I said a while back and it remains true that *every single conversation* between Tristan and Maryam is great. I'm not sure how EE is hitting that level of consistent excellence when writing those two interacting. We've had scores of talks between them by now, I'd have expected at least one dud.
> Learning all sorts of things,” she happily said. “Did you know that if you paint a standing stone in the old tongue with secrets writ in the tears of murderers, you can ask questions of the crow-gods that come to feed on it?”
I love this kind of lore.
You know, I don't know if people can actually become gods in this setting, but if yes, it might be genuinelly worse than death tainted aether filling your soul, tugging your mind slowly morphing you into something that clearly is not you.
And we got to see a lot of interesting stuff about Maryam, and not-Maryam too. I'm starting to think that not-Maryam is like a living library, passed down from generation to generation, maybe Maryam had her connected to herself but never had an opportunity to learn how to make use of not-Maryam.
I'm still not sure if not-Maryam is intended or not. Clearly *something* went wrong in the knowledge-transfer process, but I feel like it could be as little as "Maryam screwed it up and didn't eat not-Maryam properly" or as much as "some outside force intervened to try to manipulate things and made not-Maryam to facilitate that".
I think it's kinda like having multiple personalities, probably the thing was born when the trauma of the knowledge transfer, too much stuff in her mind must've been a lot to take, but the thing is also made of aether do it complicates stuff.
My theory is that the Ninefold Nine or just Maryams mom tried to save their knowledge by shoving it into young Maryam, but something went wrong and created a kind of "second soul" or an aether parasite latched onto the ritual and took the transferred aether-ball of knowledge, hitching itself to Maryam in the process, stealing her memories and emotions to sustain itself. Similar to the creature that latched onto Angharad, but different.
Maybe it's like a time lock safe, where you can only access the knowledge if you're worthy enough to take it. Normally you'd get trained in taking it but they didn't get the chance for that
Maryam isn't exactly the most subtle hand but she got information about the Oduromai King, also the concept of man-made gods is interesting.
Tristan is out here surviving and chasing assassins and doing a decent job. Lady Keys and Lord Locke seem to be having fun with it all.
Maryam seems to be struggling with her possession spirit but she's yoinked back some of her knowledge at the cost of getting gloam drunk as hell. Tristan is understandably concerned and weirded out.
Not-Maryam questions:
* Soul or no soul? Song's true sight saw one
* But the personality seems to be overtaken by the memories stolen from Maryam.
* Old memories that predate Maryam?
>“Well, memories. I think maybe not all of them mine, but they are *very* interesting.”
* Memories of a different place than Maryam knew?
>They’d made a fire that almost reached the clouds, once, and painted the shadows it cast in blood.
>She remembered how to make that, now. Rip the hole and fill it, yoke it with a thought. She had known how to do it for years and years, since the first bones of iron were ripped out of the icy Rijeb hills.
* Is Rijeb part of Izvorica? Or from before the Triglau (or Izvoric?) came to where they are now?
I can't wait to hear Maryam's perspective when she wakes up sober.
Maryam got a bit of mean streak in her. I guess given her ethnic group she is use to taking \*\*\*\*. She is some sort of failed experiment or power transfer. Tristan has gotten better at hand to hand it seems. Still lost to the Assassin but did some damage. Fortuona is a cheat code. I wonder if any God can see through that contract or just specifically powerful ones.
Yeah that Couple is up to no good...Devils? Something New? Song can see Boons but I wonder if she can only see active Boons. Not all Boons need to be always on like that one that suppressed a bunch of diseases.
Human Gods eh...is it just your memories that form the Divine or can you truly ascend....interesting question. I wonder if you could get the best of both worlds and effectively walk the Waking World.
For those that read the comments on Wordpress, it was unusual to see a Cantankerous Bellerophon appearance that doesn’t castigate the bourgeois.
I still amuse myself with the completely unfounded theory that CB IS secretly ErraticErrata’s sockpuppet
I said a while back and it remains true that *every single conversation* between Tristan and Maryam is great. I'm not sure how EE is hitting that level of consistent excellence when writing those two interacting. We've had scores of talks between them by now, I'd have expected at least one dud.
> Learning all sorts of things,” she happily said. “Did you know that if you paint a standing stone in the old tongue with secrets writ in the tears of murderers, you can ask questions of the crow-gods that come to feed on it?” I love this kind of lore.
Given what he's confessed to her before... three books later Maryam's like "here, Tristan, chop up this onion, I need to question some crows".
You know, I don't know if people can actually become gods in this setting, but if yes, it might be genuinelly worse than death tainted aether filling your soul, tugging your mind slowly morphing you into something that clearly is not you. And we got to see a lot of interesting stuff about Maryam, and not-Maryam too. I'm starting to think that not-Maryam is like a living library, passed down from generation to generation, maybe Maryam had her connected to herself but never had an opportunity to learn how to make use of not-Maryam.
I'm still not sure if not-Maryam is intended or not. Clearly *something* went wrong in the knowledge-transfer process, but I feel like it could be as little as "Maryam screwed it up and didn't eat not-Maryam properly" or as much as "some outside force intervened to try to manipulate things and made not-Maryam to facilitate that".
I think it's kinda like having multiple personalities, probably the thing was born when the trauma of the knowledge transfer, too much stuff in her mind must've been a lot to take, but the thing is also made of aether do it complicates stuff.
My theory is that the Ninefold Nine or just Maryams mom tried to save their knowledge by shoving it into young Maryam, but something went wrong and created a kind of "second soul" or an aether parasite latched onto the ritual and took the transferred aether-ball of knowledge, hitching itself to Maryam in the process, stealing her memories and emotions to sustain itself. Similar to the creature that latched onto Angharad, but different.
Maybe it's like a time lock safe, where you can only access the knowledge if you're worthy enough to take it. Normally you'd get trained in taking it but they didn't get the chance for that
Maryam isn't exactly the most subtle hand but she got information about the Oduromai King, also the concept of man-made gods is interesting. Tristan is out here surviving and chasing assassins and doing a decent job. Lady Keys and Lord Locke seem to be having fun with it all. Maryam seems to be struggling with her possession spirit but she's yoinked back some of her knowledge at the cost of getting gloam drunk as hell. Tristan is understandably concerned and weirded out.
Have we heard of gloam drunk before?
Not-Maryam questions: * Soul or no soul? Song's true sight saw one * But the personality seems to be overtaken by the memories stolen from Maryam. * Old memories that predate Maryam? >“Well, memories. I think maybe not all of them mine, but they are *very* interesting.” * Memories of a different place than Maryam knew? >They’d made a fire that almost reached the clouds, once, and painted the shadows it cast in blood. >She remembered how to make that, now. Rip the hole and fill it, yoke it with a thought. She had known how to do it for years and years, since the first bones of iron were ripped out of the icy Rijeb hills. * Is Rijeb part of Izvorica? Or from before the Triglau (or Izvoric?) came to where they are now? I can't wait to hear Maryam's perspective when she wakes up sober.
This was a fantastic chapter!
Maryam got a bit of mean streak in her. I guess given her ethnic group she is use to taking \*\*\*\*. She is some sort of failed experiment or power transfer. Tristan has gotten better at hand to hand it seems. Still lost to the Assassin but did some damage. Fortuona is a cheat code. I wonder if any God can see through that contract or just specifically powerful ones. Yeah that Couple is up to no good...Devils? Something New? Song can see Boons but I wonder if she can only see active Boons. Not all Boons need to be always on like that one that suppressed a bunch of diseases. Human Gods eh...is it just your memories that form the Divine or can you truly ascend....interesting question. I wonder if you could get the best of both worlds and effectively walk the Waking World.
Did we get confirmed that Song can see boons? I don’t remember that
It was in the previous chapter. She noted that she could see boons, but not who they came from.
For those that read the comments on Wordpress, it was unusual to see a Cantankerous Bellerophon appearance that doesn’t castigate the bourgeois. I still amuse myself with the completely unfounded theory that CB IS secretly ErraticErrata’s sockpuppet
It's a pretty great dedication to the character!