The next day, they’re due to go see the empress in court, and Sandry is fussing over their clothes because she doesn’t want the people there to look down on them.  Briar thinks that’s silly because they’ll still be the same whether or not a bunch of nobles know it.

“Don’t talk nonsense.  These people matter to Sandry, so they should matter to you.”

HELLS YEAH, DAJA, YOU TELL ‘IM!  Reputation does matter; it changes how people treat you and can make your dealings with them harder or easier.  Also, don’t dismiss the concerns of people you care about, since you’re supposed to care about them and all.

When they get announced to court, they’re introduced with ‘mage’ as their title instead of ‘mr/miss.’  Aaaand…yeah, this effects no real change, because we didn’t get to see them being treated as non-mages.  So, “um, okay, moving on”?

To make herself forget jealous mages, she surveyed the room as if she would have to describe it in an exercise for one of her former teachers.

First, wtf kind of exercise would that be?  Second, this book has never shied away from straight-up describing stuff, so I have no idea why it feels an excuse is necessary this time.  A new setting warrants a description, that’s all we need.

Daja notes that the men are all good looking and in their 20s and 30s, but the women span all ages, which is a nice reversal of what we usually get.  I mean, the most powerful figure here is a sexually active and “cater to me or else” kind of woman, and the setting responds to that instead of defaulting to using women as baubles as if that’s the only way to do things.  But it doesn’t go in the other direction and make the women all ugly due to ‘jealousy,’ it just notes that women can be anything and men are all of a specific aesthetic.  Which isn’t treated as right, because it’s no more right than when done to women, but it does bring up the issue of “this is very much a thing that is done by the people in power and not something natural.”  And that’s worth talking about.

They meet Berenene’s chief mage, Ishabal, and exchange pleasant chatter, as custom demands.  They talk mostly of the things that happened in previous books to make each of the kids so famous. 

Then the empress has a little test for Sandry, showing her a “gift” that she got from the ruler of a country she’s at war with.  It’s a bolt of cloth, and she asks Sandry to examine it, and Sandry sees there’s a subtle curse woven into it.  Under the guise of saying “oh, it’s so lovely, I should send a gift of equal value back, but what would be equal to this?” Berenene is basically asking “so, what do you think I should do about this assassination attempt short of burning my political bridges?”

Sandry replies with “oh, this is far too fine to be wasted on us uncultured Westerners, maybe you should make a robe for this guy’s diplomat?  😀 😀 :D” because pretty much all of politics is doing nasty stuff with a smile so you can pretend you didn’t know it would kill people.

POLITICS!

Berenene sics some eligible young men on Sandry to flirt with her.  When that gets old of looking at, Daja wanders away to help out one of the court ladies named Rizu, since she’s having a hard time getting a stuck door open.  Rizu, btw, is very pretty and friendly. 😀

Tris takes herself off to the library, because that’s what Tris does. 😀

Briar wanders around the crowd and still doesn’t understand the value of putting up a good first impression, because he yells at some other guys for doing the mage version of “I’ve got a stronger handshake than you.”  Oh, Briar.  You’re so wrong, but in such a loveable way.  I mean, to a certain extent, it is silly.  On the other hand, it’s natural to want to know where you stand in the pecking order of things, especially as regards something that has a pecking order like magic power.  A secretive dark horse character is going to be suspicious because they could be anything at all, and therefore you have to assume they’re the strongest/worst because underestimating them could be disastrous.   So instead of saying “no, leave me alone,” Briar really should be trying to stand his ground or appear weak, depending on what he wants to accomplish. 

See, if you look powerful, people don’t mess with you.  It’s why bodyguards tend to be big and bulky, even though a slight person could do the fighting just as well.  The point isn’t to be able to fight off anyone, the point is to not have to fight off anyone because no one even dares to try.  But if you want to surprise people, either because you’re trying to trap them or because you know they’ll make an attempt either way, then you go for a weaker appearance, so they think they have you pegged and underestimate you.  And Briar basically is a bodyguard here; it’s the entire reason Verdis asked him and the others to tag along.

But Briar wasn’t raised with any of these considerations.  He was raised on the streets and went straight from that to a very egalitarian setting, so it makes sense that he’d insist that everyone just chill out and be equal. 

Of course then Quinaill comes by and agrees that such things are pointless in the real world, so I think the book agrees with Briar instead of painting him as an out of touch academic, and that makes me frown.

They chat for a while as they walk through the gardens, and the Briar gets distracted by plants, as Briar tends to do.  Berenene shows up to also chat about plants, because she really likes them, too.    She invites him into her greenhouse (if you know what I mean) and he gets all smug because, no, really, she seriously likes her plants and so getting to go to the greenhouses is a personal compliment. 

Briar, of course, is properly smug about this. 😀