Liner Notes for Little One

 

The Liner Notes for my story Little One

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Who is the least important person, who the most insignificant menial in an organisation? And what do they think of what’s going on?

Cat Step Walker, even when a sidekick, sidelined, humbly going about his business as a Poor Brother, even then he sees the centre of the story. He knows he can effect events. Hani’s just a servant, in the tower. Their concerns are small. So what is it like when a weird elf is brought in to be imprisoned?

Hani might have small concerns, but they have big ambitions. The charms they ask for are loosely stolen from the list Odin has learned in the Poetic Edda. When suggested that Walker might transform into a creature, Hani has their own ideas on how he might escape.

In The Nature Of Magic, Walker says that he has an affinity and mastery of sleep, yet others might learn some of what he does. And so it is; a few days of haphazard tutoring and Hani knows more about sleep than almost anyone else in the city. Is it magic? Perhaps a little.

There’s a little bit about ingratitude going on. Walker does a job, and criticises people he should not, humiliating them. And in return he gets imprisoned. In the personal story, he’s lost his magic, gone through doubt and come back, a little wiser but also with his full arrogance making an appearance. Probably he shouldn’t do that. Maybe he’ll learn something.

And perhaps he has. When he offers Hani gold, or a knife, he realises that this will cause trouble. Sudden wealth or good quality trapping attract attention, and not all attention is good. When you’re the child servant, the lowest rung of the ladder, any attention is bad. Still, there are ways around it as we see.

And seeing from underneath – seeing from someone who is just a part of the story – that’s what Little One is about. Just someone who sees a little bit of a journey. But enough to know the magic.