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i_read_whatLast Chapter, Donal's fever-induced flashbacks blew his secrets out of the water, while Aislinn proved herself to be the most compelling female lead so far.
So Chapter Eight brings us to Homana-Mujhar itself. Sef, being a street kid from Hondarth, is pretty amazed. Donal describes the scene for us, and admittedly, it does seem pretty impressive:
Massive rose-colored walls jutted up from the earth, thick as the span of a man’s outstretched arms. The outer wall was thicker yet, hedged with ramparts and towers. The clean, unadorned lines of the walls and baileys lent Homana-Mujhar an austere sort of elegance. But Donal thought the legends told about the palace formed at least half of its fabled reputation.
Donal takes pride in the fact that Cheysuli built the palace and corrects Sef, this is where the Mujhar lives, and the princess. But his home is the Keep.
...you're going to BE the Mujhar, dude. And you're not going to be able to rule Homana from the Keep. I have a lot more sympathy for Donal's princely angst than I have for Jaxom, seeing as how Donal was raised in a completely different culture and is going to have to sacrifice a lot to take the throne of a people who aren't his. I can't help but point out though that Donal's known this to be his fate since age eight, and he doesn't seem to have done anything to acclimatize himself to this.
It's going to be a hard adjustment, of course, but it would help if he TRIED to adjust rather than setting up an entirely different life and family back at the Keep.
Anyway, we're told that Donal would have preferred to go in a side door and avoid a royal reception, he goes in the front for Aislinn. I'm pretty harsh to Donal, so credit where it's due, I appreciate him sacrificing some of his own comfort for her.
They're met by Carillon at the top of the steps, and Aislinn is horrified at her father's condition. Donal doesn't see what she means at first, but then realized that Carillon's condition has deteriorated a lot. He just hadn't really noticed because the changes had come gradually. Aislinn hadn't seen her dad in two years though, so they're really obvious to her.
And indeed:
In truth, the Mujhar was but forty years of age, yet outwardly—because of sorcery leveled against him fifteen years before—he bore the look of a sixty-year-old man. His once-tawny hair had dulled to a steely-gray. His face, though partially hidden by a thick silvering beard, was care-worn, weathered to the consistency of aged leather. The blue eyes, deep-set, were crowded around by clustered creases. And though a very tall and exceptionally strong man—once—age had begun to sap the vitality from his body. The warrior’s posture had softened. Pain had leeched him of any pretense of youth.
That, and Tynstar’s retribution. Donal felt a flutter of foreboding. If he grows so old this quickly, what does it mean for me?
He saw how stiffly the shoulders were set, how they hunched forward just a little, as if they pained Carillon constantly. Perhaps they did. Perhaps his shoulders had caught up at last to his knees and hands as the disease ate up his joints.
Gods, but I hope I never know the pain he knows, Donal thought fervently. He ignored the twinge of guilt that told him he was selfish to think of himself when Carillon stood before him. Spare me what Carillon knows. I think I lack the courage it takes to face what he has lost.
I have to admit, this bit hits a lot harder now than when I was a kid. When you're a kid, forty seems old. I'm thirty-eight now, and it's definitely not.
But I'm a little annoyed at Donal here. On one hand, I appreciate that he realizes he's being self-centered, but he doesn't seem inclined to STOP thinking only of himself.
Bandaid off, dude. You're going to be king pretty fucking soon.
“Aislinn!” Carillon called. “By the gods, girl, it has been too long!” He put out his twisted hands, and Aislinn—forgetting her royal status and the need for proprieties—jumped down from the saddle before the stable lads could catch the reins.
Donal bent over and caught Aislinn’s mare before she could follow the girl up the marble steps. He reined her back, then handed the leather over to the first boy who arrived to take the horse.
Aislinn gathered her skirts and ran up the black-veined steps, laughing as she climbed. Carillon caught her at the top of them, lifting her into the air in a joyous, loving hug. Donal, watching, saw yet again how close was the bond they shared.
He sent her to her evil sorceress mom for two years and apparently never checked on her!
I'm just saying, Roberson, if you want me to buy this incredibly close bond, you're going to need to actually show it to us.
Donal thinks about how Aislinn seems very innocent and young right now, but he can't afford to trust her until Finn tests her. Fair enough.
Carillon invites them inside, and Sef is amazed. Carillon asks about the delay. Donal tries to downplay it but Aislinn declares that he was ill and someone poisoned him
Carillon barely acknowledges that, though whether that's apathy or just keeping a stoic face, it's hard to say. He complains about the cold, but Donal thinks the temperature is fine.
Oh, hey, check this bullshit out:
“I will have you fed first,” Carillon said, “and then you, Aislinn, must rest. I doubt not you are weary.”
“I have not seen you in two years,” she protested, “yet you send me to bed like an errant child.”
“You are an errant child. Have you not kept yourself from me for longer than I wished?”
Really, dude.
a) Aislinn wants to talk to you about her future. Obviously you're not going to give her what she wants, but you could at least do her the courtesy of letting her say what she needs.
b) What the fuck is this victim blaming, dude???
---1. Aislinn was and is a child. How the fuck did she "keep herself from you" when she's reliant on the people you send to get her.
---2. Electra plays mind games, you KNOW this. How could you be sure any request to stay is actually HERS and not her mother's.
---3. Even IF Aislinn genuinely wanted to stay longer, she's a CHILD. Children sometimes want to do things that will harm them. That's when the parent's job is to say "No."
Stop blaming your daughter for your crappy parenting.
So anyway, Aislinn ad Carillon share an emotional moment. Donal introduces Sef, and asks for him to be trained as a page, or perhaps a guard when he's old enough. Donal thinks there's "good blood" in Sef, "albeit unknown".
“Do you wish it?” Carillon asked. “I will harbor no boys who do not willingly accept the service.”
“M-my lord!” Sef dropped awkwardly to his knees. “My lord—how could a boy wish not to serve his king?”
The Mujhar laughed. “Well, you will be serving your prince, not your king—I think you will do better with Donal. But I suggest, first, you put flesh on your bones and better clothing on that flesh. You are too small.”
Donal marked how Carillon asked nothing about the boy’s background, or how he came to be riding with the Prince of Homana. He did not embarrass the boy, nor did he embarrass Donal with unnecessary questions. He simply accepted Sef.
I'd like to think Carillon's sudden interest in consent is him learning his lesson from forcing Electra into marriage. I'd hate to think that he understands why servants should be willing but not wives.
I think Donal might be giving Carillon a little too much credit here. I'm not sure Carillon actually cares about the kid at all. But Sef, who had been hiding his mismatched eyes the whole time, has pushed his hair out of his face. Donal thinks Carillon has inspired Sef to accept himself, and is impressed.
Sef asks if Carillon nearly defeated "the Ihlini demon", and Carillon corrects him, Tynstar nearly defeated Carillon instead. I'd argue that he DID defeat you, but semantics.
Sef seems to know actually quite a bit:
“But—” Quickly, Sef glanced at Donal. He was asking permission to speak, and Donal gave it with a nod. “My lord Mujhar—I thought no one escaped an Ihlini. At least—not Tynstar.”
Carillon tousled Sef’s wind-ruffled hair. “Even Tynstar is not infallible. More powerful than any I have known, it is true, because of the power he has borrowed from Asar-Suti, but he is still a man. And when faced with a Cheysuli—” He smiled grimly. “Let us say: Tynstar is a formidable foe, but not an impossible one.”
“But—” Again Sef hesitated, and again Donal gave him permission to speak. “I heard, once, that Tynstar had slain a Cheysuli clan-leader.”
Ouch.
Carillon gently explains that Tynstar killed Duncan's lir, and Duncan sought the death-ritual. Sef realizes that this means that if Taj and Lorn were slain, he'd have to die too. Aislinn protests that he wouldn't if he were the King:
She meant it as a declaration. It sounded more like a question. Donal realized, in that moment, she had assumed once they were wed, the customs of the Cheysuli would not be so binding upon him. And he realized she believed he would turn his back on many of them once he was Mujhar.
“Aye,” he told her. “Warrior or Mujhar, I am constrained by the traditions of my people. And I intend to honor them.”
“You are Homanan as well as Cheysuli—”
“I am Cheysuli first.”
He saw shock, realization, and rebellion in her face. And a mute denial of his statement.
Poor Aislinn. And I admit, this is a conflict I appreciate far more than Donal having a secret family that he should have known better to start. Because Donal doesn't really have a choice about this. It's more than custom.
Carillon is a dick:
Carillon’s hands came down on her shoulders. “You are weary,” he said in an even tone. “Go to bed, Aislinn.”
“No,” she said, “first there is a thing we must discuss—”
“Go to bed,” he repeated. “There will be time for all these discussions.”
She flicked a commanding glance at Donal, as if she meant him to bring up the possibility of breaking the betrothal; he did not. He had no intention of it. Done with waiting, she picked up her skirts and ran.
Oh yes, I can absolutely see how much of a doting father Carillon is.
I know I'm probably a little too biased toward Aislinn right now, but I find it impossible not to sympathize with her. Look at what's happening!
She's just spent two years with a mother that's been fucking with her mind.
She almost killed her fiance because of it.
She's going to marry a man that she appears to love, or at least have something of a crush on, but who openly admits that he doesn't want her and has another family, but is ALSO not willing to say no to the marriage for her.
She's going to marry a man whose customs are alien to her, who she's just learned may have to commit ritual suicide at some point for reasons that no one seems to bother to explain to her. And while this is not something I'd expect Donal to be able to put aside, of course, it doesn't seem like he's particularly willing to compromise on other matters either.
And her dad is a dismissive dick who sends her to bed two minutes after they reunite.
Sef is sent off to the kitchens with a servant, and Donal and Carillon talk. Carillon apologizes for Sef bringing up Duncan. Donal puts on a brave face, saying that while Tynstar defeated Duncan, it wasn't before he accomplished what he needed to.
Carillon notes: siring Donal. Because in the end, that's the only worth Alix and Duncan had. Forget her cool powers, or the way she left Homanan society behind to pursue her heritage, and saved a prince and so on. Her only relevance to the series from now on is to be Donal's mother and the source of various girls's shapeshifting ability.
This isn't Carillon's fault, I'm just bitter.
Carillon uses a phrase that we'll hear a lot as the series continues "the next link in the prophecy". Donal wonders if Carillon resents him for eventually supplanting him. I doubt it? Princes generally understand that they'll have successors eventually. Carillon might have preferred an heir of his body, but that's not in the cards.
Carillon asks after Donal's health, and Donal lies a little. He's exhausted, but he doesn't want to say so in front of Carillon, when Carillon is so wrecked. Carillon takes him at his word and calls for Rowan. (The poor guy arrives with his hair damp and clothing awry. Carillon apparently summoned him out of a bath.) Carillon wants Rowan to fetch his sword.
Carillon wants to test Donal's skill with a sword. Donal rather stupidly protests that he's Cheysuli. Indeed, the Cheysuli don't use swords. But dude, AGAIN, you've known you'd be Mujhar since age eight and the royal relic is a fucking sword. You don't have any physical conditions that would impair you learning to use it. Stop bitching.
Anyway, Carillon wants to spar. In the mean time, Donal glances at Rowan:
Again, Donal glanced at Rowan. And again, he saw the blank expression. Carillon’s man to the core. For all he is Cheysuli, he seems more Homanan than Carillon himself!
Pointedly, Donal looked at Rowan’s left side. At the sword sheathed there. A Homanan sword, but wielded by a Cheysuli.
Yeah, dude. So you can learn to use a fucking sword.
It'd be one thing if learning to use the sword was the Cheysuli version of haram or something. But it's not forbidden. Donal just doesn't want to.
Actually, this moment continues:
Color came into Rowan’s dark face. Cheysuli-born, Homanan-bred; adversity had taught him to stay alive, during Shaine’s qu’mahlin, by ignoring the truth of his origins. And now, though free to embrace the customs of his race, he did not. Cheysuli on the outside, Homanan on the inside; Carillon’s right-hand man.
In place of my su’fali, a proper liege man.
But Donal did not blame Rowan. Not entirely. Finn’s dismissal from Carillon’s service had been initiated by someone else entirely, and aided—albeit unintentionally—by Carillon himself.
There was, suddenly, tension in Rowan’s face. And Donal was ashamed. It is not his fault. He was raised by the unblessed. Lacking a lir, he lacks also a heart and soul. But he does the best he can.
WOW. WOW.
Okay. Let's unpack this a little.
a) Donal's view of Rowan is not surprising, we've heard similar from Finn. But the fact that he shows it enough for Rowan to notice and react to it is pretty fucking awful. You're going to be KING, dude, learn some fucking self control.
b) I like the faux empathy. "It's not his fault" after going on about how Rowan's free to embrace his race's customs. When in fact he ISN'T. Donal says it himself, he believes Rowan lacks a heart and soul. This belief is standard among the Cheysuli. They won't ever accept him, and may even react badly if he TRIED to be more "Cheysuli".
c) Don't get me wrong, Finn/Carillon is my 'ship. But Finn was Carillon's liegeman for five years. Rowan's been serving him three times that long. So who gives you the right to imply that he's not a "proper" liege man, you little tool?!
Ahem. Sorry. I'm apparently very defensive of Rowan. I can't help it. He was like the only decent male character in Shapechangers, on account of being like twelve. Now he has to be about thirty-five and he's got to deal with this judgy little prick.
Anyway, Rowan offers the sword hilt to Donal and the chapter ends here.
So Chapter Eight brings us to Homana-Mujhar itself. Sef, being a street kid from Hondarth, is pretty amazed. Donal describes the scene for us, and admittedly, it does seem pretty impressive:
Massive rose-colored walls jutted up from the earth, thick as the span of a man’s outstretched arms. The outer wall was thicker yet, hedged with ramparts and towers. The clean, unadorned lines of the walls and baileys lent Homana-Mujhar an austere sort of elegance. But Donal thought the legends told about the palace formed at least half of its fabled reputation.
Donal takes pride in the fact that Cheysuli built the palace and corrects Sef, this is where the Mujhar lives, and the princess. But his home is the Keep.
...you're going to BE the Mujhar, dude. And you're not going to be able to rule Homana from the Keep. I have a lot more sympathy for Donal's princely angst than I have for Jaxom, seeing as how Donal was raised in a completely different culture and is going to have to sacrifice a lot to take the throne of a people who aren't his. I can't help but point out though that Donal's known this to be his fate since age eight, and he doesn't seem to have done anything to acclimatize himself to this.
It's going to be a hard adjustment, of course, but it would help if he TRIED to adjust rather than setting up an entirely different life and family back at the Keep.
Anyway, we're told that Donal would have preferred to go in a side door and avoid a royal reception, he goes in the front for Aislinn. I'm pretty harsh to Donal, so credit where it's due, I appreciate him sacrificing some of his own comfort for her.
They're met by Carillon at the top of the steps, and Aislinn is horrified at her father's condition. Donal doesn't see what she means at first, but then realized that Carillon's condition has deteriorated a lot. He just hadn't really noticed because the changes had come gradually. Aislinn hadn't seen her dad in two years though, so they're really obvious to her.
And indeed:
In truth, the Mujhar was but forty years of age, yet outwardly—because of sorcery leveled against him fifteen years before—he bore the look of a sixty-year-old man. His once-tawny hair had dulled to a steely-gray. His face, though partially hidden by a thick silvering beard, was care-worn, weathered to the consistency of aged leather. The blue eyes, deep-set, were crowded around by clustered creases. And though a very tall and exceptionally strong man—once—age had begun to sap the vitality from his body. The warrior’s posture had softened. Pain had leeched him of any pretense of youth.
That, and Tynstar’s retribution. Donal felt a flutter of foreboding. If he grows so old this quickly, what does it mean for me?
He saw how stiffly the shoulders were set, how they hunched forward just a little, as if they pained Carillon constantly. Perhaps they did. Perhaps his shoulders had caught up at last to his knees and hands as the disease ate up his joints.
Gods, but I hope I never know the pain he knows, Donal thought fervently. He ignored the twinge of guilt that told him he was selfish to think of himself when Carillon stood before him. Spare me what Carillon knows. I think I lack the courage it takes to face what he has lost.
I have to admit, this bit hits a lot harder now than when I was a kid. When you're a kid, forty seems old. I'm thirty-eight now, and it's definitely not.
But I'm a little annoyed at Donal here. On one hand, I appreciate that he realizes he's being self-centered, but he doesn't seem inclined to STOP thinking only of himself.
Bandaid off, dude. You're going to be king pretty fucking soon.
“Aislinn!” Carillon called. “By the gods, girl, it has been too long!” He put out his twisted hands, and Aislinn—forgetting her royal status and the need for proprieties—jumped down from the saddle before the stable lads could catch the reins.
Donal bent over and caught Aislinn’s mare before she could follow the girl up the marble steps. He reined her back, then handed the leather over to the first boy who arrived to take the horse.
Aislinn gathered her skirts and ran up the black-veined steps, laughing as she climbed. Carillon caught her at the top of them, lifting her into the air in a joyous, loving hug. Donal, watching, saw yet again how close was the bond they shared.
He sent her to her evil sorceress mom for two years and apparently never checked on her!
I'm just saying, Roberson, if you want me to buy this incredibly close bond, you're going to need to actually show it to us.
Donal thinks about how Aislinn seems very innocent and young right now, but he can't afford to trust her until Finn tests her. Fair enough.
Carillon invites them inside, and Sef is amazed. Carillon asks about the delay. Donal tries to downplay it but Aislinn declares that he was ill and someone poisoned him
Carillon barely acknowledges that, though whether that's apathy or just keeping a stoic face, it's hard to say. He complains about the cold, but Donal thinks the temperature is fine.
Oh, hey, check this bullshit out:
“I will have you fed first,” Carillon said, “and then you, Aislinn, must rest. I doubt not you are weary.”
“I have not seen you in two years,” she protested, “yet you send me to bed like an errant child.”
“You are an errant child. Have you not kept yourself from me for longer than I wished?”
Really, dude.
a) Aislinn wants to talk to you about her future. Obviously you're not going to give her what she wants, but you could at least do her the courtesy of letting her say what she needs.
b) What the fuck is this victim blaming, dude???
---1. Aislinn was and is a child. How the fuck did she "keep herself from you" when she's reliant on the people you send to get her.
---2. Electra plays mind games, you KNOW this. How could you be sure any request to stay is actually HERS and not her mother's.
---3. Even IF Aislinn genuinely wanted to stay longer, she's a CHILD. Children sometimes want to do things that will harm them. That's when the parent's job is to say "No."
Stop blaming your daughter for your crappy parenting.
So anyway, Aislinn ad Carillon share an emotional moment. Donal introduces Sef, and asks for him to be trained as a page, or perhaps a guard when he's old enough. Donal thinks there's "good blood" in Sef, "albeit unknown".
“Do you wish it?” Carillon asked. “I will harbor no boys who do not willingly accept the service.”
“M-my lord!” Sef dropped awkwardly to his knees. “My lord—how could a boy wish not to serve his king?”
The Mujhar laughed. “Well, you will be serving your prince, not your king—I think you will do better with Donal. But I suggest, first, you put flesh on your bones and better clothing on that flesh. You are too small.”
Donal marked how Carillon asked nothing about the boy’s background, or how he came to be riding with the Prince of Homana. He did not embarrass the boy, nor did he embarrass Donal with unnecessary questions. He simply accepted Sef.
I'd like to think Carillon's sudden interest in consent is him learning his lesson from forcing Electra into marriage. I'd hate to think that he understands why servants should be willing but not wives.
I think Donal might be giving Carillon a little too much credit here. I'm not sure Carillon actually cares about the kid at all. But Sef, who had been hiding his mismatched eyes the whole time, has pushed his hair out of his face. Donal thinks Carillon has inspired Sef to accept himself, and is impressed.
Sef asks if Carillon nearly defeated "the Ihlini demon", and Carillon corrects him, Tynstar nearly defeated Carillon instead. I'd argue that he DID defeat you, but semantics.
Sef seems to know actually quite a bit:
“But—” Quickly, Sef glanced at Donal. He was asking permission to speak, and Donal gave it with a nod. “My lord Mujhar—I thought no one escaped an Ihlini. At least—not Tynstar.”
Carillon tousled Sef’s wind-ruffled hair. “Even Tynstar is not infallible. More powerful than any I have known, it is true, because of the power he has borrowed from Asar-Suti, but he is still a man. And when faced with a Cheysuli—” He smiled grimly. “Let us say: Tynstar is a formidable foe, but not an impossible one.”
“But—” Again Sef hesitated, and again Donal gave him permission to speak. “I heard, once, that Tynstar had slain a Cheysuli clan-leader.”
Ouch.
Carillon gently explains that Tynstar killed Duncan's lir, and Duncan sought the death-ritual. Sef realizes that this means that if Taj and Lorn were slain, he'd have to die too. Aislinn protests that he wouldn't if he were the King:
She meant it as a declaration. It sounded more like a question. Donal realized, in that moment, she had assumed once they were wed, the customs of the Cheysuli would not be so binding upon him. And he realized she believed he would turn his back on many of them once he was Mujhar.
“Aye,” he told her. “Warrior or Mujhar, I am constrained by the traditions of my people. And I intend to honor them.”
“You are Homanan as well as Cheysuli—”
“I am Cheysuli first.”
He saw shock, realization, and rebellion in her face. And a mute denial of his statement.
Poor Aislinn. And I admit, this is a conflict I appreciate far more than Donal having a secret family that he should have known better to start. Because Donal doesn't really have a choice about this. It's more than custom.
Carillon is a dick:
Carillon’s hands came down on her shoulders. “You are weary,” he said in an even tone. “Go to bed, Aislinn.”
“No,” she said, “first there is a thing we must discuss—”
“Go to bed,” he repeated. “There will be time for all these discussions.”
She flicked a commanding glance at Donal, as if she meant him to bring up the possibility of breaking the betrothal; he did not. He had no intention of it. Done with waiting, she picked up her skirts and ran.
Oh yes, I can absolutely see how much of a doting father Carillon is.
I know I'm probably a little too biased toward Aislinn right now, but I find it impossible not to sympathize with her. Look at what's happening!
She's just spent two years with a mother that's been fucking with her mind.
She almost killed her fiance because of it.
She's going to marry a man that she appears to love, or at least have something of a crush on, but who openly admits that he doesn't want her and has another family, but is ALSO not willing to say no to the marriage for her.
She's going to marry a man whose customs are alien to her, who she's just learned may have to commit ritual suicide at some point for reasons that no one seems to bother to explain to her. And while this is not something I'd expect Donal to be able to put aside, of course, it doesn't seem like he's particularly willing to compromise on other matters either.
And her dad is a dismissive dick who sends her to bed two minutes after they reunite.
Sef is sent off to the kitchens with a servant, and Donal and Carillon talk. Carillon apologizes for Sef bringing up Duncan. Donal puts on a brave face, saying that while Tynstar defeated Duncan, it wasn't before he accomplished what he needed to.
Carillon notes: siring Donal. Because in the end, that's the only worth Alix and Duncan had. Forget her cool powers, or the way she left Homanan society behind to pursue her heritage, and saved a prince and so on. Her only relevance to the series from now on is to be Donal's mother and the source of various girls's shapeshifting ability.
This isn't Carillon's fault, I'm just bitter.
Carillon uses a phrase that we'll hear a lot as the series continues "the next link in the prophecy". Donal wonders if Carillon resents him for eventually supplanting him. I doubt it? Princes generally understand that they'll have successors eventually. Carillon might have preferred an heir of his body, but that's not in the cards.
Carillon asks after Donal's health, and Donal lies a little. He's exhausted, but he doesn't want to say so in front of Carillon, when Carillon is so wrecked. Carillon takes him at his word and calls for Rowan. (The poor guy arrives with his hair damp and clothing awry. Carillon apparently summoned him out of a bath.) Carillon wants Rowan to fetch his sword.
Carillon wants to test Donal's skill with a sword. Donal rather stupidly protests that he's Cheysuli. Indeed, the Cheysuli don't use swords. But dude, AGAIN, you've known you'd be Mujhar since age eight and the royal relic is a fucking sword. You don't have any physical conditions that would impair you learning to use it. Stop bitching.
Anyway, Carillon wants to spar. In the mean time, Donal glances at Rowan:
Again, Donal glanced at Rowan. And again, he saw the blank expression. Carillon’s man to the core. For all he is Cheysuli, he seems more Homanan than Carillon himself!
Pointedly, Donal looked at Rowan’s left side. At the sword sheathed there. A Homanan sword, but wielded by a Cheysuli.
Yeah, dude. So you can learn to use a fucking sword.
It'd be one thing if learning to use the sword was the Cheysuli version of haram or something. But it's not forbidden. Donal just doesn't want to.
Actually, this moment continues:
Color came into Rowan’s dark face. Cheysuli-born, Homanan-bred; adversity had taught him to stay alive, during Shaine’s qu’mahlin, by ignoring the truth of his origins. And now, though free to embrace the customs of his race, he did not. Cheysuli on the outside, Homanan on the inside; Carillon’s right-hand man.
In place of my su’fali, a proper liege man.
But Donal did not blame Rowan. Not entirely. Finn’s dismissal from Carillon’s service had been initiated by someone else entirely, and aided—albeit unintentionally—by Carillon himself.
There was, suddenly, tension in Rowan’s face. And Donal was ashamed. It is not his fault. He was raised by the unblessed. Lacking a lir, he lacks also a heart and soul. But he does the best he can.
WOW. WOW.
Okay. Let's unpack this a little.
a) Donal's view of Rowan is not surprising, we've heard similar from Finn. But the fact that he shows it enough for Rowan to notice and react to it is pretty fucking awful. You're going to be KING, dude, learn some fucking self control.
b) I like the faux empathy. "It's not his fault" after going on about how Rowan's free to embrace his race's customs. When in fact he ISN'T. Donal says it himself, he believes Rowan lacks a heart and soul. This belief is standard among the Cheysuli. They won't ever accept him, and may even react badly if he TRIED to be more "Cheysuli".
c) Don't get me wrong, Finn/Carillon is my 'ship. But Finn was Carillon's liegeman for five years. Rowan's been serving him three times that long. So who gives you the right to imply that he's not a "proper" liege man, you little tool?!
Ahem. Sorry. I'm apparently very defensive of Rowan. I can't help it. He was like the only decent male character in Shapechangers, on account of being like twelve. Now he has to be about thirty-five and he's got to deal with this judgy little prick.
Anyway, Rowan offers the sword hilt to Donal and the chapter ends here.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 08:50 am (UTC)Now you remind me of how that book portrayed Finn. Yikes!
a) Aislinn wants to talk to you about her future. Obviously you're not going to give her what she wants, but you could at least do her the courtesy of letting her say what she needs.
b) What the fuck is this victim blaming, dude???
---1. Aislinn was and is a child. How the fuck did she "keep herself from you" when she's reliant on the people you send to get her.
---2. Electra plays mind games, you KNOW this. How could you be sure any request to stay is actually HERS and not her mother's.
---3. Even IF Aislinn genuinely wanted to stay longer, she's a CHILD. Children sometimes want to do things that will harm them. That's when the parent's job is to say "No."
Is Carillon supposed to be a dummy? He does have low EQ...
no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 03:37 am (UTC)