Di Mon's knife
I have been looking, without avail, for the scene where Erien arrives on Rire, with knife, and reacts in true Gelack fashion to Lurol. (She's bound to remind him of it when he's old enough and socialized enough to be embarrassed). But I did find this, from 1989:

"How am I supposed to know what a kid of that age likes for entertainment," he heard Lurol complaining from the sitting room. "Never mind a Gelack. Ranar's TDPS'd out of his mind, whatever he says. He's got no idea about kids; I bet he never did an hour's rotation with them in his life." "Have you?" "Never wanted any part of it. And what a kid. He'll talk us up, down and sideways, and I know he's still got a knife in his boot." "Ranar says leave him the knife," the man, Evert, said. "Ranar's Di Mon gave him it." Erien's eyes filled with tears; he concentrated on being offended that these commoners should be talking so familiarly about Di Mon. "The man was a father figure to him," Evert added. "He'll be grieving." "Doesn't show. Tough little nut. But I suppose they do rear them up hard. Giving a seven-year-old a knife, and then packing him off across space ... Poor kid. Should we leave him up there?" "Ranar said he'd come down when he's ready." "Or when he's hungry." Erien heard a rustle of movement, and then Evert saying--"I don't suppose he'd be expecting someone to take him his food. Ranar talked a lot about servants." "Surely he's got more common sense than to starve before he comes looking--Law and Reason, Evert, what has Ranar got us into now. The three of us playing foster parents to a Gelack. I'm not sure we'd be considered socially responsible enough to keep a cat, if one had to qualify." "Speak for yourself." "You realize that you're resident expert?" "He's a nice looking boy," Evert remarked. "Seems highly intelligent, and not afraid to face an unfamiliar situation. Like last night." "With drawn knife." "I'm going to see if he wants something to eat." Erien withdrew soundlessly towards the stairs. "He's probably outside in a tree. It's like having a two month old kitten: Scratches and ladders. I hope he's housetrained." Erien stopped at the foot of the stairs, and the innocent Evert was met by an intense, offended grey stare. "Ah, Erien," Evert said, somewhat disconcerted, in his best peerage, "I was just coming to find you to see if you wanted something to eat--" "You can tell her," Erien said, demoting Lurol as low as she would go with his choice of pronoun, "that I am housetrained."

And Lurol wouldn't be high on Erien's list of "people one can trust" at this stage of their relationship, being notorious for using the visitor probe on Amel. :-) Noticed the TDPS reference. Guess we were still using "Trans-Dimentional Phase Strobing" as the Reetion translation for rel-skimming in 1989.

Lynda Williams

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