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The Great Hunt, Chapter 17 - Choices

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Portal stone icon) In which the suspicious behaviour continues.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand prepares them to run for it, and Selene says grolm never give up once they have a trail. You need to kill them all, or go elsewhere, and the Portal Stone nearby can bring them elsewhere. Rand insists he's killed one, he can kill them all. Selene says this is foolish. Rand draws his bow and finds the void, and fires exactly five arrows, taking down every beast in turn. Hurin says he's never seen shooting like that, startling Rand out of the void just before he reached for saidin.

“It grows easier each time you do it, I’ve heard,” Selene said. “The more you live in the Oneness, the easier.” Rand glanced at her. “Well, I won’t need it again, not for a while.” What happened? I wanted to. . . . He still wanted to, he realized with horror. He wanted to go back into the void, wanted to feel that light filling him again. It had seemed as if he were truly alive then, sickliness and all, and now was only an imitation. No, worse. He had been almost alive, knowing what “alive” would be like. All he had to do was reach out to saidin. . . . “Not again,” he muttered. He gazed off at the dead grolm, five monstrous shapes lying on the ground. Not dangerous anymore. “Now we can be on our—” A coughing bark, all too familiar, sounded beyond the dead grolm, beyond the next hill, and others answered it. Still more came, from the east, from the west.(1)

Selene demands how many arrows he has left. Can he take them all? They MUST go to the Portal Stone! Loial agrees they have no further choice. Rand finally, reluctantly agrees that she should lead them to it. It really isn't far, they're there before they know it. Selene says that Rand must use the Stone, the grolm will be on them in minutes. Rand starts to say she's perfectly able, but she stops him and says she doesn't know how to use it, but she points to a symbol that stands for their true world, and says it will help if he holds it in his mind while he... she gestures vaguely.(2)

Rand focuses on the Stone, while Hurin is getting more nervous by the second. The light of saidin comes closer, closer... then fills him, the triangle symbol for his world burning into his flesh.

Suddenly, as if the sun had gone out for the blink of an eye, the world flickered. And again. The symbol was a live coal under his hand; he drank in the light. The world flickered. Flickered. It made him sick, that light; it was water to a man dying of thirst. Flicker. He sucked at it. It made him want to vomit; he wanted it all. Flicker. The triangle-and-circle seared him; he could feel it charring his hand. Flicker. He wanted it all! He screamed, howling with pain, howling with wanting. Flicker . . . flicker . . . flickerflickerflicker. . . .(3)

Hands pull at him, and he staggers. The void, and the light, are slipping away from him, and he feels sick again. Selene is amazed, all of them transported neatly and he still doesn't know what he did. Rand realizes they're really home,  and laughs with relief. Selene says she knew he could do it, and maybe one day he'll understand what he did, since he's surely destined for great things.

He thinks about kissing her, but instead asks her nervously not to tell anyone about his channeling or the Portal Stone. She's quiet and expressionless for a moment, making him wish Perrin and Mat were there because Perrin can talk to girls and Mat can lie well.(4) But, shortly, she gives him a mocking curtsy and promises to keep his secrets. He wonders if she's angry at him.(5)

Rand asks if the Darkfriends used the Portal Stone, and Hurin says no, they were angling west, away from the Stone, in the other world. Selene says that perhaps that other scent trail was a reflection of where the trail would be, not where it had been. Hurin says he wouldn't want to smell where violence was going to be, if he has the choice, it would drive him crazy.(6) Rand suggests that they should see Selene home either way, and she says a few days will prove her right or wrong, And think of it, Rand, the Horn of Valere, the man who sounds it will live in legend forever... Rand doesn't take this bait, but if they are ahead of the real trail, then a few days will meet them back up with Ingtar and the others. Surely they haven't given up the Hunt just because they three went missing.

“A wise decision, Rand,” Selene said, “and well thought out.”(7) She touched his arm and smiled, and he found himself again thinking of kissing her. “Uh . . . we need to be closer to where they’ll come. If they do come. Hurin, can you find us a camp before dark, somewhere we can watch the place where you lost the trail?” He glanced at the Portal Stone and thought about sleeping near it, thought of the way the void had crept up on him in sleep the last time, and the light in the void. “Somewhere well away from here.” “Leave it in my hands, Lord Rand.” The sniffer scrambled to his saddle. “I vow, I’ll never sleep again without first I see what kind of stone there is nearby.” As Rand rode Red up out of the hollow, he found himself watching Selene more than he did Hurin. She seemed so cool and self-possessed, no older than he, yet queenly, but when she smiled at him, as she did just then. . . . Egwene wouldn’t have said I was wise. Egwene would have called me a woolhead. Irritably, he heeled Red’s flanks.(8)

=====

(1) Funny how they keep cutting off his desire to do what he wants. (2) So she doesn't know how to get them back, but she DOES know how they work and which symbol means home. She's laying it on a mite thick, methinks. Even Rand thinks it's suspicious that she got here alone but can't get back, and THAT should say something. (3) The alternate universes, alternate possibilities, pulling at him? (4) New lore drop! Not an unexpected one but this is the first time Rand's wished it weren't just Perrin with him to talk to girls. (5) All we know for sure is that Lanfear was once Lews Therin's lover, and her ultimate goal is to have him back. If anything, I think she's trying to reconcile her memory (and rose-tinted hindsight memory at that) of a more confident, older man with this lad who's barely old enough to be on his own. Also, she may not have spent much time out in the world yet to understand how reviled men who can channel are, or why Rand might want his abilities hidden. (6) It makes some sense, Lanfear-through-Loial has already told us that some worlds have time that passes differently, and the other world already squished distance weirdly, why shouldn't it also play with time like a kid with slime? (7) She's so proud of him for accepting her idea and so stormy with him when he gets resistant to her. I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who didn't suspect something was up with her on their first reading, and I certainly don't regret pointing at all the evidence last chapter and letting the obvious be said aloud. (8) Is Rand irritated that "Selene" seems so suspicious, or is he irritated at feeling like "Selene" would treat him better than the woman he still feels an obligation to, or something else?

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot portal stone icon #rand al'thor #loial #hurin (wot) #selene (wot) #lanfear

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 16 - In the Mirror of Darkness(1)

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Dragon's fang icon) In which I'm not gonna play, we're digging into the unreliable narration immediately.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand has a kerchief wrapped around his hand and refuses to let Loial look at it or apply any salve, knowing it will give away that something is wrong. They've been riding about an hour when they spot a great monument in the distance. Hurin says this is about where the monument to Artur Hawkwing used to be, in their world. Loial points out that should have been three more days' travel from where they were. Hurin thinks they should avoid this structure, whatever it is. Rand says they stick to the trail, so they don't lose it, and only stray if there's trouble afoot.

When they get to the bottom of the monument, they can see it is a spire, at least a hundred spans high, with a great bird at the top. It must be a hawk, Rand says. He adds that they can go back and say what it really looked like, the only three still living in the world who have seen it. Loial isn't so sure. Rand rides excitedly toward it, and closer, even Hurin wonders if it's Hawkwing's monument.

Right up next to it, it's clear the bird is a raven, and the carvings on the spire are Trolloc script. Loial says that in this world ,this might have been, the Trollocs must have won the battle against Hawkwing.(2) If the Trollocs won against humans, maybe they killed each other off, and that's why they haven't seen anything.

Hurin calls for Rand's attention, and says he thought he saw a woman in the northern distance, but maybe it was his eyes playing tricks. Loial says that's not the only thing: the mountains south of them must be the Kinslayer's Dagger range, but those mountains are a hundred leagues south of the Erinin. Rand mutters that maybe this place is like the Ways, and Hurin moans in despair.

Rand is just trying to comfort Hurin, when they hear a scream from the south. Rand rides up as fast as his horse will carry him. The woman is fending off a creature the size of a bear, but with a frog’s skin, and three eyes.(3) Rand shoots it with an arrow, which barely slows it down. 

The woman calls out, somehow much too calmly,(4) that you have to hit an eye to kill it. He does so, touching the void to aim as accurately as possible, and she congratulates him, riding up. He had rather expected her to run away once the thing's attention was diverted.

She was all in white, her dress divided for riding and belted in silver, and her boots, peeking out from under her hems, were tooled in silver, too. Even her saddle was white, and silver-mounted. Her snowy mare, with its arched neck and dainty step, was almost as tall as Rand’s bay. But it was the woman herself—she was perhaps Nynaeve’s age, he thought—who held his eyes. She was tall, for one thing; a hand taller and she could almost look him in the eyes. For another, she was beautiful, ivory-pale skin contrasting sharply with long, night-dark hair and black eyes. He had seen beautiful women. Moiraine was beautiful, if cool, and so was Nynaeve, when her temper did not get the better of her. Egwene, and Elayne, the Daughter-Heir of Andor, were each enough to take a man’s breath. But this woman. . . . His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth; he felt his heart start beating again.

Loial and Hurin ride up, and when she asks Rand if they're his retainers, Loial starts waxing poetical about her beauty. The woman introduces herself as Selene,(5) and though he's tongue-tied, Rand asks where she's from. She says she's from Cairhien, not this world, and will he help her get home? Rand offers to help her, but they have a mission to accomplish first, though he'll try to keep her out of danger. She says she likes a man of duty, yes. Who is it they follow? Hurin tells her it's Darkfriends and Trollocs that stole the Horn of Valere. Rand stares at him, wondering what happened to secrecy.

Selene agrees that it wouldn't do for the Horn to fall into the wrong hands, but will he let her touch it when they find it? Well, first, they have to do the finding. Rand has Hurin pick up the trail again, and they ride on.

Selene rode alongside Rand at first, talking of this and that, asking him questions and calling him lord. Half a dozen times he started to tell her he was no lord, only a shepherd, and every time, looking at her, he could not get the words out. A lady like her would not talk the same way with a shepherd, he was sure, even one who had saved her life. “You will be a great man when you’ve found the Horn of Valere,” she told him. “A man for the legends. The man who sounds the Horn will make his own legends.” “I don’t want to sound it, and I don’t want to be part of any legend.” He did not know if she was wearing perfume, but there seemed to be a scent to her, something that filled his head with her. Spices, sharp and sweet, tickling his nose, making him swallow. “Every man wants to be great. You could be the greatest man in all the Ages.” It sounded too close to what Moiraine had said. The Dragon Reborn would certainly stand out through the Ages. “Not me,” he said fervently. “I’m just”—he thought of her scorn if he told her now that he was only a shepherd after letting her believe he was a lord, and changed what he had been going to say—“just trying to find it. And to help a friend.”

She's silent for a moment, then grabs his hand, unwrapping the kerchief. She says she has an ointment that will help, and it works as well as Nynaeve's sometimes do.(6) Then, Selene makes a comment about how it's always better to choose greatness than to be forced to it. A man who's forced into greatness is never his own master. Rand is confused, and she says, when you find the Horn, there's no avoiding greatness. Will you choose it, or will someone force you to take it? It's so close to what Moiraine once said that he asks if she's Aes Sedai. Her lip curls in a sneer as she says that they serve when they could rule, let men fight wars when they could bring order to the world... no, never call her Aes Sedai.(7) Then she smiles and lays a hand on Rand's arm, to show she's not angry with him, just explaining her feelings.

Selene falls back to talk to Loial, and Rand instantly misses her presence. He makes himself watch their surroundings for more of those creatures, and eventually he realizes they'll reach the Kinslayer's Dagger mountains well before nightfall.

Loial rides up beside him, and says Selene said Rand was right about this place and the Ways. The Aes Sedai studied worlds like this before they made the Ways. Some worlds, you can spend a day in and twenty years might have passed in your own world, or vice versa.(8) This world is so pale because it had little chance of ever really happening. Some worlds are close enough to be solid, and have people, sometimes even the same people, and you could meet yourself.

Rand asks how she can know all that, Loial knows more than Rand ever thought you could know, and everything he knew amounted to a few scraps of paper. Loial says that Selene is Cairhienin, and they have a great royal library. Maybe they have a full version of the book he only saw scraps of. Rand is just saying that he wishes Selene-- when she rides up and asks what he wishes? He changes what he was about to say to say instead that he wishes she would ride next to him for a while. She remarks that he’s quite a shot with that bow, to hit the grolm right in the eye from such a distance and in motion.

Rand shifted awkwardly. “Ah . . . thank you. It’s a trick my father taught me.” He told her about the void, about how Tam had taught him how to use it with the bow. He even found himself telling her about Lan and his sword lessons. “The Oneness,” she said, sounding satisfied. She saw his questioning look and added, “That is what it is called . . . in some places. The Oneness. To learn the full use of it, it is best to wrap it around you continuously, to dwell in it at all times, or so I’ve heard.” He did not even have to think about what lay waiting for him in the void to know his answer to that, but what he said was, “I’ll think about it.” “Wear this void of yours all the time, Rand al’Thor, and you’ll learn uses for it you never suspected.”(9)

Rand repeats that he'll think about it, and asks how she knows all these things that even Loial doesn't know. She names a book, Mirrors of the Wheel, and says the alantin hasn't seen all the books there are. Then before she can be asked to explain what any of that meant, she pivots the conversation to say the Portal Stone she woke up beside is nearby, maybe they can return home by it.

Rand asks Hurin how the trail is, and he says it's still there, but angling west probably to avoid going the harder mountain trails Rand then tells Selene he can take her to the Portal Stone, but she'll have to use it herself. She asks how he knows the Horn is even in this world, and says she doesn't know how to use the Portal Stone anyway.

Rand studied her. She sat her saddle, straight-backed and tall, just as regally as before, but somehow softer, too. Proud, yet vulnerable, and needing him. He had put Nynaeve’s age to her—a handful of years older than himself—but he had been wrong, he realized. She was more his own age, and beautiful, and she needed him. The thought, just the thought, of the void flickered through his head, and of the light. Saidin. To use the Portal Stone, he must dip himself back into that taint.

Rand is extremely reluctant to touch the taint again, so he says if she'll stay with him, he'll find them another way back, he promises.

“You always. . . .” Selene drew a deep breath as if to calm herself. “You always are so stubborn. Well, I can admire stubbornness in a man. There is little to a man who’s too easily biddable.”(10)

Rand blushes, thinking it's too close to things Egwene always says about him, and they've been practically promised to marry since they were kids. From Selene, it's quite a shock. He turns to tell Hurin to keep following the trail, when they hear grunts. Five shapes crest a hill behind them. Selene says calmly that they're more grolm, a small pack must have caught their scent.(11)

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(1) What a curious title. That's not quite the name of the book mentioned later on here, either. In fact, since I don't think the chapter makes any actual secret of her identity to the reader, I believe this explicitly refers to Lanfear as the Daughter of the Night (a daughter is a mirror of her mother in some ways, and the night is darkness) as well as more metaphorically to her association with moon imagery, because what else could you see in a mirrored surface at night besides the moon Egwene saw in her eyes in that dream? Especially in association with the Dragon's fang icon, which we know can refer to male magic or Darkfriendery, and who's more a Darkfriend than one of the Forsaken? (2) That might go some way to explaining why this world is such a wasteland. Also, I'm not sure I went into all the Trolloc bands when they came up in book 1, but you can see how they're all derived from names of things white folks think of as mythological evil. Devil, demon, kobold, ifrit. There are a bunch of others as well. (3) What a weird creature. (4) The first clue, of course, even before her name. She's in full control of this situation from the start. (5) No doubt she chose this persona carefully after watching them at least since that first village, and is chewing the scenery like nobody ever has to make sure they suspect her of nothing. Perhaps she's even nudging them along, like Liandrin's little trick on Lady Amalisa. She likes a man of duty, indeed, since all we know of the Dragon's last incarnation is that he was so devoted to his duty he tore the world asunder. Selene, the Greek goddess of the moon. Subtle, she is not. But, how could she find him so quickly? Did Egg really see, or foresee, this encounter? Could Lanfear have known how to activate the portal stone, since she's from the Age of Legends, and is that why she knows what the creatures are? Would she be the kind of crazy ex girlfriend to present herself as a young woman in severely exaggerated distress? (6) Oh yes, because Nynaeve's ointments sometimes get applied with a side dose of magic, when she's not getting in her own way about it or when she's angry. All these little clues are why I think the chapter is beating us over the head with Lanfear's identity and why the unreliable narration is SO important to understand. (7) The title itself isn't all he was asking about, but she's said enough, hasn't she? (8) The old fairy tales, of course. RJ is drawing from enough mythology, he couldn't leave that out. (9) Oh yes, she wants him powerful enough to conquer the world for her. She has no way to be sure he's channeling yet unless he really did activate the portal stone himself, and that seems less likely every page turn. But, if she can ensure he touches the void, and touches saidin, he'll get there. (10) And Rand never stops to think how "Selene" could know enough about him to say ANYTHING in terms of "you always"… (11) How convenient for Lanfear, the grolm will solve the issue presently of which direction to go in.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot dragon fang icon #rand al'thor #loial #hurin (wot) #selene (wot) #lanfear

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 15 - Kinslayer

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Heron-marked sword icon) In which that's probably the first scar of many to come.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand gets dizzy if he looks at the landscape too much, but it's better than holding the void to avoid getting dizzy. They cross a number of burned areas, lines running east to west, some only a few hundred paces wide and some as much as a mile. There's no char left, but nothing green has reclaimed the burned stripes. There are no insects in the burned areas or otherwise, nor animals, though the unburned areas have grass on the ground and leaves on the trees. The only sign of life is something in the distance leaving behind a wispy line of cloud.(2) Fortunately, the water is drinkable, though Rand insists on being the one to drink first and have the others wait in case he’s poisoned before refilling their water bottles.(3)

After they've ridden half the morning, Loial stops, gets off his horse, and approaches a tree. He tries singing to it, the way he would in their own world, and Rand finds the song almost familiar in a distant way. Eventually, he works a quarterstaff out of the wood, without harming a single branch. Rand didn't think Ogier carried weapons and Loial says they usually don't, but this place feels too dangerous not to. More disturbingly, Loial says the tree felt glad to be made into a weapon. Rand says it's as well they don't intend to stay, and Hurin barks a laugh at this, repeating the phrase every so often as they ride on.(4)

Eventually, Hurin falls silent. It's not that he loses the trail, but sometimes it's like there are dozens of trails overlapping all at once, and he gets caught up in them.(5) When they left the hollow that morning, he could have sworn there were hundreds of bodies killed under his feet, just moments before, despite all evidence to the contrary. He never loses the right trail, but he's getting anxious, and he feels more like he’s remembering the trail than smelling it himself.

They make camp that evening, and Rand keeps the fire small, thinking that Fain and his Darkfriends might see it. Then he thinks how odd it is that he's thinking of them as Fain's Darkfriends and Fain's Trollocs. Fain is just a madman... but then why did they rescue him? Fain was part of the search for Rand... but why is he running, now? And what killed that Myrddraal? What happened in the room full of flies? And that wind, catching him like a beetle in pine sap? But no, Baa has to be dead... even though Moiraine and the Amyrlin refused to believe it.

Rand is trying to shake the thoughts from his mind when he hears a whisper, "It’s never over, al’Thor." He considers seeking the void to escape the voice repeating itself in his mind, but thinks the better of it. He practices many sword stances to get his mind off things, but it all comes back to him when he finishes.

He takes the first watch, and when the others are asleep, he takes out Thom's flute, plays the first few notes of a song as softly as he can, but even the sound of the flute is too loud, too real in this place. He lets the others sleep much later than just his fair share of the watching, until he realizes a fog has descended and Baa appears. Rand is confused, but says the father of lies is well named, if he hasn't done anything yet it's because he can't.

Baa turns his attention to Rand's companions.

“You find odd followers,” Ba’alzamon mused. “You always did. These two. The girl who tries to watch over you. A poor guardian and weak, Kinslayer. If she had a lifetime to grow, she would never grow strong enough for you to hide behind.”(6) Girl? Who? Moiraine is surely not a girl. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Father of Lies. You lie, and lie, and even when you tell the truth, you twist it to a lie.”

But, Baa knows that some of the Aes Sedai know who he is, some of his followers are Aes Sedai. He knows that Rand seeks the Horn. He shows Rand his face, a man's face, horribly burned, but healing. He taunts Rand with immortality, with power, shelter from the madness of the taint. All he needs to do is serve. But Rand refuses, again.

Those dark eyes became fire again, and that mouth, flame that blossomed and grew until it seemed brighter than a summer sun. Grew, and suddenly Rand’s sword glowed as if just drawn from the forge. He cried out as the hilt burned his hands, screamed and dropped the sword. And the fog caught fire, fire that leaped, fire that burned everything. Yelling, Rand beat at his clothes as they smoked and charred and fell in ashes, beat with hands that blackened and shriveled as naked flesh cracked and peeled away in the flames. He screamed. Pain beat at the void inside him, and he tried to crawl deeper into the emptiness. The glow was there, the tainted light just out of sight. Half mad, no longer caring what it was, he reached for saidin, tried to wrap it around him, tried to hide in it from the burning and the pain. As suddenly as the fire began, it was gone. Rand stared wonderingly at his hand sticking out of the red sleeve of his coat. There was not so much as a singe on the wool. I imagined it all. Frantically, he looked around. Ba’alzamon was gone. Hurin shifted in his sleep; the sniffer and Loial were still only two mounds sticking up out of the low fog. I did imagine it. Before relief had a chance to grow, pain stabbed his right hand, and he turned it up to look. There across the palm was branded a heron. The heron from the hilt of his sword, angry and red, as neatly done as though drawn with an artist’s skill. Fumbling a kerchief from his coat pocket, he wrapped it around his hand. The hand throbbed, now. The void would help with that—he was aware of pain in the void, but he did not feel it—but he put the thought out of his head. Twice now, unknowing—and once on purpose; he could not forget that—he had tried to channel the One Power while he was in the void. It was with that that Ba’alzamon wanted to tempt him. It was that that Moiraine and the Amyrlin Seat wanted him to do. He would not.

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(1) If you recall, Elan Morin once said that Lews Therin would be known as Kinslayer, for his actions just preceding the EotW prologue… (2) I wonder if RJ had a proposed mechanism for this damage, if he had in his notes the sort of weapon that would cause it. Even nuclear disasters don't resist regrowth like that. It's also not clear if the wispy contrail clouds are parallel or perpendicular to the char lines unless I missed something. (3) I'm sure Rand believes this comes across as him taking responsibility for the welfare of the others. There is, however, another reading: someone outside his head could interpret this as him being selfish and quenching his own thirst first and making the others suffer until he feels better or something. Absolutely not saying that's what's happening here, but no I will not let go of the "question EVERYTHING" of it all. Also, water bottles, not water skins? Yet another sign this is an odd time period. What sort of bottle would be portable like that, in a world without plastics? (4) Hurin seems a fairly plain sort of man, you know? He's got a special talent which means he probably has a bit of an odd career, but he likes things to feel straightforward. In something as surreal, downright unreal as a parallel universe, I can just imagine how psychologically stressful it must be for him. (5) Perhaps those places run closer to other nearby parallel universes, so there's more overlapping scents because those spots are literally overlapping more worlds where something similar is happening. (6) I'm leaving the Ba'alzamon references in the text because otherwise I'd be switching between Ishamael or Ishy in my words and Ba'alzamon in the quotes, but we know how he can be here, even if it's not a dream, even in the parallel world: because he's NOT the Dark One, the singular nonhuman force of evil incarnate. This? This is just a man, driven mad by being half conscious on the edge of the seals for three thousand years and change. (7) So, he really DID see Egwene in that dream, somehow.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot heron marked blade icon #rand al'thor #hurin (wot) #loial #ishamael

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 14 - Wolfbrother

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Wolf icon) In which Perrin tells someone his biggest secret.

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin, while Ingtar's in a fuss about Rand and co being gone. They can't have disappeared into thin air, surely? But even Uno can't find a trail. Mat wonders if they ran away, but blessedly doesn't give any detail  why he thinks that. Ingtar half believes the Darkfriends took them to throw the rest off the trail, because neither Hurin nor Rand would have abandoned their duty at this stage.

Perrin realizes there might be a way out of this, though he's loath to take it. He thinks it serves him right for telling Rand that sometimes you can't run away. He's tried to deny what he's become, especially at first, thinking it was something of the Dark One's work. He had some idea of what Rand was going through, from that. But now, he reaches out gently with his mind, and he can feel them. His brothers, the wolves.

In the rudimentary way of wolf communication, they ask if he's Long Tooth (Elyas), so he pictures himself in his mind for them. They have heard of him, yes, as Young Bull.(1) An image of a young man with heavy shoulders and shaggy, curly hair comes to him, overlaid with a massive wild bull with metal horns, throwing himself at Whitecloaks.

Perrin is so shocked that they've given him a name that he loses the connection. He focuses again, and gives the wolves the scent-appearance of Rand, Loial, and Hurin, but the wolves say they haven't seen them since everyone went to the hollow to make camp. Perrin hesitates, but remembers going to the dungeon with Egwene, and scenting Fain. The wolves react so strongly, the horses in the camp hear them and get fearful. The wolves hate Fain’s scent more than they even hate Trollocs. He asks where Fain went.

The sky rolled in his head; the land spun. East and west, wolves did not know. They knew the movements of sun and moon, the shift of seasons, the contours of the land. Perrin puzzled it out. South. And something more. An eagerness to kill the Trollocs. The wolves would let Young Bull share in the killing. He could bring the two-legs with their hard skins if he wanted, but Young Bull, and Smoke, and Two Deer, and Winter Dawn, and all the rest of the pack would hunt down the Twisted Ones who had dared come into their land. The inedible flesh and bitter blood would burn the tongue, but they must be killed. Kill them. Kill the Twisted Ones.(2)

Their fury infuses him, and his lips peel back in the beginnings of a snarl, which he barely breaks free of, reminding himself that he's a man, not a wolf. Mat sees him and asks if he's alright? That's all Mat needs, for Rand to run off and then Perrin to take ill...

Perrin shakes Mat off, saying he's alright, but goes forth to tell Ingtar he doesn't know where the missing men have gone, but wolves told him the ones they seek, with the Horn and all, went south. Ingtar thinks for a moment, and says he has heard of this, rumours of a Warder named Elyas Machera. Perrin confirms that he knows him.

“These wolves,” Ingtar said, “they will track the Darkfriends and Trollocs for us?” Perrin nodded. “Good. I will have the Horn, whatever it takes.” The Shienaran glanced around at Uno and the others still searching for tracks. “Better not to tell anyone else, though. Wolves are considered good luck in the Borderlands. Trollocs fear them. But still, better to keep this between us for the time. Some of them might not understand.” “I would as soon nobody else ever found out,” Perrin said. “I will tell them you think you have Hurin’s talent. They know about that; they’re easy with it. Some of them saw you wrinkling your nose back in that village, and at the ferry. I’ve heard jokes about your delicate nose. Yes. You keep us on the trail today, Uno will see enough of their tracks to confirm it is the trail, and before nightfall every last man will be sure you are a sniffer. I will have the Horn.”(3)

The men all accept Ingtar's declaration with minimal protest. Mat's the hardest to convince, but he shuts up after Uno starts finding tracks. Perrin pays it almost no attention, as he's fighting in his mind to keep the wolves from running on ahead and killing the Trollocs and such themselves.

Eventually he stops, as they're approaching another village where the Trollocs have done evil. Then they look behind them and realize someone's following them. Mat thinks it might be Rand, he still has faith Rand wouldn’t run out on him.(4) As the figure gets closer, though, it's... Verin Sedai! She declares that Moiraine sent her, and she saw the business with the Myrddraal. Shame she didn't have time to take it down and study it, but...

Suddenly her eyes narrowed, and the absent manner vanished like smoke. “Where is Rand al’Thor?”(5) Ingtar grimaced. “Gone, Verin Sedai. Vanished last night, without a trace. Him, the Ogier, and Hurin, one of my men.” “The Ogier, Lord Ingtar? And your sniffer went with him? What would those two have in common with . . . ?” Ingtar gaped at her, and she snorted. “Did you think you could keep something like that secret?” She snorted again. “Sniffers. Vanished, you say?”

Yes, vanished, but they have a new sniffer, in Perrin, and they will find the Horn of Valere. Verin remarks that it's very convenient that they found another sniffer just when they lost one.(6) Ingtar asks if their disappearance might have something to do with the Horn, and Verin thinks not, but it's an odd coincidence, and she doesn't like odd things until she can understand them. She takes Ingtar's offer to ride with them, for now, and asks him to tell her everything Rand ever said or did in his presence.

Even Mat can see it's Rand she's after, not the Horn at all. Perrin hopes Rand stays where he is, it's no doubt safer than this.

=====

(1) So, Perrin is finally accepting his place in the story, and he has a wolf name! Young Bull, very apt indeed. And they can help him fake being a sniffer, which is helpful. Even more helpful is that Ingtar understands and doesn't judge him. (2) No relation to T. Kingfisher's horror novel, The Twisted Ones, with a surprisingly effective jumpscare for being in print. (3) Ingtar, that's a little bit fervent even for you and even for this quest. (4) Well, at least we the readers know Rand had no intention of leaving. But, poor Mat. On the road to Caemlyn they took such care of each other, it's gotta feel pretty shit having your bestie disappear like this in your hour of need. (5) Why was she looking for him? What more would Moiraine have had to say to him, and more, why wouldn't she have come herself? Anaiya said Verin ran off after Moiraine from the Amyrlin's travel party. Hmm, so many questions. (6) Oh, Verin, you know he's ta'veren too. She's almost laying it on too thick, you know?

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot wolf icon #perrin aybara #lord ingtar shinowa #uno nomesta #mat cauthon #verin mathwin

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 13 - From Stone to Stone

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Portal stone icon)(1) In which I knew that story was a little too conveniently shoehorned to be coincidence.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand, waking to the rising sun in a world where everything has changed. Rand, Loial, and Hurin are still there, but every other member of the group has gone, and they're in a different place in the hollow. Even around the hollow, the trees look different, like they've been on fire recently. And everything looks paler than it should, even the sunlight, like he's seeing through a mist. Rand wakes Loial and Hurin, who are also confused. Hurin asks what happened, and Rand says he doesn't know, he hoped it was a dream... He thinks about his experience with dreams that aren't just dreams, but this doesn't quite seem like that, either.

Loial says there was a piece of an old book that had an illustration of a stone like the one next to them, that they fell asleep next to, with a caption that read ‘From Stone to Stone run the lines of “if,” between the worlds that might be.’ He tells Rand that Aes Sedai used them in the Age of Legends, to journey to those other worlds.(2) But he's confused, because they had no Aes Sedai with them.

Rand's skin prickles as he realizes that in the Age of Legends, there were male Aes Sedai, and he vaguely remembers the void closing around him as he fell asleep. He wonders if that uneasy feeling was saidin.(3)

He asks Loial what worlds that might be means, and Loial doesn't know, but the book also said things like ‘If a woman go left, or right, does Time’s flow divide? Does the Wheel then weave two Patterns? A thousand, for each of her turnings? As many as the stars? Is one real, the others merely shadows and reflections?’ Nothing very helpful, just questions that contradict each other.

At this point Hurin cuts in, urgently asking "Lord Rand" if he can get them home. Hurin has a wife, and children. Melia would take it hard enough if he died on this trip, but if there was no body, no word of how it happened...

Rand opened his mouth to say again he was not a lord, then shut it without speaking. That was hardly important enough to mention, now. You got him into this. He wanted to deny it, but he knew what he was, knew he could channel, even if it always seemed to happen all by itself. Loial said Aes Sedai used the Stones, and that meant the One Power. What Loial said he knew, you could be sure of—the Ogier never claimed to know if he did not—and there was no one else nearby who could wield the Power. You got him into it, you have to get him out. You have to try. “I will do my best, Hurin.” And because Hurin was Shienaran, he added, “By my House and honor. A shepherd’s House and a shepherd’s honor, but I’ll make them do as well as a lord’s.”(4)

Hurin is so enthusiastically grateful for this that he bows. Rand realizes he can't tell Hurin he's not a lord, because his belief in a lord's promise is all that's holding him together, so he just asks Hurin not to bow, and wonders how on earth he's going to get them back where they belong.

Rand walks over to the Stone, laying his hands on it, closes his eyes, and tries to call the void. He can see saidin, like a candle flame through paper soaked in rancid oil. He reaches for it, but he can never seem to touch it, like reaching for something in a scummy pond, he just gets his metaphorical fingers coated in slime without ever grabbing what he wants.

He focuses, trying to overlay a mental image of the camp they left behind onto the Stone, and the void shatters, slicing his mind. He staggers back, his whole upper body aching, and his stomach lurching from the feel of the taint. He's half surprised he's not gushing blood from his head, the way it broke like glass. Hurin is standing there, watching Rand, his confidence growing by the minute. Lord Rand was Doing Something (tm). Loial looks less confident and more puzzled, trying to figure out what Rand was doing. Rand says he'll try again in a few minutes, though he's not sure he can deal with the rancid oily feel of the taint on him as it is.

Hurin suggests that maybe they could find the Darkfriends and ask them for the answer. He can still smell their trail, though it's got the same pale aspect everything else does in this world. Loial approaches Rand, and Rand infers that Loial thinks they should stay where they are. Loial says the book said the Stones are from an age older than the Age of Legends, and even the Aes Sedai of the AoL didn't truly understand them. And they used the One Power on them, so how does Rand expect to use them?

Rand, thinking faster than he ever has in his life, says maybe if they're older than the AoL, there was another way to use them. The Darkfriends got through and they certainly couldn't use the Power. Whatever that other way is, Rand will get them out of it, one way or another. Loial is doubtful.(5)

The land continues to be washed-out, and there's no sign of anything made by people outside of the Stone's ring. Worse, their perception of distance gets skewed. Things up close are alright, and things are fine when you're looking at them in the distance, but things that seem far away in peripheral vision seem to rush at them when they turn their heads to look.

Unsettled, Rand takes direction from Hurin and his nose, and they ride forth.

=====

(1) Yes, that's an approximation of the funny stone Rand, Loial, and Hurin fell asleep next to. (2) Gotta love some parallel world theory! Robert Jordan was also a nuclear engineer and a physicist in the 1970s, by the by. How do parallel universes jive with the endless Wheel we've had set up for the story? (3) Saidin is known to be tainted, Rand sees it like a thick oil slick over the Power when he tries again in a couple pages from here, and it's the taint that drives men mad, not the Power itself. I can't imagine that reaching into that taint would be comfortable, so he may be on to something. On the plus side, Hurin doesn't smell anything wrong, violent, or evil about Rand as he's using the Power or afterward, so that's a very good sign. (4) Bless, he's got a good heart, this one. He knows it won't help to have another fight over whether he's a lord, but he'll do his best when someone's counting on him. Let's hope he remembers that when he starts to go magically insane. (5) Admittedly, I think we'd all be Loial in this case, but would poking at the stone with the Power be any better or more reliable?

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot portal stone icon #rand al'thor #loial #hurin (wot)

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Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on TGH 8-12

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

Leane hinting at Rand being bonded by Alanna "before he can take a breath", AAHHHH I have so many emotions, and at least half of them are "oh god the show's already been setting Alanna up for this since season one and the chains on her jacket but I LOVE HER YOUR HONOUR."

The whole confrontation with Rand and Siuan, Moiraine, and Verin is so much. Like, it's got so many little bits in it of delicious sowing of plot seeds, it's hard to pick out even any particular few.

Nynaeve and the first "mashiara", setting up ACOS 37 if memory serves without looking at any indices.

The assassination attempt… I genuinely don't remember if we get a confirmation on that one. I think maybe Fain alludes to it at some point? Damned difficult thing to find though.

Ingtar being so torn up over Changu and Nidao having left with Fain's crew… Events like the Darkfriend Social seem to be pretty rare and very secretive, I bet he didn't know more than a couple of others, like the Black Ajah's cell network.

Every little line of Ingtar's feels more laden with import on a second or third read, you know? Siuan is proven right and he says she deserves better than him serving her. You want to talk doomed by the narrative? The doubt in his mission and his life's dedication to the Dark drips off him.

Rand holds his tongue on criticizing Ingtar because it's Ingtar's command, his charge, not Rand's. Little does he know just yet, he WAS named second for the mission, and at times on this trip you can almost see Ingtar's desire to do the right thing war with his commands, both from Agelmar and Siuan AND from Ishy I assume.

LANFEAR! OK, I love her in the books, but the show has made me adore her even MORE, if that were possible. COME BACK, LANFEAR! I'm so eager to see you again~

Ingtar ordering the burials after leaving behind so many others, because he knew these two, and even if he knew they were Darkfriends, maybe he hoped there would be the embrace of the mother to greet him at his end, after all he'd done.

Nynaeve's anger… I still prefer LezbiNerdy Jenny's theory that Nynaeve would prove submission wasn't the only way women could channel, but since Nynaeve spends so much time suppressing her anger for the sake of getting the job at hand done, it makes far more sense to me that it's the surrender to the anger that temporarily opens the gate for her until Mashiara.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #wot book spoilers #wheel of time full series spoilers #wot full series spoilers

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 12 - Woven in the Pattern

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Flame icon) In which most of what I'd say is just in the text, there to be interpreted and remembered.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene follows Nynaeve toward the Amyrlin in the direct aftermath of the arrow shot. She hears the Amyrlin tell Agelmar that she will leave presently, and if he finds anything about the assassin, he can notify her in Tar Valon. She turns her attention to Egwene and Nynaeve, evaluating them like the carpenter back home looked at his tools. Egwene curtsies, but Nynaeve stays standing straight. Shortly, the Amyrlin declares that they should all horse up, so they can get moving. Egwene keeps looking back, until Nynaeve reassures her that Rand is perfectly safe with Ingtar and twenty lances, and there's nothing they can do for him in any case... not yet, at least.

They camp late each night. The Aes Sedai get tents, separating by their Ajah. The warders sleep outside the tents of the women they're bonded to, so the Red tent looks lonely, and the Green tent looks festive, as the two Aes Sedai brought four Warders between them, and they stay up late chatting.

Moiraine hardly acknowledges Egg and Nyn, but other Aes Sedai come to give them lessons in the evenings. The first is Verin. She tells Egwene she's not been wrong, exactly, but she's been channelling and that in itself can be dangerous. Egwene protests that Moiraine... that is, Moiraine Sedai had been giving her lessons.

Verin held up her hands for quiet, and they fell silent. She might seem vague, but she was Aes Sedai, after all. “Child, do you think Aes Sedai immediately teach every girl who says she wants to be one of us how to channel? Well, I suppose you are not exactly every girl, but just the same. . . .” She shook her head gravely. “Then why did she?” Nynaeve demanded. There had been no lessons for her, and Egwene was still not sure if it rankled Nynaeve or not. “Because Egwene had already channeled,” Verin said patiently.(1) “So. . . . So have I.” Nynaeve did not sound happy about it. “Your circumstances are different, child. That you are still alive shows you weathered the various crises, and did it on your own. I think you know how lucky you are. Of every four women forced to do what you did, only one survives. Of course, wilders—” Verin grimaced. “Forgive me, but I am afraid that is what we in the White Tower often call women who, without any training, have managed some rough control—random, and barely enough to be called control, usually, like you, but still control of a sort. Wilders have difficulties, it is true. Almost always they have built up walls to keep themselves from knowing what it was they were doing, and those walls interfere with conscious control. The longer those walls have to build, the harder it is to tear them down, but if they can be demolished—well, some of the most adept sisters ever have been wilders.”

Egg asks what that has to do with her, and Verin says her predicament is quite the opposite: once she learned she could channel, she kept at it, never wondering if there was a bottomless pit at her next step forward. Once Egg started channelling, there was nothing for it but for Moiraine to teach her the control necessary. Did she never explain that? Well, she's never believed in telling anyone anything they didn't need to know. Egg asks if there is a pit waiting for her. Verin compares it to someone who has learned to run up hills without learning how to check if there's a cliff on the other side: you haven't found one yet, but you may well find one if you keep running, especially as strong as Egg could be one day. It’s nothing on what the men do, but accidents can still happen. As she says this, Egg notices that her gaze looks less vague, and Egg wonders if Verin knows about Rand. However, Egg discards the thought, as surely Verin’s the sort who would never let Rand go off on his own if she knew he could channel.(2)

Nynaeve tries to excuse herself, and Verin points out that she won't need much training before being raised to Accepted. Nynaeve still tries politely to leave, but Verin offers her some information. Typically, the younger the novice, the better she’s able to cope, to do as she’s told without question. Accepted must know enough to know when to question lessons and orders.(3) She asks which Nynaeve would prefer. Nynaeve grumbles a bit but sits next to Egg and says she might as well start learning.

Verin leads them through a meditation, focusing on a flower bud.(4) Egwene reaches a sliver of the Power, and reaches for more...

In an instant it was all gone, rose and light. Moiraine had also said it could not be forced. With a sigh, she opened her eyes. Nynaeve had a grim look on her face. Verin was as calm as ever. “You cannot make it happen,” the Aes Sedai was saying. “You must let it happen. You must surrender to the Power before you can control it.”(5) “This is complete foolishness,” Nynaeve muttered. “I don’t feel like a flower. If anything, I feel like a blackthorn bush. I think I will wait by the fire after all.” “As you wish,” Verin said. “Did I mention that novices do chores? They wash dishes, scrub floors, do laundry, serve at table, all sorts of things. I myself think the servants do a better job of it by far, but it is generally felt that such labor builds character. Oh, you are staying? Good. Well, child, remember that even a blackthorn bush has flowers sometimes, beautiful and white among the thorns. We will try it one at a time. Now, from the beginning, Egwene. Close your eyes.”

Verin continues this late into the night, eventually dismissing Egwene for one last try with Nynaeve.

“Feel the flow through you,” Verin was saying. Her voice did not change, but suddenly there was a gleam in her eyes. “Feel the flow. Flow of the Power. Flow like a breeze, a gentle stirring in the air.” Egwene sat up straight. This was how Verin had guided her each time she had actually had the Power flowing through her. “A soft breeze, the slightest movement of air. Soft.” Abruptly the stacked blankets burst into flame like fatwood. Nynaeve opened her eyes with a yell. Egwene was not sure if she screamed or not. All Egwene knew was that she was on her feet, trying to kick the burning blankets outside before they set the tent on fire. Before she managed a second kick, the flames vanished, leaving wispy smoke rising from a charred mass and the smell of burned wool. “Well,” Verin said. “Well. I did not expect to have to douse a fire. Don’t faint on me, child. It’s all right now. I took care of it.” “I—I was angry.” Nynaeve spoke through trembling lips in a bloodless face. “I heard you talking about a breeze, telling me what to do, and fire just popped into my head. I—I didn’t mean to burn anything. It was just a small fire, in—in my head.” She shuddered.

Verin apologizes for working them so late, but hopes that this shows them why control is so necessary. Not only could you hurt yourself, but if you draw more than you can handle at once, you can burn yourself out, destroy your connection to the Power entirely, or worse.(6) Then, as if she hasn't told them they're walking a knife's edge, she cheerfully wishes them a good night.

After that night, Verin pays them no more mind than Moiraine. Egwene thinks of how her mother had always told her that Aes Sedai are cold manipulators, merciless destroyers, the Breakers of the World. She knew now that the latter had just been male channelers, but how many Aes Sedai were like the tales, and which?

The Aes Sedai who came to the tent each night were so mixed that they did not help at all in clearing her thoughts. Alviarin was as cool and businesslike as a merchant come to buy wool and tabac, surprised that Nynaeve was part of the lesson but accepting, sharp in her criticisms but always ready to try again. Alanna Mosvani laughed and spent as much time talking about the world, and men, as she did teaching. Alanna showed too much interest in Rand and Perrin and Mat for Egwene’s comfort, though. Especially Rand. Worst of all was Liandrin, the only one who wore her shawl; the others had all packed them away before leaving Fal Dara. Liandrin sat fingering her red fringe and taught little, and reluctantly at that. She questioned Egwene and Nynaeve as if they had been accused of a crime, and her questions were all about the three boys. She kept it up until Nynaeve threw her out—Egwene was not sure why Nynaeve did so—and then she left with a warning.

They arrive at a river town, and load onto boats to take them back to Tar Valon. When Egwene asks Anaiya Sedai where Moiraine is, she's told that Moiraine left, Liandrin close on her heels, and then Verin. The Amyrlin is in quite a mood about it all. Anaiya also says she bundled Nynaeve onto a ship herself. They'll be traveling with the Amyrlin, so Egwene had better find a boat to transfer her to the River Queen, quickly.

Egwene is troubled by this and decides she has to tell someone, so she says to Anaiya that Rand is in trouble. Anaiya says boys that age are always in one trouble or another, but that's clearly not it.

Egwene thinks about the dream she had. A man with a mask over his face and fire in place of his eyes, who had seemed surprised to see her.(7) Then he vanished, and she saw Rand sleeping on the ground, wrapped only in a cloak, with a woman standing over him, her eyes shining like the moon,(8) and Egg knew she was evil somehow. Then they both flash away, and what Egg remembers most is a sense of danger behind it all, like a trap about to spring, but she knows the danger is for Rand, not herself. She says she had a dream, but doesn’t relay the details to Anaiya.

“I—I don’t think they’re in the Blight, or back in Fal Dara. I had a dream.” [...] She could not bring herself to tell Anaiya. Formally, she said, “Anaiya Sedai, I know it sounds foolish, but he is in danger. Great danger. I know it. I could feel it. I still can.” Anaiya wore a thoughtful look. “Well, now,” she said softly, “that’s a possibility I’ll wager no one has considered. You may be a Dreamer. It is a small chance, child, but. . . . We haven’t had one of those in—oh—four or five hundred years. And Dreaming is close linked to Foretelling. If you really can Dream, it may be that you can Foretell, as well. That would be a finger in the Reds’ eye. Of course, it could be just an ordinary nightmare, brought on by a late night, and cold food, and us traveling so hard since we left Fal Dara. And you missing your young man. Much more likely. Yes, yes, child, I know. You are worried about him. Did your dream indicate what kind of danger?” Egwene shook her head. “He just vanished, and I felt danger. And evil. I felt it even before he vanished.” She shivered and rubbed her hands together. “I can still feel it.”

Anaiya says they'll talk more on the River Queen, and if she is a Dreamer, then Anaiya will see to it that Egg gets the training she needs.

Egwene peered into the dark, toward the south. He was out there, somewhere. Not in Fal Dara, not in the Blight. She was sure of it. Hold on, you wool-headed idiot. If you get yourself killed before I can get you out of this, I will skin you alive. It did not occur to her to ask how she was going to get him out of anything, going to Tar Valon as she was. Snugging her cloak around her, she set out to find a boat to the River Queen.

=====

(1) Did we see Egwene channel, back in the Emond's Field sequence? Moiraine only said she could sense that Egwene was close to the first time she would channel. The phrasing was tricky, it's the end of EOTW 12 if you want to check for yourself. (2) Third! Person! Limited! Each POV is absolutely limited by the knowledge, experience, and assumptions of the character in focus. A great reminder that everyone is working on limited, faulty information in these books, and never to take any observation or assumption for granted. (3) Real healthy relationship to authority, has the White Tower. This is where we start to see the more mundane aspects of RJ's military experience: novices go through boot camp and do better if they can learn to be obedient soldiers. Though, the Aes Sedai are forbidden from making weapons of the Power against any but the Shadow, but there are all sorts of roles that make up a military force. (4) It's a good thing I don't live in this world and have to learn how to channel, 'cause neither the flame and void nor the flower bud would work for me. I seem to have total aphantasia. I say seem to because, well, when your experience is the absence of something others take for granted, it becomes REALLY difficult to judge if you're lacking that sense or if others are exaggerating. Anyway, I am not unaware of the irony that I love this series so much when so goddamn many words in it are descriptive and meaningless to my brain. But, it DOES make it faster to read when you learn to skim the descriptions and get back to the important bits. And, if I had to see, really see and feel and smell a rose bud to develop this sense of the Power, I'd be absolutely lost. (5) Yep, women must submit to the Power to be able to use and control it. RJ might have tried to make a world where original sin belonged to men, but he certainly Made Some Choices along the way. As for Nynaeve… well she's a bit of an exception, but you could say she's surrendering to her anger when it bursts out of her. Do you recall in the Ravens prologue for book 1, when the previous Wisdom undid Nynaeve's bandage and shook her head, disappointed in Nynaeve? She was testing Nynaeve's ability to Heal, because this was after she healed Egg of the breakbone fever (EOTW 21). But, Nynaeve seems to have built a wilder's block with her anger. It started when Egg was sick and Nyn felt lied to and angry she couldn't do anything more to help, and here with Verin it's clear that she couldn't do anything until she was frustrated by her inability to do anything. (6) We can guess this probably happens more often than stilling, given that novices learn the names of every woman stilled in the Tower since the Breaking, but this is news and Verin, she of the many tangents, doesn't offer numbers. (7) Huh. Could Egg have actually met The Big Guy in a dream? We know he was able to draw the lads into dreams, but she says he was genuinely surprised to see Egg in hers, and she has no other way to know what he looks like for the reader to recognize. What could that mean? Is Anaiya right, and Egg is a Dreamer, capital D and all? (8) What an oddly specific description. Eyes like the moon, huh? Egg thinks she could have been Moiraine, or Liandrin, or Alanna… but none of those feel right, either. The night and the moon are inseparably linked despite the fact the moon cycles through the day and back again the other side. Who's to say. Wasn't there someone feminine associated with the night recently? (Hint: chapter 7. Told you you'd want a bookmark.)

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot flame icon #egwene al'vere #nynaeve al'meara #siuan sanche #lord agelmar jagad #moiraine damodred #leane sharif #lan mandragoran #verin mathwin #alviarin freidhen #alanna mosvani #liandrin guirale #anaiya carel

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 11 - Glimmers of the Pattern

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Wheel icon) In which I can once again say, that doesn't bode well at all.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand, as Ingtar calls for camp very early in a deep hollow that's easily defended if they're attacked in the night. Everyone's feeling the effects of the last village. Rand overhears Uno saying he saw the same woman in white in a window there, and anyone who wants to take issue with that can take issue with his knife.(1)

Ingtar commands no fires, and every man sleeps next to his horse. There's something even worse than Darkfriends, Trollocs, or even Myrddraal out there. Rand thinks about, and tries to forget, the vision he saw in the house.

Ingtar interrupts Rand's thoughts and gives him a package. Moiraine Sedai said to give it to him at the first camp south of the Erinin, though he has no idea what's in it. It feels soft, maybe just cloth, and Rand would suddenly rather think of the house and the Myrddraal than that cloth. Ingtar was also told to say that if anything happens to him, the lances will take Rand's commands.

“Me!” Rand gasped, forgetting the bundle and everything else. Ingtar met his incredulous stare with a calm nod. “That’s crazy! I’ve never led anything but a flock of sheep, Ingtar. They would not follow me anyway. Besides, Moiraine can’t tell you who your second is. It’s Uno.” “Uno and I were called to Lord Agelmar the morning we left. Moiraine Sedai was there, but it was Lord Agelmar who told me. You are second, Rand.”

Ingtar explains that there's a very clear chain of command, so that if any number of men fall, there's a clear commander, and if only one man is left standing, he's not a straggler, he has the command and must do the duty that they all set out to accomplish. Rand feels Moiraine tugging his leash from a hundred leagues away, and tries to refuse, but Ingtar says too much is already falling apart in the world, this mission can't afford to lose the chain of command. He walks away before Rand can protest further.(2)

Rand is left to find out what's in the package, though he thinks he already knows. He sneaks off into the trees, picks out the knots that speak of Moiraine's own precise handiwork, and finds just what he dreaded: the Dragon's banner.

“Look at that! Look what he’s got, now!” Mat burst into the clearing. Perrin came after him more slowly. “First fancy coats,” Mat snarled, “and now a banner! We’ll hear no end of lording it now, with—” Mat got close enough to see the banner clearly, and his jaw dropped. “Light!” He stumbled back a step. “Burn me!” He had been there, too, when Moiraine named the banner. So had Perrin. Anger boiled up in Rand, anger at Moiraine and the Amyrlin Seat, pushing him, pulling him. He snatched up the banner in both hands and shook it at Mat, words boiling out uncontrollably. “That’s right! The Dragon’s banner!” Mat took another step back. “Moiraine wants me to be a puppet on Tar Valon strings, a false Dragon for the Aes Sedai. She’s going to push it down my throat whatever I want. But—I—will—not—be—used!” Mat had backed up against a tree trunk. “A false Dragon?” He swallowed. “You? That . . . that’s crazy.”

Perrin reasons that if they want to make him a false Dragon, Rand must be able to channel. Rand admits, he doesn’t want to, but he doesn’t know how to stop it either. Mat's paranoid about Rand getting found out and all of them killed for knowing him so well, which goes on a bit. Perrin tells him to shut up, and asks why Rand came with them.

Rand shrugged. “I was going, but first the Amyrlin came, and then the Horn was stolen, and the dagger, and Moiraine said Mat was dying, and. . . . Light, I thought I could stay with you until we found the dagger, at least; I thought I could help with that. Maybe I was wrong.” “You came because of the dagger?” Mat said quietly. He rubbed his nose and grimaced. “I never thought of that. I never thought you wanted to. . . . Aaaah! Are you feeling all right? I mean, you aren’t going mad already, are you?” Rand dug a pebble out of the ground and threw it at him. “Ouch!” Mat rubbed his arm. “I was just asking. I mean, all those fancy clothes, and all that talk about being a lord. Well, that isn’t exactly right in the head.” “I was trying to get rid of you, fool! I was afraid I’d go mad and hurt you.” His eyes dropped to the banner, and his voice lowered. “I will, eventually, if I don’t stop it. Light, I don’t know how to stop it.”

Mat tells a story he heard from a merchant guard once, about a man who could channel who woke up one morning to find his whole village flattened, except his own bed. He says he plans to sleep as far away from Rand as he can in case of anything like that, though Perrin jokes that he should sleep cuddled up to Rand in that case.(3) Mat says he's grateful that Rand came to help him, but Rand isn't the same anymore. He waits a moment, as if expecting Rand to protest, then walks back into the camp. Rand asks Perrin what he thinks, and Perrin says he'd burn or bury the Dragon banner, if it were him, and run as far as he could go, but... maybe sometimes you can't run. Then he leaves, too.(4)

Rand knelt there, staring at the banner spread out on the ground. “Well, sometimes you can run,” he muttered. “Only, maybe she gave me this to make me run. Maybe she has something waiting for me, if I run. I won’t do what she wants. I won’t. I’ll bury it right here. But she said my life may depend on it, and Aes Sedai never lie so you can see it. . . .” Suddenly his shoulders shook with silent laughter. “Now I’m talking to myself. Maybe I am going mad already.” When he returned to the camp, he carried the banner wrapped in the canvas once more, tied with knots less neat than Moiraine’s had been.

The light's beginning to fail, and Rand brings his horse over near Loial and Hurin, who stumbles over his words to say he hopes Rand doesn't mind him here, he was chatting with Loial. Loial points Rand at a stone column nearby, and says it looks like it was worked once, then left to the weather. There are markings that look familiar but strange. Rand says maybe Loial will be able to see better in the morning, and he's glad of Hurin's company, thinking to himself that he's glad of the company of anyone who isn't afraid of him.

He packs the banner in his saddle bags, so nobody else will touch it, and refuses any supper. He was too queasy for even the best meal he'd ever had, just then.

The camp was silent now, but Rand lay awake past the fall of full dark. His mind darted back and forth. The banner. What is she trying to make me do? The village. What could kill a Fade like that? Worst of all, the house in the village. Did it really happen? Am I going mad already? Do I run, or do I stay? I have to stay. I have to help Mat find the dagger. An exhausted sleep finally came, and with sleep, unbidden, the void surrounded him, flickering with an uneasy glow that disturbed his dreams.(5)

PERSPECTIVE: Padan Fain still thinks of himself as Padan Fain, that man is still the core of him, but he's been changed. First the things Baa did to him, to track down the boys in his hunt for the Dragon, and then in Shadar Logoth...

He touches the ruby-hilted dagger, feeling whole, and remembers how he nailed the Myrddraal to the door of the building himself, to establish true control over the pack, which the Myrddraal had kept trying to wrest away from him. He shouldn't have let the Trollocs take so many from the village to slow them down, but Trollocs are greedy, and he was overcome by such euphoria watching the Myrddraal die that he had a momentary soft spot.(6) He tells the Trollocs to kill them all, and leave the heads atop the pile of the bodies, for their pursuers to find. He ignores the pleas of the remaining Darkfriends to save some of the villagers, knowing they just don't want to be the next meal.

He kneels next to the box holding the Horn. He takes the dagger out and lays it on top the chest, to warn off anyone who might try to come near. They’ve all seen, by now, what happens when it’s touched.

Lying there in his blankets, he stared northward. He could not feel al’Thor, now; the distance between them was too great. Or perhaps al’Thor was doing his vanishing trick. Sometimes, in the keep, the boy had suddenly vanished from Fain’s senses. He did not know how, but always al’Thor came back, just as suddenly as he had gone.(7) He would come back this time, too. “This time you come to me, Rand al’Thor. Before, I followed you like a dog driven on the trail, but now you follow me.” His laughter was a cackle that even he knew was mad, but he did not care. Madness was a part of him, too. “Come to me, al’Thor. The dance is not even begun yet. We’ll dance on Toman Head, and I’ll be free of you. I’ll see you dead at last.”

=====

(1) I dunno about you, but I believe him. (2) So, Moiraine's definitely trying to force Rand to A) gain battle experience, B) find the truth within himself that he is the Dragon, and C) declare himself such. Poor Rand, but also, it super doesn't help that he's so, so resistant to feeling manipulated. Sorry, bud, you're fate's plaything for this and the next 12 remaining books. But, the complete chain of command is an interesting way for an army to work. (3) Pour one out for the Cauthor shippers. (4) At least he's starting to mend bridges with Mat and Perrin. Mat still isn't himself, right now, what with the Mashadar corruption in him, growing slowly at the edges. And, at least Perrin's more understanding and level-headed. (5) You caught Mat's story, right? The one about a male channeler folding a mountain over his village in his sleep, with only him and his bed untouched. And then Rand is surrounded by the void as he falls asleep, the same void that made him feel so sick before, now it's described as "an uneasy glow". OH YES, THIS WILL END EXTREMELY WELL! (6) So he's havin a real normal one. (7) What was Rand doing that he might disappear? All we know he did was a lot of sword training with Lan, which would have meant holding the flame and the void to concentrate… just as he's holding the void as he falls asleep and disappears again.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot wheel icon #rand al'thor #lord ingtar shinowa #perrin aybara #mat cauthon #hurin (wot) #loial #padan fain

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 10 - The Hunt Begins

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Horn icon) In which that's something beyond evil.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand, as Ingtar sets a fast pace, hoping to catch them up despite the head start. Rand worries about the horses, but says nothing, because it’s Ingtar’s command and Rand is still just a shepherd.(1) At one point though, one of the men, Uno, says Ingtar's going to kill the horses at this rate. It's not until much later in the day that Ingtar sees sense, and they start alternating walked and ridden miles. Mat and Perrin continue to avoid Rand, along with some of the retinue.

The path avoids all settlements. They sometimes see farms or villages in the distance, but never close enough that they'd have seen the Trollocs et al coming or going clearly. Eventually, Ingtar finally calls to make camp for the night after twilight. When Rand takes out his bundles from the pack horses, he shouts so loudly that several men come running, swords out. He's a little embarrassed that it was just because he saw his coats, the supposedly serviceable, low-key ones: both more ornate than the one he's already wearing. Ingtar points out that they are wearable, and Moiraine Sedai saw to Rand's packing personally. Rand thinks he'd almost rather go naked.(2)

Masema is serving the stew, and slops a bit of Rand's meanly. Ingtar is sitting next to Mat and Perrin, so Rand sits near them, glad that his friends don't leave again. He wonders aloud why Masema hates him. Ingtar hesitates, but says that Masema fought against the Aiel for three years once, and he (Ingtar) is glad to take everyone's word that Rand is from the Two Rivers, but Masema can't see past the resemblance to his enemies.(3)

Rand dropped his spoon in the plate with a sigh. “Everybody thinks I’m somebody I am not. I am from the Two Rivers, Ingtar. I grew tabac with—with my father, and tended his sheep. That is what I am. A farmer and shepherd from the Two Rivers.” “He’s from the Two Rivers,” Mat said scornfully. “I grew up with him, though you’d never know it now. You put this Aiel nonsense in his head on top of what’s already there, and the Light knows what we’ll have. An Aiel lord, maybe.” “No,” Loial said, “he has the look. You remember, Rand, I remarked on it once, though I thought it was just because I didn’t know you humans well enough then. Remember? ‘Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder’s eye on the Last Day.’ You remember, Rand.” Rand stared at his plate. Wrap a shoufa around your head, and you would be the image of an Aielman. That had been Gawyn, brother to Elayne, the Daughter-Heir of Andor. Everybody thinks I’m somebody I’m not.

Ingtar says Aiel only recognize themselves, gleemen, peddlers, and their enemies. They changed that for Cairhien 500 years ago, for no reason anyone else can tell, but after the Aiel War 20-odd years ago, he doesn't think they ever will again. Loial says they're willing to let the Tuatha'an into their Wastes, and they trade with Ogier sometimes, for sung wood, but they're a hard people. Ingtar wishes he had some men half as hard as any Aiel. Mat wonders if that's a joke.

“Aiel are hard,” Ingtar said. “Man and woman, hard. I’ve fought them, and I know. They will run fifty miles, and fight a battle at the end of it. They’re death walking, with any weapon or none. Except a sword. They will not touch a sword, for some reason. Or ride a horse, not that they need to. If you have a sword, and the Aielman has his bare hands, it is an even fight. If you’re good. They herd cattle and goats where you or I would die of thirst before the day was done. They dig their villages into huge rock spires out in the Waste. They’ve been there since the Breaking, near enough. Artur Hawkwing tried to dig them out and was bloodied, the only major defeats he ever suffered. By day the air in the Aiel Waste shimmers with heat, and by night it freezes. And an Aiel will give you that blue-eyed stare and tell you there is no place on earth he would rather be. He won’t be lying, either. If they ever tried to come out, we would be hard-pressed to stop them.(4) The Aiel War lasted three years, and that was only four out of thirteen clans.”

Mat mutters that grey eyes from his mother don't make him Aiel, but Rand remembers Moiraine's story about his birth, and as he settles in for sleep, he repeats that he won't be used.

The next morning they continue before dawn, until they come on an abandoned camp. Hurin says there was worse than murder done here, and they turned northeast. An hour's ride later, Hurin says they turned south again, and another murder. The next day continues the same, slowly gaining ground based on the tracks and remains, but more direction changes, and more murders. After Ingtar says they won’t lose time burying Darkfriends, the subject doesn’t come up, even when they believe the victims are Shienaran.

Eventually, they come upon the River Erinin, a few hours past breaking camp. Long past time to have found the Trolloc camp and first direction changes, from the pattern of the last several days, but instead they come to a quiet village near a river much smaller than the stories made it out to be.(5)

Perrin says the village smells wrong, getting him a look from Hurin.(6) But he's right: there's no one left here. Uno sees a woman in a white dress in a window, and runs for the house, but it's empty after all.(7) Hurin says there was no murder here, but violence of a sort he's never smelled before, and something across the river.

Ingtar sends two men to retrieve the ferry, sitting on the far bank, and to scout for any ambush. They come back unable to put words to what they saw, but there's no ambush, for certain. Rand et al are in the first group to cross the ferry, though Mat still sneers at Rand's coat. Perrin remarks that this is how they left home, on Taren Ferry, and says it will be worse this time. Both Rand and Mat are curious why he'd say this. Perrin just says he can smell it.

Fifty paces from the ferry, they find the bodies, strung up to a tree. The two faces are intact, Changu and Nidao, the guards Rand met the first time Egwene brought him to see Fain. They've been skinned alive. Rand seeks the Void, but feels more sick inside it.(8) Some men start digging graves, and Loial explains Shienaran burial rites: no clothes, no shroud, no coffin, just plain burial. Someone might say a particular ritual phrase over the graves, but that's unlikely here: these must have been the men who killed the guards and let the Trollocs into the Keep.

However, before they leave, Ingtar does say the words over the two unmarked graves. Nobody comments, but he looks at every man in turn before saying that they saved Lord Agelmar at Tarwin's Gap.(9) Then off they ride.

They come upon an old, abandoned manor house, and there's some discussion of countries that once were, but are no longer. Loial talks about how many cities and countries fail, sometimes because the population dwindles, sometimes trade stops, and sometimes crops fail too many years in a row. Ingtar says yes, and what city will not fail tomorrow, or the next day? Humankind is being swept away. How long until there's nothing left but the borderlands, and how long until not even that? The whole group is shocked into silence, and rides on.(10)

They come upon another village some time later that day, abandoned too. All the villages here have a grudge against Shienarans, because Shienar can’t or won’t spare soldiers to defend them against human brigands, when the Blight is right there. The men prepare for a fight as they near.

Some of the men go to check the houses for occupants, and Rand approaches a door, but stops short, then chides himself for being afraid of an empty door. Inside is a tidy room, flies buzzing around the food laid out on the table, even a roast, cold in its own congealed grease. He blinks, and sees a vision of a smiling family, serving themselves from the food, when it was fresh. Suddenly, one of the girls screams, pointing at the road. The door bursts open and...

Rand blinks again, and they're gone, the flies sounding louder. Blink again, and the vision starts over from the beginning. Over and over. Between the visions, the room starts to feel very, very cold to him, but he can't move, until suddenly he starts to feel warm and breaks free of it, tearing at unseen cobwebs holding him.(11)

He hears Mat yell that there's nothing in the house he looked in, and Rand resolves not to enter another house in the village. There's a commotion in the main square, and when he approaches, it's not more people murdered... not exactly. A Myrddraal, a Fade, has been murdered and near crucified on the biggest door in the village.

“Who,” Mat began, and had to stop to swallow. “Who could do this to a Fade?” His voice squeaked at the end. “I don’t know,” Ingtar said. “I do not know.”(12) He looked around, examining faces, or perhaps counting to be sure everyone was there. “And I do not think we will learn anything here. We ride. Mount! Hurin, find the trail out of this place.” “Yes, my Lord. Yes. With pleasure. That way, my Lord. They’re still heading south.” They rode away leaving the dead Myrddraal where it hung, the wind stirring its black cloak. Hurin was first beyond the wall, not waiting on Ingtar for a change, but Rand came close behind him.

=====

(1) Is he still just that? Was he ever just a shepherd? (2) As much as Rand, rightly and fairly, doesn't want to be manipulated into doing something against his will, we've known since the first page that he was the Dragon, and if he's going to fulfill all these prophecies, better to look a lord than a beggar, to look the way people will expect the Dragon to look and be more willing to accept him in the role even as they may despise what he means for the world. (3) Especially when Aiel looks seem so distinctive. There were a few folk in Caemlyn who had paler skin and lighter hair, like the Trakands, but the implication is that's pretty rare in the wider world. No wonder he's been treated very oddly by the Shienarans since his arrival there, and no wonder Moiraine's been fighting so hard to build him up a reputation as a lordling so he couldn't possibly be an Aielman. (4) Gee, I wonder if that'll become relevant again. (5) The narration (Rand) attributes this to it being far from its source. Do you think Robert Jordan knew how rivers work? That they're fed all along and tend to get bigger the further they travel, biggest as they approach their lake or ocean endpoint. Rand probably wouldn't know that, whether RJ did or not. (6) Given everything, it's possible Perrin just smelled the decay or some such, from a greater distance. Who knows what wolves smell? (7) A mysterious woman in a white dress? Keep a pin in that for now. (8) Now THAT'S odd. What about the flame and void might make Rand feel sick, or is it just too much for even that trick to work? (9) After leaving so many behind, he takes the time for this? Just because we recognize their names, or does he finally feel guilty over leaving the others? (10) This guy seems real pessimistic suddenly. But, look at Shienar. They watched Malkier fall to the Blight well within living memory. Who wouldn't be a bit pessimistic about humanity's chances as the signs ramp up for the final confrontation? And when faced with this much death and betrayal and just everything? (11) Rand's visions in the house are creepy as hell, and the cold kinda makes me wonder if this is Power at play, or something else… perhaps the same kind of "strange thing" that Lan refers to happening close to the Blight, when Rand gets caught by the wind during their practice fight in chapter 1. But, the Dark One is stirring in his prison, his influence on the world growing. Who's to say what effect that might have? (12) Who could do this to a Fade? What could be WORSE than a Fade? Why do all my sentences now end in question marks?

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot horn icon #rand al'thor #lord ingtar shinowa #uno nomesta #hurin (wot) #perrin aybara #mat cauthon #masema dagar #ragan (wot) #loial

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 9 - Leavetakings

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Flame icon) In which it's time to hit the road, for real this time, right after one itsy bitsy assassination attempt.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand's finally done packing, and the courtyard's crowded with the Aes Sedai retinue. He finds his horse and Ingtar's group in a corner. Loial rides up, and when Rand says he thought Loial would have had enough of travel, he replies that he can't pass up the chance to see history weave itself around ta'veren.

Mat and Perrin ride up behind Loial, Rand apologizes, they whisper to each other and ride off. Rand looks down and notices the gold embroidery on his fancy coat, and thinks he realizes why they think he's still putting on airs,(1) but when he looked in his wardrobe everything was at least as ornate as this coat, and the servants claimed his plainer garb was already on packhorses.(2)

Lan appears at Rand's stirrup, and asks to speak to him alone. He has one lesson left for Rand: Sheathing the Sword.

“You’ve spent an hour every morning making me do nothing but draw this bloody sword and put it back in the scabbard. Standing, sitting, lying down. I think I can manage to get it back in the sheath without cutting myself.” “I said listen, sheepherder,” the Warder growled. “There will come a time when you must achieve a goal at all costs. It may come in attack or in defense. And the only way will be to allow the sword to be sheathed in your own body.” “That’s crazy,” Rand said. “Why would I ever—?” The Warder cut him off. “You will know when it comes, sheepherder, when the price is worth the gain, and there is no other choice left to you. That is called Sheathing the Sword. Remember it.”(3)

The Amyrlin makes her way across the courtyard, speaking to Agelmar. Rand overhears him trying to convince her to stay another day to rest and feast, but she can't. By the time Rand looks away, Lan's gone. 

Loial returns and says he heard a rumour that the Amyrlin is sending someone to Almoth Plain, to see what the fuss is about down that way. Rand remembers that Toman Head is next to Almoth Plain, and the words he barely wiped off the wall after Fain's jailbreak: We will meet again on Toman Head.

The Amyrlin approaches and wishes them luck, saying that the fate of the world rests with them. The heroes will fight for whoever blows the Horn, for Light or Dark. Rand gets distracted from her speech, feeling someone watching him, the same presence he felt before.(4) He turns his horse, looking on the guards' catwalks and windows, when suddenly something flashes across Rand's face, and the Amyrlin looks down at a tear in her gown, where blood is beginning to stain the silk. The Amyrlin tells Leane to see to the man who took the whole of the arrow's hit, and remarks that it was poorly aimed, if they were aiming at her. She looks at Rand as she says this, but looks away before she can draw attention to the glance. She knows it was meant for him.(5)

Leane says that the man is dead, was dead before he hit the ground. The Amyrlin says she did what she could, then, since death cannot be Healed.(6) She makes a final bit of speech to the Horn seekers, and sends them off. A man on horseback rides through the crowds outside, waiting to see the Amyrlin's procession out of town. Ingtar introduces him as Hurin, a sniffer. They didn't want the Aes Sedai to get worked up over nothing, his talent is nothing to do with the Power,(7) but Hurin can explain it himself. Hurin says, of course, my lord. Rand insists he's not a lord, and wonders if he can escape that nonsense now.

Hurin blinked. “As you wish, my Lor—ah—Rand. I’m a sniffer, you see. Been one four years this Sunday. I never heard of such a thing before then, but I hear there’s a few others like me. It started slow, catching bad smells where nobody else smelled anything, and it grew. Took a whole year before I realized what it was. I could smell violence, the killing and the hurting. Smell where it happened. Smell the trail of those who did it. Every trail’s different, so there’s no chance of mixing them up. Lord Ingtar heard of it, and took me in his service, to serve the King’s justice.”

All the smells fade with time, depending on the intensity of the violence. He once met a Brown Aes Sedai who practically kept him hostage for a month trying to figure out how his talent worked, but he doesn't do anything, he just smells it. At any rate, this trail is as clear as anything. You can't tell Darkfriends by smell, but Trollocs, and Halfmen (Myrddraal), and there's something even worse with them, which upsets Hurin to no end.(8) He can tell they definitely went south.

Rand hopes that Nynaeve keeps Egwene safe, and thinks he hears a mocking laugh on the wind.

PERSPECTIVE: Bayle Domon(9)  is in Illian, where they'll start the Great Hunt in a few days. There's festivities galore, fireworks and all. Domon pays them no mind, he's out to meet people he thinks might be trying to kill him. Plus, he's never felt comfortable in Illian, for all that he was born there.

He enters an inn by the name of Easing the Badger. There's always been an inn by that name, though not even the innkeeper knows what it means.(10) After overhearing some talk of all the false Dragons, and thinking how he doesn’t care much for false Dragons or the Hunt for the Horn, Domon spots the people he's looking for, their fancy clothes standing out against the plain dress of other patrons. Cairhienin, this time. They have someone who must be transported from Mayene to Illian. Domon says the Spray is a river craft, it doesn't have the bottom for sea travel. They thought he was giving up the river trade, but he hasn't decided yet. Well, he has, he won't go back to the Borderlands for love nor money, but he won't tell them that. He does wonder how they knew when he hadn't told anyone.

The stranger in charge offers him a thousand gold marks, and he goggles. Two hundred now, three hundred in Mayene, and the remaining five hundred when he returns, if he's taken no action to discover his cargo's identity.(11) It would almost be worth it just for the two hundred. And if he probed more, he knows he'd have hints that Illian is working with the First of Mayene, to act against Tear somehow. He might fall for it if he hadn't seen three such snares in the last month. He reaches for the pouch and the parchment that would mark him to his contact in Mayene, agreeing to sail at first light. But he knows Darkfriends have been after him since before he left Marabon, and he knows someone wants him to sail east toward Tear or Mayene. 

When the men have left, he gives one of the coins to the innkeeper, telling her to take everyone's drinks out of it until it runs out, and he'll give her another. She remarks that it's a Tar Valon coin, and asks if he's dealing with the witches. He bristles, but knows she won't say anything. Tar Valon marks. Dangerous coins, in Illian.(12) He's still sitting there, worrying, when his second mate enters to tell him another crewman is dead. There's been one every time he turned down a deal, but he accepted this time. He tells the second to round up the crew, the Spray sails as soon as there are hands to make her move. He's barely settling into his quarters on ship when the second comes back to say he's got all but three, and Domon says fine, they sail this minute, the others be damned.

When he's alone again, and sure to be so for a while, he heats a knife and cuts open the seal on the parchment. It reads that the bearer is a Darkfriend, wanted in Cairhien, and appears to be signed by the king of Cairhien himself. Real or fake, it makes no difference. In Tear or Mayene, it would be accepted as truth.(13)

He almost burns it, but instead hides the parchment in a secret compartment behind his desk, concealed by a panel nobody else knows how to access. He has a few other treasures in a chest nearby: a lightstick, a relic from the Age of Legends which glows like a lantern when held, but is fragile as glass; a small ivory carving of a man holding a sword, which is supposed to make you feel warm if you hold it long enough; the skull of a cat as big as a lion with teeth a foot long;(14) and a thick disk, about the size of a man's palm, marked with what Domon knows is the ancient Aes Sedai mark, not a safe item but not something he could pass up, when the shopkeeper didn't know what it was, not even that it was cuendillar.(15)

The second mate knocks, giving Domon a chance to cover his items with some other parchment, then pops in again to say they're past the coast. Which way from here?

West, says Domon. The second asks which city they're headed to, and Domon thinks none are far enough by half, but says maybe they'll go trade with the Domani and Taraboners. The second says there's rumours of war, and Domon says they've always squabbled over Almoth Plain and Toman head, but you can always find trade.(16)

When he's alone again, he puts everything but the cuendillar disk in the chest, and places it next to the parchment in the cubby. Darkfriends or Aes Sedai, he won't run the way they want him to. He heads up on deck to help them go west.

=====

(1) Mat and Perrin aren't just angry at Rand for putting on airs, imo. I think they also don't necessarily want to hang out with someone who's gonna brush them off when it's convenient, and come running back when it's not. Nobody likes a fairweather friend, Rand. (2) It makes sense they would assume you'd want to look your best to start a journey on a high note, especially if someone like Moiraine hinted that Rand should be at his finest because he has appearances to keep up. This was also written in the time when you'd still be expected socially to legit Dress Up to go, like, fly on an airplane. There are still some older folks who grumble about how nobody respects air travel anymore over that not being the standard these days. Whatever he felt about it, I think this might have been a loose reference to the practice. (3) RJ had the worst way of phrasing things sometimes to make anyone keep a straight face. "allow the sword to be sheathed in your own body" indeed. But, recall that swordfight training pose, Heron in the Rushes, that leaves one open to attack, from chapter 1 or whatever… hmmm, nah, can't mean anything at all, right? (4) My guess then was that Fain was watching in his odd way, but could it have been something else? (5) Why would someone try to kill Rand? Who knows how much about him to spur that on? (6) So there are some limits on the magic system, huh? I mean, if there weren't limits, then one or more of them probably would have rampaged and done all the things people accuse them of wanting to do just because, there are bad apples in every bunch. Even so, interesting. (7) So, this walking Tolkien reference has something like Perrin's wolfing? Elyas didn't show any particularly wolflike traits besides caring less about personal grooming and the eyes, and Hurin's eyes aren't described. Though, he must have the singular worst luck in the Borderlands to get his particular talent. (8) The only other thing we know of with them is Fain. Could he be THAT corrupt? Well, he does have both the Dark One evil and Shadar Logoth evil. (9) Re-enter Bayle Domon from book 1, who seems to want to be a recurring character for the series. Someone's trying to make him sail east and get himself killed, maybe even start a war with Illian and Tear while they're at it. Or are they? I have to wonder if they want him to sail west and know he's stubborn… (10) Cue thirty years of people joking about what "easing the badger" might mean. It's definitely a sex move though.

(11) So, we're getting a bit of a sneak peek at world politics here. Mayene is on the world map, right at the VERY bottom right corner, a wee peninsula next to Tear but which doesn't seem to have any roads connecting it to the continent, just mountains. Only, as he points out a bit later, Mayene is also very reliant on good relations with Tear, because Tear is their door to the rest of the continent. Not unreasonable to assume they probably have a bit of a longstanding beef with Tear, a beef which Illian shares, from indications we get this chapter as well. Are the people trying to get him killed from Tear, Cairhien, Mayene, or somewhere else in the end? How could this be used to further anyone's political plots? Why would someone have it out for Domon specifically? (I'm not suggesting we have answers to all these questions yet, just that it's worth chewing on them.) (12) Dangerous coins in most countries, it would seem. (13) Someone REALLY wants him dead. (14) The lightstick feels like an allusion to both neon lights and lightsabers from Star Wars. Moiraine carries a small robed woman carved from ivory, her angreal, which amplifies her power. She mentioned it not too long ago, in reference to using it to Heal Mat. Could this little man be a male angreal? It explains why some men (those who could learn to channel, maybe) feel warm holding it, but Domon feels nothing. And the skull… You know, I'm not sure "as big as a lion" means the same thing to Domon as it does to us, if a sabertoothed tiger's skull could fit in a little cubbyhole like this, but he DOES mention the fangs being a foot long. How big is this hidey hole behind his desk? (15) He has a fondness for collecting, does old Bayle, and getting his hands on ONE OF THE DARK ONE'S SEALS is a side effect of this being three thousand years past relevant, I guess. Nobody would recognize them, that far removed, when they're supposed to be in the White Tower's protection. At least this one's still strong, it's not cracked like the one Moiraine found. (16) Fate's drawing an awful lot of strings to one little nowhere town.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot flame icon #rand al'thor #lord ingtar shinowa #uno nomesta #masema dagar #ragan (wot) #loial #lan mandragoran #lord agelmar jagad #siuan sanche #hurin (wot) #bayle domon #yarin maeldan

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 8 - The Dragon Reborn

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Dragon's fang icon) In which this could have been two chapters.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand heads to the Amyrlin's chambers with Lan, nervous, feeling himself grow more tense with every greeting in the hall. Suddenly Lan snaps at him to take a certain fighting stance, Cat Crosses the Courtyard, a loose and arrogant walking stance.(1) Rand obeys instinctively, loosening up though he still feels tense inside.

As they approach the women's apartments, Rand hopes to be turned away, especially carrying swords, but none of the women stop them. In fact, two ladies who are clearly not servants escort them through as an honour. Several Aes Sedai are within the first chamber of the Amyrlin's rooms, including Leane.

Leane looked Rand over with a slight smile. Despite the smile, her voice had a snap to it. “What have you brought the Amyrlin Seat today, Lan Gaidin? A young lion? Better you don’t let any Greens see this one, or one of them will bond him before he can take a breath. Greens like to bond them young.”

Rand greets her the way Lan told him to, and she gives him a thoughtful look before telling them to wait here, vanishing within the inner room to announce them. The remaining women in the room whisper and Rand fears more than ever that he'll be gentled here and now.

Leane comes back and tells Rand, and only Rand, to proceed. Moiraine, the Amyrlin, and Verin await him.(2) Rand follows Lan's instructions to the letter.

The Amyrlin Seat made an exasperated sound and looked at Moiraine. “Have you let Lan at him, Daughter? This will be difficult enough without him picking up Warder ways.”

They talk about Rand as if he's not there. The Amyrlin remarks on his sword, and Moiraine says that Tam joined Illian's army and served in several wars, rising to Blademaster and the Second Captain of the Companions. Rand hangs on every word of this, without showing it, and wonders where she learned it all.(3)

The Amyrlin asks if the sword is real, and Verin says there are tests. When the Amyrlin says to take it, then, Rand finally speaks up, angrily telling them nobody is taking his sword. The Amyrlin is pleased that he's got more fire in him than whatever Lan added. She says that Ingtar will leave shortly to retrieve the Horn, and that Mat and probably Perrin will also go, and asks if he wants to go with them, to retrieve the dagger. If not, then he can stay as long as he likes, with Lord Agelmar, but he'll stay alone. Egwene and Nynaeve ride with the Aes Sedai for Tar Valon. He wishy-washes for a minute, even asking himself which way they’re trying to push him, so he can go another.

“You do not have to make the choice now,” the Amyrlin said. She did not seem to care, either. “But you will have to choose before Ingtar leaves.” “I will ride with Ingtar, Mother.” The Amyrlin Seat nodded absently. “Now that that is dealt with, we can move on to important matters. I know you can channel, boy. What do you know?”

Rand's gast is absolutely flabbered. He swears he doesn't want to channel, it was an accident, he'll never do it again... The Amyrlin stops him, says it's wise not to want to channel again, and foolish all at once. Those with the seed of channelling will channel whether they want to or not,(5) and if he doesn't learn to control it, he won't live long enough to go mad.

How can he learn? Who could teach him? They don't have an answer, but Verin goes on a tangent about one of the phrases they use as a simile, and Rand takes the moment to seek the flame and void, to feed his fears into it, and find peace again.(4)

“Why are you talking to me like this, Mother?” he asked. “You should be gentling me.” The Amyrlin Seat frowned and turned to Moiraine. “Did Lan teach him this?” “No, Mother. He had it from Tam al’Thor.” “Why?” Rand demanded again. The Amyrlin Seat looked him straight in the eye and said, “Because you are the Dragon Reborn.” The void rocked. The world rocked. Everything seemed to spin around him. He concentrated on nothing, and the emptiness returned, the world steadied. “No, Mother. I can channel, the Light help me, but I am not Raolin Darksbane, nor Guaire Amalasan, nor Yurian Stonebow. You can gentle me, or kill me, or let me go, but I will not be a tame false Dragon on a Tar Valon leash.”(6) He heard Verin gasp, and the Amyrlin’s eyes widened, a gaze as hard as blue rock. It did not affect him; it slid off the void within. “Where did you hear those names?” the Amyrlin demanded. “Who told you Tar Valon pulls the lines on any false Dragon?”

He explains that it was Thom Merrilin, just a gleeman friend who's dead now. Moiraine makes a sound. Rand thinks how she still claimed Thom was alive, but she'd never offered any proof.(7) The thought fades quickly.

“You are not a false Dragon,” the Amyrlin said firmly. “You are the true Dragon Reborn.” “I am a shepherd from the Two Rivers, Mother.” “Daughter, tell him the story. A true story, boy. Listen well.” Moiraine began speaking. Rand kept his eyes on the Amyrlin’s face, but he heard. “Nearly twenty years ago the Aiel crossed the Spine of the World, the Dragonwall, the only time they have ever done so. They ravaged through Cairhien, destroyed every army sent against them, burned the city of Cairhien itself, and fought all the way to Tar Valon. It was winter and snowing, but cold or heat mean little to an Aiel. The final battle, the last that counted, was fought outside the Shining Walls, in the shadow of Dragonmount. In three days and three nights of fighting, the Aiel were turned back. Or rather they turned back, for they had done what they came to do, which was to kill King Laman of Cairhien, for his sin against the Tree. It is then that my story begins. And yours.”

Rand remembers lines his father spoke in his fever.(8) Tam's voice in his memory tries to break the peace Rand has in the void.

Moiraine explains that she and the now Amyrlin Seat were Accepted in Tar Valon then, attending to the then Amyrlin and her Keeper, Gitara. The night in question, the snow had only just stopped, and every Aes Sedai available was out healing the injured.

Rand remembers Tam's bits about how battle is always hot, even in the snow. Rand starts babbling a bit, saying it was a fever dream, his name is Rand al'Thor, a shepherd, his father is Tam...

Moiraine had paused for him, but now her unchanging voice cut him off, soft and relentless. “The Karaethon Cycle, the Prophecies of the Dragon, says that the Dragon will be reborn on the slopes of Dragonmount, where he died during the Breaking of the World. Gitara Sedai had the Foretelling sometimes. She was old, her hair as white as the snow outside, but when she had the Foretelling, it was strong. The morning light through the windows was strengthening as I handed her a cup of tea. The Amyrlin Seat asked me what news there was from the field of battle. And Gitara Sedai started up out of her chair, her arms and legs rigid, trembling, her face as if she looked into the Pit of Doom at Shayol Ghul, and she cried out, ‘He is born again! I feel him! The Dragon takes his first breath on the slope of Dragonmount! He is coming! He is coming! Light help us! Light help the world! He lies in the snow and cries like the thunder! He burns like the sun!’ And she fell forward into my arms, dead.”

Tam's voice in Rand’s memory grows insistent again. A baby, blue with the cold, the mother dead, having given birth all alone. He declares his name again.

“And so we knew the Dragon was Reborn,” Moiraine went on. “The Amyrlin swore us to secrecy, we two, for she knew not all the sisters would see the Rebirth as it must be seen. She set us to searching. There were many fatherless children after that battle. Too many. But we found a story, that one man had found an infant on the mountain. That was all. A man and an infant boy. So we searched on. For years we searched, finding other clues, poring over the Prophecies. ‘He will be of the ancient blood, and raised by the old blood.’ That was one; there were others. But there are many places where the old blood, descended from the Age of Legends, remains strong. Then, in the Two Rivers, where the old blood of Manetheren seethes still like a river in flood, in Emond’s Field, I found three boys whose name-days were within weeks of the battle at Dragonmount. And one of them can channel. Did you think Trollocs came after you just because you are ta’veren? You are the Dragon Reborn.” Rand’s knees gave way; he dropped to a squat, hands slapping the rug to catch himself from falling on his face. The void was gone, the stillness shattered. He raised his head, and they were looking at him, the three Aes Sedai. Their faces were serene, smooth as unruffled ponds, but their eyes did not blink. “My father is Tam al’Thor, and I was born. . . .” They stared at him, unmoving. They’re lying. I am not . . . what they say! Some way, somehow, they’re lying, trying to use me. “I will not be used by you.” “An anchor is not demeaned by being used to hold a boat,” the Amyrlin said. “You were made for a purpose, Rand al’Thor. ‘When the winds of Tarmon Gai’don scour the earth, he will face the Shadow and bring forth Light again in the world.’ The Prophecies must be fulfilled, or the Dark One will break free and remake the world in his image.”

He says Baa is dead, and the Amyrlin snorts that he must be a fool to believe that.(9) His head swirling, he gets back up to his feet and asks what they'll do to him. Nothing. Only they three know what he is. He can leave, however he likes, without fear of them setting the Red on him. If they did, then the prophecies could not come to pass, and the world would be lost.

He looked at each of them in turn. Your Prophecies are no part of me. They returned his gaze so calmly it was hard to believe they were trying to convince him he was the most hated, the most feared man in the history of the world. He had gone right through fear and come out the other side in some place cold. Anger was all that kept him warm. They could gentle him, or burn him to a crisp where he stood, and he no longer cared. A part of Lan’s instructions came back to him. Left hand on the hilt, he twisted the sword behind him, catching the scabbard in his right, then bowed, arms straight. “By your leave, Mother, may I depart this place?” “I give you leave to go, my son.” Straightening, he stood there a moment longer. “I will not be used,” he told them. There was a long silence as he turned and left.

PERSPECTIVE: Moiraine. The room is silent until the Amyrlin takes a long breath. She doesn't like what they just did, but it was necessary.(10) Moiraine and Verin both agree, Verin wiping sweat from her forehead, and asks that the Light forgive them for what they're unleashing on the world. Moiraine adds that they will do as they must, just as they do now.

“As we must,” the Amyrlin said. “Yes. But when he learns to channel, the Light help us all.” The silence returned.

PERSPECTIVE: Nynaeve. A storm's coming, Nynaeve can feel it, though something feels strange. The storm feels too far off, as if she shouldn't be able to reach it, and yet also like it should be right on top of her, pouring down rain, even as she can feel several more days of good weather here.(11)

 A bluefinch lands on the windowsill near her, then vanishes in a puff of feathers.

She sees Rand in the hall, and runs after him, but he disappears before she can catch him. She should have gotten him away from Moiraine so much sooner. She comes on Lan and realizes her search is now as good as futile.

Lan is so intent on the arrowslit window that she gets a chance to sneak up on him, for once.

Safe from his eyes, she studied the length of him, leaning against the stone and fingering his chin as he studied what was going on below. He’s too tall, for one thing, and old enough to be my father, for another. A man with a face like that would have to be cruel. No, he’s not that. Never that. And he was a king. His land was destroyed while he was a child, and he would not claim a crown, but he was a king, for that. What would a king want with a village woman? He’s a Warder, too. Bonded to Moiraine. She has his loyalty to death, and ties closer than any lover, and she has him. She has everything I want, the Light burn her!(12) He turned from the arrowslit, and she whirled to go. “Nynaeve.” His voice caught and held her like a noose. “I wanted to speak to you alone. You always seem to be in the women’s apartments, or in company.”

She says she's looking for Rand, and they've said all they need to each other at any rate. They back and forth, her still misunderstanding him, until she asks again, has he seen Rand? He was supposed to be with the Amyrlin.

Lan says the Dark One can take Rand and the Amyrlin both, and presses a ring into Nynaeve's hand. His signet ring, a massive piece of worn gold.

He shrugged in an offhand way. “It is nothing. Old, and useless, now. But there are those who would know it when they saw it. Show that, and you will have guestright, and help if you need it, from any lord in the Borderlands. Show it to a Warder, and he will give aid, or carry a message to me. Send it to me, or a message marked with it, and I will come to you, without delay and without fail. This I swear.”

She tries to give it back to him, says she doesn't want it, but he says to take it, for his sake, or throw it away if it displeases her. He has no better use for it. He brushes her cheek with his finger, and says "I must go now, Nynaeve mashiara." and says maybe they'll have time to talk on the way to Tar Valon.

Nynaeve touched her cheek. She could still feel where he had touched her. Mashiara. Beloved of heart and soul, it meant, but a love lost, too. Lost beyond regaining. Fool woman! Stop acting like a girl with her hair still not braided. It’s no use letting him make you feel. . . .(13) Clutching the ring tightly, she turned around, and jumped when she found herself face-to-face with Moiraine. “How long have you been there?” she demanded. “Not long enough to hear anything I should not have,” the Aes Sedai replied smoothly. “We will be leaving soon. I heard that. You must see to your packing.”

Nynaeve asks Moiraine why Rand was taken to the Amyrlin, and she explains that the Amyrlin wouldn't give up the chance to see three ta'veren in such close proximity. Nynaeve says she should have gotten the boys away from Moiraine, and Moiraine says they're old enough to be off apron strings, now. And it would mean leaving Egwene to go to Tar Valon alone. If Nynaeve never learns to use the Power, she'll never be able to use it against Moiraine. Nynaeve's jaw drops. She insists she has no idea what Moiraine is talking about. Moiraine says well, if Nynaeve wants to pretend, she can too. But she IS coming to Tar Valon, yes?

My girl wants to hit the smile off Moiraine's face, and asks what they're doing with Rand, haven't they used him enough already? If they haven't gentled him by now, it must be for some plot. Moiraine asks what interest the Amyrlin would have in a simple shepherd, and besides, there's some anger about the events of the night before, everyone's looking for someone to blame...

Moiraine lets her voice trail to silence, and Nynaeve grinds her teeth. Moiraine reminds Nynaeve at long last to get started on packing.

She moved off in the direction Lan had gone, seeming to glide across the floor. Grimacing, Nynaeve swung her fist back against the wall; the ring dug at her palm. She opened her hand to look at it. The ring seemed to heat her anger, focus her hate. I will learn. You think because you know, you can escape me. But I will learn better than you think, and I will pull you down for what you’ve done. For what you’ve done to Mat, and to Perrin. For Rand, the Light help him and the Creator shelter him. Especially for Rand. Her hand closed around the heavy circlet of gold. And for me.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene. She's watching a servant fold and pack her dresses, still uncomfortable with letting someone else do what she's capable of. Nynaeve pops her head in, asking if Egwene is ready. Nearly, Egwene says. She remarks on the dresses Amalisa gave them, and how they'll have little chance to wear them in Tar Valon, though it'll be nice to bathe without looking over your shoulder. Nynaeve agrees briskly, then blushes, and Egwene realizes she's thinking of Lan.

Egwene has still been occasionally calling Nynaeve Wisdom, and does here, but Nynaeve tells her that may not be right anymore. They're just two women, far from Emond's Field, and it will be a long time before either goes home again. Perhaps better just to always call her by name.

A serving girl comes in and tells Egwene that "that young man of yours" is trying to come into the women's apartments again, with a sword, as if the Amyrlin letting him wear it once was permission enough forever. Nynaeve starts to get up, but Egwene asks to speak to him alone, and Nynaeve says alright, even the best of men aren't much better than housebroken, to which Egwene says if he's not learned manners by now, she'll skin him alive.

The serving girl asks if Egwene intends to marry him, the way they're talking, only Egwene is going to be Aes Sedai... Egwene says she doesn't know, thinking how she was going to be Aes Sedai, and he was a man who could channel, and she could marry him and watch him go mad and die, or have him gentled, and she couldn't do that to him.

They approach the main door to the women's apartments, and Rand is telling Agelmar that he didn't try to go in, all he did was ask to talk to Egwene, and he yelled into the hall when told she was busy. He has to leave soon, to retrieve the macguffins, and he has to see Egwene before he does.

When Egwene turns the corner, everyone goes almost silent, watching. She asks him to walk with her, and quietly she asks if the Amyrlin hurt him, unable to say the real question. No, he's fine, he insists, but is she alright? He thought she was dead, at first. She insists she's fine, too.

He says he told her Fain was dangerous, and she says if he's going to be that way, she'll hand him back over to the women. The last man who tried to get into the apartments was a month washing the women's laundry, and he was only trying to make up with his betrothed. Who knows what they'd do to Rand with his sword.

Rand says he knows Egwene has to go to Tar Valon, but he is done with Aes Sedai, he won't be used by them. She says she's going to be Aes Sedai, and she'll find a way to help him. He tells her to take care of herself and don't choose the Red Ajah. She throws her arms around him and says to take care of himself, and if he doesn't, she'll... she cries into him, and thinks she hears him murmur that he loves her, before he unwraps her arms from him and half-runs away.(14)

=====

(1) There's an MMA fighter, Conor McGregor, whose personal character I will not speak upon or endorse, but who features in a lot of the gif search results for "confident strut". That strut he does is my headcanon for Cat Crosses the Courtyard. (2) And Verin? How curious. She's the only other one who knows about Rand, of course, but why include her now? Why Moiraine too, for that matter? Surely this meeting could have been between the Amyrlin and Rand alone with no impropriety or anything. (3) So, fun fact: Tam was the original conceptual main character, a story of a war veteran as the chosen one in the real apocalypse. Even after he switched the main story to Rand, RJ planned to write what we call outrigger novels for a bunch of threads, but particularly he wanted to keep telling Tam's backstory in longer form besides telling more of the Moiraine and Lan journey that began in the one prequel novel we did get, New Spring. (4) Do you think she saw that he needed a moment to compose himself? Or is she just so tangent-minded? We did see her do this previously, when talking to Siuan and Moiraine alone… (5) So, some few will channel regardless, and some more can be taught, and most will never channel at all. This feels like an important distinction. Presumably, in the absence of a teacher, the Dragon would never have opportunity to learn and fulfill his destiny and save the world if he could only be taught, so he MUST be born with the seed, destined to channel whether he chooses or not. (6) The way he's so adamant about not being used… it's becoming his greatest fear. Being manipulated, being gentled. And one thing I noticed, all the way back in EotW chapter 2 or so, was how it was built into his character, it just comes out slowly as the pressure on him ramps up. All that way back, he thought about how he chafed and bristled when the women of the village looked at him or Tam like they were just objects to be married off at women's wills. So. Much. of this series is seeded so early, even if you don't recognize the seeds as such when they're planted. (7) Basel Gill also doubted somewhat that Thom would be dead, and didn't someone from Whitebridge mention a rumour that a gleeman hopped a boat as it was leaving for Illian? But, of course, rumour grows in the time and the telling. (8) EOTW chapter 6, if anyone wants to go review. (9) Besides which, we've already seen that he's not, and there's only so long that Rand's insistence can keep up after that prologue before it becomes tiresome. You can't help but feel a little bad for Rand, even as you want to sit him down and lay it all out in front of him. Because he's dead wrong about nearly everything at this point, but that's 20 year old dudes for you. (10) They don't like relinquishing control, but Rand can't be led, at least not easily, and not at all if he suspects he's being guided too strongly. Just as Moiraine said. Just look at how he tried to figure out which way they'd push him, so he could do the opposite. (11) I believe Nynaeve is experiencing what we call a foreshadowing. (12) Everything, huh?

(13) And then Nynaeve and Lan… He really is 20 years older than her, and he's never really let himself care about anyone. He's given his loyalty to Moiraine and her cause, maybe because he believes that getting a victory against the Dark One will fulfill his oaths to avenge his entire country's loss to the Dark One and the Blight, but I'm not sure that he's ever expressed any affection toward her, not even platonic or familial kind of stuff. I think his whole life has been focused on the legacy of Malkier's loss and how to correct it, and Nynaeve was the first person who saw him as Lan, not al'Lan. And he just has no idea how to cope with that. Giving her his signet ring, definitely a sign of a promise in some cultures. Telling her how she can use it if she needs help, or him. And she keeps misunderstanding what he means by it all. She interpreted "all I can give you is widow's veils as a bride price" as "I don't want you", because she's never been allowed to just be a girl and flirt and learn to communicate within a relationship either. She was a child, and then she was the Wisdom's apprentice, and when the Wisdom died, she was the Wisdom, even though she was so young. And no man would flirt with the Wisdom, and she wouldn't allow it anyway because it would undermine her so-fragile authority in the village. I have so many feelings and I will continue having feelings every time these two make googly eyes at each other when the other isn't looking. (14) Egwene and Rand… we've known since Baerlon that they're not for each other, but it's still kinda heartbreaking to see them growing apart. Even if part of it is that Rand is stubbornly placing himself opposite to Aes Sedai, as if he isn't just the other side of their coin.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot dragon fang icon #rand al'thor #lan mandragoran #siuan sanche #moiraine damodred #verin mathwin #leane sharif #nynaeve al'meara #egwene al'vere

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on TGH Prologue-Chapter 7

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

I'm a little too proud of "cha boys" given Cha Faile later in the series. Is it at all relevant? No, but it is funny to me.

Poor Jaichim Carridin, though. He doesn't make himself very sympathetic as a character but he does get rather well wrung out by the Dark.

Our first Bubble of Evil! Freezing Rand in place with the practice swords. Probably not fully ironed out as a concept at this stage, but I think it fits.

Tam's precious sword. It makes sense to spend a page or two describing Power-wrought weapons here, both because it makes the destruction of Tam's sword an even more heartbreaking loss of a truly priceless object, and also because it sets up how magnificent the Mjollnir (I know how to spell the other version I just don't care to when I don't have to) scene is so much later.

Funny how Siuan is said to rarely leave Tar Valon in the books, but in the show she's zipping back and forth. Her inconsistency in the show better sets up why the Hall would turn on her, IMO.

Love how the lads' "clothes make the man" arc starts so early.

Showing Rand watching the Amyrlin arrive and be greeted, so that Siuan saying later that she absolutely the fuck did notice him in the courtyard glowing with ta'verenness, is so special to me and I don't know why.

If Mat's luck didn't keep him alive after Shadar Logoth, it's sure sneaking into the narrative in Fal Dara.

I make a big game of "I could tell you if the voice is hallucination, taint madness, or real" but like, the fandom STILL doesn't agree. Myself, I think the answer is "yes".

It's so fun to see how many ways the show drew directly, almost word for word from the books, just giving things a different spin. Here, it's Anaiya telling Moiraine she should return to the Tower, that the Tower needs her, instead of Maigan.

VERIN! I will not go get TGS off my shelf and reread the big scene again for the millionth time… but I will think about it and get watery-eyed.

I'm not sure I noticed, last time, how precarious Siuan's position already was here. It's no wonder they were able to depose her with so little extra pushing.

I saw a post some time ago somewhere that pointed out the symmetry of Siuan fearing being stilled and kept as a scullery maid in the Tower, while Egg gets forkrooted just this side of stilling and kept as a scullery maid and whipping girl, but that's her ultimate path to power, not the punishment for abuse of it. Whether RJ intentionally set up all these things, or just found the threads he'd left open to take advantage of as he found the shape of the ending is anyone's guess, but I love it all the same.

Ingtar and the fade and the guards being killed by an insider. Robert, you sly old dog, sneaking that in there.

The Dark Prophecy in Blood Calls Blood remains one of the most fascinating bits of very obvious setup in the series, I think. We don't even MEET Slayer for two more books! (The most fascinating bit of extremely missable setup is Turak naming Tuon this book, but we'll get there.) Also, I feel like the "death beyond dying/life eternal" might have been a cheeky hint of Ishy's nihilism and desire for permadeath.

Lanfear is so mighty and terrible, her given name isn't even recorded anymore. Damn, girl, they have that much on most of your peers, even.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #wot book spoilers #wheel of time full series spoilers #wot full series spoilers

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 7 - Blood Calls Blood

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Wheel icon) In which hopefully you can tell without my help that you're gonna want a bookmark to come back to this one.

PERSPECTIVE: Moiraine rewraps her angreal as the litter carrying Mat leaves the Amyrlin's chamber. They worked through the night, Moiraine, the Amyrlin, Leane the Keeper, and Verin, the Brown sister we've seen pop up several times. They haven't saved him entirely, but they've given him a couple of months' time to retrieve the dagger so they can break the connection permanently. Verin wonders if Mat’s been corrupted beyond full recovery, and how many people the dagger's taint could touch and corrupt in, say, a year. Moiraine doesn't think that's a very humane thing to think about.(1)

They come to the conclusion that the only person who can retrieve the dagger safely is Mat, since he's already partly corrupted and they've shielded him against its further corruption. They want to find Fain, too, but conclude that he, the dagger, and the Horn are all probably together.

The Amyrlin yawns and asks Verin to leave, so she can have a private word with Moiraine. Before she goes, Verin says she has something she thinks the Amyrlin might want to see. She takes out a notebook and says it’s what was written on the walls of the dungeon. Besides the “blasphemy and boasting” typical of Trolloc attacks there was this passage, written in a finer hand, and it feels like prophecy.

“Daughter of the Night, she walks again. The ancient war, she yet fights. Her new lover she seeks, who shall serve her and die, yet serve still. Who shall stand against her coming? The Shining Walls shall kneel. Blood feeds blood. Blood calls blood. Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be. The man who channels stands alone. He gives his friends for sacrifice. Two roads before him, one to death beyond dying, one to life eternal.(2) Which will he choose? Which will he choose? What hand shelters? What hand slays? Blood feeds blood. Blood calls blood. Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be. Luc came to the Mountains of Dhoom. Isam waited in the high passes. The hunt is now begun. The Shadow’s hounds now course, and kill. One did live, and one did die, but both are. The Time of Change has come. Blood feeds blood. Blood calls blood. Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be. The Watchers wait on Toman’s Head. The seed of the Hammer burns the ancient tree. Death shall sow, and summer burn, before the Great Lord comes. Death shall reap, and bodies fail, before the Great Lord comes. Again the seed slays ancient wrong, before the Great Lord comes. Now the Great Lord comes. Now the Great Lord comes. Blood feeds blood. Blood calls blood. Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be. Now the Great Lord comes.”

The Amyrlin asks who else has seen it, and Verin replies only Serafelle, her fellow Brown Sister, before they had the men scrub the walls clean. It has the form of some of the known dark prophecies, but it's unclear whether it is one itself or just evil poetry.

They conclude that the Daughter of the Night is Lanfear, another Forsaken, since her name translates to that phrase in the Old Tongue. Either she's free, or someone wants them to think she is. It's rumoured that she was one of the most powerful Forsaken, but kept her powers hidden, and unlike most Forsaken, they have no trace of her original name, as Lanfear was one she adopted herself, not one that the people renamed her with. Moiraine thinks to herself that the only real thing they know about Lanfear is that before she went over to the Shadow, before Lews Therin met and married Ilyena, Lanfear had been his lover. So, it's not surprising, with all the false Dragons about (and the real one nearby), someone would invoke her name.

Other names are clear, too. Luc was brother to Tigraine, though it's not clear to most of them who Isam is or why he was waiting for Luc. Moiraine, however, knows that Isam was Lan's cousin, the child of the Mandragoran brother who tried to seize the throne from Lan's father. She knows she must keep this knowledge, that he might still be alive, somehow, from Lan until they're far enough from the Blight that he won't go looking.(3)

“ ‘The Watchers wait on Toman Head,’ ” Verin went on. “There are a few who still cling to the old belief that the armies Artur Hawkwing sent across the Aryth Ocean will return one day, though after all this time. . . .” She gave a disdainful sniff. “The Do Miere A’vron, the Watchers Over the Waves, still have a . . . community is the best word, I suppose . . . on Toman Head, at Falme. And one of the old names for Artur Hawkwing was Hammer of the Light.”(4)

Verin doesn't think that real descendants of Hawkwing would have waited so long to return, though it’s too bad the Sea Folk won’t cross the Aryth Ocean because they believe the afterlife is across there.(5) She adds that there are several things the ancient tree might refer to, from the old nation of Almoth having an Avendesora branch, to Taraboners calling themselves the Tree of Man, claiming to be descended from rulers and nobles in the Age of Legends, and the Domani claim descent from those who made the Tree of Life in the AoL. All of these center around Almoth Plain and Toman Head. She's about to explain that the Great Lord refers to the Dark One when...

The Amyrlin slapped the tabletop like a thunderclap. “I know very well who the Great Lord is, Daughter. I think you had better go now.” She took a deep breath, and took hold of herself visibly. “Go, Verin. I do not want to become angry with you. I do not want to forget who it was had the cooks leave sweetcakes out at night when I was a novice.” “Mother,” Moiraine said, “there is nothing in this to suggest prophecy. Anyone with a little wit and a little knowledge could put together as much, and no one has ever said Myrddraal do not have a sly wit.” “And of course,” Verin said calmly, “the man who channels must be one of the three young men traveling with you, Moiraine.”

Moiraine is so shocked she reaches for the Power. Never before has she thought of wielding it against another Aes Sedai, but her mission is too important to risk being undone by a nosy Brown.

There's no chance that Verin's missed Moiraine's action, any woman who can channel can see a glow around any woman actively touching the Power, but she just smiles, a little smugly, as if she found a piece of a puzzle that fit where she needed it to. Moiraine asks why Verin hasn’t told the Reds if she suspects as much, but Verin suggests two reasons: for one, she’d like to observe the progression of taint madness, and second, the Karaethon Cycle must be fulfilled. If Moiraine and Siuan haven’t reported him, he must be the Dragon, and will need his ability to channel to succeed. Moiraine marvels that even in this, Verin thinks first of the gathering of knowledge, and second of the fulfilment of the most dangerous and dire prophecy the world has ever known.

They ask if anyone else has guessed, and Verin says no, not even Serafelle, who is only interested in things that have been written down for as long as possible already. Moiraine and the Amyrlin both let go of the Power, and ask her to tell them exactly what and how she figured it out.

“It is unlikely,” Verin began, “that anyone who hasn’t studied the old records thoroughly would notice anything except that you were behaving oddly. Forgive me, Mother. It was nearly twenty years ago, with Tar Valon besieged, that I had my first clue, and that was only. . . .” Light help me, Verin, how I loved you for those sweetcakes, and for your bosom to weep on. But I will do what I must do. I will. I must.

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin is sneaking into the infirmary to see Mat, passing by an Aes Sedai who smells of lavender, though so faintly most wouldn’t be able to smell it. He expected to see the beds full of injured men, but then realizes the Keep is full of Aes Sedai, and there's very little they can't cure with their Power. He's nervous of them, though, especially when they start looking at his eyes.(6)

Perrin sits down carefully. He's had to be careful because of his size and strength, to be sure he wouldn't hurt someone or break something. He's done it so long, it's second nature now. He also liked to think things through. He'd gone to one of the gardens the night before, to do just that.(7) Some women had come upon him, and one sent one of the others to fetch "Liandrin Sedai". Then the bells started ringing.

In the present, Perrin thinks how Liandrin is Red Ajah, the ones who only hunt men who can channel, and asks Mat's sleeping form if he thinks Perrin is one of those. Mat's eyelids flutter open a little, and he asks Perrin what happened, sleepily.

Mat remembers Egwene asking him to go see Fain. He laughs at the rhyme. He doesn't remember what happened after... and drifts into sleep again. At this, Leane comes in and says if Perrin's disturbed her patient, his shoulders won't do him any good, her brothers were almost as big and she dealt with them just fine before going to the Tower.

Thinking how much better Rand is at understanding what women mean, Perrin assures her that Mat's still sleeping, as she can see, and he only wanted to know how he was. She says in a few hours Mat will be up and you'll think there was never anything wrong with him. Perrin knows she's lying about something, even though Aes Sedai supposedly can't lie.(8) First Liandrin is interested in him, now this... he's got to get out of here.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’d better let him sleep, then. Excuse me.” He tried to slide around her to the door, but suddenly her hands shot out and grabbed his face, tilting it down so she could peer into his eyes. Something seemed to pass through him, a warm ripple that started at the top of his head and went to his feet, then came back again. He pulled his head out of her hands. “You’re as healthy as a young wild animal,” she said, pursing her lips. “But if you were born with those eyes, I am a Whitecloak.” “They’re the only eyes I ever had,” he growled. He felt a little abashed, speaking to an Aes Sedai in that tone, but he was as surprised as she when he took her gently by the arms and lifted her to one side, setting her down again out of his way. As they stared at each other, he wondered if his eyes were as wide with shock as hers. “Excuse me,” he said again, and all but ran.(9) My eyes. My Light-cursed eyes! The morning sunlight caught his eyes, and they glinted like burnished gold.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand can't get comfortable on his thin mattress. He can't help but feel like he should take advantage and leave, but every time he makes it as far as the door, and can't do it.

Perrin comes in. Rand asks how Mat and Egwene are. Perrin, still bitter from Rand’s slight yesterday, says if he's so concerned why doesn't he go check himself? Rand tried, but "that tall Aes Sedai" was there and told him Mat was sleeping and he was in the way.

Rand studied his friend’s back for a moment, then dug up a laugh. “You want to hear something? You know what she said to me? The Aes Sedai in the infirmary, I mean. You saw how tall she is. As tall as most men. A hand taller, and she could almost look me in the eyes. Well, she stared me up and down, and then she muttered, ‘Tall, aren’t you? Where were you when I was sixteen? Or even thirty?’ And then she laughed, as if it was all a joke. What do you think of that?”

Perrin isn't impressed. He calls Rand "my Lord" and says if he wants to make jokes with Aes Sedai, that's up to him.(10) He, Perrin, is just a simple clumsy blacksmith, probably in somebody's way. He finishes changing his clothes, and makes for the door.

“Burn me, Perrin, I’m sorry. I was afraid, and I thought I was in trouble—maybe I was; maybe I still am, I don’t know—and I didn’t want you and Mat to be in it with me. Light, all the women were looking for me last night. I think that’s part of the trouble I’m in. I think so. And Liandrin. . . . She. . . .” He threw up his hands. “Perrin, believe me, you don’t want any part of this.” Perrin had stopped, but he stood facing the door and only turned his head enough for Rand to see one golden eye. “Looking for you? Maybe they were looking for all of us.” “No, they were looking for me. I wish they hadn’t been, but I know better.” Perrin shook his head. “Liandrin wanted me, anyway, I know. I heard.” Rand frowned. “Why would she . . . ? It doesn’t change anything. Look, I opened my mouth and said what I shouldn’t. I did not mean it, Perrin. Now, please, would you tell me about Mat?” “He’s asleep. Leane—that’s the Aes Sedai—said he would be on his feet in a few hours.” He shrugged uncomfortably. “I think she was lying. I know Aes Sedai never lie, not so you can catch them, but she was lying, or keeping something back.” He paused, looking at Rand sideways. “You didn’t mean all that? We will leave here together? You, and me, and Mat?” “I can’t, Perrin. I can’t tell you why, but I really do have to go by myse—Perrin, wait!” The door slammed behind his friend.

He can't tell them, but a voice in his head says, he can leave now. If Egwene is alright, and Mat will be up in a few hours, there's nothing keeping him here.(11)

Before he can get to the door, someone points on it. When he asks who it is, Lan strides in, and tells him the Amyrlin Seat wants to see him, and he can't go like that. Change your shirt, brush your hair. Lan even selects clothes from Rand's wardrobe for him. Rand protests that he was about to leave, and Lan says that nobody refuses an audience with the Amyrlin Seat, not even the Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks himself, even if he'd spend the trip trying to plan her murder.

Lan keeps up a steady stream of instructions as Rand prepares, right down to things like telling her how long since he received his sword instead of his age if she asks how old he is. Lan tells Rand he can understand later as long as he upholds the customs now. Then he wraps a gold cord around Rand's arm and fastens it with an enameled pin of of a red eagle, saying "That will make them think," with a smile.(12)

Rand looked down at the pin worriedly. Caldazar. The Red Eagle of Manetheren. “A thorn to the Dark One’s foot,” he murmured, “and a bramble to his hand.” He looked at the Warder. “Manetheren’s long dead and forgotten, Lan. It’s just a name in a book, now. There is only the Two Rivers. Whatever else I am, I’m a shepherd and a farmer. That’s all.” “Well, the sword that could not be broken was shattered in the end, sheepherder, but it fought the Shadow to the last. There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet. Now, are you ready? The Amyrlin Seat waits.” With a cold knot in the pit of his belly, Rand followed the Warder into the hall.

=====

(1) That's a Brown, though. Their primary role is academics and science. It's part of Verin's calling in life to come up with questions like this to research, test, document, and interpret. The Browns are much more mad scientist than they are something out of a certain children's/middle grade series that I try not to think about (but I acknowledge, the Brown Ajah will demand comparison to). (2) Addressing this out of order because they don't really talk about it afterward: the man who channels, well, we know of at least three of those but given the prominence of this prophecy, it feels like it ought to be referring to Rand, as they guess. Sacrificing his friends doesn't sound very much like him, though from a certain perspective, abandoning them might be a form of sacrifice if they're all important to the story, or perhaps he'll do some great harm to one of them in the name of getting his Dragon on. But, it's the line I marked that stands out to me. A "death beyond dying" or "life eternal". Back in the EOTW prologue there were some references to the Dragon having fought "a thousand times a thousand" times in the great war that ended the Age of Legends, and Ishamael talked about having chased Rand down many times and offered the choice between dying for the Light or serving the Dark. (3) Well, all we know is that they met in the Blight at some point. Isam disappeared as Malkier fell, just over 40 years ago, as Lan was still a small child. Luc, as we learned from Almen Bunt, the Exposition Farmer on the way to Caemlyn, went into the Blight after his sister Tigraine received a prophecy and went missing. (Highly recommend reviewing EOTW 34 and 47 for those two.) (4) And we've seen several groups refer to Toman Head or Almoth Plain, frequently in tandem with mentions of Hawkwing's armies returning. Do you think RJ hammered us over the head with "this is an important place" enough yet? (5) I don't know if Tolkien got it from elsewhere himself, but he definitely used this exact motif in LOTR. Literally, at the end of the story, Frodo and Bilbo are taken into the west to the eternal lands across the sea where nothing ever dies. (6) Recall that Elyas mentioned an encounter with Aes Sedai who wouldn't leave him alone about his changes. No wonder Perrin's antsy. (7) Perrin isn't one of my favourite characters, exactly, he's just the blorbo I keep shaking in his snowglobe and observing. I find it fascinating how different Robert Jordan made all his protagonists. (8) Perrin can't know, but Leane does, that Mat's recovery will be temporary. Yes, he'll get up, and for a while Perrin will think Mat was never injured or ill at all, until the corruption starts to grow again. A cheeky way around the Oaths, that. Always be aware of what characters are saying and alternate interpretations, even the POVs (remember Rand's unreliability last chapter). (9) Perrin gently picking up Leane and moving her aside is one of the funniest images of the series so far, especially since she's almost as tall as he is. (10) Neither lad is acting very well toward his bestie. Rand ought to apologize better and earlier, and Perrin ought to listen. But, it's sweet that Rand's idea of trying to mend the bridge is suggesting Perrin would understand Leane's remark, since Rand thinks Perrin is so much better at women than himself. (11) The voice in Rand's head just won't quit, will it? (No.) (12) What's Lan's game, here? He's suggesting all sorts of things that are not Duopotamian culture as we've seen it. And all that red and gold, like the Dragon banner itself. Giving Rand something like social armour to boost his confidence and perhaps deflect certain questions? But surely Lan knows Moiraine will have told Siuan everything… And then there's his showing of emotion. Lan's quite the puzzle, indeed.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot wheel icon #moiraine damodred #siuan sanche #leane sharif #verin mathwin #perrin aybara #mat cauthon #rand al'thor #lan mandragoran

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 6 - Dark Prophecy

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Trolloc icon) In which I question a lot of the narrator's assumptions.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand is dreaming that he's back at Tam's farm, the night of the Trolloc attack, only Mat and Perrin are there, with injuries that should leave them dead. Fain and then Baa tell him that it's never over, the battle's never done, and he wakes up.

Nynaeve is knitting in a rocking chair. She says Egwene told her why he's there, they won't give him up to any Aes Sedai, if that's what he wants. He can tell she's a little hesitant, knowing he can channel.(1)

Egwene has gone to see Padan Fain, thinking that familiar faces will help him. Rand asks Nynaeve if "they" have started looking for him. Nynaeve has noticed some odd behaviour in the serving women, who should be preparing for the feast that night, but Rand says Aes Sedai wouldn't use serving women to look for him.(2) Nynaeve points out they're looking for something important, at least.

Rand finally notices that Nynaeve is in a silk dress, not the Two Rivers wool he's used to seeing her in, all ready for the feast herself. Rand says she looks very pretty tonight, and as he sees her starting to glare at him,(3) he quickly tells her he'll be gone as soon as they open the gates, to somewhere he'll never see another living soul, somewhere there won't be anyone to hurt if something goes wrong while he figures this out. Nynaeve isn't so sure, Moiraine insists he's ta'veren, and the Wheel isn't finished with him. She starts to say "The Dark One seems" but gets cut off when Rand names him, "Shai'tan is dead," and then feels the room lurch. She insists he's being the biggest kind of woolhead, and he insists it's just the proximity to the Blight, strange things happen here sometimes.(4)

Suddenly the bells start going off. Rand thinks they're searching for him, but Nynaeve points out that if they are, then the alarm just warns him. It can't be for him. He looks out the arrowslit window, and realizes that whatever caused the alarm is inside the keep. Rand gets paranoid that maybe it's Fain, loose in the dungeon, maybe he's hurt Egwene! He's about to run out when Nynaeve stops him. Even if this has nothing to do with him, there will be Aes Sedai and serving women in the hall just waiting to take notice of the one man in the women's apartments. Rand ignores her and runs out into the hallway, causing quite a stir with his sword in hand. Even invited, men never go armed in the women's apartments except in direst emergencies.

Rand shoulders through them, encountering the Amyrlin Seat and the Keeper, noting by the Amyrlin’s reaction that she knows who he is, somehow, before making his way out into the courtyard. Men running everywhere with swords, the sounds of fighting, and suddenly there are three Trollocs. They're taken down in short order, but as he goes through, he finds more Trollocs, and more injured and dead Shienarans.

A Myrddraal catches his attention and he freezes in fear, but Ingtar comes up and tells him to go, he's not ready for a Fade. He goes down to the dungeon, finding the door open a hair's breadth, when it should be closed and bolted. The guards are beheaded, but the dungeons are totally empty except for torn up, chewed lumps of meat that must have been their bodies.

He started toward the inner door, took two steps, and stopped, staring. The words on the door, dark and glistening wetly in the light of his lamp, were plain enough. WE WILL MEET AGAIN ON TOMAN HEAD.(5) IT IS NEVER OVER, AL’THOR.

Rand is about to wipe the message off the wall when someone asks what he's doing. A woman, not much older than him, whose description we may match with Liandrin. All Rand notices is her red-fringed shawl. She tells him to touch nothing, and asks what he was doing. He says he was looking for Egwene, and rushes to go see if he can find her, when she stops him with something that feels cold and icy in his brain.

Icy cold squeezes him from all sides, constricting his whole body. Icy needles penetrate his brain, grate into his bones. The Void takes him, and he can sense something warm in the distance, feels it might save him if he can reach it, but before he can, someone asks what's going on here.(6) The pain and the cold stop suddenly, and he almost falls to the ground. Moiraine may just have saved his life, again.

Liandrin says she found Rand here, and Moiraine asks what Rand was doing. Rand says Egwene came down here. As he goes down the corridor, the first other prisoner has hanged himself with his belt. The second one is digging into solid stone with bare, bloody hands, and can't be stopped.

Finally he reaches Fain's cell, and Egwene and Mat are laying in front of it, but the cell itself is empty. Moiraine and Liandrin come down, and before Liandrin can touch either of them, Moiraine darts in to evaluate their injuries. Egwene's been hit on the head, but she'll be fine. Mat, on the other hand, has lost his dagger. Liandrin asks what dagger, but is interrupted by soldiers. Moiraine calls for two litters, and Liandrin says Rand was trying to erase the writing in the front entrance. Moiraine doesn't even acknowledge Rand.

Moiraine directs them to bring Egwene back to her apartments with Nynaeve, and Mat directly to the Amyrlin's chambers, and to locate the Amyrlin herself. Liandrin protests that the Amyrlin shouldn't be the Healer for Moiraine's pet,(7) and Moiraine reminds Liandrin that the Amyrlin doesn't share her Red Ajah prejudices against men. Moiraine follows the litter bearers out, while Liandrin takes another moment to study him coolly before leaving herself.

Ingtar calls Liandrin "a hard woman", then seems surprised he spoke at all, and asks Rand what happened. Rand can only explain what he came down and saw, and asks if the Fade is dead. Ingtar is angry and ashamed as he says no, it escaped. Rand says at least Ingtar is alive, and Ingtar asks if that's really worth it, when they've lost the Horn.(8)

Rand is all "...excUSE?!" But yeah, the strongroom was looted, the guards on it dead. Too many Trollocs, the first time they've ever made it into the Keep at all. Someone from the inside cut the guards' throats and opened the gate. Rand supposes that Agelmar's doubled the guard at the gates, now.

“Tripled,” Ingtar said in tones of satisfaction. “No one will pass those gates, from inside or out. As soon as Lord Agelmar heard what had happened, he ordered that no one was to be allowed to leave the keep without his personal permission.” As soon as he heard . . . ? “Ingtar, what about before? What about the earlier order keeping everyone in?” “Earlier order? What earlier order? Rand, the keep was not closed until Lord Agelmar heard of this. Someone told you wrong.”(9) Rand shook his head slowly. Neither Ragan nor Tema would have made up something like that. And even if the Amyrlin Seat had given the order, Ingtar would have to know of it. So who? And how? He glanced sideways at Ingtar, wondering if the Shienaran was lying. You really are going mad if you suspect Ingtar.

As they exit the dungeons, the two Brown sisters are there, examining the words on the wall. There are tons of Trolloc script markings all over the place. Only Verin is named, and when Rand hears her say the script is "interesting", he wants nothing more than to hightail it out of there.

He finds Lan on his way up, who tells him his things have been brought back from Egwene's apartment to his own room in the men's quarters, at Moiraine's command. Lan says the women aren't angry exactly, but they do think he might need a strong hand to settle his excitement, and talking among themselves as if deciding whose daughter is strong enough to do it.

"If you don’t watch your step, sheepherder, you will find yourself married into a Shienaran House before you realize what has happened.” Suddenly he burst out laughing; it looked odd, like a rock laughing.(10) “Running through the halls of the women’s apartments in the middle of the night, wearing a laborer’s jerkin and waving a sword. If they don’t have you flogged, at the very least they’ll talk about you for years. They have never seen a male as peculiar as you. Whatever wife they chose for you, she’d probably have you the head of your own House in ten years, and have you thinking you had done it yourself, besides. It is too bad you have to leave.” Rand had been gaping at the Warder, but now he growled, “I have been trying. The gates are guarded, and no one can leave. I tried while it was still daylight. I couldn’t even take Red out of the stable.” “No matter, now. Moiraine sent me to tell you. You can leave anytime you want to. Even right now. Moiraine had Agelmar exempt you from the order.” “Why now, and not earlier? Why couldn’t I leave before? Was she the one who had the gates barred then? Ingtar said he knew nothing about any order to keep people in before tonight.” Rand thought the Warder looked troubled, but all he said was, “When someone gives you a horse, sheepherder, don’t complain that it isn’t as fast as you’d like.”(11) “What about Egwene? And Mat? Are they really all right? I can’t leave until I know they’re all right.” “The girl is fine. She’ll wake in the morning, and probably not even remember what happened. Blows to the head are like that.” “What about Mat?”(12) “The choice is up to you, sheepherder. You can leave now, or tomorrow, or next week. It’s up to you.” He walked away, leaving Rand standing there in the corridor deep under Fal Dara keep.

=====

(1) That's one conclusion we could make. Why else might Nynaeve be uneasy? Given all she's learned and how far she is from a home she can't see again until she shepherds all her charges back there. Not to mention, the man she probably feels she made a fool of herself over. This, right here, is one of the easiest to identify points of unreliable close narration: it's all what Rand believes, what Rand assumes, but Rand isn't omniscient. Just something to keep in mind. (2) No, but one Aes Sedai under suspicious orders might have commanded the Lady Amalisa to do so in just as many words. (3) He thinks it's because, as Wisdom, she's supposed to be above being seen as a woman and will be taken less seriously as an authority if she's perceived as taking value in her appearance and desirability. Myself, I lean more toward her response setting up to be more like "What do you mean TONIGHT, as if I'm not a snack every other day?" (4) Trust your senses not your hubris… I say, in a footnote, as if I could actually influence a fictional character. Rand is altogether too casual about naming the Dark One and bringing bad luck down on himself and everyone around him, ESPECIALLY considering he's ta'veren and the Pattern pulls extra-strong on his thread. (5) Toman Head, huh? Funny, that's all the way west across the continent, a peninsula jutting off from the Almoth Plain folks are talking so much about lately… (6) What was the warmth? Why might it have saved him? (Why do women who can channel fear men who can do the same?) (7) Why else might Liandrin want Mat under lesser supervision? (8) It's awfully curious how Ingtar rushed in to fight that Fade, but the Fade got away without injuring Ingtar at all. (9) Ingtar seems to be very confused about the orders at the gates, but didn't they say Ingtar was the one who passed the orders on? Who's lying to Rand? (10) Also, another side effect of ta'veren that I haven't touched on is how people just blurt shit out around and near them, because the Pattern says it needs saying. Take Liandrin in yesterday's chapters, mentioning Almoth Plain, and then seeming surprised she said anything at all. It's a frequent occurrence in the books. Three ta'veren all in one place are gonna have that kind of effect. (11) It's entirely fair to question who's pushing your buttons, sir. (12) And now, with his freedom, Rand still can't leave, for the same reason he couldn't leave before the Amyrlin's arrival: he won't abandon his friends.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot trolloc icon #rand al'thor #nynaeve al'meara #siuan sanche #lord ingtar shinowa #liandrin guirale #moiraine damodred #egwene al'vere #mat cauthon #verin mathwin #lan mandragoran

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 5 - The Shadow in Shienar

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Sunburst icon) In which we start getting more perspective changes mid-chapter.

PERSPECTIVE: Moiraine, reeling as the word “stilled” seems to hang in the air. Stilled, the female equivalent of gentling for men, and women bear it no better than men do. It's been done so seldom that every Aes Sedai novice learns the name of every Aes Sedai stilled since the Breaking.(2)

Moiraine had known the risk from the first, and she knew it was necessary. That did not mean it was pleasant to dwell on. Her eyes narrowed, and only the gleam in them showed her anger, and her worry. “Leane would follow you to the slopes of Shayol Ghul, Siuan, and into the Pit of Doom. You cannot think she would betray you.” “No. But then, would she think it betrayal? Is it betrayal to betray a traitor? Do you never think of that?” “Never. What we do, Siuan, is what must be done. We have both known it for nearly twenty years. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and you and I were chosen for this by the Pattern. We are a part of the Prophecies, and the Prophecies must be fulfilled. Must!”

(Separately)

“Only twice since the Breaking of the World has the Amyrlin Seat been stripped of stole and staff.” “Tetsuan, who betrayed Manetheren for jealousy of Ellisande’s powers, and Bonwhin, who tried to use Artur Hawkwing for a puppet to control the world and so nearly destroyed Tar Valon.”

Both of them were Red Ajah before they were raised, and both were replaced by Blues. There hasn't been an Amyrlin from the Red since Bonwhin.(3) The current Reds will use any excuse, and Siuan doesn't want to be the third. Stilled Amyrlins are kept in the Tower as scullery maids, to be pointed at as examples of their mistakes. Moiraine asks if Siuan wants to give up on their project of twenty years for fear of washing a few pots.

Siuan is not suggesting giving up, but she also won't watch while everything slips away and she can do nothing. Everyone wonders why she hasn't brought Moiraine back to the Tower for discipline. They had a plan: find the boy and bring him to Tar Valon to hide and keep him safe and guide him. Siuan has had only two messages from Moiraine since she left the Tower, one to say she was entering Emond's Field, and one from Caemlyn to say she was going to Fal Dara and the Blight and not Tar Valon at all. Twenty years of planning and searching, and Moiraine is literally throwing it all away to rub their success in the Dark One's face?

Moiraine reminds Siuan that the Pattern and ta'veren pay no mind to Aes Sedai plans. They have perhaps only a fingernail's grip on events, but the winds of destiny blow, and they must follow.

Siuan opens a golden box Moiraine had noted pessimistically in chapter 4, and takes out the Horn of Valere, reads the inscription, “The grave is no bar to my call,” and puts it back quickly. Agelmar near forced it into her hands, saying the temptation to blow it himself was too great. Siuan won't even be able to sleep with it in the room. She notes that it was only supposed to be found just before the Last Battle. Can it be that close?

Moiraine brings up the Karaethon Cycle, the Prophecies of the Dragon. Siuan doesn’t need reminding of THAT, of all things. But, three false Dragons all at once, that makes six in two years. The Pattern is preparing for Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, but Siuan fears that Logain or Mazrim Taim might have been the true Dragon. Moiraine assures Siuan, if they were, the Pattern wouldn’t have allowed them to be taken down, wouldn’t have thrown up new false Dragons since. Once the true Dragon declares himself, the Pattern will stop trying to mount fakes.

Siuan can see that Moiraine has more to tell her, and nothing good. Moiraine takes out the shards of the cuendillar seal, from the Eye. Nothing and no power can break cuendillar, yet something did break this. Only seven were ever made, the White Tower has records of every item ever made of cuendillar, and those seven pieces were remembered above all the rest. One of the seals from the Dark One's prison. The Amyrlin Seat is supposed to watch over all seven seals, but none has known where even a single seal was since the Trolloc Wars.(4) And this one's already breaking.

They have little time, then, but it must be enough. Siuan says she saw the boy, the ta'veren, in the courtyard. It's one of her Talents, though it's almost useless given how few there are.(5) The young man didn't look much different from any other, but he blazed in her sight like the sun. Is he the one they've sought these twenty years? He is. Rand al'Thor is the one true Dragon Reborn.

Siuan wonders if he's safe here, with so many sisters, especially those allying with the Red. Moiraine says he's safe enough, for the moment. Siuan wonders what Moiraine suggests, if their old plans are in the wind.

Moiraine responds that she's let him think she has no interest in him, because Manetheren's blood runs strong in the Two Rivers, and his heart is as stone to Manetheren clay. He'll bolt in the opposite direction if he's not handled right. Siuan will do whatever needs doing, but to what purpose? Rand's friends want to see the world, she could recruit them to carry the Horn to Illian. Though, Mat has an issue with a dagger from Shadar Logoth... but there may be enough Sisters here to sever the connection and heal him. And then they can all go together, with no Aes Sedai. They must be let off the leash a short while, to guide back later.

Siuan is hesitant, wondering if Rand will ever declare himself. Moiraine says that one way or another the Pattern will force it. As ta'veren, he has no more control over his destiny than a candle wick has over the flame. Siuan would sit and plan now, but Moiraine says everyone will be getting suspicious if they take much longer, especially if anyone found the warding against sound. She promises to meet again in the morning, and leaves, trying to look chastened. There's much work to do before morning.

PERSPECTIVE: Geofram Bornhald leads a column of Children of the Light. Two thousand, to meet someone at the edge of Almoth Plain. Pedron Niall the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light, had given him the order himself. Bornhald had left Eamon Valda in charge of the company at Caemlyn, but he wouldn't be surprised if Valda had led them to Tar Valon behind Elayne's group and kidnapped the Daughter-Heir by now, or worse. And Dain, Geofram's son, had arrived just before he was recalled, but Dain was too full of zeal to be effective at stopping Valda.

Niall ordered Bornhald to take a full legion of the best men he could find, and to silence any tongue attached to eyes that saw them on the way. Bornhald balked a little, wondering if it was war they marched to. There's rumour of Artur Hawkwing's armies come back, and he want to know why he's risking war with Tarabon. Niall says there are forces at work beyond what he can know, and to ask him no more.

Bornhald had been very careful to avoid anyone seeing his legion, so that he wouldn't have to kill any innocents.(6) Finally, he gets to his destination and meets... Questioners. He doesn't like them, thinks they assume guilt before they ever start their torture. The leader, Einor Saren, says he's second only to Jaichim Carridin, the leader of the Hand of the Light(7) in Tarabon, and that the village nearby has been pacified, to allow them to pass safely.  Bornhald wonders if the bodies were stacked outside the village, or just thrown in the river.

Bornhald questions Saren as to why he's got an entire Legion of the best men in the Children's ranks, and Saren says it's to root out darkness, as they always do. Particularly, there are strangers on Toman Head, who may carry darkness. Bornhald reiterates the rumour that they're Hawkwing's old armies, and Saren reinforces that they're simply strangers, and probably darkfriends, and that's all Bornhald needs to know.(8)

Bornhald calls on Byar to lead the legion over the bridge to the village and make camp. He'll join them as soon as he can. Then he takes his reins and follows the Questioner to ask some more questions of his own.

PERSPECTIVE: Liandrin walks the halls at twilight, imagining she can feel the Dark One’s power stirring. She feels the Dark One stirring now, at twilight, the death of day, and at dawn, the death of night. She goes to Amalisa's chamber, and enters without knocking. It takes them a moment to notice her, and when Amalisa greets her, Liandrin cuts her off and tells everyone else to leave.(9)

Amalisa is confused, Liandrin was friendly before. Liandrin questions whether Amalisa walks in the Light. It's easy to think you're following the Light and to be led astray by the Shadow, especially so close to the corruption of the blight.

When Amalisa thinks Liandrin is accusing Agelmar of being a Darkfriend, Liandrin strikes with a Compulsion, one of her Talents, forbidden as soon as the Mistress of Novices learned of it, but that just meant one more thing Liandrin had to hide from those who were jealous of her. It's not perfect, she can't force anyone to do anything, but she can make them open to more arguments for her point of view than they otherwise would be, and to want to believe her.

Liandrin questions Amalisa about Fain (Amalisa knows little) and the three boys.(10) She's been to their rooms, but they weren't there. She wants the keep searched for them, in utter secrecy. She mentions the Black Ajah, and Amalisa swears there is no corruption in the Aes Sedai, because they're known to get angry at the mere suggestion. Instead, Liandrin confirms that the Black Ajah is indeed real and active within the walls of Fal Dara this very minute. Any Sister she walks past in the hall may be one. But Liandrin can protect her, if Amalisa follows her instructions.

As she leaves the room, she feels a prickling on her skin. Someone was watching or listening to her with the Power, but... the corridor is empty. Must be just fancies. Now, time to do more work. Her orders were explicit.(11)

PERSPECTIVE: Padan Fain sits on his cot until the door to the guardroom opens. He sees a figure and, hiding his absolute glee, declares it's not who he expected, but hurry on, he wants to get some sleep eventually. As the lamp enters his chamber, he stares through the ceiling at something and says the battle isn't over yet.(12)

=====

(1) As my initial notes appended to this, "Wuh-oh." If you read in print/digital, you fairly quickly learn a sense of slight dread at the Whitecloak icon. (2) So, perhaps even worse than you might have thought on first reading of chapter 4. Rare and horrifying. (3) Artur Hawkwing's time was a bit more than 1100 years ago, so you can see how a whole organization within the White Tower not feeling represented in that time period might raise some bad feelings. (4) Interesting. We don't know when the Eye of the World was assembled, but it was implied that it was soon after the Breaking, while some men still had their sanity. How could this one seal have been put in, when the Amyrlin Seat was supposed to have had all seven hundreds of years later? (5) If you can identify a ta'veren from their social context and surrounding events, it could make you wonder why such a talent would be considered valuable enough to crop up in the Pattern, or if it's just a random variation. (6) If not for how he allowed Perrin and Egwene to be treated last book, you could believe he was a good man. As it stands, he seems at least to be one with a true moral code. He's certainly not our Bors, who bore the Questioners' red crook on his cloak and wouldn't care about killing innocents. (7) The formal name for Questioners, since they hate the short one, but I will be using Questioners in the text where relevant, just like I use Whitecloaks in place of Children of the Light. (8) Yes, that'll really quell the rumours on the subject. (9) That's not very "attract no attention" of you, Liandrin, when you're being so suspicious already. (10) Does Liandrin know about them from talking to servants about who came in with Moiraine? If so, they would have known more than Amalisa, surely. Where else might Liandrin have learned about the lads? (11) Who gave mysterious orders to someone else in this book so far? (12) This will surely cause no harm or danger or mischief for anyone else. But, who’s setting him free?

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot sunburst icon #moiraine damodred #siuan sanche #geofram bornhald #einor saren #jaret byar #liandrin guirale #lady amalisa jagad #padan fain

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 4 - Summoned

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Horn of Valere icon)(1) In which we get a lot of worldbuilding in a fairly short period of time.

PERSPECTIVE: Moiraine adjusts the shawl on her shoulders. She only had it by luck. Aes Sedai shawls are rarely worn outside of Tar Valon, since the giant flame embroidered on them would send people running, away or toward to fight. Hers has a blue fringe, marking her of the Blue Ajah. There are proprieties to observe when meeting with someone like the Amyrlin Seat herself. She looks younger than she is, because of her nature, but she developed a graceful, calm presence growing up in the Royal Palace of Cairhien, and honed it in the Tower. She might need every bit of it today.

An insistent knock at the door, and she greets Anaiya (Blue) and Liandrin (Red). She's glad to see Anaiya, to know that the Amyrlin brought at least one friendly face with her. Liandrin notices and comments on the wards on Moiraine's room, and Moiraine says she didn't need to distinguish her Sisters until now, and the serving women are too curious about Aes Sedai. But, they shouldn't keep the Amyrlin waiting.

As they go, Moiraine asks what news, since Tar Valon gets it all concentrated. There are three new false Dragons. Three in the last two years, now three all at once. Liandrin says they'll be dealt with, the same as all the others.(2)

They stop to exchange greetings and introductions with Lady Amalisa, since she's Agelmar's sister, and deserves more than the passing nod and smile they give other women in the halls.

From the corner of her eye, Moiraine saw Egwene, far down the side hall, disappearing hurriedly around a corner. A stooped shape in a leather jerkin, head down and arms loaded with bundles, shambled at her heels. Moiraine permitted herself a small smile, quickly masked. If the girl shows as much initiative in Tar Valon, she thought wryly, she will sit in the Amyrlin Seat one day. If she can learn to control that initiative. If there is an Amyrlin Seat left on which to sit.(3)

When she comes back to the conversation, Moiraine is shocked by Liandrin being friendly with Amalisa, because Liandrin doesn't like anyone outside of the Red Ajah, ever. Liandrin is clearly Up To Something, and Anaiya isn't taking much notice, since she tends to accept people as they are since she puts herself out so straightforwardly.

They catch Moiraine up on the arrival of Elayne and co at the White Tower before they'd left, and Moiraine wonders if Andor, and the world, will accept Elayne if they know she has the potential to be a full Aes Sedai, as only a few queens have ever been, and every one had lived to regret making it known.(4) The thought makes Moiraine a little sad.(5)

They also say the Great Hunt has been declared in Illian, for the first time in 400 years. Anaiya says there will be a new lot of stories for the gleemen to tell, and the Light send it will only be stories. Moiraine says aloud that perhaps they won't be the stories they expect. Beyond all that, only rumour. The Sea Folk seem to be restless, and there's talk that they believe their Coramoor is coming, their Chosen One, though the few Sea Folk who have become Aes Sedai will say no more than that. The Aiel are stirring as well,(6) but they have no Sisters from among the Aiel, which Anaiya bemoans. They could learn so much from just one. Moiraine says perhaps Anaiya should have become Brown Ajah.

Liandrin mentions Almoth Plain, and looks startled that she spoke up at all. Anaiya explains that they've heard vaguest rumour that there's fighting on Almoth Plain and Toman Head. Moiraine says it must be Tarabon and Arad Doman, and begins to ask Liandrin, who's Taraboner, why they might--

She's cut off by Liandrin throwing open doors and reminding Moiraine that she's here to see the Amyrlin, who waits inside and will have no idle talk for her. Moiraine sees Verin Mathwin and Serafelle (both Brown Ajah), Carlinya (White), Alanna Mosvani (Green), and a Yellow sister she doesn't know. They all turn and stare but none speak to her, though the Yellow sister turns away with an air of regret, clearly wanting to greet her but put off by everyone else's behaviour.(7)

Leane, the Keeper of the Chronicles (Blue, wearing a stole instead of a shawl to indicate her rank) opens the inner door in the chamber, and calls Moiraine in. Moiraine curtsies and observes the formalities of greeting, but remembers that the Amyrlin Seat was once Siuan Sanche, a fisherman's daughter from Tear.

The Amyrlin says they turned the winds and the tides to rush their ships here, and they've seen some of the damage they've caused to do it. She also says that Elaida is in Tar Valon with Elayne, and Moiraine says it's no time for Morgase to be without Aes Sedai counsel. The Amyrlin says the Red Ajah are "swollen up like puff-fish"(8) at having been the Ajah that found the girl who may be the most powerful Aes Sedai in a thousand years. Moiraine says she's got two, one Elayne's equal, the other even stronger, and both are amused enough by men to never choose the Red.

Moiraine is surprised when the Amyrlin nods as if this means nothing. The two biggest concerns in the tower are that fewer and fewer young women are being found to train up, and those who are found are getting weaker. The Amyrlin continues that Elaida came to Tar Valon, after sending at least six messenger pigeons, to tell her about a dangerous ta'veren that Moiraine has been meddling with. More dangerous than any man since Artur Hawkwing, she said, and she has a bit of Foretelling, so she knows it's true.

Moiraine assures the Amyrlin that none of the young men with her is a king, and none dreams of uniting the world under one banner, as Hawkwing did. The Amyrlin says that one of the leading Green sisters proposed that Moiraine should be sent into retreat for contemplation of her actions, and her care be taken over by Red sisters.

Moiraine is flabbergasted. Green and Red are as much in opposition as is possible to be, why are they working together? The Green Ajah have ever been the allies of the Blue. The Amyrlin points out that four of the last five Amyrlin Seats have been raised from the Blue, and perhaps the rest desire a change, especially in a world with so many false Dragons.

 She shook herself, and her voice firmed. “There was yet another proposal, one that still smells like week-old fish on the jetty. Since Leane is of the Blue Ajah and I came from the Blue, it was put forward that sending two sisters of the Blue with me on this journey would give the Blue four representatives. Proposed in the Hall, to my face, as if they were discussing repairing the drains. Two of the White Sisters stood against me, and two Green. The Yellow muttered among themselves, then would not speak for or against. One more saying nay, and your sisters Anaiya and Maigan would not be here. There was even some talk, open talk, that I should not leave the White Tower at all.” Moiraine felt a greater shock than on hearing that the Red Ajah wanted her in their hands. Whatever Ajah she came from, the Keeper of the Chronicles spoke only for the Amyrlin, and the Amyrlin spoke for all Aes Sedai and all Ajahs. That was the way it had always been, and no one had ever suggested otherwise, not in the darkest days of the Trolloc Wars, not when Artur Hawkwing’s armies had penned every surviving Aes Sedai inside Tar Valon. Above all, the Amyrlin Seat was the Amyrlin Seat. Every Aes Sedai was pledged to obey her. No one could question what she did or where she chose to go. This proposal went against three thousand years of custom and law.

Who would dare? The Amyrlin points out all the world's terrible events, and says that if you don't think the White Tower is losing its grip, you're already dead. Time is growing short, for everyone. Moiraine points out that there are worse perils outside the Tower than within it, and the Amyrlin asks Leane to leave. She wouldn't say a word about what had happened, but it would set flame to rumour, that Moiraine would be chastised privately by the Amyrlin herself.

When they're alone, the Amyrlin performs a channelling to shield them from listeners, a trick Moiraine came up with when they were young and at the Tower training together, and suddenly she's Siuan with her best friend. Moiraine is the only person in the Tower she can be herself with, and sometimes she wishes they were still young, with dreams of finding princes who could tolerate Aes Sedai power, and finding happy endings.

“We are Aes Sedai, Siuan. We have our duty. Even if you and I had not been born to channel, would you give it up for a home and a husband, even a prince? I do not believe it. That is a village goodwife’s dream. Not even the Greens go so far.” The Amyrlin stepped back. “No, I would not give it up. Most of the time, no. But there have been times I envied that village goodwife. At this moment, I almost do. Moiraine, if anyone, even Leane, discovers what we plan, we will both be stilled. And I can’t say they would be wrong to do it.”(9)

=====

(1) Well, that's pretty unambiguous, but there's only passing mention of it with regard to Illian's hunt. What else might the Horn represent? Or was it just the prepared icon that was relevant to the contents of the chapter, without being repetitive? (2) Liandrin, being Red Ajah, would of course have absolute conviction in her Ajah's ability to do their jobs as efficiently as they did with Logain last book. (3) That's the second time Moiraine's said just that about Egwene. You could almost think it was some sort of… Pattern… Still, amusing that the in-universe Pattern drew Rand across Moiraine's line of sight even as he was trying to hide. You can't escape your fate, though there are still plenty of books left to explore all that. (4) In some ways, RJ made his world a near-exact flip of patriarchy but with women in power (which isn't "matriarchy" as we know it but it's easy to shorthand it to that if you don't know or care about the precision of the language). In other ways, he just made a patriarchy and gave lip service to women's power. This is one of the latter, of course. We've seen anti-Aes-Sedai sentiment, but for the people to regularly be implied to rebel against leaders with magic? Yeah, it gets messy. (5) Recall that I've been tagging her "Moiraine Damodred", and we've heard of Damodreds in the royal family of Cairhien. Why would Moiraine be sad? It's possible she turned down the opportunity to hold a royal seat, and from her reaction here, it wouldn't be a surprise to find out she was partially motivated by commoners' reactions to Power-wielding queens. (6) So, multiple cultures seem to believe the end of the world is coming and they must make preparations for it, and even the ones that can't be confirmed right now are agitated over something, which feels like a rather conspicuous coincidence. (7) Every Aes Sedai present seems to think Moiraine's in for a lashing, verbal or physical, for what they think she's been doing. It's unclear what they think that is, though if they know that she's working with a ta'veren, maybe they think she's positioning another false Dragon, to go with all the ones getting thrown into the Pattern. (8) You can take the fisherman's daughter out of the fishing village, but you can't take the fishing metaphors and analogies out of her. (9) Stilling, if it's not obvious, is the female equivalent of the gentling that male channelers get. Safe to assume it's a horrifying thought, to anyone in the prime of their power. And if Siuan knows that's a real risk, and thinks it might be the RIGHT decision for what she and Mo have done? Stakes, high, etc.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #tgh #the great hunt #wot horn icon #moiraine damodred #anaiya carel #liandrin guirale #leane sharif #siuan sanche #lady amalisa jagad

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The Great Hunt, Chapter 3 - Friends and Enemies

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Ruby-hilted dagger icon)(1) In which someone's coping mechanisms backfire magnificently.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand only runs as far as around the corner before seeing that the gate is, indeed, closed and guarded. He knows the guards, Ragan is friendly and Masema is his bad luck. Unfortunately, Ragan seems to want to let Rand out, but with Masema there, he won't risk it. Rand says he'll try one of the gardens, to escape the crowd, but really he goes to check the other gates, and finds them barred and guarded too.(2)

He finally has to admit defeat. He's trapped in the keep, with the Amyrlin Seat. He thinks she might have even sent the wind to trap him. He lets his feet take him anywhere he won't be expected, trying to avoid anywhere an Aes Sedai might be. He wonders if it wouldn't be better to be Gentled, get it over with. But no, everyone says they die soon after.

Rand feels watched. He wonders if everyone is watching him, if they'll remember seeing him when they're asked to find him. His skin prickles in an empty armorer's forge, he smells decay on a breeze and he wonders if the wind's come for him again. Eventually he finds a storeroom where Loial is watching some menials(3) play dice. Rand remembers the Ogier built Fal Dara, asks if Loial knows any way out. Loial points out that Ogier built Mafal Dadaranell but Fal Dara was rebuilt by people after the former’s destruction. Rand slumps against the wall, and Loial calls for Mat and Perrin, among the dicers, saying Rand might be ill.

One of the dicers protests that Mat can't back out when he's winning, and Mat subtly touches the dagger and says they'll have another chance to win it back. He notes Rand's clothes and says maybe he'll buy something fine, he can hardly touch dice without winning. Rand tells them all their clothes have been replaced free, and he needs to get out before the Amyrlin does something to him, because even Lan said it would be better for him not to be here. They don't understand, they still don't know he's a channeler, but he can tell them about feeling watched, and what the wind did.

Mat says Moiraine hasn't hurt them, and Rand thinks but doesn't say that something sure happened to Perrin's eyes while they were apart and Perrin's not saying anything about it. And if not for Moiraine Mat would never have taken the dagger that's killing him.

Rand turns the conversation back to wanting to leave. Mat asks, "How do we get out?" and Rand realizes they think they're going with him. Well, he uses pointed jabs and pushes them away verbally, telling them he doesn't want them along, he just needs to get out.(4) Mat, in the corruption of the dagger, gets defensive and angry. Perrin just gets sad and hurt.

Loial says it doesn't matter, they're all ta'veren anyway. Mat yells at him to stop talking about that, then storms off, Perrin following reluctantly. Rand gets angry at Loial and asks why he's still there, he's no use to Rand if he can't get him out of the keep. Loial looks almost angry.

Rand slumped against the stacked sacks of grain. Well, a voice in his head taunted, you did it, didn’t you. I had to, he told it. I will be dangerous just to be around. Blood and ashes, I’m going to go mad, and. . . . No! No, I won’t! I will not use the Power, and then I won’t go mad, and. . . . But I can’t risk it. I can’t, don’t you see? But the voice only laughed at him.(5)

The dicers all stare at Rand, judging him. They don't make a move, but he stumbles out of the storeroom like they're chasing him. He looks in all the storerooms, but everywhere he imagines hiding, he can also imagine someone finding him. Eventually he stumbles on Egwene and feels even worse than when he snapped at the boys.

He ignores the feeling and snaps at her that she should go moon over the Aes Sedai, now there are plenty for her to admire, and Egwene knocks him over and sits on him.(6) He threatens that she knows what he is and what he can do. She says he would never, he'd never hurt anybody, and besides, she knows he can't channel whenever he wants.

Egg knows why he's pushing everyone away: so he won't hurt them if something happens to him. But if he does as he should, then there's no reason for him to hurt anyone. Why is he lashing out at everyone and pushing them away and hiding when he doesn't even know if there's reason to fear, yet?

Rand tells her what Lan said and she thinks a minute before suggesting he hide in the dungeon. She goes there sometimes to talk to Fain, but nobody else bothers. He wonders why she talks to Fain, and she says she likes to talk about home, and the longer he's here, the more he seems to go back to himself again, telling funny stories and talking about Emond's Field. Rand remarks that if Moiraine dubbed it safe enough for Egg it’s safe enough for him, but from Egg’s reaction he realizes Mo doesn't know Egg is visiting Fain and gets angry at her all over again. Egg points out that Fain is caged, and she doesn't need permission for everything. He argues he could find it himself, but Egg counters that without her help, he’ll trip into the Amyrlin’s path and tell her everything while trying to talk his way out of it. Now, is he coming?

Egg takes off without waiting for Rand to agree, and he has no choice but to pick up his things and follow. The guards let them in without any real trouble, though they're ruder than any other Shienaran Rand's met, implying snidely that he’s a tame Aiel and all. Egg tells Rand privately that they seem to get worse every time she comes, Changu used to tell jokes when she came, but now he's barely letting them in before he slams the door shut behind them.(7)

When the approach Fain's cell, Fain feels Rand coming, and says so. He says some things that are reminiscent of Baa's dream messages. Then abruptly he turns, looks intently at a certain spot on the ceiling (in the fully pitch black space, except for Egwene's torch) and says Mordeth knows more than all of them.

Rand realizes that if not for the floors between, Fain would be looking directly at the women's quarters.(8) Egg notes that Fain is much worse than usual. It's not safe here after all. There's one place where nobody will look for him, it's harder to get him in, but the women's apartments will be the safest place for him.

Rand thinks you can't hide from hornets in the hornets' nest. Egwene says if he slumps and hides his weapons he'll look like he's carrying things for her, Not a problem. Rand refuses.

“Since you’re acting stubborn as a mule, you should take right to playing my beast of burden. Unless you would really rather stay down here with him.” Fain’s laughing whisper came through the black shadows. “The battle’s never done, al’Thor. Mordeth knows.” “I’d have a better chance jumping off the wall,” Rand muttered. But he unslung his bundles and set about wrapping sword and bow and quiver as she had suggested. In the darkness, Fain laughed. “It’s never over, al’Thor. Never.”

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(1) So, it seems fair to guess this is in reference to anything to do with either the dagger itself, or Shadar Logoth since it came from there. (2) So Rand is well and truly trapped, it's really only a matter of time before he's found. (3) I have unnameable feelings about seeing people grouped by their undervalued job. (4) He wants to protect his friends from the danger he thinks he poses, which… well, that's sweet of you, Rand, but they should get to make their own informed choices as to who they hang out with, dontcha think? (5) We saw hints of it last book, but the voice in his head really starts to become a separate entity here. Taint madness, or something else? Who's to say? Well, I could, but that's beside the point. (6) Fortunately, Egwene sees right through his prickliness and knows exactly how to deal with him. (7) That's some corrupting influence, huh? Whatever happened in Shadar Logoth, Fain is no longer just Fain. The corruption of Shadar Logoth is in him, and he's affecting the other prisoners and the guards for the dungeon just the same as the dagger affects Mat. Unfortunately for Mordeth, Fain was also a Darkfriend first, and had been corrupted physically by processes at Shayol Ghul in that incident three years ago. (8) What does he see? How?

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