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 35: Ripped Away
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Elayne Trakand
A tired Elayne tries to stay awake to watch Nynaeve while she is in tel’aran’rhiod. After two hours of watching, Nynaeve is crying and whimpering while still sleeping. Nynaeve wakes and moans that she killed “her” but doesn’t say who she killed. Thom pounds on the door and when Elyane opens it, he enters carrying a naked woman who had just suddenly appeared outside the wagon. Nynaeve channels healing flows into Birgitte but they have no effect. Something is wrong with her but it is not something that can be healed. Elayne thinks of something she can try, so she channels the flows of a Warder bond to Birgitte. Elayne then asks Nynaeve what happened in tel’aran’rhiod.
Nynaeve explains the encounter with Moghedien that resulted in Nynaeve being captured and tortured, Birgitte wounding Moghedien, then disappearing. They debate how much danger they are in since Moghedien knows they are with a menagerie. Nynaeve would like to leave but Elayne believes that with so many other menageries around it will take time before they could be found. Nynaeve is remorseful and leaves the wagon to take a walk.
REACTION:
Did we know that it was even possible to bond a woman? I don’t think so though it makes sense that it should be possible. I wonder if the bond will work differently between two women than it does between a woman and a man. Jordan’s magic system is so gender-based that it feels as though there should be differences.
It’s funny to hear Elayne’s POV regarding her relationship with Thom. She has gone from flirting with him to treating him like a father. She’s embarrassed about the flirting, but dismisses the mistake quickly, too. Lack of self-reflection seems like one of Elayne’s character flaws. As a reader, I’m not quite ready to dismiss her willingness to yearn for Rand for five books to just immediately drop him once he’s out of sight.
Is her behavior worse than Rand’s? I think so mainly because she wrote something akin to an “I hate you” letter when she and Rand parted. He’s justified in not feeling completely attached to her. Her justification for moving on feels different, but maybe it amounts to the same thing. He kind of thinks she broke up with him. She thinks she might have broken up with him, without meaning to, and she has no way to remedy the situation. Should she be *more* loyal than Rand given that circumstance? I dunno. How do you even factor knowledge of the Pattern and your own fate into something like that? She has known since before she finally started kissing him that she’d have to *share* him with other women.
It’s complicated.
Of course, Elayne spent the 2nd, 3rd, and early 4th books inappropriately pining over Rand – WHILE HE WAS WITH HER FRIEND EGWENE – on the basis of one brief interaction with him from Book 1. I’ve got built-in plot bias against Elayne.
It’s lucky that Thom and Juilin are the two who found Birgitte in a camp filled with lots of people. However, the fact that Thom found her, in particular, means the two men probably need to be filled in to a greater degree. Imagine having to explain to two people that you are being hunted in the daytime and in your sleep by a demon-ish figure from three thousand years ago, alive once more in the present, that they had both heard scary stories about their entire lives?
One interesting thing about Nynaeve that we pick up on in this chapter is that while she’s hard on everyone around her but she is BY FAR harder on herself than anyone else. That makes her rough edges not only tolerable, but in some ways admirable.
If you read closely, this chapter introduces what has to be Birgitte’s primary plot arc for the series. Is she still bound to the Wheel of Time?
Taking stock of the situation: The SuperGirls have maybe a few days before they are found by one of the most powerful evil people of all time. They’re hidden a little bit by the fact there are several menageries, and they know Moghedien might be too injured to search for them immediately. Along with the huge gathering of menageries, there are Whitecloaks nearby. The Prophet and his followers are close by. They need to find a river boat to safety. (Where is Bayle Domon when you need him?)
And Moggy just poked the Wisdom bear. The Forsaken took a swing at the Queen of the Two Rivers and missed. I look forward to Round 3 between these two (at least I do once Nynaeve has moved on from feelings of deepest despair, self-loathing, and regret to a desire for revenge.