#toby daye

The door at the back of the room opened and someone slipped through, taking a seat at the back. Elizabeth Ryan, the head of our local Selkie colony. She sat straight and uncomfortable, holding her purse in her lap like she was afraid it would be stolen. It wasn’t that odd to see her here. If anything, it was odd that she hadn’t arrived earlier.

I forgot that she was distinctly Late to the conclave, even later than the Luidaeg and Karen.

also her default state truly is “I would rather not be here”

Toby’s thought about how Liz would definitely want elf-shot gone….yeah oof two Selkies from her clan recently died from elfshot, it definitely is personal

okay the initial dinner table squad is Sylvester, Luna, Li Qin, Elliott, and Liz. which, upon reflection, is already fascinating.

Sylvester and Luna’s daughter murdered two Selkies from the Ryan clan.

The ALH folks are sort of the bridge, being friendly with the Torquills on account of Li Qin having married into the family, and also previously having had a member of the Ryan clan employed there. And no one here was responsible for that murder, and Li Qin and Elliott both lost partners from the same murderer, they were impacted more directly. Still, that’s a morbid connection to have.

In summary: how did Liz end up at this table??

all of these people are in some way associated with the deaths of people in her clan, it certainly is a Choice of table to join? does she just not know anyone else there.

EDIT: I’m reasonably sure these are simply all the people from the Mists at the conclave, so grouping them together does make perfect sense. it is just. tremendously awkward interpersonally on so many levels. even only looking at Liz’s relationships with everyone, it’s incredibly fraught.

who had somehow convinced the servers to give her a large glass of whiskey instead of the sparkling wine that everyone else was drinking. / Elizabeth finally looked up from her glass, eyes hazy with her omnipresent inebriation. I’d never seen her without a drink in her hand. Sometimes I wondered whether she rolled out of bed and straight into her cups.

this was definitely the first book where I realized Liz was an alcoholic, given that in OSS it’s just mentioned that she’s drinking then—but it’s a funeral, it’s not a typical day. so this also implies that Toby has seen her since then, to be able to draw the conclusion that she’s always inebriated.

I wonder if there was a point when she tried to hide her alcoholism and when she stopped—because clearly she Doesn’t Care, she drinks in front of other characters all the time, here she even complains that they’re distracting her from getting drunk fast.

“But until that grand day comes, you’re all going to play nicely, or I’m going to pull your fucking spines out through your nostrils.”

what a way to Declare Your Arrival at the table 😬

The Luidaeg’s eyes, however, were only for Elizabeth. “Hello, Liz,” she said. “I wasn’t sure I’d see you here.”

oh I want to have feelings about this particular phrasing, but they are sort of complicated by it being immediately preceded by the “pull out your spines” threat

still, the “eyes immediately go to her, ignoring everyone else” gives very “not over her” energy

especially since the Luidaeg could have eaten elsewhere, and very much chose to approach this table

“However much I may dislike my position, I’m still leader of our colony, and that means things like this are important,” said Elizabeth, making no effort to conceal the bitterness in her tone.

this is definitely part of a pattern of her expressing that she doesn’t like being clan leader—which is the source of my headcanon that she’s changed her mind about intending Diva to be her heir, because why would she put her daughter through this. it can still be true that she knew she needed an heir when she had Diva, that was part of the reason, but she didn’t know how much being a leader would suck until later, after Diva already existed.

She lifted her glass in a mocking half-salute. “Hello, Annie-my-love. Broken any young girls’ hearts recently?” “No, but I haven’t spent much time trying. Maybe I’ve lost my touch.”

much to unpack here:

Toby doesn’t react to the implications of this exchange, so sometime between OSS and now, has she gotten the Liz-Luidaeg backstory? presumably the Luidaeg must have told her?? but what did the Luidaeg say about that relationship 👀

Liz finding a flippant way to express her genuine pain, and the Luidaeg ignoring the pain and being flippant right back

Liz is being flippant yeah, but she’s also framing “the Luidaeg has moved on with other people” as a reasonable thing to be happening. and the Luidaeg is ambiguous about if she’s actually hooking up with anyone. very “no there hasn’t been anyone else since you, but I’m not going to admit that to you” energy.

oof and when all chaos breaks loose in the room, “Liz started drinking faster, holding her tongue”—her instinct is to hide, to disappear, she’s never going to win a fight.

and the only time Liz is mentioned in the book after that is when Toby gives the speech near the end about how even if elf-shot doesn’t kill, stealing time can ruin lives—even for purebloods.

The arcade was silent, everyone watching me, some of them barely seeming to breathe. I thought Liz, the Selkie clan leader, was nodding, but I couldn’t be sure; she was too far away, and my vision was blurry with unshed tears.

just. interesting to specifically point her out as the one having a Notable reaction here.