Not Spite or Friendship: An Attempt at Guessing Attolis’s Underlying Machinations

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

We readers learned, at the end of Thick as Thieves (TaT), the real reason why Gen stole Kamet from Nahuseresh: 

“It wasn’t spite or friendship,” I said, glancing sideways at the king…. This was why I had been brought from the Empire, and this was why the Namreen had hunted us so relentlessly.  Not because Nahuseresh had been murdered, but because the emperor feared I could tell the king of Attolia where he was hiding his navy.” (TaT)

Just as, at the end of The King of Attolia (KoA) we found out the real reason why Gen decided to interfere with young Costis’s life.  Not spite, and not black humor, as Costis had thought throughout the book.  Policy.

“Sometimes, if you want to change a man’s mind, you change the mind of the man next to him first…. Archimedes said that if you gave him a lever long enough, he could move the world.  I needed to move the Guard.  I needed to move you [Teleus].” (KoA, p. 381)

Gen said this, so it must be true.  Right?  In the denouement, no less.  It’s not like Gen ever is known to state untruths or partial truths, or Turner to mislead her readers. 



I mean, Eugenides Attolis wouldn’t have set Costis aside from his fellows, forced him to learn the Mede language and to start thinking strategically, tutored him in Eddisian swordplay, ALSO because Attolis might already have been formulating a plan to steal Nahuseresh’s right hand and needed a suitable agent, right?

It was sheer coincidence that the grueling training Attolis put Costis through in the process of “changing his mind” left the young soldier uniquely qualified for a delicate mission in the Mede Empire. 

It was random chance that of the hundreds of men “next to” (or more properly, under) Teleus, Attolis chose to “change the mind” of Costis:  devotedly loyal once his loyalty was given, honorable, courageous—and also dogged, intelligent, and flexible enough to grow rather than break under Attolis’s unconventional training.

As, of course, it was just plain Gen’s good luck that Kamet was someone able to figure out where the Mede ships must be, though he’d never been told.  Spite and friendship aside, what Attolis really stole Kamet for was the off-chance that his disgraced master was deeply enough involved in his brother’s plot that the slave might have been told that crucial detail.  Gen had no other designs on Kamet’s knowledge and talents than obtaining that one solitary piece of information. 

Uh-huh.

Folks, we’ve been had.

Gen’s revealed reasons for turning those two lives upside down may have been true as far as they went, but in both cases there’s more to the story.

And as always, Turner played fair; she explicitly told us everything we needed to know to understand [more of] the truth.
*
We first meet Costis in The King of Attolia, and learn about him from himself.  Unlike Gen in The Thief, he’s not deliberately concealing information from us the readers.  But that doesn’t mean his view of himself is reliable. 

We readers see Costis throughout KoA from his own POV, starting when he’s at his nadir:  he’s just destroyed his future, his life, maybe his entire family’s fortunes, through an inexcusable lapse of judgment and of self-control. 

And Costis is off-balance for most of the rest of his book, being pushed into situations that are impossibly beyond what he knows how to handle.    Promoted to a fake position.  Forced to practice first position in swordplay, over and over.  Having to partake of the King’s lessons in the Mede language.  Not knowing even how to physically navigate through the palace (lower and younger guards, like he had been, are relegated to the periphery).

Spotting an assassination attempt as it’s happening and arriving too late to help the king.

So, we see him as he sees himself, perpetually feeling bumbling and stupid and clumsy.

One of the surprises and pleasures when we remeet Costis as Kamet’s Attolian is how bloody competent he proves to be. 

But that shouldn’t have been a surprise, because we KNOW that Turner plays with POV to mess with her devoted readers. 

Just think a moment.

What would Costis’s future have been, had he not caught the new King’s eye as a suitable lever and been provoked by Gen into throwing that fatal (to Costis’s former prospects) punch?

Or, rather, what would it have been, had the future continued predictably from the past with no intervention from the Thief in the affairs of Attolia?

What do we know about Costis’s life before Attolis ever entered and warped it?

Costis had already distinguished himself; young and hotheaded as he was, he’d been hand-picked for admission to the Queen’s Guard (a year younger than anyone else had ever been admitted) and, once in, had already so distinguished himself in action that he’d been promoted to squad leader over soldiers both older and more experienced than himself. 

Costis denigrates himself, and Attolis humiliates him; but it’s observable that Aris and Costis’s other peers apparently regard Costis with marked respect.  Throughout KoA, Costis makes excuses for this:  men who’ve been soldiers for far longer than Costis has even been alive, the servants even, show Costis all the respect due to a senior commanding officer?  Well, uh, that’s because behaving as though Costis merits the king’s fake promotion is the only way to thwart the king’s nefarious intention to humiliate the Guard by giving such a promotion to a nothing like himself. 

Not because, in fact, Costis ACTS like a commanding officer when he finds he must.  Where necessary, like a senior officer.  Taking the responsibility that needs to be taken.  Repeatedly.  As most of his fellows could never have done.

Fake promotion?  Right, Costis.  Tell yourself that.

But indeed, we see clearly what the rest the Guard really thinks of Costis after the incident when Gen killed those assassins.

The Guards’ mistaken belief that Costis had done so and falsely given Attolis the credit could only have been possible if Costis’s fellow Guards had regarded him as competent enough to have defeated several assassins single-handed.  As well as pigheadedly honorable enough to allow the slippery King to whom Costis owed his life to claim the credit if he chose.   (Mind, the Guard would have wanted to believe that one of their own had saved the king rather that the king had saved himself, but—well, put it this way.  Had Legarus been the first Guard on the scene, could the rumor have gotten started?)

So.  Costis saw his own flaws, and (burningly!) every error he ever made due to his inexperience and his hotheadedness. 

And we readers largely saw what Costis thought of himself.

What his peers saw, and his superiors, was apparently different.  

What his peers apparently saw was someone like them except demonstrably better.  Morally, for most of them—with a stronger sense of duty and honor—but also in terms of competence in the skills that matter to a soldier.  And traits, not just learned skills:  physical strength and agility, discipline (usually), courage, intelligence, stubbornness.

What his superior officers apparently saw was much the same, but for them that added up to:  talent to be groomed.  He’d already been recruited and promoted.

Surely, had Attolis never occurred, Costis was slated to move slowly but steadily up the ranks, gaining responsibility as he gained experience?  Squad leader, then centurion, then lieutenant, then…? 

Costis was not just some random “man next to Teleus,” whose mind Attolis could change as a lever to change Teleus’s.  He was Teleus’s (very tentative) possible heir.

(If, of course, the Guard hadn’t been destroyed in the Attolian civil war, when Attolia’s desperate juggling of her many bad options finally failed.)

So.  Costis was an unusually gifted young soldier, spotted as such by both his peers (Aris!) and his officers, and given the opportunity and training to become the kind of officer they needed.

And spotted by Eugenides Attolis, and given the opportunity and training to become the kind of tool HE needed. 

Costis was always a remarkable young man; it’s just that we were mostly blinded to that fact by seeing him through his own eyes while he was undergoing Attolis’s grueling and unconventional and often humiliating training course. 

So Costis was never actually stupid or negligible; it’s just that when we readers first meet him, we were strongly encouraged to see him as both those things.  A bog-standard young Guard, hot-headed and thoroughly disgraced, as he saw himself. 

And, again, we met Costis at his nadir, and then facing (and often failing) challenges far outside anything he’d previously been trained to surmount.

Rather than seeing him as, we are told, his peers and superiors saw him:  someone on the fast track to success, with outsized abilities (and honor), handpicked by Teleus for training and promotion.

When we see finally Costis facing the kinds of challenges he HAS been trained for (by Eugenides, sneakily, at length, after Teleus had tried to make Costis a perfect Queen’s Guard), he responds superbly. 

Or so seems to think Kamet, observing him. 

As do we readers, reading Kamet’s account of Costis in action, instead of Costis’s jaundiced view of himself.

What a difference POV can make, even when the POV narrator makes no deliberate attempt to mislead….
*
Now let’s turn to Kamet. 

Whom we also meet at a nadir in his life, when a misjudgment has cost him dearly, and whom we watch throughout his book struggling with challenges completely outside his previous experience.  Off-balance.  Pushed into situations that are impossibly beyond what he knows how to handle. (And successfully meeting all the challenges thrown at him, hmm?)

So, as with Costis, we see Kamet as he sees himself, perpetually feeling bumbling and stupid and clumsy and out of his depth.

If Gen hadn’t interfered in Kamet’s life, what would the slave’s future have been?

What future was Kamet looking forward to? 

He was Nahuseresh’s secretary.  When Nahuseresh’s brother ascended the throne, he expected to be given to said brother and to wield power as Naheeleed’s slave.

Personal slave, which is not the same as body-servant.  Secretary, presumably, as he was for Naheeleed’s brother.  Ho hum.

Wikipedia has an entry about a post, and title, used by the Sassanid Empire (the last Persian pre-Islamic Empire).  There was a position designated by them “katib” (secretary) which is more familiar to us from the Anglicized version of the title used by the following Abbasid caliphate. 

The Abbasid word for such a “secretary” was “wazir.”

Anglicized, that turned into the word “vizier.”

That’s right.

Kamet has been trained, since he was six or so, to become the next Mede Emperor’s Vizier.

(The current Vizier, the current emperor’s “secretary,” being slated for automatic execution when the emperor dies.)

Gen didn’t just steal Nahuseresh’s “right hand;” he stole (and suborned!) the carefully-groomed “secretary” who was to be gifted to the Mede Emperor’s Heir upon his ascension to the throne. 

(And the current Emperor is mortally ill ….)

If Kamet is right in his own estimation of his value, then Eugenides stole, and caused to become loyal to Attolia, the man who might otherwise have been running the Mede Empire during its war against the Peninsula.

The emperor decides general policy.  His secretary, his “personal slave,” is responsible for implementation. 

If Kamet is truly as competent as he thinks he is, Gen has just struck a crippling blow against his enemy empire.

It’s comparable to, but worse than, Gen’s stealing Sounis’s Magus in QoA, because the emperor-to-be’s personal slave (vizier, katib, secretary) is expected to administer the day-to-day running of the Empire, not to be his master’s mere (sometimes disregarded) advisor.  As Kamet has been running all his master’s personal estates and finances, while learning what he will need to know to run the Mede empire. 

Well worth stealing even if he hasn’t been told a particular piece of information Gen needs.

And we readers missed all this (even though Kamet told us!) because, of course, Kamet is just a lowly slave, and estimates himself as such.

This analysis, of course, applies only if Kamet is right about his master’s intention to give him to his brother the Emperor-to-be, and right about what his authority would be.  And right about how competent he is.

And whether Gen knew all this when he decided to steal him.

Which he did.

The Annux said to Kamet in the throne room, “I know you wanted your chance at the Emperor’s side, even if it meant you would die with him.” 

So, Gen knew of Kamet’s ambitions and had made his own estimation of Kamet’s strengths and foibles.  We can never know Gen’s mind (least of all if he tells it to us!), but we can judge Gen’s actions:  and Gen chose to steal Kamet from the Medes.

And there are a number of reasons to think Kamet is nearly as smart as he thinks he is. 

We readers met him, like we met Costis, at a nadir of his life; and we saw him, as we saw Costis in his book, unrelentingly pressed by challenges completely outside his previous experience, and feeling throughout the book humiliatingly unready to meet those new challenges. 

Our very sympathy at their predicament led us to underestimate them both.

But within Kamet’s area of expertise?  (Bearing in mind that the great failure of judgment which got him beaten so badly at the opening of the book was itself finally a clue, when Kamet finally came to consider it:  he should have been right, unless there was some major factor that had been hidden from him.)

How smart is Kamet really, and how competent?

For years he has administered Nahuseresh’s estates and monies.

He rescued Nahuseresh from Attolia, and Nahuseresh refuses to be parted from him. 

He survived the trip with Costis.  And contributed materially to their joint survival.

He recognized instantly when the King of Attolia entered the throne room that he’d been entirely misprizing him all this time, that this was a man of power, based solely on the reactions of others. Which he was too nearsighted even to see clearly!

(This incident also shows that Kamet can instantly cast aside a long-cherished conviction when presented with evidence that overturns it.) 

He figured out, correctly, where the ships must be, based solely on his understanding of how the Mede court works and Mede geography.  When that knowledge had been specifically concealed from him, and possibly even from his master.

He figured out almost immediately that neither spite nor friendship could account for Gen’s decision to steal him from Nahuseresh.

And he was stuffed full of intimate inside knowledge of how the Mede Empire and Court worked, Mede geography and politics, which he passed on in full to Attolis’s intelligencers….

*

So, yeah.  Kamet was well worth stealing even though, as it transpired, he’d never been explicitly told where the Emperor’s war fleet was anchored.  That Kamet could figure out that information despite its having been kept secret even from him just demonstrates how valuable an asset he’d have been to Emperor Naheeleed.  Particularly since, if Vizier Kamet had ever found out that the King of Attolia was that sandal-polisher he’d once befriended, he might have had a privileged insight into how the enemy’s mind operated.  (Not that that helped the Magus much in QoA…. but it is true that one of Gen’s standard cons is to induce people to underestimate him, and then take advantage of their misappraisal.  And it works less well with people who’d dealt with him before.)   

Indeed, notice that in KoA, Gen arranged for Costis to start learning Mede well before Relius’s Mede spies were returned to Attolia with the news about the armies massing and the hidden navy.  So, Gen’s plans to steal Kamet probably pre-date his need to find out where the navy is being hidden. 

Kamet is smart, and competent, and now allied with Attolis.


And, um.  Okay, I’m going out on a limb here.

But.  Our Gen’s such a sweet guy, isn’t he, sending Costis and Kamet (OTP!) off together to copy scrolls and incidentally do a little spying for Attolia….

At a port located just outside the Mede empire, if I remember the maps.

Erm.  A man who spent his life being groomed as the next administrator of the Mede Empire before his life was wrenched off course by The Thief.  Guarded by a man who’d once been in training to become the head of a Sovereign’s Guard, and has since had his training expanded. 

Both of them fiercely, personally, indebted to and loyal to Attolis.

I would hate to be all nasty and suspicious.  But if Gen ever decides that the best defense is a good offense, and that he can best protect the Peninsula from being invaded by the Medes by staging a Medean coup, he’s got the pair nicely positioned, doesn’t he? 

Comments

[jhawkgirl86.livejournal.com]

Terri_Testing, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I live for this kind of analysis. I’m going to print this out and read through it more carefully because I’m that much of a nerd. So I will have more specific comments later but I didn’t want to wait to say a hearty Well Done!

thank you!

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Hope you enjoy it as much on a close reading! I look forward to more in-depth comments.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Me, too, more later but for now I'd just add that I love how we see many characters (mostly Gen and Costis) through their own unreliable eyes, rather than get a true view of them and what others think of them. And you call Costis hot-headed several times but I wonder if he really is? He made that one mistake of punching Gen but I imagine he was prodded, over and over, into doing that by Gen himself. Gen, as we know, is an expert in poking people until he gets a reaction. Other than that one time, Costis is usually pretty level-headed and slow to react to things.

Costis: devotedly loyal once his loyalty was given, honorable, courageous—and also dogged, intelligent, and flexible enough to grow rather than break under Attolis’s unconventional training.

And handsome. And he can sing! You forgot those. :-)

and handsome and can sing!

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

OMG.

I left those out because I assumed they didn't play a major role in Gen's selection process.

But, um, the sandal-polisher knew Kamet pretty well.

So maybe...???

Thank you for expanding my thoughts! (And making me laugh uproariously.)

Hot-headed... now I have to reread TaT to review Costis through Kamet's eyes. But... in KOA I'm pretty sure he loses his temper with Aris, too, and with his peers over the assassin business. And his impulsive vow to the gods of ten goblets is not a "level-headed" response....

Plus, having to play nursemaid to Eugenides would RAPIDLY inculcate a sense of weary responsibility in ANYONE.


Thanks for your comments!

Re: and handsome and can sing!

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Chiming in with my two cents on FIGHTME!Costis, as myself and Tumblr are so fond of calling the hot-headed version of him... XD There is this line from KoA to consider...

"Costis paused to collect his temper. He had never felt so irrationally hot-blooded. He didn't like the feeling, though he knew other soldiers often did." p33 (ebook)

However, after Gen (and I quote) "drops him like a used glove" he wanders around town picking fights at all the local taverns. He loses it a few times in KoA when one thinks about it. When Gen is interviewing him, when he yells at the king's attendants on the roof, when he throws the stool Aris wanted to sit on... XD

During TaT, FIGHTME!Costis appears less, but there are two memorable instances. The first is when they are captured by the slavers, and Costis gets his berserk button pushed. The second time is when he tries to fight with every member of the Guard on the way to the palace.

So, so, so... The question of Costis being a hot-head... I think he is sometimes and sometimes he's very level-headed. Generally, when he does lose his temper, it almost always has something to do with Gen.

So, prior to meeting Gen did Costis lose his temper often enough to be considered a hot-head? It's hard to tell as we didn't know him before, but I will say it's a part of his personality that Gen is very good at bringing out!

[drollittle.livejournal.com]

I used to consider myself a calm level-headed person, but motherhood has given me some sympathy for Costis’ hot-headed side.

The more attached we become to amazing diminunitive people who constantly startle us and endanger themselves, the more easily we lose our tempers.

[whataliethatwas.livejournal.com]

I also think people are apt to behave differently when under periods of intense stress and pressure, which Costis is repeatedly throughout the books where we see him appear. Not only is Gen so very good at poking and prodding people to irritation, sort-of finding the internal levers that make them move, but Costis is brought smack up against some pretty life-altering circumstances that challenge some really deeply rooted beliefs and perspectives he has (like who the Gods are, what makes a king, what loyalty and honor really are, etc.). I don't necessarily think that Costis had a mild-mannered alter ego until Gen appeared, because he was already a promising soldier and leader in a strongly military country, but I imagine the stress of having to confront a big part of your world schema could have a pretty big impact on his levels of hot-headedness.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Let me start by saying you're a genius...

I really love this because it confirms suspicions I've had for a while. Suspicions that Gen has plans we still know nothing about and Kamet and Costis have something to do with it. I firmly support that Costis was chosen, at least in part, because Gen thought he'd work well with Kamet.

Also, one can understand why Kamet was frustrated in Attolia. He's being groomed for a position similar to the Magus, and here he is getting treated like a servant!

MWT's use of POV is so interesting, because it's true that smart and talented people often don't think of themselves as that smart or talented. Often times, we only see what we're not good at or what we don't like about ourselves. Using this effectively in a plot is so cool!

genius

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Modestly dusts off shoulder. Why thank you!

Costis was deliberately chosen and trained for that role, yes, and the timing of his learning Mede suggests Gen had Kamet's abduction in mind from the start.


And yes, of course Kamet was frustrated in Attolia. Not even a position similar to the Magus--a position of more real power than the Magus had, if still as a slave. (Which is the part it's hard for modern Americans to get; our model of slavery is the Confederacy, not the ancient world where slaves could be easily be prisoners of war of higher "birth" and education than their current owners, and might be entrusted by those owners with greater responsibilities than a freeborn employee or even most relatives.... Really, MWT was playing with our ignorance here, as well as POV, because Kamet SAYS repeatedly what his ambitions were, and we kept hearing just "slave.")


Yes on MWT's using effectively AS A PLOT DEVICE our tendency to see what we don't like about ourselves or what we're not good at. (She does it with Sophos too, to some extent, but it was mitigated by our having met Sophos first through Gen's eyes. And she does it with Irene about capacity for love, not intelligence or competence, in QoA.)

Really, Kamet is a good example of the opposite of the Dunning-Kruger Effect! Does that one have a name? If it doesn't, we can call it the Newton Effect, for Isaac:

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."


But really, when you think of it, wasting Kamet's and Costis's talents copying scrolls and mildly spying.... nah, it's a nice break for them both, but it doesn't wash as Gen's long-term plan for them.


And what ABOUT Dite, anyhow?

Re: genius

[whataliethatwas.livejournal.com]

I have to agree - this was deeply satisfying to read. I love the analysis of the different POV play here and the conclusions.

I've always felt Attolis' singling Costis out was very deliberate and that the infamous interaction on the castle roof was something of an invitation for Costis to take up some of the thief mantle as Gen's right hand, doing things he wasn't able to do any longer both because of missing a hand and as a king hampered by a very public persona and diplomatic necessity. But I hadn't followed the ramifications through to consider what might be the ultimate outcome. Gen has been a "kingmaker" a few times before, both with Helen and then himself, so it would be interesting to see if this theme comes in threes in this series. It would also be interesting if Gen's studies of past and current nations could lead to him knowing how to 'set right' the balance of power on the continent and the potential to steal another country through a brilliant tatical move. This is still a vague thought, but i wonder if Costis' training could lead him to a future position that's kind-of the best of both worlds, all the training that Gen can offer him, but also a fulfillment of the best of the military world, maybe something of a full circle resolution of some of Gen's own father/soldier issues.

Also, I think their excursion copying scrolls is very similar to the Magus' 'incarceration' in Eddis, where it is very real but also allows him to pursue a politically harmless (to date, anyway) interest and to be a lot more pleasant than Gen's own stint in prison. I think it's a nice touch that while his actions and decisions are very strategic and that he won't sacrifice success to kindness or friendship, he's still able to accomplsih his goals while making kind gestures. Like Dite being remved from the court and potentially sticky inheritance issues-- not to mention leverage against his brother-- and being placed in a court and position of potential influence, but that it's also exacty what Dite would love. Or the Magus, or Relius, or even Sophos in some ways.

The closest opposite to Dunning-Kruger I can think of is "Imposter Syndrome".

[rouan1.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to come up with some brilliant insights of my own but yours are so good, I can't think of anything else to add!

[jhawkgirl86.livejournal.com]

First of all let me say again what an excellent job you’ve done with this. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your analysis and insight and I think your conclusions are spot on. I’m going to try to exercise some self-restraint here and limit myself to a few comments. (Trust me, I could babble on and on.)

Oh my goodness, I loved the point about the word “vizier” and what that role would entail! How stealing Kamet doesn’t just remove a valuable tool from the Empire, but also turns that tool directly against them. It kind of makes me wonder about the part where Kamet meets Melheret on the stairs and he is given one last chance to return to his previous position. Did Melheret really understand the degree to which Kamet could be used against them? Because, honestly, it seems like he should have just shot Kamet in the head rather than let him go. And when Kamet says, “I’ll never know if Eugenides would have honored the diplomatic agreements because I didn’t take the ambassador’s hand,” I have to think that there was no way Kamet could have been allowed to go back to the Empire with all that knew about Eugenides at that point.

It also makes so much sense that Eugenides wants much more information from Kamet than just the location of the Mede navy. When I read that part of the book it bugged me because Eugenides seemed too unconcerned with Kamet’s initial response of ignorance. Like he gave up too easily, saying, basically, “Well, it was worth a try.” Honestly? After all the expenditure of time, money, personnel--everything that Costis and Kamet went through in this entire narrative? It seemed like he would ask some follow-up questions or do something to try extract any knowledge Kamet might have that could help reveal this vital bit of information.

I also really liked your point about how Kamet immediately recognized he had been entirely wrong about Attolis, and how he was willing to “instantly cast aside a long-cherished conviction when presented with evidence that overturns it.” Kamet’s own prejudices had led him to view the king as weak and petty; now he repeatedly describes him as ruthless, cunning, and manipulative. “What a piece of work he was,” Kamet writes. “I don’t know why I like him as much as I do.” (Gen does seem to have quite the talent for turning enemies into devoted allies!)

Of course these prejudices were not unique to Kamet but were common to those who viewed themselves and their Empire as the apex of civilization. But unlike Kamet, most were not able to reorient their thinking, a fact that Eugenides ruthlessly exploits. The book ends with the “Envoy” vignette, and these words:

“It was Melheret’s unfortunate task to persuade his emperor that the king of Attolia was a threat. The sinking of the Imperial fleet should have been evidence enough, but Melheret knew that men far more powerful than he were scrambling to convince the emperor that the catastrophe had been an accident, a fluke, entirely unpredictable and no fault of theirs. Certainly it could not be the result of Eugenides’s careful plans. The Attolian king’s intelligence, his ruthlessness, his cunning were going to be obscured by distance and no matter how much the ambassador tried to convince them that the new king of Attolia was dangerous, the Imperial Court was only going to hear that he was an irresponsible fool who stole the ambassador’s statue.”

I like your idea about Eugenides going on the offensive against the Empire. He wants to fight them on his terms. And I think he’s always working a lot of angles and manipulating a lot of people. What exactly is up with those scrolls, anyway? What’s going on with the Braelings? These guys got way too much screen time all of a sudden to not be significant. We may not know all of Eugenides’s master plan, but, as you have so eloquently described, we know he’s got one.

Melheret

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and you've sparked some additional thoughts.


Melheret on the stairs... well, remember Attolis tells Kamet that night he'll be safe from Melheret because the Mede wasn't given enough gold to buy assassins. Why wasn't he? Presumably because the Emperor doesn't think it worth the diplomatic incident it would be to assassinate Attolis's guest in Attolis's palace.


But also--Melheret knows how tricky Gen is, as you pointed out. But the others back in the Empire do not; Gen has succeeded in making them underestimate him.

But conversely, there is no reason to suppose that Melheret ever knew that Kamet was being trained as the next Emperor's vizier. (Or he might have taken the risk of killing him directly--Melheret IS loyal to his Empire. So far.) Kamet, merely by being Nahuseresh's secretary (particularly during Nahuseresh's embassy), would have learned things it would not be good (for the Empire) for the Little Peninsula to be privy to. Melheret might not know that Kamet knew anything more than his own Ansel might, or might be more valuable to Attolis than his own Ansel would be (and, er, IS).... although still Melheret argued futilely for moving the fleet just because that bastard Attolis is that tricky.


But you've reminded me of something else about Melheret--the REASON he doesn't underestimate Gen NOW is because he figured out how brilliantly he was played in CoK. He, Melheret, one of the best swordsmen in the Empire, who TRAINED the Emperor's family, was lured by Attolis into, in effect, teaching the assembled Eddisian master swordsmen all the Mede tricks of swordplay.


Wanna place bets on whether Melheret also helped train the Namreen? And that part of Gen's purpose in getting the Eddisians to figure out specifically how to defeat that style of fighting was so the Eddisians could then teach Costis?

Remember how impressed Kamet was that Costis could take out the Namreen? Which makes more sense if Costis was specifically trained in how to do so! Don't you love how MWT fits things together?


The Braelings…. hmm. Remember how Sophos' father and uncle both underestimated the dangers posed to Sounis's sovereignty by the Mede because they were more concerned about their neighbors to the west.... Whatever Gen's plans, I think he's well aware how the Little Peninsula has depended on the balance of power between the greater ones.

Thanks for your comments!

Further questions and theories- Part 1

[(Anonymous)]

This is a two part- livejouranal won't let me post in one go.

Some questions and theories have formed in my mind since re-reading Thick as Thieves, and browsing through King of Attolia to get more insight into Costis and Gen.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Attolians appear to be pretty handy with 'substances'- I'm thinking of the coleus leaf that Irene used to neatly poison her first husband, and the regular drugging of Gen with lethium after his injuries, and the all-important quinalums used to bring down Sejanus and the House of Erondites.

Considering that Costis was a farm boy before Teleus brought him into the Guard, I'd like to add another possible skill to his already impressive arsenal: if not botany, then at least basic agriculture. In his letter from Roa, Kamet mentions that Costis has been 'hiking the surrounding hills all day, bringing home grubby specimens to fill the house. I think he's beginning to like them."

That last sentence I find interesting in that he probably wasn't performing the task out of enjoyment, but because he was required to do so as his part of the mission in Roa, along with mapping out observation points. In fact, Gen mentions to Kamet that "The Duke of Ferria is already sending scholars, so you would not be the only foreigner in town, and your arrival would be unremarkable."

Not the only foreigner in town, eh?

Enter the Magus- In QOA, he was out collecting weeds when Helen and Gen go to visit shortly after Gen steals him, and when asked, he's mentioned that he does this on behalf of a 'friend':

"Yes, I didn't know you had an interest in botany," said Eddis.
"I don't really. I have a friend who does. He isn't well enough to travel and relies on acquaintances to send him samples and drawings. And how is your war progressing?" he asked, declining to be sidetracked by scholarly inquiry.

Now that everyone's on the same side, my bet is that a friend of the magus is a friend of Gen's. In fact, this friend might make an appearance, and I'm thinking we're in for some epic drugging/poisoning/botanical mischief. Poison is also particularly special to Kamet's original flight from the Medes, so I think it definitely has to play a role.

I can also see the three of them (Magus, Costis, Kamet) getting along like a house on fire. Wasn't the Magus collecting folktales and stories at one point? He'd have a field day with Kamet. In fact, I'd argue the Magus as being something of a combination of Costis and Kamet, considering his 'reputation as a soldier was only just overweighed by his reputation as a scholar', and his importance to Sounis. This all supports terry_testing's idea that Gen might be planning some sort of attack from Roa.

Someone mentioned Dite, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of the 'scholars' sent by the Duke of Ferria. With that said, I really want to know more about this Duke, and how Gen has such a solid relationship with the guy that he can extract close personal favours (the creation of a position for Dite), and possibly get his support for his plans to strike at the Mede empire. They must have a really interesting back story. Maybe one of Gen's sisters is married to him?

MWT has mentioned in an interview that she enjoys including fan service moments into the current book she's writing for those in the know, and what would be a better fan service moment than a big Favourite Character Party- everyone finally meets everyone else in Roa to strategize, fraternize, and snark.

Re: Further questions and theories- Part 2

[(Anonymous)]

On a somewhat unrelated note, I also wanted to examine the Envoy epilogue. I find the figurine of Prokip worth further study based on Gen's interest in it. He's not mentioned often in TAT, but I'm wondering if they are somehow linked in that Prokip and Gen share some key traits.
In one of the stories that Kamet tells, we know that Ennikar 'followed the herds of the god Prokip" - and isn't one of Eddis' key resources sheep and goats? Also, Attolia has called Gen 'Goatfoot' a few times in QOA.
Additionally, this particular statue has had its right hand broken off to appease the gods, and Gen is notably missing his right hand. What I also find fascinating is that Kamet's praying revealed that Prokip is the god of Justice. We know the gods get involved directly, and we know the characters who are aware of the reality of the gods are concerned about overreaching, so it's possible that Prokip will be making an appearance, possibly punishing the Medes for doing so by assisting Gen, and bringing balance to the region.

Lastly, I want to bring up the general danger of being a servant/ report with direct access to anyone Gen has targeted. Outside of kidnapping/freeing Kamet, and using Costis to change Teleus, I think the lesson of Ambiades has clearly made an impression- he stole the magus in QOA by bribing his most recent apprentice, and he's clearly suborned Ansel, the servant to the Mede Ambassador.
I thought Ansel is a worth a closer look based on his observation that "the Attolian king paid well, and he was a dangerous man to cross". He's clearly more fearful of Gen than he is Melheret, and I'm curious how he knows that Gen is a dangerous man to cross. Did he find out firsthand? What else has he done in service to Gen?

I think Ansel will have a key role to play as he's probably one of the very few (possibly only) people in the Mede empire that Gen has direct access to and control of, and Ansel will not only have access to new political information in his service to the Ambassador, but also physical access to the key decision makers in the Mede Empire. He might be involved in planting poison, or passing messages.

Apologies for the disjointedness- I wanted to get all this out before I went to bed.
Any thoughts?

Re: Further questions and theories- Part 2

[frosted-feather.livejournal.com]

Great connection about the statue, the god Prokip, and Gen: "this particular statue has had its right hand broken off to appease the gods, and Gen is notably missing his right hand." It would be super cool if Prokip, or some related god, found Gen intriguing and sympathetic. I wondered how Ennikar and his friend would relate to an Attolian king from across the water in a completely different country, and why they gave help to Kamet and Costis.

It's fun to think that Gen himself has been found interesting. (Of course he has!). Though Gen couldn't possibly be aware of catching a god's attention while he sent Costis on his mission.