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The Shadow Rising, Chapter 1 - Seeds of 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 this is our first, and only, book without a prologue.

The Shadow shall rise across the world, and darken every land, even to the smallest corner, and there shall be neither Light nor safety. And he who shall be born of the Dawn, born of the Maiden, according to Prophecy, he shall stretch forth his hands to catch the Shadow, and the world shall scream in the pain of salvation.(1) All Glory be to the Creator, and to the Light, and to he who shall be born again. May the Light save us from him.  —from Commentaries on the Karaethon Cycle Sereine dar Shamelle Motara Counsel-Sister to Comaelle, High Queen of Jaramide (circa 325 AB, the Third Age)

PERSPECTIVE: Min. The Wheel of Time turns, ages come and pass, a wind rises and flows to Tar Valon, where Min has finally arrived. Her hair is a little longer, and she's wearing an actual dress, and she hopes nobody recognizes her. With luck, she'll be back on her horse, at a nearby inn, in a few hours.(2)

She gets to the front of the petitioners' line in the entry hall and introduces herself but is distracted by three Aes Sedai looking in on the entry hall from different archways.(3) She has visions: one has a sickly brown halo around her, which looks like it's rotting. Another has a human skull on her shoulder. The third has blood running down her face. They're all going to die, on the same day as each other.(4)

The Accepted taking petitions, Faolain, tries to dissuade Min from her request. Min gets back to business and introduces herself by her full name: Elmindreda. She insists any woman has the right to ask a question of the Amyrlin directly. Faolain finally agrees, she'll send word to the Keeper, and ~Elmindreda~ is to wait here.

While she's waiting, Min sees more visions; an Accepted in a cage; Sheriam, the Mistress of Novices, looking battered and bruised; a Brown sister whose aura fades like a guttering candle flame. Death, wounds, captivity, and death for so many.

Eventually a novice comes to bring Min to the Amyrlin's study. On the way, she sees Warders who will get gaping, mortal wounds, with swords and spears dancing in their auras. Some will die on the same day as the Aes Sedai in the entry hall. Another Aes Sedai appears to have a silver collar around her neck, making Min almost want to scream.

On the way into the study, Gawyn exits it, and recognizes Min. He asks if she knows where his sister and Egwene have gone, and she panics, they haven't arrived yet? No, they arrived from that first trip, then took off again shortly after, supposedly to some farm, for penance, but he can't find out where. Min flinches as she has a vision overlay Gawyn: he'll be wounded on the day the Aes Sedai die. She's almost glad the wondergirls aren't here so she doesn't see that they're involved in it too.

She tells Gawyn if they're doing penance on a farm they're probably sweaty and in the mud hip deep, and he's the last one they'll want to see. She challenges his motives for being worried, he's sworn to defend Elayne, alright, but why Egwene? Well, he's just worried, and anything that happens to her... or Nynaeve, he guesses... might happen to El, too. Min tells him he's a terrible liar, and she has business to see to. Where can she find him after? In the practice yard, he says. Min sees another vision, a blademaster's sword, but she can't tell if it belongs to Gawyn or threatens him.

Gawyn goes on to the practice yard, and Min gets shown into the Amyrlin's study, finally. Leane recognizes her instantly, and says she looks more like an Elmindreda in a dress than her usual garb. Min grumbles about being named after a girl in a story who sighs at men all the time, then gets startled at seeing a vision of Leane screaming. She's told to go in directly.

Siuan Sanche, the current Amyrlin Seat, sits in her modest chair at her modest table in the grandly decorated study. Min's vision of Siuan is of her laying naked on the floor, and there's something else odd about the vision she can't place. Siuan asks what she saw, and says it probably means she'll take a lover, though she's no time for any of that these days. Min is doubtful but lets the conversation move on to her other visions and the terrible trouble so many Aes Sedai and Warders are about to face. They speculate for a bit on what it could be, when it might happen, for a long while. The most likely guess is that it's a Black Ajah action.

Min comes to the real purpose of her arrival, the message that Rand was headed for Tear, on his own, without Moiraine's approval or guidance.

“Burn him!” Siuan barked. “By now, he could be dead! I wish he had never heard a word of the Prophecies of the Dragon. If I could keep him from hearing another, I would.” “But doesn’t he have to fulfill the Prophecies? I don’t understand.” The Amyrlin leaned back against her table wearily. “As though anyone even understands most of them! The Prophecies aren’t what makes him the Dragon Reborn; all that takes is for him to admit it, and he must have if he is going for Callandor. The Prophecies are meant to announce to the world who he is, to prepare him for what is coming, to prepare the world for it. If Moiraine can keep some control over him, she will guide him to the Prophecies we can be sure of—when he is ready to face them!—and for the rest, we trust that what he does is enough. We hope. For all I know, he has already fulfilled Prophecies none of us understands.(5) The Light send it’s enough.”

Min asks if they really mean to control him, and Siuan says, well, of course! A fool boy, headstrong and stubborn, maybe already half-mad, running loose? Would you trust to the Pattern, to destiny, to keep him alive? This isn't a story, he isn't an invincible hero, and the Creator won't make some miracle happen if Rand's thread is snipped out of the Pattern. Not even as the Dragon Reborn. Siuan notices Min's facial expression at her rant, and realizes Min loves Rand. Min tells her she's not the only one, three women will be bound to him. Nothing about whether he'll love them back, but they will all three love him.

Now, she's delivered Moiraine's message, can she put on her own clothes and go? Go where, asks Siuan, and Min says, to Tear, or wherever he is by the time she gets there. Siuan says it'll be foolish to be too close to him right now. Min says the Tower's not much better and, once the Red Ajah finds out who Rand is, Min might be arrested by them for helping a man who could channel, regardless of who he is to the Pattern.

Siuan smiles and says then she'd better not be recognized. She may wish to keep coat and breeches hidden for a while. Siuan plans to use Min as bait for the Black Ajah who no doubt remain in the Tower.

She'll have to change her hair a bit, but at least it's long enough to curl now, and Leane surely remembers some use of face paints. She must keep going by Elmindreda for the time being, and she should fit the part. As reasoning, Elmindreda encouraged two suitors and must now take shelter until she can decide between them. Some women still claim sanctuary for reasons as silly.

Min asks if Siuan always gets her way, and Siuan replies with a cold smile, usually.

PERSPECTIVE: Elaida, who absolutely recognized Min going to see the Amyrlin.(6) She's angry that the Amyrlin has disappeared the wondergirls, especially Elayne who should have been Elaida's protégé.

She thinks about Rand, and how if the rumours are true, there were two more ta'veren from his village. Everyone else thinks it's random happenstance, but Elaida knows better. When she met Rand, it was Moiraine who spirited him away from her clutches, Moiraine who was Siuan Sanche's closest friend as novices. She doesn't know if their plot goes all the way back to Rand's birth, but it's the last link to tie them together.(7)

Elaida believes that Rand poses danger to Andor, and her first Foretelling as an Accepted was that the Royal Line of Andor is the key to the Last Battle.(8) She's told nobody what she knows of Rand, but she knows he must be disposed of. She has a leap of logic suddenly that perhaps it's that Rand could channel, that's why Siuan and Moiraine are all over him, but... no, surely even they wouldn't be so foolish as to deal with one such as that?

She mutters aloud, who knows what that woman would do, she was never fit to be the Amyrlin Seat, and is overheard by Alviarin, a White sister. Whites are known for their dispassionate logic. Elaida thinks a moment, and asks Alviarin to walk with her, explaining. Alviarin says she has no proof. Elaida says, not yet.

PERSPECTIVE: Dain Bornhald, spying on the Taren Ferry from the north side of the river. Someone approaches him to say Ordeith was talking to three Tinkers, and now none of the three can be found.

Bornhald rides through the trees to the clearing where the Tuatha'an stand. Nearly a hundred horse-drawn wagons, brightly coloured as the people's clothes. There's an atmosphere of unease, and nearby, all their mastiffs lie dead. Bornhald wasn't willing to take the chance of his men being attacked, even if the Tuatha'an are peaceful.(9)

He draws Ordeith aside and asks if he killed the people. No, but he drew them away to ask them questions, and afterward they all ran away. Bornhald doesn't like Ordeith, doesn't like the orders that were vague about the relative chain of command between them, doesn't like the way his accent changes mid-sentence. Bornhald says he means to cross this river, no matter what.

Jaret Byar rides up and says the village is secured, and they claim there are no Darkfriends in their village, but further south, who can trust those people.(10) Bornhald says to send three hundred across, then the Tinkers, then the rest of the Whitecloaks.

Ordeith interrupts to say they'll scour the Two Rivers, they'll flog them and flay them, and [unclear, probably Rand] will come to [Ordeith] now.(11) Bornhald thinks his commander has tied him to a madman, but at least he's got a path to Perrin to avenge his father.

PERSPECTIVE: High Lady Suroth, who formerly made a deal with Liandrin and is definitely a Darkfriend, ignores her servants but sees the six Deathwatch Guards, who symbolize her triumph and her danger. They serve only the Empress and her chosen representatives, and will kill or die as needed. The sight of them reminds Suroth of a Seanchan saying:  “On the heights, the paths are paved with daggers.”(12)

Suroth wonders how long she'll be able to keep the Sea Folk from spreading word that the Seanchan are back and hold their islands. She wrangled control of the ships that fled Falme, all but a few, and nobody questioned her right to lead. There's no need to return to the Empress and declare defeat and failure when they still have their people and can try somewhere else.(13)

Three women await her in another room, two kneeling and one lying prostrate. The kneeling women are sul'dam, and one is a Voice of the Blood, not something sul'dam ever usually attain, but Alwhin knows too much. The woman laying facedown is a damane who used to be Aes Sedai.(14)

Suroth doesn't trust sul'dam anymore, but she has no choice. The very power of the Seanchan is built on the damane and control over them. They question the damane, Pura, about how the White Tower would control this Dragon Reborn. Pura says the White Tower would never try to control a false Dragon, they would capture and gentle him. The other sul'dam, Taisa, looks at Suroth, wondering if she wants Pura punished for the implication that one of the Blood had spoken untruth. Suroth shakes her head, not wishing to wait around during such a punishment. They keep questioning her in different ways, but Pura is desperate and trying to obey, she is telling them the truth. Suroth dismisses them all.

She's sent reports back home, carefully crafted, but the worst could never be written down. Only three other people know about it, and Suroth needs them all alive. But she has patience. We end on her thinking about whether to give this Dragon to the Empress or not, when she captures him.

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(1) Some sickness needs to be cut out before you can heal around the wound. It has to get worse to save the whole. (2) Ever hopeful, but alas, it wasn't in a vision, so it can't be guaranteed to come true as written. (3) Myself, I'm tickled to see Ananda Sedai, having just finished reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet again where that's the dog's name. (4) That's not a good sign at all. And they keep rolling in after this. Something terrible is coming for the Tower, but what? Who? How? (5) I do love a story that takes deadly seriously the real way that our understanding changes over time. Context is lost to translation, to loss of cultural touchstones (look up the origin of "heckle" sometime, like what we do to bad comedians), to historical revisionism, and that's just the real life history. Add to that a measure of the vagueness of fictional prophecy, and you've got a recipe for nobody knows anything about what it means until maybe after the fact. For example, we know Rand is to be marked, by the end, twice by the heron and twice by the dragon. The herons came from holding his sword while it burned, and at the end of last book we saw that Aiel chiefs get a single dragon tattoo. Nobody in Randland even knew Aiel got a single one, so nobody would have any way to predict the existence of a dragon tattoo like that in the first place. And that's one of the prophecy portions we, at least, can see with the most understanding. How many more are just vague, and could apply to any of a dozen possibilities? Then we come to the real question: do you think Siuan and Moiraine really understand any of the ones they think they know? The ones they think they can guide Rand toward? (6) Ah, there's the complication. (7) Is it just me, or does she have some sort of grudge against those two for something? (8) And this is what she's latched on to. This is why she was in Andor, this is why she's so obsessed with mentoring Elayne. Because she had her own little prophecy that the royal line there would be critical to the Last Battle, and she wants to be there to make sure that her side wins. Now, given how Elayne's integrated into the group, she's probably not wrong. But we have had those other hints about someone of the royal line but not raised in it… (9) HOW DARE YOU! How DARE you kill those innocent dogs. (10) That good old small town distaste for the next town over is gonna get someone killed. Remember when it was just quaint of the EF5 to express distrust for Taren Ferry folk? (11) Admittedly, this is a loose guess, but if we look back it's clear: Fain's obsession has mostly been with Rand, not the others. It's tempting to think Fain wants Perrin as much as Dain does, but that's the influence of Dain's POV talking. (12) Hey, that's the title of one of the later books, not this one, that's cheating! Well, it's foreshadowing if you remember the context and think about the metaphor, but y'know, that's just details. (13) I'm sure nobody wants to declare openly that they failed in a task set them by the Empress herself, not in a culture so strict (some might even say so fascist) in its hierarchy. (14) We know her name. Egwene told us in book 2, chapter 42: Ryma, of the Yellow Ajah.

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