#wot dice icon

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 49 - A Storm in Tear

(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.)

(Dice icon) In which coincidence twists.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene. Ailhuin returns with Juilin, a lean man with a swordbreaker almost exactly like Hurin's. He says he'll help them if he can, but he's seen men in black walking across rooftops, and he expects the High Lords may hire him to seek out thieves sooner than later, though nobody's reported a theft yet.(1)

Nyn asks what he charges, and he says a tenth of the value of some goods, or a silver mark per person, and in this case they can have the choice. Elayne distracts him by mentioning that she knows another thief-taker, a very respectful man from Shienar, who carries both sword and swordbreaker. Why doesn't he? He doesn't seem to get her reference,(2) but says there are laws against commoners wearing swords in Tear. Nyn finally counts out thirteen silver coins, probably the lightest of the silver in the purse but still thirteen.

Juilin protests, saying he'd not ask for more than coppers from them, but Nyn says she's buying exactly what she's buying: he will find the thirteen women, find them and no more. He nods, and she describes each one, giving no names because names are so easily faked. Nyn adds that at least a dozen have died at their hands so far, and they are more dangerous than he can possibly know. If they find him following them, he will die, or they will torture him to find them, and Ailhuin will likely die with them. He says he was stabbed by a woman he thought harmless once, and never makes the same mistake now. He will treat them all as if they were Aes Sedai, and Black Ajah at that. Egg almost chokes but he apologizes, and assures her that there are no Aes Sedai in Tear.(3)

He leaves, and Ailhuin assures them he's the best in the business. Nyn feels a storm coming, it will rain again before morning.(4) They go to bed, and Egg tells Nyn and El to wake her after an hour, but she goes into TAR, makes her way to the Heart of the Stone, sees Liandrin, and wakes herself up almost immediately. She tells them that the women know they're here, they're waiting for them, and outside the storm breaks.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat, playing stones with Thom, who's the clear winner. Mat asks if Thom ever loses, and he says yes, Morgase would beat him about half the time. It's said that good stones players are also good at the Game of Houses and at war.

The ship docks at Tear, the captain swearing he'll never carry anything that can talk again, and Mat pays him an exorbitant fee. He makes sure the fireworks are protected as they walk into the rainy night. Thom asks if he's ready to sell them yet, but Mat says he wants to know how they work, and won't it be fun to see him set them all off?

They set off into Tear, Mat grumbling at the mud catching his boots. He plans to get an early start of looking for Comar. Thom says there are hundreds of inns, it'll take weeks, and some of them are so small you'd never know they were there. Mat thinks of home when he thinks of small inns, thinking they should never have left Emond's Field. But, Rand surely had to, and Egwene might have died if she hadn't. Well, maybe Perrin still has a chance to go home, and if he does, Mat hopes he takes it, though, why would he? As the thought finishes, lightning strikes, and illuminates a window with herbs hanging in the window.(5)

They take rooms at an inn, Mat paying in silver since the gold is running low (the men on the ship didn't dice at all) then he and Thom go around to a couple of other inns. It's late into the night when, looking for another to check, Thom says they've just walked past three inns, can they go back and sleep now? Mat almost gives in when he swears he sees Rand up the street,(6) but looks back instead. He didn't notice the last inn, but likes the look of the name and the sign, The Golden Cup, so he goes in.

And not two steps in, he sees Comar, dicing across the room. His current dicing partner leaves and he starts calling who's next, who wants to try his luck? Mat knows something is wrong, not least because Comar is the first man he's seen wearing a sword, so he tries to think it through from all sides before rushing in.

He and Thom approach the innkeeper and ask a few discreet questions about Comar. The innkeeper assumes Comar is a merchant, thumbing his nose at the poor of the Maule, and he keeps throwing the best rolls for any game he plays. Thom shows them a trick of replacing dice by sleight of hand, and says he probably has sets of weighted dice, and is doing the same trick.

Mat tells Thom to stay at the bar, and goes to dice with Comar. He feels the luck shift as he throws his dice, and lands the winning roll. He tells Comar his luck's about used up, calls him by name, and says if he's hurt the girls, it's all gone. Comar's face goes white as he realizes what Mat just said. He lets slip that he hasn't found them, but he isn't the only one searching. Mat tells him to leave Tear, tell Gaebril anything, but leave Tear tonight. Comar takes out his sword, and Mat defeats him handily with his quarterstaff. In fact, Mat does too well, and kills him by accident. The innkeeper tells him he must go, he'll tell the Defenders it was a man he dreamed of, a tall man with red hair and gray eyes. He can show them the weighted dice now, and everyone here lost coin, they'll all attest. Mat lets himself be dragged out of the inn.

On the way back to the inn where their rooms are, Mat says he's figured out the luck: it works best when things have an element of randomness. Not much good for cards, no good at stones, too much pattern. Even finding Comar, it was a random inn. If he's going to find the wondergirls in time, he has to search without a pattern.(7)

They go back and get some sleep, but for three days and three evenings, Mat lets luck decide where he goes, picking inns at random, or sometimes just flipping a coin at an intersection and turning this way or that. Thom develops a terrible cough, so he can no longer play flute or tell stories, but he insists on going out with Mat.

He's even started to have bad dreams, especially of a man in puffy sleeves and cropped white hair, weaving a net, sometimes over the wondergirls, sometimes Moiraine, and sometimes the man held a crystal sword, only sometimes Rand held the sword. In fact, Mat dreams of Rand a great deal.(8)

Mat thinks it must just be the lack of sleep, the lack of eating regular meals, but he can't stop. He means to win his wager.

=====

(1) We don't have very many clues about what might be going on here, certainly nothing definitive, but remember that we're getting awfully close to the end of the book. (2) Frankly, nor do I. Anyone got an insight check here? Pretty sure I rolled a 1 and none of the wikis and databases I have access to, even as a full-spoil, are helping. My best guess is it's a joke about Hurin the Tolkien figure that I also don't get. (3) Oh, buddy. (4) Do you think it's still the rain Nyn's feeling, or the looming climax of the story? (5) They're SO CLOSE! But they're not thinking like people trying to be sneaky. Well, at least we know they're nearby when Thom finally wants something for that cough. (6) Oh right, Mat's been WELL out of the loop. He hasn't any of the Dragon-search stuff on his itinerary, he's just here for the ladies. Well, it seems Rand did arrive ahead of them all. (7) Find the pattern, even if that pattern is randomness. Luck is his superpower. (8) So, both Rand and whoever the local Forsaken is are affecting people's dreams now.

[highfantasy-soul]

So I have THOUGHTS (not bad ones, just 'hmmm interesting') about Mat's story in the finale. Book spoilers be ahead!!

So I've seen a lot of discussion about the holes in Mat's memories and what that means for how the show is changing that aspect of the books up. So in the books, the dagger eats holes in Mat's brain and he can't remember a lot of his life - like, his real, this incarnation life. So when in Rhuidean, he goes through the second stone archway and asks for the holes in his memory to be filled and the delightful Eelfinn oblige.

HOWEVER! This is something I think people talking about the tea from episode 7 are mis-remembering: those memories the Eelfinn give Mat are canonically NOT of Mat's past lives!! The tea seemed much more akin to the flicker-verse in book 2 when they use the portal stone - but even that isn't a direct translation as the portal stone shows you alternative paths in THIS lifetime, not your past lives.

And coming back to the Eelfinn - Mat distinctly remembers being on BOTH sides of a battlefield at one point. So two memories taking place at the same time - ergo, these are not his own past life's memories. It's theorized in later books that maybe these are memories the Eelfinn or Aelfinn have taken from various visitors to their realms over the years that the person traded away for some benefit or another and they just slapped them into Mat's brain - focusing on the ones from great generals over the centuries.

He doesn't remember the entire life, just parts of them - he remembers random dances, battles, and subconsciously knows the Old Tongue now.

I can see him still going through the archways (I really do hope they keep that in the show, maybe just giving him his prophesies for the future from Tear and his ashandarei, hanging scar, and medallion in Rhuidean) and just leave out the memory bit.

It actually works a bit better for me the way the show might have done his battle memories: I read his scene with the Heroes of the Horn as him remembering our Mat from the books as they indicated at the end that he'd done enough to become bound to the horn if he so chose. It's been theorized who book Mat was a reincarnation of, though never confirmed (to my knowledge), one of the most popular theories I think being King Aemon, last king of Manetheren and I think that would totally fit: Mat's past lives are of generals who perhaps struggled against the Dark, but eventually all held to the Light.

Having the blowing of the Horn give you your past lives' memories makes a lot of sense to me. Maybe he only temporarily got them, though since he's tied to the horn and so couldn't be 'called forth' since he was already there, they decided to give him his memories like the rest of them have to aid in battle and then they'll dissipate with the Heroes. We shall see.

But yeah, totally loved Mat's Horn blowing moment though shame on me for not realizing what he was saying in the Old Tongue!!!! I thought it was just a generic battle cry like he does in the early books and not a single brain cell in my skull recognized the words he was saying even thought I say them to myself VERY FREQUENTLY and want them TATTOOED UPON MY BODY!!!! Seriously, I have no idea how I missed registering what he was shouting - though it did seem an odd place to say it as "it's time to toss the dice" isn't really a regular thing to shout in battle, you need a bit more of Mat's story to understand why he'd say that - but if we're going with the reading that show!Mat has just remembered book!Mat's life, it makes sense that he'd pull out his old battle cry. Anyways, done ranting about how frustrating it was that I missed the most iconic of iconic wot sayings the first time around.

show!Mat: I love you. I like this possible iteration of his battle memories. Good soup. I would like more, please.

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 47 - To Race 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.)

(Dice icon) In which someone doesn't know he made a wager yet, but he will.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat. Tallanvor leads Mat out, away from the grounds, and Mat hopes that Gaebril didn't have any reason to think that Mat knows what he knows. Tal asks Mat if he knows anything else of the White Tower, who is Sheriam, why does her study mean anything? Mat can honestly say he doesn't know. Sometimes Tal thinks she's trying to say something… 1) he asks Mat if he's a loyal Andorman, and Mat says absolutely, but does Tal serve Morgase and Gaebril faithfully? Tal sneers that he serves Morgase, to the death, and storms back to the palace. Mat thinks Gaebril probably says the same words…

Mat gets back to the Queen's Blessing and tells Master Gill he's leaving, but keep the coin, he'll stay long enough to eat. Thom says they've only just arrived. Mat asks if Gill can say anything else about Gaebril, he doesn't like Aes Sedai and he hasn't been there long, but anything else?

Gaebril appeared over the winter, put down some riots hard, and Morgase was so pleased with him that she named him as advisor. Mat asks, if he married Morgase, would he be king? No, Andor has always had a queen, just a queen. If Morgase and Elayne both died, Light forbid, then their cousin Dyelin would be next in succession. At least that's clear, not like when Tigraine disappeared.

Mat asks if there's any other reason he doesn't like Gaebril, and he says, well, there's been a lot of unrest but it can't all be his fault, and people have been having bad dreams since he arrived.(2) But why all this fuss and questioning? Mat says he overheard Gaebril telling Comar to kill Elayne and the other wondergirls, and Thom and Basel almost believe him.

Thom suggests that they spread rumour and use the Game of Houses, if Morgase thinks Elayne's in danger, Gaebril will have a mighty fine funeral. Basel even thinks they can use the dreams to do it, all he has to do is say he dreamed the plot to one of the serving women, and she'll have it through half the city in a day.(3)

Mat says he needs to get on the road to Tear, and Thom asks if there's any chance of Mat waiting until tomorrow morning to leave, he could use a night's sleep. Mat is surprised Thom wants to come with, even further, but Thom seems to have stopped seeking to punish himself. Besides, he likes those girls, wouldn't want anything to happen to them. They'll have to go back to Aringill and catch a boat, it's days faster even than riding horses to death.

Mat asks Basel to hold on to Gaebril's pouch of ten gold, and when he asks what it is, Mat says it's stakes. Gaebril doesn't know it yet, but they have a wager, and Mat always wins, as he throws the dice and turns up all sixes.

=====

(1) So, any better guesses yet? (2) We've seen Sammael in Illian, and Rand, giving people nearby their dreams. It seems likely (and safe enough to suggest) that Gaebril is a Forsaken. They're just coming out of the woodwork, now, huh? (3) Do you think it will be that successful? Can Morgase fend off one of the Forsaken?

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 30 - The First Toss

(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.)

(Dice icon) In which that goes a touch beyond what we were led to believe earlier.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat spent most of the day in his room, after the wondergirls left him. He sent for tray after tray of bread, cheese, and fruit, and tucked some of it into bags in his wardrobe. At one point, Anaiya comes to check on him, perhaps alerted by the extra food he's been sending for, and says they'll make sure he gets all he needs until he's fully well again.

Mat says he is feeling better, but maybe he'll spend an evening at an inn, he misses people and common-room talk. She says no-one will try to stop him, but don't try to get off the island, or he'll be escorted back.

As she leaves, she notes the quarterstaff and says he doesn't need to protect himself here, he's as safe here as he could be anywhere, and safer than most places.(1) He says he knows, but after she's gone, he wonders if he convinced her of anything at all.

He packs up all his belongings, though there's no hiding what he intends to do when he carries them all, even under a cloak. If you can't hide what you're planning, then do it so hard you look like a fool, and people will underestimate you. He enters the city, and the first inn he enters has three dice games in progress. He only meant to gamble for an hour or so, but he won. He'd always won more than he lost, and sometimes he'd win six or eight tosses in a row, but tonight, every toss wins. He leaves when he realizes he's got thirty silver marks, and the other players are getting a little worn down by his luck.

One follows him outside, arguing for a chance to make back his losses. Mat's only used half the hour he hoped to spend, so they go into another inn, where he wins again, and a fever grips him. From tavern to tavern he goes, never staying long enough to make anyone angry at their losses or his coin pile, but still he wins, every toss, no matter what the game. Even games he's never played before.(2)

He doesn't know how many hours later he finds himself in a tavern full of tabac smoke, staring down at five dice, all showing a crown. The fifth time in a row he's thrown the same roll, which they call "the king". One man growls that Mat has the "Dark One's own luck" and Mat barely realizes what he's doing before he's got the man slammed against the wall, holding him by the collar. He snarls at the man never to say that to him.(3) Abruptly he lets the man go, and backs away. He gets his things and leaves the last coins and the tavern.

Mat thinks about this puzzle from every side. He's always been lucky, but he was never as lucky in Emond's Field as he is now. And it's not just since leaving EF, it's since taking the dagger. But at least he's free of it now, if the Aes Sedai didn't lie. He digs into his coat pockets, finding them full of loose coins of all denominations and nationalities. He has two purses on his belt, both fat, full of gold, and still more stuffed into his belt pouch, crumpling the paper shield and Elayne's letter. He has memories of throwing silver pence to serving girls because they were pretty, and because silver wasn't worth keeping, which shocks him in the present. He wonders if something the Aes Sedai did to him during the healing did this.

Hiding his purses, Mat says it's time to find a ship. He starts walking, then realizes he's being followed. He ducks into side streets and alleys, and eventually into a shadowy corner, where he stays absolutely quiet, and overhears men talking about what must surely have been a plan to rob him or worse. He realizes his luck might be good for more than just dice.

He climbs the building he's standing next to, a one-storey, and then climbs a couple of other buildings, makes his way far away from where the men were looking, and jumps down, rolling with his fall the way he did jumping out of trees as a boy, onto a bridge between buildings and above the street. He only then notices(4) that the bridge has a man on it, holding a dagger at him menacingly. They fight, Mat using his quarterstaff, until they're well entangled, and then Mat says it's time to toss the dice, and flips them both off the bridge. When he can breathe again after the landing, he realizes that not only did his luck land him on top of the other man, the man's dagger is plunged hilt-deep into his own heart.(5)

He realized he was standing over a dead man with a dagger in his chest, just waiting for someone to come along and run shouting for city guards with the Flame of Tar Valon on their chests. The Amyrlin’s paper might get him away from them, but maybe not before she found out. He could still end up back in the White Tower, without that paper, and possibly not even allowed outside the Tower grounds. He knew he should be on his way to the docks right then, and on the first vessel sailing if it was a rotten tub full of old fish, but his knees were shaking hard enough in reaction that he could hardly walk. What he wanted was to sit down for just a minute. Just a minute to steady his knees, and then he was headed for the docks. The taverns were closer, but he started toward the inn. The common room of an inn was a friendly place, where a man could rest a minute and not worry about who might be sneaking up behind him. Enough light came out through the windows for him to make out the sign. A woman with her hair in braids, holding what he thought was an olive branch, and the words “The Woman of Tanchico.”

=====

(1) Considering the Gray Man later this chapter, I'm calling bullshit. (2) Mat's superpower manifests: luck. That's really all this amounts to, in effect. And it's not a known explicit ta'veren power… but it seems rather similar to or perhaps affected by it. We've seen it mentioned (see: chapter 8) that Artur Hawkwing was strongly ta'veren, and sometimes dice rolls would go in his favour more often than not, or even all in his favour for a short time. But Mat plays dice the whole night, except traveling between inns, and wins. every. time. (3) Mat gets real defensive over slights to what he believes his character to be. (4) So the guy was "hardly noticeable", totally ordinary looking. That makes at least three Gray Men in Tar Valon recently. One's a fluke, two's a coincidence, three (if you'll forgive the wordplay) feels like part of a Pattern. (5) This book is notably where Mat starts to become a fan favourite character. While his luck will keep him alive and in coin, it doesn't mean he's not going to face some danger. Ah, but we'll get to what I mean by that, as this is only the first tickle of it. For now, a lot of people think it's real cool and dashing that he gets to be such a badass almost by accident. I'm not saying they're wrong to do so, I'm just saying that if you disagree, you're not alone.

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 28 - A Way Out

(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.)

(Dice icon) In which the Wondergirls are about to make someone's whole year.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat's just finishing a snack, dressed only in his breeches, when the wondergirls march in and take seats around his room. They compliment how well he looks so quickly, and then Nyn asks if he's tired of being cooped up, yet? Mat quotes an old saying his father had. One pretty woman means fun at a dance, two mean trouble in the house, three mean run for the hills.(1) They're up to something, he can see it. Egg says they should have asked him right out, but Nyn hushes her and says just because they want a favour doesn't mean they can't ask how he's doing, they do care after all.(2)

Mat asks plainly what they want, and El says she'd like him to carry a letter to her mother, she'd be SOOOO grateful. He asks what he'll get out of it, and she asks, is he not a loyal Andorman? Does he not wish to serve the Lion Throne? He snickers, and Egg said she told El that wouldn't work with him.(3)

Nyn suggests they get back to business, and says he's ruder than she remembered. She would think he'd have a little gratitude to them. Well, he's talked about seeing the world, what better than Caemlyn? She produces a sealed parchment from within her cloak and lays it on the table.

Mat barely remembers passing through Caemlyn with Rand, but decides to be kind and tell them that the Amyrlin has commanded that he's not to leave the island. Looks pass between them, and after a short explanation, Nyn says if they can get him out, he'll deliver the letter? If they can get him out of Tar Valon, he'll deliver Elayne to her mother riding on his back all the way.

Nyn calls Egg and El aside for a moment of murmured conversation, then Egg hands him another parchment. He reads it, and it's the Amyrlin's paper shield. He asks where they got it, and Nyn says never mind how, it's real, and that's all that matters. They have no coin, but he says he can gamble for what he needs.(4)

Mat acknowledges that they are, in fact, doing him a favour. He offers them another, unnamed future favour in addition to carrying the letter, to show how grateful he is for them getting him out.(5) The ladies suppress laughter, but when Mat asks what’s so funny, they just say it’s something they’ve observed about men. 

“Journey well and safely, Mat,” Egwene said. “And remember, if a woman does need a hero, she needs him today, not tomorrow.” The laughter bubbled out of her. He stared at the door closing behind them. Women, he decided for at least the hundredth time, were odd. Then his eye fell on Elayne’s letter, and the folded paper lying atop it. The Amyrlin’s blessed, not-to-be-understood, but welcome-as-a-fire-in-winter paper. He danced a little caper in the middle of the flowered carpet. Caemlyn to see, and a queen to meet. Your own words will free me of you, Amyrlin. And get me away from Selene, too. “You’ll never catch me,” he laughed, and meant it for both of them. “You’ll never catch Mat Cauthon.”

=====

(1) I don't always draw attention to the weird sexism of this world, but isn't it funny how that seems an awful lot like things the women have said. It's almost as if RJ was drawing attention to how pointless these sorts of assumption-stereotypes are, and how much less antagonistic we'd be toward each other if we recognized that, rather than two arbitrary and separate boxes, we were all just People. Well… he didn't always do the best job of it, but I really do think he tried, harder than most of his peers. (2) The hell of it is, they do care. They care enough to know Mat well enough to know he's the best pick for this job. (3) None of the Duopotamians will do something just for love of country, if the country in question is framed as Andor. They don't know or care about Andor, only their home. (4) He mentions that Hurin had started refusing to gamble with him, even for coppers. We've had hints that Mat tends to be luckier than most so far, but surely it was never that bad, right? (5) So, they have their messenger, and without too much wheedling, though I'm sure it's a heartbreak to give up one of the paper shield letters, which is the easiest way to refer to them imo. But, look at Mat's choice here. He knows they're doing more for him than he would be by carrying the letter. He knows how important the paper shields are, how valuable they can be, even if they might also be incriminating in some circumstances. Mat's one of the most unreliable narrators, right up there with Rand and Nynaeve for not acknowledging what he's really feeling, why he's really doing what he does.

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 24 - Scouting and Discoveries

(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.)

(Dice icon) In which several someones get a bit more lesson than they bargained for.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat still doesn't have a plan to leave Tar Valon, but he's working on it. Serving women bring another giant tray of food and he's surprised that he eats it all easily. He thinks they expect him to lay back down, but instead he dresses himself, leaving his spare clothes behind, but taking his dice cups. He can get all the clothes he needs with those.(1)

He leaves the room and eventually finds a way outside, a bit sad he doesn’t run into Egwene or Nynaeve, or even Elayne even though she always has her nose in the air. He asks a guard there if he does bridge guard duty, and what the travel conditions are like on the east and west sides of the river. The guard tells him travel would be great except for the Whitecloaks all the way around, and also if he weren't Matrim Cauthon, the man they're not to let cross. Mat excuses himself suspiciously, and scowls as he walks away.(2)

Mat happens across a young woman in a novice dress, and recognizes Else Grinwell, from a farm on the Caemlyn road. She addresses him very shortly, asking him what he’s doing out. Her manner is nothing like the little he remembers, and demands that he let her pass, she has things to do. She even glances over her shoulder to be sure he doesn't follow her.(3)

Following a noise through some trees, he walks into the practice yard for the Warders and their students. He sees some Aes Sedai and Accepted watching the current pair sparring, and he sits down, picks up three small rocks, and juggles, thinking all along that he wouldn't want to face either of them in combat. When they stop, he drops the pebbles as he recognizes that the younger one must be Gawyn, and the elder Galad. Gawyn catches sight of Mat, recognizing him from Egg and El's descriptions, and asks if he's doing better, after being sick?

Mat says he's fine, wondering that the proper term of address is for the prince. Galad asks if he came to learn the sword, but he says he'd rather put his trust in a bow or a quarterstaff, he knows how to use those. Galad says to spend time around Nynaeve you need bow, quarterstaff, AND sword to protect yourself. Gawyn is shocked that Galad just almost made a joke. Galad just doesn't like to mock people.(4)

Gawyn says Mat could probably use some lessons with a sword, anyone could in such troubled times. Mat says if he had a quarterstaff, and they had swords, he could probably do fairly well against either of them. Gawyn coughs to cover a laugh, and Galad looks skeptical.

Perhaps it was that they both clearly thought he was making a wild boast. Perhaps it was because he had mishandled questioning the guardsman. Perhaps it was because Else, who had such an eye for the boys, wanted nothing to do with him, and all those women were staring at Galad like cats watching a jug of cream.(5) Aes Sedai and Accepted or not, they were still women. All these explanations ran through Mat’s head, but he rejected them angrily, especially the last. He was going to do it because it would be fun. And it might earn some coin. His luck would not even have to be back.

Mat wagers two silver marks from each of them that he can beat them both at once. Gawyn says he's been sick, there's no need to wager, they can spar when he's feeling better. Galad says he wouldn't want Egwene upset at him for hurting her friend. Mat says if they can both thump him once with their swords, he'll give them each a silver mark, and if he thumps them until they quit, they give him two each. Galad says there's no chance Mat could win, but the blocky Warder, Hammar, who had been coaching them asks if he truly believes that.

Hammar gestures them back into the yard, and asks Mat if he's serious about this. Mat says he's just out of his sickbed, and needs the money. His knees almost buckle when he sees the selection of quarterstaffs though, realizing what he's getting into. He mutters that it's time to toss the dice, and Hammar asks if he speaks the Old Tongue. Mat freezes, then chooses to ignore the comment and walk into the yard.(6)

Mat handles them with apparent ease, at one point knocking Gawyn right out with a knock to the head. Some Aes Sedai rush in to drag him out of the way so Mat and Galad can finish the fight, which Mat does fairly quickly. He stops himself, only barely, from reaching in for a killing blow, so focused is he on the fight.(7)

Silence as everyone realizes what's happened. Hammar asks loudly who the greatest blademaster of all time was, and dozens of students shout together "Jearom".(8) Hammar says yes, and during his lifetime, he was only ever defeated once, by a farmer with a quarterstaff. They should all remember what they just watched.

All the Aes Sedai and Accepted rush to check on Galad, and Mat sinks to his knees. Gawyn comes over and gives him the two wagered marks, complimenting his technique. Hammar gives him two marks, saying he'll collect from Galad later. Where is Mat from? Manetheren slips out before he realizes, but he says it's because he's heard too many stories, it's the Two Rivers now. He should... go find something to eat.

He keeps the quarterstaff, and as soon as he's out of sight of the yard, leans on it for strength. The hunger is gnawing at him, and he's freaking out a little at speaking a dead language without learning it.

=====

(1) Well, isn't someone feeling confident in his ability to cheat. (2) Yes, Mat, they are in fact adults, and know how to keep you from leaving if they think it's unsafe or unwise to do so. And, look, I've made no secret of my dislike for Mat, so it should be no surprise that I'm on their side in this one: he's been extraordinarily ill, and even Lanfear said he needed rest and food. If he can eat a meal for five men and still not be sure he's full, he DOES need supervision, at least for a little bit, because he's not going to take care of himself until the issue is driven home for him as it is later this chapter. (3) To be a little bit crude about it, that doesn't sound like the Else who wanted a spitroast feast on the Caemlyn Road to me. Nor like the airhead the girls described last book. And that comment, "What are you doing up and out?" Like she expected him to be still in bed, like she knew that he was supposed to be there. How would she? He described serving women coming to deliver things to him, would he know those from novices? Could she have been assisting in his care while he was unconscious? But then we come back to, what's with her attitude? Has she just learned some discipline at the Tower? (4) You know what, good for you, Galad. Punch up and make your jokes compliments. Nynaeve IS formidable (admiring) and you should say so. (5) When in his own mind and in control of his senses, Mat's a bit of a ladies' man. (Another thing that's never impressed me.) He's jealous of not being the center of their attention, and it's the last straw on his self-restraint. (6) And he's speaking Old Tongue when he thinks he's speaking modern Common, which is totally fine and not worrisome at all. (7) Mat's big mouth gets him into trouble for the first time in this new chapter of his life. But his ass can in fact cash the cheque his mouth wrote, and in spectacular fashion. (8) Varying pronunciations are all valid, obviously, but one of the TV show supplementary short animations pronounced it the same as "Jerome". Lots of flowery-lettered names that could also sound just like ones we're familiar with here.

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 19 - Awakening

(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.)

(Dice icon)(1) In which it's time to meet someone for real.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat.

Mat opened his eyes slowly and stared up at the white plaster ceiling, wondering where he was and how he had come there. An intricate fringe of gilded leaves bordered the ceiling, and the mattress under his back felt plumped full of feathers. Somewhere rich, then. Somewhere with money. But his head was empty of the where and the how, and a lot more besides.

He remembers bits and pieces, but they feel more like a story or a dream than reality. People from across the ocean, Ogier, Portal Stones, he knows it must be real enough but it doesn't feel like it.(2) He murmurs an Old Tongue phrase, and is bowled over with a memory of a battle in the Trolloc Wars. He trembles, and thinks how Moiraine taught him a few words in the Old Tongue, but the rest might as well be birdsong. Probably isn't even really the Old Tongue. Just gibberish.(3)

Mat sits up, weak as a newborn lamb. He struggles to his feet, and makes his way slowly to a mirror behind a washstand. He looks gaunt and wasted. He sees a food tray, and removes the cloth covering it all. He expects broth, but there's roast beef, potatoes, onions, cabbage, pickles, cheese, bread... one pitcher is filled with milk, and another with spiced wine. There's enough to serve four men, and he's ravenous, but all he takes is a slice of beef and goes to look out the window. It takes him a minute to realize he must be in Tar Valon, and he thinks about how it means the One Power was used on him. Better than dying, and it's done now, no use worrying about it. He goes back to the table, and while he eats he thinks about his choppy memories, and how he can turn his current situation into an advantage.

He has a fancy of gambling some merchants out of their coin, buying passage on a ship, maybe he could go see Caemlyn or Cairhien again, he remembers almost nothing of them. He wonders if the Aes Sedai would let him have the ruby from the dagger, decides it's probably tainted, but daydreams about it anyway. Thinks about going home with it and buying a farm... though that's a less appealing prospect than ever, now. He had once wanted to own a farm and be known as his father's equal as a horse trader, but now that feels like a small thing to want, with the whole wide world waiting.(4)

He decides he has to see Nyn and Egg, maybe they'll have given up the foolishness of becoming Aes Sedai. A day to see the city, a game with dice to pad out his purse, and then he'd go find a city with no Aes Sedai. He'll go home someday, but he wants to see at least something of the world, and remember it this time.

Then he looks down and realizes he's eaten the whole of the meal that had been laid out.(5) As he licks his fingers, he remembers that he blew the Horn of Valere.

Verin had been bringing the Horn to Tar Valon, but he could not remember if she knew he was the one who had blown it. She had never said anything to make him think so. He was sure of that. He thought he was. So what if she does know? What if they all do? Unless Verin did something with it I don’t know about, they have the Horn. They don’t need me. But who could say what Aes Sedai thought they needed? “If they ask,” he said grimly, “I never even touched it. If they know. . . . If they know, I’ll . . . I’ll handle that when it comes. Burn me, they can’t want anything from me. They can’t!” A soft knock on the door brought him swaying to his feet, ready to run. If there had been any place to run to, and if he could have managed more than three steps. But there was not, and he could not. The door opened.

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(1) A new one. What could it mean? We've been told Mat can be particularly lucky at dice games before, and this IS his first perspective… but what could dice mean for his character and his arc in the series? (2) He's been affected since Shadar Logoth, so any memories since then would have come through the haze of the dagger's influence. And, even things from before then perhaps. (3) He seems to be used to putting himself down and tamping his excitement. He's the trickster of the trio, how many people in his life have told him to cool it when he leapt to exciting but baseless conclusions? He has no way to know these Old Tongue quotes are verified. But what could that weird memory have meant? It did mention dice tossing, gambling, and luck per the chapter icon, after all. And he had a flickering of it before he ever touched the dagger, he yelled that war cry at the Trollocs that the others picked up and repeated, before Moiraine's condition required the stop in Shadar Logoth. (4) It's fine to have ambitions that keep you in the family business. They just don't tend to lead you to the outside world of adventure and greatness. How many of us were told to choose more sensible goals when we wanted to dream big? (5) He's been magically ill for, what, about a year at this stage? And then the Healing, which despite the quantity of power used, still probably used some of his own dwindling resources to fuel whatever the separation required. He's got quite a bit of energy usage to make up for.