Eddis, Attolia, Sounis

I couldn't quite figure out when this one happened. I liked it a bit more than The Wine Shop, because it had a complete arc, and gave us more character insights that we didn't already know. The economic note that Gen's grandfather couldn't pay for a hotel equivalent when he broke his arms made me quite interested. I'm very curious about whether there's an actual knife dance similar to the one described. Additionally, the ending was quite nice - a good setup and payoff in a short story.

From:

stealingfiction.livejournal.com

Hi! Are the new editions paperbacks? Or only e-books? I haven't been on top of checking sounis lately but I definitely need those new covers!! *squeal*

From:

Yep, I have the paperbacks! I also just saw a beautiful front-facing display of all four at my job at Barnes and Noble tonight!

From:

mikkaybear.livejournal.com

Was anyone else a little frightened of Gen in this one? Maybe it was just the POV, but he seemed... somewhat threatening. It dissipated with the broken arms comment (Which left more questions than answers! I bet you Costis's shiny breastplate it's why Gen doesn't like horses!) but I was wary of him and those knives! It reminded me of the scene in KoA where he pulls Attolia down the steps to dance with him.

I appreciated the bit of insight into Attolian culture outside the court! And there goes Gen, helping people like the good soul he is.

From:

I agree - Gen is completely terrifying in his mercurial nature, and absolute power. But he's very often like that - in my reading for the QoA discussion post, his confrontation with the magus when he kidnaps him has the same casual tone, but underneath is the sense that Gen is able and willing to completely destroy him.

The Knife Dance itself did feel a lot like his dance with Irene. I would be very interested to see someone actually pull off these things one-handed. My sister juggles, and I should ask her what she could do with just one hand.

From:

He does have those moments. Like how Ornon described him stopping grown men in their tracks when he was only ten. I usually think of him as a devil-may-care softie, but he can also be pretty scary.

He was also using the hook too at first, right? There were sounds of metal clanking on metal.

From:

True. I'm just having a really hard time envisioning how someone uses a hook to throw a knife. :)

From:

I think he tossed them in the air then used the hook to whack them back up. Conceivable if you catch them when they are at a horizontal angle. That would be so hard, though.

From:

Was anyone else a little frightened of Gen in this one?

Not of Gen, no. See my comment below.

From:

Gen was actually quite sweet toward Druic. Probably knew how he felt and may have actually been protecting Druic from offending 'someone'.

From:

He was very nice. He even did the whole, "Sit by me." XD He was also acting pretty king-like.

From:

Right! He was making sure Druic didn't Offend the Gods, being something of an expert in this area.

Edited Date: 3/10/17 09:56 pm (UTC)

From:

So review time...

Ow, new characters, and they're circus performers!

Mysteries of the Thieves? I like that sound of that. What are the other mysteries?

He said so only twice not three times! I think the first time that has happened.

Sounds like your drunk brother is dragging you down, Druic.

No one will know the knives are wood? Sure...

I officially do not like your brother, kid.

Oh, Gen just appeared out of nowhere, again. I love it when he does that. XD

Ah, Druic can't do it with real knives, because he'd probably loose a finger!

I love how Gen is just like step aside and let the master perform.

Gen threw the knives into the ceiling!

I'm guessing you're always suppose to use real knives, because it's a show of faith in the gods that they will protect you from slicing off your fingers. To do so with fake blades is disrespectful.

Hold the phone! RED ALERT. These guys are from Kathodicia, the same place as Phresine!

He broke both his arms when he was six or did they go back again?

I'm guessing that was Druic's father who took them in, which is when Gen's grandfather taught him the Knife Dance.

Good for you, Druic, ditching that jerk.

Final thoughts...

This is probably my favorite short story, since it's less of a missing scene and more a complete arc. The characters were great and seeing more of the Thief side of Gen was fun. Getting to see more of Attolian culture, especially the entertainment side was my favorite aspect. Loved it!

From:

I agree - the beginning, middle, end of it made it very satisfying.

From:

"I'm guessing that was Druic's father who took them in, which is when Gen's grandfather taught him the Knife Dance."

Okay, that makes sense of the question I've had floating around in my head since reading this. The question being, How did Druic's father come to know one of the so-called mysteries of the thieves? I had the impression those were secrets kept close and only passed down to the next Thief. No wonder Gen felt the need to intervene! Possibly even out of kindness, as Checkers mentioned.

From:

I got my shiny new edition of QoA and read the story and at the end went, "huh, that's weird" and read it again and I think Megan has pulled her so-very-subtle-there's-more-to-it thing again.

The first hint is when Druic hears the clanging of the knives on Gen's hook, and then doesn't hear it any more. And then he's not called "the king" anymore, no, EUGENIDES puts his HANDS on Druic's face and says, "Never dance for me again with wooden knives." (I did not add those italics, they are there in the book.)

Not his hand. His HANDS.

Then, it's back to "the king" this and "the king" that. And the king laughs and says, "My god does not tolerate missteps." And, at the end of the story, Druic says, "Eugenides told me not to dance for him with wooden knives." His brother responds, "The king's never going to know," and Druic shouts, "You don't understand!", not able to put what he'd felt into words, and "he remembered how Eugenides's hands had felt on either side of his face. Two hands, when the king had only one."

And THAT's why Druic won't ever dance the knife dance again.

From:

mouseguru.livejournal.com

Whoa! I totally missed that.

Mind. Blown.

That's why I love reading this board :)

From:

I noticed the HANDS and was like WTF...? I think you're mistaken,
kid.

Now, I'm like...

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Can Eugenides, the god, possess Gen at will?

From:

See my comment below for possession thoughts...

From:

Late to the party here, as I've only just got my new copies of the books, and I've been parceling out the extras (much like Sophos' fellow-slaves savoring his poetic repertoire) to fill the time between now and May. :)

I definitely got a chill when Druic felt HANDS and had to read it couple times over to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding something. Someone mentioned Gen being possessed by God-Eugenides, but from the text, I imagined it being more like Costis' experience on the tower. If I'm remembering correctly, Costis heard the god and saw Gen saved from falling, but the god himself was invisible to all but Gen. Do you think something similar happened here?

From:

ladyequinox.livejournal.com

I'm not sure if anyone is still following this thread but I'll pose my question anyway since I just read the short story and have just started re-reading QoA.

In QoA after Attolia has cut off Gen's hand we have this exchange:

"Eugenides"-he heard her cool voice through the agony-"have I exceeded the restraints of tradition? Have I offended the gods?" and he heard someone whisper with his voice, "No, Your Majesty."

In light of the previous discussion of possession vs. gods who are there but not visible to everyone...was that Gen whispering? Eugenides? Someone else? Am I over thinking this now?

Edited Date: 5/4/17 02:30 am (UTC)

From:

Huh, I've always assumed it was Gen talking even though he was out of his mind with pain, but who knows? It could have been a god answering, since they were the ones determining what was and wasn't offensive to them. I'm not sure now!

From:

aged-crone.livejournal.com

I missed the part about Eugenides' putting his hand*s* on Druic's face, but caught on shortly thereafter. (I just figured, though, that not hearing the clanging of the knives on Gen's hook was because all Druic could hear was his heart because he was panicking over the possible slicing and dicing).

I wonder what the onlookers saw. I remember how very high the ceilings are in Attolia's throne room, and wonder how many of them thought "how the heck did he toss the knives up that high?"

And I also wonder if Eugenides-the-god is as annoying to his fellows as Gen is to his!

From:

frosted-feather.livejournal.com

Haha, I'll be Eugenides-the-god IS annoying, but also has special gifts the others don't, and thus is respected.

From:

frosted-feather.livejournal.com

Yes, YES! I paused at the "he felt the king's HANDS" on his face and knew it was important, and then at the end of the story I felt those chills knowing something supernatural happened. It was again like that moment of the "other world" poking into our world, and maybe no one else noticed it but Druic and Gen.

Very good observation about Druic using "Eugenides" versus "the King"--I noticed that Druic called him Eugenides and was surprised, because he still seemed very in Awe of the King and it seemed too familiar. Now it all makes sense!

I love that such moments can happen in a short story. Like the one where Eddis throws the gift into the volcano, which dealt with the supernatural in the world, this one brings more clarification about Gen's relationship to the gods. If he can get help while doing a knife dance, then he would trust his god for even greater things, right?

From:

beth-shulman.livejournal.com

I had to read this story three times before I understood it. (Felt sooo stupid, and kept thinking there must have been a typo.)

This is REALLY GREAT. I don't think I fully understand the logistics of Eugenides-the-god, but it's so chilling and well done regardless.

Edited Date: 5/15/17 11:47 pm (UTC)

From:

swatibh.livejournal.com

Please share the link where I can read them... plz plz plz... or email at sud2603@gmail.com

From: