So Iāve been combing back through the Witchlands series by @stdennard since reading Witchshadow because I needed refreshers on some things and I may have discovered something?? I could very well be reading too much into things but when **spoilers** the Rook King said at the end of Witchshadow that he didnāt betray the other Five, at first I thought that was just his perception of events. Like how the Sightwitches say that all memory records are true and false depending on whoās POV they are from because life is perception. However, one interpretation of Sariaās response to what he said could be that she agreed that he didnāt betray them, which would then imply that there was a different traitor. So that got me thinking, who else of the Six would have betrayed them? When I was going back through Bloodwitch, I came across a moment with Merik and Kullen where Kullen starts muttering to himself and says āsix turned on six and made themselves kings, five turned on one and stole everything.ā I thought that was odd since thatās not how the Lament goes, but then in Witchshadow we see that this was an alternative to the first prophecy Lisbet gave, and since we know that peopleās truths are different depending on how they perceive things, wouldnāt it make sense that the traitor might view the other five as traitors if they believed they were doing the right thing? And wasnāt it Bastien that was the most eager to put an end to the Exalted Ones reign? And isnāt Bastien the one who now seeks the blade and the glass and admitted to only working with the general and the other Paladins out of necessity? Could it be possible that he was so consumed by a desire for vengeance against the Exalted Ones that he ended up betraying the others, maybe even unintentionally? And the Rook King was the one who went through and cleaned up the mess he made, especially since he seems so concerned with ensuring that the Lament comes to pass? It would explain why the Rook King was deemed as the traitor and why Bastien acts the way he does in the present day. It would also explain the illustration in Sightwitch that shows a depiction of the 12 Paladins, with one of the figures circled and the words āone turned on fiveā¦Captain?ā written beneath them (since Captain is what Ryber called Kullen throughout the book). I may very well be reading too much into things, but idk, I like the theoryā¦
New discoveries: in Witchshadow, Nadje is talking about the Lament and mentions the āfive turned on oneā version of the prophecy, which is one of the only other times Iāve found so far where someone references that version. Weird that the only other person to do so aside from Bastien was an Exalted One.
Also, I reread one of the first memories Stix has of Baileās death in Witchshadow where the Rook King is about to kill them and Bastien is apologizing to Baile, I assume for the situation theyāre in (one he may have gotten them into). The Rook King asks Bastien if his fury is finally quenched and Bastien swears to find him in the next life before the Rook King kills him. I think itās interesting that the Rook King chose not to kill them permanently using the blade since we know for a fact Erydisi gave them to him, and itās also interesting that he DID kill at least some of the Exalted Ones with it if Nadje and the Exalted One that possessed Evrane are any indication. So basically the Rook King reset the board with the Six and allowed their cycle of reincarnation to continue and did away with the Exalted Ones until the time was right and he was ready to bring them back.
