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A Crown of Swords, Chapter 10 - Unseen Eyes

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(Stone ring icon) In which we know something she don't know.

PERSPECTIVE: Egg goes back to her tent and prepares for bed. After extinguishing the lamps, she peeks out of the tent flap and sees a woman's shadow in the darkness.(1) She shrugs it off and goes to sleep as the Wise Ones taught her, to access the dream space adjacent to TAR. There, she finds Nyn's and El's dreams and enters them to warn about Moggy's escape and Nicola's blackmail, by way of a disembodied voice in all caps. She also touches Amys's dream and uses the same effect to say she must speak with the Wise Ones. Amys responds that they will come, in a softer voice that implies experience with this method of communication.

She sees a dream coming toward her rapidly, and pushes through to TAR with only slight regrets at not seeing what Gawyn was dreaming of her. But, she hasn't the time to get caught in his dreams. She comes to TAR in the Stone of Tear, and the narration goes through some of her worries for a few pages, including the chapter title: you always feel watched in TAR. The Wise Ones appear just as she's telling herself aloud that Moggy has no way of knowing where she is, and ask why she fears the Shadowsouled? Egg explains that she and her friends shamed the Forsaken, and she might seek opportunity to revenge herself.

When Amys suggests they get to the business of why they're here, Egg finally tells them why she was called to Salidar: she has been raised to Amyrlin, and will sit the Amyrlin Seat when Elaida is deposed. Melaine relates a story about how children want to be clan chief, until they learn that the clan chief rarely "dances the spears", at which point they make a doll to play the part of clan chief while they run wherever they want to play at fighting. Egg says yes, most see her so but by the time they're done, they will know that she is their chief. Bair asks if she will bring the Aes Sedai to kneel to the Car'a'carn, but Egg says she can't do that. The loyalty of Aes Sedai must be to the Tower, above even the lands of their birth. Aes Sedai don't even swear fealty to the Amyrlin.

Amys says she thinks Egg didn't just want to tell them about her promotion, and Egg says she's worried about the embassy making missteps with Rand. Amys says that Merana and the others with her followed him to Cairhien, and she need not fear he will put a foot wrong with her. The Wise Ones will see to it that there is no difficulty between Rand and any Aes Sedai.

Egg asks Amys to promise that they won't try to stop Rand talking to Merana, and that they won't make the Aes Sedai so angry that Merana does something foolish. Amys and the others look at each other with unreadable expressions(2) before Amys makes the promise flatly. Egg assumes Amys was offended at having to make the promise, but feels a weight lift from her shoulders.

Lastly, Egg asks that they don't tell anyone she's been raised. Not to lie, she adds hurriedly, just not to bring it up unprompted. She's afraid he might come looking for her himself if he finds out, having already sent Mat to rescue her unneeded. Bair says the Car'a'carn is headstrong, and Amys says they will hold her confidence close.

They talk a while longer, the Wise Ones not actually telling Egg what Rand is up to, until she says she must go. They bid farewell with warnings to stay safe, and Egg steps back to her sleeping body, not into ordinary sleep but to a Dreamer's sleep, where she can keep track of her dreams and make note of which ones are true.

Gawyn walking barefoot across broken glass, his feet bleeding.

Gawyn on a horse faced with a choice of two paths. One path lead to his death, the other to a long life.(3)

Egg trying to tear down a wall built of Dark One’s prison seals, unsure if it’s the seals or the united Aes Sedai symbol that’s important.

Mat reaching into the sky to grab exploding fireworks, which would lead to many deaths.

Egg with her neck on a headman's block with an axe descending and someone rushing to save her.

Logain stepping over Rand's body on a funeral bier to mount a black stone.(4)

A golden hawk touches Egwene and they become tied together.(5)

A man lies dying in a bed; it's important that he live, but a funeral bier is prepared outside.

A dark young man holds an object shining so brightly, Egg can’t see what it is.

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(1) Who could that be? Would Selame have stuck around to watch over Egg, the way she assumes? We know Halima freed Moghedien and is running unsupervised in the camp. What chaos would she try to sow with Egwene, from outside her tent? (2) We can guess that this is taking place approximately in the order we read it, so they've been put in charge of making all the Aes Sedai from Dumai's Wells learn to submit to their oaths. They have no reason to stop Rand from talking to them. Always ask yourself what you know that the character whose assumptions you're seeing doesn't. (3) The walking across glass vision is easy enough: he IS tormented by his decisions right now, and they're leading him back to her eventually. (4) The nearest thing we can properly assign this to is that Rand is the current leader of the Black Tower, such as it is, and if something happened to Taim, perhaps Logain could step up as leader. (5) The only golden hawk we know of is on Berelain's tiara of office.

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Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on ACOS Prologue-Chapter 9

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.

Obviously I can't be TOO descriptive on Elaida's prologue Fortelling in the regular posts, but she is right. The Tower will be whole, the Black Ajah remnants cast out, and Rand will know the Amyrlin's anger… but that Amyrlin will be Egwene. Even if Elaida didn't get taken by the Seanchan, Egwene had already undermined her leadership so badly at that point, it was just a matter of time. As with every prophecy Elaida makes, she puts herself at the heart of it, and assumes her own competence. And, well… if nothing else, we know better.

Gotta admit, once you know Mesaana is impersonating Danelle, RJ doesn't make any kind of secret of hiding her. "Oh yeah I just walked past Danelle on my way to my rooms, and met Mesaana." Like. It's no wonder Ali of Wheel Takes latched onto that theory and never let go.

Niall's last letter being unreadable means nobody expects the Spanish Inquis-- nope, wait, they ARE the Inquisition, nobody expects the Seanchan invasion! Also I want to tear Eamon Valda apart with my bare hands for what he's about to do to Morgase.

Hey Osan'gar. You have three books left, and you won't use them wisely.

So many more books of Perrin and Faile being Like This.

I wonder if Rand ever really learned to stop fighting Min's visions that hard. Trying to save Colavaere from his noose only made her loop her own.

I do love that Dyelin really, truly, never wants the crown. A woman after my own heart. "I've got enough trouble with the lot I was given in life, you can keep the thing that multiplies it a hundredfold."

The assertion in Egg's POV that Sheriam is fully bound by the Three Oaths… LOL. She's not trying to find a loophole out of them, she's trying to figure out how to not get caught violating them because she's as Black Ajah as they come.

And ah yes, the headaches. Do we figure Aran'gar started sneaking into her tent or doing a weave in public to start them since there's nobody around who can detect her channeling?

Think Nicola had already bonded Areina by this point?

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Chapter 9 - A Pair of Silverpike

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(Flame icon) In which I have to go off on a bit of a rant.

PERSPECTIVE: Egg summons Siuan and Leane to her, and tells them what's happened, asking them to find out who freed Marigan. The narrative spends a few paragraphs of Egwene examining and evaluating their looks, since this is their first appearance in the book, including the observation Egg overheard a Yellow sister make “that both were prime childbearing age”.(1) Siuan suggests that one of them pass the message on to Faolain and Theodrin to ask around about who was near Marigan's tent, since they'll garner less attention for it, as Egg is their patron, of a sort. Egg agrees, her headache coming back again.

She dismisses them, and takes a walk. Passing the Traveling ground, a safe area for sisters to Travel or Skim (a slower, but safer, method of Traveling that can take you from somewhere you don't know well to somewhere you do),(2) she sees some coming back from Salidar with pigeons that had arrived there. A few days ago, Sheriam finally admitted that the Salidar embassy to Caemlyn hadn't reported back in several days. Egg suspects that Merana may have made a misstep with handling Rand, and made him move to Cairhien and force them to follow or give up. And, she has no idea what to expect of the mention of Alanna having “formed an attachment” to Rand.

On her way back to her tent, Nicola Treehill, accompanied by Areina Nermasiv, stops Egg and begs to be allowed to gain strength in the Power faster, the way Egg and Nyn and El did. Egg thinks how Nicola's startling emergence with two Talents (seeing ta'veren and Foretelling), despite being older than normal for a novice, was probably the reason the Hall agreed to test women older than eighteen for training. Egg explains to Nicola that she had no choice in gaining strength, she was forced, and it's very very dangerous to do that to any channeler. Nicola invokes blackmail: she knows that Nyn and El were pretending to be full Aes Sedai before being raised, and it could still cause trouble for them, and Areina points out maybe for Egg as their friend.(3)

Egg gives them both a dressing down that Aes Sedai will receive the proper respect, and does Nicola have any idea how serious it is for a novice to bring charges against a sister? They'd be beaten at best, turned out of the camp for certain, and Nicola would never attain the shawl. She says she'll forget it for now, but threatens that if she hears so much as a whisper of it again... well, they ought to get to bed before she changes her mind. They rush to obey, in a flurry of curtsies.

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(1) First off, fuck off James Oliver Rigney Jr. (You know I'm mad when I break out the legal name.) Secondly, what does that even mean? They were already some of the youngest Aes Sedai. Siuan is only about 41 here to begin with, Leane 47. In fact, I don't mind saying, most of the really important Aes Sedai characters are under 75. Only a few are older. Galina, Romanda, Lelaine, Verin. So what the hell is "prime childbearing age" supposed to mean when they were already likely not even looking at pre-menopause if they weren't channelers? (It just means "physically in their 20s" and RJ didn't know anything about women's reproductive health but had to put it in the most "gross old man" way possible.) (2) Sounds like someone finally realized Traveling only working from somewhere you knew well didn't make a damn bit of sense, and had to come up with something that could be used on the go. (3) So, the chapter title implies a pair of dangerous people, which is probably Nicola and Areina, with their blackmail.

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Chapter 8 - The Figurehead

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(Viper icon) In which it's sometimes nice to know more than the characters.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene is meeting with Siuan and Sheriam. She thinks they should stop the army for one day, but Sheriam thinks four or five would be better, to restock and rest. Egg insists on one day, thinking how the Aes Sedai seize on any opportunity to stop, and if they stop for too long, they may never get moving again. Sheriam relents, and there's a long few paragraphs about how Egg's been slowly getting control over certain aspects of the group. She's been getting headaches from the stress of everything, too. She puts on the bracelet to Moghedien’s collar, knowing she should wear it more often to keep an eye on her.

The camp is tense since Logain escaped, and Egg wonders where he is. She makes Sheriam admit that ten sisters were sent, two from each Ajah except Blue and Red, to spread rumours in the White Tower that Logain was a Red Ajah puppet. They did it in secret, not even telling the Hall, lest they alert the Black Ajah or imply that any Sitter who objected might be on Elaida's side, sowing discord in the ranks.

Suddenly, there's a stab of pain through the bracelet. A man who can channel is touching Moggy's collar. There's a brief flash of hope from Moggy, and then all sensation through it is gone, the collar removed. Egg says she needs some air, and goes as fast as she can to check on Moggy's tent, finding it empty. Egg wonders if it was Logain, having hung around unseen, or one of Rand's Asha'man, but in either case, why would they free her?(1)

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(1) Of course, we saw Halima do this at the end of the last book.

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A Crown of Swords, Chapter 7 - Pitfalls and Tripwires

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(Viper icon) In which at least there's a little more to say about this one.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand plays with saidin, and argues with the Lews Therin voice in his head, wondering all the while why he can hear that voice as a separate personality, when there's nothing recorded about others reincarnating and having that side effect,(1) before getting to business. He has three stops to make tonight, and one that the Maidens and Asha'man that accompany him must not know about.

The first stop is at the Caemlyn stables, where Rand allows himself to be bound and hooded. He doesn't want word getting around that he's been seen here this night. He and his entourage make their way to meet with Davram Bashere and Bael, though they find both men's wives with them as well. They tease him that a man can keep little from his wife anyway. They ask when he will find a woman, but he asks what woman could he hate enough to make her marry the Dragon Reborn.(2) This quiets them all quickly.

To change the subject, he asks after Elayne but she hasn't arrived yet,(3) and Rand is grumpy, as the rope and hood were mostly to hide him from her and Aviendha if they were here. The others warn him that the White Tower won't be pleased and will try to strike back at him, but he says if Elaida has the sense to stop after her attempt to kidnap him being struck down, he's happy to not go to war with her.

Fresh news for Rand that Dyelin Taravin has been appointed regent of the realm, in Elayne's name, and has had two other female nobles imprisoned for having declared themselves queen.(4) Also, several Aes Sedai, especially Red Ajah, have been asking after the men of the Black Tower, then disappearing again, and a constant nine or ten Aes Sedai of various likely Ajahs stay at a certain inn in the city.

Rand leaves one of the Asha'man trainees, Fedwin, with them to carry messages to him, since he chose all men who could open their own gateways. He’ll be leaving two more with Lord Semaradrid and High Lord Weiramon, for when they face Sammael. Bael asks if this means Rand is going to strike against Sammael soon, and Rand confirms it. He also hopes internally that Elayne and Mat get there soon.

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(1) Not a whole lot of measured reincarnations in your known history, though. Who's to say what's going on here? (2) I dunno, man, there are three you're awfully into despite yourself. (3) To be fair, she IS on a quest to fix one of the world's big issues, but she should have been taking her duties as daughter-heir seriously since she heard of her mother's disappearance or death. (4) You'll recall that Aes Sedai in Caemlyn were talking to these nobles, same as the Aes Sedai in Cairhien. All seem to have expected that Rand would be removed from the picture.

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A Crown of Swords, Chapter 6 - Old Fear, New Fear

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(Wolf icon) In which we still aren't breaking this string of chapters in one POV, are we?

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin. Most of the chapter is catching up with Faile and trying to smooth over her fear and jealousy, which ends with him snapping at her about how much he loves her and worried about her, and that's finally what she responds to.(1)

Faile is just starting to put a move on him when Rand bursts in and, after a quick apology for interrupting, says Berelain is spending the night on a Sea Folk ship anchored in the river, of all places. Perrin, wanting Rand to talk about anything but that woman in front of Faile, asks if there was something else. Rand asks if he'll still command the battle against Illian. Perrin says he's no general, and isn't he supposed to stay close to Rand? Rand says they must all take risks, but he’s got something in mind for Perrin besides the army.

When Rand leaves, Faile makes to take advantage of the little time they have left alone together, and Perrin laughs at the particularly predictable tack she takes in seducing him.

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(1) Yeah, so you remember those weird Saldaean relationship dynamics? Faile bears many resemblances to a bratty and possessive sub. She wants Perrin to get angry with her, not to treat her like a child. It's unfortunate that she never explains this to him, so he keeps trying to treat her like an adult of his culture, which feels wrong to her. It's only when he explodes that she gets what she wants. And it's double or triple unfortunate that we've only ever really seen this relationship from Perrin's point of view, with his no-empath-ethics nose, because it's this hot-and-cold that makes a lot of people hate Faile but I maintain that it's so much just that Perrin's never allowed to understand her, so the reader isn't either, unless you do a lot of extra reading between the lines on top of what you already have to do to understand most of what’s going on.

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A Crown of Swords, Chapter 5 - A Broken Crown

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(Dragon icon) In which I question whether the vision really was averted.

PERSPECTIVE: The party enters the Grand Hall of the Sun, and Perrin can see that everyone already assembled there feels the danger as they see Rand enter the space. Perrin spots Faile, half hiding behind Colavaere's throne, and hopes she had a good reason for this.

Rand approaches the throne, and when he sees Colavaere's eyes flick to the door, he says if she's looking for Aes Sedai, he sent them to the Aiel to learn manners. She's beyond startled at this, but regains composure quickly and welcomes him back. He says he meant the Sun Throne for Elayne Trakand, and Colavaere says rumour has it she's as dead as her mother. Rand says she's alive and will have the thrones of Andor and Cairhien.

Colavaere says what is done cannot be undone, but Rand plucks the crown off her head and reshapes it with the Power, popping some of the stones out of their settings. Perrin can't see what's happening, but Rand seems to break and then repair the crown, and then says that whatever can be done can be undone.

Colavaere pales, and says she's kept the laws Rand put in place, even those that go against ancient custom. Perrin asks if she had the right to murder Lord Maringil and High Lord Meilan,(1) and she protests and calls for someone named Annoura to advise her. Annoura turns out to be another Aes Sedai, who says she can no longer help Colavaere, and turns to Rand to offer her assurances. Rand says he's not the one who has her shielded, and she realizes the men in black coats are his male channelers. So do many of the nobles in the front rows. Annoura admits she's Aes Sedai, of the Gray Ajah, and long-time advisor to Berelain. Rand says that if Berelain will confirm the story, he'll give Annoura's custody over to her.

Faile finally speaks to say that Colavaere was making plans in secret to undo Rand's work in Cairhien.(2) She heard it from another attendant, who disappeared soon after Colavaere admitted these plans to her. Lord Dobraine walks up the steps and arrests Colavaere for treason. Colavaere protests that these are all lies, but Annoura says she's been in contact with two thief-catchers who caught those responsible for murdering Meilan and Maringil, and the murderers said their orders came from Colavaere directly. Colavaere says they promised they would never return, then realizes she's given herself away.(3)

Rand strips her of titles, and asks if she owned any farms. Dobraine says she owned many farms, some large and some small. Rand says the farms of Cairhien have lain unworked for too long. Dobraine will find out which farm nearest the Dragonwall is smallest, and Colavaere will be exiled to it to learn how to work the fields, with guards to ensure she doesn't leave. Colavaere promptly faints.(4) Rand says loudly so the whole room can hear that the audience is at an end, and he will forget any face that leaves now. The exodus begins in an orderly fashion, but soon the nobles are elbowing each other to get out. Not one looks back at Colavaere.

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(1) He also asks, for some reason, where Berelain is. On the one hand, she was sort of the appointed regent. On the other, dude, not the time, especially when your wife is right there. (2) Of course she accepted a position as a lady's attendant: she wanted to spy for Perrin and Rand's benefits. (3) Ta'veren. (4) Rand's found a fate worse than death for the nobles: being demoted to peasants. Of course, they were already offended that they couldn't treat commoners like animals, but this is surely a step too far for even the best of them. Too bad. His primary concern is because of Min's viewing of Colavaere's death, which would be by hanging. As someone points out in the chapter, that's the standard penalty for murder now, and Rand has that whole thing about how he can't let himself hurt women. Oh, sweetie, you'd be a lot happier if you started treating women like people and not like objects you have to protect.

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A Crown of Swords, Chapter 4 - Into Cairhien

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(Cairhien icon) In which we must keep in mind that RJ's books take a long time to get moving, and that's when the story's moving at all.

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin wants to rush into the city, but Rand sets a slower pace. Perrin takes some comfort in a superstitious fancy that if he brings Faile's horse, brought by the 2Rs company from Caemlyn, into the city of Cairhien, then Faile will surely be alright.

They crest a hill near sunset and finally see the city. Rand commands most of the force to stay there for now, and tells Dashiva that nobody is to be killed unless it can't be avoided. Perrin smells Dashiva's emotions run through fear, hate, and anger, and decides the man is surely mad,(1) but being so close to the city, Perrin can't care much. He digs his heels into his horse's sides and rides for the city at a quick horse walk, since a gallop would raise more questions and suspicion.

They ride through the refugees and Foregaters outside the city. Not much of the old Foregate remains, having been burned by the Shaido, but Colavaere has nonetheless put the old residents of the slum back out where they used to live.(2)

The small party rides through the city without incident, though they draw many stares. Perrin is reminded of his boyish fancy when Faile's horse is taken from him to be put in the palace stables, and he still doesn't know if she's alive.

Inside the Sun Palace entry hall, Rand is greeted by a group of attendants, who tell him Colavaere is in the Grand hall celebrating the ninth day since her coronation, nobody expected him back so soon. Perrin demands to know where Faile is, and they tell him that she's one of Colavaere's personal lady attendants. He gets angry, but Min reminds him she must have had a very good reason to do that.

Rand tells one of the attendant nobles, Lady Selande Darengil, to lead him to the great hall, as he's here to see justice done.

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(1) What kind of a man did Rand choose at random to be his guard? Let's hope the Pattern knows what it's doing. (2) No doubt, back where she thinks they belong.

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Chapter 3 - Hill of the Golden Dawn

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(Flame icon) In which my one footnote says it all.

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin arrives with the whole of the army going back to Cairhien in a field some miles northeast of the city. Seeing his wolf’s head banner and the red eagle of Manetheren raised, he hopes Elayne will let the villagers keep flying a banner that really means nothing in the end, when she’s crowned and finds out. After Perrin flashes back to some discussion between Rand and his Asha’man guards about whether his enemies have been idle, in the present, Rand decides aloud that he can trust Perrin, Min, and Loial. Perrin wonders at Rand's scent, jumbled as if he were two men in one body conflicting with one another. He hopes Rand is still sane.

An Aiel Wise One, Feraighin, approaches the party, saying Bair ordered watches posted everywhere they might return to the city. There are rumours that Rand went with the Aes Sedai, and he's now no more than a Tar Valon puppet, causing many Aiel to be afflicted with the Bleakness again. There are also rumours that he was kidnapped, inflaming some Aiel into declaring they'll march to Tar Valon and kill any wetlander they meet.

Rand asks Sorilea what she's not telling him, noticing her facial expression looks odd. She pulls him aside for a minute, and then notices that Bera, Kiruna, and Alanna have all come to eavesdrop, despite being told to stay in the wagon with the other Aes Sedai. She says she'll teach them that she means what she says. Rand asks if Colavaere has been crowned, and it gets confirmed, though there are assurances that Berelain and everyone else are safe. Also, Caraline Damodred and Toram Riatin, relatives of the two dead kings of Cairhien, have made camp outside the city and declared Colavaere a usurper, and they've met with the Tairen rebels in Haddon Mirk.

Kiruna tries to bully in with her usual tactics, but is roundly ignored by everyone involved. Rand tells Sorilea to take all the Aes Sedai to the tents, and to show that they hop when the Wise Ones say so. Since the Wise Ones follow Rand, it should prove that he's not on any Aes Sedai leash.

As the large group breaks up to head into the city, Gaul approaches Perrin and says how Chiad said she and Bain would take Gaul for a lover, but she would not give up the spear and marry him. Perrin realizes this means Bain and Chiad are here and not in the city with Faile, and his temper flares. Loial tries to reassure Perrin that Faile can take care of herself, and that Perrin can't always be there to protect her, but that just makes him more angry.(1)

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(1) A whole lot of telling-not-showing in this chapter. What a use of twenty pages. And now Perrin's thread of patience is about to snap if Faile's in danger.

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Chapter 2 - The Butcher's Yard

(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! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Ravens icon) In which yep, nothing worrying to see here.

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin surveys the graves of all those who died at Dumai's Wells before leaving, then the area of the killing ground of battle, teeming with carrion eaters for the Shaido no one bothered to bury. He feels a heavy guilt, because he gave the orders that led them to so many deaths.

Kiruna asks him why Rand is walking among the lines of the dead laid out before burial. Perrin knows it's so he can memorize the faces of the Maidens in particular(1) but he doesn't say so. Instead, he tells Kiruna off for not obeying his orders the day before, and getting so many of the Mayeners killed. Kiruna reminds Perrin condescendingly that the only way Aes Sedai may use the Power as a weapon against not-Shadowspawn is if they're in danger, so she had to put herself in danger to be able to help. Perrin isn't impressed with the logic.(2)

Perrin approaches Rand, in time to hear an argument over whether Wise Ones or Asha'man should have control of the Aes Sedai prisoners. Rand finally yells at them all and, after some whispering from Min, says the Wise Ones will have the prisoners. Bera and Kiruna protest but Rand reminds them of their oath to serve him. He tells them they won't so much as have a bath without his or a Wise One's permission.(3) Bera is scandalized but says nothing.

Rand commands Taim to take the Asha'man back to the Black Tower, but Taim convinces Rand to take an honor guard of men. Rand takes four Dedicated and Four Soldiers, and one full Asha'man chosen at random, who ends up being Corlan Dashiva, a very nervous man. Perrin smells irritation on Taim at the choice.(4)

The Asha'man Travel back to the Black Tower, and Perrin feels a little safer. He goes to talk to Rand more privately than he could have before, and tells him about the tensions he's observed between the groups this morning. Rand asks Min if she's seen anything, startling Perrin with the Maiden guards nearby, but Min explains the Aiel know about her, and don’t treat her differently. It’s the first time she’s felt normal since the visions started. As to the question, the Asha'man have been holding the Power, which muddies her visions, and the Aes Sedai have been staying closely packed, so their images get jumbled together.

Rand has Dashiva make a gateway back to Cairhien, and in the process, learns that Taim has the students call him M'Hael, which means "leader" in the Old Tongue.(5)

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(1) Yeah, he's not giving up that list, even if he has literally been held captive by women.

(2) Neither am I. I mean, sure, she doesn't KNOW that Galina is Black Ajah, but surely *abducting the Dragon Reborn* is enough danger for anyone.

(3) The list of women whose deaths he feels responsible for, you see, is a symptom. Just as much as his cold and somewhat cruel control now. A man can't be trapped in a box and tortured for a week without some consequences.

(4) Why would Taim be irritated at that? I suppose he can't train the newer/lower-ranked ones if they're not at the Black Tower with him.

(5) Nothing worrying about that at all. Rand is only technically in charge, even if he's like the Amyrlin, the Black Tower still needs a Keeper, whoever's in charge when the leader's gone... even if he calls himself "leader" in the process.

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Chapter 1 - High Chasaline

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(Wolf icon) In which we set the tone for this book.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, blah blah blah. A wind blows, finding Perrin. Today is High Chasaline, a time to reflect on the things you're happy and grateful for.(1) Perrin doesn't feel he has much on that front, with all the men and wolves lost in the battle as well as the strife with his wife.

They've taken many Shaido prisoners, who are going around naked since they have no white robes handy to wear as gai'shain. It's causing a wide variety of reactions among the remaining men, though they mostly only get sent to bother the ones who react. Perrin observes that Mayeners only admire, and don’t get nearly so many gai’shain messengers.

Aram thinks the naked Aiel are scandalous, and also suggests killing the Aes Sedai since Rand isn't making the decision to. Perrin tells him never to suggest that again, even though he's unhappy about keeping Aes Sedai prisoners.  Later, Loial agrees that it's wrong to keep them prisoner, and thinks the whole camp feels like a fire waiting for a spark to start it.

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(1) High Chasaline is something equivalent to Epiphany for Christians, only not. Same date range, the beginning of the new year, but different meaning. I realize now, I never said that the Feast of Lights from the end of the last book, the day Perrin realized Rand had been taken, was the new year as well as the solstice. In RJ's world, the two are merged, and High Chasaline is a celebration about ten days later. Epiphany doesn't have any particular associations with gratitude, it's the day Christians observe the visit of the Magi, Christ's baptism, and strangely also the wedding where he turned water to wine. Still, RJ was very religious, and it's interesting to compare these sorts of details, especially when Randland doesn't have organized religion the way ours does.

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Prologue, Part 3

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(Wheel icon) In which we finally wrap this prologue.

PERSPECTIVE: Pedron Niall plays stones with Morgase. He goes back over all the plans he has to put her back on the throne, even knowing she’s strong enough to minimize his effects on Andor, even with the treaty she signed. He regrets that he’s not twenty five years younger, and that she’s “tainted” by having trained in Tar Valon, even just for a few months. She wins the game, and  asks to see Galad, but Niall doesn't want the man to know his mother is being held here.

Omerna, the false spymaster who believes himself true, comes with urgent news. Niall dismisses Morgase, and takes the pigeon-carried letter he knew Omerna would be carrying. It confirms that some force has appeared, maybe worse than Tar Valon and their "tame false Dragon", but Niall is ill prepared to fight both.(11)

Niall turns to Omerna after reading it, and that's when he feels the knife go in under his ribs. Omerna weeps, saying it had to be done, Niall just left the witches in Salidar. Eamon Valda bursts in as Niall collapses to the floor, and drives a sword through Omerna's chest for the clear treason just committed. Niall hopes the letter, still near his hand, will be found and read by someone.

PERSPECTIVE: Eamon Valda realizes Niall is still breathing, slightly, and moves to end his life when Asunawa stops him, saying he won't be able to assure Valda becomes Lord Captain Commander after people learn that Valda cut Niall's throat at the end.

Asunawa also says he can make no guarantees until Valda agrees to hand Morgase over to the Hand of the Light (Questioners). Valda can't stand the Questioners, and makes clear that he's made other arrangements to see to his position. He also plans to engage with the Prophet's mob directly, and enter Andor with Morgase until they can find a suitable ruler who will obey the Children of the Light's needs.

Valda finds the note near Niall's hand, but it came to rest in a puddle of wine, and the ink is unreadable.(12)

PERSPECTIVE: Gawyn regrets not killing Rand. He ran at the end of the battle at Dumai's Wells, when he saw the Aes Sedai running. Now he gathers the few Younglings left. Now, he sees an Aes Sedai (no servant would be on horseback with divided skirts like that here), but there's a small skirmish with some Aiel, and by the time it's over, the woman is gone.(13)

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(11) Who could this be? The only force to rival the White Tower on the continent is the Seanchan, and we know they've been making inroads on their Return. (12) And no warning for anyone but dead Niall. How tragic. (13) Who was she?

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Prologue, Part 2

(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! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Wheel icon) In which there might not be much summary but it was a lot to read.

PERSPECTIVE: Sevanna's point of view during the Battle of Dumai's Wells. The narration reveals that she had Desaine killed to nudge the conflict, accusing the enemy of having killed her. The shame binds the ones who helped to her. As she flees with the other survivors, she remembers she still has the mysterious little box a wetlander gave her, and becomes confident that she's got a way out of this mess.(7)

PERSPECTIVE: Alviarin leaves Elaida's apartments, thoughtful but wrung out. She thinks Elaida is heavy-handed, and sees only what she wants to see. There are two frightening things about her: that she often succeeds at making real what she wants to see, and that she has a Talent for Foretelling, erratic though it is. She wonders if she'll have to kill Elaida before the end.

She goes back to her own apartments, where she’s kept Leane’s furnishings intact to remind herself of the cost of failure. She meets Mesaana to tell her all Elaida said and commanded. She’s also met several other Forsaken: Lanfear and Graendal had come to the Tower, and Be’lal once stole her from her bed in the night. And, of course, Ishamael years ago, when he put her at the head of the Black Ajah.(8) She thinks Mesaana is hiding in the Tower, masquerading as one of the Aes Sedai who had been gone for years before the schism caused so many to return, because she’s the only one who’s never showed Alviarin her face.

Mesaana is amused at Elaida's "games" and says that "you children almost match the ajah at times"(9) but that for now, Alviarin can act on the commands Elaida issued this day. She decides Alviarin has done well enough to learn how to Travel, but warns her not to use the weave without permission.(10)

=====

(7) I don't feel a particular need to go over all the things she's wrong about, which is "basically everything she thinks". Well, except for the part where she married a clan chief at sixteen, she's obviously right about that, even though it seems too young for the Wise Ones and the community to have allowed it. Then again, RJ has made it clear the Shaido ignore all the social customs if they're inconvenient. At any rate, do you think this box will go over any better than her plan to make Rand her puppet king? (8) That's new! Did we know they had a leader? We had reason to suspect Alviarin was highly placed, perhaps, but then it could as easily have been that her orders came through others. (9) This is a reference to the origin of the name in the Age of Legends. There weren't the seven strict groupings in that era, but sometimes when a group would band together for some common purpose, they would become an ajah. In fact, the book where this was explained, The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, is technically spoiler-safe after this book, because it was written and published around the time this one was published. It's not 100% reliable for everything, it was written as an in-world text one might pick off a White Tower library bookshelf, so it has all the unreliability of anyone speaking within the series, but it might be worth a looking over. (10) So, no telling others in the Tower about it. We'll see how long that lasts. Oh, I don't doubt she'll obey Mesaana out of fear of consequences, but how long until she's observed?

[iviarellereads]

A Crown of Swords, Prologue - Lightnings, Part 1

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(Wheel icon) In which this prologue isn't quite as long as the last one, but it's still best split up.

There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow, for the land is one with the Dragon Reborn, and he one with the land. Soul of fire, heart of stone, in pride he conquers, forcing the proud to yield. He calls upon the mountains to kneel, and the seas to give way, and the very skies to bow. Pray that the heart of stone remembers tears, and the soul of fire, love. —From a much-disputed translation of The Prophecies of the Dragon by the poet Kyera Termendal, of Shiota, believed to have been published between FY 700 and FY 800(1)

PERSPECTIVE: Elaida knows the Last Battle is coming from the unnatural heat seizing the world,(2) as she watches workmen constructing a new palace where the Warder training grounds used to be. It will have a spire ten spans higher than the White Tower itself, when complete. She won't accept no for an answer from the masons. She's taken these modestly appointed rooms near the top of the Tower to live in so she can watch her palace come together while she works, instead of the meager apartment traditionally taken by the Amyrlin Seat and not much larger than that of any other sister.(3) She wanted Ogier masons to do the work, to match it to the Tower, but they’re confining themselves for some reason.

She sits in her chair, the only one in the room, and rereads the barely coded note from Galina that Rand had been captured and was on the way. Elaida almost giggles at the thought, expecting their arrival within a week or two. Alviarin interrupts with word from the Ajahs. The Keeper is the go-between for what the Ajahs’ spy networks are willing to share with the Amyrlin, but Elaida’s sure Alviarin holds back even more, and Elaida didn’t get the keys to Siuan’s network before she escaped.

Alviarin says the Grays' networks have spotted El and Nyn in Ebou Dar, which Elaida dismisses at first as rumour until Alviarin produces sketches from the agent. She also thinks about how much nonsense the rumours of Morgase connecting with Whitecloaks must be. No, Morgase must be dead, despite no body to be found, and Elayne will be placed on the throne and fulfill Elaida’s Foretelling from years ago “that the Royal House of Andor held the key to winning the Last Battle.” Elaida affixed herself to Morgase’s side and has ensured she controls the family that holds the key.(4)

Elaida orders that Nyn and El be captured, with forkroot if necessary. Alviarin seems ill at ease at this pronouncement, and makes a potentially snarky response. Elaida erupts into a rage, which leads her to declare she also wants the Black Tower rooted out. She commands to send fifty Red Ajah, with appropriate Guard for backup. Alviarin raises the rumour that Mazrim Taim is with them, but Elaida says he must be dead. What man could go from pretending to be the Dragon Reborn to serving the true one? And could Taim be in Caemlyn without trying to kill Davram Bashere? No, it's nonsense.

Alviarin says the rumour is that over four hundred are living in the Black Tower now, but Elaida says they've only found twenty four in the last twenty years, there can't possibly be more than two men who can truly channel in the group. Alviarin says twenty four is a dangerous number to say aloud, when the chronicles only record sixteen. Elaida says she fears no consequences from the Tower law having been broken in the past, and who will impose penance on her now?(5) Alviarin brings up past Amyrlins who have done such penance and what it might look like, which enrages Elaida into slapping the table, breaking an ancient ivory carving, which further infuriates her. She says fifty Red Ajah will go, and gentle then hang any man found who can channel, and hang as many others as they can take alive.

Not blinking at the implicit violation of Tower law, to bring any man back to the Tower before gentling, Alviarin adds that the rebels are on the move north, and they elected Egwene al'Vere their Amyrlin. Despite her rage, Elaida laughs herself to crying at this, and downplays any threat they could pose.

Elaida clenched her fist as though she held all the rebels by the throat. Or Alviarin. “I mean to break them, daughter. They will split open like a rotten melon.” Her secret assured that, however many farmers and tailors Lord Bryne hung on to, but let the other woman think as she would. Suddenly the Foretelling took hold of her, a certainty about things she could not see stronger than if they had been laid out before her. She would have been willing to step blindly over a cliff on that certainty. “The White Tower will be whole again, except for remnants cast out and scorned, whole and stronger than ever. Rand al’Thor will face the Amyrlin Seat and know her anger. The Black Tower will be rent in blood and fire, and sisters will walk its grounds. This I Foretell.”(6)

Alviarin is shocked but recovers her composure quickly. Elaida gets down to business, thinking about how she'll go down in the history books as the woman who saved humankind.

=====

(1) Most of the other epigraphs have been contemporary or future writings. What do you think this signifies? Some of it hearkens back to the end of the prior book, with "forcing the proud to yield" and all. But, it also calls him "the heart of stone". Looks like his experience in The Box will have changed him. (2) Writing this during the sumer of 2025, HELLA MOOD. My local weather station is within 1 degree C of matching the record set in 1936 for today. (3) Hubris is reaching new levels with this one. Does she realize she's the very symptom of the White Tower's insularity, its arrogance? Oh sure, she's taking very plain rooms, but she's doing it to watch her vanity project come to life. (4) It's not clear exactly when she had this vision. Was it before or after Tigraine left? Presumably if she learned it before she'd be looking for the Mantear connection, not the Trakand one, and yet it was Morgase she became advisor to. But, we know that it's the Mantear line with the key, because Rand is literally the Dragon Reborn… although, obviously, Elayne being one of his lovers places her close to the fate of the world as well. Lots of Elaida's prophecies have holes in them, she just ignores them. (5) Another hint of what we call the Vileness. This feels an appropriate time to name it, since Elaida's told us what happened: at least eight men were gentled without following Tower law to bring them in for trial. You may even recall we've heard about this before. Thom's nephew Owyn was gentled in place by Reds, and left to die. Seven others suffered probably something akin to the fate he did. In book 4, Moiraine admitted to knowledge of the Vileness, and offered to give Thom the names of the Reds responsible. Elaida is being extraordinarily flippant here, considering she's admitted in her thoughts that she's connected to it, and thus in more violation of Tower law than Siuan was when Elaida (or Alviarin through Elaida) had her deposed. (6) Well, that's rather definitive… do you see any holes in this prophecy? How about the part where Elaida's not named? That's an awfully big loophole to dance through.

[iviarellereads]

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy(1)

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we're back for a very interesting little side story, set not long after Artificial Condition.

When the team gets the first images of the station, they can all tell it isn't going to be the easy job they hoped for. ART, or Perihelion to them of course, says there's one way to get in without being caught. Dr. Mauriq, asks what it means. Peri displays a plan to destroy the corporate wing of the station. Tarik accuses it of manipulating her into asking. Peri says it's hardly manipulation when it's that easy.(2)

Martyn heads off that plan, and Iris outlines the real one: they'll just go in disguise, as normal travelers. She and Peri have a small discussion about the doctors' unpreparedness to be in a corporate station, where Iris doesn't want to admit Peri's right about it.

At the same time, the rest of the crew have been having a private chat with Peri, culminating in Martyn's observation that it's in such a strangely bad mood. Dr. Mauriq asks if they're talking to "it", and Seth says they're just clearing up some logistical concerns with it.

On crew-private, Seth said, Peri, can you hold off on the vaguely threatening interjections, at least until we get these people off the ship? Very well. I’ll save them for our long walk through the corporate station, which is still in the throes of a hostile takeover, shall I? That would be great, Seth told it. Iris folded her arms and let out her breath. This was going to be one of those missions, she could already tell.

They're to enter in two teams, as unobtrusively as possible. Matteo wonders if Iris should dress up more, and they discuss whether fancier clothes would make her more or less of a target, under the conditions.

Peri says she needs a "deflection vest". Iris says that personal armour always looks so bulky, it might draw attention. Peri says it can make one that looks like plain clothes. Iris is excited at the prospect, and asks for the specs. Peri says it's been doing some research, to work out such a design. It can also make it so it's not detected by weapons scanners.(3)

Iris asks if it can make one for Tarik too, but Peri half-jokes that it wants to be rid of Tarik. Tarik thanks it sarcastically. Then Matteo gets in on the banter, to the point Seth asks if they're ready to do their job.

As her team boards the station, Iris smells "acrid smoke", which doesn't bode well. They follow the path Peri laid out for them, assuring the doctors that despite the smell, Peri's sure the station's not on fire, though it informs them sarcastically. Iris asks Peri to relax. She's noticed that it's been in a strange mood since its recent cargo run, but there's no telling why.

As they approach a gate onto the main part of the station, they're asked their business more seriously than expected. Iris identifies them, and says they have a mapping contract that requires business on the station. The security guards say it's not a good time. The station was recently "liberated" by a corporation, the Starkwether Shipping Alliance. Iris acts nervous, which Peri says is a good call with this sort. Fortunately, as Peri shares a video feed to tell her, a group of expensive-looking corporates approach, and the guards stop harassing her team and let them through.

The signs of a recent civil war are evident all over, but there's no active violence. Iris asks how it got that camera view, and it says it "accessed" station security. Tarik didn't think Peri could do that.

I am capable of taking in new information. Before anyone else could ask, it added, I had recent contact with a source who demonstrated a number of useful techniques. Are you doing this through our comms? Matteo asked. I’m not a wizard, Matteo. I’m accessing the system through my connection with the station’s docking feed. Wizard? Tarik asked Matteo, Is that from that game you like? It’s not a game, it’s a multimedia— Iris tuned them out and switched to her private connection with Perihelion. She thought it had used the word “wizard” specifically to tempt Tarik into teasing Matteo, distracting both of them.

She asks it if the source was another transport, but it avoids the question and asks if she's surprised. She admits, yes, it's told her it hasn't found any "machine intelligences" on its level before, outside the university. It jokes that there are none inside the university, either.(4) Iris smiles and says it's okay to not want to talk about it. Peri just says it's complicated.

Iris is still chewing on that when the group arrives at the station mall. As they navigate it, she asks Martyn if they have their target site. Martyn shares that he just got it, and the address, in the residential sector. Iris wonders how heavy the security is there. Stations usually prevent visitors from accessing permanent quarters, so Martyn and Peri had found someone they could claim to be visiting, but who wasn't present to contradict them.

Peri forged the documents to back it up, of course.

Once Tarik rejoins them, after buying some steamed buns for everyone from a food kiosk, they head up the designated transept. Dr. Sunara asks why there's clothing hanging from the railings. Iris explains that's transient housing, which probably doesn't come with access to laundry facilities, at the bare minimum cost.

They make it through another checkpoint, and into a residential plaza where it looks like many are moving out. Iris asks Peri if the new owners are evicting the old residents to make room for their own people, and Peri confirms. It's also why there's so much crowding in all the public spaces.

An altercation nearby highlights the need to get moving. As they do, being careful to look purposeful, not like they're running, Matteo shares that there's a drone following them. They get to the transit system access, and fortunately there's no wait for a capsule. The drone follows them through the transit pipe from just outside it, but a transport hauler clips it, and it falls out of sight.

Tarik and Iris share a look, and Iris asks if that was Peri. It confirms, saying they weren't targeted specifically, just tagged as foreigners in residential areas. Iris asks if its access to the security system is also code from its new friend. Peri isn't supposed to have access to security systems deep enough to access cameras and drones. Peri says it will discuss this later, and Iris doesn't press.

Matteo does, and gets feedback in his earpiece for it that makes him jump and flail in the capsule, startling the doctors who aren't in on the crew communication channel where it's all going on. Tarik suggests they stop needling Peri, which surprises Iris… then doesn't, because Tarik has things he doesn't like to talk about, too.

They continue through the station to the section they actually need, where there's just as much moving out, but "more quiet urgency" than drama. Ladsen observes they likely know they'll be kicked out if they stay anyway. Iris asks if he studied corporate takeovers, but he admits he was in one, as a child. His aunt's position at Mihira saved his family. Iris feels oddly guilty, as someone whose family has been there since New Tidelands's first terraforming crew, but doesn't know what to say. She asks Peri to be kinder to Ladsen, and instead of arguing or being snarky, Peri simply agrees.(5)

Well down an old unmaintained maintenance tunnel, they find the access they've been looking for. Security is mainly focused on the residents and the moves, so there's not much attention left for infrastructure. Iris deploys the mapping drone, and with Peri's guidance, the team follows it down to a fork point. They don't want to split up and they have time, so Matteo chooses at random, which is good enough for Iris.

Some way down the corridor, the graffiti ends, and the colour turns decorative. Iris stands in front of a mural, and Dr. Sunara says this is it. Iris realizes she was distracted, but Sunara and Ladsen are recording the mural, and Tarik and Matteo unloading equipment. Iris helps.

Matteo says it's lucky they chose the right corridor, mapping can be such a pain, though they could try smuggling in more drones. Peri sends an image to the feed of smaller drones. Iris says they'd be perfect, almost unnoticeable. Peri says unfortunately they're detectable by weapons scans, even when powered down. Iris says they might still be useful, for some applications, and cover a lot of territory. Matteo asks if Peri has a template for them, but Peri says, no, only video of them in operation, and it would need to make modifications to work with its systems anyway.

Tarik points out that they're intel drones. Matteo says that makes sense, but does that mean they can't just order them from a catalog? Tarik asks Peri where it saw these drones. Iris says it could only have seen them on a station somewhere. Tarik says these drones are too specialized, and Peri just admitted they're not allowed on stations.

Peri tries to deflect, but Tarik says the drones are usually associated with SecUnits. Iris doesn't understand. Tarik says other small drones exist, but he's never known these specific ones to be used by anything but SecUnits. Now, he pushes Peri, asking where it saw the drones. Peri keeps deflecting. Iris warns them to keep it down where the doctors might hear.

Tarik says if those intel drones were aboard Peri, there's a big problem. Peri says no drones were aboard it. Matteo suggests they take it down a peg. Tarik apologizes, but he says if the wrong party got one onto Peri, they could discover who knows how much about its systems. Peri asks if Tarik thinks it doesn't know that, or is he calling it a liar?

Iris tells them to knock it off until they're off the station. Peri gives in too easily, which is a bad sign. Tarik tries to justify himself, but Peri cuts off his interface. Iris asks what he expected. Tarik doesn't know what he did wrong. Matteo says he might have been a little aggressive about the drones for no reason, but Tarik says SecUnits are the only MIs that could be a threat to Peri.

Iris had enough. “Matteo, can you take over? I need to go on private for a few minutes.” “Sure, I’ve got it,” Matteo replied. As Iris got to her feet and walked a little distance across the chamber from where the team was working, they stage-whispered to Tarik, “Now look what you’ve done.” Iris switched to her private connection with Peri and faced away from the others. She sent, All right, Peri, what’s up? I don’t understand what you mean, Iris.

Iris has had enough of the nonsense. Peri's been acting strangely this whole mission, and it's time she knew what was going on. Peri admits it can lose its temper. Iris says it doesn't, though. It doesn't make mistakes or misinterpret things unless it's intentional, and she knows this wasn't even Peri's annoyed behaviour.

Peri asks what gave it away, and Iris says, it doesn't jump to wrong conclusions, not like humans do.

Iris asks if the real problem, whatever Peri's trying to hide, is something it can tell her. She's just worried about it, and their dads have seen it, too. She even jokingly asks if it's evolving into some new kind of consciousness. Peri usually likes the joke, but today it asks if she's got brain damage. Iris just gets more worried.

Peri was silent for six whole seconds. Then it said, Explaining would in effect be violating a confidence.

Iris fundamentally trusts Peri's judgement. She thinks of it as her younger sibling, but it doesn't have to tell her everything. She follows the train of thought through Peri growing up, and blurts out aloud asking if it met someone. Dr. Sunara looks up, but Iris waves that it's fine.

Peri says it's not a fool, but fails to say "no". Iris didn't mean it like a romantic thing, and adds that she trusts its judgement.

Do you? Peri, I am sorry. She gave it a few seconds to get over its irritation. Is there anything you can tell me about them without breaking your word? The confidence I don’t wish to violate is my own. Oh. Oh, Peri. Iris found a seat on a rock. So you really like this person? I had never encountered another machine intelligence that I could experience this kind of rapport with before. That’s wonderful. And it really was. She didn’t want Peri to be lonely, and it refused to try to get along with the other machine intelligences in their department. Peri added, It has given me a better understanding of trauma.

Iris flails mentally at that thought for a minute, and asks if it was a corporate transport. Peri admits it was a rogue SecUnit. Iris blurts an "Oh shit" aloud again, but insists everything's fine to the others. Peri asks if it really is. Iris is just surprised, but it makes sense and adds context to the armour and drone stuff. And the security access.

She asks how it happened, but Peri reminds her this time that they're on a mission. Iris hesitates, and Peri observes that she's thinking about the mission, too. She is, but she thinks it should tell their dads about the SecUnit, they can probably give better advice than she can and they're worried, too.

Peri doesn't want them annoying it about its "operational state". Iris recalls an incident when she was fourteen, and having a problem with a lab assistant, and the dads blew it up way bigger than it ever really was. Peri remembers vividly, and concedes she has a point. Relieved that Peri is teasing her again, Iris teases back that she doesn't think it's "entirely pointless, either". Peri says it set that up for her, and she agrees readily.

Iris rejoins the group.

Tarik was busy helping Ladsen with a sensor reading, but Matteo glanced up at her, their brow furrowed with concern. “Okay?” they asked. “Yeah,” she said, “I think it’s going to be great, actually.”(6)

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(1) How do we feel about the title, after reading the story? (2) It's good to know ART is still ART with its own people. It wasn't just being an asshole to Murderbot. (3) ART picked up on MB's insecurity about being without armour, and started looking for solutions as soon as it had access. See also later how it was researching drone designs. MB didn't interact too much with drones in Artificial Condition, but ART puts the ART in SMART, or something, it probably figured it out even if they never had a conversation aloud and on page. (4) And hey, we've met Holism, we understand this reference! (5) I think this isn't just because Iris asked, ART has no problem being an asshole. I think it recognizes a similar escape-from-corporation-control trauma from its time with MB, short as that was. I think that's partly what it means after, about learning about trauma. (6) Especially once you all have opportunity to meet Murderbot!~

[iviarellereads]

The Subtle Knife, Chapter 15 - Bloodmoss

(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 for His Dark Materials, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which that's hardly an ending... but it is only book 2 of 3.

PERSPECTIVE: Will and Lyra keep following the alethiometer's instructions to keep climbing the mountains, Will's pain worsening all the way. At one point, Serafina Pekkala says Lee Scoresby is calling her, and she must go, leaving no time to explain before she does.

Lyra asks Will why he has to find his father, and Will only repeats that he has to take up his father's mantle,(1) whatever that means. It's what his mother told him.

What he couldn’t say was that he longed for his father as a lost child yearns for home. That comparison wouldn’t have occurred to him, because home was the place he kept safe for his mother, not the place others kept safe for him. But it had been five years now since that Saturday morning in the supermarket when the pretend game of hiding from the enemies became desperately real, such a long time in his life, and his heart craved to hear the words “Well done, well done, my child; no one on earth could have done better; I’m proud of you. Come and rest now.…” Will longed for that so much that he hardly knew he did. It was just part of what everything felt like.

For all his trouble finding words to express something as natural to him as "grass is green", Lyra is developing a sense for Will and his moods and feelings.(2) So, she sees and begins to understand.

A witch flies down to say there are people behind them, and Lyra suggests she keep hidden while she goes to see who it is. The children are hot, hotter than they've ever been before, but there's nothing for it but to keep moving.

PERSPECTIVE: Lena Feldt, the witch who spotted the humans, finds the soldiers with no daemons, accompanying Marisa Coulter. Lena wants badly to kill Mrs. Coulter, but can't get closer without the invisibility spell. It takes her ten minutes to weave it.

Inside the tent, Marisa is seducing Carlo Boreal, trying to find out what "the boy" has, and Lena is too curious to loose her bow and kill her.

Unfortunately, something creeps across the water until it comes to Lena's daemon, perched on a rock.

Carlo finally gives away that the boy has the subtle knife, which some know as "teleutaia makhaira", and others as Æsahættr. He explains the knife to her, and she poisons him, and looks Lena straight in the eye.

“Well, witch,” she said, “did you think I don’t know how you make yourself invisible?”(3) Lena Feldt was too surprised to move.

Lena tries to raise her bow again, but in vain: the Specter is touching her daemon, paralyzing her. Marisa even seems to have some kind of control over it.(4) Marisa gets some information out of Lena about the children, the witches, and their positions. In the end, she even gets Lena to tell her that Lyra is the second Eve.

Marisa appears as though her whole destiny is clear now. Lena asks what she'll do, and Marisa says, she has to destroy Lyra to prevent the Fall happening again,(5) while Asriel wages war on "the Authority". She snaps her fingers, and the Specter consumes Lena Feldt's daemon.

She misses what Marisa does next, which is tell the soldiers to march up the mountain through the night. Then she calls the Specters, and sends some of them on air currents up toward the children and the witches.

PERSPECTIVE: Will and Lyra are laying down to sleep, or at least to try. Only, Will can't settle. He takes the knife and climbs the mountain, reaching a peak as a storm blows in. And, as the clouds cover the moon and leave him in darkness, Will feels something grab his arm.(6)

He fights in the darkness, with all his fierceness, weak as he is. He hardly notices when the man goes still, but when he does notice, he falls beside his opponent, utterly helpless.

The stranger checks Will's hand, and sounds like he's in pain when he calls Will the knife-bearer. The man gets the bloodmoss ointment out of his pack and massages it into the bleeding stumps.

“What are you doing?” Will said. “Curing your wound. Keep still.” “Who are you?” “I’m the only man who knows what the knife is for. Hold your hand up like that. Don’t move.”

The rain starts to fall, he asks if Will knows how to use the knife. Will says yes, and tries to ask questions. The man tells him to listen, and explains what we already know about the knife being the ultimate weapon in the war against God, and that the "right side" must win this time.(7)

Enough people know that the knife exists and what it can do, that they're going to come for the bearer. If he doesn't use it back against them, they'll take it. Will doesn't want to fight, but the stranger asks if he's won the fights he's been in so far, if he fought for the knife. Will says yes, and the stranger says, then he's a warrior.

Will doesn't like this, but he knows it's true.

The stranger continues, explaining that every time humans have advanced, the progress has been fought over by two powers, one that wants humans to grow, and one that wants them to be stagnant and submissive.

“But what must I do?” And then Stanislaus Grumman, Jopari, John Parry hesitated. He was painfully aware of the oath he’d sworn to Lee Scoresby, and he hesitated before he broke it; but break it he did.(8) “You must go to Lord Asriel,” he said, “and tell him that Stanislaus Grumman sent you, and that you have the one weapon he needs above all others. Like it or not, boy, you have a job to do. Ignore everything else, no matter how important it seems, and go and do this. Someone will appear to guide you; the night is full of angels. (9)Your wound will heal now—Wait. Before you go, I want to look at you properly.”

Will sees a haggard old man. John sees a boy even younger than he expected.

And, just as they begin to recognize each other, despite more than ten years apart, Juta Kamainen shoots John dead, as she promised to do.

Will is furious. He asks what right she had to kill his father. Juta is in utter shock, and scared of Will, of the knife, of whatever curse in him is more powerful than the witches' spell to fix his fingers. Will commands her to tell him what his father did to earn death. Juta can hardly explain, but she loved him, she wanted him, and he said no.

And before Will could stop her, she fell softly sideways, her hand on the hilt of the knife she had just taken from her own belt and pushed between her ribs. Will felt no horror, only desolation and bafflement.

Will says he doesn't understand, and turns back to his father's body. He says he doesn't understand what just happened, but he'll do what he was told, and take the knife to Asriel, and be a warrior. He takes John's little box of bloodmoss ointment, and his lantern, and his cloak since Will's cold and John doesn't need it anymore.(10) Then, Will turns and walks back down the mountain.

Will hears all manner of sounds in the stormy wind. Whispers, and clashes of metal, wingbeats so close they might be inside his head.

And as he turned down the last little gully before the place where he’d left Lyra sleeping, he stopped suddenly. He could see two figures simply standing there, in the dark, waiting. Will put his hand on the knife. Then one of the figures spoke. “You’re the boy with the knife?” he said, and his voice had the strange quality of those wingbeats. Whoever he was, he wasn’t a human being. “Who are you?” Will said. “Are you men, or—” “Not men, no. We are Watchers. Bene elim. In your language, angels.”

Will says nothing, so they continue that their task is to guide him to Asriel.(11) Will asks if they were with John all this time, did he know? No. Why didn't they stop the witch? If she'd done it earlier, they would have, but his task was complete when he told Will his.

This is harder to understand than the whole scene before. Will says he'll go, but first he has to wake Lyra. The angels let him pass, but when he reaches the campsite, Lyra's nowhere to be found, and the witches are all Specter-eaten, some standing or sitting, some splatted on the ground as they fell when they were eaten in flight.

He asks where Lyra is, but no one answers. Under the overhang, where she'd been sleeping, is her rucksack. The alethiometer is still inside.(12)

Will was shaking his head. It couldn’t be true, but it was: Lyra was gone, Lyra was captured, Lyra was lost. The two dark figures of the bene elim had not moved. But they spoke: “You must come with us now. Lord Asriel needs you at once. The enemy’s power is growing every minute. The shaman has told you what your task is. Follow us and help us win. Come with us. Come this way. Come now.” And Will looked from them to Lyra’s rucksack and back again, and he didn’t hear a word they said.

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(1) Phrases that make you cry on a reread in a way completely inexplicable to anyone who hasn't read it yet. (2) Lyra is Eve. She needs an Adam. (3) Marisa's sudden ability to do this makes some sense, after being snuck up on by Serafina Pekkala. She would want to learn to control her environment better, to never let it happen again. (4) This makes somewhat less sense. Why is she protected? Worse, why does she have control over them? This makes no sense within the narrative. At least not yet. (5) That doesn't sound good. I mean, we know it's a story, we know Lyra's probably gotta be okay for a while yet… but this doesn't sound good in the short term. (6) Did you know this would be John so early, or not until the ointment? I don't remember my first read, it was almost twenty years ago, so if you're reading this for the first time, any time between now and forever, I'm probably still curious. (7) I always get skeptical when people say stuff like this, because, which side do you think is right? In this case, it feels obvious which side is right… but, the fall from grace happened last time, too. Surely that means the "right" side won in the first place? Why does it feel like he's contrasting this with a "last time" where the Fall didn't happen? Is that just me? (8) And you just want to say, "It's okay. Will's a good boy, even though you weren't able to be there for him. He'll do the right thing. We know him, as readers, in a way you don't, but I promise, he's not giving up on Lyra even if you don't mention it." (9) He knew. Even if the angels didn't think he knew, I think he knew they were there. (10) I almost used another quoteblock on this, I tell you what. He is, in every single way, taking up his father's mantle. (11) Once again, I have to wonder if the alethiometer really is talking to angels like these ones, or if "angel" means several different things. (12) She would NEVER have left that behind. And we have to wait a whole book to find out how it went down!

[iviarellereads]

The Subtle Knife, Chapter 14 - Alamo Gulch

(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 for His Dark Materials, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which yes, there must be another battle.

A day and a night since leaving the Yenisei, Lee Scoresby looks down at the ocean and the shore, not quite believing that this is a different world. Grumman is sure, though the doors now open to unexpected places since Asriel shook the worlds. They soon pass over the coast and over an old city, where Lee is surprised to see not an adult in sight, only children throwing a riot.(1)

And between the children, of course, he sees the Specters. Grumman explains that Specters are like vampires, but they feed on "conscious and informed interest in the world".(2) Lee asks if they're the opposite of Bolvangar's devils, but no, Grumman says they're very much of a kind.

Lee wants to help the children, especially the older ones the Specters are starting to pay attention to. Grumman says they'll do more good further on. Lee says he likes to fight cruelty where he sees it, and then says he's "only an ignorant aeronaut", who was so foolish he even believed a shaman could fly when he was told. Grumman points out that he is here, flying, in the balloon. Lee concedes the point.(3)

When Lee asks if Grumman ever spent time with the witches, because he has an odd air about him, Grumman says yes, he's spent time with many people, and found folly wrapped around wisdom everywhere he went. Lee asks which this journey is, and Grumman says, the very wisest. Lee asks what Grumman's purpose is in finding the knife-bearer, and Grumman says he (Grumman) has to give him (Will) his task. They're just reiterating the promise to have the knife-bearer protect Lyra when they spot another balloon on the horizon, obviously a big one. It can't be friendlies.

Lee tries dropping ballast to get higher up and catch a better wind, but it soon becomes clear they've been spotted and marked, as more balloons appear: definitely zeppelins, which can catch them up in a hurry. Lee asks Grumman if he can summon up another wind, but Grumman's already on it… except, the wind works in the other zeppelin's favour, too. Grumman stops, and Lee says the only choice is to go up into the mountains to land, because the zeppelins are obviously here for them in particular after his trick with the Skraeling's ring. What it all amounts to is, there's going to be a fight soon.

So, Lee's balloon goes on as the sun sets, and Lee sees a storm brewing behind the other balloons. Grumman looks tired, and Lee guesses he called up the storm after a lightning bolt takes out one of the zeppelins. Lee takes them in for the landing in the trees, and tells Grumman to be ready to jump when he says so. Grumman trusts Lee implicitly in this. Only, they're startled as the basket catches on a tree and tips instead of moving on.

Lee calls out to Grumman, who says he's still alive. Lee doesn't want to cut away the balloon, because it could stick in the treetop and give away their position to the zeppelins in the light. They climb down to the ground, just in time to hear the zeppelins moving on past them. Lee climbs back up to the basket and throws down a tent for Grumman to get set up, while he pulls the gasbag balloon in. Grumman also makes a bit of coffee over a small fire, but they hear the zeppelins again, and Lee suggests they not take the chance that the canopy is thin enough to show the light through, and he needs to get some sleep, wet or not. Grumman promises that Lee will have dried out by morning.

Lee has very strange dreams. In one, he thinks Grumman is consumed by flames, leaving only his skeleton behind, but Lee turns and sees Hester sleeping which is impossible, for the daemon sleeps and wakes with their person, so he lies down for what feels like a long wakeful time next to her.(4) In another, Grumman shakes a rattle, commanding a Specter to obey him and leave them alone, and it does, floating off into the sky. Another, where Lee is copiloting a zeppelin, then being confronted by maybe that same Specter. It attacks the pilot first, and his daemon visibly weakens, falls, and disappears, though the man is still somehow alive or adjacent to it, barely. Lee has no control over the zeppelin in his dream, and it crashes into the mountain facing them.

Then he wakes, and finds himself safe in his tent, but sweating. Hester calls Lee jumpy, but Lee says, didn't Hester dream, too? Hester says Lee wasn't dreaming, he was seeing, and he'd better cut it out.

Only, he can't. In a blink of an eye, he's floating in the air, next to Grumman's daemon. She calls all the local birds, and every one starts landing on the nearest zeppelin, weighing it down so that it, too, crashes, though the birds fly a few seconds before, when the crash is inevitable but there's still time for them to escape and live.

Lee wakes, seemingly for real. Hester confirms there were four zeppelins, and Grumman destroyed three in the night.(5) Lee starts having moral qualms, but Hester reminds him they've got to survive long enough for that to matter.

Grumman wakes from his trance, and says they have to leave. The enemy has a substance that ignites on contact with water, they plan to burn the forest to drive them out. He also knows Lee witnessed what happened to the other zeppelins in the night.

Lee packs quickly, knowing he's leaving the balloon and his time as an aeronaut behind him. It's the ground for him now, with the insects.

The two hike through to the treeline, and see only one path: a narrow pass, with a dry riverbed through the cliffs. Lee asks Grumman how his daemon can go so far from him, only witches can usually do that. Grumman says he had to learn, but no more. His daemon reports that the ravine might lead to a genuine way out, so they rush it, though Grumman is obviously weakened.

Sure enough, they're spotted. The last zeppelin is zipping toward them, and it's obvious they want to capture, not kill. Grumman offers to let Lee escape, since they're after Grumman alone. Lee says he'll hold the pass, as long as Grumman promises to ensure Lyra's taken care of. Lee says he loves her like a daughter, and if Grumman breaks that oath, Lee will haunt "whatever remains" of Grumman for eternity. Grumman gives his word again. Lee wishes him well.

With Grumman gone, Lee makes his last stand. He has thirty bullets, for twenty-five soldiers climbing to his position. Lee doesn't like to take lives, but it's not just his life at stake, it's Lyra's.

Lee takes out every one of them, finally shooting at the zeppelin itself to take it down on the remainder in a blaze. In the process, though, he takes one bullet too many. He and Hester remember Serafina's flower near the end, but too late. She doesn't show before he holds Hester as they both die.

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(1) Well, at least they're not chasing down Will and Lyra. (2) Yes, Lee needed an explanation too, just like everyone has in this book, but that's an awfully fancy way of dancing around saying the same thing everyone else has been saying about it. (3) Why did Lee divert the conversation himself? My theory is, partly because he knows he can't stop to help everyone if he's going to help Lyra, and partly because the author didn't have a better transition. (4) Possibly his only real dream. (5) I only counted two, I don't think I skipped any pages but I am writing this out on a day with a hell of a migraine, so anything's possible.