And Conclave concludes with a bang

[rthstewart]

Chapter 11 is posted.  I've not heard from a number of usual readers about the last chapter and I have lots to say about visuals and such, but for now,  here it is, and I hope you'll share your thoughts.

I wanted to share this, courtesy of Syrena, La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia, the Silk Exchange in Valencia, which she thought was rather like the conference room and the Bankers' Counting House and I agree.

 



Thanks so much for being so supportive.

Comments

from Krystyna

[(Anonymous)]

In case you’ve been wandering: I decided to wait with my review for a second part of the chapter, as - from your comments - I expected it to come soon. Clearly I was right.
And - unlike some others, as I could notice - I am really glad that you posted it in the morning. Thanks to that for the first time I don’t read a new chapter in the morning, shortly before leaving the house, but in the late afternoon, so I can review immediately after reading.

- About Maeve-Pierce relationship much has already been told, so I’ll just add one thing - it is really shocking how immature is their behaviour when concerning private matters in comparison with their - especially Maeve’s - maturity when concerning banking.
- Since the begining of „The Stone Gryphon” I’ve been repeating that I like kings being incognito, giving themselves away in more or less subtile ways, so this time I won’t elaborate on that subject.
- „Morgan was usually a very poor judge of how much information her audience needed.” That is really well pointed. That all is not about being talkative on particular subjects, but complete inability to assess how much one is expected to say. It is even worse when an interlocutor politely pretends he is interested; but in this case, when there is no limit of time, it must be also bad.
- One technical point – why Sterns and Meryl have only one AD each? Why would they allow for that, knowing that more ADs gives Linch and Stanleh more votes?
- Constance Meryl is really intriguing. I've already been praising her perceptiveness, but there is more than that in her. Even Linch family - although they have Narnian King at home – didn’t really understand what would be consequences of his presence. „Based upon weeks with Harold, Pierce had seen the Code was going to be changing.” Yet still, Pierce is not able to think about breaking settlements of Houses (cf. his alliance with Maeve) in categories other than fantasy. Constance is the only here who really understands what’s going on. Linch know that the changes are coming, she not only knows, she can feel that. Actually, it would be quite interesting to see Conclave from her point of view. Quite amusing. Observing all that deadly serious bankers, debating over matters, half of which will soon occur to be completely irrelevant. Bankers behaving in their usual way, not realising that the Change is (quite literally) hanging over their heads. Even Edmund didn’t have that much fun - he was too busy looking for a threat and observing everything and everybody. Constance, I suppose, knows all the steps of the dance by heart, so she could concentrate on how futile they are now.
Constance counts chances very fast and does not challenge those with whom she cannot win. Quite the opposite, she immediately adapts to that on which she has no influence (it is especially visible in comparison with behaviour of other bankers after Edmund's disclosure and Narnia's coming). Hence, she doesn’t waste time, her energy and doesn’t create herself powerful enemies. She knows perfectly what is out of her range.
She’s not easy to surprise, but from her behaviour after prevention of poisoning and Edmund’s disclosure we can assume that even in such a case she would be able to behave properly.
Last, but not the least - despite all her qualities she managed to remain in shadow for all those years. True, that now she gave herself away, but there is a chance that everybody was too confused to apprehend what her behaviour means. Except for Morgan, but she is hardly a good judge of people’s characters anyway. Or maybe it is time for her for a little disclosure? Using the shadow of Edmund’s?
In conclusion, within maybe dozen years Constance will be in control of everything what is happening in her range (Narrowhaven? Islands?). And nobody will notice it until it is too late. (With possible exception of Narnian monarchs, but she doesn’t consider them as competition, so it’s not a problem for her.) It’s a shame that in the next chapter we’re leaving the Lone Islands. Such a waste of an interesting character.

Re: from Krystyna

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should just say regarding your observations about Constance: Yes. Yes. Yes. I have a lot of the final chapter complete, save for the look into Constance's point of view. Among other things, I'm trying to decide how much is done via internal expository dump and how much is in conversation with Maeve. From the introductory section,

It had taken some significant effort. Fortunately, the Queen Susan had traveled with two very skilled dressmakers who could, for good cause shown, quickly alter gowns to a Narnian fashion. The clever Dwarfess and Faun would not have been cooperative at all if the goal had been frivolous. However, they knew their Queen's wishes. Changing from Calormene and Banker dress to Narnian was not about style, but politics and power.

Constance Meryl had never set a fashion in her life. That, like so many other things, was changing.

To get everything in that point of view character is going to take some manipulation but I think a lot of things will be clearer.

Such as,

The worse day of her life had been when the idiot Gertrude (Constance refused to call her Director or the Meryl unless unavoidable) had decided that Morgan Linch or Maeve Stanleh would marry Alan (and none of this joint venture nonsense – call it what it really was) and take Constance’s own House from her.

The second worse day of her life had been when the young Constance Meryl of Anvard Pass Keep learned she could not leave her dreary home to become maid to the child-Queen Lucy of Narnia.

so yes, working on it. And of course Constance has an enormous interest in seeing Morgan leave the Lone Islands for good, go to Narnia, and never come back.....