Reading The Wheel of Time: The Gathering Storm (Part 3) - Reactor

Hello and welcome back to Reading The Wheel of Time. Last week I said we would be covering chapters three and four, but since chapter four is just a quick check in with Gawyn, so I’ll be including Rand’s part of chapter five in this week’s read. A little Aviendha, a sprinkle of Galad, and then we’re back with Rand again. Let’s get started!

Aviendha has joined some True Blood and Maiden scouts to observe a group of Domani refugees. She reflects to herself how strange wetlanders are; the Domani don’t notice the Aiel watching them, and seem to have no scouts and little ability to care for and defend themselves, which is anathema to an Aiel. Aviendha is surprised to find that she has sympathy for these people, something she has picked up from her time with Elayne.

Aviendha is struggling to figure out what honor she can have in her new life. She knew exactly how to find it in being a Maiden, something she had always known she would be, and once believed she would die as, after serving her clan and sept every day of her life. She is determined to find that same sense of honor and surety in her new life, but has yet to figure out how. The Wise Ones are very different than the Maidens, and Aviendha appears to have made some kind of misstep in their eyes, offering her no teaching and punishing her for some transgression Aviendha has made but cannot seem to figure out. Until she can, she will never become a Wise One herself, which means never gaining enough honor to be able to lay a bridal wreath at Rand’s feet.

Rejoining the rest of their small advance party, Rhuarc makes his report to Amys, Bair, Melaine, and Nadere. Rhuarc mentions that the clans are uncertain what the car’a’carn wishes of them; his orders are clear, but his intentions confusing. After Rhuarc leaves, Aviendha is told off by the Wise Ones for going with the scouting parties.

As the Aiel move off, Aviendha is questioned by Amys about her interpretation of Rand al’Thor’s orders and Rhuarc’s expression of concern. Questioned more directly about Rand, Aviendha admits that she has learned from Elayne that there is more than one way to be strong. She worries that Rand has not yet learned that. She tells Amys about Min’s vision of the three women Rand will love and of Aviendha’s children by him. She admits, however, that while the viewing implies marriage, it does not guarantee it.

Realizing that the future isn’t certain brings Aviendha comfort. She is also comforted when Amys brings up the topic of punishment, as this means that Aviendha will still have time to discover what she has done wrong and correct it. However, she is appalled when the punishment she is given is to sort and count a bag of mixed beans. This is useless work, almost as if the Wise Ones were calling her da’tsang. In shock, she mutters to herself, wondering what it is she did, but Amys doesn’t reply, because having to be told what she did would of course only bring Aviendha more shame. She is more determined than ever to figure out what she did.

Gawyn and his Younglings have been sent by Elaida to harry the rebel army. It is a pointless exercise, and Gawyn has only managed to keep his Younglings hidden because he knows his former mentor so well. Gawyn is beginning to feel as though he is destined to fight against every man who was once a mentor to him. He thought he was over the deaths of Hammar and Coulin, his Warder teachers, but now, facing his first and most influential teacher, he is feeling uncertain about his choices and his place.

The other Younglings are content to accept that the Wheel weaves as it wills, and to accept that they should not question Aes Sedai; they think of themselves as behaving like Warders despite the fact that they have not yet been bonded. Gawyn, on the other hand, has long suspected that Elaida is trying to get the Younglings out of the way, with the current situation quickly cementing that suspicion into certainty. 

He turns his men back towards Dorlan, hoping that maybe the Aes Sedai will have a suggestion about what to do next.

In Arad Doman, Rand crosses Bashere’s camp, trailed as usual by a group of Aes Sedai and his guard of Aiel Maidens. One of the Aes Sedai with him is Elza Penfell, who was part of the group who beat him and kept him in the box when he was a prisoner, and who has now sworn allegiance to him. The other is Corele Hovian, one of Cadsuane’s followers. Despite the fact that she has not sworn to him, Rand is almost tempted to trust her since she was part of the effort to save his life when he was wounded by Fain’s dagger.  

They reach the roped-off area used for Traveling, where a group of Sea Folk are arriving. Harine is taken aback when Rand immediately tells her that he has questions for her. He starts by asking about the ships that were promised, and is upset that it has been weeks with no sign of them. Harine reminds him that even the swiftest ships take time to cross such a great distance, and that they have to pass through Seanchan-controlled waters. She suggests that he is unused to dealing with the realities of shipping and war because of his ability to use gateways, and is visibly shocked when Rand suggests that the Sea Folk are deliberately lagging because they dislike the agreement between themselves and Rand.

Harine, clearly influenced by Rand’s ta’veren power to say things she would rather not, admits that she was hung upside down by her ankles and strapped. Rand is surprised at the harshness of the punishment, but she answers that it could have been worse—she wasn’t stripped of her position as Wavemistress.

Rand forces himself to tell her that he is glad she is back, and that he is impressed with her levelheadedness. He tells her he wants to ask her a delicate question, and inquires about what the Sea Folk do with men who can channel. When she is reluctant to speak of it, he offers to answer one question of her choosing in return. She accepts, and admits that men who can channel are given a choice either to step from the bow of the ship with a stone tied to their legs, or to be dropped off on a barren island with no food or water.

Rand tells her that the practice must stop, now that saidin has been cleansed. Harine tells him that it is a difficult thing to accept, saying she believes that Rand believes it to be true.

Rand thinks of a time when male channelers were as respected as their female counterparts, and how desperately he needs men who can touch the one power. He realizes, suddenly, that he’s thinking about the age of male channelers, and about one channeler, Jorlen Corbesan, in particular, as if it was something he experienced instead of a memory of Lews Therin.

Rand feels despair in the thought that he is losing himself to Lews Therin, but at the same time he can’t make himself want to be rid of Lews Therin, not when the man knows a way to seal the Bore, even if imperfectly.

He realizes that he’s muttering out loud to himself and returns to the matter at hand. Harine decides to wait to ask a question of him, once she has had time to think about it.

Rand asks Elza what she thinks about the cleansing of saidin, and she gives a very non-committal, Aes Sedai answer. Corele has felt saidin through Damer and affirms that it is cleansed, but Elza points out how it took decades after the breaking for people to believe that all male channelers really were doomed to go insane, and it will probably take even longer for people to overcome their deeply ingrained distrust of saidin.

Rand thinks about men continuing to be killed or gentled even though there is no longer any need, about how he has bound most nations to himself but knows that tight cords can snap violently.

Rand looks at the soldiers and the common people going about their daily tasks in the camp and envies them. He whispers as much to himself, and Flinn is surprised. Flinn thinks that the Pattern itself probably bends to Rand’s will if he wants it to. Rand explains that each of the ordinary people in the camp could leave if they wished, simply ride away and leave the battle to others.

A scout arrives to warn of Aiel on the hilltop, and doesn’t seem to understand that if he was able to spot the Aiel, that was intentional on the new arrivals’ part. Rand sends the scout to inform Bashere that they are going to meet with Rhuarc and Bael. It is time to secure Arad Doman.

There is something very worrying about Rand’s attitude in The Gathering Storm, even in comparison to how he was in the previous few books. I wouldn’t quite go so far as to call it nihilistic, since he still believes in the world and that it’s worth saving, but it does feel like he’s tending in a nihilistic direction. We’re seeing a bitterness growing in him, alongside (or perhaps sprouting from) the hardness he has so deliberately and carefully cultivated. It’s more than just pain at the burden he has to bear, and it has a nasty quality to it that I can’t quite put my finger on but definitely did not feel from Rand before, even when he was being unreasonable.

In the past, characters have often interpreted Rand as being arrogant and self-important when really he was actually scared or desperate, and covering that attitude with a mask of hardness and control. But he has been cultivating that hardness inside as well as out, so much so that in this chapter that he is actually a little regretful that he can’t summon up an attitude of kindness towards Harine. And he is arrogant.

Rand doesn’t just think of himself as being owed deference but actually as being owed pure obedience. The above quote is a milder example than, say, his angry impatience with Darlin asking for orders, or his anger towards the Sea Folk for the limitations of how fast their ships can travel through Seanchan-infested waters. We have seen other examples in other chapters, and previous books, of how frustrated Rand becomes when people don’t immediately do what he orders exactly as he has ordered.

Carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders has started to give him a martyr complex, I think. That’s not even entirely wrong: He is a martyr, designated so by the weaving of the Wheel and probably the will of the Creator himself. But he has moved from feeling the burden of all he needs to accomplish and being understandably annoyed by the petty squabbling of nobles and nations who won’t acknowledge the nearness of the Last Battle to believing that he alone has the answers to every problem, and that the best thing for the fate of the world would be unquestioning obedience.

He is still forced to consult people, occasionally, but mostly, Rand is dictating everything that everyone around him does. And what limitations he does have—being forced to be polite to Cadsuane and occasionally rely on her council, answering to his responsibilities towards the Aiel and the Sea Folk—are a hindrance that he’d cut away if he could.

One can hardly blame Rand for feeling like his burden is unfair and heavier than those of other people. However, he has let that pain cut him off from being connected to other people; it might even been as responsible for his lack of emotional connection to humanity as the hardness he has cultivated. And that seems to be a very dangerous place for a man who is meant to save mankind to be. If he loses his love and care and empathy for humanity, why would he continue to fight and sacrifice so much on its behalf?

I would also question Rand’s assertion that only he is trapped by destiny and that others could turn aside if they wanted and he cannot. It’s probably somewhat true for some people; we have been told by the likes of Loial and Moiraine that those with great power and great destinies have less freedom than those without. However, even though Rand might be the most influential thread in the Pattern, every life is woven into it by the Wheel, and every life is constrained by how much the person’s own desires can affect their place in the Pattern. A farmer can move to the city, but he can’t become a king, etc. If we measured it out, perhaps Rand would be more constrained than most people, but what’s important about this fact is not whether it is strictly true but how focused Rand is on defining himself by the idea. Duty is a heavy burden, but fate, I think, is a heavier one.

Because Rand’s destiny is a difficult and painful one, I think he sees every aspect of it as inevitable, but that is not necessarily true. Flinn is hitting on this when he responds to Rand’s assertion that any of the camp followers or soldiers have the freedom to quit and ride away and leave the responsibility for the fight to others. Rand misses Flinn’s point, but what the old soldier turned Asha’man is hitting on is the fact that the Saldaeans won’t abandon their duty. Whether that is because they choose not to or because the Pattern won’t allow them to becomes functionally irrelevant. It’s a matter for philosophers, maybe, but it doesn’t change the lives of those who are dedicated to doing their duty.

If it’s irrelevant for the Saldaeans, then it is also irrelevant for Rand. Sure, when he first started to realize that he was probably the Dragon Reborn, Rand spent a little bit of time avoiding recognizing that truth, and sometimes he would rail against the consequences of that identity (like when the little girl was killed during the attack on the Stone of Tear, way back in The Shadow Rising) but he has never really tried to shirk his duty to the world or to escape the fate destiny gave him. He could have run away into the wilds, or gotten on a boat and sailed away from the continent, or tried to kill himself. Heck, he could have decided he didn’t want to fight and turned himself over to the Dark One. We don’t know if the Pattern would have allowed that or not. We don’t know if the Wheel would have spun obstacles into his way to stop him from succeeding in fleeing from his destiny, because Rand, even this hardened, exhausted version of Rand, isn’t the kind of person who would do that.

Is that because the Pattern made him that way, perhaps through the threads of fate that led to him being raised by Tam al’Thor? Or is that just his nature? In the latter case, can we say it came from nowhere? From his soul’s previous experiences in other turnings of the Wheel? From the Creator himself?

Again, it is an interesting question to ask from a philosophical point of view, but functionally, it doesn’t matter. It is what it is, for Rand, for his generals, for the least camp follower. For everyone.

That, after all, is what Moiraine says in the memory Rand recalls near the end of the section.

Moiraine took strength from that idea, but for Rand, it is more of a burden or a test he must bear up under.

Perhaps spending time with Aviendha again will help Rand reframe his struggle with his fate. She knows what it feels like to be trapped by the Wheel, and by what others expect of her. As an Aiel woman born with the spark, Aviendha’s culture dictated what she must do with her life. If she could have followed her own desires, she would have remained a maiden for the rest of her life. She can understand what that feels like better than Elayne (who knows the burden of duty but also wants it and has been prepared for it all her life) or Min (whose visions are a restrictive burden but whose life outside of them is relatively free from responsibility).

Aviendha also learned that she was fated to love Rand before she actually felt that emotion, and tried to run from it because it seemed to be a betrayal of Elayne and therefore a great dishonor to Aviendha herself. At one point we saw her literally running from him in her dreams. Even now Aviendha is struggling to understand who she is and what honor there is in her new life and new role. She would be able to relate to Rand, once a shepherd, now a king and the de facto leader of the world; the struggle to understand oneself in a new context is something she could empathize with, and perhaps make him feel less alone.

She even tells Amys how she once thought there was only one way to be strong, and that she learned from Elayne that she was wrong. She knows that Rand hasn’t learned this yet, and even states that she thinks he mistakes hardness for strength.

However, there is another aspect to all of this that is just as important as the knowledge that Rand is becoming hard and un-empathetic and unreachable, which is that it hasn’t happened yet.

It occurred to me while I was coming up with ways that Rand could try to escape his fate that there’s always balefire as an option. Even the Pattern gives way to balefire. Rand got Aviendha and Mat back after Rahvin killed them (and Asmodean). So if he really wanted his own way…

I’m not saying it’s a good idea, I’m just saying that it’s possible, and the fact that Rand hasn’t even considered that balefire could be used as a get-out-of-the-Pattern-free card shows that he isn’t actually totally gone yet. There is still some hope there, some belief in the fight that he is fighting.

Even more evocative of the good and caring person that is still inside Rand is his concern for the future of the world after Tarmon Gai’don. I don’t think anyone could fault him for washing his hands of everything that comes after the Last Battle. Keeping the Dark One from destroying creation is enough responsibility for anyone; if he succeeded in that task, it would be more than fair for Rand to leave the rest of the future up to someone else.

But Rand is driven by the desire to leave something good behind when he dies. It’s why he’s started his schools for inventors, and why he worries in this chapter over whether the nations will fall into chaos and war against each other after he dies. Rand still cares about people, that much is clear. That care, like his love for Min, and Elayne, and Aviendha, is going to be the thing that allows the Rand they knew, that we knew, to come back.

All this also makes me think about how Cadsuane is going about teaching Rand the wrong way. She is forcing him to be polite to her, which is fine, but while it’s probably good for Rand to have some people in his life who will stand up to him and demand he act respectfully, Rand having manners, or even thinking that manners are important, isn’t really his problem. His problem is feeling like he has all the responsibility and no choices, and as long as Cadsuane is calling him boy and treating him like an ignorant country lout, Rand is just going to dig his heels in more, both because he believes being immovable is part of being hard (and therefore strong) and also because of that natural Two Rivers stubbornness. He might even act as Cadsuane wants, but he won’t learn anything emotionally, and that is where the truly important lesson lies.

But we’ll talk more about Cadsuane next week when we finish off chapter five with her section. In the meantime, there is another young man who is dealing with responsibility and being tossed around by fate, and that is Gawyn Trakand.

I really felt for Gawyn in his section. Galad is the brother who suffers from “do what is right no matter the cost” disease, but Gawyn is in many ways struggling with the same problem. When the fighting broke out in the White Tower, Gawyn did what he thought was right in defending the sitting Amyrlin, which was Elaida. There was no way he could have known what exactly was happening amongst the Aes Sedai or the complexities of Tower Law and the election of Amyrlins in order to understand what was really happening, so it makes sense that he and his Younglings fought on the side of Elaida, who as far as they could tell would have appeared to be the legitimate Amyrlin. Some of the Warders they defeated, like Hammar and Coulin, might have sided against Elaida because they understood what was happening more completely than the Younglings did, or they might have followed the lead of their Aes Sedai. I don’t believe we are told who either of the men were bonded to, though we do know that Gawyn killed  Hammar when the latter attempted to free Suian from prison.

So it does make sense that Gawyn fought on the side he did, just as it makes sense that he is now questioning if he ended up on the right side. I was initially surprised to see that he is still waffling; he has suspected for a while that Elaida was trying to get the Younglings killed, and now, of course, he can see that they are being sent on a useless errand (also likely to get them killed) to keep them out of her way. When you add the fact that Egwene has chosen the side of the rebels, it’s hard to see what it is, exactly, that Gawyn is still wavering about.

True, Gawyn believes that Rand murdered his mother, but he has no real reason as far as I can recall for him to believe that the rebels have sided with Rand. Even if Gawyn has heard the rumors about Aes Sedai being sworn to Rand (he was at Dumai’s wells, of course, but did not witness Rand compelling both prisoner and ally Aes Sedai to swear obedience), that doesn’t really put one side more in league with the Dragon Reborn than the other.

But there is still the question of “the right thing to do.” As far as Gawyn knows, Elaida became the Amyrlin Seat legally. He is the son of a queen after all, and meant to be First Prince of the Sword to Elayne, so he has a strong sense of what it means to be loyal to one’s leader. Perhaps that ingrained sense of loyalty to a throne, or a seat, makes him want Elaida’s side to be the right side. Of course, since he has killed mentors and friends in defense of Elaida’s position, it would be particularly painful to then reverse his choice and to recognize that he was wrong to do as he did. That he was potentially wrong to kill those men.

Gawyn’s plight fits the strong theme of duty and fate that has been present so far in The Gathering Storm. We see him wonder if he is destined to fight against every man who has ever mentored him, just as Rand and Aviendha wonder about their own destinies. We also see that what he really needs to do is make a choice and commit to it. I imagine that his love of Egwene will eventually make the difference. His loyalty to Elayne could also lead him back to Caemlyn, but I think he feels too much responsibility towards the Younglings to abandon them. Not yet, anyway.

Aviendha, on the other hand, has made her commitment. In her section we learn that she is ashamed of her reticence in giving up the spears and taking up the mantle of a Wise One, and also that she is comfortable now in the clothes and trappings of her new life but isn’t sure how best to gain honor in her new life, and how best to serve her clan and her sept. Since she is still an apprentice, this is especially difficult; her duty at the moment is mostly to obey and learn. I think she will become a Wise One soon, once she figures out what she has done wrong and why she is being punished so frequently.

Somehow, I doubt that Aviendha has actually committed a terrible sin without knowing it. It’s not impossible, of course, but she does note several times in her section that her questioning seems almost like a test. When Amys is asking her what she thinks of Rhuarc’s comments and then how she evaluates Rand, Aviendha is certain that Amys must already have her own evaluation of the circumstances and can’t possible be needing Aviendha’s observations or advice. To me, it seemed much more like Amys was testing Aviendha to see if she ready to be a Wise One, to be someone who leads the clan with wisdom and can make important decisions and pass down judgment.

She particularly notes how important Aviendha’s time with Elayne was for her, and what Aviendha learned most from Elayne was how to see things from different perspectives and how to be an effective leader. Elayne knows how to lay down the law but also how to care for her people; she can be strict when necessary but also provide guidance to bring out the best in those who serve her.

I’m not sure how the punishments relate to Aviendha being tested for readiness to be made a full Wise One, but it would make sense if there were some kind of trial or physical test the apprentices had to go through, just as there is a physical test for Aes Sedai to obtain the shawl. Maybe a clue lies in the fact that Aviendha can’t figure out what the tests are for. Maybe her job is to reason out one last lesson.

We’ll have to wait a while to find out, but I’m looking forward to seeing some decisions and discoveries being made by Aviendha and by Gawyn. I’m also desperate to see where Rand’s character arc is going, and what can be done to finally teach him that hardness is not the same thing as strength, and that he can still find beauty in the world even with all the burdens and pain he is carrying.

I hope he can, anyway. I found that last line of his section particularly troubling. In earlier books, I would have taken it as just another expression of Rand’s pain in experiencing the death and chaos that comes with the changes he brings and the time he was born into. But now, I wonder if he isn’t actually pretty close to not being able to tell the difference between protecting something and destroying it.

It’s a chilling thought.

We’ll finish up chapter five next week, as Cadsuane and Merise interrogate Semirhage, and then spend some time with Ituralde before returning to the White Tower and Egwene’s fight to save it in chapter 6.