#innkeeper cuale

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 30 - Daes Dae'mar

(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.)

(Cairhien icon) In which that doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand’s patience grows thinner. There's been no word from the Illuminators about why only a single nightflower went off several nights ago, and they haven't even admitted that there was a fire. Rumours abound, but none close to the truth. Hurin is getting more formal with Rand every day they stay here, he seems to honestly believe that Rand is a Lord, and that he should prove that Shienar can be every bit as proper as Cairhien. It's annoying the hell out of Rand.

The innkeeper knocks, and gives Rand more invitations. There have been so many, Rand snatches them up without looking at them, and won't let Cuale tell him who they're from. Rand starts wondering aloud if Cuale was listening at the door before he knocked, and is thinking about how Cairhien is getting to him, when Hurin interrupts in absolute shock. The invitations are from Lord Barthanes, the High Seat of House Damodred, and from King Galldrian Riatin himself.

Rand says they go in the fire like the rest, unopened. If he accepts any invitation, the Cairhienin will read something into it and think he's part of someone else's plot. If he doesn't go, if he sends an answer or not, everyone is reading something into any of them. Whatever they make of him burning them, at least it's the same for all of them this way.

Hurin protests that to burn these means insult of the highest order. Everyone else was waiting to see Rand's allegiances, believing he must have powerful friends if he's willing to insult them by burning their invitations. If he burns these last two, they'll know he has nothing, and anyone could retaliate against his insult. Some of the houses are rumoured to hire assassins!

Loial suggests accepting both, but Hurin cuts in again. House Damodred held the throne of Cairhien until Laman lost it with the Aiel war.(1) They want it back. The King and house Riatin would crush them, if they weren't almost as powerful as he is, even now. Accepting both means they'll both assume he's plotting with the other, and they'll both try to kill him anyway.

Rand growls that if he only accepts one, they'll still assume he's allied with that house. He wishes he hadn't burned the first two, but it wouldn't make any difference, not really.(2) He says he'll be seen in the common room with both, still sealed, so nobody will know which invitation he'll accept. He can buy himself another day or two that way, and Ingtar can't be too far out now.

He goes to the common room, observing the parchment rolls conspicuously, then puts them back in his pocket and leaves with Loial. They discuss how Fain must be waiting outside the city with more Trollocs, they'd be attacked as soon as they got outside the city walls. Loial says it's a shame they couldn't get as far as Stedding Tsofu, Trollocs would never go into a stedding.

They arrive at the guardhouse, and someone in old Shienaran clothes leaves conspicuously as soon as Rand arrives.(3) Rand has an impatient exchange with the clerk, the same one he's dealt with for days on end, who keeps pretending he doesn't know what Rand is talking about, then gives negative answers without looking at any of his lists. Has Ingtar come? Ingtar who? Ingtar, of house Shinowa. No, nobody by that name. When he asks about Selene, and is told that not knowing her house makes it difficult to find her, Rand suggests that Caldevwhin could help him. The clerk insists Cal isn't here, despite Rand having seen him behind the clerk. Rand leaves in a grump.

Rand talks with Loial on the way back to the inn, about how he's sick of Daes Dae'mar, and he's sick of having to pretend to be a Lord, and he's sick of being ta'veren. They close on the inn, and see a fire. They realize it's too close to their inn, and start running.

Sure enough, it's their inn on fire. And Hurin's nowhere to be seen. He wouldn't have left the... Rand and Loial rush in and up the stairs into the worst of the smoke. Hurin is in their room, a lump on his head the size of a plum. The horn is gone. Loial takes Hurin, saying that Rand can't carry Hurin while he crawls through the smoke again to avoid the hotter, thicker smoke at head level. Rand tells him to go then, he'll be right behind them.

The Ogier crawled into the hall with his burden, and Rand started after him. Then he stopped, staring back at the connecting door to his room. The banner was still in there. The banner of the Dragon. Let it burn, he thought, and an answering thought came as if he had heard Moiraine say it. Your life may depend on it. She’s still trying to use me. Your life may depend on it. Aes Sedai never lie.(4)

The other room is a mass of flame, when he kicks the door open. He finds his saddlebags in the wardrobe, banner conspicuously large in one side, not yet burning. He hesitates only a second, then grabs the bags and runs for it. He runs to Hurin and calls out for a Wisdom, a Wise Woman, anyone they call Mother somebody, who knows herbs and healing. A woman is just saying that she is a Reader, if that's what he means,(5) but there's nothing left for this one, something wrong in his head from that hit.

“Rand! It is you!”

Rand stared. It was Mat, leading his horse through the crowd, with his bow strung across his back. A Mat whose face was pale and drawn, but still Mat, and grinning, if weakly. And behind him came Perrin, his yellow eyes shining in the fire and earning as many looks as the blaze. And Ingtar, dismounting in a high-collared coat instead of armor, but still with his sword hilt sticking up over his shoulder. Rand felt a shiver run through him. “It’s too late,” he told them. “You came too late.” And he sat down in the street and began to laugh.

=====

(1) Damodred, huh? Like Moiraine? Like Taringail, the Caemlyn crew's shared father? Those are some curious connections. (2) And, who's to say the Pattern didn't need him to have access to the higher ups? Fate works in strange ways, especially when it's a story. (3) Who could that be? We know that everyone arrives at the end of the chapter, but why would someone have spotted Rand and left? (4) Is she trying to use you, Rand, or are you just unwilling to admit that she's trying to help you? What evidence do we have that she's trying to do anything but make it through the apocalypse with the world intact? Is she, perhaps, just a little influenced by the ancient order that preaches control above all else, and maybe she wasn't prepared to deal with the Dragon being a real person with his own desires and motivations (and cultural stubbornness, and prejudice against Aes Sedai)? And on the other side of the coin, what evidence do we have that Rand is doing anything but ta'veren-ing his way through this story without understanding how the world works or what he's going to need to be to be taken seriously by the world? (5) Different words for the role in the community in each region, just like different words to the songs. And, here, it seems a Reader (lol) may not have the cultural power that a Wisdom does in the Two Rivers. What might have influenced that over time? Little things, like the 2Rs being isolated enough to form a prejudice against Aes Sedai without meeting or knowing what they are meaning someone with a little power might have a slight advantage in proving her worth there, versus a place like Cairhien, where someone with the ability to channel might be found by a visiting Aes Sedai and recruited to the Tower, leaving fewer people with that advantage to politic. Well, that and there being royal stinkin families.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 31: On the Scent

If you're on the scent for spoilers, keep reading! If you don't want to know everything about The Wheel of Time, including the books, show, comics, and card game all compressed into like, a couple thousand words inexplicably, definitely don't keep reading. The second you click that button everything will be psychically uploaded to your brain. I mean uh... something on theme... scentically uploaded to your nose.

We have a rising sun chapter as we're still in Cairhien and Thom's not around.

He gave one abrupt shudder and stopped laughing; she left him to crouch over Hurin.

Another not subtle thing to be doing. It's a good thing these Cairhienien are so politically suspicious that they miss the much greater threat right in front of them.

He said he didn’t know it, but he had a smile that shouted ‘lie’ a mile off.

Perrin could probably smell the lies on the dude before he opened his mouth.

I couldn’t hear what she said, but I didn’t know whether his eyes were going to pop out of his head or he was going to swallow his tongue first.

I'm sure that Verin just did the usual Aes Sedai thing and that the specifics aren't important, but it amuses me to imagine that she just told the dude the truth straight out.

He heard gasps from the Cairhienin listening, but he did not care. They could play their Great Game if they wanted, but Ingtar had come, and he was finished with it at last.

This is called dramatic irony and also counting your chickens before they hatch and whatnot.

Rand glanced at Perrin—He’s a sniffer?—and found Perrin studying him in return. He thought Perrin muttered something. Shadowkiller?

Have you boys tried talking to each other about your-

Nope. Can't even pretend to ask with a straight face.

Everyone was watching now—not even Cuale gave any attention to his own burning inn—and Rand thought a little caution might not be amiss after all.

Exactly Rand. You're surrounded by strangers in an immediate sense and surrounded by Darkfriends in a metaphorical sense. No point celebrating being free just yet.

Suddenly he noticed that the others were looking at him, Verin and Ingtar, Mat and Perrin. He realized what he had been doing, and his face colored. “I am sorry, Ingtar. It’s just that I’ve become used to being in charge, I suppose. I’m not trying to take your place.”

It's fascinating, how this boy has to be dragged kicking and screaming into everything, but once he accepts it he just takes to it instantly. A couple weeks' leadership and the boy completely forgets Ingtar's even there.

You can see why Demandred, Sammael, and Etcetera'al got so pissy.

She’s Moiraine’s eyes watching me, Moiraine’s hand trying to pull my strings. But I have cut the strings.

If only Rand had tried to learn about politics while he was here. He might have realized that Verin knowing things doesn't at all mean she's on Moiraine's side.

I guess that would probably have only made him more suspicious.

Also I forgot to mention her directly when taking these notes but Tiedra's plump so we know she's a good innkeeper.

It almost seemed to him that she was in the room with him, that he could smell her perfume, so much so that he looked around, and laughed to find himself alone.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if she had popped in invisibly somehow.

It was him, he thought. Rand is the Shadowkiller. Light, what’s happening to all of us? His hands tightened into fists, large and square. These hands were meant for a smith’s hammer, not an axe.

The duality that Perrin will be grappling with rears its ugly head. At last he already knows the answer. Though that really just makes his plot arc all the more frustrating.

Also, points to Perrin for pulling off having Rand in his POV instead of what usually happens (thus far in the series) and Rand hogging the spotlight. This isn't the first time this has happened (Egwene did it back in Fal Dara), but it does show the transition this series is slowly undergoing.

One of Mat’s eggs hit the floor and cracked. He did not look at it, though. He was looking at Rand, and Ingtar had turned around.

Mat, the so-called idiot, irresponsible fool: Has a tell about Rand's situation but volunteers nothing and doesn't cause any trouble.

Perrin realized he was staring, too. “Well, he did not fly,” he said. “I don’t see any wings. Maybe he has more important things to tell us.” Verin shifted her attention to him, just for a moment. He managed to meet her eyes, but he was the first to look away.

Perrin, the so-called quiet, responsible kid: Tries to get in a fight with a woman several decades his senior over his friend's honor.

“Interesting,” the Aes Sedai said, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I would very much like to meet this girl. If she can use a Portal Stone. . . . Even that name is not very widely known.”

Verin must suspect. How panicked does this make her?

Rand asked the innkeeper if there were any more books, and she brought him The Travels of Jain Farstrider. Perrin liked that one, too, with its stories of adventures among the Sea Folk and journeys to the lands beyond the Aiel Waste, where silk came from.

Is this our first real Shara reference? I think it might be.

The Shienaran played with a slashing, daring style. Perrin had always played doggedly, giving ground reluctantly, but he found himself placing the stones with as much recklessness as Ingtar. Most of the games ended in a draw, but he managed to win as many as Ingtar did.

Ignore the terrible pun and focus on how Perrin is being shifted by his experiences as well. Perhaps this is why he talked back to Verin earlier.

“There are Darkfriends among the high as well as the low,” Verin said smoothly. “The mighty give their souls to the Shadow as often as the weak.” Ingtar scowled as if he did not want to think of that.

Frankly Verin, if there weren't so few Aes Sedai I'd argue the Tower's horrible percentages make the mighty even more frequent donaters. And indeed note that Ingtar isn't "as if" anything. It's exactly the case that he doesn't want to think about noble Darkfriends.

“I know little of Cairhienin,” Ingtar told him, “but I’ve heard enough of Galldrian. He would feast us and thank us for the glory we had brought to Cairhien. He would stuff our pockets with gold and heap honors on our heads. And if we tried to leave with the Horn, he’d cut our honored heads off without pausing to take a breath.”

It's mind-boggling how actively detrimental to the cause of existence most of the modern day royalty proves to be. Like obviously they need to be toppled from their thrones and all that but damn.

There was a dignity to him that Perrin did not remember; Rand was looking at the Aes Sedai and the Shienaran lord as equals.

Well he's found the Horn of Valere twice now, so he's worthy of being a legendary hero even ignoring all the stuff he hasn't done yet. Selene's flirting sadly helped.

It will also help if you remember the way you behaved before the Amyrlin. If you are that arrogant, they will believe you are a lord if you wear rags.

Lan's training paying off in a dozen ways. He'd be so proud if he were here.

“A sa’angreal.” She sounded as if it were really not very important, but Perrin suddenly had the feeling the two of them had entered a private conversation, saying things no one else could hear.

For example, she's basically telling Rand what tools are available to him.

One by itself is powerful enough, but I can think of few women strong enough to survive the flow through the one on Tremalking. The Amyrlin, of course. Moiraine, and Elaida. Perhaps one or two others. And three still in training.

I guess Verin must think Cadsuane dead, since Lelaine and Romanda would make three if she were being counted. How terrifying that at this very point the White Tower has a total of eight, kind of nine women capable of using the Choedan Kal. It should be so much more.

As for Logain, it would have taken all his strength simply to keep from being burned to a cinder, with nothing left for doing anything.

Unless the male statue is quite different and only ever meant for Lews to use, Verin is very mistaken here. Logain is only a step below Rand, and there's sixteen tiers in between him and Moiraine.

She was talking to Rand. Perrin knew it, and from the queasy look in Mat’s eye, he did, too. Even Loial shifted nervously in his chair.

Thank goodness the empath is the POV to confirm that Loial is not blind or stupid but has in fact put two and two together.

Watching Verin’s smile, small and mysterious, Perrin felt a chill. He did not think Rand knew half what he thought he did. Not half.

Perrin you don't even know half of how right you are.

But we'll get to that next time, when our company visits The Huge Toad Crouching in the Night: Lord Barthanes's Manor! (Disclaimer: Toads may be metaphorical or even simileical)

[aratalatam]

Twitch Extensions, la plataforma para la creación de elementos interactivos para los creadores de contenidos de Twitch

New Post has been published on http://aratablog.com/?p=27602

Twitch Extensions, la plataforma para la creación de elementos interactivos para los creadores de contenidos de Twitch

Twitch ha anunciado que el próximo lanzamiento de ‘Twitch Extensions’, el cual es un nuevo paquete de herramientas desarrolladas por su Developer Success, que permite a desarrolladores Third-party ayudar a desarrolladores de contenidos para que puedan personalizar sus canales y así ofrecer una mayor experiencia interactiva. Además, los Twitch Partners and Affiliates pronto podrán ganar comisiones de los Amazon Associates registrándose y configurando sus herramientas de Amazon Extension directamente desde el tablero de Twitch.

Extensions puede ser integrado directamente con video en vivo en Twitch y hará crecer la relación entre los creadores de contenidos y sus comunidades, lo que propiciará el interés y la dedicación de los fans. Para el lanzamiento estarán disponibles más de 20 extensiones de uso general como Streamlabs’ Loyalty, Music, Polls & Games, Muxy’s Overlay, Leaderboard y Gear on Amazon, hasta extensiones más específicas de juegos como OP.gg para League of Legends de OP.gg, Innkeeper: Interactive Hearth Overlay de Curse y MasterOverwatch de Master Network.

Ryan Lubinski, Product Manager of Extensions en Twitch comento .

“Twitch es una plataforma donde las comunidades crean, comparten e interactúan con el contenido que más les gusta.”

“Con Twitch Extensions, llevamos la interactividad hasta el siguiente nivel, dándole a nuestra comunidad de desarrolladores la capacidad de crear contenidos personalizables e interactivos, directamente integrados con la plataforma Twitch, y abriendo todo un nuevo mundo de interacciones entre creadores de contenidos y espectadores.”

Los desarrolladores Third-party podrán construir extensiones para los creadores de contenidos, visitando el Developer Portal de Twitch. Los desarrolladores tendrán acceso al hosting y mensajería en la plataforma Extensions, facilitando el inicio. Extensions estará disponible en Extension Manager de manera sencilla y accesible para todos los creadores de contenidos, simplificando aún más el trabajo a los desarrolladores, y poder conectar sus productos con los creadores de contenidos, que disfrutarán de los mismos.

“Como miles de desarrolladores ya saben, la oportunidad de hacer negocio ayudando a los creadores de contenidos a poder vivir de su trabajo en Twitch se está expandiendo rápidamente,” dijo Kathy Astromoff, VP Developer Success de Twitch. “Hoy estamos invitando a los desarrolladores a que nos ayuden a innovar en una de las interfaces más visitadas de internet: la página del canal de Twitch. En nuestro TwitchCon Developer Day el 19 de octubre de 2017, compartiremos más información sobre lo que está por llegar, incluyendo como los streamers y los desarrolladores pueden ganar dinero a través de Twitch Extensions. No querrás perdértelo.”

Ver vídeo en directo de twitchdev en www.twitch.tv

Extensions disponibles en el lanzamiento:

Destiny Armory Overlay de Grab Games: Sumérgete en el equipamiento de Destiny, mira los detalles de los perks, consigue la información de las clases y más – todo perfectamente incorporado en los streamings.

Gear on Amazon: Este panel destaca los productos favoritos de los Partners and Affiliates en Amazon, facilitando a los espectadores encontrar y comprar esos productos. También facilita a los fans poder apoyar a sus creadores de contenidos favoritos, porque los registrados al programa Amazon Associates ganan comisiones.

Hearthstone Match Ticker de Battlefy: Noticias en vivo para los torneos de Hearthstone en Battlefy.

Innkeeper: Interactive Hearth Overlay de Curse: Overlays interactivos y herramientas para cartas.

Isaac Tracker de Pretzel Tech: Permite a los espectadores ver el level seed y los detalles de los ítems conseguidos mientras juegas Binding of Isaac.

Kappa Pet de Porcupine: Una mascota virtual que vive en la página del canal, que responde a los espectadores, que cambia según va transcurriendo el streaming y se va a dormir cuando el streamer está offline.

Leaderboard de Muxy: Muestra automáticamente a los cinco mejores animadores.

Live Emote Reactions de Porcupine: Permite a los espectadores reaccionar compartiendo emotes en vivo.

Loyalty, Music, Polls & Games de Streamlabs: Muestra puntos de lealtad, recibe peticiones de canciones, muestra encuestas, permite a los espectadores conseguir regalos y alberga mini-juegos.

MasterOverwatch de Master Network: Overlay de estadísticas en la pantalla para los streamers de Overwatch.

OP.GG para League of Legends de OP.GG: Ofrece estadísticas en el juego para los creadores de contenidos, incluyendo invocadores de hechizos, runas y dominio,

Overlay de Muxy: Un overlay para streaming con muchas apps interactivas.

Schedule de Layer One: Mantén tu comunidad informada de tu agenda de eventos en Twitch, en su zona horaria local.

Smart Click Maps de ExMachima:  Muestra un “heatmap” de clicks, permitiendo a los espectadores sugerir el siguiente movimiento, carta o arma al creador de contenidos, dando click directamente en el video.

StreamLegends de Proletariat Inc: Pelea contra monstruos, consigue tesoros, construye la ciudad de tu canal y ataquen juntos.

Summoner Info de Legendary Builds:  Un sumario de creadores de contenidos de League of Legends con información del jugador, sus runas, sus dominios y sus campeones más utilizados, así como su ranking.

Teams de GameWisp: Promueve el equipo de Twitch al que perteneces con el panel del equipo.

TRN Battlegrounds (PUBG) Live Tracker de Tracker Network: Muestra las estadísticas en vivo de PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS. Tanto la opción del overlay como la del panel están disponibles.

TRN Destiny Live Tracker de Tracker Network: Monitorea el progreso y los ítems de Destiny.

TRN Rocket League Live Tracker de Tracker Network: Monitorea el nivel de habilidades en Rocket League.

What’s Playing de Pretzel Tech: Muestra que música está escuchando en el streaming.

Ver vídeo en directo de twitchdev en www.twitch.tv

Como primer paso hacia la monetización para las Extensions, Amazon ofrece Amazon Associates, su programa de afiliación, ahora también en Twitch. Por primera vez en los Twitch Partners and Affiliates podrán unirse al programa, seleccionar productos del catálogo de Amazon para promocionar y crear su lista Gear on Amazon sin abandonar el panel de Twitch.

Piers Heaton-Armstrong, VP for Affiliate Marketing de Amazon dijo.

“Cuando se trata de ayudar a los creadores de contenidos a monetizar su trabajo mediante recomendación de productos, es importante poder hacer que estos elementos sean fácilmente accesibles e intuitivos,”

“Gear on Amazon lo consigue simplificando el proceso para unirse al programa Amazon Associate y facilitando que los creadores de contenidos puedan mostrar los productos que están utilizando y quieran promover.”

Los desarrolladores ya pueden empezar a crear extensiones desde hoy, visitando el sitio Twitch Developer. Para solicitar un boleto al TwitchCon Developer Day, visita el link.

 Vía | Twitch 

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 25 - Cairhien

(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.)

(Cairhien flag icon)(1) In which the dead walk the world once more.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand is in Cairhien, which is at least as big as Caemlyn. Outside the city walls is a warren of streets known as Foregate, essentially the poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts, with lots of peddler's tables and people hawking wares as they walk around. Most of the buildings are wood, poorly made, but looking relatively new.

Tavolin, the leader of the guards traveling with Rand and co, sneers at the peasants and says they're "corrupted by outland ways" and shouldn't be here. When Rand asks where else they should be, Hurin explains that many left their farms near the Spine of the World when the Aiel invaded, and refused to go back. Cairhien now has to import most of its food, and Cairhienin are sensitive about the subject.(2)

There are a lot of gleemen, musicians, tumblers, etc. and Rand asks if it's a festival. No, Loial says, Galldrian keeps his people quiet by entertaining them, paying huge sums to anyone who will perform in the Foregate. There are even fireworks most nights, and the Illuminators' Guild has set up a chapter in town, the only one outside of their home base in Tanchico.(3)

As Tavolin negotiates entry into the city proper, Rand gets a peek past the gate at a place much more subdued. There are huge scaffolds signaling the rebuilding efforts of a couple of towers, formerly known as the Topless Towers.

Tavolin returns and Rand is given a note from a city guard saying he must return to this guardhouse by this time tomorrow and tell them what inn he's staying in. Rand asks if they can tell him the name of an inn in the Foregate, but Hurin hisses at him that it wouldn't be proper, being a Lord and all. Rand sighs internally, says he'll take rooms inside the city and tell them where he's staying, then asks if they can inquire as to the location of a Lady Selene, of unknown house. They agree hesitantly.(4)

Hurin leads them to the Defender of the Dragonwall in, whose sign bears a crowned man with a foot on a prone red-haired man's chest. Rand notes along the way that nearly everyone is giving him funny looks, and assumes it's just assumptions about a new Lord to play the Game of Houses. Then he shakes it off. Not everyone can be playing this Game of theirs, surely? And if they are, he's no part of it.

The common room is neat, and laid out as tidily as the city, all straight lines and 90-degree angles. Everyone turns to look as they enter, then conspicuously turns back to their former activities, though Rand's still sure they're listening and watching.

The innkeeper was a plump, unctuous man with a single stripe of green across his dark gray coat. He gave a start at his first sight of them, and Rand was not surprised. Loial, with the chest in his arms under its striped blanket, had to duck his head to make it in through the door, Hurin was burdened with all their saddlebags and bundles, and his own red coat was a sharp contrast to the somber colors the people at the tables wore. The innkeeper took in Rand’s coat and his sword, and his oily smile came back. He bowed, washing his smooth hands. “Forgive me, my Lord. It was just that for a moment I took you for—Forgive me. My brain is not what it was. You wish rooms, my Lord?” He added another, lesser bow for Loial. “I am called Cuale, my Lord.” He thought I was Aiel,(5) Rand thought sourly. He wanted to be gone from Cairhien. But it was the one place Ingtar might find them. And Selene had said she would wait for him in Cairhien.

Rand can't get away with sharing a room with "his men" here, he has to take an ostentatious room with an enormous bed, with a second room for Hurin and Loial connected by an inside door.(6) Rand wants to go back to the Foregate for an hour, at least, back to where people laugh. He asks who will take the first watch on the Horn? Loial volunteers, saying he doesn't want to run into any other Ogier who might be in the city, he'll just stay here and read. Hurin says he'd like to have a drink in the common room of this inn, with Rand's permission. Rand says Hurin doesn't need his permission for anything, but Hurin dismisses this without comment.(7)

As Rand is leaving and Hurin getting a drink, the innkeeper hands Rand three sealed parchments on a tray. Rand asks what they are, and Cuale says they're all invitations, from noble houses. Who would send him invitations? Who would know he was here? Hurin suggests that everyone will know by now, there's no way the guards kept their mouths shut about an outland lord coming to town, and hostlers, innkeepers, they all tell whoever they think will pay them the most for the information.

Rand takes the parchments and hurls them into the fire, then says loudly enough for all the common room to hear that he is NOT playing Daes Dae'mar, he has nothing to do with this game, he's just here to wait for friends.

Hurin catches his arm and BEGS him not to do that again. Rand boggles at the idea that he'll receive more.

“I’m certain. Light, but you mind me of the time Teva got so mad at a hornet buzzing round his ears, he kicked the nest. You’ve likely just convinced everyone in the room you are in some deep part of the Game. It must be deep, as they’ll see it, if you deny playing at all. Every lord and lady in Cairhien plays it.” The sniffer glanced at the invitations, curling blackly in the fire, and winced. “And you have surely made enemies of three Houses. Not great Houses, or they’d not have moved so quickly, but still noble. You must answer any more invitations you receive, my Lord. Decline if you will—though they’ll read things into whose invitations you do decline. And into whose you accept. Of course, if you decline them all, or accept them all—”

Rand reiterates that he'll have no part of it.(8) They're leaving Cairhien as soon as they can. He stalks out and back out through the same gate he entered the inner city from, noting that the guards can tell who he is by his height, his hair, and the red coat he's wearing, while everyone else in Cairhien is quite short and dressed somberly. He doesn't care. He fits in just fine in the Foregate.(9)

Peeking into one of the performance rooms he made note of earlier, he sees a gleeman performing some part of the Great Hunt of the Horn in high chant, and it reminds him sadly of Thom. At another he sees a woman dressed in white seeming to make things vanish from one basket and appear in another. The barker asks two coppers to see an Aes Sedai perform.(10) Rand declines and moves on.

Shortly, though, a performance really catches his attention. A deep and familiar voice, accompanied by a harp, draws Rand in like a rope. He pays the two copper price here, and finds Thom Merrilin performing inside, for true.(11) His height lets Thom catch his eye and he nods almost imperceptibly toward a door beside the stage.

Rand enters the door discreetly, and Thom comes in from the dais, his right leg not quite bending like it used to. He says Rand looks like he's doing VERY well indeed. Rand can't help but laugh. He was so sure Thom was dead, despite Moiraine saying he couldn't be!(12) He should have gone back to help...

Thom stops him right there. No, the Fade had no interest in Thom, it let him get away with just a leg injury. Moiraine's still alive, huh? Is she here? Thom looks disappointed when Rand shakes his head.(13) Oh well, at least Thom knows now that it was Mat or Perrin the Fade was after, he doesn't need to know which. Does Rand still have his flute and harp? He wants them back, and he's very serious when he says it.

Rand confirms he still has the instruments, he'll give them back as soon as he can fetch them. He has so much to tell Thom... Later. He has to go perform some more here, or the crowd might tear the hall down. He gives the name of the inn where he's staying, he'll be back there in an hour or so. One more tale will have to do for this lot. And bring the harp and flute!

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(1) Well that makes things nice and straightforward. (2) So they've been living here instead of farming for twenty years, and nobody's gone home? Oof. That's gotta be some mega PTSD. (3) And in addition to mega PTSD, let's throw in some mega expensive bills. At least they're being taken care of and entertained, I guess? But oof, the treasury must be nearly empty by now. (4) Rand has no way to know the guards would absolutely know every noble house and name within them, and don't recognize her. (5) So did everyone on the street, Rand. They'd all recognize an Aielman up close, even in a lord's clothes. (6) You'd think they'd understand that an Ogier was a friend and traveling companion even if they thought Hurin was just a manservant. (7) Loial doesn't want to meet other Ogier because he's out illicitly and word's probably got around by now. Hurin is never going to accept that Rand isn't a lord after all that's happened. (8) Rand is getting his second big taste of culture shock with Daes Dae'mar, doubly so because they're so intense about him looking like an Aiel, and dressed in such finery and not in the local fashion, either, that there's no way he's not a Lord of some sort, and if he says he's NOT playing the Game then surely he's just playing a double, triple, or quadruple bluff level and he's REALLY deep in it. (9) I can't blame him for wanting to be where the people who are more like who he believes himself to be, are. Where people laugh and don't just stare at you and play ten dimensional chess in their heads about what you intend with every move you make. (10) As if any Aes Sedai would be performing street magic. HA! (11) So then we come to the big reunion. It was definitely a spoiler of me to say that Thom came back but also he was too firmly established in the first book to just die permanently so early on. And the way Rand just couldn't let go of the harp and flute… yeah, there was no way Thom was staying away. And even the Tor first-reader knew Thom wasn't dead. (12) And just how would she know? Did Min see something and tell her? (13) Whatever Moiraine seems to know, Thom's come a long way from his immediate snapping and distrust at the sight of her in Emond's Field. "She's a fine woman," he says.

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 26 - Discord

(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.)

(Harp icon) In which I try not to think about something any harder than I strictly have to.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand hurries back to his rooms upstairs at the Dragonwall inn. Loial and Hurin pop their heads in from the adjoining room and ask what's happened. Rand says Thom is alive, and Loial recognizes the name. Rand invites Loial to go meet him, and Loial declines politely. He doesn't want to meet any other Ogier who might know he ran away from home. Hurin offers to watch the Horn, the common room was full of people just wanting to pump him for information about Rand anyway. Rand finally drags Loial out, winking at Cuale as he leaves.

They find Thom's inn without problem, and the innkeeper says yes, his room is on the upper floor. Dena will likely let you in. They head up, and a feminine voice says to open the door themselves. Inside, a young woman, not much older than Rand, is juggling six balls. She asks who they are and what their business is. Rand says he's come back to return Thom's harp and flute, and to visit. He hasn't seen him in a very long time. She confirms that she's Dena, and they can wait here, but she must practice. She's going to be the first woman gleeman.(1)

Rand is just about to say he should wait downstairs when Thom enters, and greets Dena with a dramatic, and very long, kiss, to the point where Rand starts to wonder if he should leave just before they cut off.(2)

Thom starts complaining about the owner of the performance hall hiring "players", who put a scrap of painted fabric behind them and pretend to be the heroes of the songs. He, Thom Merrilin, makes you see every banner, smell every battle, feel every emotion, makes you believe you ARE the hero! The players are a cheap trick, and they were put on the stage right after him. It's an insult!(3)

Dena finally gestures to Rand and Loial, and Thom gives her some coin and tells her to get out for a while, her knives are done, she should go pick them up. After she leaves, Thom says she'll be a bard one day. But, they have the instruments? Rand hands them over, and the cloak. He explains how he used the flute to earn his rooms and meals. Thom knows, he stopped at some of the same inns and had to make do with juggling and simple spoken stories without his harp.

Rand asks Thom if he still wanted to be part of the Great Hunt, for real, to make new stories about it. Loial makes to ask Rand if he's sure, but Rand shushes him. Thom is skeptical of what Rand is implying. It would depend on what part he'd play, and of course they'd never make it into the stories without having been in Illian for the blessing… Rand tells him straight out that they have the Horn, and Thom laughs in his face, guffaws, even unto aftershocks of laughter. He stops laughing at once when Rand says Moiraine said it was the real Horn. Well, at least they had the sense to keep it secret. Half the world would be on edge waiting to take it from them if they'd said anything at the gate. They have kept it secret, and Rand needs a friend who knows the world, to help him get it back to Fal Dara without losing it again.

Thom thinks about the Last Battle, and what it will mean. The grain barges sustain this city, stop those for just a week and the people will revolt. The nobles will think Tarmon Gai'don is just a ploy in the Game. No, he won't go. Rand asks Loial to leave them alone for a bit, and Loial goes to learn the local dice game he saw downstairs. Rand hesitates, then asks Thom if he has any books with him about the Karaethon Cycle, trying to avoid calling it the Prophecies of the Dragon.

“In the great libraries,” Thom said slowly. “Any number of translations, and even in the Old Tongue, here and there.” Rand started to ask if there was any way for him to find one, but the gleeman went on. “The Old Tongue has music in it, but too many even of the nobles are impatient with listening to it these days. Nobles are all expected to know the Old Tongue, but many only learn enough to impress people who don’t. Translations don’t have the same sound, unless they’re in High Chant, and sometimes that changes meanings even more than most translations. There is one verse in the Cycle—it doesn’t scan well, translated word for word, but there’s no meaning lost—that goes like this. “Twice and twice shall he be marked, twice to live, and twice to die. Once the heron, to set his path. Twice the heron, to name him true. Once the Dragon, for remembrance lost. Twice the Dragon, for the price he must pay.” He reached out and touched the herons embroidered on Rand’s high collar.

Rand protests that the sword makes five, with the hilt, scabbard, and blade. And he doesn't mention the one burned into his hand from that sword. Thom agrees that they do, then mentions another part of the prophecy.

“Twice dawns the day when his blood is shed. Once for mourning, once for birth. Red on black, the Dragon’s blood stains the rock of Shayol Ghul. In the Pit of Doom shall his blood free men from the Shadow.”(4)

Thom doesn't see how a day could dawn twice, but so much of the prophecies don't make sense. The Stone of Tear can't fall until the Dragon holds Callandor, but the Sword That Cannot Be Touched is in the heart of the Stone, so how can he wield it first? He muses that Aes Sedai would want to fit the prophecies as closely as possible regardless. Dying would be a high price to pay for going along with them.

Rand says no Aes Sedai are using him for anything, and there are none with him now. He won't be used by them, he wants nothing to do with Aes Sedai, false Dragons, the Power, or... Thom catches that and they talk about about his nephew, Owyn. He held off the madness for three years, but in the end, he was starting to go mad.(5) Thom only helped Rand because there was Aes Sedai involvement in his situation before. He's earning more here than he has in any village, Dena seems to really love him and he's surprised enough to love her back. Why would he leave all that to go deal with Darkfriends and Trollocs? The Horn of Valere is tempting, but not that tempting.

Thom picks up the flute case and presents it to Rand, saying he might need to earn his keep again, someday. Rand tries to say what inn he's staying at, but Thom cuts him off. A clean break is best, or he'll never get the Horn out of his head. Rand leaves.

PERSPECTIVE: Thom is accused of playing the Game of Houses again by Zera, the innkeeper. She doesn't believe Thom when he says the boy is a shepherd from the Two Rivers, but she does say the Game has gotten much more dangerous in recent years. There are even murders for it. Thom should stop performing at so many lords' manors, they'll use him as soon as they can figure out how. She suggests he settle down, marry Dena, forget Daes Dae'mar. He thanks Zera for the advice, but knows he could never burden Dena with such an old husband. And she'd never be a bard with his past following her. He asks Zera to leave him to prepare for that night's performance.

She gave him a snort and a shake of her head and banged the door shut behind her. Thom drummed his fingers on the table. Coat or no coat, Rand was still only a shepherd. If he had been more, if he had been what Thom once suspected—a man who could channel—neither Moiraine nor any other Aes Sedai would ever have let him walk away ungentled. Horn or no Horn, the boy was only a shepherd. “He is out of it,” he said aloud, “and so am I.”(6)

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(1) And on the first read, you'd think that would be where the "I don't want to think about this too hard" would end. Alas. We have finished the chapter. On the subject of JUST this, surely if this world were as matriarchal as RJ seems to have wanted to imply it is, there'd be no gendering of professions… but we haven't seen a single woman soldiering except for the Aiel, and now we learn barding is also gender locked? Right. (2) If Rand is close to 20, Dena could be anywhere from 20 to 25, and on the one hand that's a perfectly acceptable age to make your own choices about who to spend your time with, even a man who's at least 60. But, this is part of a pattern. Look at Lan, who must be at least 45 or 50, and Nynaeve, at 25. Recall that Thom was having an affair with Morgase around the time Taringail was killed, Taringail who was also much Moiraine's senior, having been married to the previous daughter-heir before her, and that was when Moiraine was perhaps 25. Basel Gill described Thom as "in his prime" which, let's be honest, from an older man, that never means anything under 40. And here, Thom is playing both mentor and lover, not a combination without its pitfalls and power imbalances. Funny how Dena is his main argument for staying but he won't marry her. I'm sure this is totally legit and not at all a setup for something. At any rate, this isn't the first time RJ gave us an age gap with fucky dynamics, and I'm sorry to say it won't be the last. (3) And they didn't even have actors? Nobody staged plays or reenactments of anything, ever? I'm just sayin, we've had plays since ancient Greece at least, plays shouldn't be anything new to this world… but it DOES offer a sort of context, doesn't it? This world is in a period of upheaval, of rapid social change and progress as the apocalypse looms. Keep that in mind, even as awkward as these setups are. (4) A nice bit more of the specific prophecies to do with the Dragon. Rand's already got one heron mark, to make him start acknowledging that he is the Dragon. "Twice the heron, to name him true" so it seems likely the other hand will get a matching burn, probably close to when he declares himself. But what of the Dragons? And, note how Rand is asking some of the same questions Moiraine did, so soon after they were mirrored narratively with saying the same line. (5) Not a very long timeline for Rand to get this whole "battle for the end of the world" over with. (6) And that holds just about as much water as a straw.