#AND he’s gay which is not tolerated in scanra

[raoulgoldenlake]

Jumping onto this post unbidden but I have so many Lindhall Reed thoughts! I think Lindhall survives because he makes himself indispensable to Ozorne, by being in charge of the menagerie which Ozorne loves. I also have a headcanon that Lindhall is very savvy when it comes to power, he senses or realizes pretty early on the Chioké and Ozorne’s mother have certain plans for Ozorne, and he starts to curry favor with Ozorne while he’s young. Not because Lindhall wants proximity to power but because he realizes (probably rightly) that being favored by Ozorne may eventually help him stay alive.

It’s connected to the work they reference in Emperor Mage, of Lindhall helping slaves escape. By the time Ozorne becomes Emperor, Lindhall has made himself indispensable, so much so that like Numair, he’s not safe outside of Carthak. So now he’s stuck, enjoying the protection of a brutal emperor, in a society run on slave labor. The only thing he can do is work in secret.

I think he takes a job at the palace in Tortall for the same reasons, because he spent so long doing that out of necessity, he doesn’t know anything else, and because he’s genuinely worried that if he doesn’t make himself useful to Jon, his life in Tortall will be at risk. Maybe after a decade in Tortall he will see that Jon isn’t like Ozorne, and maybe Lindhall will decide he wants to travel, or set up his own school, or do something other than teach for the first time in his life.

I am going to go lay down and sob now. (Also I think that third highlight remains true - genuinely it’s just the person doing harm is Ozorne and he cannot see it).