(SPOILERS) Is Nynian to be trusted?

n7axw wrote:Peter is right about the risk of bringing her in. But there are countervailing risks to having her on the outside knowing that she is not quite trusted and knowing that there are things going on to which she is not privy which could inspire her to apply her not inconsiderable skills in spy craft toward finding out.

Peter is concerned that she is a passionate believer. That is true, but the question is passionate believer in what. Not everyone who loves God accepts uncritically the doctrine of the church. My own sense of Nynian is that she hasn't accepted anything uncritically in a long time. Frankly, that makes her a better candidate for the inner circle rather than the reverse since it that she will be able to step back and take another look at what she has been taught.

I agree that translating those Spanish writings is critical. That is an uncontrolled variable in the mix since at this point, we don't know what they say. Another potential fly swirling around the olive in the martini here concerns whether or not the translation will be trusted. Nynian herself seems to trust Merlin enough to tell the story of St Khody and the sisters so it is reasonable to assume that her trust in Merlin will carry over to the translation.

But that leaves the question of the sisters? How will they react when their previously untranslated document suddenly turns up translated after almost 1000 years? When would it be appropriate to tell them and who should do it?

The thing is, Merlin and the inner circle needs to get a grip on how to handle Nynian since there could be more Nynians in the future. Shsn-wei's re-educated Adams and Eves are for the most part unaccounted for. Further, we really don't know who else was re-educated by whom and what sort of secret organizations they might have left behind.

Finally, What we have on Safehold ts COGA. The last word on that title is "awaiting". Do we know what they are waiting for.

Don

Tanstaafl wrote:

n7axw wrote:Peter has it right on this one. If the decision is made to monitor Nynian, she will be monitored exhaustively. Nothing private will ne revealed beyond the necessary, but she will be monitored.

As for Merlin's difficulty in discovering how she is communicating, all that indicates is that she is practicing good tradecraft mking it more difficult to follow along with as was already mentioned upstream in this thread, it hasn't been a priority until now.

Don

And we know that Nynian is comfortable with entertaining guests in her bedroom. The one place OWL was forbidden to snoop.


I wonder if Merlin realizes he has a blind spot in that place. He was very clear when he placed those injunctions on OWL, and OWL was still a very literal minded tactical computer at that time.

tootall wrote:And we know that Nynian is comfortable with entertaining guests in her bedroom. The one place OWL was forbidden to snoop.


I wonder if Merlin realizes he has a blind spot in that place. He was very clear when he placed those injunctions on OWL, and OWL was still a very literal minded tactical computer at that time.

He'll likely use the time as research to come up with novel ideas the next time Oliviah comes to visit.

Caliban wrote:

n7axw wrote:Peter is right about the risk of bringing her in. But there are countervailing risks to having her on the outside knowing that she is not quite trusted and knowing that there are things going on to which she is not privy which could inspire her to apply her not inconsiderable skills in spy craft toward finding out.

Peter is concerned that she is a passionate believer. That is true, but the question is passionate believer in what. Not everyone who loves God accepts uncritically the doctrine of the church. My own sense of Nynian is that she hasn't accepted anything uncritically in a long time. Frankly, that makes her a better candidate for the inner circle rather than the reverse since it that she will be able to step back and take another look at what she has been taught.

I agree that translating those Spanish writings is critical. That is an uncontrolled variable in the mix since at this point, we don't know what they say. Another potential fly swirling around the olive in the martini here concerns whether or not the translation will be trusted. Nynian herself seems to trust Merlin enough to tell the story of St Khody and the sisters so it is reasonable to assume that her trust in Merlin will carry over to the translation.

But that leaves the question of the sisters? How will they react when their previously untranslated document suddenly turns up translated after almost 1000 years? When would it be appropriate to tell them and who should do it?

The thing is, Merlin and the inner circle needs to get a grip on how to handle Nynian since there could be more Nynians in the future. Shsn-wei's re-educated Adams and Eves are for the most part unaccounted for. Further, we really don't know who else was re-educated by whom and what sort of secret organizations they might have left behind.

Finally, What we have on Safehold ts COGA. The last word on that title is "awaiting". Do we know what they are waiting for.

Don

Hi, Don
Agree on all points, with one small change in one of 'em;
Merlin should perhaps teach Nynian Spanish so she could translate the journal herself. That could provide the credibility needed when and if she is introduced to the St. Jerneau (sp?) journal.

KNick wrote:I would remind everyone to remember how Nynian passed the bug out message to Adori Wylsyn. She ordered a bolt of blue silk. A perfectly normal action for her business. That order resulted in a bolt of blue silk being placed in a window miles away, with a lump of coal under the window. How are even Merlin, OWL and nahrman going to figure that one out?

This kind of pre-arranged signal seems to be her standard mode of communications. If the codes are already in place, all she has to do is conduct some seemingly normal piece of business to pass along a message. Only if there is something not covered by her code does she have to send a specific message.

n7axw wrote:

Caliban wrote:8quote="n7axw"*Peter is right about the risk of bringing her in. But there are countervailing risks to having her on the outside knowing that she is not quite trusted and knowing that there are things going on to which she is not privy which could inspire her to apply her not inconsiderable skills in spy craft toward finding out.

Peter is concerned that she is a passionate believer. That is true, but the question is passionate believer in what. Not everyone who loves God accepts uncritically the doctrine of the church. My own sense of Nynian is that she hasn't accepted anything uncritically in a long time. Frankly, that makes her a better candidate for the inner circle rather than the reverse since it that she will be able to step back and take another look at what she has been taught.

I agree that translating those Spanish writings is critical. That is an uncontrolled variable in the mix since at this point, we don't know what they say. Another potential fly swirling around the olive in the martini here concerns whether or not the translation will be trusted. Nynian herself seems to trust Merlin enough to tell the story of St Khody and the sisters so it is reasonable to assume that her trust in Merlin will carry over to the translation.

But that leaves the question of the sisters? How will they react when their previously untranslated document suddenly turns up translated after almost 1000 years? When would it be appropriate to tell them and who should do it?

The thing is, Merlin and the inner circle needs to get a grip on how to handle Nynian since there could be more Nynians in the future. Shsn-wei's re-educated Adams and Eves are for the most part unaccounted for. Further, we really don't know who else was re-educated by whom and what sort of secret organizations they might have left behind.

Finally, What we have on Safehold ts COGA. The last word on that title is "awaiting". Do we know what they are waiting for.

Don*quote*


Hi, Don
Agree on all points, with one small change in one of 'em;
Merlin should perhaps teach Nynian Spanish so she could translate the journal herself. That could provide the credibility needed when and if she is introduced to the St. Jerneau (sp?) journal.

I agree that it would be better for Nynian to translate than to have the translation done for her, although there might be a time factor involved... although maybe that could be overcome if we all chipped in (tongue firmly in cheek) have Merlin run to Walmart to grab a copy of Rosetta stone software for her!!

Don

lyonheart wrote:
I'm afraid it would take too long for her to learn how to translate, having never done anything like it- the glitch in snippet #4 being "it's not being written in any language we can understand"- what other languages besides English do they have on Safehold?