#master hightower

[iviarellereads]

The Eye of the World, Chapter 12 - Across the Taren

(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.)

(Flame icon) In which several things are awfully suspicious.

They make their way to the ferry crossing and wait, hardly even talking among themselves. Moiraine tells Lan he has to handle the crossing, because if she stands out in the ferrymen's thoughts, the group will be that much easier to track down.(2) Rand finds himself a little jealous of Egwene, who's in the flush of finding a sought-out adventure, while he's had adventure thrust upon him and he just feels damp, cold, and sore from the night's hard ride.

Lan moves Perrin's cloak to expose his war axe, and Rand moves his own cloak to show his sword, and tries to mimic Lan's confident pose with his hand on it. The ferry haulers get in position and they start the crossing.

Quietly, Lan and Rand discuss how the ferryman is untrustworthy. Lan says those who would harm a stranger are often the quickest to accuse a stranger of wanting to harm them, since the ferryman noted loudly that the gold he was already given is in a safe place, he can't be robbed. Rand is just surprised the people of Taren Ferry are every bit as strange as he always heard.

Once they're across, the ferryman and the haulers follow them down onto the bank to get the rest of their pay. Moiraine looks out over the river. Rand shivers and pulls his cloak closer around him, and suddenly the ferry gets caught up in a whirlpool, though the ferryman notes that this river never gets whirlpools.(3)

The ferrymen go off to deal with getting back across the river, and Lan leads the group to a cave hidden in a tangle of fallen trees, well defended against curious eyes. Moiraine takes Egwene aside while the men take care of the horses and set up camp. Perrin remarks that the horses don't look tired at all, but Lan says they just don't feel it, they'd run themselves to death if you let them. It was a necessary risk, for Moiraine to do that.

When they're done with the horses outside, they go in the cave, where Moiraine is giving Egwene a lesson.

“The One Power,” Moiraine was saying, “comes from the True Source, the driving force of Creation, the force the Creator made to turn the Wheel of Time.” She put her hands together in front of her and pushed them against each other. “Saidin, the male half of the True Source, and saidar, the female half, work against each other and at the same time together to provide that force.(4) Saidin”—she lifted one hand, then let it drop—“is fouled by the touch of the Dark One, like water with a thin slick of rancid oil floating on top. The water is still pure, but it cannot be touched without touching the foulness. Only saidar is still safe to be used.” Egwene's back was to Rand. He could not see her face, but she was leaning forward eagerly.

Rand misses some of the conversation, but hears Egwene ask if Moiraine thinks she can really learn to use saidar, to be an Aes Sedai. Moiraine says she has no need to learn to use it, but without training, she may not survive the process of using it.(5) When she mentions that men who can channel are gentled by the Red Ajah, Thom growls next to Rand, and even Perrin and Mat look uncomfortable.(6) Rand doesn't know much about the other Ajahs, but he does know the Red take as their mission the prevention of another Breaking, and work to do that by gentling or killing every potential male channeler they learn of.

Moiraine guides Egwene through channelling in a focused way, and when Egg makes a stone light up, Moiraine says most who go to Tar Valon study for months before they can do what she just did by instinct. Egwene has a natural talent, might even be strong enough to become the Amyrlin Seat herself someday. The chapter ends with Egg's delight at her new future.

=====

(1) Funny how, if you put this up against the Dragon's Fang, it would look like the symbol Lews Therin wore and drew attention to. It's once again going to be hard to tag this without giving it away, so, this is the Flame of Tar Valon, henceforth just the flame, a symbol of Tar Valon, the modern Aes Sedai, and female magic, saidar. Which adds some dimensions to the complementary Dragon's Fang piece, doesn't it? (2) So, does something have some sort of telepathy, or do they assume they'll just be interrogated? (3) Definitely Moiraine's intervention. I guess she had enough left in the tank for that, even with the fog. (4) I know that's an awful lot of Capital Word Jumble. And, if we're being honest? This is 2024, so it's been almost 15 whole years I've been in this fandom, and I still mix up the words for saidar and saidin at least 30% of the time. (5) So, some people will channel, probably under some sort of stressful circumstances, and many of them die because they're not prepared. We already know it's possible to channel more than a body can hold, maybe that's an extra danger when you're not prepared for it. Since official training would, as we see in this chapter, involve starting very small, that seems likely. (6) Thom's reaction definitely seems like something personal, and close. He doesn't seem in any way gentled, so what happened?

[motorway-south]

last eps larycent scene was just him coming into her space to snoop like "i support you pursuing pleasures of the flesh WHERE EVER you may find them oh do you like your bf? just checking. i love a girl who reads btw. reminder that i am your intellectual equal and your boyfriend is suicide bombing the riverlands :) food for thought"

[nocterish]

Love me a toxic yuri in my house of the dragons

The lesbians possessed me and compelled me to draw them and this is the result

[PRINTS]

[daemon-is-perfectly-unhinged]

Otto, about Rhaegar: If you want to know the truth, he kind of scares me.

Viserys: He’s an eight-year-old boy.

Otto: With a 65 year old mind!

[rosalinesurvived]

HOTD 1x07 was where I knew I would be Team Hightower forever. Team Green. I wanted to get my opinions out about That Scene.

Lest we forget, Aegon and Helaena were in the room there. Aemond's eye had been ripped out and nobody gave a fuck. Those children watched their mother, the Queen of Westeros be forced to cry and beg their father for some sort of justice, beg for their Father to give a shit once in their lives. Those three were confronted with the fact that their father not only let the one who ripped out Aemond's eye go free but defend their older sister's mistakes. They had to listen as he threatened to rip out the tongue of people who spoke the truth. The king of Westeros would mute people, his own family who spoke the truth. Imagine what his children would've thought of that? What would Aemond think, who refused to rat on his mother? What would Aegon, with alcoholism already, who had just been blamed by Aemond, screamed at by Viseys and slapped by Alicent think, after he too showed a brother's solidarity for the first time and also refused to tell on her?

For the first time we see a correlation between the Green brothers for their traumatised, gaslit mother against the king in the face of this Injustice. They alongside Helaena realised that in this world they could only trust themselves, as they watched the proof of their mother willingly drawing blood from the Princess for her children. Aemond's step into power here and his calmness sets the way for his role as the family's protector in the future, comforting his mother after she fought for him. You could feel that this was the moment the Green Siblings stepped away from their childhoods, however unwillingly.

[demonsthenes13-blog]

Otto is DONE

[tearsofthedrag0n]

All the Tywin / Otto comparisons where classic GOT fans claim Otto is no where near Tywin are low-key (high key) just wrong in my opinion.

Otto is a second son of a family line that has narratively been pit against the royal line for centuries in a time where the family he is manipulating has dragons.

Tywin is the first born son of a family that has no great history against the royal line in a time where no one has dragons.

Otto manipulates his grandson onto the throne practically single handedly whilst actively at the kings side.

Tywin waited to see who would win the war before deciding to help at the end and have his daughter wed Robert - and the power Tywin manages to yield over Joffrey, would he still be able to do so if he was actually Robert Baratheons son and not just his kids weird unhinged incest baby? Hm. Maybe but it’s food for thought.

Just something to think about. I hate Otto as much as the next guy (love the performance though, get that emmy Rhys Ifans) but what he achieved was in insane, much more so than Tywin, especially considering his standing in the world.

[um-weird-flex-but-ok]

“Team Green” “Team Black” Cut the bullshit, how long after Lucerys’s death do you think Alicent waited before she knocked a third off that child support? Be honest.

[hetagrammy]

In the ASOIAF au, with his sister and brother getting married, is there any marriage on the horizon for Arthur?

Arthur is what the kids call ✨a hypocrite.✨ Sure he’ll tell Molly to go get married because it’s her duty to make a peace for the family and support Alasdair marrying for political reasons, but he’s not in any rush to do it himself. He also gets a bit of a pass as the youngest son, and he gets to hoe it out a little for a while (hence why his lil bastards eventually happen).

That being said, in this AU I planned for him and João to develop a relationship that develops into a longstanding partnership. Something that was kind of an open, friends with benefits deal that eventually became a little more committed and romantic.

[mrs-starkgaryen]

Worst let down of season 2 of hotd??

We didn't get otto bringing in the kitties

[iviarellereads]

The Eye of the World, Chapter 11 - The Road to Taren Ferry

(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.)

(Dead tree icon)(1) In which we ride.

Lan and Moiraine are at the head of the line, and Rand at the back, all the horses galloping as fast as they're able, even steady old Bela. Rand thinks to himself that if Bela and Egwene start to slow, he'll slow down too, because Moiraine and Lan won't leave him behind. But he thinks real hard about Bela continuing to keep up, as if by sheer force of will he can make her faster on his own.

They make it as far as Watch Hill, about a third of the way to Taren Ferry. The boys daydream about mutton pies and hot tea at the inn there, but Lan says they can't stop until they're over the river Taren, not for more than a few minutes. Moiraine uses some of her magic to relieve the horses' fatigue, noting that Bela is the least weary of all the horses.(2)

Suddenly the Draghkar screams nearby, and the horses run to chaos, barely held together by the reins still in everyone's hands. Lan says it wouldn't reveal itself unless it already reported their location to the Myrddraal, and they need to get back on the road now. Rand doesn't even realize he's got his sword out by instinct until Egwene tells him to hurry back onto his horse.(3)

They ride on for hours without another break, Moiraine at one point pulling a fog over the road to hide their path. Eventually they arrive at Taren Ferry. Lan knocks on a door until someone wakes and opens the door, and says he wants to cross the river. The man protests that the ferry only crosses during daylight, but Lan counts out a number of gold coins, and the man agrees to go wake his haulers.

=====

(1) The dead tree icon, it now seems safe to say, mostly marks travel through forests at night. A very odd thing to have a whole chapter icon for, but the icons are for setting an expectation, and this is certainly the sort of event that happens often enough in a story like this. (2) Obviously, Rand and Tam just weren't letting her fulfill her full potential. Also, there's a semi-joke in the fandom that Bela is the Creator, or the Dark One incarnate, just for funsies. There were bumper stickers and everything, at one point. (3) That's so sweet of you, Rand, but you've had that thing for five minutes and your only real strike with it was an accident.

[sigilsongs-a]

(``) muse tags. RHAENYRA

(``) rhaenyra targaryen . (tag)

[lucreziasredwyne]

who: @garlandhightower​ (semi-flashback thread) where: the solar of garland hightower within the castle of highgarden, prior to everyone’s arrival to highgarden.  when: shortly following omer and garland’s disastrous interaction. 

her skirts swished around the marble on the floor, hands clasped before her before she even entered his chambers - was she nervous? no. yes, quite obviously by the looks of it. by what she had heard, the conversation did not take place entirely well; no, it would have been better if such a conversation had not occurred at all by the sounds of it. two men so stubborn in their pride and their own ego; how was it ever to work? a part of her wonders whether she ought to have been there, to try and defuse the situation - and yet still, she knew some things needed to be settled between the pair of them. 

the lord of oldtown and the fox of brightwater had a history that went far beyond her, far before her. she needed to have some trust in that. 

her own mind had been made up - no doubt to the creeping disappointment of her kin. whilst their relationship was filled with differences, there was no denying what his presence had been in her life; and she could hope that her presence had helped him some regard too. that it was more than the ties of blood and family that made them want to remain in one another’s lives, but it was because they genuinely wanted to. whilst lucrezia was not a ward of house hightower, garland had taken his responsibilities as her eldest male relative seriously. a difficult matter, when she was a ruling lady in her own right. the waters they tread were sometimes murky, clouded in miscommunication and the want to give up - and there were times where their stubbornness only bounced on one another. 

she remained stood in his entrance to his solar for a moment, noting the winding staircase that made it’s way up to his desk where he no doubt would be planted. he would be stressed, and therefore, the books would be piling. “lulu!” came a shrieking voice, and she visibly jumped as she looked up toward where she knew the voice came from. his blasted raven. she wished it would fly itself into the crackling hearth someday. “i am coming upstairs.” she called, her hand on the railing as she lifted the bottom of her skirts, taking the winding spiral staircase up to the part of his solar where he had banished himself. 

she stood at the arch for a moment, hand remaining on the railing of the staircase. whilst it felt as though her chest would burst from how much she wanted to tell him, it felt as though her lips and her eyes had been tainted with a sense of shame and guilt for the way she had destroyed herself to ultimately understand. she did this for the gods, as much as she did this for herself; it was the way to make things right. still, she could tell by the look on his face that he was utterly perplexed. that this had seemingly come from nowhere. 

she should have said something. how could she have said something? she should have said something. “hello.” she spoke, her voice somewhat weary as she looked upon him; both of them looking at one another in the aftermath of what feels like a slap in the face for the lord of oldtown. she wordlessly stepped forward, removing some of the pile of books from his desk, to a space on his desk so they did not teeter and pile. “i wanted to come and see you.” she spoke over the pile of books, continuing to decrease the pile. 

[daemon-is-perfectly-unhinged]

Otto: How can someone be so offensive and yet so charming at the same time?

Rhaegar: It's an art form.

[echoes-of-polaris]

Idea:

A HotD edit set to the song "The World we Made" by Ruelle, focusing on the feud between Rhaenyra and Alicent

[ivory-forged-steel]

ASOIAF character tag drop 🎉