#laras

This chapter has the Flame of Tar Valon icon because we're focused on our Accepted girls while Nynaeve has a secret meeting with the Amyrlin.

It was a measure of her upset that she used such language, and another that she did not even notice she had done it.

Pretty interesting for the POV to note their unawareness of something, but that's Nynaeve for you.

She was more than merely stout, with layers of chins, and a spotless white apron that could have made three novice dresses. She carried her own long-handled wooden spoon like a scepter. It was not for stirring, that spoon. It was for directing those under her, and smacking those who were not building character quickly enough to suit her.

Laras isn't an innkeeper, but the fatness = goodness equation still applies to her, even if she is a bit of a tyrant.

But to be treated as a lazy, none-too-bright child by this Laras, to be forced to curtsy and scurry for this woman she could have put in her place with a few well-chosen words back home—that made her grind her teeth almost as much as did the thought of Moiraine.

Part of the reason Nynaeve ends up such a good Aes Sedai is that she gets to sidestep this part of the initiation process by skipping being a Novice and only spending a few days in the Tower being punished.

She stared at the women slicing oatcake. She glared at the women peeling vegetables. She sneered into the soup kettles, then at the women tending them; the women became engrossed in studying the surface of the soup. Her frown set the girls carrying plates and bowls out to the dining hall to a run. Her glower put the novices darting like mice sighting a cat.

Not one of Siuan's best spent moments, if you ask me. I get why she's playing this character, but she's rather too far into it. Though I guess in her mind making Laras's title official at the end of the chapter balances the books, and since Laras will be saving her life I guess she's right.

“If they are this easily cowed,” she muttered softly, “perhaps they really have been getting away with too much for too long.”

An amusing running theme we'll see in our Aes Sedai and for that matter the Darkfriends going forward, and some might argue something to play out in real life as well.

Laras came waddling faster than Nynaeve had ever seen the woman move before, darting at Elayne and Egwene to seize an ear of each, all the while repeating, “Yes, Mother. Immediately, Mother. As you command, Mother.” She hurried the two young women out of the kitchen as if eager to escape the Amyrlin’s stare.

She is eager, Nynaeve. The Amyrlin probably almost never comes into the kitchens except during important feastdays or diplomatic events and she's probably usually in a better mood.

“I planned to have you brought to my study after the midday meal. To scold you for not choosing your studies, so I implied to Leane. But there is news that could not wait. Sheriam found another Gray Man. A woman. Dead as last week’s fish, and not a mark on her. She was laid out as if resting, right in the middle of Sheriam’s bed. Not very pleasant for Sheriam.”

This Dead Man is meant to exonerate Sheriam so that she seems like a target of the Dark instead of one of its allies, but unfortunately no one has the sense to ask the good question, "Why would she be targeted by the Dark?" or even "Why this roundabout use of a threat instead of using a Gray Man for its intended purpose?" though Nynaeve at least has the sense to point out that Sheriam is aware of the investigation, not that Siuan listens. And Nynaeve being suspicious of Sheriam after being so clearly unreliable in her internal narration helps trick the reader too.

She could not make herself entirely trust the woman wearing the seven-striped stole—or any woman who could wear the shawl, for that matter—and it seemed best to keep some things in reserve.

*headdesks over everyone's continued refusal to talk to one another*

As for Else Grinwell. . . . I remember the girl. She could have learned, had she applied herself, but all she wanted was to smile at the men at the Warders’ practice yard. Else Grinwell was put on a trading vessel and sent back to her mother ten days ago.

And thus the characters become aware of the deception that we've known has been going on for some time. Unfortunately they never do solve this mystery, but at least it's a complete non-issue compared to everything else.

“And what do you mean to do about this . . . so-obvious trap?” the Amyrlin said softly, still staring over the kitchen, away from Nynaeve. “Do you mean to fall into this one, too?”

And the next one and the next one and the next, creeping in the pretty noose from trap to trap.

“I will put gold in your room for the journey. And I will let it be whispered about that I have sent you out to a farm to hoe cabbages. Will Elayne be going with you?”

Since I've had some accuse me of being too on the gals' side, let's note that the timeline of this chapter (midday) and that Mat's escape is probably several hours from now means that the girls make absolutely no effort to help fund him on his mission for them even when they have the resources to do so. Not being able to find time to visit him immediately in light of all that's happened is one thing, not taking the time do so as everything starts into motion is part of the callous disregard for him that will take Birgitte to fix.

Putting Morgase back on the proper path whether she wants to go or not will be hard enough without her thinking I’ve sent her daughter to sea in a leaky skiff. This way I can say straight out that it was none of my doing.

Note how the Oaths work on perception of truth instead of absolute truth; Siuan is absolutely an accomplice in the scheme to throw a princess at the Darkfriends but she doesn't see herself as complicit so she can say she isn't.

No more than a dozen women in the Tower know what Callandor is, and perhaps as many outside. The High Lords of Tear know, but they never speak of it except when a Lord of the Land is told on being raised. The Sword That Cannot Be Touched is a sa’angreal, girl. Only two more powerful were ever made, and thank the Light, neither of those was ever used. With Callandor in your hands, child, you could level a city at one blow.

I doubt any of the people Siuan mentions knows Callandor's true purpose, and note as well how the canon will drift on the subject. Right now, Callandor is the thirdmost powerful sa'angreal ever made (and apparently a threat in the hands of the Black Ajah even though it's clearly for a dude) and the two more powerful, never used amplifiers that exceed it are the individual Choedan Kal statues. At some point later, possibly purely a point of Brandon's confusion but maybe not I genuinely don't remember, it will become the thirdmost powerful male sa'angreal and presumably fourthmost overall, with Sakarnen taking the slot. That said, even Siuan isn't an infalliable source, so we can assume her ignorance of Sakarnen is because it ended up in Shara which is well outside of her wheelhouse.

“Oh, they do hate it, child. Hate it, and fear it. When they find a Tairen girl who can channel, they bundle her onto a ship for Tar Valon before the day is done, with hardly time to speak goodbyes to her family.”

It's lucky for Siuan that they don't just get killed.

Their fortress that has broken a hundred armies will fall as one of the signs the Dragon is Reborn. Not even the only sign; just one. How that must rankle their proud hearts. Their downfall will not even be the one great sign of the world’s change.

Funnily enough for Siuan and Tairien pride, the fall of the Stone does end up being the great sign that convinces the most people in the west.

You are a fine judge of character, child. You must have done well as the Wisdom of your village. It was Laras who went to Sheriam and demanded to know how long you three are to be kept to the dirtiest and hardest work, without a turn at lighter. She said she would not be a party to breaking any woman’s health or spirit, no matter what I said.

Nynaeve is in some ways even haughtier than the actual princess, though since she's spent most of her life as the Wisdom or her heir apparent, she has the same archetypal background, so it makes sense.

Laras’ frown deepened, and she began tapping her spoon on her thigh, apparently forgetting that for once it had been used for its intended purpose.

I imagine Laras finds Nynaeve's smile so unpleasant because it's so forced, you know? It must feel almost like mockery.

“We leave after the washing up is done,” she told them, “just as quickly as we can fetch our belongings from our rooms.”

So again: they absolutely have time to say goodbye to Mat and toss him a bit of coin, but don't even think about it because he's already doing it for him so why think about him again? Probably the reason Nynaeve will spend four or five books not bothering to tell Rand that Mat is missing, presumed dead, in Ebou Dar is that she told him to find a servant to fetch her some tea right before that wall collapsed and immediately put him out of her mind except for the occasional certainty that she's much thirstier than she should be.