Rereading the excepts, a couple of thoughts:
- I get the impression that Shauriatas is kind of ark-bound, that he might never leave it and hasn't for a long time. I wonder how that fits with Serwa's assertion that she has battled as Seswatha. Either Shauriatas must come forth (making him seem really vulnerable to me) or maybe Seswatha fought him in the Ark, like while fleeing with Nau-Cayuti.
- This quote "He thought, as he always did when he became agitated, of the Qirri. A querulous part of him groused, wondering why Mimara should bear the Nonman King’s pouch, when he was the leader of their piteous company–their Slog of slogs. But like an old dog caught in the rain yet one more time, he shook away these peevish thoughts. He had come to understand the narcotic ash over the months of his addiction, at least enough to distinguish it’s thoughts from his own."
- Are we going to see some trouble between Akka and Mimara over the qirri? I wonder how the gnosis would fare against her chorae beam?
- Is the passage implying possession as in Nil'giccas is within them, that his remains are thinking thoughts in Akka's mind?
- Shauriatas threats to NC seem strange. Couldn't he just use compulsion? Are there methods by which a nonsorcerer can resist compulsion? Maybe Shae is just having fun, but I think he would probably compel the answer first and then have torture play time.
- When Akka says he knows how Shae cheated death, it sounds a bit like the dream just revealed the method that the Mandati were unaware of, like he learned it just then. Or not?