Though Paks is not a POV character in this group of books, she’s still a catalyst and, as such, quite busy.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For instance, babysitter.\u00a0\u00a0 She had those younger siblings back at home,\u00a0 but the general image of “paladin” is much like the one she had growing up–shining armor, swinging a sword, beheading the bad guys.\u00a0\u00a0 Paks telling old nursery stories to the little ones, or taking the children out to the garden to pick the caterpillars off the lettuce\u00a0 was a surprise to me, too.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The children, of course, are crazy about her, without understanding in the least what she really is and what she’s done.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have Paks with the children, you know they’re safe and they’re not going to come pestering any other grownup.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 Do you have to?\u00a0 Why?”<\/p>\n
A paladin’s arrival, though usually welcome, also brings a trickle of anxiety.\u00a0 What’s wrong that you’ve been sent a paladin?\u00a0\u00a0 Or is the paladin on vacation (so to speak?)\u00a0 And will the paladin tell you, either way?\u00a0 So if\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n
Often, of course, people wish a paladin would show up and solve all their problems–at least the ones that seem to0\u00a0 gnarly for them to solve on their own.\u00a0\u00a0 If you know a paladin, and you’re in that kind of fix, whatever it it,\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s annoying to think you have an inside line to some expert,\u00a0 and then discover that the expert isn’t available.\u00a0\u00a0 Even if her writer wants her to get over there and do<\/em> something…it doesn’t always work.\u00a0 Usually doesn’t work.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 (Objects with minds of their own…not easy to deal with.)\u00a0\u00a0 Since not all paladins are alike,\u00a0 some will worry over that more than others.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 She’s perfectly willing to do things for people when it’s not a formal assignment, but if\u00a0 she can’t,\u00a0 she realizes it’s not her job, even if the people involved think it is.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Though Paks is not a POV character in this group of books, she’s still a catalyst and, as such, quite busy.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[108,22],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-background","tag-background","tag-characters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}