Ivia Relle Reads

PERSPECTIVE: Mat is on the road with Valan Luca's circus, which is moving very slowly and stopping in every town on the way north to Lugard. Thom has been mooning over a letter, well-worn with his reading.(1) Mat’s trying to court Tuon without much apparent success. Noal remembers a passage from the Prophecies of the Dragon:

Fortune rides like the sun on high with the fox that makes the ravens fly. Luck his soul, the lightning his eye, He snatches the moons from out of the sky.

Later, Mat brings Egeanin to draw Tuon's ire when he goes and gives Tuon a necklace, but she says it doesn't suit her and passes it to Selucia, who orders Egeanin to wear it. She also names Egeanin "Leilwin Shipless"(2) and demands not to see her again. Mat is very confused, but re-strategizes his methods. He starts playing stones with Tuon every evening, and giving Selucia small gifts, ultimately giving her a cluster of silk rosebuds. Tuon finally admits that Mat plays well at stones and requests to take walks in the evenings, so she's not confined to the wagon all day, and he can accompany her.

In conversation with Egeanin, Mat learns that by naming Tuon his wife three times in front of witnesses, he initiated part of a Seanchan marriage ceremony.(3) If she says the same to him within a year and a day, it will complete the marriage. The dice start rolling in his head as they cross a river. Shortly after, Tuon makes a shocking request (not described on the page) and Mat accepts. The dice stop when she smiles at him.

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PERSPECTIVE: Perrin watches the merchants winnow the weevils from the grain for 8 pages while he keeps telling Aes Sedai and Balwer that they can't stay to investigate. He takes a gateway back to camp, where one of Masema's men is torturing some Shaido prisoners.

Perrin steps in and stops the torture by hot coals, but only so he can chop a hand off one of the prisoners with his axe, threatening to leave them handless and footless in a town to beg if they don't tell the others what they want to know. He storms off into the woods, where Elyas reminds him that he promised to give up the waraxe when he started to enjoy using it. Perrin considers how it felt. Though he didn’t enjoy it, he doesn’t want to risk letting himself go further down that path. He leaves the axe stuck in the trunk of an oak tree, saying maybe a gleeman will make a story of it someday.(1) His belt feels too light without it, though. 

Three days later, the carts arrive, having made the journey the long way back after the winnowing was done. Tallanvor found and returned with them after looking for “Maighdin” on his own. He reports that fifteen thousand Seanchan hunt the Shaido as well, and he and Balwer suggest they could be allies, though it’s like asking the Dark One’s own help.

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PERSPECTIVE: Perrin and party enter So Habor. The whole town is afraid and run-down, and there are more-than-rumours of ghosts. They find grain merchants and negotiate, but when Perrin inspects the stores, there are rats everywhere, and every bag he opens is as full of weevils as it is of grain.(1) They renegotiate so the merchants winnow it out before it's transferred over. One of the Aes Sedai in Perrin's party sees a ghost walk through a wall, and wants to stay to investigate, but Perrin needs everyone to free Faile.

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PERSPECTIVE: Rand cuddles with Min and wonders if he can keep her and his other two loves safe. Saidin is clean and pure again, but the taint sickness that had already set in isn't leaving.(1) Logain(2) and Davram Bashere have arrived with support forces, which strangely includes Loial, but neither will speak to Rand with the other present. In a long catch-up, Loial mentions that a Great Stump is being called at his home stedding. He also informs Rand quietly that the Aes Sedai who came with Logain and the other Asha'man are bonded by the men, not to them.

PERSPECTIVE: Cads is very upset at learning the Asha'man have bonded Aes Sedai, and orders Samitsu to keep an eye on the women.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand is also angry at Logain over the bonding of Aes Sedai, saying they can’t afford a war with the White Tower. Logain advises Rand to take back control of the Black Tower, as Taim is taking it out from under him. Rand says that has to wait.(3) Bashere tells Rand about his tent being ransacked, like the men who almost killed Dobraine, and he believes the ones doing it are looking for the three remaining seals on the Dark One's prison, the ones in Rand's possession.(4) Rand sends Logain, Bashere, and Loial to the Seanchan to arrange a truce until the Last Battle.

PERSPECTIVE: Elza Penfell receives a report from her Warder on what's happening in Cairhien. She only has the one because finding a Darkfriend for a Warder is difficult. She orders him to protect Rand so that he can be defeated by the Dark One at the Last Battle.

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PERSPECTIVE: Cadsuane is staying at a manor in Tear, with Rand, Min, and some others. Rand sent Min to ask Cads to come see him, but Cads says she'll go later. Alone again, she thinks about the ornaments in her hair, a set of connected ter'angreal, though she still doesn't know what all of them do. She does know that one can detect male channelers, and vibrates strongly when there's more than one nearby. While passing through the Warder training ground and some gathered Aes Sedai on the way to Rand’s rooms, she notes for the reader that one of Nynaeve's pieces of jewellery is a similarly connected set of some kind.

PERSPECTIVE: Pevara is visited by Tarna Feir, who is now Keeper of Chronicles for Elaida, because she considers Pevara unconventional by Red Ajah standards. Tarna tells of finding a recruiting party of Asha'man on her return to the White Tower from visiting Salidar.(1) After much thought, she thinks the Asha'man must be taken as Warders by the Red Ajah so they can be controlled. Pevara shows Tarna a message she received from Toveine Gazal in Cairhien, which changes everything.(2)

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PERSPECTIVE: Alviarin returns secretly to the White Tower in a hidden passage. She Traveled back from Tremalking,(1) and has to channel the distinctive mud off her clothes so nobody learns she can Travel. She grumbles about her subjugation to Mesaana and her situation with Elaida. On her way out of her arrival spot, she sees a rat, and thinks how the wards are failing, but it’s nothing Mesaana did.

Outside the passage she gated into, she finds two Aes Sedai. Zemaille makes a comment that leads Alviarin to go immediately to Elaida's chambers. There, she accidentally interrupts a meeting with some of the Sitters, and Elaida threatens private penance and tells her to sit quietly in a corner. Alvi wonders what's given Elaida such nerve. The Sitters have gathered to decide whether to negotiate with the Rebel Tower. They know that the Rebels have rediscovered Traveling, and negotiations make sense. Elaida says her edicts still stand: the Blue Ajah no longer exists in the White Tower, and anyone serving under Egg must serve penance before readmittance to ANY Ajah.(2)

After the Sitters leave, Elaida smacks Alvi and shields her, and says her threats of exposing the failure of capturing Rand and sieging the Black Tower are useless now, Coiren and Toveine can take the blame. Elaida has removed Alvi as Keeper of the Chronicles, and requires her to receive penance with the Mistress of Novices, ten times for every one she made Elaida endure.(3)

Alvi assumes Elaida knows she's a Darkfriend, and rushes to her apartment. She calls for Mesaana and explains the situation, but Mesaana dismisses the threat. She's about to punish Alvi when a Myrddraal appears (Shaidar Haran). He punishes Mesaana for not coming when she was called, and marks Alvi as his, and offers his personal protection against Mesaana. He tells Alvi to bring him anyone who threatens the Black Ajah, and to leave the room immediately.

Alvi flees, and thinks. She doesn't have proof of anyone threatening the Black Ajah, but she knows Talene is Black, and she gave a strange look at Yukiri and Doesine in the meeting with Elaida. Alvi decides to start there.

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I could have commented sooner, but, Elayne's pregnancy getting this bad, this early, is bad enough. Knowing that some of this will keep going until the end of the series, that we're just weeks-to-months away in-world? Ugghhh.

The teen squad of supporters is sus as heck, but no, they're entirely innocuous. Weirdly, another thread of "younger, more progressive thinkers" that goes absolutely nowhere by the end of the series.

I don't think that holding back the cuendillar-the-chains idea so long was the right call, narratively. Sure, it adds a bit of a mystery to this middle stretch of the book, but I'd rather that things actually happened to draw me forward.

Well, Egg sort of gets her demand: Elaida does get taken away from the tower. [grimacing emoji]

So many little evil bubbles and nudges. I'm still not entirely sure how much of the grain spoilage in the rebel camp is Dark One direct evil, and how much is Black Ajah induced evil, because it's so similar to what happens elsewhere. But, Alviarin's thought in chapter 21 does lean me toward more direct evil.

Truly, too many characters, particularly women, lose their personalities as soon as they're associated with their final roles. Alanna loses all her agency in the story once she bonds Rand and all the other Aes Sedai just treat her as a compass to find him. Nynaeve is hardly even in the books anymore since her marriage, the only other big moment she gets is "Does he ride alone?" Which yes, gives me goosebumps to type out, but STILL! That's only one moment in the last seven books and it's STILL only her stubbornly refusing to let him die alone, it's still part of her marriage, part of her loss of individuality separate from him. And Egwene is now almost as hardline on traditional Aes Sedai values as Cadsuane, the only thing she's really a reformist on is admittance to the Tower to learn both by people considered too old by the old standards and by Wise Ones, Windfinders, and whatever other groups might exist.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene wraps up the meeting and goes back to her tent and to sleep to meet Elayne in TAR, which takes 8 pages. Aviendha shows up instead and tells Egg about the pregnancy, but doesn't say that Rand was responsible for the channeling they felt, though the subject comes up.(1)

After they part, Egg has some True Dreams. One is of Mat bowling with men for pins, setting new ones each time as the old ones lie dead, and Egg knows that Mat is possibly going to kill thousands of them with the help of an Illuminator.(2) One is of herself climbing a narrow path on a cliff below a white spire, and a woman with a Seanchan accent coming to help her, which upsets Egg, but she knows this means the Seanchan will attack the White Tower and shake it to its core, and one will save her.(3)

After that dream, Halima wakes her by coming into the tent to get ready for sleep, and she sounds excited, but Egg doesn't let her know that she's awake. In the morning, news arrives as Nisao tells Egg that Anaiya and her Warder are dead, and the residue in the area indicates saidin was involved. Egg charges Nisao to, in full secrecy, find out whodunnit.(4)

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PERSPECTIVE: Egwene goes to the Hall to hear the report, and after ten pages describing her feelings and her every action between receiving the news and getting to the meeting place, Sheriam comes running up to her, apologizing for being late. In the meeting, nine further pages of dithering later, Nisain says they couldn't identify the weave, but it may have been made by a man because saidar and saidin were both channeled. Also, there's a three mile hole where Shadar Logoth was.

Romanda asks if this changes their plans. She assumes Forsaken did the channeling, and have the ability to bring this power against the Tower. Moria, one of the Blue Sitters, suggests they should reach out to the Black Tower, because thirteen women is the limit for a single link, but one man in the circle means they can link in another thirteen women, making a substantially stronger circle. This causes utter chaos, until Egg uses a megaphone weave to remind the Hall that a proposal has been made, and must be voted on.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene returns to her study-tent and finds Siuan and Halima (Aran'gar) waiting for her. Halima has been waiting to encourage Egg again to confide her worries. Egg dismisses Halima, then promptly gets a headache of the kind that usually has her calling for Halima's massage services. Halima looks furious for a split second when Egwene repeats the dismissal.(1) Siuan tries to persuade Egg not to rely on Halima so much, and gets to business. There's nothing we haven't already learned, though Egwene assumes Rand used Compulsion to make the Aes Sedai swear to him.(2)

As the chapter closes, the sisters sent to investigate the massive channeling arrive back, ready to report on their findings.

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PERSPECTIVE: Egwene watches Delana leave after Egg announced her conditions. Delana seemed satisfied that whatever she wanted was accomplished in the conversation. Egg cautions those remaining to make sure no secrets escape to the Tower during negotiations, especially that they've rediscovered Traveling. She plans to use the negotiations as a pretense while she looks for other ways to remove Elaida.

A lot of the food is starting to spoil and be contaminated, despite weaves that should be holding it in stasis.(1) The novices in camp have been organized into "families", reducing the runaways both through closer monitoring and having friends to lean on.

Before going back to her tent, Egg stops at a tent where anyone strong enough working with Earth is making cuendillar, another rediscovered weave. Only ten, including Egg, are strong enough to do it, but it's so valuable that selling it is providing funds for the Rebel Tower.(2) Nicola is there, but has to leave shortly. She's been Foretelling a bunch of stuff, but nobody can make heads or tails of any of it. Egg has a plan for those who become fast enough with the cuendillar weave, but only Leane has had enough practice to get close, so it has to wait a while yet.(3)

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PERSPECTIVE: Egwene watches ships going into Tar Valon's harbor, helpless to stop them without using the One Power as a weapon, which she can't do without breaking the Oaths. Gareth Bryne wants to try using gateways to drop people in the city, but Egg doesn’t want that kind of conflict. 

Egg can feel herself changing, and reminds herself of the Two Rivers by comparing the farms she rides past. She wishes she could bond Gawyn as her Warder, but he must be either inside Tar Valon, or on his way to Caemlyn, and either denies him to her.(1)

The Sitters are still indecisive on how to proceed. Some want to negotiate to reunite the Tower, and despite advice from all who Egg must listen to, she sets such negotiations in motion. Her conditions are simply that Elaida must resign as Amyrlin Seat and go into exile.(2)

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PERSPECTIVE: Elenia Sarand has pledged her house's support to Arymilla, who holds her captive. Despite this, she hopes to be freed by her husband and become queen of Andor herself. She bickers and bargains with her fellow captives toward this end.(1)

PERSPECTIVE: Daved Hanlon/Doilin Mellar meets with Shiaine again. On the way, he thinks how he hates the Sea Folk for looking particularly exotically sexy then pulling a knife when he gets handsy, and he kills someone who was following him. Shiaine commands him to free the sul'dam and damane in the palace, and complains that the food warehouses are guarded too well for her arsonists. She asks if Daved wants to see Caemlyn looted.

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PERSPECTIVE: Elayne does some ruling with the First Maid and the First Clerk. The First Maid has discovered another spy, the Second Librarian seems to send word to the Brown Ajah.(1) The First Clerk reports a number of arsons, but no significant damage. Avi made a ward against eavesdropping, and when they leave, says someone tried to hear through it, but there's no telling who.

After a short update on the Borderlander army and the houses who haven’t declared for any candidate, the Wise One Monaelle and the Kinswoman Sumeko come to check on El's pregnancy. Monaelle is teaching Sumeko (and Avi) a weave known to Wise Ones for this purpose, and through it can tell that El is having twins.(2) She tells El from experience that channeling won't affect the children, but she may find it harder to hold the weaves as the pregnancy goes on.(3) As Sumeko tries the weave, the beacon of channeling stops.(4) As Avi is about to try it, word arrives that Merilille and one of the two Windfinder apprentices have gone missing.(5) El orders a search but doesn't expect to find them.

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