I've read Ship of Destiny twice before. When I thought ahead to the ending as I reread these books, I was unsatisfied with the idea of Althea giving her pain to Paragon. Kettle's words to Fitz echoed in my mind:
"You are going to miss what you gave away. You will recover some of the feelings in time, of course. All memories are connected, and like a man's skin, they can heal. In time, left to themselves, those memories would have stopped hurting you. You may someday wish you could call up that pain."
I also thought of Kennit. He gave so much of himself to Paragon, and that damaged both of them. Paragon was left with the pain, and Kennit was left feeling so little that he couldn't care for others.
But this time, I am looking at it differently. These books are about cycles. The cycles we continue and the cycles we break. The dragons' live cycles. The Red Ship Raiders attacking, the Outislanders getting forged, their descendants getting revenge. The pirates, who are raided and enslaved and, as a result, make their livings through violence. Familial love, pain, and memory. The outcasts who flee Jamaillia to found Bingtown, only to create a new aristocracy with its own outcasts. Many different traumas. There's a lot more here; feel free to point out some of the other cycles in these books! I'll refrain from bringing up spoilers for later books on this post.
The Realms of the Elderlings are about cycles being broken or continued. When Fitz gives away his pain, he throws it into Girl-on-a-Dragon in bulk. Kennit's experience is similar to that, but goes further, because he gives so much of himself to Paragon for so long. But what Paragon does to Althea is surgical. He extracts the tumor but leaves the healthy cells. He takes the PTSD; he does not take the memory.
"You have something of mine.... It's the last piece. Like it or not, I must have it, to make myself whole. To make you whole as well. You think it is yours. But you're wrong." [Paragon] glanced away from [Althea]. "By right, that pain is mine."
...Althea was already numbed to the cold. Paragon spoke on, softly. "Give it back to me, Althea. There is no reason for you to keep it. It was never even his to give you. Do you understand that? He passed it on to you. He tried to get rid of pain by giving it away, but it was not his. It should have stayed with me. I take it back from you now. All you have to do is let it go. I leave you the memory, for that, I fear, is truly yours. But the hurt is an old hurt, passed on from one to another like a pestilence. I have decided to stop it. It comes back to me now, and with me it remains."
...
It was like having a deep splinter pulled. There was the dragging pain of the extraction, and then the clean sting of fresh blood flowing. Something clamped tight inside her suddenly eased. He had been right. She did not have to grip her pain. She could let it go. The memory was still there. It had not vanished, but it had changed. It was a memory, a thing from her past. This wound could close and heal. The injury to her was over. She did not have to keep it as a part of herself. She could allow herself to heal.
The description of the weather is notable here: Althea is "numbed" before Paragon takes her pain. Unlike Fitz or Kennit, she doesn't lose the ability to feel; she regains it. The storm breaks, Brashen brings her inside, the numbness goes away, and she rediscovers desire.
But my overall point is about restorative justice. Initially, Althea wanted revenge. Then Kennit died in a way that was not satisfying, and she didn't get it. Revenge would not have made her feel better, though; or if it did, it would have been in a way that continued the cycle of violence, passing it on to others.
It's horrible for her to spend all of this time on Paragon's decks when Paragon contains Kennit. But he is the only one who could help her, because he is the only one who can face up to what Kennit did. He takes the pain back. He reclaims it, and in doing so, he breaks the cycle: "with me it remains."
Killing Kennit would not heal that wound. Throwing him into a faraway prison wouldn't, either. Any punishment given to him would not heal Althea. She is only healed by Kennit (as Paragon) taking accountability for what he did.
Many supporters of prisons and capital punishment argue that they are necessary in order to satisfy the victims of violent crimes. But we see here that only restorative justiceβwhich centers reconciliation and rehabilitationβis able to heal Althea and allow her to stop reliving her trauma.
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