-How (and why) does Samsango go the thousand steps up and down to get supplies? He’s so old...They need a better supply system, maybe with a basket like at the Eyrie. Or the ushiri’im should do it via the Gray Space. But that’s probably beneath them.
-Fikiri is still a nice person here
-”John felt the air around Fikiri’s hands writhing as if it were in agony.” That’s so interesting! The Gray Space is so utterly foreign to John that he can’t view it with anything but revulsion and feels physically repelled by it. I mean, it can kill him, so in hindsight, that’s absolutely logical.. We also know that basically everyone except Ravishan does it wrong, so maybe he’s not wrong about the air
-Ravishan is so brave to be standing up to Dayyid (even if he does forget John for a moment in their battle of wills, lol). I can see how he got his hair cut!
-I like Hann’yu. I’m glad John has him as a friend. He needs all the support he can get!
-I think I can see glimpses of Dayyid having soemthing else inside him than just malice. He cares for the ushiri’im, at least for some of them, and he is so hard to them to prepare them for the fight against the Fai’daum. I’m glad he is a more nuanced character that it seemed at first, but I still hate him.
-”...but the speculation that he harbored some kind of strange power within him made him uncomfortable.” Oh my sweet summer child...
-They place way too much importance on bones in Basawar. There are other materials, you know. You don’t have to make everything from bone.
-Once again, John stares at a statue of what is basically himself. He also feels he smiles at himself
-Dayyid is right in one point at least: john’s first experience with the Gray Space would have killed him (at least if it lasted long enough)
-John really doesn’t like being in the spotlight, does he?
-it’s not so surprising that the Payshmura religion is so violent once you know their version of the creation of the world
-Women are very much subjugated in Basawar. Is that at least in part because the first Rifter was a woman, and too powerful?Do they, on a very mythological, nearly forgotten level, subjugate women to keep the destructive energy at bay?Or how else do they explain subjugating one gender when their God can basically be whatever, and it is known that he can take human form?
- numbering pages is an abomination unto Nuggan
-Hann’yu sees a lot. I think he sees more of Ravishan’s crush on John than John does, especially since he still insists on seeing Ravishan as some innocent he might defile, whereas Hann’yu has seen Ravishan grow and knows he is no longer a child
-I wonder how they learned English pronunciation from one children’s book
-John understands so much here and yet gets everything wrong.
-”What an awful thing to have to ell someone: you’re the Rifter, the living incarnation of destruction, desolation, and death. He couldn’t even imagine how much worse it would be to be told such a thing.” That almost seems to on the nose here, and still the first time, I had no idea...also, it is so ironic it’s kind of hilarious. And heartbreaking.
-John still tends to simultaneously feel responsible for and underestimate Bill and Laurie. Even though he is right that practicing witchcraft is a very, very risky thing to do
-Bill and Laurie are a really nice couple. I still wonder if they had ended up together anyway, without coming to Basawar.
-John sees very clearly the ways Bill and Laurie have been changed by Basawar. What about John himself, though? How has he changed?
-One thing that certainly hasn’t changed is always getting caught making out with boys...only that now, the consequences are much worse
-It’s good to see that they still share an easy friendship, even if it’s more strained now and the easiness takes longer to appear (and won’t last much longer)
