racists will hate him regardless, for being the son of a Cheysuli. But he looks like Carillon enough that after a time, people may forget what else he is. Unless he chooses to remind him. History could unfold in a way that Homanans remember only one Cheysuli monarch before the proper Homanan line re-asserts itself.
d) But Niall's in a tricky position. Because he might look Homanan, he isn't. And the more he exerts his Cheysuli heritage, the less people will be distracted by his face. He's too Cheysuli for some, and to Homanan for others.
Speaking of, Ian uses this to transition to a new related topic:
“Do not mistake me, I do not accuse all Homanans of wishing to see Cheysuli dead,” he said pointedly. “More and more are reconciled to the reinstatement of our people, even to the succession. But there are some who would prefer it otherwise.”
“Oh. Those.” I grimaced. “The zealots.”
“A’saii,” my brother murmured into his cup. “Like Ceinn.”
A'saii is a Cheysuli word translated to zealot. But supremist might be a closer translation. And now Ian brings us to the real issue that he has with his sister's fiance. Niall had asked before, and Ian had dismissed it. Now, with a bit more pushing, Ian tells the truth.
And the gist is this: Ceinn is a Cheysuli supremist. He thinks Cheysuli should only sleep with Cheysuli to keep the blood pure.
Ceinn doesn't think Niall should be in the line of succession. He thinks Ian should be.
Of course, as Niall points out, Ian's blood isn't pure either. Ian's explanation is a little confusing:
“We have a jehan who claims the Old Blood from Alix, our granddame. That ensures my right. But on your jehana’s side there is Solindish blood in you; Electra was your granddame, never mine.” Ian’s face was a mask. “There. I have carved it out for you. Can you set the stone into place?”
I'm not sure why SOLINDISH blood particularly pushes Niall out of the running. There's no indication of anti-Solindish ideas among the Cheysuli. The mention of Electra makes a little more sense though. She was an Ihlini's mistress after all. Maybe there's a taint by association.
It doesn't really change the fact that Ian's not purely Cheysuli either, of course. His father was 3/4 Cheysuli, his mother 1/2. That would make him about 5/8, if my math is correct. But that's more than Niall's 3/8. And Ian LOOKS like his chosen one father.
Gosh, who could have predicted that Donal choosing to have a whole other fucking family before his arranged marriage could have caused fucking problems.
Niall isn't going to pass up the chance to angst about this, of course, as he realizes this is yet another example of not measuring up.
My clan will not accept me. My race reviles me.
“Niall.” Ian’s hands were on my arms. “Sit down—sit down!” He guided me to one of the chairs and pushed me into it. “Shansu, rujho, shansu. Such anger can harm the soul.”
As well as gripe the belly. Hunched over, I leaned against one of the padded arms. “How many, Ian? How many of the a’saii?”
“Too few, I promise you. And the canker is very small.”
“Cankers grow. Cankers can overtake the healthiest of men.”
“And cankers can be cut out.” He knelt down in front of me. “Do you think I would ever allow Ceinn or any other warrior to harm my rujholli? What manner of liege man am I? What sort of brother am I to you?”
Niall asks if Ian would want the Lion. Ian just points out, again, that the Homanans would have his head, and he doesn't feel like a martyr. Niall is grateful. And he's got something else to ask:
“I need you, Ian. Liege man, rujholli, companion… I need you with me, Ian. Here or in Atvia.”
“Atvia,” he said. “I thought it might come to that.”
“Even now the Homanan Council hammers out trade agreements with Varien as part of the marriage settlement. In a week the ship sails. And I must go with Varien and Lillith to claim my Atvian bride.” I forced a smile. “I have no intention of going there alone with that Ihlini witch.”
He sighed. “I suppose I have no choice.”
The smile came more easily. “You never have. Your tahlmorra lies with me.”
That does sound maybe a little ominous doesn't it?
So we time skip a bit. There's a week until they sail. Niall is a bit excited actually, since he's never been out of Homana. It would have been easy enough for Alaric to send her, but Niall agreed to fetch her himself as a mark of honor.
He's preoccupied by a few things. The A'saii, for one. And Lillith. Varien is apparently friendly, but easy to brush off due to differences in rank. But Lillith is sneakier, sexier, and Niall is a nineteen year old man.
Somehow this leads to Niall agreeing to show her the city. Lillith argues that it's appropriate, as they are wed...sort of.
“We are not wed,” I pointed out. “The union was never consummated.”
Lillith smiled. “We could take pains to see that it was.”
“No.” I said it coldly, banishing any attempt at politeness or diplomacy.
Lillith’s husky laugh rang out. “If you are frightened of me, my lord, why not have your warrior brother accompany us? His magic will prevent me from using mine.”
Niall notes that another man might have refused the chance to gain an ally. (See: Carillon. Donal.) He's not. He just had a confrontation with Strahan after all. He brings Ian.
And we do see a change. After thirty-some odd years, the Homanans have actually gotten used to seeing lirs. No one reacts badly to seeing a mountain cat roam the streets.
And it's crowded, because it's Market Day. Lillith appears surprised by the crowds. Atvia's a much smaller country and its cities are smaller as well. There's an odd little moment:
Ian was brought up short by a man on horseback, always questionable transportation in the Square. Lillith, still looking at me, bumped into him. Ian turned, intending to steady her; he stopped himself. For a moment they merely looked at one another, as if offering mutual challenges.
Then Lillith laughed. Ian looked away.
Then they're distracted by a furrier. They look at the pelt and there's a nice ominous bit here:
My hand had automatically gone down to brace myself against stumbling. It was buried in sleek softness; one look told me the hide had once clothed a living cat.
I recoiled. The color was Tasha’s, lush red tipped with chestnut brown. Though there is no tenet in the clans against trapping or slaying animals who are not lir, the likeness to Tasha sent a shiver of distaste and superstition down my spine.
The furrier immediately notes that Niall and Ian could afford his wares so he sets sight on Lillith. He offers her a black mountain cat pelt, but she wants a white pelt instead. The furrier is hesitant, as it's not ready. She's intrigued. It's a wolf pelt. A true white wolf, suspected to be a harbinger of plague.
There's no plague in Homana, but above the Bluetooth, the white wolf is now a pricy quarry. In the end, they buy nothing. (Ian actually gets pretty sanctimonious about the whole fur trade. He's not on board with the fact that they kill so many animals for a commodity to sell. And I kind of dig that. It's the kind of smaller cultural note that Roberson hasn't bothered to give us very often. But it makes sense.)
They head back to the palace, and the chapter ends with Niall wondering uneasily if Lillith had seen whatever it was that she'd come to see.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-03 12:50 pm (UTC)I mean, it is a pretty stupid restriction. Even in Henry VIII's time, divorce or annulments weren't completely unheard of. They were RARE, sure, and he couldn't get one. But I feel like ATTEMPTED REGICIDE would have been a reasonable exception!
Agree. In fact, Henry became a Protestant to enable divorce and had more than one. For relatively filmsy reasons. But Carillon was an idiot who forgot he could change the rules as a monarch.
I love the chemistry between the brothers, and how they touch racism. Even in Shapechangers, if we ignore the stereotyping, Roberson tried to stand against racism.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-03 06:54 pm (UTC)But when I forget Shapechangers, I do appreciate what she does in the latter half of the series. It's a pronounced improvement. (Sadly we're going to get a lot of weird cousin-fucking eugenics from this point on though.)
Ian and Niall are great though. It's frustrating in a way. She could have written Donal and Bronwyn like this if she wanted! But NOPE.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-03 10:38 pm (UTC)