How it all began

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

Question: do you think Gen deduced that the magus would look for Hamiathes's Gift and deliberately landed himself on the magus's radar as a result? His narration midway through The Thief - when he expresses surprise that the man he bragged to in the wineshop ("I can steal anything") was an agent of the magus - seems to suggest otherwise, but I'm not sure I trust his narration. He might have been acting surprised so the magus wouldn't guess who he was. Unless that's altogether too great a risk, even for the master of foolhardy plans?

Comments

[qwentoozla]

I always thought that was the plan-- getting caught so that the magus would use him to steal Hamiathes's Gift.

[enleve.livejournal.com]

I think he was surprised that the man he bragged to in particular was an agent of the magus, but not that the magus had agents interested in him. I think that indeed he did anticipate that the magus would go looking for Hamiathes' Gift, and that he planned to be there with the magus.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I think Gen was surprised by how direct the traffic of communication was. Obviously, bragging to a wine shop full of costumers that he was planning to steal the King's Seal, then showing it as proof the next day, is cause enough to get the attention of the local authorities and the king's prison keepers. :) However, the gods arranged for Gen to brag directly to one of the magus's agents, thus getting direct attention from the king's advisor, whom Gen believed to know the location of the gift. Gen is the master of foolhardy plans, but somewhere, I think he knows the gods give him a push every now and then when he can't quite reach the edge.

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

I think Gen was surprised by how direct the traffic of communication was.

You know what's funny, then? That he's surprised again when he finds out the gods actually exist. I mean, think of all the luck that had to break his way for him to even get to Hamiathes's Gift - and yet for most of the book he still thinks it's some sort of historical token, doesn't he?

[shelver506.livejournal.com]

It was my assumption that he planned to get on the magus' radar by bragging, which would most likely end in being caught on purpose, yes. He explains in the beginning how he planned to get out if the magus didn't pick him after all (someone else would need his cell eventually, he'd be moved to a lower-security cell, and then out he'd go). The thing that genuinely surprised him was (as the others said) that he bragged directly to the magus' agent. THAT was something he didn't plan on.

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

(someone else would need his cell eventually, he'd be moved to a lower-security cell, and then out he'd go)

That's a good point! He even mentions, when he's meeting with the magus, that he wants the magus to offer him a faster way out. I'd never connected that before.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

Chiming in here to agree that I think it was his plan to get on the radar like that, but he expected to have to do a lot more work to get noticed by the people he wanted to notice him. He wasn't expecting the straight route of unknowingly managing to brag directly to an agent of the magus.