Wraith gestation periods are apparently quite long.
Ya’ll didn’t think I’d go there did ya?
Reading through one of my absolute favorite scenes in this book (my favorite being when Guide meets his daughter again) it occurred to me that Alabaster was pregnant for a long time compared to humans.
Really shouldn’t have taken me so long since they literally say how long she was on the planet before giving birth to Darling, but you always seem to find something new in a book when you go back through. Which is why I don’t get too many points taken off for this one.
Anyways, Alabaster carried Darling for two years before giving birth. Considering that Guide thought about when she was little and asleep in the Hiveships womb (pretty sure that was the word used) I have so many questions about Wraith children!
They can obviously carry to term (which was one of my questions), so are the newborns put into a womb-like place on a Hive to help them grow and learn about the Wraith until a certain age and it wasn’t an option for Darling so she simply raised him?
Or is the word ‘womb’ in relation to a Hiveship simply a sleeping place for the young?
It would be cool to find out, and there are other stories still I haven’t read or listened to so the answer may be there. Or be in one of the books I’ve read already and just didn’t see it the first time through.
In any case, I’ll keep it on the backburner while I’m going through the next books and see if I can get more info.
Another thing this week, while we’re talking about Wraith and their children, is Guide and Alabaster’s reactions to meeting again after twenty-one years.
Pretty dang hard for a human and not so different for the Wraith. Alabaster kept expecting her father to come to the rescue and Guide, apparently, had several times where he expected her to be on the other end of a message.
Needing Bonewhite to watch his back in case he got himself into trouble is a very telling thing. Guide thinks about how he’s feeling in the moment, but twice since Woolsey contacted him, Guide has considered Bonewhite to be the best person to keep things going if this time is like the rest and a false call.
I can’t remember if the reason he was caught by the Genii in the first place was because he was following another lead on his daughter.
At least this time turned out far better for him then that time.
I like that we keep seeing these little snippets of Wraith life. You wouldn’t think that Bonewhite and Guide are close, (being Commander and Second is one thing but advancement is also a thing) but these two little scenes tell a different story. We all know Guide is older by a good bit than most of the Wraith we’ve met but it’s nice to see that the Wraith form different kinds of friendships like humans do.
Having said that, it can’t be easy being friends with someone like Guide who always seems to be in some kind of trouble or other. Either needing rescuing or just a little more time to see his plans to fruition.
I shall leave this post here for the week and let ya’ll know that it was meant to be the last but then I realized I could do one more and get to a solid 15 for this book, so why not?
Next week will be the last review for ‘Secrets’ and then onto the next!
Have a great week everyone!
The Dark Library 