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 52: Choices
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Today Rand plans to kill Rahvin who is masquerading as Gaebril in Caemlyn. Rand forgot his dinner meeting with Colavaere since he was busy planning the battle with the clan chiefs and Wise Ones. Aviendha took care of her, making sure she stops sending young women after Rand. Asmodean enters and wishes to travel to Caemlyn rather than wait behind watching the nobles in Cairhien. Mat waits outside and explains that he had to kill Melindhra last night when she tried to kill him. They notice that all of the Maidens are missing and no one is quite sure why. Moiraine arrives with Egwene and gives Rand two letters, one from Moiraine to Rand and the other to Thom Merrilin. She then tells him he must come down to the docks to see something.
Point of view: Hadnan Kadere
Kadere is in his wagon by the dock where it is already hot even early in the morning. He watches as Rand arrives with his party. Yesterday Moiraine had him help uncover the twisted redstone doorway from the wagon behind his. He notices the way Aviendha looks at Rand, which confirms his belief that she is sleeping with him. Keille is suddenly there greeting him and they go in to his wagon. He almost screams when he sees it is Lanfear in his wagon now instead of Keille. He begins to give her all the news he can think of, hoping it will be enough to save his life.
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Rand becomes impatient with Moiraine for dragging him down to the docks with no explanation. Suddenly Kadere’s wagon explodes and Lanfear steps out holding Kadere’s skin, then tossing it away. She remarks to Lews Therin that Kadere told him about Aviendha. Moiraine charges, which causes Lan to charge also until he runs into a wall of something. Both are then flung aside. Rand channels and tries to create a dome with just himself and Lanfear inside, so the battle will not affect the others nearby. Aviendha and Egwene are inside the dome, though, and Lanfear begins to torture them, asking which is Aviendha. Rand cuts her flows, which angers her. Rand then says he will never love one of the Forsaken, so Lanfear decides to kill him if he can’t be hers. Rand drives her back toward the wagon with the ter’angreal while she battles back. She climbs into the wagon and picks up a dark ivory bracelet that was laying there, an angreal for women. She begins to boast of what she will do to him. He thinks of ways to kill her, but can’t bring himself to kill a woman, even one of the Forsaken. Lanfear is slowly killing him.
Point of view: Moiraine Damodred
Moiraine crawls out from under the wagon to see Rand suffering and Lanfear in the wagon with the Twisted redstone doorframe behind her. The scene is the same she has seen since her trip to the ter’angreal in Rhuidean that shows possible futures. This is one possible future that she knew would come to pass. She put the ivory bracelet angreal in a particular spot to draw Lanfear onto the wagon. Moiraine embraces the source and charges at Lanfear, tearing away the angreal and forcing both of them through the doorway.
REACTION:
Goodbye, Moiraine. I wish you hadn’t been so annoying for so many consecutive books. Now that you’re not, you needed to die, I guess.
This is for The Wheel of Time what Gandalf in the Mines of Moria is for The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf knew he was choosing death going down into those mines. Moiraine knew she was choosing death, too. Jordan did a great job of setting up “Moiraine knows the future” (post Rhuidean ter’angreal) while keeping it suspenseful as waited to find out what she knows.
Lanfear – for the first time in the series – finally lives up to her Balrog-ish “ancient demon walking the earth once more” reputation. She’s spent most of the series just giving “succubus with her own agenda” vibes. Not here, though. At long last, The Daughter of the Night took crazy ex girlfriend to new heights. She removed Kadere’s skin from his body, whole, like she was the Jeepers Creepers monster or something, and then tossed it up in the air and inflated like a balloon.
Holy cow that’s dark. I don’t want to skip past it. Lanfear in a rage was a long time coming for this series, it delivered, and it was genuinely terrifying. That scene was perfectly written. She has presented herself as a gray-ish character, often helping Rand, but with some darker hints around the edges. We now know for the first time that she absolutely deserved to be three thousand years of nightmare fuel and why she is among the most feared of the Forsaken. She removed a dude’s skin, whole, and set fire to dozens of others and (as Rand notes) she did not care.
“Which is Aviendha?”
Imagine hearing that question, if you’re Egwene, and then immediately being *brutally* tortured by the most powerful woman on earth. How many times has Egwene been tortured on Rand’s behalf so far in this series? It’s like a bookly occurrence. Noteably, Eggy the Hero doesn’t point at Aviendha who is also being tortured. Jordan also does this great thing with Lanfear – in the midst of supreme psychosis – wherein she is described as having anguish on her face for just a moment as Rand tells her he will never love her. Lanfear has been a *much* better and more interesting villain than Ishamael ever was. Jordan’s motivations for her just work and resonate. Jilted love is discernible and accessible in a way that philosophical nihilism is not.
Jordan also really sets up Rand’s big “flaw” in this moment, too. It’s not just that he doesn’t like to kill women. He now no longer can – even in the face of the end of the world. (Remember – he killed a woman in The Dragon Reborn on the way to Tear so this character trait is at least in part born of his madness.)
I’ve been talking in my recaps about how “Lanfear finds out” is going to be an issue, but Jordan hid this moment really well behind other events. Rand should have been much more aware of this looming explosion, but Jordan made it easy for the readers to see why he wasn’t. Unless you’re reading the series really slowly, or not for the first time, you could easily miss how big a shock this moment actually is. This book is just a masterclass in how to leave just enough crumbs to set up a scene but not so many that you spoil the surprise.
I was happy that Jordan switched the POV to Moiraine just before her big heroic sacrifice. It was comforting as a Reader to say goodbye to her while inside her thoughts. She didn’t just sacrifice herself in the moment. She’s been knowingly walking toward this end for weeks or months. That makes it a deeper and more significant sacrifice, IMO.
So do we think Moiraine and Lanfear are dead? I stand by the rule of “no body, not dead” though there is a strong sense of finality here. Since the two women ended up in the land of Snakes and Foxes, which is not even in the same dimension, it is even more likely that they are still alive. That said, the outcome of those two being alive could be anything. Maybe Moiraine will return as Moiraine the White.
Getting back to the start of the chapter… why is Rand so confident going up against Rahvin? He didn’t beat Be’lal. Moiraine did that. He didn’t even beat Asmodean on his own (an angreal and Lanfear helped.) He needed a sa’angreal to beat Ishamael (and he does not trust his own sanity enough to plan on bringing either of his sa’angreals to Caemlyn in this chapter.) I guess one answer to this question of why he is confident is that Rand is going insane. That said… he does have his angreal and I guess you can feel confident when you keep springing traps and the Pattern keeps helping you step through them.
I kind of passed over this type of thing with other women, in earlier chapters, but Aviendha personally giving beatings to the noble women of Cairhien who try to get into Rand’s tent is part of her characterization that I need to internalize better. That feels… excessive. I still like her more than Elayne, inasmuch as I think her feelings for Rand are entirely genuine, but this story (and Rand) needs more Min.
Mat tells Rand that he killed Melindhra, and that she was a Darkfriend. In hindsight, this made a good juxtaposition with what Rand faced and failed to beat in the form of Lanfear. I wonder if Melindhra was a key piece to a plan against Rand. A Maiden right beside him could probably kill him before he could bring himself to respond. Mat might have dealt with that problem. It’s worth some thought for Rand (when he has time to recover) that there might be Darkfriends even among the Aiel. I don’t think he’s really considered that to this point.
Rand’s unintentional feud with the Maidens kind of boiled over. We don’t see how that resolves in this chapter – only that they have abandoned him for now. How will they react to not being there for him when he was attacked by Lanfear?
Anyway… the book is not over but I don’t really think there’s anyway for Rand vs. Rahvin to live up to what just happened. This chapter is the end of Moiraine and Lanfear. So long, ladies. I hope you fare well with the Snakes and Foxes. And I hope we see you both again down the road.
2 thoughts on “The Fires of Heaven (Chapter 52): Choices”