#IT'S ALL CONNECTED I AM BEGINNING MY PEPE SILVIA BOARD AS WE SPEAK

[essektheylyss]

I am wondering about Skalvi, the Witch of the Watching Fire, and her betrayal by her apprentice, which is noted as not being clear whether the apprentice murdered her or if the apprentice refused the station at a time when it was too late for Skalvi to train another. Particularly in contrast to Indri's killing of her own mentor and the implication that she will eliminate any apprentice of her own who shows signs of beginning to learn magic (presumably posing a potential threat to her).

It also makes me curious about the witches' domains—the station of the Watching Fire is gone, but that doesn't mean that that domain is absent from the world. To say nothing of the fact that there is a sense that the coven is increasingly impatient with the World's Heart being represented at all, presumably because it stands in the way of what they want. Grandma Wren seemed to consider the coven's other interests "unconscionable". She also specified that the Witch of the Watching Fire was part of the seemingly more person-focused section of the coven, along with the World's Heart and the Wind and Stars. And while Indri seems a far cry from Grandma Wren's kindness, Tough, the coal spirit Ame encounters, suggests that Indri is not acting in her station the way she is necessarily meant to, and it does make me wonder if she is acting for anyone beyond herself at all. While her domain does focus on the self and solitude, that does not inherently mean selfishness, arrogance, or isolation, and she is a witch, which means she has a responsibility to something larger than herself. If the coven were to succeed in eliminating the Witch of the World's Heart, Indri would be the last witch left to speak for mortals, and as far removed as she is from them, she cannot be said to be acting in any of their interests, let alone their best. Fundamentally, she doesn't know them.

What was, exactly, the domain of the Watching Fire? Was it, as the title suggests, the vigil kept while others rest? Was it the domain of rest itself? And is it possible that the steady ramping of conflict in the world over the past several decades is due to having no one to keep that vigil? Kalaya says also that when she first came to the Citadel, it was more of a university, not a military training ground. Only over time has it morphed into something fearful and afraid—something vigilant. Was there more to fear, with no one watching the hearth? Have other institutions risen, perhaps even unconsciously, to fill the space that was left with that station gone?

It is obviously unclear at this point where their true intent lies, but I do wonder if perhaps the elimination of the Witch of the Watching Fire was deliberate and orchestrated—whether the war and the witches are not so distinct as the witches may wish to suggest.