#lir baryn

[iviarellereads]

The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 19 - Memories

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(Dagger icon) In which a queen sings some Queen.

PERSPECTIVE: Morgase hasn't left her room all day, and it's almost noon. Tallanvor (properly Guardsman Lieutenant Martyn Tallanvor) brings her news, surprised she hasn't heard yet. There's rebellion in the Two Rivers, someone's raised the old banner of Manetheren, the Red Eagle. Morgase thinks on how she's struggled to keep both the Two Rivers and the mines in the Mountains of Mist under Andoran control, and the 2Rs had to slip lower on priorities.

She asks if Gaebril has been informed, and Tal says he has, and he laughed, saying the 2Rs throws up trouble, but it's a minor annoyance at best.

Morgase drops her book and sweeps past Tal, who may or may not be smirking grimly at her reaction. She finds Gaebril with lords and ladies gathered all around him. She demands to speak with him about the 2Rs and he says it's been handled. She says absolutely not, he will leave and speak with her, and all these nobles will clear out or she'll have them exiled. He says no, she will go and wait for him to come to her this evening.

She's opening the door to her sitting room before she realizes where she is and what's happened. She feels the urge to go in and wait for him anyway, but she fights it, and walks away, cringing at the idea of Gaebril's disappointment.(1)

The seven nobles who had been gathered around Gaebril are the seven she would have chosen not to pardon, after her succession to the Throne, if she could've done so and not risked civil war against herself. She realizes Gaebril must be plotting against her, probably trying to make himself Andor's first king. And even still, she feels part of herself wanting to go and wait for him as he told her to.

She finds herself going to visit Lini, the woman who had served as nurse for Elayne, Morgase, and Morgase's mother, Maighdin. Lini isn't in, so she looks around, seeing how everything is perfectly organized. She notes portraits of all three of Lini's charges, her own of herself at fourteen looking so innocent.

Lini comes back and says, well, Morgase always had a habit of coming to see her when she needed to work out a problem, but she hasn't been for a while. Morgase says she visits every week, but Lini says she hasn't been here since spring. Must be the trouble with Gaebril, right? Morgase is surprised Lini knows about any trouble, but Lini says the whole castle knows, just nobody's willing to bring it up with the Queen. It's the kind of thing a woman won't believe until she's faced with it herself.

Morgase asks what Lini's referring to, she's the last to know and it may be too late to stop it. Lini says it's not too late, just bundle up Gaebril, Alteima, and the others, and you're all set. Morgase is shocked to learn that Gaebril's been cheating on her, with Alteima and six others. Shocked, and then enraged. Morgase asks where her various allies are, and Lini points out that Morgase had them all exiled last spring. Even had one flogged for asking why. Morgase has only shadowed memories of any of it.

She asks if Lini would recognize Tallanvor, and at confirmation, she asks her to bring him here, but tell nobody that she's in Lini's quarters. When Lini leaves, Morgase dares not stand up from her chair, knowing that if she moves, she might not stop until she's in her sitting room, waiting for Gaebril. If she didn't know better, she'd think he'd used the One Power on her somehow, but no man survives to his age using the Power.(2)

She thinks back on her lovers over the years. Taringail Damodred was cold, though she found joy in their children. Thomdril Merrilin was witty and funny, but twice her age(3) and one day just vanished without a word, so when he returned, her temper got the better of her.(4) Gareth Bryne had turned out to be a treasonous fool. And Gaebril, the crown on her bad life choices.

Lini returns with Tallanvor, and Morgase begins asking questions. She finds that he is the only man left who's truly loyal to her, not to Gaebril. Even the new oath is to throne and law, not to the Queen.

Morgase says she needs to go elsewhere, and begin reestablishing her rule. Tallanvor overrules Morgase's suggested escape route, and suggests she disguise herself and go to the Queen's Blessing inn, where Basel Gill is as loyal to her as Tal himself. When he's gone, Lini asks why she keeps calling Tal young, he's got a few years on Galad and Galad's too old to be Morgase's in the first place.(5)

At any rate, Lini insists on coming, too, so they both dress in simple coarse wool, with some soot to darken Morgase's red-gold hair, and slip out a side gate. As they go, she realizes her reputation is taking the blame for Gaebril's changes.

They reach the Queen's Blessing, and Morgase realizes Lini is breathing hard. Lini waves her off, saying if she can't keep up with Morgase, how will she ever tend Elayne's babes? They go to the stable, where Tal, Basel Gill, Lamgwin (one of Gill's men) and Lamgwin's wife Breane all swear fealty and to accompany her. They ask where she'll go first, and she realizes she hadn't thought that far. All her focus was on getting out of the castle, on defying the urge to go back to Gaebril. Tal suggests they must go to Gareth Bryne first. With him on her side, the rest will reswear allegiance if only because they know he'll win every battle he's in. She almost protests that he's a traitor, but he has a point.

PERSPECTIVE: Padan Fain sneaks to the storage room where the ruby hilted dagger is being stored, guided by his connection to it through Mordeth. He finds the plain iron lock on the door, his precious isn't even guarded by any magic. He picks it, finds the dagger, and is surprised by an Accepted such that he slashes at her in the darkness. She dies quickly, in agony.

Alviarin calls him a fool, thinking there would be no guard on the room, no watch kept. If she'd done as she was supposed to, he'd have found a dozen Warders and Aes Sedai each.

He realizes Alviarin could have raised the alarm herself, and that she must be Black Ajah, saying so aloud. She says that's a dangerous accusation, and Elaida won't hear of it either way.(6) She asks if he means to steal the dagger, saying the ruby's not worth that much and the blade is tainted. He says he could dispose of Elaida for her, but she says if she'd wanted to be the Amyrlin Seat, she would have done so.

Fain spouts all kinds of stuff that means he's been to Shayol Ghul, and Alviarin is impressed. She asks who he is, and why he's here, did one of the Chosen send him? He says his tasks are not for the likes of her to know. She says they'll see, but for now, she'll clean up his mess. She leaves him bound in Air until she's well away, though.

He decides there's no time to find the Horn of Valere just now, he's got followers to meet and work to do, to find al'Thor now that he's whole again with his dagger.(7)

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(1) Since we know this is Rahvin, it's all the more heartbreaking and heartening both to see her struggling against his Compulsion like this. She's so strong that she can overcome a Forsaken's weaves on her mind. (2) She's so close to it here. So close! She's gone full Freddie Mercury here, she wants to figure it out, and she wants to break free. (3) Here's a fun fact: we don't have a birth year for Thom, but he was already about twice Morgase's age when they were together, which was the better part of twenty years ago. Morgase is 42. Taringail was assassinated 15 years ago, and Thom's nephew was gentled 14 years ago. So, Morgase was about 27 when they were together, perfectly old enough to make her own choices even with a much older man, especially considering she had the social power as queen. But, even if she was exaggerating a little, that makes Thom at least 50 then, and at least 65 now. Puts poor Dena in a different context. (4) And of course, he couldn't tell her what happened with his nephew, the stigma attached to all aspects of it. She's a queen, and has greater concerns. (5) On the one hand, the lady definitely doth protest too much. On the other, if there's one thing that unites the fandom it's hate for Gawyn, if there are two things it's hate for Gawyn and Tallanvor. (6) Not a denial! So, when Nynaeve thought about the White Tower under Black Ajah control a couple of chapters ago… she wasn't exactly wrong. (7) Just… keep this in mind. Fain was last seen with Whitecloaks, and he's making plans.