“Felurian,” Tempi asked. “Death to men. She is--” He paused. “She is sentin?” He lifted his hands in front of himself and made a sort of gripping gesture. He eyed us expectantly. Then, seeing we didn’t understand, he touched his sword where it lay at his side.
I understood. “No,” I said. “She’s not one of the Adem.”
Tempi shook his head and pointed at Marten’s bow.
I shook my head. “No. She’s not a fighter at all.”
- Wise Man’s Fear, Chapter 81: The Jealous Moon, pg 603
I believe Kvothe is wrong. He did not understand what Tempi was asking.
Breaking it down:
Sentin. Presumably an Ademic word (though probably derived from another language). Can be represented by:
- Hands in front of you in a gripping gesture
- Sword
- Bow
Kvothe believes this means Ademic mercenary. But we find out later that: “The Adem word for one who takes the red is Cethan. And it is a very proud thing” (WMF Chap 114, pg 834).
Sentin and Cethan are obviously quite different.
So to understand we go back to the pantomimes Tempi uses to try to explain himself.
Hands in front in a gripping gesture.
We are meant to imagine this as gripping a sword with both hands. We don’t see any two-handed swords in Ademre while Kvothe is there. They may exist, but for Tempi, who uses a one-handed sword (and they have all seen him use it), if he was trying to get the group to understand he meant “sword-wielder,” he would have used one hand, in the way he normally uses his sword.
The sword and bow are pretty explicit. Whatever Tempi’s talking about, it uses a sword and a bow.
So what if the gesture is not this:
Two-handed gripping gesture in front of the body. The description isn’t any more specific.
So what do we know of that rides horses, wields sword and bow, and could fit the description “Death to men”?
The warrior Fae who guard the Cthaeh. (lol that rhymes)
Tempi is asking if Felurian is one of the Sithe. If the tale Dedan is telling is about the Sithe.
But wait, it never says the Sithe ride? Or include women?
Yes, well. I am a nerd. And I have enough context clues to indicate that the above holds true for the Sithe.