Princes' Game Series Guide: Some Things Transcend

We continue with the synopsis. This one is for Book 2 (and as you can see, my teaser illustration is... not at all done! But it's at least recognizable. Jahir's the one on the right.)

While this synopsis doesn't describe as extreme events, it's still talking about adult topics, so as always I caution you to consider that before reading! And as usual, your opinions on whether it works/is clear/helps and what can be added or changed to make it better are appreciated.

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Book 2: Some Things Transcend

Rating: PG-13. Impersonal violence, innuendo, lots of sexual situations that don’t actually become sex.

“The one where peanut butter gets into the chocolate.”

I deliberately wrote Transcend so that people who want to get into the series but don’t feel comfortable grappling with Wingless can start with Book 2 instead. Transcend contains flashbacks to events in Wingless, and Lisinthir ends up explaining what happened several times so you get a basic synopsis of his time in the Empire. (I really enjoyed this opportunity to go back and backfill some more pastoral scenes into that storyline; inserting them into Wingless directly would have slowed the pacing too much. But they work just right in Book 2, and so we get sweet discussions like Lisinthir, the Emperor, and the Slave Queen talking about various words for love in their languages, or the Emperor reminiscing about his time in the Navy.) 

This is also the novel that brings Jahir and Vasiht’h into the series. As the story opens, Liolesa contacts them and asks them to meet the Chatcaavan vessel that’s bringing Lisinthir to the border; she has a hunch that Lisinthir is going to need another Eldritch to talk to, particularly one trained as a therapist. 

Vasiht'h covered the long white fingers with his shorter, furred ones. He managed a lopsided smile. "Well. A case involving an Eldritch and a species of pathological sociopaths, dropped in our laps by a Queen with all our expenses paid by the military. How bad could it be?"

Jahir and Vasiht’h are dispatched to the border on a Fleet vessel and discover the Chatcaavan transport under attack by other Chatcaava. This transport is destroyed after they bring Lisinthir over to the Fleet vessel but not before their ship is crippled, leaving them vulnerable to attack. The next few days are frantic: the Fleet personnel are attempting to repair their ship and Jahir and Vasiht’h spend their time trying to keep Lisinthir, who is in poor physical health, from dying while also failing completely to be effective therapists for him. 

We get a lot of Eldritch background in this book. As we learned from Reese and Hirianthial in Rose Point, there aren’t many Eldritch left, and what remains of them are organized into a class system with the nobles in a more rarified circle than the Eldritch who look to them. This circle is made even smaller by the microscopic genepool; you can guess that anyone who shares a House name (Galare, Jisiensire, Asaniefa, etc) is going to be related, and they’re also going to know one another, particularly if they’re the same age. Jahir and Lisinthir are both Galares, they’re both the heirs to a family, they’re about the same age, and they’re in fact cousins, if they trace the genealogies. They should have been peers… but Lisinthir’s family, Imthereli, is a black sheep among the Galare. That’s why he left the Eldritch court so quickly.

This dynamic makes things very uncomfortable for the two of them. Jahir is a son of privilege, wealthy, from a good family, handsome, an excellent catch. He sees the good in Eldritch society along with the bad, and focuses mostly on the former. Lisinthir, who spent most of his time at court defending his father’s name by dueling people over their constant insults, is like Jahir’s dark mirror: also wealthy and handsome, and technically from a good family, but scandal has made him nobody’s excellent catch, and his parents’ relationship was… we’ll just call it problematic. Lisinthir is far more cynical about Eldritch society, and has no problems challenging it: he doesn’t see why he should conform to a society he considers unhealthy. Jahir can’t help but see Lisinthir’s behavior as inappropriate to someone of his bloodline and responsibilities. 

The moment they see one another, they start fighting. Since they’re Eldritch, this involves a lot of barbed dialogue. Lisinthir enjoys it, because he likes the exhilaration of a fight. It frustrates Jahir, who is torn between his desire to heal and his loyalty to Eldritch mores.

As Vasiht’h would be the first to tell anyone, Jahir is stubborn as the day is long, so they keep fighting, and Jahir finally triggers a physical altercation over a hekkret roll he tries to snatch from Lisinthir. Operative word is ‘trigger’: Lisinthir’s reflexive response to physical challenge is attack, and he ends up wrestling Jahir down under him, which is where the other problem erupts: Jahir, who has been repressing his inappropriate desire for a girl he loved in his youth for over a hundred years, discovers he likes being manhandled.

(This girl is Sediryl, and she and Jahir are first cousins, a liaison that is absolutely forbidden in their society because the tiny genepool and the lack of technology make healthy children difficult to conceive successfully even without the handicap of inbreeding. Never mind that forbidding such liaisons is fraught in such a tiny population: when everyone’s someone’s relation if you look hard enough, your choices aren’t exactly abundant. For Jahir, it’s been Sediryl all along: he’s been carrying a torch for her so completely that he is effectively, subconsciously, celibate.)

This is the incident that’s the source for the quote up there. Because I add Jahir and Vasiht’h (my pastoral series couple) into Lisinthir’s story (which is dark and dramatic), and the mix is unexpectedly compelling. Interestingly, Jahir is one of my oldest characters, and I knew about his romantic attachment to Sediryl from way, way back. When Lisinthir showed up in the narrative, I knew immediately about his attachment to Jahir as well. These events were baked in from the beginning; it was really good to finally be able to write it into the open.

Anyway, the fight over the hekkret is a useful turning point, as it inspires Lisinthir’s protective impulses. But it also makes therapy impossible, it disturbs Jahir who doesn’t like discovering he’s turned on by violence, and the situation is compounded by Vasiht’h who is increasingly anxious about the fact that he’s landed in the middle of a war. Vasiht’h’s personal crisis: he doesn’t want to be involved with any fighting, but he’s yoked to Jahir, who comes from a far less pacifist culture, and who feels obliged to fight if his Queen so directs him. This seems increasingly likely to Jahir, or why would she have sent them to Lisinthir?

All this angst is unspooling in a very untenable situation: their ship is irreparable, and it’s only a matter of time before the Chatcaava pinpoint their location and finish the job. The Fleet personnel, acting on Lisinthir’s advice on the psychology of dragons, decide to lure the Chatcaava into attacking so they can commandeer their ship instead. This tactic works, but it costs a great deal. Several people die; many are injured. Lisinthir himself is so badly wounded only Jahir and Vasiht’h’s intervention keeps him stable enough to make it to the Alliance. He is delivered to a hospital, where emergency surgery keeps him from dying. But it’s a near thing, and no one is sure why it happened. Eldritch have oddly inexplicable biology, even to Alliance science, and a routine blood transfer between Jahir and Lisinthir (related and otherwise compatible) almost killed Lisinthir, and no one knows why.

Despite its cost, the encounter yielded a critical piece of information: two Chatcaavan factions that absolutely shouldn’t be working together are, the Navy and the sector lords’ militia. Lisinthir discovers members of both on the same vessel. Since the Navy was the Emperor’s staunchest ally, finding them in bed with the sector lords who have traditionally opposed the Emperor can only be explained in one way, by Lisinthir’s thinking: the Navy has betrayed the Emperor and thrown in, at least in part, with those who want to destroy him.

The Empire is destabilizing.

This is the information he brings to the Alliance in the final scene.

The important takeaways from Transcend, then:

New Characters: Jahir and Vasiht’h join the narrative at this point.

Military/Political: The Empire’s political factions, sensing a power vacuum, are beginning to maneuver for a coup, and at least some part of the Navy is trying to kill Lisinthir against the Emperor’s express orders.

Personal: Lisinthir and Jahir become very good friends, with implied sexual benefits coming soon: Lisinthir in fact invites Jahir to a tryst so that he can be properly deflowered, which Lisinthir thinks of as a favor to Sediryl. Vasiht’h has decided Lisinthir would make a good honorary ‘crazy uncle’ to his children. But everyone is unsettled. Vasiht’h is worried about Jahir getting involved with this conflict. Jahir is worried about Lisinthir, and isn’t sure if he wants to be involved with the conflict. Lisinthir is impatient, because he wants to go back.

Just For Fun: READER HIGHLIGHTS

"Oh no. I am never annoying. I skip directly from distracting to infuriating. Saves time."

We all feel pain, but we create our reasons for suffering, or for transcending it.

If the gods did not speak, it was so their children could find their own voices.

“No person is so strong as to have no weaknesses at all. But one flaw does not make you weak, and one flaw does not make you unlovable."

Sex was as variable in utility and meaning as eating. It could be healthy, harmful, isolating, connecting. It could humiliate as well as uplift. It could be done alone, or in company, used as a weapon or given as a gift or shared as a sacrament or done with absolutely no thought at all.