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 29: Fire and Spirit
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Nynaeve al’Meara
Nynaeve is sweating before going in to the Little Tower, due to the heat, but also her weather sense says a severe storm should be overhead. She is only on the eleventh day of her forty day punishment for being disrespectful to the Aes Sedai. She is looking for Siuan and Leane so she can see if she can heal stilling by examining them, but they are busy with some of the Sitters. Brendas asks about yesterday’s session with Theodrin, which did not make any progress on breaking Nynaeve’s block on channeling. It did get her drunk, though.
Back outside, Thom is finally back from his scouting mission along with Juilin. Elayne arrives to give Thom a hug of welcome. After being pressed by Elayne, Thom shares a rumor he heard that has her mother Morgase as a guest of the Whitecloaks, which Elayne considers completely ridiculous. After Thom and Juilin go back in the Little Tower to report, Nynaeve decides the only thing she can do is examine Logain, again. She gathers her anger enough to be able to channel. With Elayne watching she channels saidar into him and notices that he is healthy except for a hole. She channels Fire and Spirit into the hole where she finds a cut and Logain’s eyes widen, suddenly. Nynaeve realizes that she has Healed Logain of gentling. She shields Logain immediately and tells Elayne to go find Sheriam―and only Sheriam―as quickly as possible.
REACTION:
Nynaeve is the best… THE BEST. She does something long believed to be impossible in this chapter. This moment is better in a lot of ways than her victories over Moghedien. I know she’s got character flaws, but stuff like this is why hers are forgivable. She was too stubborn (and she cared too much) to admit that the universal wisdom of the last several thousand years was true. Even the Forsaken believed stilling was unfixable. They were all wrong and she was right. She’s the Wisdom. This book needed a big moment, before it started to feel as though it was dragging, and she delivers one here. This was a fantastic, well-written, well-earned moment.
Nynaeve is the primary heroine of this story (I don’t just mean this book, I mean the series as a whole.) None of the other women – Moiraine, Egwene, Elayne, Avi, or Min – have moments as big as she does, nor as often as hers are. She is the only one of the female characters who has had an entire book’s major plot arc built primarily around her – which was the case in The Fires of Heaven. To a big degree, the Tanchico subplot arc was also built primarily around Nynaeve in The Shadow Rising. If Nyn, Eggy, and Elayne are the Super Girls, Nynaeve is the most super.
EVERYONE SHOULD HOLD HER IN ABSOLUTE AWE!
The interesting thing about this story is that Lan might be the only person who maintains a proper perspective on her. He sees past her temper to the person beneath. I guess that someone with a temper can be hard to be around. But if that person defeated one of the Forsaken, twice, and the second time captured her in such a way that she started extracting information from her (in Moggy’s World of Dreams turf no less) then shouldn’t nearly everyone who knows be in awe of her, too? Not to mention, she also saved Rand from Rahvin. She needs Lan back in the same way that Rand needs literally anyone to be on his side. She deserves someone wholly on *her* side, too. Elayne is getting credit for Moggy-given “discoveries” that Nynaeve made possible all by herself. Nynaeve is so humble that she doesn’t even put that to herself in those terms – despite the fact it’s true. Oh, and here in this chapter she made the greatest discovery with the One Power in at least 3,000 years entirely on her own.
Nynaeve is the best.
Other notes:
- Birgitte beats up Moggy so badly that Elayne has to make up a story that “Marigan” fell down some stairs. Elayne defends her choice to do it. I guess they regularly inflict pain on her through the a’dam, to make her compliant, too. But it’s pretty clear that when you’re dealing with a 3,000 year old ultra-powerful genocidal witch, the rules of the Geneva convention don’t apply. Or at least they aren’t being applied.
- Thom tells Elayne (accurately) that her mother is alive. She doesn’t believe him. But it makes sense that he’d hear about it. I suspect he believe the rumor.
- Logain being “healed” has been foreshadowed for multiple books, with Min having the “future glory” vision around him. It was incredible to read it, though. What does future glory look like for him? He’s now a male channeler again. Will he join the Farm and take charge? Rand definitely needs someone else to run that place, given that Taim has about a thousand red flags, each with “Darkfriend” printed on them.
- I guess we might get to see if this works on Siuan and Leane next.
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