It’s another Soundtrack Monday, and I’m still doing a lot of Steelflower work. Today’s writing will include Gavrin–always a joy, and I do not mean that sarcastically–so I’ve been playing the Bardcore version of Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy to prepare.
I love this version for two things: the vision of Gavrin strumming this in a Skaialan tavern, with a bunch of drunken giants having no idea what he’s playing, and the fact that the song does kind of express Kaia. The girl knows how to survive, and isn’t overly squeamish about a lot of things. We’re probably going to see her outright assassinate someone in this book, and I for one cannot wait.
Kaia lives in the intersection between, “I don’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it” and “Call an ambulance…BUT NOT FOR ME!” It’s one of the things I really appreciate about her as a character. There hasn’t been a chance for her to outright creep around and cut someone’s throat just yet, though she’s been perfectly willing a few times in the story so far; if she’d gotten the chance to slip into the Ferulaine’s quarters and feed him a knife or two, who knows who the story might have gone? (And that’s leaving aside her deciding to let Ammerdahl Rikyat live another day.)
Anyway, today she’s in information-gathering mode, and who else is she going to ask but the minstrel who’s been out busily strumming in taverns and listening to the gossip? It’s eminently practical, and maybe she’ll have a chance to talk to him about that whole “teach the Steelflower a lesson with a song” thing.
Heh. You can just imagine my evil laugh. Time to get to work…