#it just doesn't read as tairen to me at all

[ephemeral-winter]

i'm glad everyone is enjoying seeing sophie okonedo in those new bts pics but i'm sorry the dress they've put her in and especially that headpiece is ridiculous. siuan would not fucking wear that

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 53 - A Flow of the Spirit

(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.)

(Wolf icon) In which oh hey it's one of the-- oh no!

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin worked the day with Master Ajala again, having little else to do here, on a big ornamental piece for some lord's new gate. Faile has been watching him work, and Perrin spends a minute wondering if she's the pretty woman Min warned him about, and how it's better if she is the falcon. He stumbles at the thought, and almost calls her Faile in their discussion. She catches it, smiles, and wonders aloud if he’s ever thought of growing a beard.(1)

They meet Moiraine as they go back into the inn, who says Rand is in Tear for sure. Perrin hasn't heard of anything strange, but Lan tells him off, talking about more marriages in four days than a year and a half, a child falling a hundred feet onto stone paving and walking away unbruised. Also, the First of Mayene (who has been held hostage in the Stone since before winter) said she'd submit to the will of the High Lords, after just yesterday saying she'd see Mayene and all its ships burn before one Tairen lord set foot in the city.

Moiraine adds that everyone's been dreaming about Rand, and even Faile asks if that's who the [guy matching Rand's description] was in her dreams.

Perrin asks what about Be'lal, and Mo says she'll deal with him tonight, and the rest of them will sail for Tar Valon. Lan asks where Loial is, and Faile says she'll go find him, she's just as glad to run away from this fight. Perrin follows her, and hears a small thump in a nearby room. He calls for her by her birth name twice, and then panicked, calls her Faile at last(2) as he finds her in the party's reserved private dining room, lifelessly still.

He moves to pick her up, but Mo calls him a fool and tells him to stop, she doesn't know what's just happened. They see a small hedgehog carving(3) near Faile's hand, and Mo tries to recall what that makes her think of. It's got a weave of pure spirit and almost nothing uses pure spirit. But it's definitely a trap, meant for her, as she would've been the first into the room if not for Faile.

Mo rounds on the innkeeper, brought in by Lan, and asks who came in here, when she expressly asked that not even a serving woman come in to clean? The innkeeper says two ladies, they said they had a surprise for her, a little hedgehog. Yes, she was surprised. She tells him not to breathe a word of this to anyone, and after he's gone, says he [Be'lal] knows she's here, expected her to be trapped. Lan says this might give them a slight advantage.

Perrin  asks what's going on with Faile, and Mo says she's alive, just sleeping close to hibernation, but she isn't really in her body any longer, either. It's not like the Gray Men, her soul isn't gone, but Mo mentions the hedgehog was associated with TAR and dreaming, and may have sent her into TAR. All that makes up her self. The trap may still catch anyone else who walks into the room. Perrin asks if it's anything like the wolf dream, but Mo has told him all she can, and she has to go surprise Be'lal at the Stone. Perrin starts thinking it through, swearing he'll only call her Faile from now on if she comes back.

Loial comes downstairs, asking what happened. Perrin fills him in, still processing his own thoughts in the background. Loial gets ANGRY like we haven't ever seen him before. Perrin says he's going to try to help her, but he'll be helpless while he does, and will Loial guard his back? Loial says none will pass while he lives. Not Myrddraal or the Dark One himself. Perrin nods, and turns to look at Faile, thinking to himself, it has to work. He snarls and leaps toward her, and he thinks he touches her ankle before he goes.

Whether the dream is TAR or not, Perrin recognizes the wolf dream. For once, the hammer hangs on his belt here, and not the axe. Hopper shows up and calls him a fool, too young, he has to leave. Perrin says no, not this time, Faile is here and he needs to help free her.

You are here too strongly!(4) Every sending carried shock. You will die, Young Bull! If I do not free the falcon, I do not care, brother. Then we hunt, brother. Noses to the wind, the two wolves ran across the plain, seeking the falcon.

=====

(1) SNERK! Oh, language drift, how you amuse me sometimes. (2) Oh, so that's all it takes to get you to respect her name? (3) A hedgehog was on the list of missing ter'angreal associated with TAR that the Wondergirls were given earlier. (4) Too much of his soul-self-consciousness is here, but that just means Faile's in at least as much danger, without the wolves to guide her.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 12: The Amyrlin Seat

I hope you weren't expecting me to take a long break and come back with a long chapter, because this entry is shorter than Moiraine! And yet I still manage to casually drop spoilers for late in The Wheel of Time, so you probably shouldn't keep reading if that's a problem.

This chapter starts with the Flame of Tar Valon icon because it's a POV of the very flame herself: Siuan.

For the hundredth time since being told that Verin had returned, she readjusted her stole on her shoulders without realizing what she was doing.

It's funny that it no longer quite fits her now that her successor Egwene is in the Tower. IIRC, her other successor is present as well...

A small Tairen rug lay in front of the table, woven in simple patterns of blue and brown and gold. A single drawing, tiny fishing boats among reeds, hung above the fireplace. Half a dozen stands held open books about the floor. That was all. Even the lamps would not have been out of place in a farmer’s house.

Siuan parallels with Rand quite well here, two leaders of the world who came from low places and prefer simple lives.

The tall Aes Sedai, as tall as most men, was second only to the Amyrlin in the White Tower, and though Siuan had known her since they were novices together, sometimes Leane’s insistence on upholding the dignity of the Amyrlin Seat was enough to make Siuan want to scream.

On the other hand, we get hints that Siuan isn't a perfect leader. Considering that Egwene's arc is all about upholding the dignity of her position even in the lowest of circumstances - and that it ends specifically on "belief and order lend strength", Siuan's chafing against Leane's respect is something of a mark against her.

“Begin where you will,” Siuan said. “These rooms are warded, in case anyone thinks to use childhood tricks of eavesdropping.” Verin’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, and the Amyrlin added, “Much has changed since you left. Speak.”

A little foreshadowing of how badly things have gone offpage.

Mazrim Taim is in the hands of our sisters in Saldaea, and the poor fellow in Haddon Mirk, the Light have pity on his soul, was taken by the Tairens and executed on the spot. No one even seems to know what his name was. Both were taken on the same day and, according to rumor, under the same circumstances.

I love the lampshading, poor Tairen bastard. I suspect that the suddenness of the falls of these False Dragons has a great deal to do with how poorly this particular iteration of the Third Age is doing against the Shadow: barely enough time for fate to squeeze them in even though at least Taim is necessary to the Pattern and as soon as Rand gets moving reality literally tosses them aside. In other turnings of the Wheel, the falls of the last False Dragons probably happen a little slower than the speed of causality.

“What do you mean? He is to fight Tarmon Gai’don. The Horn is to summon dead heroes from the grave to fight in the Last Battle. Has Moiraine once again made some new plan without consulting me?”

We see again how communication is breaking down among the light; Moiraine has made very few plans except when she's been desperately trying to patch the main plan together while Rand and the Shadow are busy tearing it apart. Yet still Siuan blames her due to the distance and time separating the pair of them.

“So long as Mat lives,” Verin went on, “the Horn of Valere is no more than a horn to anyone else. If he dies, of course, another can sound it and forge a new link between man and Horn.” Her gaze was steady and untroubled by what she seemed to be suggesting.

Of course, just because Siuan isn't a perfect Amyrlin or fully trusting of Moiraine doesn't mean she's evil either. It would be a lot easier for the Tower if Mat were to die that very day - and under the circumstances, few would even think it a deliberate failure of the Aes Sedai. But Siuan keeps Mat alive just the same.

“An apt metaphor, Mother, the lionfish. Once I saw a large shark that a lionfish had chased into the shallows, where it died.”

Verin wasted her life researching the Black Ajah. She should have taught Egwene how to tear Siuan's fish metaphors to shreds instead.

“That is already causing us trouble, Verin, and will cause more as the stories spread, and grow with the spreading. But I can do nothing about that. I am told these people are gone, Daughter. Do you have any evidence otherwise?”

This is another big mistake of Siuan's, as the Seanchan will indeed return very quickly, take a huge chunk of the inhabited continent, and enslave plenty of Aes Sedai and other channeling women before things are over.

But we're nowhere near that yet. Next time: Siuan interviews the Wondergirls!

[iviarellereads]

The Shadow Rising, Chapter 9 - Decisions

(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.)

(Crescent moon icon) In which, what are you doing here?

Three days pass in lethargy due to the heat. (1)

PERSPECTIVE: Mat learns the lordlings have spread all manner of rumour, and even some of the servant women who used to enjoy a cuddle are avoiding him. Perrin and Thom seem to be doing their own thing. Moiraine, the one person Mat wants to avoid, seems to be around every corner, though she doesn't approach him. And still he keeps finding excuses to stay just one more day. Once, he carries a lamp down to the Great Holding area, just to look at something new.(2) He also goes into the city, dicing for what feel like small stakes now.

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin sometimes sees Mat in the taverns, but avoids him instead of trying to find out why he's acting so irritable. Perrin isn't there for wine or dice, he's buying bad ale for anyone who looks foreign, looking for any rumour of something that might draw Faile away from Tear. He's sure if she finds something that might put her name in the stories, she'll chase it without him. He hears what he believes to be outdated rumours about the Seanchan and the Horn of Valere. Ghealdan is rioting, Illian is suffering from mass madness, Cairhien is in a great famine, slowing the civil war, Trolloc raids are increasing in the Borderlands.(3) He can't send Faile into any of that.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene spends more hours questioning Amico and Joiya with Nynaeve, to no avail. No word comes from Tar Valon, to say whether the threat to free Taim is being dealt with or not. Aviendha sometimes visits with Egg, and Egg enjoys the company, though she sees unasked questions in Avi's eyes. Elayne's been busy with something, and Nyn's been spending time with Lan, even cooking foods he likes (or trying, she's never been good at cooking), so Egg is especially glad to find she and Avi have a lot in common and more to talk about.

PERSPECTIVE: Elayne doesn't attend the Black Ajah questionings. Instead, she's become very adept at being nearby when Rand has a free moment, and finding secluded corners where they can be alone. She even makes a sort of deal with the Maidens who guard Rand, who think it's great sport to help El corner him. He asks her advice in governance, and follows it often. She thinks she could love him just for those two things, even if he weren't also kind.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand meets with High Lords, both at appointed times and sometimes when they get together in secret but Thom can ferret out what's going on. He finds El's advice very useful with them, but she tells him not to give her credit: a ruler should take advice, but never be seen taking it. He feels like he's putting off some decision, even though he's building his plans. He thinks of asking El to stay, but he doesn't know what he wants from her besides her presence, and that wouldn't be fair.

Eventually High Lords Meilan and Sunamon come to him with a proposal for a contract with Mayene, to use their ships to move the excess grain for trade elsewhere, but he rejects it as too obsessed with Tairen interests, burns the vellum with the Power, and tells them to go negotiate with Berelain or he'll hang them both. They disgust him almost as much as he disgusts himself, threatening to hang men, and meaning it.

The third evening, he looks at the herons branded in his palms, and remembers the prophecy lines that foretold them. He wonders what the next lines refer to, what are dragons? Lews Therin Telamon was one, but perhaps the creatures on his banner are also dragons. Even Aes Sedai don't seem to know.

Lanfear shows up and says he looks stronger, harder than when last she saw him. She frowns at his face, saying he's been marked, but it's no matter, he was and ever is hers.

He's confused, saying he doesn't know how she got here, he worried she was still in Cairhien, maybe hurt or worse. She can stay in the Stone, but all there ever was between them was companionship, and that's the end of it. When Cairhien is at peace again, he can try to see that her estates are returned to her.

She says she might have had estates there once, but so much has changed. Selene is just a name she uses sometimes, the name she made her own is Lanfear. She shields him from the Power, and he realizes she isn't lying.(4) She keeps calling him Lews Therin, he keeps insisting his name is Rand. He asks if she means to kill him, and she says no, she means to have him forever. He was hers long before Ilyena stole him. He loved her[Lanfear], she cries, and he replies, and she loved power! He's dazed for a moment wondering where the words came from.(5)

Lanfear is as startled as Rand for a second, but continues that he's learned much, unaided, but he's still fumbling in the dark. Some of the Chosen[Forsaken] fear him too much to wait, but there are those who could teach him. Rand says he would refuse even if it was offered, he stands against everything the Forsaken are and do. He will destroy them all, if he can. Lanfear says they fear him because they fear the Great Lord of the Dark will give him a place above theirs. Rand asks if they can't say his name either, and she says it would be blasphemy, and besides, the Great Lord told her himself. Rand says that's ridiculous, he's still bound, or he'd be fighting Tarmon Gai'don now. Lanfear says he is bound, but at Shayol Ghul, in the Pit of Doom, you can hear him. She asks him to kneel to the Dark One, and they can rule the world forever, together.

Rand sees a Gray Man enter his room, and he pushes Lanfear aside, the shield drops so he takes saidin and wields his fire sword, and kills the man. He asks why she'd be so sneaky, when she could have killed him easily. She says she doesn't use the Soulless.

She asks him again to come with her, there's still time. Or does he mean to kill her now? She appears ready to counter an attack, but Rand doesn't make one. He knows she's served evil for three thousand years, in her way, but all he can see before him is a woman, and he can't do it, though he knows it's foolish of him.

A sudden thought boiled up in his head like a hot spring. The Aiel. Even a Gray Man should have found it impossible to sneak through doors watched by half a dozen Aiel. “What did you do to them?” His voice grated as he backed toward the doors, keeping his eyes on her. If she used the Power, maybe he would have some warning. “What did you do to the Aiel outside?” “Nothing,” she replied coolly. “Do not go out there. This may be only a testing to see how vulnerable you are, but even a testing may kill you if you are a fool.” He flung open the left-hand door onto a scene of madness.

=====

(1) I'm very cross with this chapter because it doesn't indicate the perspective shifts. The other chapters all have a double line break, a visible section separation. This one just flows. Very annoyingly. It just shifts every few paragraphs until you get a bunch of pages in a row with Rand. (2) The narration doesn't mention the redstone doorframe, but it's implied. (3) The Seanchan we've seen holed up in the Sea Folk's home, so who's to say whether the rumours are outdated. Ghealdan, isn't that where we last heard Masema ran off to? Illian mass hallucinating under Sammael, and Tear judging as if they weren't suffering Be'lal and Ishamael for who knows how long. Cairhien's civil war devastating an already precarious country. The only bit we don't necessarily have any relevant information about is the Borderlands, but it does make sense Trollocs would be raiding more as the final battle looms over the world and forces prepare. (4) Oh, Rand, you really didn't even suspect? (5) That doesn't seem like a good sign. His past life speaking through him. Nobody's mentioned that as a possibility. But, he did start hearing, perhaps not a real voice, but an urge, all the way back in book 1. Little prompts, to act this or that way. And, is he using his magic instinctively, the way Nynaeve learned her Healing, or is he remembering a skill born of hundreds of years of use?

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 32 - The First Ship

(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.)

(Waves icon) In which escape is achieved.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat leads Thom to a large ship that seems to be casting off. The dockmaster steps in front of Mat, mentioning the Amyrlin's orders. Thom murmurs a cuss in surprise, but Mat says that's all changed, and takes out the Amyrlin's paper, saying she'll have both their hides if he's not on that specific boat. The dockmaster is frustrated at the rapid change of apparent orders as regard Mat's staying on the island, but he waves down the boat, and Mat and Thom scramble aboard.

A man Mat takes for the captain of the ship, the Gray Gull, protests that they don't have room for so much as a ship's cat, and they won't take vagabonds. Mat waves the Amyrlin's paper in front of him, and digs out a gold crown coin from his belt pouch with the other hand, making sure the captain sees there's more where it comes from. Mat says they have to get to Aringill, in Andor, with all haste, on business of the White Tower. The captain says he comes too often to offend... anyone [the Amyrlin], but they really are full up.

The captain proposes another gold crown, each, and they can sleep on deck with the crew. Mat asks how much to put two cabins worth of passengers together to give him and Thom a room to themselves, and to eat what the captain eats, and plenty of it. Thom mutters to Mat that he's the one who's drunk, then offers his services as a gleeman as price for their passage. The captain says his crew are here to work, not be entertained. But they want a cabin and captain's meals, do they? Well, they can have the captain's cabin and his meals, and he'll sleep in a passenger cabin and eat with the crew, for five Andoran-weight gold crowns each. Then he laughs until tears fill his eyes.

The laughter stops when Mat pulls out one of his purses, counting five Andoran gold crowns into the captain's hands, then enough gold to make up the weight of five more still. After thinking a moment, he adds two Tairen gold crowns on top, "for whoever you'll be pushing out of their cabin".

The captain asks if Mat is a lord in disguise. Mat says he's no lord, and laughs, then asks to see the cabin, as he'd like some rest. The captain shows them to his cabin, taking his belongings out of it, explaining he'll take the first mate's cabin, and the first mate will take the second's bunk, each pushing the next lowest until one more sleeps on deck. Mat doesn't think this will be useful, but listens anyway.

The captain's name is Huan Mallia, from Tear. He makes his own assumptions about why Mat and Thom are leaving in such a rush in the dead of night with a message for Caemlyn. He compliments Andor's trade, expresses jealousy over their gold mines ("We have to earn our gold, in Tear."), speaks with contempt of Mayene ("One city and a few leagues of land. They underprice the oil from our good Tairen olives just because their ships know how to find the oilfish shoals. They’ve no right to be a country at all."), hates Illian (part of the longstanding feud between the countries), but behind all that lies a greater distaste for all things to do with Aes Sedai and the Power in general.(1)

He says at one point that High Lord Samon (whom he seems to idolize) says that the whole White Tower must be eradicated, every Aes Sedai hunted down and killed. The younger ones might be saved, if brought to the Stone, but the rest must be destroyed. Then, realizing what company  he's saying this in, rapidly backtracks, saying surely that's a bit too far, of course. If Caemlyn can make covenants with Tar Valon, surely so can Tear, right? Mat, feeling a bubble of mischief, says the captain's suggestion sounds the right one, but don't stop with a few Accepted, invite a dozen or two Aes Sedai to come. The captain shudders, says he'll send a man for his money chest, and stalks out. Mat thinks he shouldn't have said that, and Thom wonders that he's never heard of High Lord Samon.(2)

Mat wonders if the luck was with him when he chose this ship.(3) He's got to put up with Thom's snoring, and the captain's got some prejudices. On impulse he takes out a dice cup, and throws the dice inside. All five dice come up with single pips. The Dark One's Eyes, as the toss is called in some games, where it's a losing toss. But in other games, it's the winning combination. Mat wonders which game he's playing. He throws the same dice again twice, and both times they come up five singles. Thom says if he used those dice it's no wonder he had to leave in such a hurry. Mat says it's not the dice, he won all his coin, with other people's dice. It's the luck doing the tossing. Thom asks where he got the Amyrlin's paper, and Mat says he's carrying a letter Elayne, and Nynaeve gave him the paper, but he doesn't know where she got it. Thom doesn't believe him.

After Thom's asleep, with his snoring keeping Mat awake, he thinks about why the Wondergirls didn't just send a Warder with the letter, and about luck and footpads. There's a scraping on the side of the ship, and shortly after, Mat hears footsteps outside the cabin door. Readying his quarterstaff, he waits beside the door, and thrusts in killing blows at the men who open it. He never hurt another person in his life before, and now he's killed three men in one night.

He takes one of their cloaks and sneaks out, meeting another man and whispering hoarsely "He's dead." The man replies in a voice Mat remembers from the ones chasing him in Tar Valon, saying this boy caused them too much trouble, and Mat swings the staff with all his strength into the man's head. Another man stands nearby, and Mat realizes he'll never get his staff around in time to hit him, when a dagger flies through the air and finds its mark. Thom woke up after all, and calls Mat lucky. Two of the men remain, and when they notice Mat, they abandon their attempt to free their boat from its tangled connection to the big boat, and swim away.(4)

The captain finally comes out on deck, asking what the hell's happened here, with so many men dead. Thom says that he and Mat saved the ship from brigands. Captain Mallia says he's never heard of brigands on the river this far north.

Mat walked stiffly to the hatch. Behind him, he heard Mallia. “He’s a cold one. I never heard that Andor employed assassins, but burn my soul, he is a cold one.” Mat stumbled down the ladder, stepped over the two bodies in the passage, and slammed the door of the captain’s cabin behind him. He made it halfway to the bed before the shaking hit him, and then all he could do was sink down on his knees. Light, what game am I playing in? I have to know the game if I’m going to win. Light, what game?(5)

PERSPECTIVE: Rand, playing softly on his flute. He can't remember how long ago the village with the weddings was. He still doesn't want to believe he's the Dragon Reborn, he just had to let them proclaim him in the moment, that doesn't make it true.

He thinks about how Shadowspawn have come to him with his friends' and family's faces, trying to trick or kill him. Even Selene has come in his dreams, offering glory as she once had with the Horn, though this time it's Callandor he has to take. Ever a fixture in his dreams, along with taunting faces, and hands pushing Egg, Nyn, and El into cages, snaring them in nets, hurting them, and he doesn't understand why he weeps more for El than the other two.

Sweat rolls down his face. He plays the same song through the night, terrified of falling asleep and dreaming.

=====

(1) Interesting that the Tairen hatred of Aes Sedai, which Aes Sedai themselves have in recent chapters speculated comes from being the safeguard house of the third-most powerful sa'angreal ever made (who wants to have someone with universal nuclear codes in the city when they've got a nuke in the heart of their castle, right?) extends out to common citizens of the country. It's become a cultural fixture for Tear, in a way it doesn't seem to have anywhere else we've seen. (2) Huh, now THAT seems strange. Thom knows all the world's politics. He has to, in his line of work. (3) What do you think? Was Mat unlucky to find a ship with such a bigoted captain… or is the information the man gave away like that going to help him down the road? (4) At least SIX more Gray Men came to kill Mat, and despite that they're supposed to be the ultimate assassins, he took out three by himself, and scared off the other two. So much for soulless killers. (5) Mat's luck is clearly still with him, but he's getting ambiguous results out of it. "What game am I playing?" indeed.

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Prologue - In the Shadow

(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.)

(Wheel icon) In which someone's being very naughty.

First, the dedication:

And it shall come to pass that what men made shall be shattered, and the Shadow shall lie across the Pattern of the Age, and the Dark One shall once more lay his hand upon the world of man. Women shall weep and men quail as the nations of the earth are rent like rotting cloth. Neither shall anything stand nor abide . . . Yet one shall be born to face the Shadow, born once more as he was born before and shall be born again, time without end. The Dragon shall be Reborn, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth at his rebirth. In sackcloth and ashes shall he clothe the people, and he shall break the world again by his coming, tearing apart all ties that bind. Like the unfettered dawn shall he blind us, and burn us, yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us the Light.(1) Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation.(2) —from The Karaethon Cycle: The Prophecies of the Dragon, as translated by Ellaine Marise’idin Alshinn, Chief Librarian at the Court of Arafel, in the Year of Grace 231 of the New Era, the Third Age(3)

Thusly, the prologue begins, our perspective that of...

The man who called himself Bors, at least in this place,(4) sneered at the low murmuring that rolled around the vaulted chamber like the soft gabble of geese. His grimace was hidden by the black silk mask that covered his face, though, just like the masks that covered the hundred other faces in the chamber. A hundred black masks, and a hundred pairs of eyes trying to see what lay behind them.

The room looks ornate, but the roaring fires give off no heat, there are no windows, and only two doors. The walls are covered in tapestries, but behind them is bare stone. Bors doesn't like to think of where the room is, but he was summoned, so he came. He's glad the fires are cold, because he's wrapped in a huge amount of black wool to disguise his build and the fact that he's stooping to look shorter. He's not the only one taking this tack.(5) He watches his companions silently, because so often they make a mistake, give themselves away.

Servants, young men and women dressed in white and looking more than similar, circulate with drinks. He wonders if they'll need to be killed, but when he looks into one's eyes, they're as lifeless as a doll's.(6)

Some people don't bother to hide themselves. One woman is dressed in a scarlet red dress cut in a style that practically screams that she's someone wealthy from Illian, standing against a particular tapestry like she knows it will draw attention to her. Another wears a dress of a particular kind of fabric and cut that marks her from Arad Doman, and a bracelet bearing what could only be her house symbol, because "no Domani bloodborn would bend her stiff pride enough to wear the sigils of another House. Worse than foolishness."(7)

There's even a man in Shienaran clothes in sky blue, carrying himself like a soldier.(8) Bors prides himself on being able to read people and to know in an instant who they are. He sees others from Kandor, Cairhien, Ghealdan, even a Tinker, who he thinks disgustedly that they could do without.(9)

The disguised ones are no better. He spots the silver boots of a Tairen lord, lion spurs worn only by high-ranking Andoran Queen's guards, and a man with a tattoo marking him of the Sea Folk.(10) Then he catches two women wearing Aes Sedai rings in a row, both fully cloaked in black, and neither acknowledging the other. He curses them both, they're both less welcome to him than Tinkers.(11)

A chime sounds, and two Trollocs enter the room, followed  by a Myrddraal who commands them to drop and grovel. The whole room drops and chants a devotion to the Dark One, though Bors thinks internally about how the DO is sealed and the Creator is salvation, repeatedly cutting himself off with reminders that he serves “a different master” now. A voice tells them to rise, and Bors turns to look with just one eye. He sees a projection of a man, dressed all in red with a red mask. Would the Dark One appear to them as a masked man? Just one of the Forsaken, perhaps. He muses on how the Forsaken were trapped with the DO, and despairs that the women Aes Sedai were spared when the men were destroyed by sealing them all.(12)

The figure commands them to rise, gesturing with hands black and red, burned and raw. Would even one of the Forsaken appear to them so? The figure names himself Ba'alzamon, and promises that the Day when their master destroys the Wheel of Time and takes control of the world is coming. If he is the DO, he's switching between first and third person a lot.

He shows them three young men, one a mischievous country lad, one a curly-haired muscle guy with yellow eyes and a battle axe, and a reddish haired farmer or villager with blue eyes and a heron-marked sword.(13) He says that someone in the world will be, but isn't yet, the Dragon. He doesn't say why he's showing the boys.

“The Dragon Reborn! We are to kill him, Great Lord?” That from the Shienaran, hand grasping eagerly at his side where his sword would hang. “Perhaps,” Ba’alzamon said simply. “And perhaps not. Perhaps he can be turned to my use. Sooner or later it will be so, in this Age or another.” The man who called himself Bors blinked. In this Age or another? I thought the Day of Return was near. What matter to me what happens in another Age if I grow old and die waiting in this one?(14) But Ba’alzamon was speaking again.

Baa tells them to learn these faces well, and all sound and movement stop. Eventually some of the people around Bors start moving like they're talking to someone, but he sees nobody they're talking to, and he hears no word they speak. He quickly figures out that each is hearing their own instructions for what to do next.

The red-masked man appears before him, and Bors finally gets his instructions, to return to Tarabon and redouble his efforts for the Light,(15) and to watch and have his followers watch for the boys. His third instruction regards "those who have landed at Toman Head, and the Domani." The voice continues but Bors half tunes out, wondering what it means, none of it makes sense. (16) Abruptly the man grabs Bors's head and he's assaulted with visions and pain. An impossible sky with a great wind, a girl in white vanishing, a raven, a soldier in an insectoid helmet, a golden horn, a wolf ripping out his throat, on and on.

When it stops, the red man tells Bors some commands are too important to be known by the one who carries them out, and leaves.(17)

Bors thinks about the boys, naming them the Blacksmith, the Swordsman, and the Trickster in his mind.(18) Who are they? How important are they? Blue eyes could mean Andoran royalty, though not in those clothes, but there are some Borderlanders and Tairens and some from Ghealdan with blue eyes... that's no help at all. The Blacksmith's yellow eyes puzzle him even more.

A blank-eyed servant touches Bors's arm and leads him to the waiting room where he'd been led on his arrival before the meeting. He's told to change back into his own garments, nobody will see him leave here nor arrive at his destination, but it would be best to be already properly clothed.

The man who called himself Bors shivered in spite of himself. Hastily he undid the seals and buckles of his saddlebags and pulled out his usual cloak. In the back of his mind a small voice wondered if the promised power, even the immortality, was worth another meeting like this, but he laughed it down immediately. For that much power, I would praise the Great Lord of the Dark under the Dome of Truth. Remembering the commands given him by Ba’alzamon, he fingered the golden, flaring sun worked on the breast of the white cloak, and the red shepherd’s crook behind the sun, symbol of his office in the world of men,(19) and he almost laughed. There was work, great work, to be done in Tarabon, and on Almoth Plain.

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(1) Well, that seems rather definitive on the subject. (2) He will be a terrible force, but he will prevail. Weep, for you will be put through the wringer before this is over, but if you personally survive, so too will the world. (Is that a spoiler when the text is saying it literally here and we understand the context of literary foreshadowing and genre expectation? A 14-book epic is probably not going to end suddenly with a catastrophic loss, right? The fun is in finding out how we earn that success and what's lost along the way to pay for it.) (3) The New Era is the one our heroes are living in the year 998 of as of the last word on the matter. So, this was translated less than a millennium ago. (We don't talk about linguistic drift here, or how 770 years was enough to bring us from literal Old English to modern English.) (4) So, probably not that name in his daily life. (5) The last thing a Darkfriend is going to trust is another Darkfriend, the same way some people never really trust others because they know they're in it for themselves and will backstab the nearest target when that's the most expedient path to their goals, and what's to stop the next person over from being the same way. They project their insecurity and fear onto the motivations of others, and drive each other away. (6) Human puppets. If you still thought this would be a Ringsian tale, hopefully this chapter is setting up the appropriate amount of horror to change your expectations on that matter. (7) But then we get into the mindgames. How many layers deep is this? Would someone, in fact, give up their most ingrained comforts and symbols to ward off identification at a gathering like this? (8) I wonder if this is anyone we know. (9) Recall that even Egwene had some prejudice against them last book. A man like Bors has probably never been asked to reconsider the prejudices with which he was raised. (10) Admittedly, harder to fake than the clothing and accessory disguises. (11) This makes more sense at the end of the chapter, doesn't it? He may be a Darkfriend, but he's with the Whitecloaks for a reason, our Bors. But, look how quickly he judges each person, as if he's correct immediately. How many do you think he got right? How many do you think we'll meet again, or have met before? (12) So many assumptions in this set of Bors's thoughts. Some of this meshes with what we know from book one, but some of it is distinctly dissonant, and some of it is unknowable at this stage. (13) Hey, it's cha boys! Ballsy, what are you up to? (14) A clever observation. (15) It's enough to make you wonder if the Whitecloaks are really doing the Light's work in what they do. I say, as if we didn't have that whole Perrin and Egwene imprisonment sequence last book. (16) Someone's landed at Toman Head, and the Domani are one of the people there, from Arad Doman, which borders Tarabon just about there. It's on the map if you have a print edition, off on the left hand edge of the continent. (17) So, we have some unconscious planted commands. (18) Apt descriptions of their archetypes thus far, even though Perrin hasn't done much smithing on screen. (19) The golden sun, the emblem of the Whitecloaks. The red shepherd's crook, clearly a sign of specific role and/or rank. Shall we keep an eye out for anyone wearing one?