Talli Ruksas
Talli Ruksas asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

One of my favorite relationships is that between Penric and Llewyn though we only get to see it a few times. I've always wondered if there is something more intimate between Llewyn and her secretary than that between employer and employee. I feel like you almost hint so, but I might just need better glasses for reading between the lines. Also, could Desdemona have chatted with Llewyn while Penric was asleep-in theory?

Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, I'd like to do more with Penric and his Princess-Archdivine sometime, though no obvious plot has yet reported for duty, only insufficient bits. The nice thing about ala carte e-publishing is that it doesn't set a series order in stone, or print. I can jump around anywhere in Pen's timeline if I want.

I will leave more intimate personal speculation about Llewyn and her long-time faithful secretary and friend to the fanficcers, methinks. Note they are both sworn members of the Daughter's Order, not the Bastard's Order, fwiw.

Des seems to go off-line when Penric is unconscious or asleep, cut off from the world just as he is. It might be the first sign of a demon, oops, ascending to take over the sorcerer's body if the demon could seize the wheel during unconsciousness, Jekyll & Hyde fashion, but that speculation is not established in text at this time.

Ta, L.

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