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 23: To Understand a Message
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Graendal
Graendal visits Sammael‘s rooms in Illian and is amazed at the items he has found from the Age of Legends. He hints that he has found something powerful, which Graendal suspects means he has an angreal or sa’angreal.[1] Sammael claims he now has a truce with Rand. Sammael wants to know where the other Forsaken are. Graendal states that Asmodean and Lanfear are dead and Moghedien probably is, too. Mesaana is in the White Tower. Graendal does not know where any of the others are. Sammael hints that the Great Lord has promised him the position of Nae’blis and tells Graendal to find where the others are so he can point Rand at them.
Point of view: Sammael
Sammael plans to do whatever he must to survive and become Nae’blis and defeat Rand in the Last Battle.
REACTION:
This is a short diversion from the plot, but it’s important. Jordan has been propping up Sammael as the next big bad, for a while now, but to this point he hasn’t come across as a serious threat. Here he finally does. Jordan achieves this in a really interesting way, namely that he cows one of the other Forsaken, Graendal, by weaponizing her mind against her.
With the simple trick of holding a smile in place, instead of unleashing his temper as he usually does, he unravels Graendal to a point that she tells him where Mesaana is and agrees to also tell him where the other Forsaken are hiding, too. This was really well-written, particularly in that we see it from both sides via the POV shift at the end of the chapter.
I find it hard to believe that Graendal hasn’t found any angreal or sa’angreal, yet. What kept her from just entering the White Tower to look around? We saw Lanfear do that in Book #2. Shouldn’t we assume Mesaana has angreal and sa’angreal now?
One interesting possibility is that because everyone among the Chosen knows Lanfear entered the White Tower first (well, second after Ishy,) they might be afraid to pillage the WT of its treasures, thinking maybe Lanfear laid invisible traps around those power wrought objects – not unlike what Rand did with Callandor in Tear. She might have even told them that she did. Inconveniently for Graendal, Moggy, etc., is that Lanfear also got to the Stone of Tear first among the women.
But I mean… couldn’t they just walk around among Aes Sedai, use compulsion, and get/find out what they know? Yes. So.. it’s pretty odd that Graendal is so angreal deficient. The Forsaken spend all their time looking for stasis boxes and not going to the places where the One Power artifacts are held relatively openly.
I think I have to concede that this is just either a massive oversight by the bad guy characters, or the guy writing them. You’d think one of the very first things you’d do, in their shoes, is to get One Power weapons.
All of that notwithstanding.. very interesting short chapter. I’m intrigued about Sammael’s plans now in a way I wasn’t before.