Liner Notes for Six Knives
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Six knives, six vignettes. Some of them link directly to other stories in the sequence, some are just fun. Or not, maybe? In any case, the point is this; Cat Step Walker is a knife guy. He fights with knives, having been taught two different styles (at least).
In Dead Numbers I mentioned the styles. Silvertongue teaches five knives, the School of the Flowing Wind six. We meet the School, and learn that one of the knives they teach is a throwing knife. I have notes on the other knives, and training, and the character of Silvertongue, but as they haven’t come up I’ll not go into them here. If they ever get into a published story there will be a reason for it, and that reason might need me to change it. Consistency would be thrown to the winds!
The elves have complex webs of aid and dependency. Some time
in the past they had firm, legal debts, but for an immortal this can lead to a
spiral of obligations, leading to serfdom and servitude. The Black Jubilee
ended this. Now they rely on social pressure, making sure people live up to
their responsibilities, shunning them if they do not. Anyone who is owed a lot
is considered to hold it in trust for the community, calling it in for the good
of all when disaster or emergency or a great project is needed. Or else they hold a festival and forgive at regular intervals and are honoured for it, as many elders do.
And so the School Of Flowing Wind, which teaches skills and in return those who have been taught support it. Dragons of course. We’ll come back to dragons.
Buying a knife is of course always wise. You can never have too many knives. Yet here Walker learns a lesson, that a stiletto can bite the hand that purchases it.
Instead one might make a knife. Stone-knapping is made into a ritual, obsidian a magic mirror as much as a blade to cut. Stone knives are perfectly practical, and making your own something you can do. Be careful though, flying bits of stone are a hazard, wear eye protection, have some heavy leather for breaking bit off.
Stealing a knife is fraught with hazard, though perhaps no more so than plotting and poetry at the court of an unfriendly lord.
A gift of a knife will always have a point to it (I’m sorry). In this case Walker and his sister are caught in a complex web of family obligations, so complex that they would probably cut through such minor things. Walker is cooking up fish to make a glue, to fix fletching for Decider’s arrows. A task of a day or two, a little harder than usual in the wilds. And Decider gives him a knife, something he always has a use for; you can’t have too many of them. But it’s not in exchange, these are petty things, beneath notice.
And of course one can make a knife and give it away. Swift
Tail makes her appearance here, the first of… let’s leave that for now. Walker
has a student! I hope she learns good lessons.
These are six scenes from widely varying times and places, loosely linked by the idea of a knife. Some will cast light on other stories, some are just there because I thought it was interesting. Not everything has a point, after all.
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