#elricain tavolin

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 21: The Nine Rings

You can tell I'm getting into the weeds when it comes to chapter art. Frankly, the people who made this card were getting into the weeds when it comes to game mechanics because that card effect has nothing to do with Mr. Caldevwin. Is that a spoiler? The whole rest of this post is full of them when it comes to this series, so don't keep reading if that bothers ya.

This chapter starts up with the Harp icon as Rand performs this evening and reflects a little on Thom. I suppose it also reflects inns in general.

The innkeeper was a lean woman with a long nose and graying hair, but her wrinkles seemed part of her ready smile more than anything else.

A thin innkeeper? She must be evil! That's why she's giving a home to these soldiers.

“As you say, my Lord.” Mistress Madwen’s glance flickered to Rand’s sword; the bronze herons were plain on scabbard and hilt. She frowned slightly, but her face was clear again in a blink.

I was kinda joking because I don't remember much about this gal but she is very snoopy. I suppose part of it is just her job but her disapproval of Rand's weapon does make me wonder.

“We are not hunting the Horn, mistress.” Rand did not glance at the bundle in Loial’s arms; the blanket with its colorful stripes hung bunched over the Ogier’s thick arms and disguised the chest well. “We surely are not. We are on our way to the capital.”

A thousand miles away, Moiraine feels a sudden surge of pride and does not know why.

The innkeeper gave a surprised blink when Hurin sat at table with them—an Ogier, it seemed, was one thing, but Hurin was clearly a servant in her eyes.

All of this is pretty good set-up for how stratified the societies of the eastern subcontinent are. In Baerlon and the Borderlands there wasn't much concern for any divisions within the party except gender lines and Moiraine's being Aes Sedai, and it's hardly unreasonable to expect blurred lines in social divisions in a small group traveling like this, but it's clear that in Cairhien the wilderness is no excuse to start fraternizing.

Selene’s was still half full, but she motioned curtly for one of the girls to take it.

Lanfear's wondering what the odds are of her finding a stasis box with some proper Chinese food in it.

Rand hesitated only a moment. It had been too long since he had practiced the flute rather than the sword, and the coins in his pouch would not last forever.

Here's that important theme again. We're in book 2 and already Rand's worried he's losing his sensitive side to war. He doesn't even know.

Selene looked at Rand as if wondering what he was...

I wonder if LTT had ever picked up any instruments. Probably not.

Did she really let me go? I wonder if she’s following me. Or waiting for me. “Sit down, Captain. Please.” Caldevwin drew a chair from another table. “Tell me, Captain, if you don’t mind. Have you seen any other strangers recently? A lady, short and slender, and a fighting man with blue eyes. He’s tall, and sometimes he wears his sword on his back.”

Note here how Rand is already succumbing to the paranoia associated with his condition. Book 1 Rand wouldn't have had these thoughts and he wouldn't have felt compelled to ask questions like this immediately either.

“A wondrous place I have heard, Lord Rand—I may call you so?—and fine men, the Andormen. No Cairhienin has ever worn a blademaster’s sword so young as you. I met some Andormen, once, the Captain-General of the Queen’s Guards among them. I do not remember his name; an embarrassment. Perhaps you could favor me with it?”

You can tell that this guy is only a Captain because he's nowhere near subtle enough to play in the Cairhienien Major Leagues.

Just as Selene opened her mouth, one of the serving girls let out a cry and dropped a lamp she was taking down from a shelf.

Lanfear's really restraining herself here to not make the Captain himself have to run away screaming.

The Cairhienin’s eyes sharpened. “It is part of the statue, my Lord Rand,” he said slowly. His gaze flickered toward Loial; for an instant he seemed to be considering something new.

"Are the Ogier allying with Andor to steal our old statues?!" Sure it sounds silly but like, what else can they be thinking? They probably don't know that the statue's a sa'angreal (it's way outside of the usual) but why couldn't it be a war asset from ancient days? Why would the Andorians even know about it to send a spy? Rand's causing trouble again and he barely even knows it.

“I have five hundred laborers in camp beyond the diggings, and even so it will be past summer’s end before we have it clear. They are men from the Foregate. Half my work is to keep them digging, and the other half to keep them out of this village. Foregaters have a fondness for drinking and carousing, you understand, and these people lead quiet lives.” His tone said his sympathies were all with the villagers.

Well based on the size of the village, five hundred carousers hitting them up every night would probably get the place burned down in a week or two. Keeping civil order is an incredibly difficult task!

For twenty-three years Barin Madwen and I were arguing when we weren’t kissing, so to speak. That’s by way of saying I have some experience. Right now, you’re thinking your Lady never wants to see you again, but it’s my way of thinking that if you tap on her door tonight, she’ll be taking you in.

Again, the "skinny innkeepers are obvious Darkfriends" things is a joke but... it could work for Mistress Mad wen, couldn't it? Moves from Lugard to Cairhien to escape bad deeds there, runs the inn to keep her eyes open in case anything happens, Choedan Kal discovered so she becomes important, Ishamael takes her to the party so she's up to date, and here she is with advice that could be entirely innocent or could be straight from Lanfear - and why attack Rand like all the DFs from last book did when he's already in a Forsaken's clutches?

It's probably not remotely intended in the text but hey.

“Daes Dae’mar, Lord Rand,” Hurin said.

In the Game of Houses, you win or you die.

Okay maybe I'm getting my fantasy epics confused but I do enjoy how Jordan managed to communicate all of GRRM's themes even though they're not central to his own thesis.

“He has the right of Daes Dae’mar, Lord Rand. Cairhienin play it more than most, though all southerners do.”

And this is a bit of cultural blindness, really. We saw that Malkier's end came from someone playing Daes Dae'mar and while everyone has to fall in behind their leaders for obvious reasons there's going to be some jockeying. The Borderlands are just so far away from the rest of the world that they don't have to play the game at all, especially since Tar Valon actually comes through for them consistently - but then, that's the Game too, in its own way.

But in the morning, Selene was gone. When Rand went down to the common room, Mistress Madwen handed him a sealed parchment. “If you’ll forgive me, my Lord, you should have listened to me. You should have tapped on your Lady’s door.”

I'd say this still fits the Darkfriend theory.

Loial almost missed a step. “I never like to be far from my books, Captain.” His wide mouth flashed teeth in a self-conscious grin, and he hurried to strap the chest onto his saddle.

Okay Loial, I guess I was a little mean calling you naive before.

“He had the inn watched, Lord Rand,” Hurin whispered. “The Lady Selene must have gotten past them unseen somehow.”

Caldevwin has every reason to wonder if Lord Rand murdered his wife and is having the Ogier carry her corpse around in a box at this point. Good thing we'll never see or hear from him again, unlike Mistress Madwen who apparently gets mentioned again in Winter's Heart for some reason? Bizarre.

“Nothing is happening the way I expect,” Rand said.

And it never fucking will.

Next time: Stuff doesn't happen as Moiraine expects either! (Unlike Rand though, she'll sharpen up on her understanding of the future)

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 25 - Cairhien

(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.)

(Cairhien flag icon)(1) In which the dead walk the world once more.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand is in Cairhien, which is at least as big as Caemlyn. Outside the city walls is a warren of streets known as Foregate, essentially the poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts, with lots of peddler's tables and people hawking wares as they walk around. Most of the buildings are wood, poorly made, but looking relatively new.

Tavolin, the leader of the guards traveling with Rand and co, sneers at the peasants and says they're "corrupted by outland ways" and shouldn't be here. When Rand asks where else they should be, Hurin explains that many left their farms near the Spine of the World when the Aiel invaded, and refused to go back. Cairhien now has to import most of its food, and Cairhienin are sensitive about the subject.(2)

There are a lot of gleemen, musicians, tumblers, etc. and Rand asks if it's a festival. No, Loial says, Galldrian keeps his people quiet by entertaining them, paying huge sums to anyone who will perform in the Foregate. There are even fireworks most nights, and the Illuminators' Guild has set up a chapter in town, the only one outside of their home base in Tanchico.(3)

As Tavolin negotiates entry into the city proper, Rand gets a peek past the gate at a place much more subdued. There are huge scaffolds signaling the rebuilding efforts of a couple of towers, formerly known as the Topless Towers.

Tavolin returns and Rand is given a note from a city guard saying he must return to this guardhouse by this time tomorrow and tell them what inn he's staying in. Rand asks if they can tell him the name of an inn in the Foregate, but Hurin hisses at him that it wouldn't be proper, being a Lord and all. Rand sighs internally, says he'll take rooms inside the city and tell them where he's staying, then asks if they can inquire as to the location of a Lady Selene, of unknown house. They agree hesitantly.(4)

Hurin leads them to the Defender of the Dragonwall in, whose sign bears a crowned man with a foot on a prone red-haired man's chest. Rand notes along the way that nearly everyone is giving him funny looks, and assumes it's just assumptions about a new Lord to play the Game of Houses. Then he shakes it off. Not everyone can be playing this Game of theirs, surely? And if they are, he's no part of it.

The common room is neat, and laid out as tidily as the city, all straight lines and 90-degree angles. Everyone turns to look as they enter, then conspicuously turns back to their former activities, though Rand's still sure they're listening and watching.

The innkeeper was a plump, unctuous man with a single stripe of green across his dark gray coat. He gave a start at his first sight of them, and Rand was not surprised. Loial, with the chest in his arms under its striped blanket, had to duck his head to make it in through the door, Hurin was burdened with all their saddlebags and bundles, and his own red coat was a sharp contrast to the somber colors the people at the tables wore. The innkeeper took in Rand’s coat and his sword, and his oily smile came back. He bowed, washing his smooth hands. “Forgive me, my Lord. It was just that for a moment I took you for—Forgive me. My brain is not what it was. You wish rooms, my Lord?” He added another, lesser bow for Loial. “I am called Cuale, my Lord.” He thought I was Aiel,(5) Rand thought sourly. He wanted to be gone from Cairhien. But it was the one place Ingtar might find them. And Selene had said she would wait for him in Cairhien.

Rand can't get away with sharing a room with "his men" here, he has to take an ostentatious room with an enormous bed, with a second room for Hurin and Loial connected by an inside door.(6) Rand wants to go back to the Foregate for an hour, at least, back to where people laugh. He asks who will take the first watch on the Horn? Loial volunteers, saying he doesn't want to run into any other Ogier who might be in the city, he'll just stay here and read. Hurin says he'd like to have a drink in the common room of this inn, with Rand's permission. Rand says Hurin doesn't need his permission for anything, but Hurin dismisses this without comment.(7)

As Rand is leaving and Hurin getting a drink, the innkeeper hands Rand three sealed parchments on a tray. Rand asks what they are, and Cuale says they're all invitations, from noble houses. Who would send him invitations? Who would know he was here? Hurin suggests that everyone will know by now, there's no way the guards kept their mouths shut about an outland lord coming to town, and hostlers, innkeepers, they all tell whoever they think will pay them the most for the information.

Rand takes the parchments and hurls them into the fire, then says loudly enough for all the common room to hear that he is NOT playing Daes Dae'mar, he has nothing to do with this game, he's just here to wait for friends.

Hurin catches his arm and BEGS him not to do that again. Rand boggles at the idea that he'll receive more.

“I’m certain. Light, but you mind me of the time Teva got so mad at a hornet buzzing round his ears, he kicked the nest. You’ve likely just convinced everyone in the room you are in some deep part of the Game. It must be deep, as they’ll see it, if you deny playing at all. Every lord and lady in Cairhien plays it.” The sniffer glanced at the invitations, curling blackly in the fire, and winced. “And you have surely made enemies of three Houses. Not great Houses, or they’d not have moved so quickly, but still noble. You must answer any more invitations you receive, my Lord. Decline if you will—though they’ll read things into whose invitations you do decline. And into whose you accept. Of course, if you decline them all, or accept them all—”

Rand reiterates that he'll have no part of it.(8) They're leaving Cairhien as soon as they can. He stalks out and back out through the same gate he entered the inner city from, noting that the guards can tell who he is by his height, his hair, and the red coat he's wearing, while everyone else in Cairhien is quite short and dressed somberly. He doesn't care. He fits in just fine in the Foregate.(9)

Peeking into one of the performance rooms he made note of earlier, he sees a gleeman performing some part of the Great Hunt of the Horn in high chant, and it reminds him sadly of Thom. At another he sees a woman dressed in white seeming to make things vanish from one basket and appear in another. The barker asks two coppers to see an Aes Sedai perform.(10) Rand declines and moves on.

Shortly, though, a performance really catches his attention. A deep and familiar voice, accompanied by a harp, draws Rand in like a rope. He pays the two copper price here, and finds Thom Merrilin performing inside, for true.(11) His height lets Thom catch his eye and he nods almost imperceptibly toward a door beside the stage.

Rand enters the door discreetly, and Thom comes in from the dais, his right leg not quite bending like it used to. He says Rand looks like he's doing VERY well indeed. Rand can't help but laugh. He was so sure Thom was dead, despite Moiraine saying he couldn't be!(12) He should have gone back to help...

Thom stops him right there. No, the Fade had no interest in Thom, it let him get away with just a leg injury. Moiraine's still alive, huh? Is she here? Thom looks disappointed when Rand shakes his head.(13) Oh well, at least Thom knows now that it was Mat or Perrin the Fade was after, he doesn't need to know which. Does Rand still have his flute and harp? He wants them back, and he's very serious when he says it.

Rand confirms he still has the instruments, he'll give them back as soon as he can fetch them. He has so much to tell Thom... Later. He has to go perform some more here, or the crowd might tear the hall down. He gives the name of the inn where he's staying, he'll be back there in an hour or so. One more tale will have to do for this lot. And bring the harp and flute!

=====

(1) Well that makes things nice and straightforward. (2) So they've been living here instead of farming for twenty years, and nobody's gone home? Oof. That's gotta be some mega PTSD. (3) And in addition to mega PTSD, let's throw in some mega expensive bills. At least they're being taken care of and entertained, I guess? But oof, the treasury must be nearly empty by now. (4) Rand has no way to know the guards would absolutely know every noble house and name within them, and don't recognize her. (5) So did everyone on the street, Rand. They'd all recognize an Aielman up close, even in a lord's clothes. (6) You'd think they'd understand that an Ogier was a friend and traveling companion even if they thought Hurin was just a manservant. (7) Loial doesn't want to meet other Ogier because he's out illicitly and word's probably got around by now. Hurin is never going to accept that Rand isn't a lord after all that's happened. (8) Rand is getting his second big taste of culture shock with Daes Dae'mar, doubly so because they're so intense about him looking like an Aiel, and dressed in such finery and not in the local fashion, either, that there's no way he's not a Lord of some sort, and if he says he's NOT playing the Game then surely he's just playing a double, triple, or quadruple bluff level and he's REALLY deep in it. (9) I can't blame him for wanting to be where the people who are more like who he believes himself to be, are. Where people laugh and don't just stare at you and play ten dimensional chess in their heads about what you intend with every move you make. (10) As if any Aes Sedai would be performing street magic. HA! (11) So then we come to the big reunion. It was definitely a spoiler of me to say that Thom came back but also he was too firmly established in the first book to just die permanently so early on. And the way Rand just couldn't let go of the harp and flute… yeah, there was no way Thom was staying away. And even the Tor first-reader knew Thom wasn't dead. (12) And just how would she know? Did Min see something and tell her? (13) Whatever Moiraine seems to know, Thom's come a long way from his immediate snapping and distrust at the sight of her in Emond's Field. "She's a fine woman," he says.

[hazelcephalopod]

The Great Hunt Ch 21-22

Inns and Lore! A far more pleasant experience with some allies gained and others lost.

Disclaimer: this is my first read thru but I’ve watched all of the show thus far and been spoiled on some book things. So… I’m going to lean into that. Enjoy figuring out what I know, and what I think I know, and what I just don’t. Also s/x I add commentary when I edit.

Spoilers for the first and second book and all of season 1 under the cut. Potential spoilers for later books -idk if they’re light spoilers or not.

21: The Nine Rings

That’s the name of the inn too

Harp

POV Rand

Inn chapter?! Why am I excited for this? (Editors note. They barely leave the inn. It’s kinda awesome!)

Oh great. Soldiers

Probably was

Inkeeper: Maglin Madwen

Lol. Chill man!

Technically true. The found it already

Her husband was an asshole. Apparently they are in Cairhien now? (Editors note. Or very close because they still talk as if they are going there. Maybe it’s also the name of the capital?)

Cairhienin are all known schemers according to Maglin. She’s from Lugard tho (I soon learn this is because they just take political conniving and court politics to a new extreme)

Do they have money?

Is this just curry?

Unsurprisingly the Two Rivers seasoning options were limited

Also. Food!

Don’t. Do it. You have too much attention already (editors note. Guess what?)

He’s going to do it isn’t he?

Yup. He’s letting them assume he’s a lord and playing the flute in the inn now (editors note. Is that what you guessed? Good job! /genuine)

…everyone is going to assume the Two Rivers is basically it’s own kingdom by the end of all this aren’t they?

Cap Aldrin Caldevwin of the Cairhien military. Met. Apologizing for his men singing. Lol

Ffs he’s now just going around telling everyone his name and address. That’s kinda funny

Oh he’s testing him. Luckily Rand has been cursed by the pattern to be important and know important shit.

… I get now why he’s been set up as a lord. Glad it’s becoming amusing

On of the barmaids, Catrine dropped a lantern just as Aldrin asked Selene her name. She didn’t reply

…b/c she def caused Catrine to drop that lantern

She’s not even that good an actress it seems?

What’s the Foregate?

Men from there are excavated the stature. The Wizard orb one

Galladrian? Oh! That’s the king. He’s part of the scheme to frame Bayle Domon. (Which makes him my enemy)

Also Selene has gone upstairs because she doesn’t feel well. (Editors note. Pretty sure she uh… left then)

Ah. “Daes Dae’mar… The Great Game. The Game of Houses, some call it. This Caldevwin thinks you must be doing something to your advantage or you wouldn't be here. And whatever you're doing might be to his disadvantage, so he has to be careful." -Hurin when Rand asks why Caldevwin seemed so suspicious of them/Rand

Lol. This might be fun yea. Rand really doesn’t have many plans beyond ‘help friend. Maintain deep denial about various things. Try to be nice. Avoid all the servants of the dark (poorly)’

…I say poorly because like he does do it but he keeps running into more. So it’s like a balance to the point it seems like he’s doing a bad job but really no.

Oh yea. “The Great Game? What game?” -Rand. This will be good

It politics. Just feudal politics and court drama

…all southerners do it according to Hurin. Tho I’m pretty sure just everyone does some version of that

Oh no Selene left /s. Ju… just such a. A shame. Darn. /s (more)

… she left a letter. No I won’t repeat it

Well Caldevwin is just set himself to go with Rand now. Oh no just his men. New leader dude, Elricain Tavolin, hasn’t said a word yet.

Rand ‘huh. Idk. But ok. Should help ward off all the people following us’

So Aldrin had the inn watched -according to Hurin who is likely telling the truth and maybe has super hearing- and Selene got away without being seen. B/c of course she did

“Nothing is happening the way I expect.” -Rand… bud, you still have expectations?

22: Watchers

(Editors not this answers my final question. The title of the chapter. At least in part)

Sword

POV Moiraine

“Nothing is happening the way I expect.” -Moiraine. (Lmao) to Lan.

She appears to be in a densely packed library. Of books. No idea about the people yet (I soon learn it’s not really a public library and only Lan is there rn)

Ok she’s in Tifan’s Well, Arafel. Home of this old Aes Sedai couple. Adeleas and Vandene

“The villagers came to the sisters for advice on their problems and cures for their ills, and valued them as women blessed by the Light, but no more. Adeleas and Vandene had gone into voluntary retreat together so long ago that few even in the White Tower remembered they still lived.” -Tgh. Sounds wonderfullly gay to me. Good for them.

They just decided ‘eh white towers a bit tedious let’s go cottage core it up in the middle of fucking nowhere village and retire as village grannies’. Excellent

With a Warder. Also very old. Still very good for the three of them then.

…don’t tell me when it comes crashing down this is very fun rn

They plan to write a book on the history of the world since the Brwaking. That may be verbatim. I love them more and more (editors note. I just continue to love them. Especially Vandene, who we shortly meet)

“Movement caught her eye, and she turned. Lan was lounging against the yellow brick fireplace, as imperturbable as a boulder.” -(Moiriane). “Lounging”. This story really has a lot between the lines s/x I swear

Oh wow this is great. So, Moiraine and Lan met while when she was young and seemingly freshly minted Sedai. Following her attempting to question Lan he threw her into a pond. Then built a fire and a sort of tent for her to warm up. And then she dumped half the pond on him with the power and it seems they had a prank war for the next week or so while traveling together. But she’d already decided to ask him to be her Warder the first day.

Honestly I find Lan having more a dry humor then I’ve seen credited to him

…people do not loose deep humor that leads them to ruthlessly prank their best friend. Not entirely

And the elation has come crashing down. “Before we left Tar Valon I made arrangements, should anything happen to me, for your bond to pass to another. When you feel my death, you will find yourself compelled to seek her out immediately. I do not want you to be surprised by it." -Moiraine to Lan. Wtf Moiraine? He did not know this (I very quickly learn he is far from pleased by this)

Apparently the Bond can be used to compel a Warder. Yikes

Ma’am not really your choice to make

That is quite sad tho

His Bond will pass to a green sister named Myrelle (I soon learn she has three other Warders already)

Oh he’s rightly mad

Oh and too be passed onto yet another once the right one is find (Editors note. Pretty sure Moiraine believes it will be Nynaeve. Still like girl… no. Not like this)

"Has all this talk been a test- a test!- to see if you could make my bond rub? After all this time? From the day I pledged to you, I have ridden where you said ride, even when I thought it foolish, even when I had reason to ride another way. Never did you need my bond to force me. On your word I have watched you walk into danger and kept my hands at my sides when I wanted nothing more than to out sword and carve a path to safety for you. After this, you test me?" -Lan to Moiraine

Sounds like a test or means of pushing him away. Girl what are you doing?

The fuck? People need guidance? Lan was right.

Ma’am are you ok? (She not)

Well the Bond can be released. So… there’s that. (Seems like a lot to unwrap there tbh)

Girl… no

…like truly. I think you misjudged a redwood for a branch. But also forgot how to treat humans

Moiraine… has never felt jealousy over any man? Ever? Until right now? Which Tbf he is her best friend who may actually be falling in love love for the first time. So. Fair. But the never feeling jealousy over a man is curious

Still disappointed in Moiriane but understanding where she is at helps. I still love her

K

I’m… I got thoughts. But this is like decent romance writing. Like… yea.

The sisters Warder is Jaem

A green and a brown? Vandene and Adeleas respectively. I assumed both we’re of the brown Ajah. I’m excited to be here!

"’Whatever it is, you don't even seem to know where to look.’ Vandene shifted some of the books and manuscripts on the table, shaking her head. ‘So many subjects. The Trolloc Wars. The Watchers Over the Waves. The legend of the Return. Two treatises on the Horn of Valere. Three on dark prophecy, and— Light, here’s Santhra’s book on the Foresaken. Nasty, that. As nasty as this on Shader Logoth. And the Prophecies of the Dragon, in three translations and the original.” -Vandene. She’s kinda throwing caution to the wind huh?

Lol. There’s a rumor someone has already found the horn?! That’s great

Ok. More lore time. According to Vandene (who would know), the Horn -of Valere- isn’t mentioned in the Prophecies of the Dragon, nor at all linked to him. But must be found before the Last battle. Which the Dragon will fight. The only potential link to Toman Head is a line in PotD “…Five ride forth, and four return. Above the watchers shall he proclaim himself bannered cross the sky in fire..” (Vandene. Tgh)

She also believes that the word watchers (ma’vron, which technically means something more than just watchers, a’vron) refers to the Watchers Over the Waves and therefore will appear “above Toman Head, in Arad Domain, or Saldaea.” But she thinks perhaps it means Taim, who hasn’t been caught by the Tower yet.

Lol. Who knows maybe you’ll survive and finish it yet! (The history book)

Onto Shadar Logoth. Mordeth used “the tactics of the Darkfriends against the Darkfriends”. Also apparently Adeleas knows all about Shadar Logoth. It’s not linked to the Dragon in any of the prophecies or whatnot. Only one false dragon had any connection to it (Yurian Stonebow, who is familiar). No idea why a Fade would have any interest in it or in an object from there it as it destroys shadowspawn -and any creature of light or dark, except Mordeth.

She says she doesn’t know much about Foresaken tho. Other than what is taught to Novices. Which… seems like they were trained many years apart might be a good idea to exchange notes

“The Daughter of the Night remains as much a mystery as if she truly had cloaked herself in darkness… Lanfear was linked to the Dragon, to Lews Therin Telamon.” -Vandene on Lanfear

Oh wow. More lore. Uhh. Vandene is of the opinion that the Dragon Reborn must face the Dark One and then be defeated/neutralized himself before he goes mad and destroys the world. And that the Amyrlin will surely call upon all the sisters to get him to do the first and then to do the second. Also, the seals on the Dark One are clearly weakening. Considering all the strange events happening they must be.

K

What? A Draghkar?! Do they have siren powers?

… and energy vampire/soul and life draining powers to the point of death with its kiss… uhh. That sounds very familiar. Not form this series tho!

“Embrace death!” -Lan and Jaem. Uhhh. No. Wtf

At least they killed it

That is an odd quirk of the Power

She’s just saying the Black Ajah warded that Draghkar. Telling them to cover it up and leaving. The end. ‘That’s weird. The bad ones did it. Uh. Bye? Huh? I gotta go. Good luck!’

I am honestly not sure which answer she’s found. Have to think on that.

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 21 - The Nine Rings

(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.)

(Harp icon) In which it's no bad thing to go back to your roots.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand expected the common room to be empty, but half a dozen men are playing dice with their ale, and another man sits by himself. They all have the look of soldiers, the lone man an officer, and all in dark blue.

The innkeeper greets them, and says she'll have rooms prepared for them, their horses looked after, and there's a good table free. Rand stumbles when she asks if they're hunting the Horn, until she explains that she's seen multiple people through already, though the Hunt can't have been declared long yet.

Hurin asks where the innkeeper is from and after some surprise that his man speaks so freely, she says she's from Lugard, but married a Cairhienin man. She was all ready to go back home when he died, but he'd left her the inn and his brother the money when she expected it to be the other way around. Cairhienin to the end, he was.(2)

She's doubly surprised when Hurin sits with them for supper. When they're done, she asks if Rand would let his man favour them with music, she can see the flute in the bundle and her last musician married into a farm family. At Hurin's discomfort, Rand admits that he's the one who plays. The innkeeper instantly withdraws her request, she didn't realize... But he doesn't mind, he says, as he thinks about the dwindling coins in his purse.

He starts playing Heron on the Wing unconsciously, thinking of the heron on his palm. Selene looks at him like trying to figure out who or what he is. He cycles through a number of songs, and at one point the soldiers start singing their local words to one. When they're done, their officer dismisses them curtly, and apologizes to Rand for any offence, introducing himself as Aldrin Caldevwhin. He asks Rand's name and origin, and asks very probing questions, as if testing Rand's honesty in his answers. He's asking Selene her name, when one of the serving girls drops a lamp, starting a small fire.(3) When it's sorted out, Selene says she isn't feeling so well after all.

Rand asks Caldevwhin what the great crystal sphere was, and he says it's part of a statue from the Age of Legends. King Galldrian himself has ordered that it be dug up and brought to the capital, to be mounted outside the city wall. How long will they be staying here? Only the night, Rand says, they leave for the capital in the morning. Cal has some men he has to rotate back to the city, my lord won't mind if they ride with him? It's a rhetorical question, clearly.

Cal takes his leave, early day tomorrow, and leaves the inn entirely. When he's gone, the innkeeper offers to show Rand and co to their rooms. Rand says they'll only be needing the one, thank you. When she's seen them settled and left herself, Rand turns to the others.

“Do either of you know why that captain was so suspicious of us? He was, I’m sure of it.” He shook his head. “I almost think he thought we might steal that statue, the way he was talking.” “Daes Dae’mar, Lord Rand,” Hurin said. “The Great Game. The Game of Houses, some call it. This Caldevwin thinks you must be doing something to your advantage or you wouldn’t be here. And whatever you’re doing might be to his disadvantage, so he has to be careful.” Rand shook his head. “ ‘The Great Game’? What game?” “It isn’t a game at all, Rand,” Loial said from his bed. He had pulled a book from his pocket, but it lay unopened on his chest. “I don’t know much about it—Ogier don’t do such things—but I have heard of it. The nobles and the noble Houses maneuver for advantage. They do things they think will help them, or hurt an enemy, or both. Usually, it’s all done in secrecy, or if not, they try to make it seem as if they’re doing something other than what they are.” He gave one tufted ear a puzzled scratch. “Even knowing what it is, I don’t understand it. Elder Haman always said it would take a greater mind than his to understand the things humans do, and I don’t know many as intelligent as Elder Haman. You humans are odd.”

Rand asks if the soldiers in the morning are part of this Great Game, and neither Hurin nor Loial can say. Sometimes people are just doing as they say, and sometimes... that's the way of the Game of Houses. Hurin suggests asking Selene more about it in the morning, she'll know.

But in the morning, Selene is gone. She's left a sealed parchment with the innkeeper for Rand, though.

I must leave you for a time. There are too many people here, and I do not like Caldevwin. I will await you in Cairhien. Never think that I am too far from you. You will be in my thoughts always, as I know that I am in yours.

Hurin and the horses wait outside the inn, and Cal with fifty mounted soldiers. He asks after the Lady, and Rand says she had to leave suddenly in the night. Cal stumbles at this, and Hurin whispers to Rand that Cal had the inn watched, Selene must have gotten past them somehow.(4) Rand thinks that if there was any chance Cal didn't yet suspect them of something, Selene's gone and finished it off.

Rand mutters to himself about this, and the younger officer in charge of the fifty soldiers, Tavolin, asks if he said something. Rand just says nothing is happening the way he expects it to. Tavolin smiles briefly and suggests they ride. Onward, to the city of Cairhien.

=====

(1) In honour of Rand using Thom's flute again, I expect. (2) And here we get a great intro to the Game of Houses, which yes directly inspired Game of Thrones. Robert Jordan and GRRM were good friends. At any rate, the Game of Houses is similar in some ways if you're familiar with Game of Thrones, but also very different. Everyone will read twenty layers of meaning and intent into your every action and every nitpick detail of your appearance because their lives and livelihoods will literally depend on it. This lovely innkeeper had no clue her husband would apportion his estate so, despite being married to him for years, but he surely had his reasons. That's Cairhien in a nutshell. (3) Lanfear doesn't want to answer your petty questions, man. A little "accident" to give her an exit suits just fine. We saw the Amyrlin hold Nynaeve and Egwene up with weaves of Air, why not a firm pinch applied just so? (4) How could she have gotten out? Well, who knows what talents Lanfear might have. We have very little information about what was known to be possible in the Age of Legends.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 25: Cairhien

A new chapter, a new city, a new chance for me to warn you all about spoilers. There are so many spoilers in this post. Spoilers for The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn and so on ad infinitum. Toss my invitation to read these spoilers right into the fire if you're not ready. Just be ready for the consequences.

A new chapter icon! The rising sun icon refers to events in Cairhien, usually just the city proper. It's not too complex in its meaning.

Fat ships and broad barges filled the river, and tall granaries sprawled along the far bank, but Cairhien seemed to be laid out in a precise grid behind its high, gray walls. Those walls themselves made a perfect square, with one side hard along the river. In just as exact a pattern, towers rose within the walls, soaring as much as twenty times the height of the wall, yet even from the hills Rand could see that each one ended in a jagged top.

Planned, grid cities are pretty new; they're relatively common in America because most of our cities were built up after the idea took off. Cairhien's grid is likely the result of their recent devastation. The towers all still being in such a state of disrepair is another sign of this, and another sign of the societal decay afflicting the subcontinent.

Many of the farmers were afraid to go back to their lands near the Spine of the World, and they all came here, near enough. That’s why Galldrian has the river full of grain barges up from Andor and Tear. There’s no crops coming from farms in the east because there aren’t any farms anymore.

Frankly, details like this make it seem as though, if events had continued on their current course, Cairhien would have been the next western nation to disappear. Food insecurity on such a massive scale would bankrupt any economy sooner or later, especially in the event of supernatural, unending winters keeping everyone starving.

“I fear Galldrian keeps his people quiet by entertaining them. He gives gleemen and musicians the King’s Gift, a bounty in silver, to perform here in the Foregate, and he sponsors horse races down by the river every day. There are fireworks many nights, too.” He sounded disgusted. “Elder Haman says Galldrian is a disgrace.”

Panem et circenses. Frankly, it's a miracle the whole affair has lasted Rand's lifetime; the treasury must be nearly emptied at this point.

And damn if Loial isn't pissed.

He had never seen fireworks elaborate enough to require even one Illuminator. He had heard they only left Tanchico to put on displays for rulers. It was a strange place he was coming to.

I'm going to guess that Rand's knowledge here is just outdated instead of being fully wrong. The chapter house is likely a necessity of keeping up with Galldrian's expectations.

“Well, they were tall enough to warrant the name, once. When the Aiel took Cairhien, about the time you were born, the towers burned, and cracked, and fell. I don’t see any Ogier among the stonemasons. No Ogier could like working here—the Cairhienin want what they want, without embellishment—but there were Ogier when I was here before.”

As subtle as a brick, this foreshadowing. But also:

The divide growing between the people's interests and the Ogier seems like something that will probably grow rather than be fully healed by the end of the age. Perhaps it's the seed of whatever leads to the Ogier taking off eventually.

He wanted to tell them he was not playing their Great Game, but instead he said, “We will take rooms in the city. We can go now?”

Poor Rand doesn't understand that just by being here he's playing it, same as everybody else. He also doesn't get that the best way to avoid attention is to be unremarkable and meet expectations. There's a reason he takes to disguising himself as a beggar later on.

He felt as if people were looking at him. He could not wait to get a good, plain coat again, and stop pretending to be what he was not.

Of course, Rand would attract attention in Cairhien even in a beggar's robes because he looks just like an Aielman for some reason.

checks notes

The reason is genetics.

The innkeeper was a plump, unctuous man with a single stripe of green across his dark gray coat.

You can tell he's a good guy both because he's fat and because he catches Rand up on the whole Aiel thing. That said he is a bit racist what with his inn sign being an Aiel being killed by a Cairhienien.

“We have to show these Cairhienin we know what’s right as well as they do, Lord Rand”

It's unfortunate for Rand that Hurin gets too caught up in the gravity of Rand's alleged lordship to be a better teacher about these things, because he's right but he's saying it in the way Rand will care about the least.

He often forgot that Loial had run away from home, in effect, to see the world. “What about you, Hurin? There’s music in the Foregate, and people laughing. I’ll wager no one is playing Daes Dae’mar there.”

Rand forgets that Loial is a baby runaway so often because as he aptly demonstrates, he's somehow even more naive. Of course people are playing the Game in the space immediately outside the city walls, where movements and actions are a little harder to track.

“Everyone by now, Lord Rand,” Hurin said quietly. He seemed to feel eyes watching, too. “The guards at the gate would not keep their mouths closed about an outland lord coming to Cairhien. The hostler, the innkeeper . . . everybody tells what they know where they think it will do them the most good, my Lord.”

I'm actually a little with Rand on this one. The gossip spreading this quickly is shocking as hell. He hasn't been here an hour yet!

You must answer any more invitations you receive, my Lord. Decline if you will—though they’ll read things into whose invitations you do decline. And into whose you accept. Of course, if you decline them all, or accept them all—

It really is a great joke on the Wheel's part to have Rand come to Cairhien without Moiraine when this would be the time she'd be a much better teacher to him. But perhaps she'd force Rand to play politics when in fact his solution proves to be the best: delay the issue until the breaking point and then accept the invitation that seems to matter.

A man standing in front of the guardhouse took note of him—his bright coat marked him out, as well as his height among the Cairhienin—and hurried inside, but Rand did not notice.

It's pretty unusual for the narration to point out stuff the POV doesn't know. Not sure what to make of it.

Memories of Thom were always sad. Thom had been a friend. A friend who had died for him. While I ran away and let him die.

This is foreshadowing both short and long term. The short should be obvious (guess who's back?) but the long is of course Rand's increasingly unhealthy obsession with blaming himself for the suffering of others. Back in Whitebridge there was nothing Rand could have done to stop Thom's "death" and Thom chose to die when he could have ditched the boys and left them to their fates unscathed.

He walked on in a daze, staring at the man bowing on the dais to the clapping of his listeners, cradling his harp in one arm and with the other spreading his patch-covered cloak as if to trap all the sound they made. He was a tall man, lanky and not young, with long mustaches as white as the hair on his head. And when he straightened and saw Rand, the eyes that widened were sharp and blue.

It's a good thing he didn't notice Rand mid-performance or he might have given something away.

Rand shook his head. To his surprise, Thom seemed disappointed.

Jordan is beating us over the head with the inevitable Moiraine/Thom pairing that surprised so many. I figured it out in junior high folks, it's not subtle!

Even if I could have reached the boat before it sailed, Domon and his whole crew would be spreading the tale all over Illian about how I was being chased by Trollocs.

Thom would love to know how dramatically ironic this claim is.

It's good to have you back, Thom!

Next time: Rand joins everyone's favorite chat program!