Hello and welcome to this week’s installment of Reading the Wheel of Time. We have tricks with knives and tricks with silver arrows, a new hint about the Forsaken’s plan for Rand, and difficult, painful days both for Nynaeve and for Liandrin. Let’s get to it!
Chapter 33 opens with Nynaeve standing blindfolded, leaning against a board while Thom practices knife throwing. She curses herself for agreeing to participate in this, focusing on her annoyance and what she will do to Thom and to Valan Luca if she is so much as nicked. When it’s over she snatches off the scarf and marches over to them, but Luca immediately starts complimenting her beauty and bravery, and going on about how he will call the act “Rose Among Thorns.” Nynaeve tells him that she is no braver than she has to be, mollified a little until Luca again brings up the subject of the red dress he wants her to wear. She explodes at him again; she is definitely not going to wear such a revealing dress in public. She’s not planning to actually perform in any case; she only agreed to the practice to get Luca to stop whining about it.
The man was nothing if not deft at knowing when to change the subject. “What happened here?” he asked, suddenly all smooth solicitude.
She flinched as he touched her puffy eye. It was his bad luck to choose that. He would have done better to continue trying to stuff her into that red dress. “I did not like the way it looked at me in the mirror this morning, so I bit it.”
Her tone and expression are so fierce that Luca draws his hand away as if afraid he’s going to be bitten next, but Nynaeve can see that Thom is trying not to laugh. She’s sure he’ll tell Luca the real story of what happened, since men can never resist gossiping. She snaps at Thom for working in the dusk, and he agrees to only perform the trick in the best light; it’s only after she’s stalked away that she realizes she’s agreed to do the performance, at least by implication. She curses Thom, Luca, and herself in turn, breaking off a weed to slash at everything in her path.
The night before they learned from Egwene that there are Andoran soldiers in Cairhien, trying to claim the Sun Throne for Morgase. Lan had apparently been going off to fight any moment that Moiraine let him out of her sight, and Nynaeve for once wishes that Moiraine would keep him on a shorter leash. Elayne had been disturbed to learn about her mother sending soldiers into Cairhien, but Nynaeve is more concerned over the news about Rand.
According to Egwene, if anyone could identify stolen property in a brigand’s possession, if anyone could swear to seeing him kill anyone or burn so much as a shed, Rand was hanging him. He did not put his hands on the rope, but it was the same thing, and Egwene said he watched every execution with a face cold and hard as the mountains. That was not like him. He had been a gentle boy. Whatever had happened to him in the Waste had been very much for the worse.
But she reminds herself that Rand and his problems are far away, and hers are no closer to being solved. She still can’t remember the name of the town where the Blue Sisters were supposed to be… if they were even there anymore. Luca means to cross the river into Ghealdan tomorrow, and the town, Samara, is where the Prophet is. His followers and their tents have already overwhelmed the place, hence Luca’s obsession with having the biggest entertainment he can.
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But on this side of the river are several Whitecloak encampments, no boats that can take them away, and no plan. Nynaeve curses everything all over again, including Galad for making them run and Lan for not being there. She passes through the camp, stopping by Aludra’s wagons. Aludra notices her staring and remarks that Cerandin is very skilled with her hands and feet before insisting that “Nana” try some of her new firesticks. Nynaeve observes that she thought they were called strikers, and Aludra admits she isn’t sure which name to choose. She explains some improvements she’s made, and tells Nynaeve that she must try them and tell Aludra what she thinks.
Nynaeve thanks her, carrying the box extremely carefully and thinking privately about how easily the sticks would catch fire on anything, and that flint and steel is much safer. She runs into Juilin next, who informs her that he went into Samara and found Galad there, along with a hundred or so Whitecloaks. She is rude to him, then feels bad and tries to thank him, but he scurries away as though he expects her to hit him.
She returns to their tidy wagon, and Elayne hurriedly hides something under the blankets of her bed as Nynaeve enters. Before Nynaeve can ask what it is, Elayne asks what happened to Nynaeve’s eye.
“Cerandin hit me when I wasn’t looking,” Nynaeve muttered. The remembered taste of boiled catfern and powdered mavinsleaf made her tongue curl. That was not why she had let Elayne go to the last meeting in Tel’aran’rhiod, too. She was not avoiding Egwene. It was just that she made most of the journeys into the World of Dreams between meetings, and it was only fair to give Elayne her chances to go. That was it.
She does admit, though, that she got into a fight with Cerandin after pressing the woman once again about damane and sul’dam; Nynaeve has been convinced that Cerandin knows more than she’s said, and when Nynaeve shook her Cerandin threw her over her shoulder somehow, and the two tussled. She downplays how badly she was outmatched and leaves out the part that Petra made Nynaeve apologize after he broke it up, not just Cerandin. She feels better for having told the truth, but the doubt on Elayne’s face makes her want to either shake her or change the subject.
She pulls the bedclothes back to see what Elayne is hiding and finds the a’dam hidden there. She asks what Elayne is doing and why she feels the need to hide it; Nynaeve doesn’t know why she would want to look at the filthy thing, but if she does it’s her affair. Elayne tells her off for being prim and explains that she thinks that she could make one. Nynaeve is horrified.
“I do not mean to actually make an a’dam.” Elayne held herself erect, chin tilted in that cool way of hers. She sounded offended, and icily calm. “But it is a ter’angreal, and I have puzzled out how it works. I saw you attend at least one lecture on linking. The a’dam links the two women; that is why the sul’dam must be a woman who can channel, too.” She frowned slightly. “It is a strange link, though. Different. Instead of two or more sharing, with one guiding, it is one taking full control, really. I think that is the reason a damane cannot do anything the sul’dam doesn’t want her to. I don’t really believe there is any need for the leash. The collar and bracelet would work as well without it, and in just the same ways.”
Nynaeve observes that Elayne has studied the thing quite seriously for someone who doesn’t intend to make one, and Elayne breaks in, losing her haughtiness in her excitement, to state again that the a’dam is a ter’angreal. If she can make one, that means that she could make other types of ter’angreal, maybe even angreal and sa’angreal, something no one in the Tower has been able to do for thousands of years.
“I never really thought of making anything myself before. Not anything useful. I remember seeing a craftsman once, a man who had made some chairs for the palace. They were not gilded, or elaborately carved—they were meant for the servants’ hall—but I could see the pride in his eyes. Pride in what he had made, a thing well crafted. I would love to feel that, I think.”
She asks Nynaeve to imagine what they could do, what they could make, if they knew what the Forsaken know. Still, she thinks she could figure out how Whitebridge was made, and cuendillar, too.
Nynaeve tells her to slow down, and to stay away from the Seal—who knows what could happen if Elayne went channeling at it. Personally Nynaeve can’t see what all the fuss is over the idea of making things, she never cared much for making anything but poultices and salves. Healing is what is important—any man can build a bridge.
Suddenly she remembers to tell Elayne about Galad being in Samara. Elayne curses, but refuses to let Nynaeve lecture her on her language. Nynaeve doesn’t find any of their options particularly appealing, but Elayne isn’t too worried about Galad finding them as long as they stay near the menagerie; he won’t go near one. He’s alright with hunting animals, and with eating them, but he believes that putting animals in cages is cruel. Privately, Nynaeve thinks that Elayne is just looking for any excuse to stay with Luca’s group so that she can do her highwalk in front of an audience. Which means that Nynaeve will have to do the knife throwing act with Thom.
Nynaeve declares that they are going to take the very first boat that can carry four people, but Elayne gently points out that it would be better to know where they are going. Or they could just go to Tear, if Nynaeve would give up on trying to remember the town.
But Nynaeve is determined to return to Rand with Aes Sedai to support him, not trail into Tear like a refugee looking for his protection. She assures Elayne that she will remember.
Elayne cooks what Nynaeve considers to be a pretty fancy meal, and doesn’t understand why Thom and Juilin always find a reason to eat somewhere else when it’s Nynaeve’s turn to cook. Luca is also there, as he is every night except the ones when Nynaeve cooks, sitting too close and plying her with compliments about her bravery and her beauty and how good she would look in the red dress. Nynaeve is flummoxed, constantly trying to move her stool away from him and “accidentally” elbowing him in the ribs when his mouth gets too close to her ear.
Finally she stands, and Luca looks hopeful before Nynaeve foists helping Thom and Juilin with the dishes onto him. Elayne follows her lead, putting her dish into Luca’s hands after Nynaeve’s and following her into the wagon, and Nynaeve wants to hug her until Elayne starts admonishing her for encouraging Luca.
Stubborn to a fault, the other woman refused to be diverted. “I may be younger than you, but sometimes I think I know more of men than you ever will. For a man like Valan Luca, that coy little flight of yours tonight was only asking him to keep pursuing you. If you would snap his nose off the way you did the first day, he might give up. You don’t tell him to stop, you do not even ask! You kept smiling at him, Nynaeve. What is the man supposed to think? You haven’t smiled at anyone in days!”
Nynaeve points out that she is trying to control her temper, and Elayne laughs and quotes Lini at her. “You cannot hold the sun down at dawn.”
Nynaeve asks for the ring, and Elayne suggests that she should be the one to go tonight. Bair is suspicious of why Nynaeve hasn’t been the one to come to the meetings in some time, and Elayne had to listen to a lecture meant for Nynaeve. But Nynaeve says please, and that she has questions for Birgitte, which isn’t exactly a lie. Elayne tells her to ask Birgitte again if they can tell Egwene the truth. She also wonders why the Wise Ones never come with Egwene, why Egwene doesn’t even want to talk about the Tower in front of them.
“I think they want to avoid the Tower as much as possible.” And wise they were indeed for that. If not for Healing, she would avoid it, and Aes Sedai, too. She was not becoming Aes Sedai; she was just hoping to learn more of Healing. And to help Rand, certainly. “They are free women, Elayne. Even if the Tower was not in the mess it is, would they really want Aes Sedai traipsing through the Waste, scooping them up to carry back to Tar Valon?
Elayne supposes that must be it, and settles down to watch. Nynaeve falls asleep thinking about Luca and how she’s still not going to wear that red dress. Then she is standing in Tel’aran’rhiod, outside the wagons with the lions and bears watching her—the dogs, horses, and s’redit are too domesticated to show up in the World of Dreams. She’s shocked to realize that she’s wearing the red dress and is quick to change it, not wanting Birgitte—whose soldier’s ways sometimes make her “as bad as any man”—to see her in it. But she’s too late, as Birgitte steps out from the shadows, leaning on her silver bow as she asks Nynaeve why she changed. She even goes off on a story about a time she wore a dress just like it to distract some guards while Gaidal snuck by, and later to go dancing with him. Nynaeve cuts her off, tugging her Two Rivers shawl about her shoulders.
Before she can say anything else, however, Birgitte simply says “I have found her,” and Nynaeve forgets everything else. She asks if Birgitte can take her there, if she was spotted, and Birgitte answers that she can take her, but that Nynaeve must stay silent and not take any action against Moghedien. There are other Forsaken.
Nynaeve feels her apprehension and terror mounting, and considers merely asking what Birgitte saw and leaving it at that. But she sees Birgitte looking at her, not doubting her courage but simply waiting, ready to do this thing if Nynaeve asks, and she agrees that she will be silent and not even think of channeling. Birgitte lays a hand on Nynaeve’s arm and they are standing on nothing, surrounded by blackness. Birgitte points downward and she sees Moghedien, also standing on darkness and peering downward, clearly listening intently. And below her, four high-backed chairs sit on a space of white-tiled floor. Nynaeve is surprised that she can hear what the people in the chairs are saying as clearly as if she’d been down there with them. One woman, whose chair is carved to look like naked acrobats, is asking a man with a scar on his face why he is suddenly being a coward, while another woman who Nynaeve can’t see behind her chair of silver and white stone, points out that this has been the plan from the beginning.
The second man was large and darkly handsome, with white wings streaking his temples. He toyed with an ornate golden goblet, leaning back in a throne. […] “He will concentrate on you,” the big man said in a deep voice. “If need be, one close to him will die, plainly at your order. He will come for you. And while he is fixed on you alone, the three of us, linked, will take him. What has changed to alter any of that?”
The scarred man answers that nothing has changed, including his distrust of the others, and insists that he must be part of the link.
The golden-haired woman threw back her head and laughed. “Poor man,” she said mockingly, waving a beringed hand at him. “Do you think he would not notice that you were linked? He has a teacher, remember. A poor one, but not a complete fool. Next you will ask to include enough of those Black Ajah children to take the circle beyond thirteen, so you or Rahvin must have control.”
“If Rahvin trusts us enough to link when he must allow one of us to guide,” the melodious voice said, “you can display an equal trust.” The big man looked into his goblet, and the mist-clad woman smiled faintly. “If you cannot trust us not to turn on you,” the unseen woman continued, “then trust that we will be watching each other too closely to turn. You agreed to all of this, Sammael. Why do you begin to quibble now?”
And then Birgitte touches Nynaeve’s arm and they are back among the wagons again. They discuss what they saw, Birgitte explaining that the woman hidden by her chair was Lanfear, and the other Graendal. She warns Nynaeve not to underestimate Graendal, that she is devious. Then Moghedien’s voice observes that Graendal is not devious enough.
Birgitte turns and nocks an arrow at once, but then goes flying through the air to crash into Nynaeve’s wagon and fall in a crumpled heap. Nynaeve reaches for saidar but finds a wall between her and the True Source before she is seized and dragged upwards by her feet, her clothing disappearing as she’s twisted into a painful shape, hanging in the air like an animal caught in a net. She feels like her spine will break if she moves, and although she tries she can’t step out of the dream.
Strangely, her fear was gone, now that it was too late. She was certain that she could have been quick enough, if not for the terror that had laced through her when she needed to act. All she wanted was a chance to put her hands around Moghedien’s throat. Much good that does now! Every breath came in strained panting.
Moghedien steps around to where Nynaeve can see her, surrounded by the glow of saidar, and explains that she got the idea for this from Graendal’s chair. She asks if Nynaeve really thought she was Moghedien’s equal, just because she got lucky once, and observes that she has put all this effort into looking for Nynaeve only to have Nynaeve come to her.
Nynaeve snarls at Moghedien to do her worst while trying to surreptitiously steal a glance at Birgitte’s prone form.
“Lucky, you say? If you hadn’t managed to sneak up on me, I’d have striped you till you wailed. I’d have wrung your neck like a chicken.” She had only one chance, if Birgitte was dead, and a bleak one. To make Moghedien so angry that she killed her quickly in a rage. If only there was some way to warn Elayne. Her dying would have to do it.
She keeps taunting Moghedien and reminding her of their feud, until Moghedien gags her with the Power. She calls Nynaeve simple and explains that she is quite angry enough with her already. She decides that she is going to turn Nynaeve into a horse, that every time Moghedien brings Nynaeve to Tel’aran’rhiod she will be a horse, unless Moghedien—or someone else with the ability—changes it. And Moghedien will give her a saddle and a bridle and Nynaeve will remember who she is while Moghedien rides her.
Moghedien took a deep breath, and her dress darkened to something that glistened in the pale light; Nynaeve could not be sure, but she thought it might be the color of wet blood. “You make me approach Semirhage. It will be well to be done with you, so I can turn my full attention to matters of importance. Is the little yellow-haired chit with you in this menagerie?”
The gag removes itself but when Nynaeve tries to say that she is alone she is suddenly wracked with pain. When it’s gone Moghedien promises that she isn’t going to kill Nynaeve no matter how much she tries to provoke her, and promises to make that first bout of pain feel like a lover’s caress if she continues to lie. Sobbing, Nynaeve makes up a story about how Elayne was afraid to go back to the tower and ran off with a rich man “old enough to be her grandfather” in Tanchico. But Moghedien just laughs.
She tells Nynaeve that she can almost see what Semirhage finds so fascinating about breaking the spirit. She also tells her that Compulsion is even stronger in Tel’aran’rhiod than in the waking world, and that she is going to make Nynaeve shield and bind Elayne and bring her to Moghedien. She’s just going on, letting Nynaeve think about bringing Elayne to her like a pet, when suddenly a silver arrow shoves out right from Moghedien’s heart and Nynaeve drops to the ground.
Birgitte, standing and nocking her bow but clearly wavering, shouts at Nynaeve to get away.
The glow around Moghedien increased until it seemed as if the blinding sun surrounded her.
The night folded in over Birgitte like an ocean wave, enveloping her in blackness. When it passed, the bow dropped atop empty clothes as they collapsed. The clothes faded like fog burning off, and only the bow and arrows remained, shining in the moonlight.
Moghedien vanishes too, leaving behind only the arrow, stained with blood. Nynaeve eventually climbs to her hands and knees and crawls over to cradle Birgitte’s bow, naked and weeping as she begs Birgitte to forgive her.
A moment later, in the waking world, Liandrin leaps to her feet as Moghedien comes staggering out of the bedroom, soaked in blood. Temaile and Chesmal, the only two others in the house at the moment, rush to her side, asking what happened. Moghedien ignores the question, answering only that Chesmal has some ability with Healing. Liandrin sneers to herself as Chesmal obeys instantly, observing what faithful, “obedient lapdogs” she and Temaile are. It only takes a moment, and afterwards Moghedien is weak and still needs to be supported by the two others.
As they turn to take Moghedien back into the bedroom, Liandrin seizes her chance and strikes out, with all her strength and everything she has been able to work out of what Moghedien did to her. But even as she does Liandrin sees saidar flood into Moghedien, and Liandrin’s strike dies as she’s abruptly shielded from the Source, then picked up and slammed against the wall, pinned and helpless.
Moghedien steps in front of her, wiping her mouth with Temaile’s silk scarf and channeling away the blood on her dress. Liandrin tries to convince Moghedien that she was only trying to help her sleep—her accent slipping into that of a commoner’s in her panic—but Moghedien grabs her tongue with air and threatens to rip it out. She tells Liandrin that it’s too bad for her that Nynaeve makes Moghedien think like Semirhage, otherwise she might just have killed her. Instead she ties off the Shield in a manner far too complicated for Liandrin to follow, and assures Liandrin that she will have to search a long time for someone who can untie the weave, not that she will have a chance to do so.
“You thought you had learned something of Compulsion,” Moghedien went on. “I will teach you a bit more.” For an instant Liandrin shivered, Moghedien’s eyes filling her vision as the woman’s voice filled her ears, her entire head. “Live.” The instant passed, and sweat beaded on Liandrin’s face as the Chosen smiled at her. “Compulsion has many limits, but a command to do what someone wants to do in their inmost depths will hold for a lifetime. You will live, however much you think you want to take your life. And you will think of it. You will lie weeping many nights, wishing for it.”
Liandrin tries to beg for mercy, but Moghedien only slaps her with the Power whenever she tries, then tells her that she will be given to the lady of the house to be her new scullery maid, who no doubt will have something to say to her about the treatment of her husband. Then she tells Temaile to “prepare her” for Evon and Amellia, but to make sure to tell them that they are not allowed to kill or maim her. She wants Liandrin to keep that thin thread of hope that she might escape, that she might one day find someone who can undo her Shield.
She and Chesmal leave Liandrin, their talk turning to Nynaeve’s location and how the menagerie shouldn’t be too hard to find. Liandrin tries to convince Temaile that they could still overwhelm Moghedien, reminding her of the dissent in the ranks of the Forsaken, and what rewards they might be given.
For a moment—one blessed, wonderful moment—the child-faced woman hesitated. Then she shook her head. “You have never known how high to lift your eyes. ‘Who reaches for the sun will be burned.’ No, I think that I will not be burned for reaching too high. I think that I will do as I am told, and soften you for Evon.” Suddenly she smiled, showing teeth that made her even more vulpine. “How surprised he will be when you crawl to kiss his feet.”
So I guess the moral of this week is not to try to touch the sun. Don’t try to keep it down with you, don’t try to reach for it when it’s up in the sky. Just don’t do it.
Jordan really likes the sun metaphors, doesn’t he?
“As well try to understand the sun, Perrin,” Gaul tells Perrin regarding women and Faile’s baffling behavior in The Shadow Rising. And Faile herself used an extended metaphor in which Rand was the sun and Perrin a bear when she thought Perrin might be sniffing (literally) after Berelain—“That one is not interested in hunting a bear, however fine his hide would look stretched on a wall. She hunts the sun.” For another example, when Perrin argues with Moiraine in The Dragon Reborn, Loial shows that even the Ogier favor such metaphors with “Better to embrace the sun than to anger an Aes Sedai.”
Not that it’s a bad metaphor. The One Power is also often compared to the sun by both characters and the narrative. Callandor is often described as burning or shining as brightly as the sun, and in The Dragon Reborn Egwene’s newfound ability to always sense the Source is compared to “ the sun at noon over her shoulder.” Siuan, with her ability to perceive ta’veren, describes Rand blazing like the sun the first time she laid eyes on him. And many of Jordan’s cultures seem to be heavily invested in metaphors (thinking of the Tairen and their fish metaphors) especially teachers and older women (Lini, the Wise Ones). So although it can occasionally feel stale, overall I think that it’s a nice bit of world building.
Just like with Asmodean last week, I feel kind of bad for Liandrin. I mean, don’t get me wrong she’s a bad person and not very wise, but I honestly do hope that she finds a way out of that shield and gets some revenge on Moghedien. Not as a redemption arc, exactly, just an evil villain taking out a worse evil villain, which is always a satisfying element in any story. And what Moghedien has done to Liandrin is so objectively horrible that even if it has a bit of an eye-for-an-eye justice about it (Liandrin happily turned Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve over to become slaves, and now she will be forced to be a scullery maid to the family she helped harm) but some things are too drastic I think, and no good person can wish them on another.
I’m interested by the parallels in the torture of Liandrin and Nynaeve and the way they are set against each other in this chapter. Both Liandrin and Nynaeve are paying the price for overestimating themselves, or at least for underestimating Moghedien. In some ways Nynaeve’s mistake feels more egregious; Egwene did warn her about the dangers of Tel’aran’rhiod, showed her how someone more knowledgeable in the World of Dreams could manipulate it against her. Nynaeve knows that she is stronger in the One Power than Moghedien, but the Forsaken still has so much age, knowledge, and practice on her. And of course, Nynaeve’s mistake costs not only her own suffering but the life of someone else. It may be that Nynaeve also overestimated Birgitte’s safety—she is a hero of legend, one of the heroes of the Horn, and it was probably pretty difficult for Nynaeve imaging anything actually happening to Birgitte Silverbow, even when Birgitte mentioned her own vulnerability in Tel’aran’rhiod.
On the other hand, Nynaeve and Elayne are desperate, and desperate times call for big risks. Perhaps Nynaeve didn’t really underestimate Moghedien, she just felt like she had no choice but to risk it—that really has been the journey of all our Two Rivers heroes since the series began. Meanwhile Liandrin is just being power-hungry and overestimating her own skill. She missed her better chance to strike when Moghedien was wounded, too. If you’re waiting for your chance against a superior opponent, you have to make sure it’s the right chance. Liandrin’s biggest mistake is her impatience; she should have waited much longer, learned more, maybe felt out some allies among her Black Ajah cohorts. We saw that Temaile was caught by the idea, and I imagine the greed of Darkfriends might have brought at least a few more around, with careful planning. But Liandrin is clearly not one to play a long game, and that’s kind of the main skill you need to be a powerful Darkfriend.
Speaking of Nynaeve being stronger in the One Power than Moghedien, I was surprised at her close-mindedness when Elayne was enthusing over the making of ter’angreal. Obviously healing (and now Healing) is Nynaeve’s first and only love, her main priority, but I was surprised when her inner monologue revealed that she still has no intention of actually becoming Aes Sedai. She hasn’t groused much about portraying herself as Aes Sedai to people, nor has she as many qualms about working with the Aes Sedai—she’s determined to find them and bring them to Rand’s aid, so at least she believes that they can be trusted that much, and useful too. The Nynaeve of The Eye of the World certainly never believed such a thing. But I suppose all this can be viewed as a means to an end, and Nynaeve is still planning to get away from any association with the White Tower as soon as she can.
But she’s lying to herself, just as she’s lying about her reasons for avoiding the meetings with Egwene and the Wise Ones. Because we’ve seen Nynaeve take pleasure, even exalt, in her power and strength. We’ve seen her interest in learning new weaves, and her skill at it. Even if Healing is her priority, she can’t honestly believe she has no interest in any other part of channeling. It makes me wonder what it will take for Nynaeve to stop putting up these walls between herself and her own truth.
I was so disappointed in her when she regarded Elayne’s interest in making things as pointless. Even if creating ter’angreal isn’t within Nynaeve’s interest, surely she doesn’t think that the only use anyone should have for the One Power is Healing. Any man can build a bridge… but not one like Whitebridge. Never mind the fact that maybe you could create ter’angreal to aid in Healing. Never mind the fact that she uses a ter’angreal every day to go into Tel’aran’rhiod and work with Birgitte.
Also it’s striking to realize that the a’dam, for all it feels so powerful and terrible, is the lowest form of angreal, much less powerful than the other two types. It feels like an item capable of enslaving someone should be much more powerful and difficult to create… but thinking about this makes me realize how little I’ve considered the a’dam and where it comes from. Back when we first encountered them in The Great Hunt we knew much less about angreal and channeling, and nothing about linking, so when I learned that an Aes Sedai taught the Seanchan how to create the a’dam, I didn’t analyze it very much. But now it occurs to me to wonder who makes the a’dam for the Seanchan. Do they just have a big collection of them made by that original Aes Sedai? Or are the damane forced to make them somehow? Which… is a horrible thought but certainly fits how the Seanchan do things. I also wonder if that Aes Sedai invented the a’dam, or if she was just bringing something that others once knew how to make. It wouldn’t have been very hard for the channelers of the Age of Legends to make such a thing, but as Nynaeve puts it, it’s a filthy thing and I don’t think any ancient Aes Sedai but a Darkfriend should want to touch such a thing.
Still, despite Nynaeve’s habitual unreasonableness, I still felt for her in these chapters. She’s always at her meanest when she’s feeling vulnerable and scared, and right now she is basically lost, with no clear direction or sense of her own purpose. It makes me think of Siuan and Leane a little. Like Leane, Elayne has found some other things besides their initial mission to occupy her—not just the a’dam but also the highwalking. Nynaeve, on the other hand, needs that singular purpose to hold her steady, and right now, she doesn’t know how to find it. That’s why she’s being so stubborn about remembering the name of the town that she saw in Elaida’s study. Unreasonable or not, I don’t blame her for wanting more than to go back to Tear feeling like refugees seeking Rand’s protection. Though she might remember that they just saved Rand from the threat of having that collar put around his neck, and found a seal, and at least put a wrench in both Liandrin and Moghedien’s plans. That’s far from failing at their mission.
I laughed out loud at “I did not like the way it looked at me in the mirror this morning, so I bit it.” Nynaeve has some great lines. The Cerandin incident she kind of deserved, though. Also, since when does Nynaeve think she’s a good cook? I seem to remember her being very frustrated as she struggled through trying to cook something for Lan in the kitchens in the Stone of Tear. I remember finding it funny that she suddenly cared about cooking, as though that was something Lan needed from her. So someone’s memory is off here. Could be mine. Could be Jordan’s. And of course it could be Nynaeve’s, given how often she’s honest with herself. Heck, maybe she decided at some point that she’d figured cooking out, and that’s what we’re seeing here. The most amusing part is that she must have no taste, if she’s consistently making something no one likes, but she still likes it.
One thing I keep forgetting in the progression of events is that Elaida has the same information as Nynaeve about where the Blues are suspected to be gathering. There’s so much going on in The Fires of Heaven that it’s hard to keep track, and we often go a long time without checking in on someone (we haven’t seen Perrin and his gang the entire book so far!). Still, it wouldn’t do to forget about Elaida, who isn’t going to sit on her heels when it comes to tracking down the rebels. Or about Alviarin, who is not only Black Ajah but possibly in direct communication with some of the Forsaken, which is more than we can say of any of the other Black Ajah we’ve met so far—Liandrin and company’s predicament aside, that is.
Another detail I love about this section is Nynaeve’s observation that men are incurable gossips. I’m often put off by the way Jordan handles the gender divide, the suggestion that each gender finds the other one just completely baffling and alien, the reliance on our-world stereotypes in a world that claims to have a very different power balance between men and women. But there have been several instances in which one side has regarded the other as gossipy, and it’s about even from side to side, from what I noticed. I like that, because it suggests that the differences are more imagined than real; most humans like gossip, and it’s silly to suggest one side is the problem and the other is “normal.”
Also can we talk about the absolute nonsense of Elayne telling Nynaeve that she was leading Luca on? What was that? I know Elayne’s young but really. No, Nynaeve didn’t punch Luca in the face or scream “leave me alone” in his ear, but she did everything short of that. She’s clearly miserable all the time, he’s had to coerce her into everything she’s done with the show, and he won’t take no for an answer on the red dress—so why the heck would she assume that he’d take no for an answer now? If the man can take her constantly moving away, hitting him in the gut with her elbow, and giving him dish duty when he hoped for a moonlight stroll, that’s on him.
When did he decide he liked Nynaeve anyway? I thought it was Elayne he was all hot and bothered about, while Nynaeve was the jerk who gave him a penny and sneered at him all the time. God, Luca’s one of those guys who “loves the chase” isn’t he. If he were a modern man in our world he’d probably start in with the negging.
The way Nynaeve’s life is going right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if she does end up in the red dress. Here’s hoping they decide the risk of seeing Galad is too great and get out of there before Luca has a chance to stuff her into it anyway, followed by the narrative acting like she kind of wanted it the whole time. Don’t do that to me, narrative.
I loved the image of the black space where Birgitte took Nynaeve to spy on Moghedien spying on Lanfear, Graendal, Rahvin, and Sammael. Spies spying on the spy. I wonder how many times you could have this recursive watching going on, like when you hold two mirrors up to each other. We also know what was up with that attack on Rand and the Aiel now—everyone thought the tactics of the attack made no sense, and Asmodean thought it strange that Sammael would announce himself so boldly, as if baiting Rand. Now we know that he was baiting Rand, but Nynaeve doesn’t have enough of the other pieces to understand the conversation she overheard.
We also learned a little more about linking, that if it is a circle of thirteen women they can give the main control to a man, but if not, the women have to control it.
I’ve been worried about Birgitte’s safety for a while now, but I can’t help thinking that the way she died seemed odd to me. Of course she doesn’t have a body that can die in the physical sense, so who is to say what the death of a spirit in the Dream looks like—but the wolves had corpses left behind when Slayer slaughtered them in Tel’aran’rhiod, and it makes me wonder if Birgitte was really killed. Perhaps Moghedien snatched her away and hid her somewhere, in some dark corner of Tel’aran’rhiod where she thinks no one will ever find her. But she could still be rescued, maybe by Egwene, who knows Birgitte exists now and is becoming a stronger Dreamer every day.
That’s my hope, anyway, and I’m going to hold onto it for now. I want Birgitte to be still alive and Liandrin to get free from Moghedien and kick her butt. I don’t like Moghedien anyway, and not in that “villains are fun to hate” sort of way. I really liked the image of her as a spider in a web, but she really hasn’t lived up to that much. Lanfear is more what I picture when someone describes a woman who manipulates and plans in the shadows, which I suppose is why she and Lanfear have this rivalry of sorts, right up to the way they both claim Tel’aran’rhiod as their own domain, despite the fact that all the Forsaken know how to use it. And I think Moghedien protests too much when she claims that she gets all these ideas for torture and nudity and cruel vengeance from Graendal—I don’t think she needed any help in that department, and it feels really weird coming out of the mouth of any Forsaken.
And speaking of Moghedien, aren’t hurts taken in Tel’aran’rhiod harder to Heal than those experienced in the waking world? I wonder if Moghedien is going to struggle with lasting effects from this injury.
So that’s it for this week. Two more chapters next week, 35 and 36. Till then, I leave you with a single thought, the one note I made while reading that I no longer remember the meaning of:
- secrets in Tel’aran’rhiod.
I mean, it sounds good at any rate.
Sylas K Barrett is very tired this week, but not as tired as just about everyone in The Fires of Heaven. The Wise Ones are right, Elayne and Nynaeve need some real sleep! Not that they’re likely to get much any time soon.
“I did not like the way it looked at me in the mirror this morning, so I bit it.”
What a great line. How can we not love Nynaeve!
Also: “Birgitte took Nynaeve to spy on Moghedien spying on Lanfear, Graendal, Rahvin, and Sammael.”
Keep in mind which of those four of the Forsaken are unaccounted for at book’s end.
Mostly spot on, but for the part about Nynaeve and Luca. Not that Luca isn’t a bit much, but hints in Nyn’s internal monologue coupled with Elayne’s observations should make it clear that Nynaeve isn’t being as clear in her rejection as she thinks. Elayne mentions that Nynaeve smiles at Luca’s absurd compliments, and even Nynaeve makes a comment about how his going on about her bravery “mollifies” her a bit. Not hard to see how she’s misrepresenting her own outward emotions. What Nynaeve sees as barely tolerating may come across a lot more inviting. Moreover, while no should always mean no, “playing hard to get” is definitely a thing. If everyone but Nynaeve, who is one of the least self-aware characters in the narrative, is of the impression that she’s leading Luca on a bit, then maybe we should take them at their word? After all, we never hear Nynaeve really say no to him, so from his perspective she’s just leading him a merry chase.
Hey @Moderator, just FYI…
The usual link in the “New in Series” pane on the front page is still linking to last week’s post.
I love Elayne’s little bit of engineer-ish geekery here.
And while I also would be way into healing/biology, not just any man can build a bridge, even a nomal one! (And even so, who cares, that kind of labor is important too…).
As for the Luca/Nyneave thing, yeah, it definitely grinds my teeth again. I see @3’s point in that Nyneave is a VERY unreliable narrator and so she may in fact be putting out a few more positive signals than she intends, AND the whole ‘playing hard to get’ was a much more accepted thing back then, but come on. I hate when the only options are ‘keep putting them off’, or ‘be such a bitch it’s not even in question, but then get blamed for being a bitch’.
Why aren’t the Forsaken speaking the Old Tongue?
Renna tells Eg that some damane can make a’dam.
@@.-@: Should be fixed now–thanks!
@3 and 5 – I think the other piece of context that is missing is that Nynaeve’s initial reactions and interactions with Luca were EXTREMLY hostile and (in his view) mocking. So I think for someone like him how is quite full of himself, clearly enjoys chasing women, and definitely thinks all the ladies love him is going to interpret her new “nicer” interactions with him as her changing her attitude towards him. Is it all very trope-y? Yeah, I’d say so. But I’d also argue that Nynaeve’s actions and her lack of being a reliable narrator about her own thoughts/intentions/actions all add up to her giving Luca extremely mixed signals that he chose to interpret as “She totally wants me.”
Clearly this was all intended to be another aspect of the amusing storyline she and Elayne have in this section of the novel and while I find most of it funny I also recognize that it’s not everyone’s comedic taste for various reasons.
@6 – Yes they should all be speaking the OT. But I seem to recall somewhere either in the main text, one of the glossaries, or in the BBoBA that there was a throwaway “explanation” that the Forsaken were all able to speed learn the current language because it was still so similar to the OT. I don’t have the ability to look that up or remember how well that bit of info did for explaining this plothole.
But, regardless of what minimal wallpapering RJ attempted with this is still remains a HUGE glaring hole in an otherwise exceptionally well constructed world. It just defies any kind of belief that the whole world speaks the same language despite 3000 years of time occurring since the Breaking. I mean, heck in the real world if I went back in time 300 years I could probably hold a conversation with another English speaker with great difficulty. Add another couple hundred years onto that and conversation would be next to impossible. Basic words for everyday things may remain (relatively) static over long periods of time but most other language does not.
So I think this is just one area where we just shrug our shoulders and breeze past an area where RJ was less than stellar in his worldbuilding. Along with the lack of anything approaching an organized religion and each country being a Planet of Hats. You can’t win ’em all!
@@@@@ 5 – Lisamarie, I agree that it’s kind of a shitty situation to be in, but I think the implication is that a firm “no” might have also done the trick. Aside from her one bout of rudeness, which had little to do with Luca’s romantic interest in either her or Elayne, we never hear that she says as much. As far as I can remember we see her put off wearing the dress, or doing the act, but never actually telling him that his attention as a whole is unwanted. The fact that she eventually does all of these things also puts something of a coquettish spin on the whole episode.
Again, I don’t think we should be on Team Valan Luca by any means. But the comments Elayne is making here, even as someone who knows that Nynaeve isn’t romantically interested in him, strongly suggest that Luca may not be as much a creep as we’re led to believe from Nynaeve’s internal narration. Quite the opposite, in fact, if Nynaeve is smiling and playing this “stop, stop, go” game with him. I mean, he eventually proposes to her, so obviously he thinks she is interested in him, which would be no excuse except for the fact that other characters interpret her actions that way, and make it clear that she doesn’t say no. Once she does, he backs off, that’s the end of it, and he becomes involved with another member of the circus, right?
“Though she might remember that they just saved Rand from the threat of having that collar put around his neck…”
Yeah… about that…
RJ dropped clues in The Shadow Rising about where Suroth and the Seanchan Corenne are hiding out, which is on the island of Cantorin in the Aile Somera… just where Domon was headed with the sad bracelets.
@9 – Correct. RJ tried to explain it away as the current day language being a bastardized version of the much more complex and nuanced Old Tongue. Basically, if you speak the Old Tongue, it’s very easy to pick up the modern language. And he also pulled the old writer’s trick of saying he is translating the Old Tongue for us when they speak amongst themselves (but that doesn’t explain instances of eavesdropping, like in this chapter).
I think Luca’s mind changed because Ny actually suggested that she could move in and be her special friend. At the moment Luca said no, but I think the idea grew on him and he was oblivious to her sarcasm when thinking back on her comment. Add that to her playing hard to get and Luca imagined a growing romance between the two of them. Especially after she finally agreed to wear that red dress.
@10: Another member of the circus who shares a lot of characteristics with Nynaeve, right down to being a cook nobody else appears to appreciate :v
@10 Nynaeve does lead Luca on somewhat. She never physically or verbally rejects Luca’s advanced. Remember, she is trying to keep in his good graces, so he would keep them in his camp, and smiles at him constantly (while her POV says “grinding her teeth” or “grimaces”), she agrees with his decisions, she never says outright No! on doing something or wearing revealing dresses. Luca shamelessly flirts with her and Nynaeve trying to be “polite” and “agreeable” so she goes along with him.
Errata:
“Petra” → “Petar”
“knocks” → “nocks”
“knocking” → “nocking”
“Chesmale” → “Chesmal”
“can but trusted” → “can be trusted”
Why has pasting into the textarea been sabotaged? It makes it much more arduous to compose a comment.
Anyway:
If Birgitte can use her control of the World of Dreams to make herself and Nynaeve stand on nothing and hear what is said far below them, then I suppose she can also decide that Nynaeve understands the language, and have it be so.
In general though, I agree that the lack of language difficulties is unrealistic. It may be that the Forsaken can understand how the language has evolved, but speaking it without slipping up should be more difficult. Seanchan and Westlanders should have much more trouble understanding each other after a thousand years without contact. Aiel and Westlanders should need interpreters. They have had some contact, but nowhere near enough to keep their languages from drifting apart.
But it would hamper the action if the characters would have to pause for months to learn each other’s languages time and again. In the interest of keeping the story going, I think we have to gloss over the language difficulties.
It’s not as if this is unique to The Wheel of Time in any way. I mean, Tolkien was a linguist, he designed whole languages with grammar, etymology and alphabets, and even he glossed over the language difficulties to get on with the storytelling. How realistic is it really that hobbits with little education have no trouble talking to elves, dwarves, Dunedain, Rohirrim, and even ents? Well-travelled people all speak Westron, sure, but most hobbits care little for the outside world. Why doesn’t the Shire have a language of its own? Why do orcs talk among each other in a language that hobbits understand? Because action, that’s why.
Great chapter and analysis! On the subject of Nynaeve’s pursuit in the World of dreams and whether it is a mistake personally I am more inclined in favour of her actions. Yes, the outcome of her snooping is unclear and and in this instance it has grave consequences. However if our heroes are more cautious they will never achieve any progress overall. And when presented with the horrors which Moghedien was planning for Elayne her first thought is to sacrifice herself in order to safe her. So not only is she brave in their hour of need but she also is prepared to pay any price herself. They are all soldiers in one battle, including Birgit.
Elayne experimenting with ter’angreal is another kind of bravery which is while dangerous is commendable.
Regarding the punishment of Liandrin I find it horrifying as well. But otherwise it is a well written and executed sequence which takes us into the inner world of the Darkfrieds which is always fun to read.
@@@@@ 16 – You said
It’s not as if this is unique to The Wheel of Time in any way. I mean, Tolkien was a linguist, he designed whole languages with grammar, etymology and alphabets, and even he glossed over the language difficulties to get on with the storytelling. How realistic is it really that hobbits with little education have no trouble talking to elves, dwarves, Dunedain, Rohirrim, and even ents? Well-travelled people all speak Westron, sure, but most hobbits care little for the outside world. Why doesn’t the Shire have a language of its own? Why do orcs talk among each other in a language that hobbits understand? Because action, that’s why.
I think it’s worth notiong that Frodo, Merry, and Pippin at the least are at the tippy top of the social heirarchy of the Shire. They come from wealthy land-owning clans, and might be expected to be better educated that your average hobbit. And the concept of a lingua franca exists in the real world – you might say the same thing about Russians, Germans, ad English folks all speaking French in the early 19th century. Or English today. We see that Elves and Dwarves do have their own languages, sometimes several, which the hobbits don’t understand. Except perhaps Frodo, which is easily explained because of his well-travelled, Elf-loving uncle.
Sam is a slightly harder case, I agree, but even he says he’s always been fascinated by the Elves and the outside world. Plus… it’s made pretty clear that Hobbits do travel. At least to Bree and places like that, and they clearly trade with the outside world, so some facility with the common tongue of the world is not absurd to assume
We have known for some time now that being a Darkfriend has certain dangers, at least as far back as “The Great Hunt”, when Fain was inviting a few of the Borderland Darkfriends each night to have supper with his Trollocs. Liandrin’s punishment here is pretty mild, as Moggy notes she is thinking like Semirhage, but as we will subsequently see, Semirhage’s cruelty is much worse than Moggy’s, and her victims include relative innocents like that passing by Blue Sedai and Tuon’s entire family. For me, I shed no tears for LIandrin.
@16 – Fixed, thanks!
Other than the fact that this chapter leads us to introducing one of the best characters in the series into the main storyline, I could do without any of the circus chapters, either now or especially the 2nd time. And part is that is my complete dislike for Luca. At best, he is a cad. In the #MeToo era, it is pretty easy to see him as much more sinister than that.
MODS and @16
Thanks for correcting some spelling issues, but Petra actually was correct: http://www.encyclopaedia-wot.org/characters/op/petra.html
Re: Sun metaphors
Obviously Sylas can’t read anything on the Thirteenth Depository yet, but Linda Taglieri over there has written a lot about myths, symbols and themes across the whole series. She has a lot to say about Rand in particular being associated with the sun: https://13depository.blogspot.com/2002/03/character-parallels-rand.html . Elayne also has solar attributes, with her red-gold hair and being associated with the Rising Sun of Cairhien.
Nynaeve Al Meara, Queen of self deception, denial and Malkier, as Neuxeu calls her. Nyn’s connection with reality is so tenuous that I sometimes have doubts about her sanity but Creator knows she’s funny! As for the cooking, she’s probably convinced herself her gunk tastes fine. Self deception again.
It seems to me that knowing how a’dam work is a huge step to figuring out how to negate them, not that anybody ever bothers to work on that. Of course there are other priorities.
I understand Eggy and Nyn being disturbed that boy they know is hanging men but Rand is right to be so draconic. He can’t let the Aiel run wild.
I think what Elayne means is Luca is the kind of delusional male who will read anything short of NO! as coy encouragement. And even the NO! will have to be repeated and perhaps underlined by a solid punch in the jaw before it sinks in. Mere avoidance and signals of discomfort will not work.
@fernandan (23):
Light! So there is at least one character who was renamed in the Swedish translation after all. I had learned to trust that all the personal names are the same. Maybe the translator thought the name sounded too female for a strongman.
Re: language:
Don’t forget, the modern language of Randland has developed only from the Old Tongue, a shared world spanning lingua franca, the only language around. – unlike our own modern languages which have developed from several unrelated language families.
Add the survival of the printing presses, as mentioned in the Big White Book of Bad Art, and it is not at all unlikely that everyone still speaks one common language. Printing is what fixed our languages to the spelling and, in part, grammar, we still use today. There might be differences in pronunciation or some semantic shift, and yes possibly more so than alluded to in the books, but a commonly understandable language it is not all unbelievable.
@25
To be fair, I think Petra is a female name.
@27. It is. Female form of Peter. I’ve always found that kind of funny.
@18
I fully agree on Nynaeve’s culpability. She was acting entirely on Birgitte’s guidance here. Remember too, the lecture about the dangers of Tel’Aran’Rhiod so many Egwene stans believe Nynaeve “needed” was inspired by actions Nynaeve didn’t actually do. Nynaeve, to cover for Birgitte and keep her secret, took the blame for tailing the Forsaken and spying on them. That was the only thing Melaine and Egwene have as a basis for criticizing her, and she didn’t even do it. Likewise in this incident, she was following Birgitte and obeying her judgment. Birgitte was keeping an eye on Moghedian while Nynaeve was listening to the Forsaken, and after they left the eavesdropping post she believed Moghedian didn’t notice them. Criticizing Nynaeve for being careless of the dangers of the Dream is like criticizing someone for entering the Aiel Waste as being foolhardy and reckless, even though she is going with an Aiel guide and following the guide’s suggestions.
Barrett is very on point with the comment that the good guys are underdogs and have to take some risks. The whole reason three ta’veren have manifested is that the world as it is inclines toward the Shadow and if things keep going as they are, it will result in a Shadow triumph. So the good guys have to change up and have to take risks. A cautious, conservative, playing-not-to-lose strategy will run out the clock on them. It’s the Shadow that has the luxury of being careful, cautious and deliberate in their strategies and ploys.
Related to the concept of necessary risks is the bit, also from VanyaL about Elayne’s experimentation and her commendable bravery. This is a lot of things where people call Elayne foolhardy, but we see in her point of view that Elayne is often more aware of risks and dangers than her critics, she simply understands the position of necessary risk and makes the calculated choice to act in the way that makes sense. She’s one of the rational and analytical characters, and more than most, makes the necessary choice of duty or correction action over her feelings or wishes. Nynaeve is usually only capable of doing things like that out of love for someone else, rather than a cold assessment of odds and chances. Which is fairly often, Nynaeve being Nynaeve, but she’s the emotional and intuitive one, while Elayne is rational and analytical. That, combined with their appreciation of each other’s virtues and strengths, is why they are such an effective team and the best buddy-cop duo in the series.
As many people say, I don’t think Luca “loves the chase”. He’d still be after Elayne if that was true. Elayne doesn’t tell Nynaeve she’s leading him on, she knows Nynaeve’s feelings and lack of interest, what she is saying is that Nynaeve’s uncharacteristic actions are being perceived as an invitation. She even points out what Nynaeve needs to do to set him straight and Nynaeve expressly admits she is behaving differently, claiming she is trying to control her temper.
What I think is going on there, is that Nynaeve does not want to admit, especially to herself or Elayne, that she enjoys the attention on some subconscious level. She likes having an attractive man pursue her instead of fending her off and denying their relationship. One of the things Jordan does with Nynaeve and Elayne is play up their similarities and their contrasts (often most directly with their attitudes about money, while never giving us a third party perspective on whether Nynaeve’s stinginess or Elayne’s prodigality). But in this book, I think he has them both acting out from their relationship concerns, with their flirtations with Luca and Thom. Elayne had a hard time getting anywhere with the man she loved and more than suspects he is or will be interested in other women as much or more than her, and as Nynaeve diagnoses, she flexes her seduction muscles a little with a guy who’d been with her mother, her own idealized role model and the person she literally believes she needs to become. Meanwhile, Nynaeve, at the end of the last book, confronted with all the unconventional relationships blossoming around her, despite the obstacles in each case, determines to have one with Lan, in spite of their own obstacles. But as with Elayne, he’s far away, she can’t do anything about it, and she’s worried and frustrated that she might have missed her chances, largely due to his own intransigence. And now there’s a good-lookin guy (funny that she initially scorns Luca for not wanting to do honest work, when she’s in love with a king) is actively pursuing her and complimenting her and on some level she won’t admit, it feels nice and she rationalizes excuses to not act like herself and end it.
And too, I think the frustrations are about more than just boys. Last book, they got to stand on their own and flex a bit and had some real accomplishments and now in this one, they are running and hiding, from multiple parties, from Moghedian, Elaida’s operatives and now the Children of the Light. Feeling like she has the power in a relationship for once, has an understandable appeal to Nynaeve, even if she’s not going to act on it.
@14 Fully agree about the assessment of Luca’s eventual relationship resolution. Interestingly, another character observes she’s a good wife for him. (also, you can tell it’s love in that he eats her cooking while avoiding Nynaeve’s)
And speaking of Nynaeve’s cooking skills and Barrett’s confusion, we never get Nynaeve’s perspective on her frustration. The bit about preparing Lan’s meals was told in one of the rare external narrations. The chapter summing up their activities in their last three days in Tear has a very ambiguous perspective, but never dips into Nynaeve’s thought process. She’s probably retconned her frustrations with the interfering cooks jogging her elbow. And Lan probably lying about how good her food was didn’t help.
Also, while “(Nynaeve) hasn’t groused much about portraying herself as Aes Sedai to people”, she actually hasn’t overtly done it much. She was careful not to say she was a full sister to Domon in Falme or the Aiel in Cairhien, went totally dark in Tear, embracing her Wisdom heritage, to Egwene’s chagrin, in the Stone of Tear she doesn’t interact on the page with anyone outside the core cast and had much less of a problem doffing her Great Serpent ring on the Sea Folk ship than did Elayne. Of the Wondergirl trio, Egwene, far and away, is the most committed to the ruse of being Aes Sedai and Nynaeve, also far and away, the least.
Also, a distinction has to be made between the status and authority of an Aes Sedai, which Nynaeve wants, and becoming like the Aes Sedai and sharing their nature, to which she is adamantly opposed. That’s a thing for most of the main characters, a struggle with identity and the most frustrating aspect of the story to those readers who are only looking for gratification of a power fantasy – they want Rand, Mat and Perrin to level up and embrace their special abilities, and for Nynaeve to just break her block already. But they are afraid of losing who and what they are. Perrin is a craftsman who uses tools, he likes to read and to solve puzzles. Those are things that animals do not do. Wolves don’t use tools or think rationally or do what humans do, so embracing his wolf aspects endangers what Perrin values most in himself. It’s theorized that if Rand indulged his memories of Lews Therin, he could channel and understand strategy and politics and whatnot a lot better and have an easier time of it, but Rand is afraid it would cost him his own identity and personality, that if he gives in to LTT, he’ll no longer be himself. Mat resists the battle memories the Eelfinn gave him for the exact same reason. (Egwene & Elayne are a little different, as they are trying establish their own identities, Elayne apart from the identity constructed for her by her birth and Egwene one that gratifies her hungers) And for Nynaeve, becoming Aes Sedai is a concern that she might become like the Aes Sedai she despises, that she will put causes ahead of people and institutions ahead of doing what she feels right. Nynaeve is the antithesis of institutional thinking and the Aes Sedai are beaten by the Tower into extensions of an institution. Ironically, hers is the most real and potentially threatening of the four characters’, because the Tower has no interest in giving Nynaeve what she wants unless she becomes what they want. No one is actively trying to turn Mat or Rand into another person or Perrin into a wolf, but the Tower is, or would be, if their shit was remotely together, trying to change Nynaeve.
And related to this is her struggle to break her block. As she admits to Moghedian under Compulsion, she created the block because she is afraid of the Power. She consciously scorns becoming an Aes Sedai, because she is afraid of it making her something she is not. It’s why she reacted so strongly to Egwene’s unwarranted sneering in Mother Guenna’s house that she manipulates as well as Moiraine. It’s also what rouse’s Elayne’s ire in her defense, because there is a substantive difference, in that Nynaeve is trying to protect Alhuin and her own companions at the same time, whereas an Aes Sedai as she sees it, would stake Alhuin out like a goat in Jurassic Park if it served her agenda. She was taking a lot of care not to push Mother Guenna into anything or let her face danger blindly, suggesting she was very much trying not to be a typical Aes Sedai and then Egwene viciously accuses her of doing just that. Because Egwene is very much about the ends with little care for the means. All Egwene sees is that Nynaeve is getting someone to do what she wants (and something at which Egwene has had little success despite considerable efforts in that book), without caring about the important (to Nynaeve) distinction of giving people as much information as she can, to make as informed a choice as possible, as opposed to giving them as little information as possible, to limit their options to do what you want them to, which is what she perceives, with a great deal of accuracy, as Moiraine’s modus operandi, and by extension, that of Aes Sedai in general.
It’s one of Nynaeve’s most appealing aspects, for my money – the struggle to do the right thing and get stuff done, without being an enormous asshole, despite a lot of people in the series insisting that’s the only way to work. They get Rand to believe it for a time, but Nynaeve largely manages to keep free.
@Serenia (26):
Thə spelling ovv Inglish mei bi mustli fixeitid, batt thätt issənt stopping thə spuken längwidj fromm ivolving. Ritn änn spukən Inglish ar bädli aut ov tatch bai nau, ispeshäli sins the Greit Vauel Shift. Athə längwidjis hävv spelling rifoms nao änn then tu kip therr spelling mor inn lain with thə prənansieishən.
I think the better question is, no matter how fluent in the common tongue they are, why aren’t they speaking the old tongue when it’s just the four of them, and they don’t know who might be eavesdropping?
@29 – really interesting analysis, especially on identity and how the characters are trying to retain one in the midst of so much turmoil and pressure and change.
And obviously this is a while away but Nyneave “failing” her Aes Sedai test is one of my absolute favorite moments of the series. (I’m a big Nyneave fangirl :))
@32: Yes indeed. The Sanderson books are uneven, but that is a great high point.
@31
Maybe they ARE speaking the Old Tongue. It’s Tel’Aran’Rhiod where the Matrix rules (“Do you think that’s air you’re breathing?”) apply.* They don’t have bodies there, they are not moving air across their vocal cords to create sonic vibrations. Rather, they are communicating and perceive it as sound, because that’s how they are accustomed to communicating. Nynaeve was not hearing them speak words in their native language, she was receiving the concepts they were broadcasting, that their fellow Forsaken’s minds interpreted as Old Tongue words, and Nynaeve’s mind interpreted as the modern tongue.
Related was something I mentioned a while back regarding how people in TAR can be on different ‘frequencies’ for lack of a better term. This is how Gaidal just disappears from the conversations Birgitte has with the living, or how Birgitte had a conversation with Perrin, while Hopper, lying right there, had no idea she had been present. The Forsaken, I believe, were having their little chat on their own private “band” but thanks to Birgitte’s (and Moghedian’s) expertise with the environment, the eavesdropping was made possible. And Birgitte’s ability to bring Nynaeve to that same frequency is what enabled her to understand their communication as if they had been speaking the same language in the real world.
*Personal anecdote: when watching The Matrix in the theaters for the first time, hearing Morpheus explain to Neo how the Matrix works, my first thought was “Oh, it’s Tel’Aran’Rhiod!”
@32
Well, that’s exactly the culmination of her struggle. She chooses to fail the test rather than become what she never wanted to be, but her ability has grown to such a degree that they have no choice but to give her what she wants. Imagine if they still tried to deny her the shawl after that. If they had half an iota of political acumen, the Black Tower would be falling all over themselves to offer her a sword and Dragon pin as an honorary Asha’man (considering she discovered how to Heal gentling, contributed to the Cleansing of saidin and discovered a cure for the taint, they should do that anyway). But here you would have the Queen of Malkier, who has the confidence and trust of, like, the entire Malkieri population of the Borderlands, the Dragon Reborn, the Queen of Andor & Cairhien, and is, by default if nothing else, the favorite Aes Sedai of the Black Tower, the commander of the best army in the world, and the leader of the most diverse geopolitical coalition this side of the Seanchan Empire. The Kin, and probably the Sea Folk, know and like her better. Who, of any importance outside the White Tower, is going to listen to Egwene instead of Nynaeve? Even if the Wise Ones like Egwene more, their own issues would lead them to take the side of a woman operating outside the Tower instead of an Amyrlin they can’t really trust politically.
So when Nynaeve was standing there, having beat the test despite their best efforts to murder her for not demonstrating ideological purity, I think at some level the Sitters all realized that their future relevance depended largely on being able to tell the rest of the world, “el’Nynaeve ni al’Meara Mandragoran, who has done three different things the Age of Legends believed impossible, and makes Forsaken panic when she appears…she’s one of us! Yeah, we matter!”
Also, the Malkieri incident a couple books before utterly destroyed the arguments against Nynaeve’s worthiness expressed in the testing debate. The whole idea why the Tower rationalizes murdering students is that they will bring discredit to the White Tower if they can’t control themselves or act out of emotion and personal attachments. Yet, when rallying the Malkieri, Nynaeve, over the course of a very brief conversation turns a man of careful, cautious and deliberate habits to throw everything away in a passionate declaration for a cause. He starts the conversation resentful of the Tower and their failure to help Malkier, and just wanting this Aes Sedai to go away, and ends up thinking “Aes Sedai are amazing!” and inviting her to stay for dinner!
The best impression any other sister is able to make on an individual over the course of the series is “Well, this one isn’t so bad…” Discredit my ass.
@35 TY for referencing my favorite 5 pages in the entire series, the last 5 pages of Chapter 20 “The Golden Crane” in
“Knife of Dreams”. I read it over at least once a month and I cry every time. if it were me, I would go fight for the Queen Malkier every day of the week and twice on Sunday, given the chance.
One other possibility regarding Nynaeve being able to understand the Forsaken: as anyone who has learned another language knows, the key to truly getting it is when you can think in it, rather than having to translate it in your head before speaking. And one of the ways to get to that level of proficiency means practicing it all the time, meaning you’d need to do it when you were by yourself or with others who can speak your native language and the one you’re learning, not just when you’re communicating with speakers of the new language. If you don’t do that, then you won’t get in the right habits, and could accidentally speak your native language when you mean to speak the learned one. For someone who is in disguise and trying to fool those who are part of a different culture, that would completely blow their cover.
Ergo, the Forsaken might well be speaking the modern tongue rather than the Old Tongue, even when amongst themselves, so as to get in that habit of thinking in the new language, and not making a mistake by slipping back into the Old Tongue. Yes, most nobles in Randland studied it as part of their education, but even they don’t speak it constantly and fluently; note that among those who give Mat weird looks whenever he spouts off Old Tongue without knowing it are the Tairen and Cairhienin lords, and Aes Sedai. Forsaken in disguise really don’t want to attract attention the way Mat does.
@37
I don’t think they care that much. Lanfear is nearly as incompetent at being incognito as Rand and the others are using Compulsion to maintain their positions. I doubt Sammael is going around saying things like “I do no want to hear any backtalk, Fortune prick me if my aged grandmother could no build border defenses faster than you.”
But your point about thinking in the language is well made.