#aril corl

[iviarellereads]

The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 20 - Jangai Pass

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Ancient Aes Sedai icon) In which yeah, this message is received, no thanks.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand and co are crossing the Dragonwall, through the Jangai Pass. He's trying to ignore Moraine, lecturing him on courtly behaviour in Cairhien right now. Asmo is carrying a banner with the ancient Aes Sedai symbol, under which it's prophesied that Rand will conquer.

There's a little town called Taien just inside the edge of the Pass, a remnant of the days when Cairhien had the run of the Waste for trade, and Rand thinks it looks wrong.(1) He realizes some of the thoughts and memories are Lews Therin's, bubbling up in his head, and he shakes them away. He intends to win and remain Rand al'Thor.

At any rate, the town's been killed off. Couladin had a week's head start on them, and he may still have all of that advantage to lay siege to Cairhien ahead of them.

There are three old folks still living, and they say the Aiel came through six days ago, stole all the younger adults, and killed most of the rest. There are about a hundred other survivors, hiding. Rand gets angry, asking why their dead are still out for the ravens after six days, with a hundred left. They say the one with the markings on his arms told them not to touch anything, it was a message. He wanted a man to know he would do worse to that man.

Some other Aiel, the Reyn Aiel, show up and frighten off the survivors. Rand asks them about Couladin taking gai'shain from the town, and they say, it cannot be done. Gai'shain is about ji'e'toh, if someone doesn't follow ji'e'toh then they're just slaves, like Sharans keep.(2)

Dhearic, the leader of the Reyn, says Couladin has abandoned ji'e'toh. Mat asks if that surprises him, after everything he's already done. All Aiel present give him flat stares, because Aiel are ji'e'toh, and Couladin is still Aiel.

Lan breaks the silence to point out that the Pass may be trapped. Rand says they'll camp here and send scouts ahead. He suggests a certain society, the Water Seekers, which pleases Dhearic since it was his society before he became clan chief.

Sulin and the other Maidens present give Rand their flat stares now, realizing that he's been choosing other scouts for days, and he's trying to "protect" the Maidens from doing their fair duty.(3)

Rand calls for Rhuarc to see that the dead are buried and find the remaining survivors, and to be kind. They'll be coming with them, across to Cairhien.

=====

(1) Even after a great upheaval, even after 3000 years, certain landmarks are likely to feel familiar to someone. Consider all the bits of ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome that still stand, among many other less-acknowledged cultures. Lews Therin walked these lands before the Breaking, and now Rand is literally treading in his own past self's footsteps, an echo across the Ages. (2) A nice little way to fail to acknowledge that the Aiel sell them some of those slaves, at least for the last twenty years. (3) How long do you think this stalemate can last?