Look dear reader, if you don't know what you're getting into this chapter, you really shouldn't keep reading. You shouldn't do it anyway unless you like spoilers for the whole series, but this chapter is better to avoid anyway than most. It's a lot. Don't keep going.
Behold the a'dam icon! Simple, geometrically pleasing, and utterly filled with menace. It's perfect and it's evil.
When she did notice them she stared uncertainly; they were as odd a group as she had ever seen, and she had heard too many rumors of the war on Toman Head.
One of the problems of being trusting of authority figures is that when they're leading you astray you become unable to properly respond to dangerous situations. Liandrin's actions here are probably why Egwene ends up so power hungry later on; she can't let herself be subordinate to someone who might abuse her again.
Oddest of all was the last woman, reclining on a palanquin borne by eight muscular, bare-chested men in baggy black trousers. The sides of her scalp were shaved so that only a wide crest of black hair remained to fall down her back. A long, cream-colored robe worked in flowers and birds on blue ovals was carefully arranged to show her skirts of pleated white, and her fingernails were a good inch long, the first two on each hand lacquered blue.
Meet Suroth. She's fucking evil and has a terrible fashion sense.
“What are you talking about?” Nynaeve demanded. “What is she talking about, Liandrin?”
Liandrin laid a hand on Nynaeve’s shoulder and one on Egwene’s.
1. Note that Nynaeve again omits the title "Sedai".
2. Note that Liandrin doesn't even acknowledge these girls as people any more than the Seanchan do.
“Liandrin Sedai,” she said urgently, “who are these people? Are they here to help Rand and the others, too?”
Poor, sweet Egwene. It's rather sad that the EF5 member most eager to see the world is the one who is by far the most naive.
Balling her fist tightly, Egwene hit the woman as hard as she could, right in her eye—and staggered and fell to her knees herself, head ringing. It felt as if a large man had struck her in the face.
The forced linking aspect of the a'dam is already an incredible achievement by Deain Sedai, but really that's at least something the One Power is meant to connect. Carrying pain like that means that Deain came very close to creating the Warder Bond too (in some ways more so), something no one in Seanchan would know (the Hawkwing descendants wouldn't have carried that knowledge over) so she was possibly the greatest Aes Sedai in the world at the time. What a waste.
“I will not punish you further this time, since I should have been on guard with a newly caught damane. Know this. You are a damane, a Leashed One, and I am a sul’dam, a Holder of the Leash. When damane and sul’dam are joined, whatever hurt the sul’dam feels, the damane feels twice over. Even to death.
It's nice that the Seanchan Empire does instill this sense of responsibility in superiors regarding their inferiors, but also JESUS FUCKING AL'THOR EVEN TO DEATH???? Fuck them Seanchan.
“The very first thing you must learn,” Renna said, “is to do exactly as you are told, and without delay.”
You'll note I didn't give Seanchan points for their opinions of how superiors should take responsibility when they fuck up and that's because of shit like this.
That, she realized, was what she had detected in the woman’s voice—a certain good will for a dog in training, not quite the friendliness one might have toward another human being.
This is one of the many reasons there's no such thing as a good slave owner, by the way. Especially not when it comes to chattel slavery.
She wanted to go to Min, but the amount of leash Renna had let out would not reach that far. She called softly, “Min, are you all right?”
The haters never mention how Egwene is more worried about Min than herself in this situation, even though Egwene's situation is way, way, way worse.
“I brought you three,” Liandrin said calmly. “If you cannot manage to hold them, perhaps our master should find another among you to serve him. You take fright at trifles. If patrols come, kill them.”
Oh yeah, and here's another problem with the sheer vertical cliff that is the Seanchan hierarchy: in any sane society, the lessers would be able to report Suroth as a Darkfriend and Aes Sedai sympathizer and something would happen, but they don't and I don't think it's because they don't care.
“Elayne is of no importance, but both the woman and this girl here must be taken with you on your ships when you sail.”
How utterly wrong the Dark is. They clearly weren't expecting anyone other than the DR to be relevant last book and were frustrated with the three for one trick, and now they've added the girls to the roster but not all of them. They're utterly oblivious to how much of a team effort things are.
Should you survive the encounter, the leash and collar will teach you a new life, and I do not believe our master will trouble to deliver one foolish enough to let herself be taken.
Suroth's got that much right, but of course is much too short-sighted and self-interested to think things through.
She had to save Min. If it means groveling. . . . She parted her lips and hoped her gritted teeth would pass for a smile. “Yes, High Lady.”
“And if I spare her, if I allow her to visit you occasionally, you will work hard and learn as you are taught?”
“I will, High Lady.” She would have promised much more to keep that sword from splitting Min’s skull. I’ll even keep it, she thought sourly, as long as I have to.
This exchange (and everything a'dam related, obviously) is another thing that clearly leads from Egwene being a dedicated teacher's pet, mostly follow the rules type to the ambitious semi-fiend we'll know later on. She's glad to help Min but she's subconsciously being taught that authority only exists to be subverted to your own ends.
“You were honored,” Renna said after a time, “having the High Lady speak to you. Another time, I would let you wear a ribbon to mark the honor. But since you brought her attention on yourself. . . .”
And this is why Suroth can proudly conspire as a Darkfriend in front of Renna even though Renna isn't a Darkfriend, why she can let an Aes Sedai run free around a sul'dam. This absurd standard that applies to Egwene applies to Renna too and everyone else. Never draw the attention of your betters, even if it's for their own good.
Min raised a fist, then let it fall. “I won’t interfere. Only, please, stop it. Egwene, I’m sorry.”
The unseen blows went on for a few moments more, as if to show Min her intervention had done nothing, then ceased, but Egwene could not stop shuddering.
This is a reason why it's so upsetting to see Min shanghaied by the Seanchan in the Last Battle, because she knows them at their worst. She's gonna have to do a lot of truth speaking to Tuon, even when Tuon fucking hates it, if she's going to make much difference overseas.
“Liandrin”—Egwene would not give her the honorific, not ever again—“and the High Lady spoke of a master they both serve.” The thought came into her head of a man with almost healed burns marring his face, and eyes and mouth that sometimes turned to fire, but even if he was only a figure in her dreams that seemed too horrible to contemplate.
No Egwene, you've basically got it exactly correct.
She knew it was silly to avoid naming Nynaeve—she did not think any of these people would forget her just because her name was not mentioned, especially the blue-eyed sul’dam stroking her empty leash—but it was the only way she could think of fighting back at the moment.
Rand and Egwene have very parallel arcs, and this seems to be her inverted equivalent of an earlier moment of his: he shouted the Aiel oath of defiance involuntarily against nothing in particular, drawn into power. She's being pulled against her will too, but her defiance is both very real and yet tragically more inconsequential than the oath he swore.
One such, a woman named Deain, who thought she could do better serving the Emperor—he was not Emperor then, of course—since he had no Aes Sedai in his armies, came to him with a device she had made, the first a’dam, fastened to the neck of one of her sisters. Though that woman did not want to serve Luthair, the a’dam required her to serve. Deain made more a’dam, the first sul’dam were found, and women captured who called themselves Aes Sedai discovered that they were in fact only marath’damane, Those Who Must Be Leashed. It is said that when she herself was leashed, Deain’s screams shook the Towers of Midnight, but of course she, too, was a marath’damane, and marath’damane cannot be allowed to run free.
Firstly: the first sul'dam were found after the first a'dam was made and the first collar attached. This very infodump all but gives away the twist! Deain herself must have been wearing the bracelet then.
Secondly: How much like the Shadow the Empire is, that it was strengthened so hideously by a woman who thought that she might benefit herself from service, and that her only reward was suffering from her actions.
“From time to time the Empress plays with lords by linking them to a damane. It makes the lords sweat and entertains the Court of the Nine Moons. The lord never knows until it is done whether he will live or die, and neither does the damane.”
These dudes are mostly the male equivalent of sul'dam and so their deaths (let alone the deaths of the damane, who don't deserve anything that happens to them) aren't even productive for removing male channelers who have the spark from threatening the populace. It's just murder for fun.
Egwene was shocked to discover an urge to do as Renna commanded. She had not channeled, or even touched saidar, in two days; the desire to fill herself with the One Power made her shiver.
Here's the closest thing to a downside that power addiction has for Egwene.
Frantically she reached for saidar, meaning to hurt Renna enough to make her stop, just the kind of hurt she herself had been given. The sul’dam shook her head wryly; Egwene howled as her own skin was suddenly scalded. Not until she fled from saidar completely did the burn begin to fade, and the unseen blows never ceased or slowed.
If I have to read such horrible things, you do too.
“It is good that you have spirit,” Renna said calmly. “The best damane are those who have spirit to be shaped and molded.”
The best damane are those who have to be beaten a hundred times as much as any other just to be good? This empire really does run on BDSM.
Her contact with saidar was gone, and she could not bring it back. In that first fury of knowing that Liandrin had betrayed them, saidar had been there almost before she knew it, the One Power flooding her. It had seemed she could do anything.
The circumstances they're in probably made Nynaeve's power level grow two sizes just from the sheer terror. Plus all the training at the Tower probably kicked in a bit too.
I don’t think they got away, Nynaeve. I should have done something. Min cut the hand that was holding me, and Egwene. . . . I just ran, Nynaeve. I realized I was free, and I ran. Mother had better marry Gareth Bryne and have another daughter as soon as she can. I am not fit to take the throne.
Survivor's guilt is a terrible thing, and Jordan likely heard or even experienced stories of people abandoning each other in the chaos of Vietnam. He's also quite right (through Nynaeve's words) that Elayne is a silly goose for hating herself for breaking under the pressure.
Why are they interested in Egwene and me? Why us in particular? Why did Liandrin do this? Why?
I'm a bit surprised Nynaeve doesn't remember that Liandrin knows they're connected to Rand, but I suppose her source of knowledge about Rand's relative specialness being Moiraine means she's inclined to just toss it aside and ignore it.
I have no intention of buying us dresses, and they won’t be new in any case. My gray silk dress will do us some good, with all those pearls and that gold thread. If I can’t find a woman who will trade us each two or three sturdy changes for that, I will give you this ring, and I will be the novice.
Really the difficulty might be finding a woman in these parts who feels like she can keep a silk dress with pearls and gold in any state of repair. Eventually finery gets so rich that poverty would ruin it on contact. But Nynaeve keeps her accepted ring so I guess things work out!
To speak no word that is not true. That was one, but everyone knew that the truth an Aes Sedai said might not be the truth you thought you heard.
Like I said last chapter, Nynaeve really should have been a lot more suspicious. I suppose she cares of Rand too much to stand by while he's under any kind of threat, even if it's a very tenuous one.
Speaking of, next time: Rand vs. Ba'alzamon again!
Rereading The Shadow Rising and did anyone else remember that Alwhin was sul'dam cause I sure didn't. The first sul'dam to ever be raised so'jhin and Voice of the Blood at that
Alwhin (Suroth’s Voice) is great. She sounds like a chipper Disney presenter or a guest speaker in elementary school trying to convince you to all be Good Boys and Girls, and Get Along Now. Behave or you’ll all be in Time Out or Worse.
The fact that her accent mimics those people from my childhood is probably make it extra effective and creepy. Wouldn’t it all be lovely if we can all just get along? It’ll be easy, just do as I and the authority figure behind me say.
Also her actress is married to Uno’s actor, which makes their one and only shared scene very funny.
