Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.
You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.
Chapter 34: A Silver Arrow
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Nynaeve al’Meara
Elayne cooked supper, a very fancy meal all things considered. Nynaeve finds it tasty. When Nynaeve cooks Thom and Juilin eat somewhere else, which Nynaeve doesn’t understand. Luca is there also, flirting with Nynaeve. Nynaeve is planning to go into Tel’aran’rhiod tonight. Elayne wants to go instead, but Nynaeve insists she will go, which lets her avoid the meetings with Egwene and the Wise Ones.
Birgitte meets her and says she has found Moghedien. She will take Nynaeve to see her, but warns that there are other Forsaken there also, so she must not take any action. Birgitte moves them so they can see Moghedien, who is watching a meeting between Graendal, Lanfear, Rahvin, and Sammael. They are discussing getting Rand to attack Sammael while the other three link so they can overpower him. They move away from the meeting and are discussing what they heard when Moghedien interrupts their discussion and sends Birgitte flying through the air. When Nynaeve tries to channel she finds herself shielded.
Moghedien hangs Nynaeve in the air bent backward almost double and begins to taunt her. Moghedien is preparing to use Compulsion so Nynaeve will shield Elayne and bring her to where Moghedien waits. Birgitte’s arrow hits Moghedien through the chest. Moghedien attacks Birgitte and she disappears, leaving her bow and arrows behind. Nynaeve is grief stricken over what she has caused to happen to Birgitte.
Point of view: Liandrin
Liandrin is with Chesmal and Temaile when a bloody Moghedien staggers in to the room asking for Healing. Liandrin realizes that Moghedien is weakened from the wound and the effects of healing and decides it is time to strike. Moghedien blocks her attempt, shields her and teaches her a lesson she will never forget. She ties off the shield in a very complex way so that Liandrin will not be able to channel for a long time. Chesmal and Temaile are ordered to find the menagerie where Nynaeve is hiding out.
REACTION:
Jordan wrote Nynaeve to lack a certain amount of self-awareness, but I think he might have toed the line of pushing that lack too far at the beginning of this chapter. Though it was funny, it was probably unrealistic that she did not realize internally that nobody liked her cooking. It reminds me a little bit of this scene:
On the other hand, I think it is probably realistic that it fails to register with her that she is herself, very good looking. I suppose if she was raised by her father (she was), then orphaned (she was), then on the marriage-less path to being a Wisdom (she was), she’s never had a reason to think about herself from that angle nor has she been encouraged to do so until very recently. It’s fun to see someone who is very sure of themselves in one area fumble a bit in another.
I also liked that Elayne seems to realize why Egwene is always meeting them alone in the Tower, without the Wise Ones, and that she does not directly express that realization to Nynaeve. Elayne is supposed to be the one who is clever and has been taught royal maneuvering – at least to an extent. This one should be easy for her. Instead of telling Egwene that she knows right out, she’s trying to give Nynaeve some necessary leverage to reclaim equilibrium with her former pupil. It’s probably just lucky for Egwene that Nynaeve is not picking up on it. I’m usually on #TeamEgwene but she has recently moved too far in the direction of pride and egotism. She could easily tell both of her friends why she is not meeting them in the Tower with the Wise Ones and she is not doing so. She didn’t need to bully Nynaeve and then gloat about it for days after. Nynaeve bullies, but she doesn’t gloat about it inwardly. She bemoans what she feels is the need to do so. That distinction actually matters a lot.
I’m fascinated by the idea that only wild animals show up in the World of Dreams. I wonder how that works. Somehow closeness to humans breaks some kind of animal / dream world bond.
Birgitte takes Nynaeve to a meeting of the Forsaken. Graendal, Sammael, Rahvin, and Lanfear are there. They are discussing a plan to bait Rand to go after Sammael, while the other three together attack him. We’ve seen some hints of that already with the Shadowspawn attacks. Lanfear met with this group at the start of the book, too. Then of course we learn that Moghedien was there watching them and that she follows them back and attacks… and things get insanely dark.
Nynaeve’s plan – and it makes sense – is to trick the Spider into being so angry that she murders her quickly. This would spare herself further torture. It would also alert Elayne of danger and let her know she needs to flee immediately. Moghedien knows what she’s up to though. I’m trying to think through the threat of being told I’m going to be changed into a horse as a kind of permanent degradation. After a while she’d just be something like a damane and think of herself as one… which is not actually a comfort. Being a horse is better than being forcibly turned to the Dark One though I’d guess it’s likely both would happen. That would make Nynaeve a Darkfriend horse in the World of Dreams.
I be the wolves would have a cool name for her.
Birgitte saves her and then vanishes after Moghedien does… something.
I want to feel sorry for Liandrin but imagine being so stupid that you’d attack one of the Forsaken (ever), especially *after* she’d been healed. She should have struck while the Forsaken was still bleeding though I doubt that would work either. I know healing weakens someone but bleeding weakens and distracts. She needed a distracted Moghedien.
“You have never known how high to lift your eyes. Who reaches for the sun will be burned.”
The Darkfriend organization probably attracts the type of people who have that problem.
So now Moghedien and the Black Ajah just about know where they are hiding (ticking clock), something has happened to Birgitte, and Nynaeve has been tortured and is blaming herself for all of the above. I said in the last chapter that it feels like Nynaeve has been the secondary plot arc of this book. After her build up in TSR, she has now been beaten down to what has to be a low point. However, what happens after a low point? You bounce back. The law of good plot arc writing tells me that she’s going to have a swift and glorious upward arc before we hit the end of the book.
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