Mei Tachwyr the Dark and Yqan Lannawar Belgis take Ensign Dominic Flandry to a hillside restaurant which is a shrine of an ancient faith. They sit, Flandry on a bench, the Merseians on their tails, in an arabesqued marble pergola where they consume local food and ale. Looking down on the community of Dalgorad, they see flowers, foliage, buildings, hollowed-out trees used as dwellings for many generations, an airport, a red beach, a dark blue ocean, the sun Korych and two ghost-like moons, Wythna and Lythyr.
The Eriau-speaking Wilwidh culture dominates Merseia but has not yet imposed as much planetary uniformity as has the Anglic-speaking Technic culture on Terra. Hence, the different naming system of the provincial Lannawar Belgis. In Wilwidh style, he might have been called, e.g., Lannawar the Able.
Terran Naval ranks are mutually aloof whereas the Merseians alternate between formality and ease. A polite form of address in Eriau - or maybe just in Belgis' region? - is "foreseer." We are not told why.
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