Not going to lie, a lot of the books published after Issola are very hazy for me about where they land in the chronology, so thank goodness that Tsalmoth was a recent publication, or I'd have forgotten about it and left it off far too soon.
The next book in line for me is Jhereg, and I'm fairly sure that the sequence from there goes Teckla, Phoenix, Jhegaala, Athyra, Orca, Issola, Dzur. Tiassa is partly early days, but I believe the bulk of it is post-Issola, so I'm putting it off. I need to figure out where Iorich, Hawk, and Vallista land exactly.
My husband and I started watching The Sopranos right around when I started Tsalmoth, and that led to a whole lot of mental crossed wires, which resulted in this:
As always, spoilery stuff below.
So right off the bat, this is a book written post-Issola, but takes place before it. So every fuckin chance he gets, Vlad gives us more substance on any interaction with Lady Teldra.
We walked up to the great double doors of Castle Black, which swung open as we approached. They do that. If I knew how to make my doors do that, well, I guess I probably wouldn't. But it's a nice effect, you know? And even nicer with Lady Teldra framed in the doorway, in her green and white and smile and all like that.
AUGH
Lady Teldra, of course, was perfect, on Noish-pa's arm, waving to everyone we passed and appearing to have the time of her life.
AUGH AUGH MY FUCKIN HEARRRRRRTTTTTT
Also there's a bit in Dragon that I almost included in my previous post about Aliera waving at Vlad & Morrolan and how weird a mental picture that was (especially given that this is the Aliera literally days from having returned from the Paths of the Dead), but Lady Teldra waving to everyone is 10000% believable.
K I'm going to have a little cry and come back to this.
There's a few references to queer relationships in this one. The first clear reference to queer characters that I remember came in Tiassa, although I also have a vague memory of Sethra referring to an early early character in Dragaeran history changing their gender (or having an ambiguous one), so there's also that. Assuming I'm remembering correctly.
Waaay back in Five Hundred Years After, there's a bit that talks about how Morrolan's parents got together, so the opening to chapter 2 with Vlad speculating that Dragons court while on the battlefield makes me happy.
There have already been a few references here and there about reincarnation, and the sometimes weird way souls behave. I know there's a moment in Jhereg where Vlad learns that he is a reincarnated Dragaeran later in the series, so moments when Vlad says something like "I don't know, I've never been married as a Dragaeran. Unless, you know, that reincarnation thing is real, and even then I don't remember, so ask someone else" are super fun.
Our boy can't even be 25 yet and already his memory is like Swiss cheese...
And now, a series of lines that I found Interesting as I read this:
"... and Morrolan wondered what it would be like to care about someone that much..."
Interesting...
"[Aliera] approached him, touched his head, and Morrolan felt the tunneling flare of energy from the orb coming to and from her."
This might be nothing, but I don't know that it's ever really been described quite like that, how a wizard can actually feel the flow of energy from the Orb to another wizard when that other wizard is casting a spell. Interesting.
"The Necromancer repeated the word, that is, my name, and I felt a sudden jolt, and then it was like I was cold for a second, then it went away."
Morrolan was present at this moment. Morrolan knows Vlad's demon name. INTERESTING.
The way the end goes, it could easily be read that Verra did something to the memories of many people regarding Vlad's demonism, but even if Vlad is her specialist little guy, it's hard for me to imagine her wiping the memory of her specialist big boi Morrolan for him, or her actual daughter. Cawti has the strongest likelihood for getting mind-wiped, but it's all likely that everyone else remembers but just never brings it up because Vlad doesn't.
