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 24: An Embassy
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Egwene al’Vere
Egwene is walking around in Cairhien, which she views as much better than walking around outside the walls. She is thinking about how she will be able to return to Tel’aran’rhiod soon, not for the next meeting in three days, but shortly after that. She listens to gossip as she walks and suddenly realizes that there must be White Tower eyes-and-ears around and they might be looking for her. She almost panics but then realizes that dressed as an Aiel Wise One, no one is going to notice her as the Accepted Egwene al’Vere.
She intervenes in an altercation and as that gets resolved she notices a mounted party, with women wearing the Flame of Tar Valon on their cloaks. She runs back to the Aiel tents to inform the Wise Ones and finds Berelain visiting with Amys, Bair, and Sorilea. For some reason the Wise Ones are very fond of Berelain, but Egwene can’t ask why without incurring toh. Egwene asks Berelain to keep her presence a secret from the White Tower Aes Sedai.
REACTION:
I sometimes struggle with Egwene. The extent to which she makes each new thing she does her entire personality is off-putting. She’s something like two years removed from her village and views the White Tower and the Aes Sedai as her family. She’s barely spent any time there and hardly knows anyone… but they’re her family. Just like she’s Aiel in her heart now, too. The real test for her would be apprenticing with the Sea Folk, I think. Their wardrobe might finally be the hurdle she can’t clear.
In this chapter, she breaks up a fight among Caihien men by asking them about their honor, as though she and they are all Aiel? Ugh.
I am not bothered by Egwene in the sense that I think Jordan wrote an unrealistic personality. On the contrary, I definitely know women like this (though maybe not quite to this extreme.) It’s just a little bit exhausting. It feels almost disloyal. She’s constantly putting off her old culture to put on a new one. It doesn’t help that we almost never hear her thinking about home The boys do that far more often.
I am reminded that Jordan’s Egwene al’Vere gets her named from the King Arthur tales’ Guinevere. She is based on someone who was both good-hearted and unfaithful. I see a bit of that in Egwene’s personality. On the outside, she continues abandoning her old culture to pick up a new one. Inwardly, she’s still loyal to her roots – she’s just incorporating the new atop the old. Interestingly, the Emond’s Field boys all understand her fairly well. Rand has thought to himself more than once than Egwene does everything with her whole heart. And yet he’s also stung by her behavior, warning himself that she’s changed and that she’s Aes Sedai now. He knows the intention is good but he doesn’t see that the outward changes do not mean inward loyalty changes followed. She’s still loyal to him despite joining the team opposed to him. She might also betray him, thinking that she knows better than he does, and is helping him, on behalf of that other team. It’s all very confusing.
I digress.
One of my favorite moments from this chapter is Egwene’s confusion over why the Wise Ones love Berelain so much. I think she understands why they love *her* so much, but she can’t see it in Berelain. What she misses is that they appreciate that Berelain uses the weapons she has to protect her own people. They see honor in the outcome. Egwene gets stuck on the methods. But pretty much all the main women characters (Elayne, too) get caught up with the methods.
The main plot point from this chapter is that Elaida has sent an Embassy to meet with Rand. Egwene warns Berelain and the Wise Ones that they are not going to be friends with Rand and are likely enemies. She’s almost certainly right about that. We also learn that Egwene is finally healthy after her attack from Lanfear. Whatever the Daughter of the Night did to her left her with headaches for months. I guess she was luckier than Kadere. But it’s worth remembering that Lanfear was (is?) always more dangerous than Rand and the readers allowed themselves to believe of her.
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