This comment is a continuation from the general discussion post regarding the child in the tourist group and atevi heights.
We learn in later books that a eight- to nine-year-old ateva is pretty much the same height as Bren, so it's possible the child who said that was pretty young. (A nine-year-old ateva is old enough to start feeling man'chi of his own, at least in the upward direction -- receiving it from subordinates; which might be something like puberty, though I don't think anything else pubertal is suggested, so it may be a stage which happens some time before physical maturity. At any rate, aside from that no one ever remarks on nine years old being older, mentally, for an ateva than for a human, which you'd think they would if there were that much disparity.)
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branchandroot
slight spoilers for later books?
Date: 2011-06-19 05:40 am (UTC)We learn in later books that a eight- to nine-year-old ateva is pretty much the same height as Bren, so it's possible the child who said that was pretty young. (A nine-year-old ateva is old enough to start feeling man'chi of his own, at least in the upward direction -- receiving it from subordinates; which might be something like puberty, though I don't think anything else pubertal is suggested, so it may be a stage which happens some time before physical maturity. At any rate, aside from that no one ever remarks on nine years old being older, mentally, for an ateva than for a human, which you'd think they would if there were that much disparity.)