In the second chapter of Melting Stones, Evvy meets her guides through the Battle Islands. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Melting Stones.
Trigger Warning: For discussion of trauma, PTSD, and torture.
Goddamn, I’m already loving this. Evvy is such a direct narrator, and it enables Pierce to communicate a lot in very little space. Evvy’s relationships with the people around her are very stark because of this, so there’s no mystery here. We open on her trip with Luvo down to the bottom of the ocean, and I adored learning about them through their conversation. And that’s what I mean about the narration. I could tell that Evvy had a deep respect for Luvo, but they’re both close enough to joke with one another. I mean, COME ON:
I believe it is only you human meat creatures who worship things, Evumeimei.
HUMAN. MEAT. CREATURES. How could you not fall in love with this beautiful being??? But this moment of cuteness and wonder is immediately ruined by Dedicate Myrrhtide, who makes the mistake of touching Evvy during one of her mage trances. We’d read about Evvy’s no-touching rule in the last chapter, but here, Pierce shows us exactly why Evvy has it:
Terror flooded me. I forgot where I was. I thought I was a captive. A man’s face was too close to mine. I couldn’t breathe. Was I back in Gyongxe? That was it – I was the prisoner of the emperor’s soldiers. They beat me last time! They’d beat me again to make me tell on my friends!
OH. OH. You know, after The Will of the Empress, I should have anticipated that Pierce would address the affects of war on Evvy. Like Briar, she had an awful and traumatic experience, and it’s in this chapter (THE SECOND ONE, WHAT THE HELL) that we learn what she went through. Well, at least part of it, that is. Y’all, she was tortured for information about… well, I’m guessing Briar and Rosethorn. She had her feet whipped with a cane. How old was she when that happened? Thirteen? Less? I can’t quite remember how old she was in Street Magic, but I suppose that’s beside the point. Torture changes a person, and the problem here is that Dedicate Myrrhtide refuses to accept that Evvy was harmed by her experience:
“When I told you don’t touch me to wake me, ever, because I’ve been in a war and I react violently, you respected me.” For a plant person, Rosethorn could sound like iron when she made a point with someone stupid. “Evvy was in that same war. She fought as hard as any adult – harder, sometimes. Yet you refuse to acknowledge that she may suffer the same effects. I told you not to grab her. I said she might panic if she saw a man’s face so close to hers when she came out of a trance–”
Pierce has a repeated motif in many of her novels, but especially in her Emelan books. Because these characters are so young, they face a kind of ageism where adults routinely misjudge them, underestimate them, and treat them as children are stereotypically treated in this world. That’s manifested frequently as mages reacting to the core foster-siblings as if they all lied about their magical abilities. Here, though, Myrrhtide’s disbelief is a lot more damaging. He’s a hypocrite, believing Rosethorn’s trauma but rejecting Evvy’s. That’s a horrible thing, and her unintentional harm of him is the consequence. Now, this isn’t a universal experience, obviously. My own PTSD manifests in an entirely different way, and I have much different triggers than Evvy. But the framework is here to understand what they are, why they happen, and why we should care about it.
And I love that. So much.
Anyway, the Battle Islands!!! We’ve finally made it to them within an Emelan book, and I’m thrilled to see what Pierce is going to do with them. (And how she’ll ruin me. Because we know she will.) What little we learn of them here reminded me of the Trickster series, especially if this is a culture that is wary of outsiders. At least, that’s the vibe I got from Myrrhtide, you know? Of course, he doesn’t exactly seem to be a good judge of character, so WHATEVER. When Oswin and Jayat both show up and introduce themselves as the group’s guides, I thought Myrrhtide was premature in his judgment of these people. They are really nice! And Myrrhtide is FUCKING AWFUL. Oh my god, I don’t like him at all. I don’t think I’m supposed to, but still! How can one person be so arrogant and entitled? God, he even makes a stink about Rosethorn being a great mage in front of Jayat and Oswin. DUDE. STOP IT.
I predict his attitude will backfire. Horribly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWSdVQKNBk8
Mark Links Stuff
– I am now on Patreon!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME.
– IÂ will be at Borderlands Books, Book Riot Live, and Windycon this fall! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates / Appearances page.
– My Master Schedule is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often. My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be Kings, season 1 of Sense8, season 1 of Agent Carter, seasons 1 & 2 of The 100, Death Note, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series will replace the Emelan books.
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