Like most people who read Gathering of Gargoyles and Pearl of the Soul of the World, I loved Erin and her friendship with Aeriel. But when I got older, in retrospect some things started to seem a bit... off. I recalled Erin always being mistaken for Aeriel's servant even though they both used to be slaves, and Erin putting herself in a supplicating position rather than as an equal, which started to make me uncomfortable as someone born and raised in the US who was also reading a book written by an American with a shared history of characters with dark skin serving characters with light skin. And skin is something mentioned quite a lot in the series.

What do you think? Did the relationship read this way to you? Have you found fics that dealt with the problem, if you saw one?