When they leave Landreg, Sandry also leaves behind written instructions saying Ambros can sell her jewels and such to pay for the care of the estates, and also that he can forgo sending her a salary if it’s needed.  Tris thinks that’s not really good enough, because she’s still leaving the estate vulnerable, so Sandry…goes on a tirade about how they’re her lands, and it’s a point of pride, and stuff about being tried to tradition and a place in the world? What would Erin Jeffreys Hodges say?

Look, I actually like what Sandry’s saying here.  Not because I think it’s right, but it’s a good bit of character, showing her values and thoughts and priorities.  And it’s appropriate that she should have them.  But…see, I know how this ends, and clearly the author knows how this ends, but the characters themselves seem to have missed a few points, because literally no one has yet offered an opinion on what Sandry should do.  She’s reacting as if Tris has said “give them to Ambros, already,” but nothing even remotely akin to that has been said.  Heck, no one’s even said “you should stay here” or offered any sort of opinion on what should be done.  All they’ve offered is general, formless, thoroughly unhelpful disgruntlement.

This entire sub-plot has been, “Sandry, I don’t like what you’re doing, so I’m just going to state that and then run away in a huff.  You’re offended by that?  God, you’re such a noble.”

I can see that happening, especially with Tris, but it would be nice if Sandry would, you know, call them out on it.  She usually does when they’re being unreasonable.

Also, Zhegorz’s deus-ex-metallica glasses work like a charm.

The group moves into the palace instead of Sandry’s town home, and then they complain about how hard it is to have maids assigned to help them!  Oh, gasp and horrors!  I know they’re supposed to be showing off their humility here, but it’s weird when it’s also juxtaposed with Gudruny explaining that no one is impressed.

While Tris is settling in, Ishabal comes in to basically bribe her into service.  Despite making a very good pitch (seriously, all the money you could want, time for personal projects, and choice what your employment actually entails?), Tris says no because she thinks the empress would eventually ask for war magic, and Tris doesn’t want to go around killing anyone.  …which is a valid concern, but I don’t think anyone in any of her books has actually asked that of her, which makes her flat insistence here come out of the blue.  We see other people working as weather witches, enough that “weather witch” is actually an oft-used term in the books.  Why does she think she can’t be employed to do that?

Given Tris’s level of power, I’ve no doubt that people have tried to use it to damaging ends.  That’s no contested.  I’m just saying that her level of resistance requires a bit more show than tell.

Everyone goes to a ball the next night, and after a parade of random brief scenes, we finally settle on Daja and Rizu going outside for a “breath of fresh air.”  Daja calls her beautiful, to which Rizu kisses her, then is embarrassed for doing so.  Which, given the tolerance of the setting, ends up being adorable instead of scared, because the worst she can face is rejection in this singular instance.  Fortunately, Daja is super happy to realize she enjoys kissing Rizu, and they happily run off to snog each other senseless.

But since Daja is now telepathically linked to Sandry, Sandry gets a burst of “OH HAI, HAPPY NOW” while in the middle of dancing with Fin, and she freaks out trying to throw up mental blocks so she doesn’t turn into a Peeping Tom by accident.  She goes outside to escape the crowd, only to run into Shan, more flirting, and this time kisses.  She gets flustered because she just got a burst of feelz from Daja, and she can’t tell the difference between that and Shan, so she ends up flailing around a lot and running back inside.  Poor girl just can’t catch a break tonight!

We get a POV switch over to Fin, and he’s hopping mad that she (to all appearances) ditched him on the dance floor to flirt with Shan and then dance with other guys.  So he’s all set to start plotting something, which I guess we’ll get to tomorrow.  Mwahahahahaha.