In Safety Rest
Seanan McGuire
Marine Domesticity with August
In Safety Rest is Seanan McGuire's July 2022 Patreon reward. It's a short story (31 pages in PDF form) set in the October Daye world.
In Safety Rest is the fourth Patreon story set in what I will call the Lorden household (because Lorden/Twycross/Torquill becomes unwieldy). In A Killing Frost Simon Torquill was freed of his entanglements with several horrifying fae women: Eira Rosenhwyr, Amandine, and Oleander (although to be accurate, Oleander has already been dead for several novels at the time) and immediately entered into new, one hopes less horrifying, entanglements, this time with Patrick Twycross and Dianda Lorden and August Torquill. Patrick and Dianda are husband and wife. However, we learned at the time that Patrick's feelings for Simon are more than a purely Platonic friendship. Thus Dianda and Patrick propose marriage to Simon. Simon accepts, and as a result they all ended up in a mariage a trois. August is Simon's daughter with his now former wife Amandine. August, having the choice as to which parent to stay with, separates herself from Amandine and goes with Simon.
All this domestic reshuffling is especially fraught because Dianda is the Duchess (i.e., head of state) of the Duchy of Saltmist, a Fae domain in the Pacific Ocean. Yes, literally in the Pacific. Dianda is a Merrow, i.e. a mermaid, and her home and castle is underwater. This of course complicates life for August, who is an air-breather. However, Since husbands Patrick and Simon are also air-breathers, Saltmist has developed ways to accommodate terrestrial fae. Undersea social norms are different (more violent, for example) than land norms, and August is working hard to learn how to behave.
As In Safety Rest begins August is still very new to Saltmist -- new to living undersea, but also new to having a family. A fair amount of the story is concerned with her interaction with Dianda and Patrick's son Peter Lorden, now her brother. The story, such as it is, kicks off with the arrival at Saltmist of a delegation of Roane. Since the events of The Unkindest Tide the Roane have been reconstituted as a people, and they are now looking for a homeland of their own. Most of In Safety Rest describes August hanging out and eating a meal with Peter and one of the Roane. It's all very low-key -- nothing much happens. One thing I particularly enjoyed, we learned that the Roane have bestowed a new title on Toby: "October the Restorer, Chosen of the Sea-Witch". It's nice to see Toby get a little public love.
Your mileage may vary -- I know some McGuire fans dearly love these little domestic interludes. To me, frankly, they are not all that interesting. Hence the three star rating.