at the very beginning of a memory called empire where nineteen adze says to three seagrass "Never think that." what an elemental move! like, so obviously to type for the nineteen adze kind of character, and yet still great, because you're perceiving it through the gate of three seagrass, perceived through the gate of mahit, and then finally through your own perception. the shiver up your spine is finer because it's been finessed three times.
Three Seagrass has to recognize the fact that she's being seen by nineteen adze, that her status as a poet—and her model of behavior and image after eleven lathe—are known, accounted for in the reckoning of a woman of infinite potential power. At the same time, three seagrass is also being seen in this moment by Mahit, and Mahit has to feel the secondhand loop of embarassment, to witness this kind of proverbial undressing. They both know that Mahit is witnessing this, and that the threat implicit in this knowledge of being seen is lessened only because they can experience that threat together. and then as the reader, you get to feel this delicate tension in your body, too!