Mordant's Princesses

"Reflect" on Stephen Donaldson's other epic fantasy

Moderator: Cord Hurn

Which is your favorite princess?

Elega
0
No votes
Torrent
3
10%
Myste
26
90%
 
Total votes: 29

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Post by samrw3 »

Just FYI Cord I like to read along ...so far I have nothing to contribute ...but wanted to let you know that some of us (at least me) are reading your hard work.
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Thank you, samrw3! It's good to know that there are people enjoying this. These posts are extra work, but I like to fit them in, because SRD's writing is always entertaining to me, and people may feel more encouraged to comment if I provide the right quote. Thank you for your kind words, and please feel free to join in and comment when you feel the moment's right! :thumbsup:
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Now we get to the part in the story where Terisa has to face Elega's inquiry about where Myste has gone. It's already been a trying day for Terisa, when Castellan Lebbick tries to arrest her because he found her bloody (literally) shoes, she gets to see King Joyse who demands to know where Myste is and she lies to him, and she convinces Artagel to take her to Eremis' cell to tell him that King Joyse knows what he's doing, and Eremis makes her promise to spy on Geraden. She's pretty sick at heart about all this, and when Artagel drops her off near her rooms, she climbs the tower stairs to find out from the guards that Elega is waiting for her inside her living quarters.
In TMOHD chapter 17 was wrote:Elega stood before one of the windows, much as Myste had once stood. And, like Myste, she was beautiful. But her beauty seemed to be a reflection of the lamp--and firelight in the room, a contrast to the towering gray winter outside the glass. In its own way, her skin was as pale as her short blond hair; and both emphasized the striking violet flash of her eyes. Although she was clad and jeweled like a queen, her manner was too forthright, too assertive for ornaments. Nevertheless she had a queen's spirit, a queen's instincts.

She left the window at once. As the door closed, she moved a few steps toward Terisa; there she stopped. Her gaze reminded Terisa of another contrast between the King's daughters. Unlike Myste's, Elega's glances were so immediate and fiery that they threw what they saw into stark relief. Both, however, were able to convey an impression of excitement, a sense of possibilities. "My lady," she said in a low voice. "Terisa. I hope you will forgive this intrusion. I did not know when you would return--and I did not want to wait in the hall."

Terisa didn't feel equal to the situation. All she wanted to do was huddle near the fire to drive the cold out of her bones and drink wine until her stomach either calmed down or got rid of its distress. But she had to face Elega for Myste's sake. Responding almost automatically, she waved a hand toward the wine goblets and decanter, which Saddith had mercifully replenished. "Would you like to join me? I'm going to have some wine."

"Thank you." Elega obviously had no interest in wine. Nevertheless she accepted the goblet Terisa handed her as if she appreciated the gesture.

Terisa took a longer draught than good manners or wisdom suggested and refilled her goblet. Without thinking to offer Elega a seat, she sat down in the chair nearest the fire. The flames were oddly entrancing. She hadn't realized how cold she was. How long had she stood in Master Eremis' cell with her shirt open--?

"Terisa?" She heard Elega as clearly as a voice in a fever. "Are you well?"

With an effort, she pulled her attention away from the fire. "Too much is happening." Unlike Elega's her own voice sounded muffled. "I don't understand it all." In an effort to be polite, she added, "Why don't you sit down and tell me what's on your mind?"

For a moment, Elega hesitated. Her doubts were plain in her face. I must look awful, Terisa thought vaguely. Abruptly, however, the lady became resolute. First she accepted a chair. Then she asked softly, firmly, "Terisa, where is Myste?"

It was symptomatic of Terisa's condition that she leaped from this question to the conclusion that King Joyse had somehow seen through her lie. With an inward wince, she replied suspiciously, "Did your father send you to talk to me?"

Elega raised her eyebrows in surprise. "No. Why would he?" Gradually her tone took on a tinge of contempt. "I doubt he knows that she is gone. And if he does know--and if he thought to have me ask for him the questions a father should ask--I would refuse. I am his daughter, but he has broken that duty for me by breaking all other duties for himself.

"No," she repeated, pushing the subject of her father aside, "I ask because I am afraid. My sister is not the wisest or the most practical woman in Orison. Her dreams often do not contain enough plain sense for ballast. I fear she has done something very foolish.

"Terisa, where is she?"

Terisa turned back to the fire to avoid Elega's vivid gaze. So her lie to the King hadn't been caught. That was a relief. Unfortunately, Elega's question still had to be answered.

Staring into the flames as though they might hypnotize her and thereby make her strong, Terisa murmured, "What are you afraid she's done?"

"I hardly know." The lady's uncertainty sounded sincere. "I freely admit I do not understand her, Terisa. She prefers dreams to realities. I know that she is hurt--as I am--by what our father has done, and especially his humiliation of Prince Kragen. That the King of Mordant"--she forgot her concern for a moment in anger--"should actively seek war with Alend is abominable." Then she steadied herself. "But what Myste might do because of her pain, I cannot guess. Perhaps she has left Orison for some mad reason." Her tone tightened. "Perhaps she has gone after Prince Kragen, thinking to persuade him to ignore the extent of his insults."

Elega had come just close enough to the truth to frighten Terisa. Dimly, she asked, "What makes you think I know where she is?"

Again, Elega hesitated. When she spoke, her tone was carefully neutral, distinct but unaccusing. "First, because I doubt that anyone else in Orison would assist her in anything greatly foolish. She is the King's daughter. Orison's people value her too highly to help her into trouble.

"But primarily," she went on, "because I have seen how she responds to your insistence that you are only an ordinary woman."

Terisa gazed vacantly into the fire and waited.

"It was an astonishment to me," admitted Elega frankly. "I consider that people are as ordinary or as exceptional as they choose to be. Oh, I am assured that no one can conceive a talent for Imagery or statecraft by effort of will"--she didn't sound entirely convinced--"and it is true past argument that anyone who has the misfortune to be born a woman must oppose the prejudices of all the world in order to prove herself. Yet I believe that in the end I am limited only by the limits of my determination, not by accidents of talent or preconceptions of sex.

"Myste," she sighed, "thinks otherwise. She does not want to open doors. She dreams that doors will be opened for her. And she sees you, Terisa, as proof that into any life--be it drab and dreary enough to numb the mind forever--a door of magic and mystery may open, offering the least drudge an opportunity for grandeur." Her tone suggested frustration rather than disdain. "In the meantime, it behooves us to be contented while we wait.

"I have no reason to believe that you know where she is. Yet I think you do, if anyone does. You are a flame which she is too mothlike to resist."

This view of Myste struck Terisa as so poignant--and so mistaken--that she didn't know how to reply to it. If anything, Elega's ideas seemed less realistic than Myste's, rather than more. And Terisa had questions of her own about the King's eldest daughter. But that wasn't the point, of course. What she thought didn't matter. In this situation, only her promise to Myste mattered.
Elega is quick to judgment, no doubt, and sometimes she judges rightly (as in guessing that Terisa helped Myste and that Myste is on some self-appointed errand to convince somebody of something) and sometime wrongly (not realizing that Myste is taking the opportunity to pen her own door to give herself purpose).

And she considers Myste to do only things that are impulsive, when we readers and Terisa well know that Myste really thought out why it was important to pursue the champion.
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Post by samrw3 »

When I read these books I had always thought of Elega as weary and frustrated. Elega realized what it meant to be a kings daughter and wanted Myste to be more like a stereotypical queens daughter. Thus one of the reasons Elega is so frustrated that the king is not seeming to be king-like and here sister chasing dreams instead of more dignified.
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Elega is frustrated because she wants to rule, and as a daughter she doesn't get to, or at least not as much as she wants, or thinks she deserves to.
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samrw3 wrote:When I read these books I had always thought of Elega as weary and frustrated. Elega realized what it meant to be a kings daughter and wanted Myste to be more like a stereotypical queens daughter. Thus one of the reasons Elega is so frustrated that the king is not seeming to be king-like and here sister chasing dreams instead of more dignified.
wayfriend wrote:Elega is frustrated because she wants to rule, and as a daughter she doesn't get to, or at least not as much as she wants, or thinks she deserves to.
Both these statements can be true, and I think they are. King Joyse's seeming incompetence makes Elega want to rule even more, and further convinces her that she is more deserving to rule than her father.
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As if she were reading her answer in the flames and coals, she murmured, "She came here yesterday because she wanted to get into the passage behind my wardrobe." She felt rather than saw Elega stiffen. "She used it to sneak out of Orison without being stopped." Behind the soft snap of the fire and the distant soughing of wind past the edges of the tower, the silence in the room was intense. "She went back to her mother."

For a moment, Elega remained still--so still that Terisa couldn't imagine what she was doing. Then, in a tone soft with surprise, as if she had just received a revelation, the lady breathed, "That cannot be true."

Anxiety twisted through Terisa. Half involuntarily, she turned to look at Elega.

The lady had risen to her feet. Her eyes flashed as though their violet depths were lit by lightning. Yet her demeanor remained quiet, almost perfectly self-possessed.

"I believe that Myste has left Orison. Thank you for telling me how it was done. But she has no intention of going to the Care of Fayle, to Romish--to Queen Madin, our mother."

Because she was lying, Terisa wanted to protest that she wasn't; she wanted to use all her distress and fear to feign as much anger as possible. But she was restrained by Elega's eagerness. It bore so little resemblance to the reaction she had expected.

With slow caution, she said, "She was disgusted by what the King did to Prince Kragen. She couldn't stand to watch him destroy himself and Mordant anymore, so she decided to go back to the rest of her family."

"Terisa--" The lady's arms made a gesture of appeal, which she controlled abruptly. "Do not continue. That is unimportant now. A lie is an exercise of power, and I rejoice to see it. You are not passive--you are no longer content to hide behind a mask of ordinariness. You have decided to take your part in Mordant's need. That is a great step--a step which I can only hope Myste has taken also--and I honor you for it."

Nonplussed to the point of chagrin, Terisa stared at her visitor. Simply because she had to say something, she muttered, "I'm not lying."

Elega shook her head decisively. "I will attempt to persuade you this charade is not necessary with me." But then she paused. Her eyes scanned the room as if searching for the best line of argument. In an abstract way, like a woman digressing momentarily while she prepared her thoughts, she asked, "Terisa, what do you consider Orison's greatest internal weakness?"

Taken completely by surprise, Terisa said without thinking, "The water supply."

The lady didn't appear to be paying attention. "In what way?"

"If you poisoned the reservoir, the whole castle would be helpless." Not permanently, of course. The small spring under the walls supplied some water. The open roof and the collecting pipes could bring in large quantities during any heavy snow or rainfall. But for a few days, at least--

Why were she and Elega having this conversation?
Elega is cunning. She sees that Terisa is guarded on the subject of Myste's destination, so she gets Terisa to talk about something she is not guarded about at the moment, the weakness inherent in Orison's defense. Elega may pretend inattention, but we soon know better. Still, I think Elega should have known about this vulnerability of the water supply without Terisa's help. But maybe no one ever gave Elega a complete tour before--at least, not the way Geraden did for Terisa.
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Post by samrw3 »

Or possibly Elega had just never though along those lines before. For example, I take my water supply for granted so I do not actively think about all the ways it is vulnerable to manipulations.

Especially with security I jump to more "obvious" threats - make sure to lock the doors - if I feel in unsafe part of town or recent thefts install security system - that type of thing. My guess is Elega was thinking wow - how can I get past these "obvious" threats - security guards, walls, etc and had not spent much time, if any, on other vulnerabilities.
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Sounds reasonable.

--A
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samrw3 wrote:Or possibly Elega had just never though along those lines before. For example, I take my water supply for granted so I do not actively think about all the ways it is vulnerable to manipulations.

Especially with security I jump to more "obvious" threats - make sure to lock the doors - if I feel in unsafe part of town or recent thefts install security system - that type of thing. My guess is Elega was thinking wow - how can I get past these "obvious" threats - security guards, walls, etc and had not spent much time, if any, on other vulnerabilities.

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In trying to push Terisa for information and to join her plans, Elega succeeds in pushing her away. In contrast, Myste was more straightforward with Terisa, and got better results.
Smiling, the lady Elega returned to her chair, seated herself, smoothed out her skirt. The electricity of her gaze made Terisa shiver. Without transition, she said in a relaxed, conversational tone, "You have been in Orison for some time now. I fear that you have seen few of us at our best. Nevertheless you have had time to form impressions, perhaps even to draw conclusions.

"What do you think of us? Is there hope for Orison and Mordant? What is your opinion of King Joyse?"

Baffled and vexed, Terisa was tempted to retort, No, I don't think there's any hope. Not as long as you insist on behaving like this. But she could feel danger around her. Whatever she said would have consequences. Carefully, she replied, "I think her knows what he's doing."

Elega's smile seemed to grow a degree brighter. "And the Congery? What do you think of the Imagers? They have put us in grave peril. Are they honest? Or perhaps I should ask, Are they honorable?"

Terisa shrugged. She wasn't about to begin discussing either Master Eremis' or Geraden's ideas with the King's strange daughter. "Some of them seem to be. Others don't." Then she added, "I don't think very many of them expected the champion to go wild like that."

This answer gave Elega less satisfaction, but she didn't dwell on it. "And the lords of the Cares? What are your opinions of them?"

In reaction, alarm flushed through Terisa. How did--? Trying to cover her fright, she jerked to her feet, went to the wine decanter, and refilled her goblet. How did Elega know she had met the lords of the Cares? Suddenly, the whole room felt threatening, as though the walls were transparent and the floor might yawn open. Elega knew because someone had told her. That was simple enough. Or because she had had a hand in the attack on Terisa. That wasn't so simple. But still somebody must have told her about the meeting. Who would have any reason in the world to do that?

Unexpectedly, Terisa found that she had reached her limit. She was already in distress-- and Elega was making no sense at all. Apparently, she was trying to probe Terisa, test her somehow. But for what?

She drained her goblet, faced the King's daughter squarely, and said, "Prince Kragen and I were talking about you. You've made a conquest. He's really quite impressed. What did he say about you?" she asked rhetorically. "He said if you were an Alend you would 'stand high among the powers of the Kingdom.'" Then she stopped to let Elega draw as many inferences as possible.

The lady rose to her feet to meet Terisa's stare. Her smile was like the lights in the dining room of Terisa's mirror-walled apartment; it was on a rheostat which made it brighter at every turn. "Terisa," she said softly, "you take my breath away. Is this what being ordinary means in your world? That place must be brave beyond conception. You have begun working to shape events with a vengeance.

"I understand you," she affirmed. "Do you understand me?"

Terisa didn't answer. She was afraid to open her mouth.

"Terisa," Elega urged in a whisper, "I have said that this charade is not necessary with me. You can no longer pretend passivity--and you need not pretend ignorance."

Still Terisa didn't answer.

Slowly, Elega's brightness dimmed. She didn't give up, however. "Since you have mentioned Prince Kragen, perhaps you will tell me your impression of him."

With an effort, Terisa recovered her voice. "Did you know the Alend monarchy isn't hereditary? It has to be earned. That's what he's doing here. He's trying to earn the right to become the next Alend Monarch." She studied Elega closely, but the lady's expression betrayed nothing except its underlying intensity. "I think that's more important to him than peace."

This riposte was rewarded with a slight widening of Elega's eyes, a slow congealing of her smile. The way her pleasure curdled reminded Terisa that she had no real idea what was going on. Elega clearly understood what Terisa was saying better than Terisa did herself.

In a voice scarcely louder than a whisper, the lady asked, "Do you not believe that you can trust me? We are women, you and I--despised in a world of men. There is no one here who you can trust but me. No one else intends as much good to both Mordant and yourself. What may I do to convince you?"

That, at least, was a question Terisa could meet. Without hesitation, she said, "Tell me what's going on. Before you ask me to trust you, start trusting me."

Slowly, Elega nodded in acknowledgment. She was no longer looking at Terisa, and her smile was gone. "You are better at this than I suspected. I cannot trust you until you have first trusted me. I have more to lose."

Sadly, she turned to go.

In her confusion and frustration, Terisa wanted to demand, What is that, exactly? What have you got to lose that's more than everybody else in this mess? But she let it go. Instead, she said before Elega reached the door, "Just tell me one thing. What makes you think I'm lying about Myste?"

The lady paused with her hand on the latch. A different smile touched her mouth, a smile like the affectionate and faintly condescending one she had occasionally given her sister. "You do well, as I have said, Terisa. But you do not know Mordant well enough to exert power without risk. Plainly, you do not know that what you have said of Myste is impossible. Romish is too far. In this winter, it would be easier for a lone woman to rebuild our breached wall than to cross the Demesne and Armigite on foot." A suggestion of triumph. "I doubt that you intend me to believe my sister has decided to kill herself."

Still smiling, she left the room.
There is no one here who you can trust but me. This is a line of persuasion that I think is not uncommon among cult leaders or con artists, when used on people they think they can brainwash or dupe. It wouldn't sound out-of-character for Master Eremis to make such a statement as this.
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Cord Hurn wrote:In a voice scarcely louder than a whisper, the lady asked, "Do you not believe that you can trust me? We are women, you and I--despised in a world of men. There is no one here who you can trust but me. No one else intends as much good to both Mordant and yourself. What may I do to convince you?"

That, at least, was a question Terisa could meet. Without hesitation, she said, "Tell me what's going on. Before you ask me to trust you, start trusting me."


There is no one here who you can trust but me. This is a line of persuasion that I think is not uncommon among cult leaders or con artists, when used on people they think they can brainwash or dupe. It wouldn't sound out-of-character for Master Eremis to make such a statement as this.
My take is Elega was just desperate at this point. Telling Terisa to trust her just because she is a fellow woman seems like a desperation plea. Part of the reason is the irony that follows afterword. When Terisa asks Elega to trust her - Elega leaves. If she really believed her own bologna about trusting a fellow woman why did she promptly leave?
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I am going to throw this out because it seems relevant to the topic, but not in response to any particular things. And because IMO it's important in its own right.
In the Gradual Interview was wrote:I cannot help but notice that the Mordant's Need series is a bit more "spicey" than your other works that I have read. Poor Terisa seems to have frequent trouble with torn or missing clothing, her breasts are mentioned in almost every chapter, etc.

Not that I didn't find it enjoyable! But this inquiring mind wants to know: what were the details behind this choice?
  • "Mordant's Need" is more explicitly *about* gender roles and stereotypes than my other stories. Terisa Morgan begins the story with such a frail sense of her own identity that she makes Linden Avery at the beginning of "The Wounded Land" look fully self-actualized. And Mordant itself is gripped by rigid gender stereotypes: the kind of male-dominated quasi-medieval society that we so often find in mediocre fantasy novel. Well, the subsequent story describes how Terisa discovers her own reality as both a person and a woman *while* the culture of Mordant undergoes a profound redefinition of gender roles, predominently as that pertains to the permissable/available roles for women. King Joyse (get it?) sets in motion events which eventually enable his daughters, his wife, and Terisa herself to assume unexpected roles which transform their society.

    In other words, "Mordant's Need" is about sex. Specifically it's about how the treatment of women as mere sexual objects breaks down in a society which is in danger of breaking down itself under pressures both external and internal; and about how the breaking down of the treatment of women as mere sexual objects actually enables their society to be both transformed and saved. So naturally the evidence that women are being treated as mere sexual objects is fairly overt.

    In addition, these issues also touch on the "rape" theme which is so prevalent in my writing. But "Mordant's Need" is--as I intended it to be--a *gentler* story than my usual work; and so "the evidence that women are being treated as mere sexual objects," while overt, is seldom violent. Hence your observation that the story is more "spicey" than others I've written

    (10/10/2004)
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Post by samrw3 »

Interesting wayfriend. I guess I had noticed that in reading the books but reading SRD makes it more pronounced then I realized. If I am ever able to get myself to a re-read of these books I will have to keep that quote in mind.
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samrw3 wrote:
Cord Hurn wrote:In a voice scarcely louder than a whisper, the lady asked, "Do you not believe that you can trust me? We are women, you and I--despised in a world of men. There is no one here who you can trust but me. No one else intends as much good to both Mordant and yourself. What may I do to convince you?"

That, at least, was a question Terisa could meet. Without hesitation, she said, "Tell me what's going on. Before you ask me to trust you, start trusting me."


There is no one here who you can trust but me. This is a line of persuasion that I think is not uncommon among cult leaders or con artists, when used on people they think they can brainwash or dupe. It wouldn't sound out-of-character for Master Eremis to make such a statement as this.
My take is Elega was just desperate at this point. Telling Terisa to trust her just because she is a fellow woman seems like a desperation plea. Part of the reason is the irony that follows afterword. When Terisa asks Elega to trust her - Elega leaves. If she really believed her own bologna about trusting a fellow woman why did she promptly leave?
Good point, Sam! She's revealed here as hypocritical, and she won't use that you can trust me because I'm a woman argument ever again to try to secure Terisa's trust.

In a later scene in The Mirror Of Her Dreams, (after Gart tries to kill Terisa and seriously wounds Artagel) Elega instead tries to expand her "there's no one you can trust but me" message.
In Chapter 20 of TMOHD was wrote:Terisa sighed. She didn't want to deal with Elega. She wanted to lie down and sleep for a few years. At the same time, she wanted to go find Artagel. The sharp wet sensation of her cut was starting to resemble pain. When she drank, the wine seemed to make the cut worse. Carefully, she raised her hand to her cheek. Her fingers came down marked with dried blood. Her face must be a mess. Afraid of the damage, she asked unsteadily, "How bad is it?"

Elega frowned in vexation, but she quickly smoothed her expression. With a gesture that asked Terisa to wait, she went into the bathroom and returned with a damp towel. Then she motioned Terisa to sit on the couch. When Terisa was settled, Elega began stroking her cut gently with the towel, washing away blood and dirt from the wound.

After studying the cut for a moment, the lady pronounced, "It is clean. It still bleeds a little"--she dabbed the towel at Terisa's cheek--"but that only serves to keep it clean. We can summon a physician if you wish, but I doubt that you need to much care. It is only as long as my finger"--at the moment, her fingers looked exceptionally long--"and rather delicate. When it heals, you will have a fine, straight scar that no one will see except in certain lights." She drew back to consider the matter from farther away. "And no one will see it at all if they do not stand near you."

In a neutral tone, she concluded, "When it heals, I expect that most men will feel that your beauty has been enhanced rather than diminished."

"I wish I could see it," Terisa admitted lamely. "Where I come from, that's all we use mirrors for. To see ourselves."

Still neutrally, Elega replied, "For that reason we have maids, so that women who care for the decoration of their appearance will not make fools of themselves." She couldn't hold down her real interests, however. More quickly, she asked, "Then all the mirrors in your world are flat?"

Terisa tried to swallow another sigh. "Yes."

"And you are not translated by them?"

"No."

The lady rose to her feet. Facing the hearth, she cupped her hands under her elbows, holding her forearms across her midriff as if to restrain herself from an outbreak of emotion. "You insist that you are an ordinary woman. Perhaps that is true in your world. But is it possible that your are translated and do not know it--or take it for granted? Here, we are told that any man who faces a flat glass in which he sees himself facing himself will be lost in a translation which never ends. But what if you--if all the people of your world--possess a power which we lack? A power to master the most dangerous manifestation of Imagery? You might be unaware of it--and yet it would be fundamental enough to alter all our preconceptions."

"No." Terisa denied that idea as she had denied everything like it from the beginning. "Where I come from, mirrors are just things. They aren't magic." In an effort to shorten the discussion, she faced what she took to be Elega's point. "I really do not know why the High King's Monomach wants to kill me."

Her eyes flaming, Elega turned from the fire. "That is not possible."

Terisa raised the towel to her cheek to hide her anger. "It's still true."

For an instant, Elega was on the verge of a shout, "Then--" But at once she caught herself; calculations ran behind her eyes so clearly that they were almost legible. "Then you must be protected."

"Protected?"

"The King will not do it. He will not understand the need. And because the King will not understand the need, the Castellan cannot do it. He is too hampered. He has shown that he cannot even limit Gart's access to Orison.

"The lords of the Cares are useless to you. The Tor has become an old drunkard. The Armigite's foppishness shames the memory of his father. The Fayle does not know where his loyalties should lie. And neither the Perdon nor the Termigan is here.

"As for the Congery"--she made a dismissive gesture--"the Masters are too divided among themselves to protect anyone. They all resemble Master Quillon, who is too timid to take risks--or Master Barsonage, who is too concerned for the reputation of the Congery to take action--or Master Eremis, who is too self-absorbed to take interest.

"Terisa--" Elega seemed to hesitate, as if doubting whether she should finish what she had started to say. But hesitation wasn't a prominent part of her nature. Distinctly, like an avowal of faith, she said, "You must let me protect you."

Terisa was so startled that she stared.

"For the present, I admit," Elega hurried on, "I can do little more than hide you. But that I can do very well. My knowledge of Orison's secrets is extensive. Soon, however, I will be able to protect anyone I choose.

"I can provide you safety, if you will entrust yourself to me."

Though she wanted to think clearly--it was important to think clearly--Terisa's head whirled. She believed that she understood Elega. On the other hand, she would gain more information if she pretended ignorance. At the same time, however, her cheek hurt, and she was worried about Artagel and Geraden, and she feared that Elega was too cunning for her. And she was still angry.

With difficulty, she managed to ask, "How?", instead of losing her temper. "I've heard you complain about how left out you are. How little you have to do with what's going on. How are you going to protect me?"

Elega met Terisa's gaze steadily. "I can provide you safety," she repeated, "if you will entrust yourself to me." Then she added, "Terisa, I have shown you nothing but friendship. I desire only your well-being, and the preservation of Mordant--and an end to evil in the realm. But if you will not trust me I can do nothing."

You surely have some idea why Gart is here to kill you.

It was too much. "You're going to have power," retorted Terisa harshly. "Where are you going to get it? I can only think of one place. From your father. But he won't just give it to you. That isn't the way he does things. You're going to betray him. You're going to cut his throne out from under him somehow. You and Prince Kragen." She barely stopped herself from saying, And Nyle. You've even turned Geraden's brother against him. But the shock on Elega's face warned her that she had already gone too far. "I don't want to have anything to do with that."

"And why not?" Ire mounted through the lady's surprise. "Do you have any alternative? Are you so pure that you can conceive some answer to Mordant's need that does not require betrayal?"

"He's your father. That ought to make a difference."

Elega drew back her shoulders, straightened her spine. The violet flash of her eyes made her look regal and certain, like a woman who was within her rights. "I assure you, my lady," she said austerely, "that it does make a difference. You understand me so well that I am sorry to find you understand me so little."

Giving Terisa a bow as correct and defiant as an offer of combat, the lady Elega left the room.

Terisa watched the door long after it had closed. She had made a serious mistake: she had ruined her only chance to learn how Elega and Prince Kragen intended to take Mordant away from King Joyse. In disgust, she tried to swear at herself. Her heart wasn't in it, however. After all, what Elega offered her made no sense.

To keep her hidden. For how long? Until the end of winter? Until the Alend army arrived? Until Orison fell to siege? Twenty or thirty or forty days?

It made no sense.
Elega still thinks she can get Terisa to reveal the power that makes her dangerous to Cadwal. She gives Terisa a vague (but likely still sincere) promise of protection to secure that secret, without telling Terisa what plot she would be getting into. She seems more trustworthy than the likes of Eremis, but it's still hard to trust someone who seems to conceal more than she reveals (calculations ran behind her eyes so clearly that they were almost legible).

Facing the hearth, she cupped her hands under her elbows, holding her forearms across her midriff as if to restrain herself from an outbreak of emotion. We've seen Elega do this once before, after facing Master Eremis' air of superiority. It can show her resistance to an idea, such as the idea that Eremis is as superior as he nonverbally insists, or the idea that Terisa is really as ordinary as she verbally insists.
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wayfriend wrote:I am going to throw this out because it seems relevant to the topic, but not in response to any particular things. And because IMO it's important in its own right.
In the Gradual Interview was wrote:I cannot help but notice that the Mordant's Need series is a bit more "spicey" than your other works that I have read. Poor Terisa seems to have frequent trouble with torn or missing clothing, her breasts are mentioned in almost every chapter, etc.

Not that I didn't find it enjoyable! But this inquiring mind wants to know: what were the details behind this choice?
  • "Mordant's Need" is more explicitly *about* gender roles and stereotypes than my other stories. Terisa Morgan begins the story with such a frail sense of her own identity that she makes Linden Avery at the beginning of "The Wounded Land" look fully self-actualized. And Mordant itself is gripped by rigid gender stereotypes: the kind of male-dominated quasi-medieval society that we so often find in mediocre fantasy novels. Well, the subsequent story describes how Terisa discovers her own reality as both a person and a woman *while* the culture of Mordant undergoes a profound redefinition of gender roles, predominently as that pertains to the permissable/available roles for women. King Joyse (get it?) sets in motion events which eventually enable his daughters, his wife, and Terisa herself to assume unexpected roles which transform their society.

    In other words, "Mordant's Need" is about sex. Specifically it's about how the treatment of women as mere sexual objects breaks down in a society which is in danger of breaking down itself under pressures both external and internal; and about how the breaking down of the treatment of women as mere sexual objects actually enables their society to be both transformed and saved. So naturally the evidence that women are being treated as mere sexual objects is fairly overt.

    In addition, these issues also touch on the "rape" theme which is so prevalent in my writing. But "Mordant's Need" is--as I intended it to be--a *gentler* story than my usual work; and so "the evidence that women are being treated as mere sexual objects," while overt, is seldom violent. Hence your observation that the story is more "spicey" than others I've written

    (10/10/2004)
The bold emphasis I've added, because I've always thought the King's name was feminine-sounding, being too close to the name "Joyce". Nevertheless, shadowbindingshoe has shown me that the name originally was gender-neutral, with this link: www.behindthename.com/name/joyce . And Joyse ends up promoting a society that moves toward being more gender-neutral with regards to roles (he even tries to talk the Perdon's widow into becoming the next Perdon, which would have made her the first female ruler of a Care).
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High up in the reservoir, Elega gets caught trying to poison it.
In [i]The Mirror Of Her Dreams[/i] Chapter 23 was wrote:At the noise of Terisa's boots, Elega whirled. The cowl of a cape flipped back from her head, and her eyes seemed to gather up all the light, flaring like violet gems. Her face was whetted and intense.

"Terisa, stop!"

Terisa jerked to a halt.

"Come no closer!" the lady warned. "You cannot prevent me from flinging my sack into the water. That is not the best way to distribute the powder--but it will suffice." In this light, with such extremity in her eyes, her beauty was astonishing. She looked as certain as a queen. "And one sack will suffice, though I have brought two for safety. Do not interfere with me."

"Elega--" Terisa had to gasp hard to clear her throat, unlock her chest. "Don't do this. It's crazy. You're--"

"Who is with you?" demanded Elega.

"You're going to kill thousands of people. Some of them are your friends. A lot of them know and respect you."

"Terisa! Who is with you? Answer me!"

"You're going to kill your father."

Deliberately, Elega adjusted her grip on her sack and started to swing it toward the water. The sack appeared to be made of some unusually supple leather.

Geraden hadn't come. There was nothing beyond the lamp except the dimly silvered night of the reservoir. "I'm alone!" Terisa cried urgently.

The lady checked her swing.

"There's nobody with me. I'm alone."

Elega's eyes burned. "How can I believe that?"

Helpless to do anything else, Terisa replied bitterly, "No one trusts me. Who would believe me if I told them you were going to do this?"

"Geraden trusts you. Together, you persuaded the Tor to be suspicious of me."

"I know," Terisa shot back in desperation. "But you made him back down." Where was Geraden? "And Geraden can't believe anything like this about you. You're the King's daughter."

For a moment, Elega studied Terisa. Slowly, she straightened her back; she faced Terisa regally. She didn't put down her sack, however.

"If no one else would believe this, why do you? How do you come to be here?"

Terisa met the lady's scrutiny as well as she could and struggled to hold down her panic. "I guessed. We talked about the water supply. I think I suggested it." Her self-control was fraying. In another minute, she would begin to babble. "Elega, why? This is your home. You're the King's daughter. You're going to kill--"

"I am going to kill," cut in Elega impatiently, "a few of Orison's oldest and most infirm inhabitants. That is regrettable. Perhaps my father will be one of them>" She grimaced. "Even that is regrettable. But no one else who drinks this tainted water will die. They will simply be too sick to fight.

"Orison will fall with little loss of life." Her voice rose. "At small cost to the realm, my father will be deposed, and a new power will take his place. Then Mordant will be defended"--she had to shout in order to hold back an uprush of passion--"defended against Cadwal and Imagery, and the dreams with which King Joyse reared hs daughters will be restored!" Her cry was strong--yet it echoed like mourning in the high silence of the reservoir. "To accomplish that, I am willing to cause a few deaths."
By betraying her home government, Elega makes the argument that she is preserving its ideals by preserving the Congery from Cadwal. Elega is as filled with self-justification as anybody else in this story. I find it endlessly fascinating how human beings can rationalize their actions, and this trait, exhibited in so many of Mordant's Need's characters, makes them feel very realistic to me.
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In [i]The Mirror Of Her Dreams[/i] Chapter 23 was wrote:She might have continued: the force of what she felt might have impelled her to say more. But she didn't get the chance. All the illumination behind her condensed at once, transforming Geraden instantly out of the dark; and he charged wildly.

In fact, he charged so wildly that he caught his foot on the butt of one of the timbers.

The sound alerted Elega. As quick as a bird, she leaped aside while he crashed to the stone on the spot where she had been standing. "Geraden!"

The impact seemed to stun him; he looked hurt. Although he bounded up almost instantly to his hands and knees, into a poised crouch, his balance shifted as if the flat stone under him were moving, and his head wobbled on his neck.

Nevertheless he was between Elega and the water.

Terisa hurried to his side. She wanted to help him up, find out how badly he was hurt. But she couldn't take her eyes off the lady.

The two women studied each other across a space of no more than ten feet. Elega's face was dark around the violet smolder of her eyes; she clutched her sack with both hands. Despite the fear pounding in her head, Terisa braced herself to block Elega's approach to the pool.

The corners of the lady's mouth hinted at a smile. In a formal tone, as if she wanted the reservoir to hear her, she said, "My lady Terisa, I am sorry that I did not persuade you to join me. I believed you when you said you were alone. Clearly, you are a better player of this game than I realized."

Nothing about her gave the impression that she was caught or beaten.

Geraden, get up!

Abruptly, he wrenched himself to his feet, stumbled sideways, then recovered. His gaze appeared oddly out of focus, as if his eyes were aimed in slightly different directions. Breathing heavily, he bent over and braced his hands on his knees to support the weight of his sore head.

"Blast you, Elega," he panted, "don't you know we caught Nyle?" Castellan Lebbick has him. I don't expect you to care what happens to anybody as minor as a son of the Domne, but you ought to care about the fact that he didn't get through to the Perdon.

"You made a nice speech about defending the realm and restoring dreams. But you can't pretend that anymore. You aren't doing this for Mordant. You're doing it for Alend."

The lady's eyes flared.

"Or you're doing it for Prince Kragen, which comes to the same thing. When you're done, we'll all be ruled by the Alend Monarch. Then it won't be you who decides what happens to your dreams. It won't even be your personal Prince. It'll be Margonal. Once Orison falls, you won't be anybody except the oldest daughter of the Alend Monarch's worst enemy.

"Give it up before you get hurt."

As if she were in pain, Elega lowered her gaze. "Perhaps you are right," she murmured. "You have caught me. I was a fool to believe the word of an Alend." Her grip on the sack shifted.

Terisa sounded a warning--too late, as usual--as the lady flung her sack over Geraden's head.

At the edge of the light, it arced toward the still, dark water.

Geraden leaped for it.

So did Terisa.

Before they collided with each other, his reaching fingers hooked the soft leather and deflected it.

They fell tangled together. His arms and legs were all around her: she couldn't sort her way out of them.

After an interminable instant, she found herself on the floor while he scrambled to regain his feet. She was gazing straight along the smooth stone at the sack. It had landed rigt at the rim of the pool--so close that she could have put her hand on it.

But it had split open when it hit. a strange green powder was already pouring into the water. As she watched, the sack slumped empty.

Then the light went out.

A heavy splash cast sibilant applause around the reservoir as the other sack sank into the pool.

Across the dark, Elega said, "Prince Kragen is a truer man than you are, Geraden fumble-foot. He will not be false to me."

Small waves continued to slap and echo against the sides of the pool long after the King's daughter was gone.
Elega is right about one thing: Prince Kragen is a truer person than Geraden paints him to be. But she's also wrong, as no one is truer or more sincere than Geraden is in this story.
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After Elega successfully defects to Alend's army, and she and the Prince have a truce meeting with Castellan Lebbick, we get the message concerning her that resonates through the rest of the story.
For the first time, Castellan Lebbick used the exact words he had been given. "King Joyse replies. 'I am sure that my daughter Elega has acted for the best reasons. She carries my pride with her wherever she goes. For her sake, as well as for my own, I hope that the best reasons will also produce the best results.'"

The lady Elega stared at Castellan Lebbick as if he had said something horrible.
Elega's father has concealed his mind from her so well that she has no reaction except astonishment to his words and actions. When Lebbick relates King Joyse's threat to use the Congery to rout the Alend army from the earth, she is unable to have any response except that Lebbick must be misrepresenting the King's position so as to bluff.
Then the lady Elega whispered intensely, "Castellan Lebbick, you lie." Her face was pale in the harsh wind. "My father would never do such a thing."
As we will see in the first scene with Myste in AMRT, Myste has a far better grasp on her father's intentions than Elega has, perhaps because Myste isn't as quick to make assumptions and draw conclusions as is her elder sister.
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Elega expresses much the same skepticism when Master Quilon warns her and Prince Kragen that the catapults will be destroyed by Imagery. She is offended when Quillon rebuffs her, and concerned when the Prince threatens the Master with pain, though she is somewhat mollified when Kragen explains he doesn't like seeing anyone affront her. Finding out she is wrong about what Orison's response will be causes the most self-doubt we have seen in her so far. Even the Prince is starting to doubt her reasoning ability, though not yet her loyalty.
In AMRT Chapter 34 was wrote:Toward the end of the first day of the siege--the day which eventually led to Master Quillon's murder and Terisa's escape--Prince Kragen indicated his ruined catapults and asked the lady Elega what she thought he should do.

"Attack," she replied at once. "Attack and attack."

Raising one eyebrow, he waited for an explanation.

"I am no Imager--but everyone knows that Imagery requires strength and concentration. Translations are exhausting. And in this"--she gestured at the catapults--"you have only one opponent. Only one Master can use the glass which frustrates you. He must be weary by now. Perhaps he has already worn out his endurance.

"If you apply enough pressure, he must fail. Then you will be able to bring down that curtain-wall. Orison will be opened to you."

Despite his confident demeanor, his air of assurance, Prince Kragen couldn't restrain a scowl. "My lady," he asked softly, harshly, "how many siege engines do you think I have? They are difficult to move. If we had brought them from Alend, we would be on the road yet--and Cadwal's victory would be unchallenged. We were forced to rely on what we could appropriate from the Armigite." Thinking about the Armigite always made Kragen want to spit. "It seems likely to me that we will run out of catapults before that cursed Imager is exhausted.

"Then, my lady"--almost involuntarily, he wrapped his fingers around her arm and squeezed to get her attention, make her hear the things he didn't say--"our first, quickest, and best hope will be lost."

"Then what do you mean to do, my lord Prince?" demanded Elega. Apparently, she didn't hear him. Perhaps she couldn't. "Are you prepared to simply wait here until the High King arrives to crush you?"

Prince Kragen lifted his head. Too many of his people were watching. By an act of will, he smoothed his scowl, put on a sharp smile.

"I am prepared to do what I must."

Bowing to conceal the grimness in his eyes, he walked away. That night, covered by the dark, he sent a squadron of sappers to try to dig the keystones out of the curtain-wall.

Another failure. Scant moments after his men set to work, Orison's defenders poured oil down the face of the wall and fired it. The flames forced the sappers back--and gave enough light for Lebbick's archers. Less than half the squadron escaped.

The next morning, when he had had time to absorb the latest news, Prince Kragen announced that he would take no more risks.

He didn't withdraw from his position. He spent all his time projecting confidence to his forces, or designing contingency plans with his captains, or consulting with the Alend Monarch. But he took no chances, incurred no losses. He might have been waiting for High King Festten to join him in some elaborate and harmless wargame.

Elega understood why he did this. He told her why, publicly and privately. And his explanations made sense. Nevertheless his passivity drove her to distraction. At times, she couldn't face him under the eyes of his troops; at times, she could hardly bring herself to be civil to him in bed. She wanted action--wanted the wall down, the battle joined; she wanted King Joyse deposed and Prince Kragen in his place.

She wanted the fact that she had betrayed her own father to mean something. While the Alend forces spent their time in training or leisure--enjoying the suddenly beautiful spring--instead of bringing Orison to its knees, everything she had done was pointless.
And, at last she begins to doubt the wisdom of the course she has chosen in response to her father's inexplicable behavior. This is probably why when Myste at first declines to trust her, it nearly drives her wild. The external distrust she encounters reflects a maddening internal distrust that is burgeoning.
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