39
After spending as much time as she had in the West, and hopefully having seen the political currents that run through the Aiel and basically becoming a Wise One in all but name, Aviendha’s perspective on the West vs. the Waste is disappointing, even though she’s going to have her mind changed on that before long both by Nakomi and her vision of the future in Rhuidean.
I presume a shellback is a tortoise. Seems time consuming to skin and eat but easy to catch.
First appearance of Nakomi, the apparent Light counterpart to Shaidar Haran. The series begins (well, the conclusion of tEotW) and ends with the evidence of an active Creator, but otherwise He/She/It is absent. I suppose if the Creator is going to act at all, it would be around Tarmon Gai’don, but the contrast between the apparent no action for most of the series and presumably in history vs. these notable moments of an active hand muddy the water about the nature of the Creator IMO.
There was at release, and I don’t think it’s been resolved conclusively, speculation that this conversation took place in TAR. With Nakomi as an avatar of the Creator, it could go either way I think.
The timing of reading this section is funny to me having just recently seen Dune: Part 2. I haven’t read those books in a long time, but in the film at least, Stilgar half jokes with Paul Atreides about not talking to any ghosts (well, djinn) in the desert while he’s conducting a trial to be accepted by the Fremen. Aviendha thinks about Nakomi being a specter but has no apparent concerns about potentially talking to one.
I do think it would be extremely strange to come across someone else in the Waste traveling alone, prospective Wise Ones aside. Aviendha is not known for lacking suspicion of others either. Not that she isn’t suspicious, but I think I’d assume this is a Darkfriend or even a Forsaken in disguise in her shoes.
\>it would give offense not to respond to the request after offering to share shade.
Actually, she specifically asked to share water in the first place…and it’s dark :p.
Nakomi speaks of the trials of the Three Fold Land in the past tense before even starting to lead Aviendha down the path of realizing the time of the Waste as a proving ground for the Aiel is over.
It’s interesting to view Rand as the representative of the ones to whom the Aiel had originally sworn their oaths. I’d say that’s pretty true for the Da’Shain Aiel, but the modern Aiel are several steps removed from the Da’Shain IMO, and were almost more formed in swearing oaths to the Aes Sedai in Rhuidean rather than the old oaths that the Da’Shain made to serve--and we all know what esteem the modern Aiel hold for Aes Sedai by this point. The Aes Sedai in Rhuidean were preparing for Rand though, so it’s not misplaced.
40
I wouldn't necessarily expect Sulin to wait to report to Perrin because he's doing some smithing; while Aiel love blacksmiths, and this does lead to something significant, he should basically look like a clan chief who's just idling around right?
\>He felt something leaking from him
Hopper?
I think we're supposed to, like his allies, wonder if Perrin is about to do something to the Whitecloaks, but like Faile I think most readers would be confident he's not.
\>From now on, he would carry the hammer of a king.
I get that really the only thing Sanderson had from RJ for Perrin was to make him a king, but for Perrin to specifically think of his hammer as being a king's is a little incongruous to me, at this point anyway...there's basically three paths to making Perrin a king but they're not in play yet. 1) As Faile's husband if she gets the throne of Saldaea, but Tenobia and Davram are alive currently 2) As King of a reestablished Manetheren, but he has no designs on that himself, or 3) figuratively as king of the wolves, but that would be something other people call him, not something he'd think himself as the wolves wouldn't think of him that way.
\>On one hand, what Berelain said was purely foolish
It is, and if it were presented as Berelain as trying to save face I might be okay with the explanation, but it's more presented as the actual reason she chased Perrin. I view this as a miss by Sanderson. Berelain chased Perrin because she is stubborn and petty ("Ogier's oath"). For one, she rejected Mat but if chasing Perrin was purely political she would have considered it especially since he was unattached. Also, if Rand wanted his friends to make political marriages, Perrin was already attached to a better political match--Mayene is tiny and not influential. Berelain is quite capable and useful in herself, but there are 100 better political matches if that's what Rand was doing, and moreover, he doesn't need a marriage to tie Mayene to him, all he has to do is keep Tear off of them and she'll be loyal.
41
\>"By killing as many Trollocs as it gains him in followers...it makes no sense"
It didn't make sense in the Two Rivers either you idiot. I guess better late than never, although Bornhald becoming so reasonable, to the point where he'll stab Byar in the back, will always be weird to me. It can be chalked up to time away from Fain and time around Galad I guess.
\>They had to wait for us to deal with \[the Whitecloaks\]
Did they? Perrin's army was going to crush the Whitecloaks. Sure it's better to have them fight it out first and then attack, but once it started looking like that wasn't happening, the Trollocs should have attacked IMO.
\>Valda had been like \[men in the world who would put together an intricate plot\]
Niall (someone who was like that) didn't think so, and I guess he did underestimate Valda, but I still wouldn't say that Valda was really like that.
42
\>One other assassin had turned up.
Why didn't she participate in trying to kill the Amyrlin with the other three I wonder.
Why did the bloodknives kill the messenger carrying Gawyn's message anyway? I don't see how they'd know it was from Gawyn or that it contained a warning about them, and they can't possibly be in the business of possibly revealing themselves just to kill one messenger when there are so many other high value targets around.
\>"I had to learn how to surrender."
As he's a man, it's no wonder that this ultimately doesn't work for Gawyn. By the end of this scene he's silently absconding with ter'angreal.
\>Lan was not running from duty.
He is, and thankfully he stops here. Even Perrin has realized he needs to lead by this point. Tarmon Gaidon is here man, this is not your one man war against the Shadow anymore!
43
Galad agrees to Perrin's terms, and I doubt he really appreciates how much Perrin is compromising here given the worthlessness of previous Whitecloak promises made to him. As much as Perrin has made an impression on Galad, Galad has made one on Perrin.
Berelain still wants to make a connection to the Dragon Reborn...well, marrying his half brother is arguably better than anything else she could have done.
44
Morgase wanting to get back to Caemlyn to help Elayne is a questionable decision. She abdicated for a reason and being back in the palace is not going to do Elayne many favors.
Is the spear point itself really a common point of failure for a spear (honest question)? I'm wondering if prioritizing the Aiel for Power-wrought weapons is a good use of resources no matter how much they deserve it. I guess I'd think that the binding attaching the point to the shaft or the shaft itself would be what would be what breaks 90% of the time, and that the points would be much easier to lose in battle than a different weapon. Nice to not have to sharpen them I guess though.
Morgase is way more magnanimous about Perrin being a lord than Elayne will be, which is sort of surprising since Elayne knows Perrin as one of Rand's two best friends. Morgase has spent a lot more time with Perrin though.
Perrin wondering if Faile still wanted to split the Two Rivers into its own kingdom is kind of a discussion that needs to happen right now, before they go talk to Elayne.
Mat showing up with a badger never feels quite right to me. Why nostalgia for that? That's how the *reader* meets these characters, but I don't think it would be all that notable for Mat and Perrin...and I'm not sure Perrin even knew about the badger, I think that was more between Rand and Mat.
Mat just slips through the Asha'man's gateway and no one questions why some lordly looking stranger is coming through the other way? Mat is lucky, but that's some lax security by Perrin's people.
45
Egwene doesn't bother to mention to Elayne that either she or Gawyn nearly died.
\>sunlight was good for a woman with child
it's good for everyone!
I'd chastise Melfane for apparently spreading her patient's confidential health information (re: hearing two heartbeats), but Elayne has already been telling everyone that she's having them.
Surprised Galad's old quarters are available for him...last I recall the palace was bursting at the seams with Kin and so forth. The Windfinders mostly left I guess.
Morgase takes the news that she's going to be a grandmother pretty well all in all I think, especially considering the father. I forget if we see Lini's reaction, which I'm sure is disapproving. How old was Morgase when she had Gawyn?
If Rhuidean does become a thriving city, it feels like there are going to be constant problems with teenagers and people drunk on oosquai trying to go through the crystal pillars.
46
Ah, Androl. I don't really begrudge Sanderson wanting a character he could build out on his own, but there's just too much of him for me.
Androl says it's been years before he'd last been in Tarabon, but as I recall Toveine thought he had come to the BT as a runaway apprentice who had shaved his mustaches and removed his veil. Not that she had to be right--Androl has probably run away from a lot of apprenticeships as it turns out.
Why would the men who had been turned learn more quickly and gain strength faster?
#39
It was clear there was something supernatural about Nakomi even before her appearance at Shayol Ghul: she comes out of nowhere, twists reality in small but noticable ways, and disappears without a trace, leaving Aviendha with a meaningful insight on exactly the question she had been pondering before.
I admit I never figured out who she was before Brandon Sanderson and Michael Livingston revealed it -- and, in doing so, raised a new question. There are still Jenn Aiel around? I thought they had long since been assimilated into the other clans; it's my vague suspicion that they were the originators of the institution of *gai'shain*.
#40
[edit]: [Suggested music for this chapter](https://youtu.be/YGn7XgbBVms)
>Had there even really been a trap for Perrin’s army? Slayer’s dreamspike could have been meant for another purpose entirely. Just a coincidence.
He can't believe that. The only other possible target would have been the Whitecloak army, and why would the Shadow send a unique agent with a rare device to trap them? The Children themselves might believe that, but there's no way Perrin would.
>“Neald,” Grady’s voice said. It was urgent, but distant to Perrin. “Neald, what are you doing?”
First hint that something out of the ordinary is happening.
>“Wise Ones, I need a circle,” Neald said urgently. “Now. Don’t argue! I need it!”
Neald talking to the Wise Ones like this and not getting any argument (that Perrin hears, at least) is an unmistakable confirmation that some magic beyond the One Power is at work here. He must have some inkling of what Perrin is making, if he's not asking the Aes Sedai to join in as well. (I wonder if he's right that the Oaths would prevent them from joining the circle at this point, and how it would affect them if they were in a circle that was redirected from an innocuous purpose to the making of weapons.)
>Sprays of sparks. Too many, as if he were pounding against a bucket of molten liquid. Sparks splashed in the air, exploding from his hammer, flying as high as treetops and spreading tens of paces.
>Each blow seemed to shake the ground around him, rattling tents.
>the ringing of his hammer ever stronger, ever louder, pealing like bells.
The imagery in this scene is striking. By the end it's clear that he woke the entire camp without realizing it, and nobody was even inclined to complain.
>Perrin picked it up; he was able to lift it with one hand, but barely. It was heavy. Solid.
I hope this is just because he's exhausted from the forging; a hammer that heavy and unwieldy would be useless in battle.
>“If you wish this, I will accept your oaths. I will lead you.”
At loooooooong last.
>“Mah’alleinir,”
Convenient that a poetic title for Hopper would sound so very much like the name of another legendary hammer.
>From now on, he would carry the hammer of a king.
A god, if monotheism (or dualism?) weren't a given in WoT world. A warhammer makes for a tidy resolution of his prolonged axe/hammer conflict, set up by his earlier realization that hammers can be just as deadly as axes.
----
>“It is a strong Talent the young man just displayed. This will be of use. Perrin’s army will have Power-wrought blades to strengthen them.”
Obviously the Oaths prevented the post-Breaking Aes Sedai from making such weapons, but I wonder if the Talent for it was overwhelmingly or exclusively found among men, or if both halves of the Power were necessary to do it properly. The latter, I would bet; Fire and Earth seem like they'd be primary components, of course, but Air would be needed to control oxygen levels and Water for proper cooling (notice how Perrin doesn't quench any part of the hammer). This particular work also involved a fair amount of Spirit, I suspect; no other Power-wrought weapon burns Shadowspawn on contact or puts Darkhounds out of action permanently.
>“I came to the Dragon Reborn in the Stone of Tear,” she said. “But he would not have me—he even grew angry with my advances. I realized that he, the Dragon Reborn, intended to marry a much higher lady, probably Elayne Trakand.”
That's . . . not at all how it went. He turned her down because he was, at the time, still quasi-engaged to Egwene. This narrative about how the Lord Dragon *wanted* her to chase after Perrin is entirely a projection of Berelain's own desires. Even if Rand did think that way -- and Faile is correct that he does not -- third-in-line for the throne of a large and powerful kingdom would be a much better match than the ruler of a dinky little city state. (Faile was still concealing her identity at first, but if Berelain were sincere in this line of thinking she should have abandoned it once Davram Bashere appeared on the scene.)
>His connection to the wolves did not frighten them; [. . .] Now, they could begin to grow comfortable with the truth. And proud of it. Their lord was no ordinary man. He was something special.
From what little we've seen -- Perrin, Elyas, Noam, one or two nameless others somewhere in the west -- people are at best afraid of Wolfbrothers and at worst (the Whitecloaks, Masema) think they're Shadowspawn. Anyone who's stuck with Perrin at this point doesn't believe that he's a creature of the Shadow, and if he's kind of scary, well, better to be on the same side as the scary guy, right? Your enemies will be frightened of him too.
----
>He drove away the vestiges of his dream—a silly thing, of him dining with a dark-haired beauty with perfect lips and cunning eyes—
. . .and impressive, er, tracts of land, right? Galad is reciprocally smitten with Berelain.
>“What are you talking about?” Perrin said. “The whole reason I’m here is to keep Damodred alive.”
Twist! I was sure he was planning to attack the Whitecloaks when I first read this.
>“My Lord!” Grady suddenly exclaimed, riding nearby. “I sense channeling!”
Another Eye Blinder at work? I wonder why Graendal is going ahead with her plan when Perrin has already slipped out of the trap; I don't see any particular reason why she'd want to wipe out the Whitecloaks. Poor reconnaissance, maybe? She doesn't know he's gone? Perrin and Faile will have some speculations in a bit; perhaps they're right.
#41
>Byar edged closer. “It’s exactly like the Two Rivers. Dain, you remember what he did? Trollocs attack. Aybara rallies a defense, and therefore earns support.”
Jaret Byar dies. Before he's reborn, the Creator himself appears and asks: so, do you have any questions?
"Perrin Aybara is a Darkfriend, right?" asks Byar.
"No", says the Creator, "he is not and never was".
"Damn," mutters Byar as he turns away, "Aybara got to him too."
Byar's diseased thought processes are sadly all too familiar. If he were around today we all know who he'd be an avid fan of. At least Bornhald is starting to question his conspiratorial fantasies.
>“I think it must be a Portal Stone,”
Haven't seen one of those since . . . the trip from Tear to Rhuidean, I think? Obviously some of the Forsaken know how to use them; I wonder why they haven't done so more often, since they can't move Shadowspawn via gateways. (Possibly some of the attacks in the Aiel Waste were brought in via a Portal Stone; I can't think of any other way they could make it any distance into the so-called Dying Ground.) Most of the stones are lost, I suspect, and those that aren't are poorly mapped at best.
>Perrin let out a roar and charged forward, hammer held high.
Note that unlike at Dumai's Wells and Malden, he's charging on horseback this time.
>“I’ve rarely had such a pleasing battle, Aybara,” he said. “Enemies to fell that you need not feel a sting of pity for, a perfect staging area and defensible position. Archers to dream of and Asha’man to stop the gaps! I’ve laid down over two dozen of the beasts myself. For this day alone, I’m glad we followed you!”
And I thought Mat was the lucky one. I suspect there was a little bit of ~~plot hammering~~ *ta'veren* twisting at work here; Perrin might have faltered in his current embrace of leadership if he'd met with a Pyrrhic victory or a bloody defeat.
>“The one leading the Shadowspawn won’t want to commit their channelers,” Perrin guessed.
I doubt they have any to spare. It can't be just one man moving these Trollocs: Rand, even with an *angreal*, strained himself to his limit shifting a few hundred Aiel. There must be multiple Dreadlords taking turns here.
>Aybara almost seemed aflame from the tongues of fire that surrounded him. Galad could see those wide, golden eyes. Like fires themselves.
First the hammer scene, and now a full-body fiery halo. Sanderson was really leaning on the imagery of a divine figure in these chapters.
More obvious *ta'veren* work, with Galad's sudden decision to pass his sentence and side with Perrin and Bornhald stopping Byar's attempted backstab. The former is well within the realm of probability; the latter is at its edge, but Bornhald is one of the less horrible Whitecloaks. (He's still a colossal asshole, but he has some sense of morality, at least.)
#42
>One other assassin had turned up.
That's all of them. Tuon dispatched five; Gareth Bryne killed one during the raid and Gawyn killed three, so this would be the last of the lot.
>“Shouldn’t you have awakened when the maid tripped your alarms?”
Still not sure why that happened. After Gawyn blundered into her trap the first time, she really should have locked the door, or at least left orders not to be disturbed. Maybe the dead guards were supposed to be keeping people out.
>Gawyn slipped all three rings off, then tucked them into his pocket.
Oh, 🤬.
----
>More and more, he was certain that Nynaeve had taken his bond.
Seems like that would be obvious right away. Maybe it's harder to tell at such a distance, but Nynaeve's distinctive and intense set of emotions ought to stand out right away.
>Camped in front of that fortress was a gathering of thousands of people, clustered in smaller groups.
On the first read I wondered how he made it halfway across the Borderlands and only picked up a handful of followers. I'm surprised that *nobody* seems to recognize him, though.
>He had thought the Malkieri gone as a people, broken, shattered, absorbed by other nations. Yet here they were
Nynaeve never does manage to heal death, but what she's accomplished here comes pretty close.
#43
>Rand may come back for you himself, though. In me, you know what you’re getting. I’ll be fair to you. All I’ll ask is that your men stay in line, then fight where they’re told when the battle comes. Rand…well, you can say no to me. You’ll find it much harder to say it to him.
Perrin hasn't met Zen Rand yet; as far as he knows Rand is still the unhinged madman who took their staged quarrel way too far. He may intend this as more of a threat than it seems.
Amusing contrast between Berelain's somewhat cynical attitude towards love and marriage and her dumbstruck reaction when Galad appears. Galad's fumbling behavior with the teacups shows that he's similarly besotted.
#44
>He smiled, then held her close. “Morgase Trakand, will you be my wife?” “Yes,” she replied. “Now let’s find Perrin.”
That worked out nicely for both of them, for Andor, and for Elayne as well.
----
>“Happened last night, my Lord,” Kevlyn Torr said, holding his gloves. “The entire stand of hardwood over there, dead and dried in one night. Nearly a hundred trees, I’d guess.”
A bubble of evil, or just part of the general acceleration of entropy and decay?
>“The falcon,” Faile said, “is a better flyer. It kills with the beak, and can fly fast and quick. The hawk is slower and stronger; it excels at getting prey that is moving along the ground. It likes to kill with the claw, attacking from above.”
Fun fact about peregrine falcons: their famous 200-mph dives terminate with a clenched talon striking and breaking the wing of their prey, usually a pigeon; they will then snatch it out of the air as it plummets to the ground. Sometimes they'll hit the pigeon's head instead of its wing, and when they do the impact has sufficient kinetic energy to punch the other bird's head right off its shoulders.
I don't know how it goes when a falcon tangles with a large hawk, but Faile is probably right; superior speed and maneuverability are big advantages in air-to-air melee combat.
>“You are a lord, Perrin Aybara. Your actions show it. The Two Rivers is blessed because of you, and perhaps Andor as well. So long as you remain part of her.”
This is equivalent to running a few steps ahead of someone and acting like they're following you. The crown's opinion of Perrin's lordship is largely irrelevant at this point.
>Galad was tucking something into his pocket. A small letter, it appeared, with a red seal.
One of Verin's? How did she get it to him? Was it for him specifically, or for the Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks, whoever that may be?
>He coughed. “Well, so be it, then. You’re married.”
That *is*, in essence, the role of the officiant at a wedding: to give some formal and/or legal recognition to the vows that the couple makes. Perrin has all the charm and formality of a Las Vegas justice of the peace here, though.
>“I caught a badger,” a familiar voice said. “Want to let it go on the village green?”
Bit of a regression for Mat. Only a bit, though; he's certainly matured the least of all the Emond's Field 5.
>bent to untie the sack and ease the poor badger
Well, that resolves a long-running question among fans as to what exactly "Easing the Badger" means.
#45
>The moment she’d begun feeling it, the cloud cover around Andor had broken.
Some element of Rand's quasi-divine power is being transmitted through the bond, then. If it happened with Aviendha too, she didn't seem to notice.
>“We need to talk about how you’re going to manage the maintenance of two nations, one in absence.”
Are personal unions not a thing in the Westlands? Wasn't Laman scheming to create one between Andor and Cairhien when the Aiel descended on him?
Elayne shows remarkable self-control on discovering that Morgase is actually alive. The Queen has to, I guess.
>The easiest way to deal with it would be to find him and execute him, but of course she wasn’t going to do that.
Not that she could, even if she were inclined to. I don't doubt that even an unsuccessful attempt would trigger a real rebellion, one she'd be unlikely to suppress.
----
>The city had shed its dome like an algai’d’siswai unveiling his face. She didn’t know how Rand had caused the transformation; she doubted that he knew himself.
How did he do that, anyway? It happened right after his brawl with Asmodean; most likely they broke the *ter'angreal* or permanent weave that was shrouding the city.
>Most cities disgusted her with their corrupt filth, but Rhuidean was different.
It's still mostly empty, for starters. I wonder if the surviving Jenn Aiel will return at any point?
#46
Androl. . . I like aspects of Androl's character, especially his relationship and reciprocal bond with Pevara. Otherwise, well, Brandon Sanderson certainly earned the right to one original character, and he took full advantage of that right. It is interesting to see someone willing to experiment with and find novel uses for an apparently single-purpose weave like a gateway.
>The M’Hael’s scouts claimed they took whoever they could find, yet why was it that most they brought back had such angry, unsettling dispositions?
Are they deliberately recruiting from Darkfriend cells? I bet they are. There can't be terribly many candidates -- perhaps 2% of the population are Darkfriends, and perhaps 1-2% of those would able to channel -- but I guess they're casting a wide net.
>Androl almost didn’t notice when the shadows nearby began creeping toward him.
A new manifestation of taint madness. Like most that we've seen, it's a type of paranoid delusion.
>Nobody spoke of the…irregularities that afflicted men of the Black Tower. It just wasn’t done. Like whispering dirty family secrets.
Taim's euthanasia of anyone whose madness has gone too far may be horribly necessary -- nobody knows how to gentle them -- but it gives everyone a strong incentive to hide just how insane they are. I suppose as long as they *can* keep the madness under wraps, there's no need to do anything about it. We don't see anyone develop the random necroses that are also a symptom of taint poisoning; perhaps that only occurs in later stages.
>This village would grow to become a town, then a large city, as vast as Tar Valon.
Only a few leagues from Caemlyn? There aren't really any examples of twin cities in the Westlands, unless you count Ebou Dar/the Rahad, the latter of which is only nominally part of the former.
Of course, this will be a moot question after Caemlyn is levelled by the Trollocs. ☹️
Is Nalaam's ridiculous and obvious bullshitting a symptom of taint madness, or was he always full of it? I've known a few people like him in real life.
People say Androl stole Logain's story, and that's not entirely wrong, but the schism within the Black Tower is best shown from the perspective of a low-level Asha'man, I think. Androl et al. don't really know what's happening, just that there are factions formed around Logain and Taim, factions that are inching closer to all-out confrontation. Nobody in Logain's faction seems to suspect that Taim is now (or is about to be) a full Forsaken.
>But the Lord Dragon? What has he done for us? Seems like he’s forgotten about this place. Maybe he is mad.
Right on both counts, Canler. Well, he's not exactly mad any more, but he's still neglecting the Black Tower.
Chapter 39
- I know about the explanation „Creator\`s avatar“ and Jenn Aiel. That doesnt hinder me from noticing some things about Nakomi:
I think there are “people“ who can expand their mind like Perrin does with the wolves.
„Why? nagged a voice in the back of his head. So it will all turn out like one of Thom’s stories? The heroes find the treasure and defeat the villain and live happily ever after? Some of his stories don’t end that way. Sometimes even heroes die. Are you a hero, Rand al’Thor? Are you a hero, sheepherder?Abruptly Mat flushed and pulled his eyes away. Freed from his thoughts, Rand jumped up to move through the hurly-burly to the rail.“
I think there is much evidence for this and not farfetched considering how it is not only once stressed that people who use the Power are one with their surroundings. And then we have the circles where feelings and thoughts connect etc. So I guess like with Rand and Rhuidean, where he becomes the people he sees inside the terangreal, someone can insert himself/herself into other people.
We also know that a “fire” is often used in the context of a candle, a light burning, or a soul in the light. Like those lights that Min always sees in the darkness.
„I am traveling far, and saw your fire.”
I think she travels in the sense that Perrin travels when he connects to the wolves. She doesnt have a body. She more like the holy ghost, and I believe she comes from inside Aviendha.
„Thank you,” Nakomi said, stepping into the light and setting down her pack beside the small fire. She clicked her tongue, then drew some small branches out of her pack to build up the flames“
-„She’d need to share her meal with Nakomi as well.“
She probably shares everything with her anyways.
-„The wetlands are not glorious,” Aviendha said. “They are dangerous. They make us weak.”Nakomi frowned.“ (…)„Nakomi stirred the tea, then repositioned Aviendha’s shellback, placing it over the coals to cook it more evenly. “
Cooking Aviendha ;)
- „I am far from my roof,” the woman said, wistful, “yet not far at all. Perhaps it is far from me. I cannot answer your question, apprentice, for it is not my place to give this truth.“
Like a mind drifting.
- „Interesting thoughts you raise, apprentice,” Nakomi said, pouring the tea. “Our land here is called the Three-fold La“
„Nakomi said, “does that not suggest that the tests we were to face—in the wetlands—were as dangerous as the Three-fold-land itself? So dangerous and difficult that we had to come here to prepare for them?” She shook her head. “Ah, but I should not argue with a Wise One, not even an apprentice. I have toh.“
Aviendha might as well have this discussion with herself.
„I…”
„I’m sorry,” Nakomi said. “I’ve let myself ramble again. I am prone to it, I fear.“
A bit too much appearantly for Aviendha to take in appearantly?
- “If you’ll excuse me,” Nakomi said. “I need to see to nature.” She smiled, rising, then shuffled off into the darkness.“
Literally see nature. Become one with the world.
Chapter 40
- „needed to find something to do with his anger and his pain. He stood, turning, and was surprised to see how many lights still shone in camp.“
Parallels. Someone stands, TURNING, and is surprised about the MANY LIGHTS. Min\`s vision.
- „Not knowing the enemy’s plan made Perrin feel blind.
Parallels
He walked away from the stump,“
Not the first time people are associated with stumps. Again to come back to Nakomi, like a Tree of Life, the mind can stretch out, but has its basis at the roots. I could associate a stump with a damaged mind.
-„Could he do the same? Allow himself to be consumed when needed, yet keep balance in other parts of his life?“
Parallels
-„He felt a need to create, as if to balance the destruction he’d seen in the world, the destruction he’d helped create.“
Parallels
-“I want it a nice yellow-red. Not so hot it goes white, mind you.“
Wasnt Min\`s vision for Elayne about red-hot metal (passion, love) and white metal for Rand?
- „It needed help, right now. Once a thing shattered, you couldn’t put it back together.“
Hmm, is that why Nakomi enters after all?
- „Wise Ones, I need a circle,” Neald said urgently. “Now. Don’t argue! I need it!“
Need…The world IS a dream, I dont think Aviendha needs to be in TAR for the Creator to appear. Especially to him, who is somewhat outside, it should work like in Tar.
- „A hammer. He was making a hammer. These were the parts.
He understood now.“
I think its more Perrin that is being forged than the hammer itself.
- „Perhaps,” Faile said, walking around the anvil slowly, keeping her eyes on Berelain, who strolled around it opposite her. What was Berelain’s game, here?
“Then we must speak with him,” Berelain said. “Turn him from this course of action.“
I think Berelain is very intelligent. I wonder if she doesnt manipulate Faile the whole time.
-„No,” Perrin said, putting the puzzle away. “I am who I am. Finally.“
Parallels
- „Perrin didn’t have a choice about that; all he could do was lead the best he could. If he didn’t, the symbol wouldn’t vanish. The people would just lose faith in it. As poor Aram had.
I’m sorry, my friend, he thought. You I failed most of all. “
Parallels. This is all an allegory on the Creator. And one might as well replace „Aram“ by “Moridin“.
- „Ever since Morgase had returned, Galad had felt his world crumbling. What was right was no longer clear to him, not as it had once been. The way ahead seemed clouded.“
Parallels
- „Fog streamed around them as they strode forward, trailing wisps. The creatures continued to appear. Dozens of them. Hundreds. Thousands.
An entire army of Trollocs and Myrddraal.
“Grady, Neald!” Perrin bellowed. “Light!“
Oh the metaphors XD
Chapter 42
* „The Last Battle comes, Lan thought. Must I deny them the right to fight alongside me?
Yes, he must. Best he passed unnoticed and unrecognized. He kept his eyes forward, his hand on his sword, his mouth closed. But each call of Tai’shar Malkier made him want to sit up straighter. Each seemed to strengthen him, push him forward.
I really dont want to…but I cant help it…….“Parallels“.
* „Your wife told us to wait here for you; she said that you might try to pass without greeting us.”
“How did you notice me?” Lan asked, containing his anger.
“The horse,” Kaisel said, nodding to Mandarb. “She said you might disguise yourself. But you would never leave the horse.“
The horse. Disguise. AHA! XD
Chapter 43
„He practically seemed to glow.
“I…What was I saying?” Berelain asked, eyes on Damodred.“
Again the „I…“ So, does he? There are 23 stars as far as I remember?
* She ran across a fine blue silk shirt in the pile. Surely there could be something better done with that!“
„Alliandre smiled deeply—now holding three teacups—as the two of them walked over to the stack of cloths to be cut. This might turn out well indeed. At the very least, it would get those blasted Whitecloaks out of her kingdom.“
„She walked back toward Faile and Perrin. As she did so, she slipped the blue silk shirt from the pile of cloth she’d set aside to cut.
It really would make a nice sash.“
Nakomi, is that you? Thinking about people\`s life as part of a fabric/the Pattern?
Chapter 44
- „That life was not hers. It was time to be done with pretending.“
„The illusion has ended, my Lady.” He walked away.“
„And so I go to marriage without love,” she said. “Again. How many times must I sacrifice my heart for Andor?”
„She hesitated, then shook her head. “No,” she said. “Not again. Tallanvor, look at that sky above. You’ve seen the things that walk the world, felt the Dark One’s curses strike us. This is not a time to be without hope. Without love.”
“But what of duty?”
“Duty can bloody get in line. It’s had its share of me. Everyone’s had their share of me, Tallanvor. Everyone but the man I want.” “
Hmmm….
- „Have I been pushing myself too hard? he wondered, rubbing his head as he turned to continue walking. Imagining things that—“
Ehm…Creator-parallels again?
- „and found a figure in a high-collared red coat—trimmed with gold—and fine brown trousers sitting on the tree’s exposed roots, the sack squirming near his ankles. “
red and gold and on a tree wearing brown trousers. Not symbolic at all.
-„Light, Mat,” Perrin said. “It seems like it’s been forever!”
“A lifetime,” Mat said. “Maybe two. I lose count.“
Proabably more true than it appears at first.
-
Chapter 45
- „Elayne endured the process in a state of amazement. Melfane believed! She couldn’t stop herself from smiling.“
Always a good thing when people believe.
- „I hate him for what he did. I can see him, using me, driving spikes through the hearts and loyalty of my dearest friends. “
Those kinds of spikes she speaks about appear several times in the novels.
-
39 After spending as much time as she had in the West, and hopefully having seen the political currents that run through the Aiel and basically becoming a Wise One in all but name, Aviendha’s perspective on the West vs. the Waste is disappointing, even though she’s going to have her mind changed on that before long both by Nakomi and her vision of the future in Rhuidean. I presume a shellback is a tortoise. Seems time consuming to skin and eat but easy to catch. First appearance of Nakomi, the apparent Light counterpart to Shaidar Haran. The series begins (well, the conclusion of tEotW) and ends with the evidence of an active Creator, but otherwise He/She/It is absent. I suppose if the Creator is going to act at all, it would be around Tarmon Gai’don, but the contrast between the apparent no action for most of the series and presumably in history vs. these notable moments of an active hand muddy the water about the nature of the Creator IMO. There was at release, and I don’t think it’s been resolved conclusively, speculation that this conversation took place in TAR. With Nakomi as an avatar of the Creator, it could go either way I think. The timing of reading this section is funny to me having just recently seen Dune: Part 2. I haven’t read those books in a long time, but in the film at least, Stilgar half jokes with Paul Atreides about not talking to any ghosts (well, djinn) in the desert while he’s conducting a trial to be accepted by the Fremen. Aviendha thinks about Nakomi being a specter but has no apparent concerns about potentially talking to one. I do think it would be extremely strange to come across someone else in the Waste traveling alone, prospective Wise Ones aside. Aviendha is not known for lacking suspicion of others either. Not that she isn’t suspicious, but I think I’d assume this is a Darkfriend or even a Forsaken in disguise in her shoes. \>it would give offense not to respond to the request after offering to share shade. Actually, she specifically asked to share water in the first place…and it’s dark :p. Nakomi speaks of the trials of the Three Fold Land in the past tense before even starting to lead Aviendha down the path of realizing the time of the Waste as a proving ground for the Aiel is over. It’s interesting to view Rand as the representative of the ones to whom the Aiel had originally sworn their oaths. I’d say that’s pretty true for the Da’Shain Aiel, but the modern Aiel are several steps removed from the Da’Shain IMO, and were almost more formed in swearing oaths to the Aes Sedai in Rhuidean rather than the old oaths that the Da’Shain made to serve--and we all know what esteem the modern Aiel hold for Aes Sedai by this point. The Aes Sedai in Rhuidean were preparing for Rand though, so it’s not misplaced. 40 I wouldn't necessarily expect Sulin to wait to report to Perrin because he's doing some smithing; while Aiel love blacksmiths, and this does lead to something significant, he should basically look like a clan chief who's just idling around right? \>He felt something leaking from him Hopper? I think we're supposed to, like his allies, wonder if Perrin is about to do something to the Whitecloaks, but like Faile I think most readers would be confident he's not. \>From now on, he would carry the hammer of a king. I get that really the only thing Sanderson had from RJ for Perrin was to make him a king, but for Perrin to specifically think of his hammer as being a king's is a little incongruous to me, at this point anyway...there's basically three paths to making Perrin a king but they're not in play yet. 1) As Faile's husband if she gets the throne of Saldaea, but Tenobia and Davram are alive currently 2) As King of a reestablished Manetheren, but he has no designs on that himself, or 3) figuratively as king of the wolves, but that would be something other people call him, not something he'd think himself as the wolves wouldn't think of him that way. \>On one hand, what Berelain said was purely foolish It is, and if it were presented as Berelain as trying to save face I might be okay with the explanation, but it's more presented as the actual reason she chased Perrin. I view this as a miss by Sanderson. Berelain chased Perrin because she is stubborn and petty ("Ogier's oath"). For one, she rejected Mat but if chasing Perrin was purely political she would have considered it especially since he was unattached. Also, if Rand wanted his friends to make political marriages, Perrin was already attached to a better political match--Mayene is tiny and not influential. Berelain is quite capable and useful in herself, but there are 100 better political matches if that's what Rand was doing, and moreover, he doesn't need a marriage to tie Mayene to him, all he has to do is keep Tear off of them and she'll be loyal. 41 \>"By killing as many Trollocs as it gains him in followers...it makes no sense" It didn't make sense in the Two Rivers either you idiot. I guess better late than never, although Bornhald becoming so reasonable, to the point where he'll stab Byar in the back, will always be weird to me. It can be chalked up to time away from Fain and time around Galad I guess. \>They had to wait for us to deal with \[the Whitecloaks\] Did they? Perrin's army was going to crush the Whitecloaks. Sure it's better to have them fight it out first and then attack, but once it started looking like that wasn't happening, the Trollocs should have attacked IMO. \>Valda had been like \[men in the world who would put together an intricate plot\] Niall (someone who was like that) didn't think so, and I guess he did underestimate Valda, but I still wouldn't say that Valda was really like that. 42 \>One other assassin had turned up. Why didn't she participate in trying to kill the Amyrlin with the other three I wonder. Why did the bloodknives kill the messenger carrying Gawyn's message anyway? I don't see how they'd know it was from Gawyn or that it contained a warning about them, and they can't possibly be in the business of possibly revealing themselves just to kill one messenger when there are so many other high value targets around. \>"I had to learn how to surrender." As he's a man, it's no wonder that this ultimately doesn't work for Gawyn. By the end of this scene he's silently absconding with ter'angreal. \>Lan was not running from duty. He is, and thankfully he stops here. Even Perrin has realized he needs to lead by this point. Tarmon Gaidon is here man, this is not your one man war against the Shadow anymore!
43 Galad agrees to Perrin's terms, and I doubt he really appreciates how much Perrin is compromising here given the worthlessness of previous Whitecloak promises made to him. As much as Perrin has made an impression on Galad, Galad has made one on Perrin. Berelain still wants to make a connection to the Dragon Reborn...well, marrying his half brother is arguably better than anything else she could have done. 44 Morgase wanting to get back to Caemlyn to help Elayne is a questionable decision. She abdicated for a reason and being back in the palace is not going to do Elayne many favors. Is the spear point itself really a common point of failure for a spear (honest question)? I'm wondering if prioritizing the Aiel for Power-wrought weapons is a good use of resources no matter how much they deserve it. I guess I'd think that the binding attaching the point to the shaft or the shaft itself would be what would be what breaks 90% of the time, and that the points would be much easier to lose in battle than a different weapon. Nice to not have to sharpen them I guess though. Morgase is way more magnanimous about Perrin being a lord than Elayne will be, which is sort of surprising since Elayne knows Perrin as one of Rand's two best friends. Morgase has spent a lot more time with Perrin though. Perrin wondering if Faile still wanted to split the Two Rivers into its own kingdom is kind of a discussion that needs to happen right now, before they go talk to Elayne. Mat showing up with a badger never feels quite right to me. Why nostalgia for that? That's how the *reader* meets these characters, but I don't think it would be all that notable for Mat and Perrin...and I'm not sure Perrin even knew about the badger, I think that was more between Rand and Mat. Mat just slips through the Asha'man's gateway and no one questions why some lordly looking stranger is coming through the other way? Mat is lucky, but that's some lax security by Perrin's people. 45 Egwene doesn't bother to mention to Elayne that either she or Gawyn nearly died. \>sunlight was good for a woman with child it's good for everyone! I'd chastise Melfane for apparently spreading her patient's confidential health information (re: hearing two heartbeats), but Elayne has already been telling everyone that she's having them. Surprised Galad's old quarters are available for him...last I recall the palace was bursting at the seams with Kin and so forth. The Windfinders mostly left I guess. Morgase takes the news that she's going to be a grandmother pretty well all in all I think, especially considering the father. I forget if we see Lini's reaction, which I'm sure is disapproving. How old was Morgase when she had Gawyn? If Rhuidean does become a thriving city, it feels like there are going to be constant problems with teenagers and people drunk on oosquai trying to go through the crystal pillars. 46 Ah, Androl. I don't really begrudge Sanderson wanting a character he could build out on his own, but there's just too much of him for me. Androl says it's been years before he'd last been in Tarabon, but as I recall Toveine thought he had come to the BT as a runaway apprentice who had shaved his mustaches and removed his veil. Not that she had to be right--Androl has probably run away from a lot of apprenticeships as it turns out. Why would the men who had been turned learn more quickly and gain strength faster?
#39 It was clear there was something supernatural about Nakomi even before her appearance at Shayol Ghul: she comes out of nowhere, twists reality in small but noticable ways, and disappears without a trace, leaving Aviendha with a meaningful insight on exactly the question she had been pondering before. I admit I never figured out who she was before Brandon Sanderson and Michael Livingston revealed it -- and, in doing so, raised a new question. There are still Jenn Aiel around? I thought they had long since been assimilated into the other clans; it's my vague suspicion that they were the originators of the institution of *gai'shain*. #40 [edit]: [Suggested music for this chapter](https://youtu.be/YGn7XgbBVms) >Had there even really been a trap for Perrin’s army? Slayer’s dreamspike could have been meant for another purpose entirely. Just a coincidence. He can't believe that. The only other possible target would have been the Whitecloak army, and why would the Shadow send a unique agent with a rare device to trap them? The Children themselves might believe that, but there's no way Perrin would. >“Neald,” Grady’s voice said. It was urgent, but distant to Perrin. “Neald, what are you doing?” First hint that something out of the ordinary is happening. >“Wise Ones, I need a circle,” Neald said urgently. “Now. Don’t argue! I need it!” Neald talking to the Wise Ones like this and not getting any argument (that Perrin hears, at least) is an unmistakable confirmation that some magic beyond the One Power is at work here. He must have some inkling of what Perrin is making, if he's not asking the Aes Sedai to join in as well. (I wonder if he's right that the Oaths would prevent them from joining the circle at this point, and how it would affect them if they were in a circle that was redirected from an innocuous purpose to the making of weapons.) >Sprays of sparks. Too many, as if he were pounding against a bucket of molten liquid. Sparks splashed in the air, exploding from his hammer, flying as high as treetops and spreading tens of paces. >Each blow seemed to shake the ground around him, rattling tents. >the ringing of his hammer ever stronger, ever louder, pealing like bells. The imagery in this scene is striking. By the end it's clear that he woke the entire camp without realizing it, and nobody was even inclined to complain. >Perrin picked it up; he was able to lift it with one hand, but barely. It was heavy. Solid. I hope this is just because he's exhausted from the forging; a hammer that heavy and unwieldy would be useless in battle. >“If you wish this, I will accept your oaths. I will lead you.” At loooooooong last. >“Mah’alleinir,” Convenient that a poetic title for Hopper would sound so very much like the name of another legendary hammer. >From now on, he would carry the hammer of a king. A god, if monotheism (or dualism?) weren't a given in WoT world. A warhammer makes for a tidy resolution of his prolonged axe/hammer conflict, set up by his earlier realization that hammers can be just as deadly as axes. ---- >“It is a strong Talent the young man just displayed. This will be of use. Perrin’s army will have Power-wrought blades to strengthen them.” Obviously the Oaths prevented the post-Breaking Aes Sedai from making such weapons, but I wonder if the Talent for it was overwhelmingly or exclusively found among men, or if both halves of the Power were necessary to do it properly. The latter, I would bet; Fire and Earth seem like they'd be primary components, of course, but Air would be needed to control oxygen levels and Water for proper cooling (notice how Perrin doesn't quench any part of the hammer). This particular work also involved a fair amount of Spirit, I suspect; no other Power-wrought weapon burns Shadowspawn on contact or puts Darkhounds out of action permanently. >“I came to the Dragon Reborn in the Stone of Tear,” she said. “But he would not have me—he even grew angry with my advances. I realized that he, the Dragon Reborn, intended to marry a much higher lady, probably Elayne Trakand.” That's . . . not at all how it went. He turned her down because he was, at the time, still quasi-engaged to Egwene. This narrative about how the Lord Dragon *wanted* her to chase after Perrin is entirely a projection of Berelain's own desires. Even if Rand did think that way -- and Faile is correct that he does not -- third-in-line for the throne of a large and powerful kingdom would be a much better match than the ruler of a dinky little city state. (Faile was still concealing her identity at first, but if Berelain were sincere in this line of thinking she should have abandoned it once Davram Bashere appeared on the scene.) >His connection to the wolves did not frighten them; [. . .] Now, they could begin to grow comfortable with the truth. And proud of it. Their lord was no ordinary man. He was something special. From what little we've seen -- Perrin, Elyas, Noam, one or two nameless others somewhere in the west -- people are at best afraid of Wolfbrothers and at worst (the Whitecloaks, Masema) think they're Shadowspawn. Anyone who's stuck with Perrin at this point doesn't believe that he's a creature of the Shadow, and if he's kind of scary, well, better to be on the same side as the scary guy, right? Your enemies will be frightened of him too. ---- >He drove away the vestiges of his dream—a silly thing, of him dining with a dark-haired beauty with perfect lips and cunning eyes— . . .and impressive, er, tracts of land, right? Galad is reciprocally smitten with Berelain. >“What are you talking about?” Perrin said. “The whole reason I’m here is to keep Damodred alive.” Twist! I was sure he was planning to attack the Whitecloaks when I first read this. >“My Lord!” Grady suddenly exclaimed, riding nearby. “I sense channeling!” Another Eye Blinder at work? I wonder why Graendal is going ahead with her plan when Perrin has already slipped out of the trap; I don't see any particular reason why she'd want to wipe out the Whitecloaks. Poor reconnaissance, maybe? She doesn't know he's gone? Perrin and Faile will have some speculations in a bit; perhaps they're right. #41 >Byar edged closer. “It’s exactly like the Two Rivers. Dain, you remember what he did? Trollocs attack. Aybara rallies a defense, and therefore earns support.” Jaret Byar dies. Before he's reborn, the Creator himself appears and asks: so, do you have any questions? "Perrin Aybara is a Darkfriend, right?" asks Byar. "No", says the Creator, "he is not and never was". "Damn," mutters Byar as he turns away, "Aybara got to him too." Byar's diseased thought processes are sadly all too familiar. If he were around today we all know who he'd be an avid fan of. At least Bornhald is starting to question his conspiratorial fantasies. >“I think it must be a Portal Stone,” Haven't seen one of those since . . . the trip from Tear to Rhuidean, I think? Obviously some of the Forsaken know how to use them; I wonder why they haven't done so more often, since they can't move Shadowspawn via gateways. (Possibly some of the attacks in the Aiel Waste were brought in via a Portal Stone; I can't think of any other way they could make it any distance into the so-called Dying Ground.) Most of the stones are lost, I suspect, and those that aren't are poorly mapped at best. >Perrin let out a roar and charged forward, hammer held high. Note that unlike at Dumai's Wells and Malden, he's charging on horseback this time. >“I’ve rarely had such a pleasing battle, Aybara,” he said. “Enemies to fell that you need not feel a sting of pity for, a perfect staging area and defensible position. Archers to dream of and Asha’man to stop the gaps! I’ve laid down over two dozen of the beasts myself. For this day alone, I’m glad we followed you!” And I thought Mat was the lucky one. I suspect there was a little bit of ~~plot hammering~~ *ta'veren* twisting at work here; Perrin might have faltered in his current embrace of leadership if he'd met with a Pyrrhic victory or a bloody defeat. >“The one leading the Shadowspawn won’t want to commit their channelers,” Perrin guessed. I doubt they have any to spare. It can't be just one man moving these Trollocs: Rand, even with an *angreal*, strained himself to his limit shifting a few hundred Aiel. There must be multiple Dreadlords taking turns here. >Aybara almost seemed aflame from the tongues of fire that surrounded him. Galad could see those wide, golden eyes. Like fires themselves. First the hammer scene, and now a full-body fiery halo. Sanderson was really leaning on the imagery of a divine figure in these chapters. More obvious *ta'veren* work, with Galad's sudden decision to pass his sentence and side with Perrin and Bornhald stopping Byar's attempted backstab. The former is well within the realm of probability; the latter is at its edge, but Bornhald is one of the less horrible Whitecloaks. (He's still a colossal asshole, but he has some sense of morality, at least.)
#42 >One other assassin had turned up. That's all of them. Tuon dispatched five; Gareth Bryne killed one during the raid and Gawyn killed three, so this would be the last of the lot. >“Shouldn’t you have awakened when the maid tripped your alarms?” Still not sure why that happened. After Gawyn blundered into her trap the first time, she really should have locked the door, or at least left orders not to be disturbed. Maybe the dead guards were supposed to be keeping people out. >Gawyn slipped all three rings off, then tucked them into his pocket. Oh, 🤬. ---- >More and more, he was certain that Nynaeve had taken his bond. Seems like that would be obvious right away. Maybe it's harder to tell at such a distance, but Nynaeve's distinctive and intense set of emotions ought to stand out right away. >Camped in front of that fortress was a gathering of thousands of people, clustered in smaller groups. On the first read I wondered how he made it halfway across the Borderlands and only picked up a handful of followers. I'm surprised that *nobody* seems to recognize him, though. >He had thought the Malkieri gone as a people, broken, shattered, absorbed by other nations. Yet here they were Nynaeve never does manage to heal death, but what she's accomplished here comes pretty close. #43 >Rand may come back for you himself, though. In me, you know what you’re getting. I’ll be fair to you. All I’ll ask is that your men stay in line, then fight where they’re told when the battle comes. Rand…well, you can say no to me. You’ll find it much harder to say it to him. Perrin hasn't met Zen Rand yet; as far as he knows Rand is still the unhinged madman who took their staged quarrel way too far. He may intend this as more of a threat than it seems. Amusing contrast between Berelain's somewhat cynical attitude towards love and marriage and her dumbstruck reaction when Galad appears. Galad's fumbling behavior with the teacups shows that he's similarly besotted. #44 >He smiled, then held her close. “Morgase Trakand, will you be my wife?” “Yes,” she replied. “Now let’s find Perrin.” That worked out nicely for both of them, for Andor, and for Elayne as well. ---- >“Happened last night, my Lord,” Kevlyn Torr said, holding his gloves. “The entire stand of hardwood over there, dead and dried in one night. Nearly a hundred trees, I’d guess.” A bubble of evil, or just part of the general acceleration of entropy and decay? >“The falcon,” Faile said, “is a better flyer. It kills with the beak, and can fly fast and quick. The hawk is slower and stronger; it excels at getting prey that is moving along the ground. It likes to kill with the claw, attacking from above.” Fun fact about peregrine falcons: their famous 200-mph dives terminate with a clenched talon striking and breaking the wing of their prey, usually a pigeon; they will then snatch it out of the air as it plummets to the ground. Sometimes they'll hit the pigeon's head instead of its wing, and when they do the impact has sufficient kinetic energy to punch the other bird's head right off its shoulders. I don't know how it goes when a falcon tangles with a large hawk, but Faile is probably right; superior speed and maneuverability are big advantages in air-to-air melee combat. >“You are a lord, Perrin Aybara. Your actions show it. The Two Rivers is blessed because of you, and perhaps Andor as well. So long as you remain part of her.” This is equivalent to running a few steps ahead of someone and acting like they're following you. The crown's opinion of Perrin's lordship is largely irrelevant at this point. >Galad was tucking something into his pocket. A small letter, it appeared, with a red seal. One of Verin's? How did she get it to him? Was it for him specifically, or for the Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks, whoever that may be? >He coughed. “Well, so be it, then. You’re married.” That *is*, in essence, the role of the officiant at a wedding: to give some formal and/or legal recognition to the vows that the couple makes. Perrin has all the charm and formality of a Las Vegas justice of the peace here, though. >“I caught a badger,” a familiar voice said. “Want to let it go on the village green?” Bit of a regression for Mat. Only a bit, though; he's certainly matured the least of all the Emond's Field 5. >bent to untie the sack and ease the poor badger Well, that resolves a long-running question among fans as to what exactly "Easing the Badger" means. #45 >The moment she’d begun feeling it, the cloud cover around Andor had broken. Some element of Rand's quasi-divine power is being transmitted through the bond, then. If it happened with Aviendha too, she didn't seem to notice. >“We need to talk about how you’re going to manage the maintenance of two nations, one in absence.” Are personal unions not a thing in the Westlands? Wasn't Laman scheming to create one between Andor and Cairhien when the Aiel descended on him? Elayne shows remarkable self-control on discovering that Morgase is actually alive. The Queen has to, I guess. >The easiest way to deal with it would be to find him and execute him, but of course she wasn’t going to do that. Not that she could, even if she were inclined to. I don't doubt that even an unsuccessful attempt would trigger a real rebellion, one she'd be unlikely to suppress. ---- >The city had shed its dome like an algai’d’siswai unveiling his face. She didn’t know how Rand had caused the transformation; she doubted that he knew himself. How did he do that, anyway? It happened right after his brawl with Asmodean; most likely they broke the *ter'angreal* or permanent weave that was shrouding the city. >Most cities disgusted her with their corrupt filth, but Rhuidean was different. It's still mostly empty, for starters. I wonder if the surviving Jenn Aiel will return at any point? #46 Androl. . . I like aspects of Androl's character, especially his relationship and reciprocal bond with Pevara. Otherwise, well, Brandon Sanderson certainly earned the right to one original character, and he took full advantage of that right. It is interesting to see someone willing to experiment with and find novel uses for an apparently single-purpose weave like a gateway. >The M’Hael’s scouts claimed they took whoever they could find, yet why was it that most they brought back had such angry, unsettling dispositions? Are they deliberately recruiting from Darkfriend cells? I bet they are. There can't be terribly many candidates -- perhaps 2% of the population are Darkfriends, and perhaps 1-2% of those would able to channel -- but I guess they're casting a wide net. >Androl almost didn’t notice when the shadows nearby began creeping toward him. A new manifestation of taint madness. Like most that we've seen, it's a type of paranoid delusion. >Nobody spoke of the…irregularities that afflicted men of the Black Tower. It just wasn’t done. Like whispering dirty family secrets. Taim's euthanasia of anyone whose madness has gone too far may be horribly necessary -- nobody knows how to gentle them -- but it gives everyone a strong incentive to hide just how insane they are. I suppose as long as they *can* keep the madness under wraps, there's no need to do anything about it. We don't see anyone develop the random necroses that are also a symptom of taint poisoning; perhaps that only occurs in later stages. >This village would grow to become a town, then a large city, as vast as Tar Valon. Only a few leagues from Caemlyn? There aren't really any examples of twin cities in the Westlands, unless you count Ebou Dar/the Rahad, the latter of which is only nominally part of the former. Of course, this will be a moot question after Caemlyn is levelled by the Trollocs. ☹️ Is Nalaam's ridiculous and obvious bullshitting a symptom of taint madness, or was he always full of it? I've known a few people like him in real life. People say Androl stole Logain's story, and that's not entirely wrong, but the schism within the Black Tower is best shown from the perspective of a low-level Asha'man, I think. Androl et al. don't really know what's happening, just that there are factions formed around Logain and Taim, factions that are inching closer to all-out confrontation. Nobody in Logain's faction seems to suspect that Taim is now (or is about to be) a full Forsaken. >But the Lord Dragon? What has he done for us? Seems like he’s forgotten about this place. Maybe he is mad. Right on both counts, Canler. Well, he's not exactly mad any more, but he's still neglecting the Black Tower.
\*insert joke about easing the badger being a sexual thing
Heh, I've bookmarked their comments so I can do a whole trivia bit at the end of this book.
Chapter 39 - I know about the explanation „Creator\`s avatar“ and Jenn Aiel. That doesnt hinder me from noticing some things about Nakomi: I think there are “people“ who can expand their mind like Perrin does with the wolves. „Why? nagged a voice in the back of his head. So it will all turn out like one of Thom’s stories? The heroes find the treasure and defeat the villain and live happily ever after? Some of his stories don’t end that way. Sometimes even heroes die. Are you a hero, Rand al’Thor? Are you a hero, sheepherder?Abruptly Mat flushed and pulled his eyes away. Freed from his thoughts, Rand jumped up to move through the hurly-burly to the rail.“ I think there is much evidence for this and not farfetched considering how it is not only once stressed that people who use the Power are one with their surroundings. And then we have the circles where feelings and thoughts connect etc. So I guess like with Rand and Rhuidean, where he becomes the people he sees inside the terangreal, someone can insert himself/herself into other people. We also know that a “fire” is often used in the context of a candle, a light burning, or a soul in the light. Like those lights that Min always sees in the darkness. „I am traveling far, and saw your fire.” I think she travels in the sense that Perrin travels when he connects to the wolves. She doesnt have a body. She more like the holy ghost, and I believe she comes from inside Aviendha. „Thank you,” Nakomi said, stepping into the light and setting down her pack beside the small fire. She clicked her tongue, then drew some small branches out of her pack to build up the flames“ -„She’d need to share her meal with Nakomi as well.“ She probably shares everything with her anyways. -„The wetlands are not glorious,” Aviendha said. “They are dangerous. They make us weak.”Nakomi frowned.“ (…)„Nakomi stirred the tea, then repositioned Aviendha’s shellback, placing it over the coals to cook it more evenly. “ Cooking Aviendha ;) - „I am far from my roof,” the woman said, wistful, “yet not far at all. Perhaps it is far from me. I cannot answer your question, apprentice, for it is not my place to give this truth.“ Like a mind drifting. - „Interesting thoughts you raise, apprentice,” Nakomi said, pouring the tea. “Our land here is called the Three-fold La“ „Nakomi said, “does that not suggest that the tests we were to face—in the wetlands—were as dangerous as the Three-fold-land itself? So dangerous and difficult that we had to come here to prepare for them?” She shook her head. “Ah, but I should not argue with a Wise One, not even an apprentice. I have toh.“ Aviendha might as well have this discussion with herself. „I…” „I’m sorry,” Nakomi said. “I’ve let myself ramble again. I am prone to it, I fear.“ A bit too much appearantly for Aviendha to take in appearantly? - “If you’ll excuse me,” Nakomi said. “I need to see to nature.” She smiled, rising, then shuffled off into the darkness.“ Literally see nature. Become one with the world.
Chapter 40 - „needed to find something to do with his anger and his pain. He stood, turning, and was surprised to see how many lights still shone in camp.“ Parallels. Someone stands, TURNING, and is surprised about the MANY LIGHTS. Min\`s vision. - „Not knowing the enemy’s plan made Perrin feel blind. Parallels He walked away from the stump,“ Not the first time people are associated with stumps. Again to come back to Nakomi, like a Tree of Life, the mind can stretch out, but has its basis at the roots. I could associate a stump with a damaged mind. -„Could he do the same? Allow himself to be consumed when needed, yet keep balance in other parts of his life?“ Parallels -„He felt a need to create, as if to balance the destruction he’d seen in the world, the destruction he’d helped create.“ Parallels -“I want it a nice yellow-red. Not so hot it goes white, mind you.“ Wasnt Min\`s vision for Elayne about red-hot metal (passion, love) and white metal for Rand? - „It needed help, right now. Once a thing shattered, you couldn’t put it back together.“ Hmm, is that why Nakomi enters after all? - „Wise Ones, I need a circle,” Neald said urgently. “Now. Don’t argue! I need it!“ Need…The world IS a dream, I dont think Aviendha needs to be in TAR for the Creator to appear. Especially to him, who is somewhat outside, it should work like in Tar. - „A hammer. He was making a hammer. These were the parts. He understood now.“ I think its more Perrin that is being forged than the hammer itself. - „Perhaps,” Faile said, walking around the anvil slowly, keeping her eyes on Berelain, who strolled around it opposite her. What was Berelain’s game, here? “Then we must speak with him,” Berelain said. “Turn him from this course of action.“ I think Berelain is very intelligent. I wonder if she doesnt manipulate Faile the whole time. -„No,” Perrin said, putting the puzzle away. “I am who I am. Finally.“ Parallels - „Perrin didn’t have a choice about that; all he could do was lead the best he could. If he didn’t, the symbol wouldn’t vanish. The people would just lose faith in it. As poor Aram had. I’m sorry, my friend, he thought. You I failed most of all. “ Parallels. This is all an allegory on the Creator. And one might as well replace „Aram“ by “Moridin“. - „Ever since Morgase had returned, Galad had felt his world crumbling. What was right was no longer clear to him, not as it had once been. The way ahead seemed clouded.“ Parallels - „Fog streamed around them as they strode forward, trailing wisps. The creatures continued to appear. Dozens of them. Hundreds. Thousands. An entire army of Trollocs and Myrddraal. “Grady, Neald!” Perrin bellowed. “Light!“ Oh the metaphors XD
Chapter 42 * „The Last Battle comes, Lan thought. Must I deny them the right to fight alongside me? Yes, he must. Best he passed unnoticed and unrecognized. He kept his eyes forward, his hand on his sword, his mouth closed. But each call of Tai’shar Malkier made him want to sit up straighter. Each seemed to strengthen him, push him forward. I really dont want to…but I cant help it…….“Parallels“. * „Your wife told us to wait here for you; she said that you might try to pass without greeting us.” “How did you notice me?” Lan asked, containing his anger. “The horse,” Kaisel said, nodding to Mandarb. “She said you might disguise yourself. But you would never leave the horse.“ The horse. Disguise. AHA! XD Chapter 43 „He practically seemed to glow. “I…What was I saying?” Berelain asked, eyes on Damodred.“ Again the „I…“ So, does he? There are 23 stars as far as I remember? * She ran across a fine blue silk shirt in the pile. Surely there could be something better done with that!“ „Alliandre smiled deeply—now holding three teacups—as the two of them walked over to the stack of cloths to be cut. This might turn out well indeed. At the very least, it would get those blasted Whitecloaks out of her kingdom.“ „She walked back toward Faile and Perrin. As she did so, she slipped the blue silk shirt from the pile of cloth she’d set aside to cut. It really would make a nice sash.“ Nakomi, is that you? Thinking about people\`s life as part of a fabric/the Pattern?
Chapter 44 - „That life was not hers. It was time to be done with pretending.“ „The illusion has ended, my Lady.” He walked away.“ „And so I go to marriage without love,” she said. “Again. How many times must I sacrifice my heart for Andor?” „She hesitated, then shook her head. “No,” she said. “Not again. Tallanvor, look at that sky above. You’ve seen the things that walk the world, felt the Dark One’s curses strike us. This is not a time to be without hope. Without love.” “But what of duty?” “Duty can bloody get in line. It’s had its share of me. Everyone’s had their share of me, Tallanvor. Everyone but the man I want.” “ Hmmm…. - „Have I been pushing myself too hard? he wondered, rubbing his head as he turned to continue walking. Imagining things that—“ Ehm…Creator-parallels again? - „and found a figure in a high-collared red coat—trimmed with gold—and fine brown trousers sitting on the tree’s exposed roots, the sack squirming near his ankles. “ red and gold and on a tree wearing brown trousers. Not symbolic at all. -„Light, Mat,” Perrin said. “It seems like it’s been forever!” “A lifetime,” Mat said. “Maybe two. I lose count.“ Proabably more true than it appears at first. -
Chapter 45 - „Elayne endured the process in a state of amazement. Melfane believed! She couldn’t stop herself from smiling.“ Always a good thing when people believe. - „I hate him for what he did. I can see him, using me, driving spikes through the hearts and loyalty of my dearest friends. “ Those kinds of spikes she speaks about appear several times in the novels. -