Tuesday, October 22, 2019
3 Tips for Writing a Stand-Out Why Tulane Essay
3 Tips for Writing a Stand-Out Why Tulane Essay SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If youââ¬â¢re applying to Tulane University, you can choose to answer the Why Tulane optional statement as part of your application. The Why Tulane supplement essay asks you to explain why you want to attend Tulane. In this article, weââ¬â¢ll talk about what the Why Tulane application is, whether you should answer it, and how to write a successful essay thatââ¬â¢ll help increase your chances of admission. The Why Tulane Essay Prompt The Why Tulane supplement essay is straightforward: Please describe why you are interested in attending Tulane University (optional) (50-800 words). See? Straight to the point. While the instructions are simple, the wide range of word count and relatively open-ended prompt make the Why Tulane essay more difficult than it initially seems. Youââ¬â¢ll need to put some serious effort into your essay in order to stand out as an applicant. Should I Write the Why Tulane Supplement Essay? Looking at the Why Tulane application essay, you might be wondering if you even need to write the essay in the first place. After all, the prompt does say ââ¬Å"optionalâ⬠. While thatââ¬â¢s true, it would be a huge mistake to not write your Why Tulane application essay. This essay is a great opportunity to a) show off any interests and talents you have that arenââ¬â¢t immediately apparent on the rest of your application and b) demonstrate why Tulane is a great fit for you and vice versa. The Tulane supplement essay is your chance to prove that you belong on Tulaneââ¬â¢s New Orleans campus - donââ¬â¢t forgo it! What Is the Purpose of the Why Tulane Essay? Colleges like Tulane want to see that you really want to attend their school. Applicants who love their school are more likely to be active and happy students and later, active and happy alumni. Your essay should show the admissions committee that you really love Tulane, which will make them feel more confident that youââ¬â¢ll be a great addition to the campus. Applicants that really want to attend a school are also more likely to enroll, meaning that Tulaneââ¬â¢s rate of enrollment will be higher. Similarly, Tulane wants to make sure you know and value what they offer, and they also want to assess how youââ¬â¢ll take advantage of the many opportunities on Tulaneââ¬â¢s campus to further your academic and professional career. This essay is a great opportunity for the admissions committee to weed out students who havenââ¬â¢t done their research on Tulane or really donââ¬â¢t care about attending. What Should I Write About in My Why Tulane Application Essay? Your Why Tulane essay is your chance to express to the admissions committee why you want to attend Tulane. What made you apply to this school over any of the thousands of others you could have applied to? Your Why Tulane application essay should be personal. The admissions committee doesnââ¬â¢t want to read a cookie-cutter statement that could be written by any student about any school. Your paper should read as uniquely about you and uniquely about Tulane. With that in mind, here are three ideas for what you can write about for your Why Tulane essay. #1: What Resonated With You When You Visited Tulane If you made it down to New Orleans to visit Tulane, you should tell a specific story about what resonated with you on your campus trip. You could talk about a class that you sit in on or an experience you had with a tour guide. You could discuss visiting a local restaurant or engaging with New Orleans culture. The Tulane admissions committee wants to hear about what stuck with you - and generic, bland answers will stand out as insincere. This essay isnââ¬â¢t about why you want to attend college - itââ¬â¢s about why you want to attend Tulane. Pick experiences that could only happen at Tulane, not anywhere else. #2: What Makes Tulane a Great Match With Your Past and Your Future You can use your Why Tulane essay to expand on your interests and passions as a student and person. Tie those interests back to Tulane itself to show why Tulane is the right school for you. Tulane places a large emphasis on community service, so if you have experience doing community service in your hometown or plan to make that a large part of your life at college, this essay is a great opportunity to talk about that passion. If you want to study a specific field, like public health, that Tulane specializes in, the Why Tulane essay is the place to highlight that. Use this essay to describe how attending Tulane fits in with your plans. Doing so will help show the admissions committee that you plan to make the most out of your time on campus. #3: Experiences Youââ¬â¢ve Had With Current or Former Students Tulane admissions officer Jeff Schiffman recommends name-dropping current or former Tulane students to explain why youââ¬â¢re interested in attending the university. According to Schiffman, your reasons donââ¬â¢t have to be particularly highbrow or academically-minded. You might just have noticed some awesome Instagram posts from a friend of a friend or heard great things from your second cousin. However you have the connection, use the Why Tulane essay to prove your interest in attending Tulane. Tips for Writing an Amazing Why Tulane Essay Writing a strong Why Tulane application essay isnââ¬â¢t just about picking the right topic. You need to make sure your essay is the best possible example of your work in order to wow the admissions committee. Follow these three tips for writing an amazing Tulane application essay. #1: Make Your Work Tulane-Specific Nothing about your Why Tulane essay should be generic or impersonal. The more specific you can be when answering this prompt, the better. Donââ¬â¢t say Tulane has great academics, caring professors, and an interesting student body. Tulane knows that already - it doesnââ¬â¢t need you to tell its admissions officers that. Everything you write about in your Why Tulane essay should be specific to Tulane - from the names of the professors and the courses to the feeling you had while visiting the campus. The more authentic you are, the more your passion for Tulane will stand out. #2: Do Your Research The best way to make your Why Tulane essay specific to Tulane is to do your research about the school. If you can, visit the campus to get a feel for its student body and on-campus life. If you canââ¬â¢t, spend time perusing the schoolââ¬â¢s website and try to speak with current or former students. The more you know about Tulane, the more convincingly youââ¬â¢ll be able to write that Tulane is the best school for you to attend. You should get an idea for the different clubs and activities that youââ¬â¢d like to participate in. You can find this information on the schoolââ¬â¢s website. It can also be worthwhile to schedule a meeting with a professor, especially if you have a particular area of study that youââ¬â¢re extremely interested in. #3: Proofread and Polish Your Essay Your Tulane essay should be the strongest example of your work possible. Before you turn in your application, make sure to edit and proofread your essays. Your work should be free of spelling and grammar errors. Make sure to run your essays through a spelling and grammar check before you submit. Itââ¬â¢s a good idea to have someone else read your ââ¬Å"Why Tulaneâ⬠essay, too. You can seek a second opinion on your work from a parent, teacher, or friend. Ask them whether your work represents you as a student and person. Have them check and make sure you havenââ¬â¢t missed any small writing errors. Having a second opinion will help your work be the best it possibly can be. In Summary The Why Tulane supplement essay is your opportunity to show why you want to attend Tulane University. The Why Tulane essay isâ⬠¦ An opportunity to explain what you specifically like about Tulane. A place to highlight your unique skills and interests. The Why Tulane essay isnââ¬â¢tâ⬠¦ The place to share why going to college in general is important. An opportunity to talk about the other schools youââ¬â¢re applying to. Whatââ¬â¢s Next? Starting your essay is often the hardest part. If you're unsure where to begin, read our guide to starting your essay perfectly! A good essay is just one part of a successful Tulane application. If you want to really wow the admissions office, be sure your grades and test scores are up to par. Tulane University may not be an Ivy League school, but that doesn't mean your application shouldn't be Ivy League-caliber. Use these tips for getting into Harvard to shape your college application, and you'll have no problem getting into any school you choose! Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now:
Monday, October 21, 2019
Tyler Leblanc Essays - Video Surveillance, Portable Electronics
Tyler Leblanc Essays - Video Surveillance, Portable Electronics Tyler Leblanc 10/9/17 CRJ 213. Admin CJ Prof. Metchik The Model Act For Regulating The Use Of Wearable Body Cameras By Law Enforcement (Boston) One of the greatest challenges that we must face as people is adjusting our way of living in the presence of change. Throughout history many events have taken place that have tested our ability to grow, forcing us to find a solution. Some of these answers came in the form of laws or legal documentation while others were new inventions such as machines during the industrial revolution, roads and even electronics. In recent years, one of the rising concerns the world has been confronted with is neglectful encounters between police and civilians. Although this has been a problem for decades, we have not chosen to take actions to fix it until its recent peak. From 2014 to the present day there has been a rise in deaths of officers and civilians during confrontation. With our old rules now not fitting our current ways of life, it was time to find a new approach to addressing this issue. The solution: body cameras. Many police departments have integrated the use of body cameras on their officers as a new system of collecting evidence and repairing the trust between officers and their community. Adding a new (words) also means modifying the rules that officers must follow. While not all cities that have a body camera program have documented policies and procedures, some do. This stands to educate both the officers that use them and the civilians that are exposed to them. The Boston Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are only two examples of the many organizations that have made and publicized rule and regulations for using the body camera. Although many of the essential points made in both documents are similar, some differ. One of the areas that both the ACLU and Boston Police Camera Action Team (BPCAT) agreed on was the rights of the civilian in relation to being recorded. Officers must inform all civilians that they are wearing a body camera. If the civilian requests to not be recorded, then the officer is required to turn it off. If the officer fails to do this than they will be subjected to disciplinary actions. I agree with this procedure because it touches upon an already implemented law. Every person has the right to deny being recorded. Another topic that both forms agree on is when to turn the camera on and off. Officers are required to turn the camera on when they are in pursuit to a call and before they interact with any civilian. They must wait until the full duration of the event and will then turn the camera off. I agree with this because officers should only be granted the right to record in an appropriate setting. If officer's were allowed to record when they pleased they could turn the recording on and off to portray the course of events in their favor. Although both parties decide on when to turn the camera on they do not agree to the scenarios in which the camera should not be activated at all. The ACLU does not go into much detail regarding this topic. What is interesting however, is that they mention specifically that cameras shall not be turned on in the presence of an elementary or secondary school. No were else did the article articulate instances where the camera shall not be used other than unrelated cases or those that would go against ones first amendment rights. On the other hand, the BPCAT lists several scenarios in which camera may not be used. Some examples include if "A civilian is partially or fully unclothed" and "To protect the identity of a confidential reliable informant". I agree with the BPCAT. I think it is just as important to highlight when to use the camera as it is to mention when not to use the camera. Due to the fact that the ACLU's policy does not go into detail about this topic it could cause further misunderstanding in the system. By naming at least a few instances when the body camera cannot be used the BPD
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Chalice Chapter 9
He was introduced to her with a tremendous flourish, although no reason was given for his presence; which, with the air and the flourish, was explanation enough, and her heart plummeted. By the time the Grand Seneschal informed her, stiffly, that this was the Overlordââ¬â¢s choice for the next Masterââ¬â¢s Heir, she didnââ¬â¢t need to be told, and in her anger and frustration she said, ââ¬Å"That is hasty,â⬠before she remembered to whom she spoke, and she bit her lip, waiting for the rebuke. But none came. She was so surprised she looked into his face. He scowled at her at once, the familiar contemptuous, disapproving scowl, but when she ducked her head and then glanced back again a moment later, his face had relaxed into what looked a lot like sadness. The new manââ¬â¢s name was Horuld. She paid little attention to his breeding, that several of his forebearsââ¬â¢ lines ran directly from Willowlands, and several more had crossed in the ensuing generations, and which Deager was very eager to tell out, over and over and over, even to such unworthies as the demesneââ¬â¢s shabby and erratic new Chalice, who was herself one of the indications (Deager didnââ¬â¢t say this but he didnââ¬â¢t have to) that the demesne was still in trouble, over a year after she had taken her place in the Circle. So far as she knew no Chalice had ever been deposed. But she had never seen any record of a Chalice chosen when there was no Master to hold the land steady while the Circle did its work either. It had very occasionally happened that an apprentice died with or before her Chalice; but then too there had always been an experienced Master. And there were stories of Chalices who had not been able to bear the work they were called on to do ââ¬â even those who had had their proper apprenticeships ââ¬â and broken under it. There were only a few of these stories, but one was too many, and there was more than one. She believed that one such Chalice was the Chalice she herself followed. She was surprised ââ¬â even more surprised than she had been at the Grand Seneschal missing a chance to reprimand her ââ¬â when Horuld seemed disposed to talk to her. There were other, more prepossessing and conversationally skilful members of the Circle he could address himself to; demesne hierarchy declared that Chalice was Second of the Circle, but that had to be remembered only when there was work to be done. Her Circle recollected it only when they had to, as did the Overlordââ¬â¢s agent ââ¬â or they always had done previously. She was, as Chalice, compelled to be present for the agentââ¬â¢s visit, and ââ¬â as Chalice ââ¬â she would serve whatever Master fate set over Willowlands. That was enough. Perhaps the training she hadnââ¬â¢t had would have included how to hold superfluous discourse with people she would rather avoid. When she was standing Chalice or performing a ritual she did not have to chat; but Horuldââ¬â¢s first visit was informal. In other circumstances this would have seemed friendly and considerate; as it was it seemed ominous and coercive. Deager, having proved to his own satisfaction, if not all of his audienceââ¬â¢s, that Horuldââ¬â¢s bloodlines were an excellent choice, wished to make it clear ââ¬â he said ââ¬â that the Overlord was merely anxious that an unambiguous Heir should be in place, after the recent disaster. If such an accident should happen again, the demesne might fall apart entirely. It had been without a Master for seven months; it could not survive this a second time. She tried to tell herself that a declared Heir was a sensible precaution; their present Master was the end of his family. The previous Master should have declared an Heir when he sent his only brother to Fire. She wondered why the Overlord had not obliged him to do so; she had only been a small woodskeeper then, and small woodskeepers heard little about Overlordsââ¬â¢ decisions. The demesne gossip said merely that the Master was a young man, and hale, and he would produce Heirs ââ¬â had probably produced a few already, the uneasy joke went. But they would be bastards, and prohibited. By the time the ordinary folk of the demesne had begun to realise that their young Master seemed to have no intention of marrying and producing a proper Heir, especially in combination with his increasingly alarming general behaviour, the fear of what this meant also meant that no one wanted to talk about it. And then the worst had happened. Perhaps she should try to believe that the Overlord was merely doing the responsible thing ââ¬â the responsible thing he had failed to do before ââ¬â but again she wondered. It was too soon to tie an Heir to the present Circle; Willowlands was still too precarious. However necessary an Heir was, forcing him upon them now would unbalance it further. Would the next thing be that she was obliged to take an apprentice? She had no energy for the binding that would entail. Leaving aside that she had nothing to teach one. Perhaps it was only her dislike of both Deager and Horuld that made her feel the agent was making it clear that Horuld was being introduced to Willowlands as the Heir only after he had made something else even more clear, if not in so many words: that the Overlord would like to see Horuld taking up this inheritance soon. She was too quick to feel she needed to defend the Master, she told herself. But what she had taken from the agentââ¬â¢s description of Horuldââ¬â¢s bloodlines was that if he was the best that could be done for her poor demesne, the Overlord should be straining every muscle to support the present Master. Did the Overlord want to break Willowlands entirely? Surely not. The disruption would damage the Overlordââ¬â¢s grip tooâ⬠¦no. He would be counting on riding it out; might he, more, be betting on the huge increase of his own power the successful changeover would produce? She knew almost nothing of the politics among Overlords. Demesne folk did not travel to the crown city nor visit the court of the king; and as practising Chalice she was furthermore indissolubly tied to her land. But whatever else she knew or thought of the Grand Seneschal, he would not have kept such a piece of news as a visit from the Heir from the rest of the Circle; and Deager glossed, or slithered, over the question of why Willowlands had not known who was coming with him, which made it plain that there had been no message that had gone awry. She had mixed the cup she would offer to the company before she came. She had mixed it for the visit from the Overlordââ¬â¢s agent, and that was all. That was how it was done; that was why it was important that a Chalice know in advance who would drink from her cup, and for what reasons. Last-minute changes were destabilising, which was why battlefield cups, which were perforce rare, were also notoriously volatile. It should not have been a good omen, that a Masterââ¬â¢s Heir should be left out of the first cup he received from the Chalice. Perhaps the Overlord, or some other of his plotters, had decided that being left out was better than a Chalice throwing her weight against him, which a loyal Chalice might be suspected of doing upon the presentation of any outblood Heir. Chalices were parochial by definition; of all the Circle, only the Chalice could not set foot across her demesneââ¬â¢s boundaries. Some of the oldest records called the Chalice the Landtied ââ¬â and because of this literal overidentification, the Chaliceââ¬â¢s response to outbloodedness in any member of the Circle was considered crucial. This perhaps explained why Horuld was interested ââ¬â indeed eager ââ¬â to talk to her. Perhaps she could be disposed to include him kindly in her mixture for his next visit, after he had been careful to make a good first impression. She would not need to be disloyal. An y Masterââ¬â¢s Heir was an important part in the demesne structure; most accepted Heirs attended at least some Circle gatherings; and under the present circumstances the only possible Heir was an outblood. A Chalice must at least punctiliously include her Masterââ¬â¢s Heir in any cup he was present for; of course it would be better if she felt at least benign toward him, or even generous. But she did not feel benign or generous. She listened, smooth-faced, when the agent pronounced some blather about how the surprise of presenting Horuld unannounced would create ââ¬Å"clarityâ⬠in an awkward situation; that he would be more able to see where he would best fit into difficult circumstances if no one was trying to soften the truth. She knew that a properly schooled Chalice would have some matching blather to offer in return, but she was not a properly schooled Chalice, and it gave her a little meagre pleasure that her silence discomfited the agent, and by his discomfiture he exposed that he knew his action had been dishonourable. Did she loathe Horuld because Deager was a toad? No. Sunbrightener was a toad, and his antics merely made her feel tired and sad. Or because the Chalice was repelled by outbloodedness? She looked at Horuld and every particle of her recoiled. No. She bore the Chalice, she was not engulfed by it. Mirasol had arrived a little late at the House for the meeting with Deager. Just as she was leaving her cottage a young mother had burst into the meadow carrying a wildly weeping child. Mirasol knew them, Kenti and her daughter Tis; they were neighbours. Tis had pulled a kettle of boiling water over. Fortunately it had only been half full, but the child still had a badly burned arm; and the local herbswoman, Catu, was gone to a lying-in, Kenti did not know where. Mirasol hadnââ¬â¢t spoken to Kenti or her husband Danel properly since she had become Chalice, in spite of the fact that Danel and she had grown up together; she had been jealous when he had been apprenticed to a ploughman, for the horses. Kenti said breathlessly, ââ¬Å"Can you do anything? Can you help?â⬠Her eyes went to the back of Mirasolââ¬â¢s right hand, which was holding the edges of her cloak together over the cup of congruence in her left hand, and then hastily rose to Mirasolââ¬â¢s face. But she couldnââ¬â¢t meet the Chaliceââ¬â¢s eyes the way she had many times met Mirasolââ¬â¢s, and they dropped away again. Poor Tis was weeping in a miserable, exhausted way that was painful to hear. Mirasol brought them into the cottage and took down a small pot of the honey especially good for burns and smeared it carefully over Tisââ¬â¢ arm. The little girl cried out at the first touch but by the time Mirasol had finished she had fallen silent, and leant back against her motherââ¬â¢s body staring at Mirasol with huge still-wet eyes. Even as Mirasol looked back at her the eyelids drooped, and Tis was asleep. And then Kenti burst into tears. Mirasol led her to the big soft chair by the fireplace where Mirasol did much of her reading and let her collapse. ââ¬Å"It was my own carelessness ââ¬â I know what sheââ¬â¢s like ââ¬â I let myself be distracted ââ¬â it was only a moment ââ¬â and then I heard her scream ââ¬â and I knew Catu was away ââ¬â I didnââ¬â¢t know what to do ââ¬â it was awfulâ⬠and then she couldnââ¬â¢t say anything for a while. Mirasol made a tisane ââ¬â a spoonful of her soothing honey with a spoonful of the calming herbs sheââ¬â¢d had from Catu herself; in the early months of her Chalicehood sheââ¬â¢d drunk it by the bucketful. When she brought a cup to Kenti, Kenti laid Tis tenderly down beside her on the chair, sticky arm uppermost, and took it. She breathed in the steam and gave a little half laugh: she recognised Catuââ¬â¢s mixture. ââ¬Å"Iââ¬â¢ve used honey for littler wounds ââ¬â your mother taught me that when I wasnââ¬â¢t much older than Tis ââ¬â but this one was so dreadful. And then I remembered ââ¬â I remembered your hand. I thought, if your ââ¬â if the Chaliceââ¬â¢s honey can cure what a Fire-priest can do, then perhaps it can cure Tisââ¬â¢ arm.â⬠Mirasol said gently, ââ¬Å"The Master cured my hand.â⬠ââ¬Å"He ââ¬â ?â⬠said Kenti unbelievingly, and Mirasol saw the fear in her face, the same fear she saw in the Housemenââ¬â¢s faces before they bent nearer their Master to slide the chair under him as he sat down; the fear she saw in the faces of most of the others of the Circle when their part in a rite brought them too close to him ââ¬â the fear of him that made the Master leave the burnt grove before any of his people saw him there. ââ¬Å"Yes. He.â⬠She wanted to say, Tell Danel. Tell your mother. Tell all your friends. But she watched Kentiââ¬â¢s face and knew that she would tell the story ââ¬â if she believed it. Kentiââ¬â¢s face said that she wanted to believe it ââ¬â she wanted that hope, not only for herself, but for her demesne. Kenti sat looking at her daughter for a long moment and then said wonderingly, ââ¬Å"Look ââ¬â the mark is already fading. Your motherââ¬â¢s honey could not have done so much so quickly. It is the Chalice in you, I know, but perhaps ââ¬â perhaps ââ¬â perhaps it is also that we have a Fire-priest for Masterâ⬠¦.â⬠Her voice had sunk to a whisper. Mirasol was still thinking about the hope in Kentiââ¬â¢s face when she walked up to the House. She knew she was late, but it was only Deager, the agent, coming for a ââ¬â snoop, she thought uncharitably. Overlordsââ¬â¢ agents were supposed to visit their Overlordsââ¬â¢ demesnes, but she didnââ¬â¢t like the way Deagerââ¬â¢s nose twitched, the way his eyes darted around, as if he were hoping to smell something rotten, to see someone doing something illicit or disgraceful. And then she arrived, and there was a surprising number of people churning around in the big hall behind the front doors, and a youngish, weaselly-faced man she had never seen before standing a little too close to Deagerââ¬â¢s elbow. The situation was uncomfortable enough to begin with, when it was only Deager and Horuld, herself and the Grand Seneschal and the Seneschalââ¬â¢s apprentice Bringad, and four of the minor Circle (the others were hastily sent for when Horuld was revealed as the Heir) plus the attendants the visitors brought and their own Housefolk. As the word spread about Horuld, more and more people streamed in, and both the noise and the tension level, it seemed to Mirasol, rose, and the ever-worried Bringad looked more worried than she had ever seen him. But when the Master arrivedâ⬠¦she did not know how to understand it, explain it, even to herself. It was as if the level ground tipped a little in one direction and the high curving sky changed its arc just a little in some other direction. A Master was not expected to greet a mere agent on his arrival; the Grand Seneschal did that. But as the representative of his Overlord, a Master would be churlish as well as foolish not to see him at some point during his visit. She assumed the Grand Seneschal had despatched a message to the Master about Deagerââ¬â¢s unexpected companion; it was impossible to read any trace of surprise or disquiet on the Masterââ¬â¢s shadowy black and strangely mutable face when he made his entrance. Mirasol heard with what was beginning to be a familiar sinking of the heart the conversation falter and then stop as he was noticed, before the head Houseman announced him. Perhaps all Masters are greeted with a respectful hush, but she doubted that most demesne folk drew together as if for protection when their Master appeared. When Deager (his voice positively quavering as he addressed the Master) described Horuld as the Overlordââ¬â¢s candidate for Heir, the Master merely bowed his head. There was a disagreeable pause, and then the agent rushed to begin telling Horuldââ¬â¢s bloodlines over again, speaking too loudly and too quickly, and at first forgetting his flourishes. But when a Master has no son nor other suitable close relative, the meeting between the Master and the Masterââ¬â¢s newly declared Heir was as laboriously and ponderously formal as centuries of tradition could make it, including, in this case, the tradition that an unexpected situation should be treated even more formally than the same situation when everyone knew what was happening. The Grand Seneschal managed to insert an orotund phrase or two (rather like a pole through the spokes of a wheel, Mirasol thought) into the agentââ¬â¢s barrage of genealogy, which had a steadying effect. When Deager finally fell silent, his concl uding bow was as elaborate as if he were being presented to the king. But Mirasol found herself thinking that the Master had bowed his head so very ceremoniously indeed that perhaps he had somehow known of Horuldââ¬â¢s coming before the message from the Grand Seneschal. Most of the initial gestures among any group that required the presence of the Chalice were stylised, just as her offering of the cup was, but during Horuldââ¬â¢s first visit to Willowlands they all seemed to move as if they were puppets in a puppet show, their limbs made of wood, the pulling of their strings performed by a puppeteer. If there had been an audience Mirasol felt they would not have found the performance convincing. Although Deager had insisted in a manner that was obviously meant to be magnificent but came over as merely presumptuous, that this first informal meeting with the Heir should proceed as it would have if Horuld had not been there, this was not possible, as Deager would have known it was not possible. Furthermore any meeting involving the Circle to which the Chalice stood should be precise about the number of people present, the number of people who would be offered the Chaliceââ¬â¢s cup ââ¬â which Deager would also know. And the Willowlands folk were doubtless awkward with surprise. They had known an Heir would be chosen, and Mirasol had held Chalice during the gathering when the Master had acceded to the Overlordââ¬â¢s wish, as presented by Deager, that the Overlord do the choosing. But that had only been a few weeks ago, and they had heard nothing of the progress of the search. She had begun reading about the meeting of a Master with an unknown Heir, so she knew that if it had been a proper meeting she should offer her cup first to the Master and second to the Heir. After a momentââ¬â¢s invisible dithering behind the face she tried hard to keep in an expressionless Chalice mask she did so anyway: let Deager assume this was a manifestation of magnanimity and support; she considered it buying time. The contrast between the Master and an ordinary human had never been so marked, she thought, as between the Master and his Heir when she took the cup from one and offered it to the other. She had directed them to stand on either side of her ââ¬â which would also have been the correct form for a planned first meeting between the two of them: she could see Deager smiling with satisfaction, but she ignored him. The Master seemed to tower over her, and his natural heat, as she stood close enough to him to hold a cup to his lips, wrapped itself around her as if claiming her ââ¬â and briefly and disconcertingly she remembered riding home with him after the fire in the Onora Grove. Horuld, who was no more than average size, seemed puny and frail in comparison; and the fact that he was obviously struggling not to flinch away from the Master added to this impression of weakness. She might have helped him, as she often helped the Circle members who were still reluctant to approach the Master, by stepping toward him, by allowing him to maintain a greater distance; but she did not. She offered the cup to the Master with a bent arm, and then turned and offered the cup to Horuld, again with a bent arm, and waited, forcing him to step close, not only to her, but to the Master. He did not try to take the cup from her, but he did raise a hand to grasp it, and she could feel him trembling. There were beads of sweat on his upper lip which she doubted were only from the heat. Before she took the cup on to Deager and the rest of the Circle, she bowed, to the Master, and then to Horuld. The Master must receive the deeper bow, of course, but the Heir might have had one nearly as deep; her bow to the Heir was only enough more than perfunctory not to be offensive. She let her gaze pass as if carelessly over Deager, and saw that he had stopped smiling. She could feel, before she had got halfway round the Circle, that it was not a good binding. When she made her final bow it was almost difficult to stand upright again, and she was exhausted. She had to make a great effort to meet the eyes of Horuld and Deager; the Grand Seneschalââ¬â¢s eyes looked glassy and unfocused, and the Masterââ¬â¢s were as unfathomable as they had been the first day, when his hand had slipped and burnt her, and his face was only blurred shadows. She tried to remember the sudden surprising joy of his healing of her hand, of talking to him about what he saw, about her bees being tiny golden sparks in his strange vision ââ¬â of the night that she had helped him put out the fire in Onora Grove, and the ride home after. But she remembered these things as she might remember something out of a book, a story told of someone else. Even if, by some extraordinary accident, the Chalice had not known beforehand all those who would drink, a well-mixed cup should have had a more positive effect than this. Perhaps she had mixed it injudiciously; that was likeliest. Even without his bringing an unannounced Heir, her dislike of Deager made it onerous for her to mix a cup that she would have to offer to him. But even if a more experienced Chalice might have done better, it was still true that introducing an Heir without proper advance warning was like throwing a boulder on one side of a delicate scales and expecting them still to balance. But perhaps the lack of binding and balance in this gathering was because Horuld was wrongâ⬠¦wrong for the demesne, wrong as Heir, wrong even to be here. It had been known in the past that an outblood Heir was rejected by the demesne, however carefully the humans had tried to make the best choice. Perhaps the Overlord had overplayed his game by giving the Master and his Chalice no forewarning that the Overlordââ¬â¢s choice was coming to be introduced to his hoped-for inheritance. By the end of the day, when she could leave the House and make her way back to her cottage, she was shaking and sick. She pulled her hood over her head and held it bunched round her throat with her hands, feeling that what she really wanted to do was disappear: if she wrapped the ends of her cloak around her tightly enough and then tighter still, eventually there would be no one left insideâ⬠¦. Usually the gentle thumping of the empty Chalice cup against her hip was comforting: another ritual got through. Today it was not; she felt that she ââ¬â they ââ¬â Willowlands had indeed not got through the ritual of the introduction of the Heir. She concentrated on the thought of sitting in the last of the daylight in the clearing by the cottage, listening to her bees. She was still ten minutesââ¬â¢ walk from the cottage when some of her bees came to meet her. She stretched out her arms to them and they landed on her hands and forearms, stroking her skin as if the tiny hairs were sepals they expected to secrete nectar for them. She shook her hood back, and several landed on her face and neck; out of the corners of her eyes she could see more landing on her shoulders. As she walked the last few minutes to the cottage she found herself thinking that her head felt strangely heavy, and that the hum of the bees was unusually loud; and then when she came out of the tree-shadowed path into the sunny clearing around the cottage she saw a great cloud of bees lifting away from her and dispersing, and she realised that she had been wearing a hood and cloak of bees. She watched them scatter about their proper bee business, and wondered. Horuld came twice more in the next few weeks with Deager, and then a third time he came alone. When he came with Deager their visits were announced in advance; but now as the acknowledged Heir, he might come as he pleased ââ¬â and stay as he pleased. She was in the House library when he came that third time, and the first warning she had was a shadow falling across the open door; she was deep into her research and would not have noticed, except that a half-familiar voice said, ââ¬Å"Chalice,â⬠and her body had recoiled before her mind had recognised who it was. She turned the recoil, she hoped, into a mere startle, and stood up at once to make a ceremonial sign of greeting, saying, ââ¬Å"Forgive me, my mind was lost in what I was doing.â⬠He said smoothly, ââ¬Å"And I have interrupted you; forgive me.â⬠She bowed her head and waited, hoping his appearance was a formal signal only and that he had no business with her. The demesneââ¬â¢s folk were growing used to their new Chalice, and they were now coming to her more and more; this was a relief in some ways, and she knew she must be grateful for the good this was doing Willowlands, but she often had to put aside what other work she had planned on doing. She had fled to the House library today and was hastily reading up on the behaviour toward and reception of outblood Heirs. Part of her problem, she thought, as she had thought many times since the Chalice had come to her, was that she was not by nature a formal sort of person; she found that side of the duties of the Chalice so difficult as sometimes to feel incompatible with her private self. She wondered if this was anything like trying to live in the human world when you were a priest of Fire. Chalice Chapter 9 He was introduced to her with a tremendous flourish, although no reason was given for his presence; which, with the air and the flourish, was explanation enough, and her heart plummeted. By the time the Grand Seneschal informed her, stiffly, that this was the Overlordââ¬â¢s choice for the next Masterââ¬â¢s Heir, she didnââ¬â¢t need to be told, and in her anger and frustration she said, ââ¬Å"That is hasty,â⬠before she remembered to whom she spoke, and she bit her lip, waiting for the rebuke. But none came. She was so surprised she looked into his face. He scowled at her at once, the familiar contemptuous, disapproving scowl, but when she ducked her head and then glanced back again a moment later, his face had relaxed into what looked a lot like sadness. The new manââ¬â¢s name was Horuld. She paid little attention to his breeding, that several of his forebearsââ¬â¢ lines ran directly from Willowlands, and several more had crossed in the ensuing generations, and which Deager was very eager to tell out, over and over and over, even to such unworthies as the demesneââ¬â¢s shabby and erratic new Chalice, who was herself one of the indications (Deager didnââ¬â¢t say this but he didnââ¬â¢t have to) that the demesne was still in trouble, over a year after she had taken her place in the Circle. So far as she knew no Chalice had ever been deposed. But she had never seen any record of a Chalice chosen when there was no Master to hold the land steady while the Circle did its work either. It had very occasionally happened that an apprentice died with or before her Chalice; but then too there had always been an experienced Master. And there were stories of Chalices who had not been able to bear the work they were called on to do ââ¬â even those who had had their proper apprenticeships ââ¬â and broken under it. There were only a few of these stories, but one was too many, and there was more than one. She believed that one such Chalice was the Chalice she herself followed. She was surprised ââ¬â even more surprised than she had been at the Grand Seneschal missing a chance to reprimand her ââ¬â when Horuld seemed disposed to talk to her. There were other, more prepossessing and conversationally skilful members of the Circle he could address himself to; demesne hierarchy declared that Chalice was Second of the Circle, but that had to be remembered only when there was work to be done. Her Circle recollected it only when they had to, as did the Overlordââ¬â¢s agent ââ¬â or they always had done previously. She was, as Chalice, compelled to be present for the agentââ¬â¢s visit, and ââ¬â as Chalice ââ¬â she would serve whatever Master fate set over Willowlands. That was enough. Perhaps the training she hadnââ¬â¢t had would have included how to hold superfluous discourse with people she would rather avoid. When she was standing Chalice or performing a ritual she did not have to chat; but Horuldââ¬â¢s first visit was informal. In other circumstances this would have seemed friendly and considerate; as it was it seemed ominous and coercive. Deager, having proved to his own satisfaction, if not all of his audienceââ¬â¢s, that Horuldââ¬â¢s bloodlines were an excellent choice, wished to make it clear ââ¬â he said ââ¬â that the Overlord was merely anxious that an unambiguous Heir should be in place, after the recent disaster. If such an accident should happen again, the demesne might fall apart entirely. It had been without a Master for seven months; it could not survive this a second time. She tried to tell herself that a declared Heir was a sensible precaution; their present Master was the end of his family. The previous Master should have declared an Heir when he sent his only brother to Fire. She wondered why the Overlord had not obliged him to do so; she had only been a small woodskeeper then, and small woodskeepers heard little about Overlordsââ¬â¢ decisions. The demesne gossip said merely that the Master was a young man, and hale, and he would produce Heirs ââ¬â had probably produced a few already, the uneasy joke went. But they would be bastards, and prohibited. By the time the ordinary folk of the demesne had begun to realise that their young Master seemed to have no intention of marrying and producing a proper Heir, especially in combination with his increasingly alarming general behaviour, the fear of what this meant also meant that no one wanted to talk about it. And then the worst had happened. Perhaps she should try to believe that the Overlord was merely doing the responsible thing ââ¬â the responsible thing he had failed to do before ââ¬â but again she wondered. It was too soon to tie an Heir to the present Circle; Willowlands was still too precarious. However necessary an Heir was, forcing him upon them now would unbalance it further. Would the next thing be that she was obliged to take an apprentice? She had no energy for the binding that would entail. Leaving aside that she had nothing to teach one. Perhaps it was only her dislike of both Deager and Horuld that made her feel the agent was making it clear that Horuld was being introduced to Willowlands as the Heir only after he had made something else even more clear, if not in so many words: that the Overlord would like to see Horuld taking up this inheritance soon. She was too quick to feel she needed to defend the Master, she told herself. But what she had taken from the agentââ¬â¢s description of Horuldââ¬â¢s bloodlines was that if he was the best that could be done for her poor demesne, the Overlord should be straining every muscle to support the present Master. Did the Overlord want to break Willowlands entirely? Surely not. The disruption would damage the Overlordââ¬â¢s grip tooâ⬠¦no. He would be counting on riding it out; might he, more, be betting on the huge increase of his own power the successful changeover would produce? She knew almost nothing of the politics among Overlords. Demesne folk did not travel to the crown city nor visit the court of the king; and as practising Chalice she was furthermore indissolubly tied to her land. But whatever else she knew or thought of the Grand Seneschal, he would not have kept such a piece of news as a visit from the Heir from the rest of the Circle; and Deager glossed, or slithered, over the question of why Willowlands had not known who was coming with him, which made it plain that there had been no message that had gone awry. She had mixed the cup she would offer to the company before she came. She had mixed it for the visit from the Overlordââ¬â¢s agent, and that was all. That was how it was done; that was why it was important that a Chalice know in advance who would drink from her cup, and for what reasons. Last-minute changes were destabilising, which was why battlefield cups, which were perforce rare, were also notoriously volatile. It should not have been a good omen, that a Masterââ¬â¢s Heir should be left out of the first cup he received from the Chalice. Perhaps the Overlord, or some other of his plotters, had decided that being left out was better than a Chalice throwing her weight against him, which a loyal Chalice might be suspected of doing upon the presentation of any outblood Heir. Chalices were parochial by definition; of all the Circle, only the Chalice could not set foot across her demesneââ¬â¢s boundaries. Some of the oldest records called the Chalice the Landtied ââ¬â and because of this literal overidentification, the Chaliceââ¬â¢s response to outbloodedness in any member of the Circle was considered crucial. This perhaps explained why Horuld was interested ââ¬â indeed eager ââ¬â to talk to her. Perhaps she could be disposed to include him kindly in her mixture for his next visit, after he had been careful to make a good first impression. She would not need to be disloyal. An y Masterââ¬â¢s Heir was an important part in the demesne structure; most accepted Heirs attended at least some Circle gatherings; and under the present circumstances the only possible Heir was an outblood. A Chalice must at least punctiliously include her Masterââ¬â¢s Heir in any cup he was present for; of course it would be better if she felt at least benign toward him, or even generous. But she did not feel benign or generous. She listened, smooth-faced, when the agent pronounced some blather about how the surprise of presenting Horuld unannounced would create ââ¬Å"clarityâ⬠in an awkward situation; that he would be more able to see where he would best fit into difficult circumstances if no one was trying to soften the truth. She knew that a properly schooled Chalice would have some matching blather to offer in return, but she was not a properly schooled Chalice, and it gave her a little meagre pleasure that her silence discomfited the agent, and by his discomfiture he exposed that he knew his action had been dishonourable. Did she loathe Horuld because Deager was a toad? No. Sunbrightener was a toad, and his antics merely made her feel tired and sad. Or because the Chalice was repelled by outbloodedness? She looked at Horuld and every particle of her recoiled. No. She bore the Chalice, she was not engulfed by it. Mirasol had arrived a little late at the House for the meeting with Deager. Just as she was leaving her cottage a young mother had burst into the meadow carrying a wildly weeping child. Mirasol knew them, Kenti and her daughter Tis; they were neighbours. Tis had pulled a kettle of boiling water over. Fortunately it had only been half full, but the child still had a badly burned arm; and the local herbswoman, Catu, was gone to a lying-in, Kenti did not know where. Mirasol hadnââ¬â¢t spoken to Kenti or her husband Danel properly since she had become Chalice, in spite of the fact that Danel and she had grown up together; she had been jealous when he had been apprenticed to a ploughman, for the horses. Kenti said breathlessly, ââ¬Å"Can you do anything? Can you help?â⬠Her eyes went to the back of Mirasolââ¬â¢s right hand, which was holding the edges of her cloak together over the cup of congruence in her left hand, and then hastily rose to Mirasolââ¬â¢s face. But she couldnââ¬â¢t meet the Chaliceââ¬â¢s eyes the way she had many times met Mirasolââ¬â¢s, and they dropped away again. Poor Tis was weeping in a miserable, exhausted way that was painful to hear. Mirasol brought them into the cottage and took down a small pot of the honey especially good for burns and smeared it carefully over Tisââ¬â¢ arm. The little girl cried out at the first touch but by the time Mirasol had finished she had fallen silent, and leant back against her motherââ¬â¢s body staring at Mirasol with huge still-wet eyes. Even as Mirasol looked back at her the eyelids drooped, and Tis was asleep. And then Kenti burst into tears. Mirasol led her to the big soft chair by the fireplace where Mirasol did much of her reading and let her collapse. ââ¬Å"It was my own carelessness ââ¬â I know what sheââ¬â¢s like ââ¬â I let myself be distracted ââ¬â it was only a moment ââ¬â and then I heard her scream ââ¬â and I knew Catu was away ââ¬â I didnââ¬â¢t know what to do ââ¬â it was awfulâ⬠and then she couldnââ¬â¢t say anything for a while. Mirasol made a tisane ââ¬â a spoonful of her soothing honey with a spoonful of the calming herbs sheââ¬â¢d had from Catu herself; in the early months of her Chalicehood sheââ¬â¢d drunk it by the bucketful. When she brought a cup to Kenti, Kenti laid Tis tenderly down beside her on the chair, sticky arm uppermost, and took it. She breathed in the steam and gave a little half laugh: she recognised Catuââ¬â¢s mixture. ââ¬Å"Iââ¬â¢ve used honey for littler wounds ââ¬â your mother taught me that when I wasnââ¬â¢t much older than Tis ââ¬â but this one was so dreadful. And then I remembered ââ¬â I remembered your hand. I thought, if your ââ¬â if the Chaliceââ¬â¢s honey can cure what a Fire-priest can do, then perhaps it can cure Tisââ¬â¢ arm.â⬠Mirasol said gently, ââ¬Å"The Master cured my hand.â⬠ââ¬Å"He ââ¬â ?â⬠said Kenti unbelievingly, and Mirasol saw the fear in her face, the same fear she saw in the Housemenââ¬â¢s faces before they bent nearer their Master to slide the chair under him as he sat down; the fear she saw in the faces of most of the others of the Circle when their part in a rite brought them too close to him ââ¬â the fear of him that made the Master leave the burnt grove before any of his people saw him there. ââ¬Å"Yes. He.â⬠She wanted to say, Tell Danel. Tell your mother. Tell all your friends. But she watched Kentiââ¬â¢s face and knew that she would tell the story ââ¬â if she believed it. Kentiââ¬â¢s face said that she wanted to believe it ââ¬â she wanted that hope, not only for herself, but for her demesne. Kenti sat looking at her daughter for a long moment and then said wonderingly, ââ¬Å"Look ââ¬â the mark is already fading. Your motherââ¬â¢s honey could not have done so much so quickly. It is the Chalice in you, I know, but perhaps ââ¬â perhaps ââ¬â perhaps it is also that we have a Fire-priest for Masterâ⬠¦.â⬠Her voice had sunk to a whisper. Mirasol was still thinking about the hope in Kentiââ¬â¢s face when she walked up to the House. She knew she was late, but it was only Deager, the agent, coming for a ââ¬â snoop, she thought uncharitably. Overlordsââ¬â¢ agents were supposed to visit their Overlordsââ¬â¢ demesnes, but she didnââ¬â¢t like the way Deagerââ¬â¢s nose twitched, the way his eyes darted around, as if he were hoping to smell something rotten, to see someone doing something illicit or disgraceful. And then she arrived, and there was a surprising number of people churning around in the big hall behind the front doors, and a youngish, weaselly-faced man she had never seen before standing a little too close to Deagerââ¬â¢s elbow. The situation was uncomfortable enough to begin with, when it was only Deager and Horuld, herself and the Grand Seneschal and the Seneschalââ¬â¢s apprentice Bringad, and four of the minor Circle (the others were hastily sent for when Horuld was revealed as the Heir) plus the attendants the visitors brought and their own Housefolk. As the word spread about Horuld, more and more people streamed in, and both the noise and the tension level, it seemed to Mirasol, rose, and the ever-worried Bringad looked more worried than she had ever seen him. But when the Master arrivedâ⬠¦she did not know how to understand it, explain it, even to herself. It was as if the level ground tipped a little in one direction and the high curving sky changed its arc just a little in some other direction. A Master was not expected to greet a mere agent on his arrival; the Grand Seneschal did that. But as the representative of his Overlord, a Master would be churlish as well as foolish not to see him at some point during his visit. She assumed the Grand Seneschal had despatched a message to the Master about Deagerââ¬â¢s unexpected companion; it was impossible to read any trace of surprise or disquiet on the Masterââ¬â¢s shadowy black and strangely mutable face when he made his entrance. Mirasol heard with what was beginning to be a familiar sinking of the heart the conversation falter and then stop as he was noticed, before the head Houseman announced him. Perhaps all Masters are greeted with a respectful hush, but she doubted that most demesne folk drew together as if for protection when their Master appeared. When Deager (his voice positively quavering as he addressed the Master) described Horuld as the Overlordââ¬â¢s candidate for Heir, the Master merely bowed his head. There was a disagreeable pause, and then the agent rushed to begin telling Horuldââ¬â¢s bloodlines over again, speaking too loudly and too quickly, and at first forgetting his flourishes. But when a Master has no son nor other suitable close relative, the meeting between the Master and the Masterââ¬â¢s newly declared Heir was as laboriously and ponderously formal as centuries of tradition could make it, including, in this case, the tradition that an unexpected situation should be treated even more formally than the same situation when everyone knew what was happening. The Grand Seneschal managed to insert an orotund phrase or two (rather like a pole through the spokes of a wheel, Mirasol thought) into the agentââ¬â¢s barrage of genealogy, which had a steadying effect. When Deager finally fell silent, his concl uding bow was as elaborate as if he were being presented to the king. But Mirasol found herself thinking that the Master had bowed his head so very ceremoniously indeed that perhaps he had somehow known of Horuldââ¬â¢s coming before the message from the Grand Seneschal. Most of the initial gestures among any group that required the presence of the Chalice were stylised, just as her offering of the cup was, but during Horuldââ¬â¢s first visit to Willowlands they all seemed to move as if they were puppets in a puppet show, their limbs made of wood, the pulling of their strings performed by a puppeteer. If there had been an audience Mirasol felt they would not have found the performance convincing. Although Deager had insisted in a manner that was obviously meant to be magnificent but came over as merely presumptuous, that this first informal meeting with the Heir should proceed as it would have if Horuld had not been there, this was not possible, as Deager would have known it was not possible. Furthermore any meeting involving the Circle to which the Chalice stood should be precise about the number of people present, the number of people who would be offered the Chaliceââ¬â¢s cup ââ¬â which Deager would also know. And the Willowlands folk were doubtless awkward with surprise. They had known an Heir would be chosen, and Mirasol had held Chalice during the gathering when the Master had acceded to the Overlordââ¬â¢s wish, as presented by Deager, that the Overlord do the choosing. But that had only been a few weeks ago, and they had heard nothing of the progress of the search. She had begun reading about the meeting of a Master with an unknown Heir, so she knew that if it had been a proper meeting she should offer her cup first to the Master and second to the Heir. After a momentââ¬â¢s invisible dithering behind the face she tried hard to keep in an expressionless Chalice mask she did so anyway: let Deager assume this was a manifestation of magnanimity and support; she considered it buying time. The contrast between the Master and an ordinary human had never been so marked, she thought, as between the Master and his Heir when she took the cup from one and offered it to the other. She had directed them to stand on either side of her ââ¬â which would also have been the correct form for a planned first meeting between the two of them: she could see Deager smiling with satisfaction, but she ignored him. The Master seemed to tower over her, and his natural heat, as she stood close enough to him to hold a cup to his lips, wrapped itself around her as if claiming her ââ¬â and briefly and disconcertingly she remembered riding home with him after the fire in the Onora Grove. Horuld, who was no more than average size, seemed puny and frail in comparison; and the fact that he was obviously struggling not to flinch away from the Master added to this impression of weakness. She might have helped him, as she often helped the Circle members who were still reluctant to approach the Master, by stepping toward him, by allowing him to maintain a greater distance; but she did not. She offered the cup to the Master with a bent arm, and then turned and offered the cup to Horuld, again with a bent arm, and waited, forcing him to step close, not only to her, but to the Master. He did not try to take the cup from her, but he did raise a hand to grasp it, and she could feel him trembling. There were beads of sweat on his upper lip which she doubted were only from the heat. Before she took the cup on to Deager and the rest of the Circle, she bowed, to the Master, and then to Horuld. The Master must receive the deeper bow, of course, but the Heir might have had one nearly as deep; her bow to the Heir was only enough more than perfunctory not to be offensive. She let her gaze pass as if carelessly over Deager, and saw that he had stopped smiling. She could feel, before she had got halfway round the Circle, that it was not a good binding. When she made her final bow it was almost difficult to stand upright again, and she was exhausted. She had to make a great effort to meet the eyes of Horuld and Deager; the Grand Seneschalââ¬â¢s eyes looked glassy and unfocused, and the Masterââ¬â¢s were as unfathomable as they had been the first day, when his hand had slipped and burnt her, and his face was only blurred shadows. She tried to remember the sudden surprising joy of his healing of her hand, of talking to him about what he saw, about her bees being tiny golden sparks in his strange vision ââ¬â of the night that she had helped him put out the fire in Onora Grove, and the ride home after. But she remembered these things as she might remember something out of a book, a story told of someone else. Even if, by some extraordinary accident, the Chalice had not known beforehand all those who would drink, a well-mixed cup should have had a more positive effect than this. Perhaps she had mixed it injudiciously; that was likeliest. Even without his bringing an unannounced Heir, her dislike of Deager made it onerous for her to mix a cup that she would have to offer to him. But even if a more experienced Chalice might have done better, it was still true that introducing an Heir without proper advance warning was like throwing a boulder on one side of a delicate scales and expecting them still to balance. But perhaps the lack of binding and balance in this gathering was because Horuld was wrongâ⬠¦wrong for the demesne, wrong as Heir, wrong even to be here. It had been known in the past that an outblood Heir was rejected by the demesne, however carefully the humans had tried to make the best choice. Perhaps the Overlord had overplayed his game by giving the Master and his Chalice no forewarning that the Overlordââ¬â¢s choice was coming to be introduced to his hoped-for inheritance. By the end of the day, when she could leave the House and make her way back to her cottage, she was shaking and sick. She pulled her hood over her head and held it bunched round her throat with her hands, feeling that what she really wanted to do was disappear: if she wrapped the ends of her cloak around her tightly enough and then tighter still, eventually there would be no one left insideâ⬠¦. Usually the gentle thumping of the empty Chalice cup against her hip was comforting: another ritual got through. Today it was not; she felt that she ââ¬â they ââ¬â Willowlands had indeed not got through the ritual of the introduction of the Heir. She concentrated on the thought of sitting in the last of the daylight in the clearing by the cottage, listening to her bees. She was still ten minutesââ¬â¢ walk from the cottage when some of her bees came to meet her. She stretched out her arms to them and they landed on her hands and forearms, stroking her skin as if the tiny hairs were sepals they expected to secrete nectar for them. She shook her hood back, and several landed on her face and neck; out of the corners of her eyes she could see more landing on her shoulders. As she walked the last few minutes to the cottage she found herself thinking that her head felt strangely heavy, and that the hum of the bees was unusually loud; and then when she came out of the tree-shadowed path into the sunny clearing around the cottage she saw a great cloud of bees lifting away from her and dispersing, and she realised that she had been wearing a hood and cloak of bees. She watched them scatter about their proper bee business, and wondered. Horuld came twice more in the next few weeks with Deager, and then a third time he came alone. When he came with Deager their visits were announced in advance; but now as the acknowledged Heir, he might come as he pleased ââ¬â and stay as he pleased. She was in the House library when he came that third time, and the first warning she had was a shadow falling across the open door; she was deep into her research and would not have noticed, except that a half-familiar voice said, ââ¬Å"Chalice,â⬠and her body had recoiled before her mind had recognised who it was. She turned the recoil, she hoped, into a mere startle, and stood up at once to make a ceremonial sign of greeting, saying, ââ¬Å"Forgive me, my mind was lost in what I was doing.â⬠He said smoothly, ââ¬Å"And I have interrupted you; forgive me.â⬠She bowed her head and waited, hoping his appearance was a formal signal only and that he had no business with her. The demesneââ¬â¢s folk were growing used to their new Chalice, and they were now coming to her more and more; this was a relief in some ways, and she knew she must be grateful for the good this was doing Willowlands, but she often had to put aside what other work she had planned on doing. She had fled to the House library today and was hastily reading up on the behaviour toward and reception of outblood Heirs. Part of her problem, she thought, as she had thought many times since the Chalice had come to her, was that she was not by nature a formal sort of person; she found that side of the duties of the Chalice so difficult as sometimes to feel incompatible with her private self. She wondered if this was anything like trying to live in the human world when you were a priest of Fire.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Compare and Contrast the traditional music of India with the Research Paper
Compare and Contrast the traditional music of India with the traditional music of Korea - Research Paper Example In 12th century, influences from the Middle East made Indian music split in to two main paths. Carnatic music was not altered by Arabian culture unlike Hindustani music, which embraced evident Persian and Arab influences from the ruling Muslim kings in the Northern states of India (ââ¬Å"Carnatic musicâ⬠). In 13th century Carnatic music localized in the Southern part of India and developed there a significant music culture (Randel, ed.). Carnatic music was quite diverse, but it utilized the main elements of Indian music which were sruti, swara, tala and raga. Out of these elements, sruti was defined as a musical pitch, and swara was the repetition of the same note; raga was a specific interchange of ascending and descending parts of the melody, and tala was a fixed rhythmic scale (Randel, ed.). Carnatic music was usually composed; though, improvisation was possible as well. Instrumentation of Carnatic music included the main performer (vocalist), melodic and rhythm accompanimen t and a drone (Randel, ed.). Usually, the vocalists sat in the middle of the stage because they were main figures in the performance, other musicians circled them behind. Goryeo dynasty, which ruled in 938-1392, contributed a lot to the development of Korean traditional music. Goryeo dynasty music was represented by aak, court ceremonial music (So). Aak was derived from Chinese model and it was translated as elegant music; it was presented to Goreyo dynasty in Korea by Song Dynasty in China. However, Koreans retuned Chinese music gifted to them and developed unique tone and style, which was radically different from Chinese music. All instruments for aak were shipped from China; they were divided into two orchestras ââ¬â tungga (veranda orchestra) and honââ¬â¢ga (ground orchestra) (So). According to Randel ed., akk orchestras included extremely diverse instruments grouped as idiophones (wooden and stone chimes, boxes, scrappers and clappers), aerophones (octarina, various flutes,
THE SCOPE OF AN ARBITRATION AGREEMENT IS A THIRD PARTY BOUND BY IT Dissertation - 1
THE SCOPE OF AN ARBITRATION AGREEMENT IS A THIRD PARTY BOUND BY IT - Dissertation Example heir businesses are built. Where there are contracts, however, there is must exist a system of enforcement that the parties may rely upon in the event a dispute on the interpretation of contractual obligations arises. The general Model Law on Arbitration enacted under the auspices of UNCITRAL is supposed to provide such a framework, although much is left to the national law for it to be made operative and mandatory upon the parties. There are many issues regarding the implementation of these tenets which, because of the wide scope of international public law and the conflict of laws, provides many sources of controversy. This research study provides a comprehensive scan of the major issues, and a survey of relevant cases from the jurisprudence of the different countries involved mostly in these international commercial disputes sought to be enforced by arbitration. While the study does not promise to be exhaustive from the sheer volume of material on the study, it shall seek to provi de as much background on the salient issues that surround arbitration. The method of research relied upon is qualitative legal research, which shall rely on case law as much as a survey of the relevant codal provisions in multilateral treaties and the UNCITRAL Model Law, as well as the New York Convention governing international arbitration. Chapter two: SCOPE OF ARBITRATION AGREEMENT There are many legal implications in determining the scope of an arbitration agreement. It has the nature of a special type of contract pertaining to a particular purpose, the nature of which springs from a principal contract. By case law definition, however, it is not a auxiliary contract in the sense that its validity may be determined by a separate tribunal and in a separate hearing from that of the principal contract in which the agreement may be contained. A question on the validity of the principal contract does not suspend the effectivity of the arbitration agreement. Furthermore, there are many instances when third parties non-signatories to the original contract may be included in an action based on the arbitration agreement. Arbitration clauses are often drafted in haste, and at times by persons not thoroughly familiar with the technicalities thereof. In the interest of putting into effect as far as possible the will of the parties, observers of ICC arbitration have come to distinguish certain indispensable elements without which the arbitration agreement may not be given effect. There are several essential elements of the arbitration agreement: 1 (1) The arbitration agreement must be concluded between two or more parties who are determined or determinable. In
Inter Office Memoramdum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Inter Office Memoramdum - Essay Example In response to your query about the type and effectiveness of an economic policy as a large part of campaign, here I am presenting the following details that will give you an insight about the pros and cons associated with each policy and the basic complementary things associated with each courses of action. In order to have a control over finance, there are two courses of action namely Fiscal Policy and Monetary Policy. These are basically two separate, yet equally important strategies by which we can enact and control our finances and can stabilize economics fluctuation (Iwamoto, 2005, p.3). This came into play mainly after the Great Depression of the 1930ââ¬â¢s when it was necessary to regulate how and what was happening financially, how money was being taken in and then later spent, how budgets were enacted, how banks could conduct business, and so forth. Following paragraphs give detail about both Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy. The process by which the government, central bank, or monetary authority manages the supply of money or trading in foreign exchange markets is referred as Monetary Policy. Monetary Policy is based on the relationship between the rates of interest in an economy, that is the price at which money can be borrowed and the total supply of money. It employs a variety of tools like monetary base, reserve requirements, discount window landing and interest rates to control the price at which money can be borrowed or the total supply of money hence influences the outcomes of economy like economic growth, inflation, exchange rates with other currencies and unemployment.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Wal-Marts sustainability strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words
Wal-Marts sustainability strategy - Essay Example From that time the company has attained massive expansion and is currently operating under different brand names. It is one of the most successful groups with operations in 27 countries, has more than 10,000 stores with different departments and employs over 2 million people. (Wal-Mart, 2012, p.3). The aim was to improve the lives of the people by saving their money while making profit through reduced expenses and improved management. They operate as supercenters, food and drug store, restaurants, general merchandise stores, warehouse clubs, small markets, discount stores human and cash and carry stores. Its strategic management has been based on five principles: resource development, reduced expenses, online shopping services, satisfied customers and social and environmental responsibility (Sullivan, 2010, p. 156).These have led to the rapid growth in revenue, customer base and workforce. Like any other large international companies, there need to develop a proper management strateg y to ensure the business fulfills its mission.This paper will critically analyses the challenges facing Walwart international and gives its recommendation on how to overcome these challenges with keen consideration of seafood supply chains. Challenges of Wal-Martââ¬â¢s supply chain Employees The company employs over two million employees across the world and has been accused of violating their rights. According to Marshall (2012, p.3), their employees went on strike in Los Angeles after several months of trying to reach out to the companyââ¬â¢s executives with success. Prior to this strike, there was also demonstration in other regions, with the employees complaining of low wages, healthy risk and poor treatment while at work. There has been case of firing of workers that are actively involved in their trade union OUR Wal-Mart (Marshall, 2012, p. 4). OUR Wal-Mart has filed several cases on unfair treatment of the workers Such as termination, warnings or reduced working hours. Most complain seem to be a strategy by the executives to reduce the cost of labor and eventually reducing the operational cost. The reduction in expenses is supposed to increase in sales and revenue. Staff reduction can hinder proper management of day to day activities in the stores as well as in factories. Each outlet has different management and this has worsened the situation, some stores lack proper safety facilities, do not give employment contract to their employees, and poor sanitation. Poor working conditions can affect the quality of their products especially food and this pose greater health risk to the consumers. Thestrikes, demonstrations and poor working conditions, not only have negative impacts on the employees but also create a negative image of the company thus affecting business. Competition Like any other company in profit making business, Wal-Mart faces stiff competitions from other large stores, small stores and international companies and sometimes has been for ces to close down their stores. This has forces them to change their mode of marketing as well as their mode of doing business. Being an international company poses greater challenges because of different ways of doing businesses in these countries and also different cultural back grounds of their customers. Sea food store in China almost closed down due to the way chines prefer to choose their sea food, they were forced to display them while uncovered and this led to high sales. According to Ellickson at el (2012. P 750) Wal-Mart has changed the pricing strategy of supermarkets to reduce completion. Its entrance in the market led to closed down of other business but this is just one sided opinion since it has also faced competition. Their low price strategy has worked well for
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)