#Also i so want to read about lan throwing moiraine into a pond

[cesaray]

i’m going to read the prequel new spring now as that is under 400 pages and easier on my wrists

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 22 - Watchers

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(Dagger icon) In which it becomes easy to point at a narrative parallel.

PERSPECTIVE: Nothing is happening as Moiraine expects it to.(1) She's in a room full of scrolls and papers and books, in a small house in a small town in Arafel, owned by two retired Aes Sedai. Adeleas and Vandene have been in voluntary retreat for so long that few at the Tower even remember they're still alive.

Out of nowhere, she asks Lan if he remembers how they met. She only just catches his eyebrow twitch, just once, with surprise. Almost twenty years ago she told him she would never speak of it again, and expected the same of him.

“I remember,” was all he said. “And still no apology, I suppose? You threw me into a pond.” She did not smile, though she could feel amusement at it, now. “Every stitch I had was soaked, and in what you Bordermen call new spring.(2) I nearly froze.” “I recall I built a fire, too, and hung blankets so you could warm yourself in privacy.” He poked at the burning logs and returned the firetool to its hook. Even summer nights were cool in the Borderlands. “I also recall that while I slept that night, you dumped half the pond on me. It would have saved a great deal of shivering on both our parts if you had simply told me you were Aes Sedai rather than demonstrating it. Rather than trying to separate me from my sword. Not a good way to introduce yourself to a Borderman, even for a young woman.”

They reminisce about how Moiraine tormented Lan on their first adventure, until Lan asks why the nostalgia. Moiraine says that she made arrangements so that, if she dies, his bond as Warder will pass to another Aes Sedai, and he will feel compelled to seek her out immediately. She doesn't want him to be surprised by it.

Lan gets angry. Moiraine has never used his bond to compel him to anything. Moiraine says that if she hadn't done this, he would be free after her death, and she can't let him go take up his useless quest for revenge in the Blight when he could fight the same war more effectively elsewhere. She can't be sure that she'll die soon, obviously, but with her plans coming to fruition like this... who can say what will happen now, at any time? Lan asks who the other Aes Sedai is, and Mo names Myrelle, a Green. She already has three Warders, so she should be well able to keep Lan in line. But Mo has made Myrelle promise that if someone who suits him better comes along,(3) that Myrelle will pass his bond on to her. Lan is outraged. No Aes Sedai has passed a bond to another in four hundred years, and she intends to do it to Lan, twice?! Mo says it is done, and she will not undo it.(4)

When Lan asks if Mo knows who might get his bond in the end of this game of musical Aes Sedai, Mo dances around the answer and simply says whoever it is, she’ll have need of a man with his knowledge and strength and willingness to throw her in a pond when she’s wrong. Lan shows uncharacteristic shock, but before he can ask who, Mo asks if the bond chafes, now.(5)

“The Light blind me, if I am to be passed from hand to hand, do you at least have some idea in whose hand I will end?” “What I do is for your own good, and perhaps it may be for another’s, as well. It may be that Myrelle will find a slip of a girl just raised to sisterhood—was that not what you said?—who needs a Warder hardened in battle and wise in the ways of the world, a slip of a girl who may need someone who will throw her into a pond. You have much to offer, Lan, and to see it wasted in an unmarked grave, or left to the ravens, when it could go to a woman who needs it would be worse than the sin of which the Whitecloaks prate. Yes, I think she will have need of you.” Lan’s eyes widened slightly; for him it was the same as another man gasping in shocked surmise. She had seldom seen him so off balance. He opened his mouth twice before he spoke. “And who do you have in mind for this—” She cut him off. “Are you sure the bond does not chafe, Lan Gaidin? Do you realize for the first time, only now, the strength of that bond, the depth of it? You could end with some budding White, all logic and no heart, or with a young Brown who sees you as nothing more than a pair of hands to carry her books and sketches. I can hand you where I will, like a parcel—or a lapdog—and you can do no more than go. Are you sure it does not chafe?”

Lan asks if this has been a test of his loyalty to Mo, and she says no, none of this was a test, but at Fal Dara, she did begin to wonder if he was wholly with her. He looks wary, but before he can react much, she asks why he taught Rand as he did, on the way to the Amyrlin's meeting? He just says it seemed right, and he'd have to be a lord someday, better to make sure his first impressions on certain important people are in the right direction. Like a wolfhound meeting a wolf, it must act like a wolfhound, not a puppy, or it will get itself killed. Is that what he sees Aes Sedai as? Wolves? No, he clarifies, but the ta'veren pull at everything around them. It felt like the right thing to do. He hasn't asked to be released from his bond, nor will he, and he will take great pleasure in keeping her alive and making sure her backup plans are for nothing.

She asks him to leave her to think alone. She thinks of Nynaeve, cracking Lan's walls and seeding them with vines to tear them down, but he still thinks they're strong as anything. Mo feels an uncharacteristic stab of jealousy.(6) They've been through so much together, and Lan had always said he was wedded to death, pushing himself beyond normal human limits because he valued her life above his own. Now a new bride has captured his heart, and he doesn't even see it yet.

But, as she gets to her feet to keep poring over her scrolls and books, she reminds herself there are more important matters. So many hints, and no answers. Soon Vandene brings her a cup of tea and asks what she's seeking. Mo says honestly that she doesn't really know. Vandene notes the wide array of subjects Mo has books on, then says she’ll leave her to her reading in privacy.

Mo stops her, and tries to find questions that won't give away too much of her own knowledge. Is there a connection between the Dragon and the Horn? No, except that the Horn must be found before the Last Battle, which the Dragon will fight. Does anything link the Dragon to Toman Head? Yes and no. There's a verse in the original prophecies that reads ‘Five ride forth, and four return. Above the watchers shall he proclaim himself, bannered cross the sky in fire. . . .’ though there's some debate about the word that so often gets translated to simply "watchers", it's still unclear.(7)

Vandene has heard about a supposed Dragon named Mazrim Taim, who can channel. Mo says offhandedly that she doesn't think they'll have to worry about him, then asks about Shadar Logoth. Vandene thinks she's still talking about Dragons, but Mo clarifies: is there any reason a Fade would take something that came from Shadar Logoth? No. What does Vandene know of the Forsaken? She comments on how Mo leaps from subject to subject, but she knows little more than any novice. Does Mo know something about the Dragon? Has he already been Reborn?

Mo asks if she would be here instead of in the White Tower if she knew anything, which Vandene accepts. She goes on about some of the dilemma about how Aes Sedai can't gentle the true Dragon lest he fail in the Last Battle, but says the signs of Tarmon Gai'don are clear. Mo says simply that he will come, and do what must be done.

Vandene gets up to excuse herself, but says that Mo should "do something" about Lan, he's got something pent up inside. Maybe he's finally come to see her as a woman? Mo says Lan sees her for exactly what she is, and hopefully still a friend. Vandene comments that Blue Ajah are “Always so ready to save the world that you lose yourselves.” After Vandene leaves, Mo goes down to the garden in the moonlight to think. Something Vandene said tugs at her memory, like it's relevant.(8)

Lan and Jaem, Vandene's Warder, take down the Draghkar. Lan says if Mo hadn't made him so angry, he wouldn't have gone around the corner from the gardens to practice the forms with Jaem, and they wouldn't... Mo says the Pattern accounts for everything.(9)

Adeleas demands to know how the thing could have snuck up on them, and Mo says it was warded. Adeleas cuts herself off as she realizes only another Aes Sedai could do that. Mo names the Black Ajah. But then, WHY did it come here?

Instead of answering,(10) Mo says she and Lan must leave immediately. She'll leave letters for them to forward to the White Tower, if they can?

Adeleas nodded absently, her attention still on the thing on the ground. “And will you find your answers where you are going?” Vandene asked. “I may already have found one I did not know I sought. I only hope I am not too late. I will need pen and parchment.” She drew Vandene toward the house, leaving Adeleas to deal with the Draghkar.

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(1) So, here's a fun phenomenon: especially when we're switching POVs so much, take a step back every now and again and ask yourself, why are these two storylines back to back? In this case, it's said right in the text, but other times it'll be less obvious. Consider: flipping between Rand and Egwene and Perrin's POVs as they all have to learn how to embrace their abilities and be part of a bigger community and a bigger apparatus than their individual lives so far. RJ did a LOT of really intentional compare-and-contrasts back to back like that. I like to think having Moiraine say the same thing Rand just did at the end of the other chapter is his way of drawing attention to that, as we start really going all-in on "hey the story isn't just about this one guy". (2) Such a cheeky reference to what would a few years later become the title of the only prequel novel that ever ended up written. (3) And just whomst might come along and turn Lan's head, be worthy of his bond, his oath, his loyalty, his heart? (4) So, the whole concept of passing the bond to another Aes Sedai without the Warder's permission or knowledge is pretty fucked up, and I 100% cannot blame Lan for being angry. We don't know anything about Myrelle yet but… there's absolutely reason for Lan to be angry there, all things considered. Plus side, Moiraine has at the very least made Myrelle promise to give Lan's bond to Nynaeve if or when she's raised to Aes Sedai rank, jealous as she is of the young woman. (5) Continuing on from point 4, something I haven't really touched on much yet is how the magic system, with the taint on the male half, has effectively led to a situation where Original Sin lies with men. Even though they're physically somewhat larger and stronger on average than women are in the world, they're mistrusted, because of that association with the Breaking and the taint. So, despite that we still have some gender dynamics in play that we're familiar with, we also have a dimension that alters it. All the way back to the Women's Circle in Emond's Field, the men have their Council but the women nudge them one way or the other on major decisions, or have the deciding vote in the form of the Wisdom. The consent issue with regard to Warder bonds comes up again, obviously, or it wouldn't be seeded here. We can deal with it a little more in depth as it comes. But, the whole "what if this is a deliberate commentary on our real-world gender dynamics" thing is kind of an important lens to view the series through. I think this one was intentional. If Moiraine were a man in a magic-using version of our patriarchal world, how much would he probably think about passing on his life partner's bond to another man? RJ seems to have intentionally reversed a lot of tropes in an effort to make us think, really think, about gender dynamics. (6) Wouldn't Nynaeve crow to hear of it? (7) As if we needed more indication that we're going to Toman Head this book. (8) That's a lot of rambling in the section with Vandene, I wonder what it is specifically that pings Moiraine's memory. (9) So, Mo is important enough to need saving for later, is she? (10) She knows very well that it was here for her and Lan.