The Keeping Place - Obernewtyn

1. I felt like it would have been way too easy in some ways if she hadn’t gone with Sentinel. The fact that she knows her relationships will end far sooner/differently than people are expecting looms throughout the whole series and colors all her interactions. To me, letting her go back to Obernewtyn (or even staying in the Red Land with Dragon, where return to Obernewtyn is a real possibility) would have undermined the emotional significance of her sacrifice in leaving Obernewtyn and her whole life behind. I also think it would have undercut one of the aspects about Elspeth I have always admired–her determination to build a future she knows in her bones she won’t be allowed to live in.

2. There would have been a parting from her most beloved friends no matter what, since she never would have stopped Maruman and Gahltha from going to the free running barud, and they would never have given up going. I really believe that the Elspeth we have seen throughout the series would never choose her human friends over her animal friends. Maruman is her oldest and dearest friend in the world, and Gahltha has been with her through so much. I’d argue that they are the most important connections she has, even above Rushton or Dameon or Dragon. There are so many points in the series where she takes comfort from their presence in a way she doesn’t experience with human companions. After everything she has gone through, I do think going with Sentinel in the end is the best reward for Elspeth.

2b. Elspeth experiences a lot of guilt in the series because she believes the Innle legend to be a total fabrication. I don’t think she would be able to handle the guilt of having to explain to every animal she meets post-Sentinel why the free running barud is not open to them.

I wanted everything I never had, Like the love that comes with light I wore envy and I hated that But I survived

“I did not leave behind someone I loved, Elspeth. I came with her.”