In the ninth chapter of The Will of the Empress<\/i>, Sandry makes her first noble decree, gets closer to Daja, and visits a new part of her lands. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Will of the Empress<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of abuse<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Oh, so much to discuss! Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get to it.<\/p>\n
Halmar and Gudruny<\/b><\/p>\n
I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect Pierce to deal with this so quickly, but HERE WE ARE. Everyone in the Landreg Castle is woken up by the unholy screaming of Halmar, Gudruny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s husband, who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really think through his confrontation here. Waking up an entire noble house early in the morning? Oh, sir, you may want to approach this again. In a different way. By NOT KIDNAPPING A WOMAN AND FORCING INTO A MARRIAGE AND THEN ABUSING HER AND HER CHILDREN FOR YEARS.<\/p>\n
Seriously, fuck Halmar. I was so pleased by his treatment here, especially since I was so worried that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get a bad ending to this. I initially expected this to be part of a longer plot thread, and then when I realized it was not, I expected the worst. I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even remembered that Sandry was able to give Gudruny her freedom, according to the law, so I defaulted to the most cynical outcome. I thought that Ambros would stop Sandry and reveal some other awful custom that would mean Gudruny had to stay with her abusive husband. Instead, I get Ambros threatening to have Halmar flogged for being so openly disrespectful. YES. Y E S<\/i>.<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of compassion in what Sandry and Daja do for Gudruny, though, and I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important. I was shocked by Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offer to make Gudruny a maid and<\/i> house her children, too. It does solve two problems at once, since Sandry won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem like she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shirking the culture she belongs to, and she can get Gudruny out of a toxic situation. But I was most impressed by Daja\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role here, especially since I did not expect her to interact with Gudruny at all. I love Daja\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quiet compassion, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on display beautifully here. Even though she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s curt when she talks about the basics of interaction with Sandry and the other mages, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s respectful. When she asks Gudruny about her (now ex-) husband, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with a short, succinct question, not a long, drawn-out affair. She gives Gudruny the chance to say as much as she wants, and I adore that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this that we learn just how horrific Halmar was to her, so it makes me even happier to know that Sandry took her away from that.<\/p>\n
Rejoined<\/b><\/p>\n
I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DEAL WITH THIS.<\/p>\n
Daja came over and kissed her cheek. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ah. You did it just to silence the servants,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. Inside, through her magic, she added, But you still have a heart bigger than all Emelan<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Sandry smiled, her lips trembling. If this morning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work brought one of my sisters back into my heart, then this whole trip was worth it<\/i>, she replied through their now open magical connection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
NO, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M NOT EMOTIONAL. YOU<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE<\/i> EMOTIONAL.<\/p>\n
Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Duty<\/b><\/p>\n
I feel like with each new chapter, I get a better understanding of how intimidating Empress Berenene is and<\/i> how manipulative she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a moment in the first half of chapter nine where Sandry wonders aloud in front of Daja how she could ever return home to Emelan without affronting those who rely on the success of her lands. Even if you remove Berenene\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which I realize is not something you can<\/i> divorce from this problem \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sandry would still have a complicated problem to deal with. Gudruny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence is evidence of that, especially since Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother flat-out ignored the woman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pleas twice<\/i>. In short? Sandry doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be that kind of noble. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore the needs of the people living on her lands or to view them as numbers on a tax record.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Ambros, despite being a lovely and caring steward, has had<\/i> to view the problems of the Landreg estates in this manner. Tris is the one to figure out that Ambros\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s records clearly show that Empress Berenene used royal taxation as leverage to strain Ambros so much that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have<\/i> to ask Sandry to come home. Well, these are Landregs we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about, the family who breeds mules and develops temperaments much like the animals, too. Ealaga confirms this for Tris and Sandry, noting that her husband was too prideful to tell Sandry the truth. Which I get! He never really knew Sandry well enough to feel comfortable approaching her with the issue.<\/p>\n
And lo and behold: once Sandry notified the empress that she was heading north, the taxes were lifted. Great<\/i>. We now know just how Berenene plans to keep Sandry around, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a doozy. How the hell could Sandry go home, knowing that taxes would be raised on her lands indefinitely until Berenene got what she wanted? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basically a royal temper tantrum, if you ask me, and Berenene is a bully for enacting it.<\/p>\n
At least the visit to Pofkim village is not as disastrous as I thought it would be. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sad, of course, to know that Ambros could not afford to give these people the help they needed after flooding nearly wiped their village away. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the economic and political reality of this world. Ambros had to balance many interests at once, and Berenene\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cruel taxation was her way of punishing Sandry by punishing everyone underneath her. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of like those teachers who would discipline an entire class for what one person did, except imagine if the rest of the class got a worse<\/i> punishment than the offender. In her own way, though, Sandry is fighting back against this. She offers to sell all of her emeralds to pay for repairs at Pofkim, which is a sign that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still willing to eschew the normal traditions of a noble. She cares \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps more than anyone in Emelan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so wonderful to watch her get to work.<\/p>\n
Tris<\/b><\/p>\n
NO.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You show them you care about them by looking after their welfare,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she heard Tris reply. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you believe her when she says put whatever funds you need into help for your tenants? Because she means it. She won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask you later what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done with her emeralds. When she gives her word, you may trust it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Whenever she makes me truly cross, I have to remember she says things like this, thought Sandry as she acknowledged Maghen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s curtsy. I still wish she hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t closed herself off from me, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so glad she came!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M NOT CRYING. YOU ARE<\/i>. TOTALLY NOT EMOTIONAL.<\/p>\n
The original text contains use of the words “mad” and “crazy.”<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xPAB8OMJIXg<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S. this summer and fall Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the ninth chapter of The Will of the Empress, Sandry makes her first noble decree, gets closer to Daja, and visits a new part of her lands. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Will of the … Continue reading