Reading The Wheel of Time: The Gathering Storm (Part 4) - Reactor

Welcome back to Reading The Wheel of Time. This week we’re finishing up chapter 5 with Cadsuane’s section, and then covering chapter 6, in which Leane has a harrowing experience with a bubble of evil and I wonder if the White Tower is getting more than its fair share of those for some reason. Oh, also Ituralde is doing stuff.

Let’s recap. 

On the second floor of the manor house, Cadsuane is supervising the interrogation of Semirhage. She is letting Merise lead the interrogation so that she can watch and think and plan, while the three sisters holding Semirhage’s shield wait in the other room.

Merise is trying to get Semirhage to tell them about Graendal’s plans, but Semirhage only begins detailing horrific experiments she performed and promises to someday show them to Merise. When Cadsuane sees Merise go pale, she wraps Semirhage’s head in Air so she cannot hear and also puts two bright lights in front of Semirhage’s eyes so that she can’t read their lips.

They discuss the problem of interrogating someone like Semirhage. Cadsuane reminds Merise that Semirhage is only human; if you take away the years she spent locked away in the Dark One’s prison, most likely in some kind of trance or hibernation, she might not even be as old as the oldest Aes Sedai.

As the interrogation resumes, Semirhage refuses to answer any of Merise’s questions, and Cadsuane’s thoughts turn to Rand. She is frustrated by her failure with him; she has taught him to treat her with a little more civility, but that is it, and she is worried that she is close to failing utterly. She returns her thoughts to Semirhage with an effort.

Cadsuane realizes that she sees something of herself in Semirhage, and considers how she would break herself. It’s a disturbing thought, and she is relieved when Corele interrupts to report that Rand is about to meet with the Aiel chiefs. Semirhage is taken away by the sisters maintaining her shield and Cadsuane sets about her next task of the day—dealing with the boy.

Outside the city of Darluna, Rodel Ituralde surveys the carnage and destruction of battle, musing about how scholars often scrub and sanitize details in favor of being concise, and wonders how this battle will be described in the history books.

Ituralde has lost about half of his 100,000 forces in this battle, but he has defeated a Seanchan army three times the size of his own, plus damane. A messenger brings him to where the dying Seanchan general is sitting.  

General Turan greets him, remarking that Ituralde’s title of “Great Captain” is deserved. When asked, Ituralde explains how he used the Seanchan’s reliance on raken against them, disguising women and children so that they would look like a huge army coming up behind Turan’s forces while Ituralde hid his own soldiers inside the buildings of the town, allowing only a few out at a time to tend the fields. Turan is admiring, though he points out that this defeat will demand an answer, and that Ituralde will never ultimately be successful against the superior Seanchan numbers.

Ituralde knows this, but he cannot sit by and not fight the invaders of his homeland, just as Turan and his army could not surrender when he realized he was defeated, but fought on to the last.

At Turan’s request, Ituralde beheads the dying man. He drives Turan’s sword into the ground beside him and then leaves, making his way back across the battlefield as evening begins to fall.

In the White Tower, Egwene is visiting Leane in her cell. She is doing her best to keep her spirits up and to keep her appearance neat, but locked in a cell day after day, not tortured but always ignored, except by Egwene (and those trying to learn about Traveling) is taking a toll on her, both mentally and physically.

Egwene promises that she will see Leane free, and exhaustedly uses the bars of the cell to pull herself to her feet. Then she stops in surprise and looks down at her hands, which are covered in some kind of waxy substance.

Leane can see Egwene’s handprints in the bars and when she pokes one, it bends under the impact. Suddenly her entire cell starts to melt like warm wax, what was once stone dripping down on her from the ceiling and the very floor beneath her feet beginning to melt and suck her down.

The two Yellows, Musarin and Gelarna, lift Leane to safety with flows of Air, knocking her into Egwene. They both scramble to their feet to find that the effect seems to have stopped—chips of stone are caught in Leane’s dress and the bars and floor are solid again, now in various states of having been melted or flattened. Leane can see the score marks in the stone floor where her feet tried to find purchase.

Egwene calmly remarks that these events are becoming more frequent, showing how the Dark One’s power is growing and the Last Battle is near. She asks what their Amyrlin is doing about it. The sisters don’t answer, sending Egwene to bed and assuring her that they will look after the prisoner.

Egwene heads to bed, after urging Leane to stay strong. She is surprised when she passes a few Brown Sisters talking, and wonders what they are doing in the novice quarters. But then she notices that the gray tiles have changed to brown, and thinks that in her fatigue she may have walked the wrong way.

But when she looks out the window she can see the view she expects to see from the novice quarters. The sisters approach her to ask what she is doing in the Brown Quarters at this late hour, and Egwene wordlessly points out the window.

Eventually the Browns decide there is nothing to do but stay where they are, as they can’t exactly move into the cramped novice quarters that are now where their rooms should have been. Egwene muses that leaving the Browns physically divided in this way is an accurate reflection of the division in the Tower—and that now she has to climb a lot of stairs to reach her room.

After I mused last week that Cadsuane wasn’t doing a very good job with Rand, it was interesting (and a little gratifying, to be honest) to see that she’s having the same realization. I wonder if she’ll try a different tack with Rand now, perhaps developing it at the same time as she’s developing her approach to breaking Semirhage.

The concept of her seeing herself in Semirhage, and therefore figuring out how to break herself in order to break the Forsaken, is fascinating. The “Chosen” would never consider any modern Aes Sedai to be even close to what “real” Aes Sedai are/were, but it does make sense that there would be similarities in powerful women who have been channeling for many years, even if one of them grew up in a system that was only a shadow of the original system, cobbled together from memory and guesswork. Cadsuane is, if you’ll excuse my language, a stone cold bitch, and while that’s pretty far from being a sadistic monster like Semirhage, I think she might actually be in the same weight class, so to speak.

If we’re putting money on who is going to win this battle, mine is on Cadsuane. The real question is if anyone will ever try to rescue Semirhage before Cadsuane gets her chance to get useful information out of the woman.

Also, I kind of find it amusing that Rand has forbidden the interrogators from using torture, but hanging someone upside down outside a window doesn’t count. I mean, I doubt it fazes Semirhage but an ordinary prisoner might find that all kinds of terrifying, and it’s an interesting line to draw between what counts as torture and what doesn’t. Does it have to be pain to count? I doubt Rand would be happy if she was suffocated by the manipulation of Air or locked in a box like he was, but someone could certainly develop PTSD from prolonged exposure to feeling like they were about to be dropped from a great height, too. 

Anyway, I suppose the point is moot, as I’m certain Cadsuane is correct. No traditional methods of torture are going to faze Semirhage, whether it be through pain or attempts to scare her. Cadsuane is going to have to figure out something else, something much more original and unexpected.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the theme of fear and control in The Wheel of Time. It’s a theme I notice early on with Nynaeve, in particular, and I think I’ve touched on it with other characters, but since I started The Gathering Storm I’ve been thinking more about how many of the personal struggles of the protagonists are attached to this theme, to the struggle of wanting to control things more than is possible, or healthy, or morally right, because they are afraid.

In particular, this theme surrounds Rand. Almost every Aes Sedai has, at some point, considered how important it is that the Dragon Reborn be controlled. For some, such as Elaida, this has looked like locking him up in the White Tower until Tarmon Gai’don, during which he would be wielded like a weapon by the White Tower. For others, like Moiraine, it meant convincing him to accept her judgments and guidance, even over his own instincts. Moiraine eventually changed her mind about that, of course, but even Egwene has had concerns about controlling Rand.

This makes sense, of course. The Dragon channels tainted (until recently) saidin. He is prophesied to destroy the world and to break all bonds. He’s ta’veren, and can influence the events around him and even the choices people make. It would be foolish to not be afraid of him.

Those with power, especially Aes Sedai, have responded to that fear by trying to control Rand, one way or another. I’ve always felt that Cadsuane’s insistence on calling Rand “boy,” both to his face and in her own head, is not so much about teaching him humility or respect for her position as it is an attempt to make what he is feel a little less terrifying. She’s focused on the fact that he is young and (in her eyes) ignorant and inexperienced, and when she does consider his power and identity, she tends to think of him more as an object or a dangerous creature than a full person. She doesn’t seem to want to factor in that, ultimately, even if he is not as old and wise as her, even if he is a man and not an Aes Sedai, the fate of the world at Tarmon Gai’don is his responsibility. By fate, by prophecy, by the very truth of creation, no matter how much help he gets, no matter how much guidance he accepts, ultimately, facing the Dark One is down to him.

If the White Tower included men who can channel in their hierarchy, Rand would outrank Cadsuane, even though he is much younger and less experienced. And while no Amyrlin placed him in authority above anyone, you could argue that the Wheel did. You might even argue that the Creator did. Such a perspective can be taken too far (we don’t want another Masema on our hands) but it also can be ignored too much, which I think a lot of Aes Sedai are guilty of. They would rather think of him as an ignorant country lout or as an object of prophecy, but neither of these perspectives take Rand as a whole person.

I think that is what Cadsuane is missing. It’s fine, maybe even necessary, to remind Rand that he still has to treat others with respect and dignity (when he was struggling to behave reasonably towards Harine I did wonder if Cadsuane’s teachings had any bearing on his attempts at self control and keeping his temper in check) but Cadsuane isn’t going to teach him how to be a full human being again, one who “remembers laughter and tears” if she doesn’t treat him like a full human being.

I do love how smart Cadsuane is though, and all the little details that reveal it, like her trick of using bright lights to make sure a captive can’t read her lips while deafened by Air, the usual Aes Sedai go-to. I also liked that I ended up covering her section in the same week that we got Leane’s observations of Egwene, and her musings over how a woman so young could have learned so much about how to appear and be like an Amyrlin. It seemed fitting to compare and contrast Leane’s respect for Egwene to Cadsuane’s frustration with Rand. Of course, Rand hasn’t achieved the kind of inner peace or balance in leadership that Egwene has, either.

But Egwene keeping her head and getting the Yellows to rescue Leane when they were frozen in horror reminded me of Cadsuane as much as a comparison to Rand, and I agree wholeheartedly with Leane about Egwene’s ability as Amyrlin. She keeps her head in the face of every danger and surprise, no matter how horrible, more than most full sisters do. And while I can imagine Cadsuane handling herself well enough if she faced a similar situation, I don’t know that she would have managed it when she was as young as Egwene is now.  

The section with Ituralde feels very Jordan-esque, to me. I appreciate how the narrative is still reiterating the horrors of war, and that the great generals like Gareth Bryne and Rodel Ituralde are not glory hounds, and are very cognizant of how few people understand the truth of death in battle unless they have faced it. I also enjoyed having Ituralde wondering how future historians and writers would describe the battle as I myself read about him and his battle in a book that might well be described as a fictional history. 

The exchange with the Seanchan general is a good reminder to the reader of ordinary Seanchan people, and the fact that they are human beings, not just an invasion force. Turan respects Ituralde, and he shows dignity in his defeat. I’m not sure if he told Ituralde about the response his victory will inevitably engender as a warning or because he was perplexed that a man of Ituralde’s obvious intelligence would keep fighting even knowing that he can’t win.

We don’t even know how much Turan believes in the Seanchan right to rule everything that was once part of Hawkwing’s empire. But whether it was a warning or merely an attempt to understand the motivations of the people they have come to conquer, Turan clearly doesn’t look down on Ituralde, and that’s significant, in my eyes.

We have seen throughout the series that soldiers often have respect for each other, whether they are loyal men serving their respective rulers or mercenaries accustomed to being on the same side at times and opposite sides at others. I like that this trend is continuing in The Gathering Storm. And the fact that the likes of Turan and Tylee can develop a respect for the non-Seanchan leaders bodes well for the ability of the Seanchan to eventually fight alongside the people of Rand’s continent when Rand eventually manages to get that truce and everyone goes to the Last Battle together.

There is something very moving in Ituralde’s decision to fight this battle even knowing that he can’t win it. That he is thinking of his descendants, of fighting for his country because that is the right thing to do, and that hopefully one day his actions will help inspire future generations to throw off the yoke of the conqueror.

We’ll find out more about what Rand is going to do about Arad Doman next week, but I can’t help thinking about how Rand is going to be less concerned about making the Seanchan relinquish control of what they have taken than he will be about coming to some kind of mutually appealing (to some degree, anyway) agreement. Which will almost certainly mean letting the Seanchan keep most or all of what they have currently under their control. Since Arad Doman is not, Ituralde’s actions might prove less futile than one would believe. On the other hand, Rand might use control of Arad Doman as a bargaining chip to get the Seanchan to agree to some kind of truce. He might offer to quell the rebellion in Arad Doman and let them have it without struggle, if they agree to stop trying to expand anywhere else and to fight alongside everyone else in the Last Battle.

I wonder what Ituralde would do in that case.

Of course, the real question is how long it will take Rand to actually get that audience with Tuon. Falendre isn’t in any hurry to pass that message along, it seems, and we know from Egwene’s Dream that there will be an attack on the White Tower, so presumably that will happen before Falendre tells Tuon about the Dragon’s request for an audience to bargain for peace.

But we don’t have to wait for the Seanchan attack to have troubling events in the White Tower. I really feel for Leane—she might be viewed as a full sister by her fellow Aes Sedai while Egwene is only a novice in their eyes, but I think being cooped up in a cell day after day with nothing to do and no one to talk to would be worse even than the constant beatings Egwene is subject to. At least Egwene can move around and be active—and she is making progress in winning sisters over to her side and perspective, which gives her something to get up in the morning for.

Really, it’s lucky for both of them that the Aes Sedai are maintaining guard over Leane in the traditional way, despite the fact that forkroot offers a simple and effective alternative. If Leane had been alone down there she would almost certainly have died; even if she wasn’t completely sucked under by the melting floor, when it solidified again it would have been around her legs, and who knows what that might have done to her body. It’s a chilling thought.

And then of course there’s the fact that part of the Brown Ajah quarters have been switched with the novice quarters.

Back when it was discovered that hallways in the Royal Palace at Caemlyn had been switched around, someone (I can’t remember who, exactly) wondered what would happen if a person was in one of the rooms that moved or disappeared, and if it was possible that someone might one day wake up in a room with no doors or windows. We haven’t seen that happen thus far, but this gets fairly close to that.

We know that other effects of the Pattern being weakened can hurt or kill people. There was the peddler who was sucked down into the disappearing ghost town, for example. And Leane certainly could have died in the melting cell. I can’t think of a reason why an occupied room couldn’t disappear, or be moved somewhere where the occupant couldn’t get out again, and it’s hard to say if there is a difference between the bubbles of evil, which are responsible for things like having copies of yourself climb out of a mirror or coughing up bugs until you die, and this shifting of locations, which appears to be more to do with the Pattern unraveling in general and less to do with little pockets of miasma burbling up from the Dark One’s prison.

Leane’s melting cell and the disappearing town that sucked the peddler down with it could be the dissolution of the pattern or a bubble of evil, if there is even a difference between them. I am inclined to draw a line between events that one can engage in or witness, and that can be deadly, like the two above examples, and between the shifting of locations, which cannot be noticed and (so far) does not seem to be deadly. 

Anyway, the reason I wonder about this is because way back in The Shadow Rising, when we first encountered a bubble of evil, Moiraine explained that the bubbles will drift along the pattern until they attach to a thread and burst open, causing strange effects. She also theorizes that ta’veren attract these effects more than ordinary people, aka ordinary threads, do. If this theory is correct, it’s possible that other important lives, even if they are not strictly ta’veren, might also attract the bubbles of evil. It would make sense if the White Tower, filled with important lives and powerful channelers, attracts more than its otherwise fair share of bubbles of evil. And if the shifting locations are part of the bubbles of evil, then that would explain why it seems so common in the White Tower, and other places full of important people like Elayne’s Palace, while the effect isn’t quite so common in other places.

If the shifting locations are not part of the bubbles of evil, but a different effect of the Dark One breaking free, it’s also possible that having important lives around, or even any lives at all, actually makes it less likely that someone will be lost or killed by the changes. The Dark One’s touch on the world is growing, but it is still very limited; he is affecting the weather and shifting locations, but he can’t reach out and smite his enemies directly. He can’t grasp the thread of a life and alter who that person is, at least not unless they visit him at Shayol Ghul.

There might be different rules for those who interact with the Dark One directly at Shayol Ghul. Asmodean seemed to believe that he’d end up back in the Dark One’s power eventually, which perhaps suggests that he could not forswear the Dark as others can. But ordinary darkfriends are supposed to be able to return to the Light, no matter how far they have gone into the Dark; their oaths to the Dark One are not so binding, in a physical/metaphysical sense, that the Dark One can touch them directly.

So, with the possible exception of those who swear at Shayol Ghul (Shaidar Haran creating Moghedien’s cour’souvra there also suggests reality is more the Dark One’s plaything at Shayol Ghul than anywhere else) the Dark One can’t touch the lives or minds of people directly. Not unless he broke free entirely, one presumes. 

We have been told that human lives are the threads of the Pattern, but objects and the physical land itself are also part of the Pattern, otherwise it would only be human beings who were being altered, not the land around them, by the Dark One’s increasing ability to touch the world. I wonder if lives aren’t a bit more solid, more foundational to the Pattern than inanimate objects and buildings and even the land itself—and if so, whether those threads will be the least, and last, affected.

Sort of a reverse of Tel’aran’rhiod, if you will.

If this theory, which to be fair is pretty lacking in hard evidence, is correct, it would suggest that people aren’t likely to be harmed by their rooms or homes suddenly disappearing due to a shift in the unraveling Pattern. Because human lives are the true threads, so they are stronger than any other part of reality.

Does that make any sense? I feel like I’m trying to be Herid Fel here but I’m really just sounding the way he sounds to Rand when he talks.

In any case, this was a really interesting chapter and a half to read. I’m looking forward to next week and to finding out what Rand’s plan is for Arad Doman. We’ll also see some Siuan and Gareth Bryne interaction, which I am less excited about, but that’s getting ahead of myself.