This week in Reading The Wheel of Time, we’re finishing off “Snow,” the Prologue of Winter’s Heart—catching up with Toveine and then going to see what Rand and and Min are up to. Everyone’s got big plans right now, and it will be interesting to see whose come to fruition, and whose fizzle out.
Toveine Gazal wakes from a dream of throttling Elaida to find herself in the cot she’s been given in the Asha’man encampment. The bond Logain put on her compels her obedience, but she promises herself she will find a way out, and one day will put her real hands on Elaida’s throat.
She gets dressed and cleaned up, then hurries out into the main area of the building, where other captured Aes Sedai are staying. Every one of them blames Toveine for their capture. Outside the makeshift dormitory she finds the wide streets and buildings, many of which are newly built or currently under construction. As she walks the streets she notes the strangeness of seeing men using the Power alongside women going about their day and children playing.
She’s surprised to see an escort of guards with visitors: two golden-haired women, one of whom is dressed as the Captain-General of the Guards, and even more shocked when she hears the other woman addressed as “Lady Elayne.” She tries to think of how she can gain advantage from this discovery.
Realizing she is going to be late, Toveine starts to run, but she is attacked by a group of dogs, biting at her skirts and chasing her. Toveine has been forbidden to channel so she can’t use the One Power to fight them off. She’s starting to panic when a group of women come to her rescue, beating the dogs off with baskets and buckets, urging her to get away.
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She composes herself just before reaching Logain’s large house, where some of the Asha’man are standing guard. Gabrelle, the other Aes Sedai Logain has bonded, comes out. Toveine realizes that the intimate activity Logain was getting up to the night before—which she had been aware of through the link between them—was with Gabrelle, who doesn’t seem in the least embarrassed about it.
Toveine tells Gabrelle off for “surrendering to Ablar’s vile lusts,” only to learn that Gabrelle was the one to convince him, and that she’s doing it to spy on Logain. Men love to talk, she tells Toveine, all you need to do is listen.
Toveine does indeed listen as men make their daily reports to Logain. There is mention of trying to figure out the Healing that Nynaeve did to Logain, some trouble with two young Two Rivers men, and a report that someone named Mishraile is having private lessons from the M’Hael.
A new man arrives to report that there is a new list of deserters. The men are surprised that there are full Asha’man on this list, while an Asha’man named Sandomere expresses surprise that Flinn, Hopwil, Narishma, personally chosen to serve with Rand, would ever desert.
Logain sends the women inside to wait for him. Toveine listens to Gabrelle talk about everything she has learned from Logain, like how he is the only Asha’man who lives in the Town, while every other one lives in Taim’s palace, waited on by servants. She also learns that Logain found her lapdesk, and that he burned the contents after reading them, and informs Gabrelle about Elaida’s orders to gentle and hang every man found in the Black Tower.
Gabrelle points out that all the captured Aes Sedai have been kept alive at least in part because of the danger of angering the White Tower. With fifty one captive Aes Sedai in their encampment, even Elaida will have to be cautious, though the Asha’man must worry that the sisters might find a way around the control the Asha’man have over them. Gabrelle informs Toveine that there are many factions in the Black Tower, including one that follows Taim and another that follows Logain. They could perhaps exploit this division, but worry that breaking up the Black Tower would only result in setting different groups of Asha’man loose on the rest of the world. It might take a lifetime to capture them all, and Tarmon Gai’don is coming.
Gabrelle brings up an even more important point: The captive Aes Sedai must unite under a single leader. Otherwise, once the shock wears off, they are going to fall back into being allied only to their separate Ajahs. She suggests that she and Toveine should publicly submit themselves to Desandre, the highest ranking Aes Sedai. Toveine agrees, but she has her own plans brewing in the back of her mind, and is determined to use Logain and Taim in her revenge against Elaida.
At the Academy in Cairhien, Rand catches up with Dobraine while Min hunts for some books she wants from Master Fel’s library. Rand learns that some people believe him captured by Elaida or the Forsaken, others that he was killed, and still others that he may himself have gone mad and destroyed part of the Sun Palace. Dobraine himself seems a little uncertain, but Rand trusts him because of Dumai’s Wells. Rand also learns that Ailil and Shalon have gone missing. Rand left the two tied up under a bed, but knows the shield he put on Shalon would have worn off a long time ago, allowing them to free themselves even if they weren’t found by servants first. He suspects that Cadsuane probably took Ailil as a political move, and Shalon was taken to keep the secret.
He is distracted when he sees one of the inventions being tested in the courtyard below, a “steam wagon” which doesn’t need horses to pull it. Mistress Idrien is dismissive of the notion, but reports on some of the other inventions, including a huge kite you can ride, called a glider; a boat that moves under the power of a waterwheel; and a man who traps lightning in jars. Rand is briefly alarmed that this could mean channeling, but is reassured that it is very different. Rand reflects on his desire to leave something behind, besides destruction, and his desire to live, even though he knows he will die.
I thought I could build, Lews Therin murmured in his head. I was wrong. We are not builders, not you, or I, or the other one. We are destroyers. Destroyers.
Rand gives Dobraine sealed orders, naming him Rand’s Steward in Cairhien and giving Dobraine certain orders to be carried out. He urges Dobraine to throw his full support behind Elayne when she makes her claim to the Sun Throne. He tells Dobraine he’ll know when, or if, to deliver the other, and to continue supporting the Academy, as well as the school in Tear, during Rand’s absence.
Min finally finds the books he wants and Rand sends the other two away. He prepares to seize saidin and manages not to sway or fall down. He makes a gateway to the clearing outside the city where they left their horses. He declares his intention to tell Min his plan, but she has already figured out some of it. Rand has been traveling around, asking questions and leaving clues to suggest that he has gone to one place or another. He is deliberately trying to confuse anyone about where he is going next, and Min wants to know why. She is aware that he has a plan, and wonders why he wouldn’t just do that first, and then bother about his tricky false trails and laying traps for whoever might follow them.
Rand admits that his plan is to cleanse saidin.
“I don’t know how long it will take, and once I start, I think everyone within a thousand miles of me who can channel will know something is happening. I doubt I’ll be able to just stop if Dashiva and the rest, or the Forsaken, suddenly appear to see what it is. The Forsaken, I can’t do anything about, but with luck, I can finish the others.” Maybe being ta’veren would give him the edge he needed so desperately.
Min remarks that if he depends on luck, Dashiva or the Forsaken “will have [Rand] for breakfast, and that maybe she can think of a better way.” Rand is dumbfounded by her casual attitude to such an intense and dangerous problem, and privately reflects that dealing with Dashiva and the others first will give him time to get over the sickness he experiences whenever he channels.
If he can’t recover, then he isn’t sure even the two ter’angreal he’s carrying will be enough to do what he has planned.
This is it, we’re finally getting to the cleansing of saidin! We knew it had to happen, of course. Narratively it’s a necessary part of the journey, and also, as Herid Fel would explain, because of the cyclical nature of time the taint has to be removed from saidin so that it can be untainted in the future, which is also the past.
I’m guessing he plans to do something with Shadar Logoth. The idea came to me when he was Healed by Flinn, and expected Rand might come to the same conclusion about the two evils consuming each other, and thereby canceling each other out. Or at least being confined to one space to battle each other to eventual extinction. Like the half-healed wounds in Rand’s side, cordoned off from the rest of his body and forced to turn most of their evil on each other.
I believe when Rand first collected the two ter’angreal from his hiding place behind the wall in his room, he was thinking about how he needed to find Nynaeve. The two ter’angreal are the ones that connects to the giant statue sa’angreal, I believe, which are so powerful Lanfear thought she and Rand would be able to use them to overthrow the Creator himself. Rand fears them, and was hoping to be able to use Callandor instead—that’s how powerful they are. Nynaeve is one of the most powerful female channelers alive, so it makes sense that she would be his chosen partner in this… except I’m not sure that Rand knows this about her.
I honestly can’t remember when was the last time Rand and Nynaeve saw each other, or how much he knows about her power as a channeler. And the more I think about it, the more certain I am that he thought of her not because of her power as an Aes Sedai, but because of her ability as a healer. That is, after all, what Rand is attempting to do. He’s trying to heal saidin. To heal every channeler who has touched, or will touch, the True Source and experience the Dark One’s taint.
What will happen to the men whose minds are already on their way to madness, I wonder? Does the damage reverse itself if one is no longer exposed to the taint? Or will it merely halt wherever it is, leaving the channeler half corrupted, but not quite mad?
For that matter, I’m starting to wonder if Rand’s sickness is more than just the result of his saidin-made balefire crashing into Moridin’s anti-saidin balefire. Could it be another side effect of the corruption of the taint? If it is, I don’t think Rand is going to just get over it the way he hopes. Another job for Nynaeve, maybe? They say the best works done in the Age of Legends were through male and female channelers working together. I’d love to see her hang out with Flinn for a while and swap notes.
And I can’t wait to see Nynaeve and Rand work together to cleanse saidin. I have a feeling it’s going to be a little while yet, however. After all, Rand wants to deal with Dashiva and the deserters first, and I have a feeling that’s not going to be an easy task. None of the Forsaken encounters have really gone to plan lately. But maybe, as she said, Min will come up with something.
I will say, Toveine is a pretty repellent person, but I was moved by the way the women of the Black Tower came to her rescue against the dogs. The men vs women/dog vs cat binary is a bit ridiculous, but the idea that the women who have followed their men to the Black Tower are still empathetic and allied to the Aes Sedai in some way is still moving. They won’t betray their men, I don’t think, not in the way Toveine is hoping. But in a moment when Toveine is basically enslaved to a man who can channel, that bit of care from other women means a lot.
It’s interesting to see her and Gabrelle discuss the fractured nature of the Black Tower and then immediately turn their minds towards how to keep the Aes Sedai from fracturing similarly.
We have seen how Aes Sedai sometimes struggle to think of themselves as a single group. When facing outsiders, anyone who isn’t an Aes Sedai, they are all easily defined by their sisterhood. But inside the White Tower, or even when interacting as a smaller group, they define themselves first and foremost by their Ajah, and even go so far as to think of their Ajah’s focus as being the most important focus in any given situation. Really, I can’t help thinking that the creation of the Ajahs was a mistake. They keep secrets from each other, they draw political lines around their Ajahs more often than around their own beliefs, and the bonds are so strong that it can be very difficult for an Amyrlin to keep at bay the preference for her former Ajah and the accusations (valid or imagined) of favoritism. What’s more, the choice of Ajah is made by Accepted who have never been a part of an Ajah before, who are basing their choice on what they have seen at a distance, from the outside. You can’t change your mind or get a do-over, either.
This isn’t to say that there are no benefits to the Ajah system, of course, or that there would be harmony in the White Tower without them. Politics are still going to politic, and the Black Ajah would still be at work undermining the cohesion of the White Tower. It’s just that the Ajahs make it easier for them.
Siuan recently explained to Egwene that the Three Oaths were important to who the Aes Sedai are, and that she would never want to be rid of them. At the time, it felt to me more like brainwashing than a reasoned, unemotional belief. But I think I can see how important it is for the Aes Sedai to have clear delineations around what and who they are. I imagine that, especially with the stigma surrounding the One Power and the cultural memory of the Breaking, it would be easy for the Aes Sedai to be defined by what they are not. Not ordinary people, not male channelers, not wilders. You can see the way they tend to other the rest of the world, and the way they tend to other even their fellow sisters from other Ajahs. Friendship across Ajahs used to be more common, of course, but there are so many stereotypes within the Tower around the other Ajahs. Everyone thinks Browns are completely impractical, distracted, and incapable of paying attention to the real world. The Reds are all single minded, man-hating jerks, etc.
I like Gabrelle. I think I’ve liked all the Browns we’ve met so far, except maybe Danelle, since she was part of Elaida’s coup. I do remember that she, like the other Browns we have met, used the stereotype of having her head in the clouds to cover up that she was bringing mercenaries into the White Tower. None of them actually seem to be that air-headed and distractible, and I find myself wondering if the Ajah isn’t secretly encouraging its members to put on this front before the other sisters. Interestingly, all the Browns we’ve met seem to like people a lot, despite their reputation for caring only about books and history. Which makes sense, really, because what is the true point of caring about history? History is, after all, about people. How they work, how they think, why they think and act as they do. What mistakes they made, and what can be done differently in the future. If anything, you might argue that the Browns are second only to the Blues in their dedication to caring for the people of the world.
Toveine, on the other hand, is pretty irrational in her thinking. I can understand that she’s in a bizarre position she could never have imagined being in, and would understandably struggle to adapt to, but throughout her section she jumps from thought to thought, often contradicting herself, considering Gabrelle to be a silly woman one moment, then reminding herself that it is a mistake to consider Browns to be unworldly or too absorbed in their books to notice what was going on, then falling back a moment later into thinking that Gabrelle is foolish and that Browns are always better at reading books that people.
Actually, Gabrelle reminds me a little of Verin’s outward personality, while Toveine reminds me a lot of Elaida. Throughout this section, Toveine bounces from despair to visions of revenge, just as Elaida does under Alviarin’s control. She has moments of insight and thoughtfulness, but seems much less in control of herself than Gabrelle seems to be. She wants to believe that she has a great destiny, but I find myself wondering how much actual effect she will have on the story, in the long run.
We get some interesting tidbits of information from Logain’s reporters, which we have more context for than Toveine does. The “secret lessons” from the M’Hael seems very important, given my own suspicions about Taim. Suspicions I think Logain might share, as he seems to be keeping himself apart from the other full-fledge Asha’man and having his loyalists keep an eye on Taim’s doings. He also appears protective of the men from the Two Rivers, which is interesting. I can’t think why Logain would have a particular interest in them… but I can imagine that Taim might be aware that controlling Two Rivers men gives him an edge, a weapon to use against Rand if he ever wants to.
Toveine isn’t sure if Logain is resigned or regretful that there are fourteen year olds in the Black Tower. But while he seems to couch his concern for them in terms of Rand possibly being angered by Two Rivers deaths (a wise concern) I found myself wondering if this was just Logain being a good person. Gabrelle tells Toveine that Logain isn’t a villian, and if he is suspicious of Taim’s doings he might be trying to provide balance in the Black Tower, to protect the Two Rivers men because they are unduly in danger. One of the reporters responds to Logain’s assertions that Rand might be angry if they kill too many of his men with the following statement;
“I was hearing it was the Lord Dragon himself told the M’Hael to pluck up anything male in this Two Rivers that could channel, down to the roosters. With the number he brought back, I’m just surprised he didn’t bring the chicks and lambs, as well.”
I find it difficult to believe that Rand would have given such an order. He’s protective of his home, and while he certainly wouldn’t turn away prospective Asha’man from anywhere, I don’t think he’d want Taim doing special recruiting there. He certainly wouldn’t want fourteen year old boys being sought out and brought to the Black Tower. He might not fight it if it happened, sure. But he wouldn’t order it.
Taim would, though, and he’d happily lie about it too, as he did when he named Flinn, Hopwil, and Narishma among the deserters. He was probably covering his tracks, since four of the other five were known to be his men. Or maybe trying to rob Rand of the few men we know support the Dragon fully—if any of the other Asha’man run into those three, they will try to kill them as per Black Tower Law.
Next week is Chapter One and Two of Winter’s Heart. That’s not going to be easy, since it’s Perrin finding out about Faile’s capture. In the meantime, I leave you with one final thought.
When Lews Therin is doing his maudlin moaning in Rand’s head, talking about how they’re destroyers, he specifically says to Rand that they are not builders. “[N]ot you, or I, or the other one,” he says. Other one? Is there someone else in Rand’s head now? What does this mean?
Thank you, and I will see y’all next week!
Sylas K Barrett is already ready for the holidays to be over. However, despite how miserable the winter is for everyone in the story, reading Winter’s Heart has him wishing for snow.
