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read along with the rest of us? You can find links to everyone else’s thoughts
at Dab of Darkness.
This week we read through to the end
of Chapter 15.
1) Ellion
has quite a mystery on his hands with yet the third assassination attempt. The
assassin is the same dude, and once 'dead', he proceeds to disappear once
again. What do you make of this elusive, reappearing, dead guy assassin?
He is seriously creepy and has to be magical in
some way. I can only assume that he is a magically reanimated corpse of some
type, but I really cannot guess at more than that.
2)
Throughout this section, Ellion and Amien have several exchanges of words. Did
you have the urge to ask them politely, yet firmly, to step out back and settle
the matter for the duration of the trip?
Yes, I am getting a little tired of them dancing
around their problem, whatever it is. However, I doubt that they would sort it
out even if given a direct order to do so, mainly because Ellion is so
determined not to explain anything to Amien. I can understand Amien’s
frustration as he is very familiar with Ellion’s capabilities and does not understand
why his former pupil has renounced magic.
3) The
Tanaan suffered a great loss in the past, calling it The Deluge, believing it
to have been brought upon them by a wrathful goddess. Do you believe this
Deluge was due to a goddess striking a disobedient people? What could the
Tanaan have done to warrant such action?
As a scientist and atheist, I do not usually jump
to ‘Act of Deity’ as my explanation of choice in situations like this, where
geological activity could explain the damage. However, this world does seem to
have active gods, if we believe that Ellion has personal experience of a
goddess’ intervention.
I dread to think what they might have done to
offend their Goddess so much: perhaps she was having a really, really bad day .
. . It reminds me of the Old Testament tales of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the
Tanaan seem to think that their sin was to be warlike and power hungry, rather
than the sexual promiscuity and ‘deviance’ that we see in the Bible.
4) The
Tanaan are use to fighting in tourneys, one-on-one, and not in formations with
team goals. How do you think they will take to Ellion's attempts to school them
in real combat tactics?
I doubt that they will have much affect under
stressful conditions. I am no expert in military training, but I do know that
it takes more than a few brief explanations, with constant repetition used as a
way to condition the individuals to react automatically to instructions and to
complete tasks with minimal thought. I would have thought that learning how to
fight from horseback would add an extra layer of problems that they will need
to overcome.
Of course, Ellion is not always the best at staying
cool and controlled in a crisis, and that will not help.
5) Letitia
has been wearing her mother's diamond on her torc, which turns out was a gift
from Amien. He crafted it himself and says it is a tool. What kind of tool do
you think it is?
I believe that there is mention of it being a tool
for magic use, so I wonder if it acts as a focus point. This might explain why
she is staring at it while meditating, but could also be a wild guess based
upon our reading of The Elvenbane over the last couple of weeks.
6) What is
up with the Tuaoh Stone having a strong reaction to Ellion?
As if we need him to be more mysterious!
He remembers something about it roaring like a dragon for the rightful righ, so
I guess it has recognized the destiny that he had to set aside. I am not sure
if this means that he will get back on track to fulfilling that destiny, but it
certainly seems much more likely now. I am actually more concerned that it
ignored Letitia: although I predict that this simply means that she is not mora
because Carina is still alive and well somewhere.
I think Amien has no idea that Ellion has this self-imposed rule of No Magic and that has made things difficult. Where we left off, I think Amien is finally getting an inkling that Ellion has this rule in place, perhaps as a form of self punishment.
ReplyDeleteI too usually look for some natural calamity to explain things before jumping to the conclusion that some deity wanted to punish the mere mortals.
Very true about Ellion not exactly staying cool and in formation during the skirmishes.
I very much want to know what Letitia knows or suspects about her mother.
You are probably right about Amien not knowing, but that does make me wonder why Ellion doesn't just tell him that he has sworn off using magic.
DeleteGood call about Letitia's mother still being alive. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out if she is.
ReplyDeleteI like nrlymrtl's natural calamity explanation for The Deluge. It's hard to believe a god would be this vengeful and the description does fit with something natural but catastrophic happening.
I just feel that there have been enough hints that Carina isn't actually dead, though I have no idea where she is or what she's doing.
DeleteI thought Ellion should have dropped his self imposed rule over the last few chapters. After all people are now dying because of what he isn't doing as opposed to people dying because of what he did do!
ReplyDeleteI'm also interested in Letitia's mother and I think you made a good call that she may still be alive. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Letitia when the stone didn't react to her - that must have been very disappointing not to mention humiliating.
Lynn :D
I was beginning to agree with you about Ellion, but then we had the flashback to him killing his parents and now I can understand why he is so afraid of using his powers. However, as you say, he is almost allowing people to die because he won't even try to use magic to help them, so I am rather conflicted.
Delete