Paksworld

Though Paks is not a POV character in this group of books, she’s still a catalyst and, as such, quite busy.  I don’t know everything she’s been up to, but some of it I do, and it’s been fascinating to see how she operates, as a paladin.

For instance, babysitter.   She had those younger siblings back at home,  but the general image of “paladin” is much like the one she had growing up–shining armor, swinging a sword, beheading the bad guys.   Paks telling old nursery stories to the little ones, or taking the children out to the garden to pick the caterpillars off the lettuce  was a surprise to me, too.    The children, of course, are crazy about her, without understanding in the least what she really is and what she’s done.   If you have Paks with the children, you know they’re safe and they’re not going to come pestering any other grownup.  And yet, she can get that faraway look in her eyes and say “Sorry, I have to leave now” and be off while people are still saying “Now?  Do you have to?  Why?”

A paladin’s arrival, though usually welcome, also brings a trickle of anxiety.  What’s wrong that you’ve been sent a paladin?   Or is the paladin on vacation (so to speak?)  And will the paladin tell you, either way?  So if  the paladin settles in and entertains the children, there’s uncertainty on two fronts at least: how long will you have the best nanny in the world, and why did the gods think you needed a paladin for a nanny?

Often, of course, people wish a paladin would show up and solve all their problems–at least the ones that seem to0  gnarly for them to solve on their own.   If you know a paladin, and you’re in that kind of fix, whatever it it,  you may wonder why “your” paladin doesn’t come help–even though you know he or she may be out on quest doing something else.   It’s annoying to think you have an inside line to some expert,  and then discover that the expert isn’t available.   Even if her writer wants her to get over there and do something…it doesn’t always work.  Usually doesn’t work.

Some things, it turns out, are beyond even paladins…although the paladin may assure you that something is enchanted but not cursed, it may still be a problem.  (Objects with minds of their own…not easy to deal with.)   Since not all paladins are alike,  some will worry over that more than others.  Paks is not a worrier, and she has a particularly clear view now of what is her assignment (if she has one at the moment) and what is not.   She’s perfectly willing to do things for people when it’s not a formal assignment, but if  she can’t,  she realizes it’s not her job, even if the people involved think it is.

The Marshal-General, for instance, wants her to come back to Fin Panir and spend some time with the Archivist and with paladin-candidates, but that may or may not be what the gods have in mind.