[Dragaera] Courtesy in Jhereg

[Scott Crain]

Will Frank <wmfrank at stwing.org> wrote:
For that matter, in _Issola_ Vlad also says that it's rude among the Jhereg 
to be the first one to a business meeting you called with a superior or 
equal, and yet he's waiting for The Demon at the end of the Mellar affair 
in _Jhereg_.

The second one is easy to explain: Yes, he was being rude, but really, who 
gives a damn? He'd just pulled the entire Jhereg's chestnuts out of the 
fire, they can suck it up. Or, of course, the laws of courtesy weren't as 
clear in Brust's head when he wrote _Jhereg_, but then, that's no fun as a 
reason.


Actually, at that particular moment, Vlad was making a very specific, deliberate point: 'You tried to kill me, I have all the cards and the hammer as well, right now I AM your superior, and you'd better goddamn acknowledge it.'  Which the Demon did, albeit obliquely, by noticing how totally stacked against him (i.e. 'protection') the Blue Flame was and still walking in -- because he HAD screwed up by trying to shine Vlad, and this was their way of balancing the books on that score.

If you recall the one little 'war' Vlad got involved in -- Yendi, I think? -- when Vlad gets called into the presence of one of the Council members, he basically has to walk into a whole mob of enforcers which just reinforces how low on the totem pole he is/was.  With the Demon, at that moment, it was the same thing -- 'you screwed me over big time, you're in serious trouble, and if you don't say exactly the right things to me, I will not hesitate to send you to Deathsgate.'  So Vlad arrived first.  'The Blue Flame again; this time, my way.'  (Paraphrased.)


 
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