Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 39: Weaving of the Web
Something something spoilers.
Something something the entirety of The Wheel of Time, not just book one.
Something something block tags.
Something something read the books.
Something something chapt--
No wait this part I want to put effort into. This chapter's icon is the Lion of Andor once again, because we're still in Caemlyn and Rand is about to be diving skull-first into the lion's den.
Mat glowered from where he lay curled up in a ball on his bed. “Take that Trolloc you’re so friendly with.”
STFU book 1 Mat. Rand, if he needs a bath so damn bad, throw a full bucket at him for comments like this. Throw several buckets at him, then blind him with more lightning. All must love Loial or else.
Herbalists and hedge-doctors were lying low in Caemlyn right now; there was talk against anyone who did any kind of healing, or fortunetelling. Every night the Dragon’s Fang was scrawled on doors with a free hand, sometimes even in the daylight, and people might forget who had cured their fevers and poulticed their toothaches when the cry of Darkfriend went up.
It's impressive that Mat is literally being corrupted by a source of evil that is some equal yet opposite to the source of all other evil and yet he still isn't the most paranoid asshole in the city. The Whitecloaks are stirring this up of course, proof that they as a faction completely suck, but between the winter and the False Dragon it didn't take much.
“Don’t know his name. Just heard about him. I hear most things in Caemlyn, eventually. Beggar.” The innkeeper grunted.
Oh right, Fain's in town. Still, Mat's not even the SECOND-most paranoid asshole in town. Really, Caemlyn is all kinds of fucked: the dagger and Fain within, "strange shapes" outside the city, the Whitecloaks flowing in and out... This city takes beating after beating in these books. There's a noose tightening around Rand and he's barely paying it any attention.
“Watch your back today, man.” Lamgwin’s voice sounded like gravel in a pan. “When the trouble starts, you’ll be a handy one to have here, not somewhere with a knife in your back.”
I suspect that Rand had to have the accident he's about to have to keep his dumb ass from ta'verening the riot into some sort of coup. All the crazy accidents he causes most of the time would really be the last straw.
Today, Caemlyn celebrated a victory of the Light over the Shadow. Today the false Dragon was being brought into the city, to be displayed before the Queen before he was taken north to Tar Valon.
I feel like there's something here, with this false Dragon and soon-to-be former Queen (and soon-to-be false Amyrlin) being the thing that everyone has their eyes on while the real Dragon meets with the future Queen and the real Amyrlin (either Siuan or Egwene works) is miles away. Elaida's Foretelling in particular seems like an echo of the one Siuan received long ago. I just can't quite string all the parallels together.
No one would have dared do such a thing two days earlier. More, Rand realized, the men who had done the bumping wore white cockades on their hats. It was widely believed the Whitecloaks supported those who opposed the Queen and her Aes Sedai advisor, but that made no difference. Men were doing things of which they had never before thought. Jostling a Whitecloak, today. Tomorrow, perhaps pulling down a Queen?
It's never said so, but I feel very much that this is some of Rand's ta'veren, the way that these dudes who should feel like they're on the same side are all sniping at each other.
Where streets in the New City mostly ran every which way in a crazy-quilt, here they followed the curves of the hills as if they were a natural part of the earth. Sweeping rises and dips presented new and surprising vistas at every turn. Parks seen from different angles, even from above, where their walks and monuments made patterns pleasing to the eye though barely touched with green. Towers suddenly revealed, tile-covered walls glittering in the sunlight with a hundred changing colors. Sudden rises where the gaze was thrown out across the entire city to the rolling plains and forests beyond.
Frankly something about this construction sounds almost impossible. Too many angles, too many heights. It feels like navigating a city designed by M. C. Escher. Wish I could live in Caemlyn!
The ragged man paused on the far edge of the street. His cowl, torn and stiff with dirt, swung back and forth as if searching for something, or listening. Abruptly he gave a wordless cry and flung out a dirty claw of a hand, pointing straight at Rand. Immediately he began to scuttle across the street like a bug.
One of the reasons I never much liked Jordan's statements that Fain was unique and had "side-stepped the Pattern" is moments like these, where his presence in Rand's life seems like a necessary ingredient to victory. If Fain hadn't scared Rand so much here, he wouldn't have ended up at the palace. Sure, some other coincidence might have happened (and he hasn't been Winded yet, so you could argue that he's still mostly on track here), but every major Fain moment in the series seems as intricately necessary as other major events that don't involve him instead of anything feeling off-script. I'll talk about this more as we go forward.
The beggar would not give up; he was sure of it, though he could not say why. That ragged shape would be working its way through the crowds at that very minute, searching, and if Rand returned to see Logain he ran the risk of a meeting.
I think Rand's certainty here is him twigging off of the alterations Fain's had that make him more Shadowspawn that the average Darkfriend.
The face of the wall had been left much in the natural state of the stone, the huge blocks fitted together so well that the joins were nearly invisible, the roughness making it seem almost a natural cliff. Rand grinned. The cliffs just beyond the Sand Hills were higher, and even Perrin had climbed those.
Ladies, gentlemen, those who transcend the petty binaries of mortals, meet the shittiest construction in the entirety of the Third Age. A wall whose only purpose is to allow one idiot farmboy after another climb the wall like they're lemmings with a power-up. It's a miracle Perrin never actually ends up doing it, since Jordan establishes right here that even he could. Why did they build this wall? How many people have taken advantage of it at one point or another? Can I blame Thom in some way to make sense of this absurdist bit of architecture? Yes that seems best. It's Thom's personal "fuck the queen while Damodred's at the front gate" wall. Maybe other sneaky lovers have used it over the years.
His clothes seemed ordinary, a cloak and coat and breeches that would not have caused comment in any farming village. But the way he wore them. The way he held himself. Logain was a king in every inch of him. The cage might as well not have been there. He held himself erect, head high, and looked over the crowd as if they had come to do him honor. And wherever his gaze swept, there the people fell silent, staring back in awe. When Logain’s eyes left them, they screamed with redoubled fury as if to make up for their silence, but it made no difference in the way the man stood, or in the silence that passed along with him. As the wagon rolled through the Palace gates, he turned to look back at the assembled masses. They howled at him, beyond words, a wave of sheer animal hate and fear, and Logain threw back his head and laughed as the Palace swallowed him.
Logain's being so clearly important despite being captured is nice foreshadowing for the way he'll sidestep the fate the Tower has planned for him. It also explains why so many people were willing to follow him, if he had such an air before capture.
Though it's not clear yet, Logain is laughing because he has the Talent to see ta'veren and Rand is so much ta'veren that he can see him from this distance. I'd always assumed this Talent is what Logain's controversial TV show line was referring to, Nynaeve being ta'veren in that canon and standing much closer to him, but maybe I'm crazy. It's been awhile since I saw season 1.
I have gotten my Fire Cube working again though, so maybe I should finish my rewatch to refresh myself? Eh. I'll probably just read butterflydm's a few dozen times and call it good and pretend that rewatching Bojack six times in as many weeks is healthy instead.
“Why were the Aes Sedai watching him?” he wondered aloud.
“They’re keeping him from touching the True Source, silly.”
He jerked to look up, toward the girl’s voice, and suddenly his precarious seat was gone.
Aww, Rand and Elayne have a meet cute. Rand nearly getting himself killed and barely dodging a concussion is a way better start to their romance than Min's creepy routine.
Sadly, Rand being knocked unconscious means we're done with this chapter and there was absolutely no Loial in it. It's an absolute travesty and I don't think Jordan's fixing that in the next chapter either. But we'll find out tomorrow!
