Arinnian's Problems

Chapter Sixteen

Grief causes premature ovulation in a bereaved Ythrian female. A male seeks her out. This is not against choth law and the female's human chothmate, Arinnian, has no cause to challenge so he insults the Ythrian male until the latter challenges him.
-copied from here.

To Ythrians, Draun's assault on Eyath was a misfortune, not a crime. Arinnian sees it in very traditional human terms. Draun should be killed and Eyath is somehow tainted. Tabitha/Hrill has to put Chris/Arinnian right as regards Eyath. I still have trouble understanding what some of his problems are. Chris to Eyath:

"'What befell you -
"'Was that worse than what befell her?' he challenged.'"
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 654.

I am lost again. Does "...her..." mean Tabitha? If so, what befell her and why would Eyath have regarded her own experience as worse than Tabitha's?

Chris acknowledges:

"'...the years I wasted imagining bodily love could ever be bad...'" (ibid.)

- so, whatever his problem has been, he is getting through it with help from Tabitha and Eyath.

Pathetic fallacy again:

"Raindrops glistened within [Eyath's] crest like jewels of a crown." (ibid.)