Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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After the transcript of a somewhat degraded message seemingly from Riddle to Nettle, “Perseverance” opens with Bee musing bitterly on Shun’s influence on Fitz and Riddle, noting the men’s failures of her in favor of the elder. Changes ongoing at Withywoods attract her attention, not entirely favorably, and she puts in at the stables, assessing the mare that she had been told had long since been assigned to her. While there, she encounters a stable boy who introduces himself as Per and the mare as Dapple. Per explains that he is truly named Perseverance and that he will later be called Tallestman after he exceeds the height of his father–Tallerman–who himself exceeds the height of his father, Tallman.

The pair, Per and Bee, confer further, the former noting at the latter’s suggestion that a better name for the horse than Dapple is Priss. Bee agrees, and she accepts Per’s offer of readying the animal for riding, despite her trepidation. With his further assistance, she mounts and begins to ride, albeit with him guiding both girl and beast. The exercise concludes successfully, and Bee determines to attempt it again the next day.

Bee withdraws to her private sanctum in the hidden corridors of Withywoods, considering the cloak she has made her own. Taking it up, she stalks out covertly into the manor, watching. As she does, she sees FitzVigilant arrive at Withywoods, assessing him from his appearance and demeanor as he is greeted by a servant and starts for his accommodations.

Bee is disturbed from her musings by the arrival of the cat in her acquaintance. She reluctantly admits the cat into her warren of corridors, making provision for it and offering a warning. The cat agrees to assist her in exchange for further consideration, and the two seem to begin to form a bond.

The present chapter is another relatively brief one, shy of ten pages in the edition of the text I am reading–and I am reminded once again that I really ought to spend some time with a full set of the Fitz-centric Elderlings novels in a single edition so I can pull out page-lengths. It’s a project for another time, one of the many “somedays” I’ve seen as I’ve worked through the rereading and even before, when the pages of my personal journals boasted ideas for papers to be written and how rather than focusing on the shapes of my days and the experiences of my loved ones in them. (I do think the current use of those pages is a better one; I think that my daughter, and maybe some others to follow her, will get some good from the daily record that they cannot from my scholarly ambitions. But the earlier use remains on the pages I used to write no less than in the pixels I produce.) I still don’t know what, if anything, looking at that kind of data will reveal, but I do think there is something there to look at. There’s meaning to be found in every detail, “intentionally” placed or not.

Aside from that, though, I think the present chapter does well at presenting children’s interactions. I’ll admit to being inexpert in such things. My daughter is an only child, although she has a fair number of friends in the neighborhood and outside it, so I’ve not watched a lot of child-on-child interactions. My own childhood is many years ago, now, and what I remember about my interactions with other children is…not kind. (I was not a good friend, having a massive chip on my shoulder, and my mouth often wrote checks my ass could not cash. I was also not a good brother. I take some satisfaction in having taught my daughter to do better than I did.) But what I have seen and what I do know seems to be in line with the kind of fixation and interaction Hobb depicts. The plain presentation of information moving from topic to topic with little transition and rapt attention seem in accord with what I recall others doing and what I’ve gotten glimpses of my daughter doing. It’s a pleasant enough thing to witness, even through print, however long it might actually get to last.

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