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apocalypticavolition · 1 year ago

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Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 14: The Stag and Lion

My reread continues! If you don't know the drill by now, let me clue you in: this is going to be chock full of spoilers for the whole damn Wheel of Time series and if you're not into those vibes you should find somewhere else to be! Not trying to be mean, just trying to help you help yourself. Those of you who do like spoilers are going to have to fend for yourselves though. I'm busy with the noobs.

Anyway, this chapter's icon is the Dragon's Fang again, reflecting the dream that Rand has this chapter courtesy of Ishamael. Pretty straightforward symbolism at this point.

Also, since it's not remotely relevant, I've decided that the Stag is the sign of some local nobility, either current or back from the pre-Andor days, and that's why it's mentioned alongside the nation's heraldic sign. Headcanons are fun!

With the winter we just had . . . well, as soon as it cleared enough for them to get down out of the mountains we were inundated—yes, that’s the word—inundated by men from the mines and smelters, all telling the most horrible tales. Wolves, and worse.

Have the Shadowspawn been spreading out beyond the Two Rivers? It might just be tall tales getting taller in the telling - that happens a lot in this story - but I wonder if maybe a few of these miners saw Trollocs coming out the wrong Waygates and trying to orient themselves. Maybe it was accident - I don't remember how well-marked the way to Manetheren was - or perhaps it was just a deliberate detour to escape Machin Shin.

“Oh, never you worry about them, Mistress Alys. They’re up to their usual tricks. Claim there’s an Aes Sedai in the town.”

Considering how easy it is to recognize an Aes Sedai once you know the signs, it says nothing good about the Brown or Yellow Ajahs that a town like Baerlon, which isn't insignificant even if it is kinda the ass end of nowhere, could even make a plausible target for the tactic that Fitch describes.

A dozen tall, copper bathtubs sat in a circle on the tiled floor, which sloped down slightly to a drain in the center of the big stone-walled room. A thick towel, neatly folded, and a large cake of yellow soap sat on a stool behind each tub, and big black iron cauldrons of water stood heating over fires along one wall. On the opposite wall logs blazing in a deep fireplace added to the general warmth.

I have to say, based on the general wealth level of Baerlon and the lack of discomfort everyone has in disrobing in front of a total stranger, I'm a little surprised that there isn't just one large tub, like Moiraine and Lan share in the TV show. Lots of baths takes effort and resources and this is just one inn of no particular account on the edge of civilization.

“The Two Rivers,” Mat said, pronouncing each separate word distinctly. “It’s the Two Rivers. As for trouble, why—” “What do you mean, too?” Rand asked. “Is there some kind of trouble here?” Perrin, enjoying his soak, murmured, “Good! Good!” Thom raised himself back up a little, and opened his eyes.

Poor Thom, trying to relax and suddenly remembering he's the adult in a room with:

Samwise Gamgee trying to explain tubers

The main protagonist, who is always flailing into political shrewdness by dumb luck

And third guy, who has done almost nothing at this point to make Thom or even the reader think that he might be smarter than a dog with a head injury

Strange things in the mountains. I heard the other day there were Trollocs up in Saldaea.

Luckily for existence, Ara manages to out-stupid the boys by commenting that he heard rumors that the sun was going to set that evening. Mat could have told him everything about Trollocs in graphic detail and Ara wouldn't have been smart enough to repeat the story to anyone. That said, it's still for the best that Thom cuts him off.

“You just don’t tell them as well as Thom,” Rand cut him off hastily, and Perrin hopped in. “You keep adding in things, trying to make it better, and they never do.”

Oh thank goodness, Perrin can think on his feet. Guess I'll have to stop giving him shit for awhile now that Mat's officially established himself as the stupidest member of the party.

And if the Children of the Light heard Trollocs were after you, they’d be burning to get their hands on you. To them, it would be as much as naming you Darkfriend.

And this right here is what makes the Whitecloaks unquestionably the bad guys. When being pursued by the forces of darkness is proof positive that you are part of their ranks, there's nothing left but the witch hunt. It's really unfortunate, because whatever their opinions on channelers, the Whitecloaks are absolutely correct that Darkfriends have infiltrated every level of society (including their own!) and that they're a dangerous threat. They just go about the issue in the worst ways possible.

Just you put it in the front of your mind that we want no more attention than mice in a field. Concentrate on that. Moiraine wants to get you all to Tar Valon alive, and I will do it if it can be done, but if you bring any harm to her. . . .

This is exactly why Lan didn't want Egwene and probably didn't want to be dragging three boys around when they could have been focusing on one. He's worried that he and Moiraine are finally in too deep and while he welcomes that possibility for himself, he's much too attached to her (platonically) to be comfortable with the prospect of a bunch of idiot farmers bringing her down.

Naturally, Rand - the only one who hasn't been a target of his ire thus far - is the closest to being personally responsible for Moiraine's downfall out of anyone in the party.

When they left the bath chamber, Moiraine was standing at the end of the hall with a slender girl not much taller than herself. At least, Rand thought it was a girl, though her dark hair was cut short and she wore a man’s shirt and trousers. Moiraine said something, and the girl looked at the men sharply, then nodded to Moiraine and hurried away.

Can you just imagine an angry rant about how clothing isn't actually so gendered that pants would be universally masculine across 10,000 years of history so that I don't have to type it? You wanna do gender reversals, Jordan? Do a world where only women wear pants and dudes are rocking skirts. Call them kilts if you must, but come on. There's nothing intrinsically gendered about generic categories of clothing!

Also, hi Min. Lovely to see you.

He opened his mouth to apologize, but Egwene stiffened and turned her back before he could get a word out. Staring sullenly at her back, he swallowed what he had been going to say. All right, then. If she wants to be like that, there’s nothing I can do.

Bro she doesn't know an apology is coming and just doesn't want to hear your next rant.

“It isn’t what I would have laid before you a year ago, of course. Not nearly. The winter. Yes. The winter. My cellars are emptying out, and the market is all but bare. And who can blame the farm folk? Who? There’s certainly no telling when they’ll harvest another crop. No telling at all. It’s the wolves get the mutton and beef that should go on people’s tables, and. . . .”

The food crisis in Baerlon is a lot more severe than it is in the Two Rivers because of the huge population influx. Most farmers wouldn't be expecting their winter crops to be ready for harvest until the end of May (mid-Saven by the local calendar, two months off either way), if agriculture here is anything like North America and Europe. Frankly, it's a miracle that Baerlon didn't descend into a larger anarchy once summer came around.

“I suspect him no more than anyone else,” Lan replied. “But then, until we reach Tar Valon, I suspect everyone. There, I’ll suspect only half.”

Only a little overcautious, since a good third of Moiraine's sisters are evil.

“There, the news is better. No odd happenings, no strangers around who might be Myrddraal, certainly no Trollocs. And the Whitecloaks are busy trying to make trouble for Governor Adan because he won’t cooperate with them. They will not even notice us unless we advertise ourselves.”

A) Bad news, Rand will be advertising you, and

Also A) Jordan is hitting a lot of A names here in Baerlon. Moiraine and Lan go by Alys and Andra. The guard they talked to coming into town was Avin. The bath attendant was Ara. Now the governor is Adan! Eight a's in five names with a total of twenty letters.

S) Later he will pick a different letter to use fifteen million times and it will be the cause of much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

With the crowding at the inn there were only three rooms to be had, one for Moiraine and Egwene, and two to take the men. Rand found himself sharing with Lan and Thom, on the fourth floor at the back, close up under the overhanging eaves, with a single small window that overlooked the stableyard.

Considering that Lan and Thom both just dissed the boys for the trouble they'll be getting into, I'm surprised Mat and Perrin were allowed to have their own room. Maybe they were initially going to split one adult each but then Lan and Thom got in an argument about who deserved to have two boys and neither would back down from only rooming with the one least likely to give either a headache.

The stone hallway was dim and shadowy, and empty except for Rand. He could not tell where the light came from, what little there was of it; the gray walls were bare of candles or lamps, nothing at all to account for the faint glow that seemed to just be there. The air was still and dank, and somewhere in the distance water dripped with a steady, hollow plonk.

I'm going to say that this is a dreamshard and not T'A'R proper, since it is filled with implausibilities and impossibilities that don't really match how the World of Dreams renders the waking world.

One wall opened in a series of arches onto a gray stone balcony, and beyond that was a sky such as he had never seen. Striated clouds in blacks and grays, reds and oranges, streamed by as if storm winds drove them, weaving and interweaving endlessly. No one could ever have seen a sky like that; it could not exist.

Case in point. Yet... I will admit, this probably not an entirely alien sight in the Blight.

“Once more we meet face-to-face,” the man said and, just for an instant, his mouth and eyes became openings into endless caverns of flame.

Ishy's so excited he can't even keep his glamor going.

“You seem thirsty,” the man by the fire said. “Drink.” On the table was a goblet, shining gold and ornamented with rubies and amethysts. It had not been there before. He wished he could stop jumping. It was only a dream. His mouth felt like dust.

Is it poison? Something worse? It's hard to guess what the gambit here might actually have been, because even Jordan didn't know the rules at this point and he closed off most of the options once he did.

“Are you the one?” Ba’alzamon said suddenly. “You cannot hide it from me forever. You cannot even hide yourself from me, not on the highest mountain or in the deepest cave. I know you down to the smallest hair.”

It's an impressive contradiction. I know you intimately and I cannot recognize you. It's almost as if most reincarnations are complete reinventions of the person with only a few themes to follow them through the turning of the Wheel, Ish. It's almost like you can't possibly grow tired from incarnating because that's not something that even requires energy on your part. But please, keep pretending your extremist variant of nihilism is logically coherent.

“Are you expecting glory?” Ba’alzamon said. “Power? Did they tell you the Eye of the World would serve you? What glory or power is there for a puppet? The strings that move you have been centuries weaving. Your father was chosen by the White Tower, like a stallion roped and led to his business. Your mother was no more than a brood mare to their plans. And those plans lead to your death.”

Title drop! Ish is desperately trying to advertise the Blight's premier vacation destination, a green oasis in the midst of hell, a resort so exclusive you can only visit once, so book your reservation today, before the world ends! Not even stone cold nihilism can win against the love of money.

It's great reading this with hindsight because it shows how utterly and completely full of shit Ishamael is. He guesses that this is what happened, because it's what he would do, but the White Tower had nothing to do with Rand's conception, except that one Aes Sedai gave a Foretelling to his mother and let her do what she would with it. Her getting pregnant was the farthest thing from anyone's minds at the time, let alone with an Aiel clan chief.

The Amyrlin Seat will use you until you are consumed, just as Davian was used, and Yurian Stonebow, and Guaire Amalasan, and Raolin Darksbane. Just as Logain is being used.

And yet, it's possible that this is mostly true. Logain isn't being used by Siuan - she's trying to stabilize Ghealdan, not tear it apart, and she's not interested in False Dragons - but Guaire may well have been a project of Bonwhin Meraighdin, the Red Amyrlin who rose to power the year he declared himself. The others we don't know enough about, but Siuan and Moiraine react just oddly enough to Rand's accusation later that I think Ish is providing more truth than he had been.

“Fool, I have never been bound!”

I'd say that being free for 120 years out of 3,500, a mere 3% of the total, is still hella bound, Ishy. Still though, his own bragging is hella impressive. I strongly suspect that the Second Covenant was an era that was only a step or two down from the Age of Legends, and he wrecked that. Afterward, he ensured that the Seanchan would rise up and reinvent chattel slavery, which is hella evil on his part.

“Then go to the Aes Sedai. Go to the White Tower and tell them. Tell the Amyrlin Seat of this . . . dream.”

A smart play. I don't think Moiraine would have liked hearing about this dream, and Siuan less, but the truth is they still would have supported Rand to any degree short of his joining the Shadow. But Ish plants the doubt, and Moiraine's words last chapter give Rand little reason to think he'd survive this conversation.

With a snort he lay back. Were the dreams really bad enough for him to ask the help of an Aes Sedai? On the other hand, could anything he did now get him in any deeper? He had left the Two Rivers, come away with an Aes Sedai. But there had not been any choice, of course. So did he have any choice but to trust her? An Aes Sedai? It was as bad as the dreams, thinking about it.

See what I mean? Moiraine didn't just sink a ferry, she burned a bridge, and life is going to be a lot more unpleasant for everyone these next five books as a result. Let's see how that goes next time in "Strangers and Friends"!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #robert jordan #rand al'thor #moiraine damodred #thom merrilin #mat cauthon #perrin aybara #lan mandragoran #egwene al'vere #min farshaw #ishamael

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