Remember that KoA Paragraph?

[ninedaysaqueen]

Remember that mysterious line from KoA that we investigated HERE and HERE?

“I hope you know that I could once jump from the palace to those roofs over there.” He eyed the empty space below him and said sadly, “If I tried now, I’d probably eviscerate myself when I landed. But it does give me an idea for what to do with you.” - The King of Attolia

Comments

I like it, but...

[terri_testing]

My main problem with this argument is that fact that Attolis set Costis to learning the Mede language on his first day as lieutenant. He even had a set of crib notes on the structure of the Mede language and a vocabulary list ready to give him, with the words for "traitor," "idiot", and the conjugations for "to hit" added artistically at the end. Indeed, the whole point of Attolis's Mede lessons (besides reinforcing the court's impression that the king was a disinterested, illiterate, barbarian fool) seems, in retrospect, to force Costis to take a crash course in the language.

Why would he have decided Costis need to learn Mede if he didn't already have it in mind to use Costis as part of his master plan to liberate Kamet (and Kamet's knowledge)?

Think about it. When Gen married Irene, Attolia faced two major threats, one internal and one external. He promised her on their wedding night that he would neutralize Baron Erondites within six months; he destroyed that house entirely in 98 days. What did he promise her he'd do about the even greater threat posed by the Medes, and how long did he give himself to do so?

He'd been married for two months when he provoked Costis into punching him. He'd got the entanglement of Sejanus and Dite well in hand by then, and he'd been spending his nights, apparently, investigating the local intrigues. And local resources. And he'd picked Costis for... something. As his lever to move Teleus, he said. And of course Gen tells the truth and the whole truth, right?