The downside of getting busy is not being able to read parts as soon as you post them. The upside is getting to read two in one night!
You've gotten great feedback on this part already (still laughing at the length of Em's
) so I'll try to keep this short. Yeah, the fact that I'm anxious to move on to part 12 has nothing to do with it.
On Ard's visitor -- I'm thinking Nor, but the question is whether he's there for sex or information. Given how beautiful she is, I'm thinking sex (maybe he'd hoped to claim her, but Kal got there first?) but Nor doesn't seem to do anything for just one reason, so maybe it's both. Though given that Kal doesn't seem to interact with Ard, I'm not sure how much information she'd be able to provide. I'm looking forward to learning more about her.
On Kal's objective of producing an heir "eluding him" -- I have this picture of Kal and Za being told that "to have a baby, you make eye contact for exactly 14.6 seconds once a year at the Convention, and eventually it will happen." And they're all like, "Well, it will be hard to look at each other than long, but if that's what it takes ..."
Now I must hurry along to part 12. Yay!
