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 46: Beyond the Gate
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Perrin Aybara
As Perrin finishes his meeting with Rand, he finds Davram Bashere waiting for him. Bashere simply says, “We will talk”, and then leads Perrin to a room. At first, Bashere implies that Perrin is merely seeking access to the Broken Crown. Perrin retorts that he is merely a blacksmith. Then Bashere discredits Perrin’s marriage to Zarine. Perrin insists it was valid―it was the same ceremony always used in the Two Rivers. Bashere dismisses it because Zarine isn’t old enough to marry and if she doesn’t convince her mother she will be sent to the Saldaean camp. And if that happens Bashere will have to kill Perrin. Eventually, after a long discussion, Bashere judges that Perrin is good enough to be Faile’s husband and they go to see the women. When they get there, Perrin hears and then sees that Faile and her mother, Deira, have slapped each other. Deira questions Perrin’s ability to dominate Faile. Eventually Davram tells her to back down and she does.
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Min comes in and sits in her usual chair―Rand’s lap. Min lets slip that Faile is the falcon from a previous vision and that she’ll be furious when “the hawk” shows up. Rather than ask what that means, Rand asks if she’s seen anything that concerns him. Twice Perrin will have to be there for Rand. Even if Perrin is there, he might not be able to protect Rand. But if he is not there, something bad will definitely happen to Rand. Min reminds Rand that she discovered that the Salidar Aes Sedai are holding secret meetings with the nobles in Caemlyn.
Point of view: Demira Eriff
Demira is hoping to meet an eyes-and-ears of hers that works in the palace library, but he must not have received her message on the meeting time. She’s irritated because the men on the street keep admiring her because of her Domani dress, which she only wears out of habit. She begins her journey back to the inn through the alleys. She meets six men dressed like Aiel men. As they pass her, they stab her with their spears and she loses consciousness. One of them was a squat man with black, villainous eyes.
Point of view: Perrin Aybara
Sulin shows Perrin and Faile to their rooms and starts explaining everything to them. Not realizing she is not a real servant, Perrin gives her a tip to get rid of her. Sulin is furious, but accepts the coin and leaves in a huff. Faile lets Perrin know that spying is a wife’s job and she is going to do it to protect him, even from Rand if she can. Perrin demands that she refrain from spying on Rand. She puts on a show of compliance. Then she suggests that they get working on the six (or more) grandchildren that they just promised to Deira.
Point of view: Demira Eriff
Demira wakes in the Crown of Roses, surprised that she is not dead. Before losing consciousness, she received a verbal message that she and the other “witches” should stay away from the Dragon Reborn. At around the same time a stranger came into the Crown of Roses and announced that he had just seen an Aes Sedai being pursued by Aiel who looked like they intended to kill her. At that moment Demira’s warder, Stevan, felt her being stabbed. Stevan took Berenicia with him. None of Demira’s injuries were fatal―a clear indication that she was meant to survive. The Aes Sedai assume the warning and the attack were at Rand’s direction. Verin enters and begins to take over from Merana to help set direction on how to respond to the attack. Verin is as strong as anyone else in the embassy and is much older, putting her at the top of the unspoken Aes Sedai hierarchy. They decide to stop meeting with Rand for a few days.
REACTION:
Perrin meets the insane in-laws. He reveals himself to be kind of insane, too. With barely any conversation had at all, Perrin is crushing wine cups in his hand and threatening his FIL with repercussions if he dares try to take Faile from. But of course Bashere is insane so he likes this and starts complimenting Perrin after.
Flashback: Bashere is the guy who is only alive right now because after throwing a dagger at Rand, Rand 1) succeeded in stopping it, and 2) decided not to hang him for treason because he recognized Bashere was just making a point.
Is Bashere insane though? In a modern Western sense… yeah. But in a world where literal monsters walk the earth, not as much. Bashere wanted to see that Perrin is tough and not someone who is going to be cowed. The fact that Perrin shows that side of himself so quickly probably made Bashere like him all the more quickly. The stories that Faile to him match up with the man he’s meeting. Bashere is also not a fool. His daughter marrying the Dragon Reborn’s friend isn’t a bad thing politically. When he threw the dagger at Rand, he was essentially doing the same thing. He wanted to see what Rand was made of, believing that if it was the wrong stuff and he died for the choice that the World was doomed either way. It’s kind of a stark way to live but in a place with trollocs it makes sense.
Diera Bashere is another person who comes across as crazy at first blush. HOWEVER… Perrin’s first reaction to seeing her is to think she’s “statue-esque,” “buxom,” and to think that he’s a lucky man if Faile ends up looking like her when she’s at that age. Lol. She immediately attacks Perrin in the same way Bashere did, questioning his strength. She does it slightly differently but it amounts to the same thing.
Deira: If a woman is stronger than her husband, she comes to despise him. She has the choice of either tyrannizing him, or of making herself less, in order not to make him less.
Is this true? I think *generally* the answer is yes. The devil is in the details of how you define strength, though. And of course, gender roles are a touchy topic in the present Age (or at least at the moment in this present Age.) But the meme of Gen Z women wanting a guy, but that he needs to be 6 feet plus, and make six figures plus… well, that’s essentially what this is They’re placing modern-setting parameters on what being stronger that they are looks like.
Anyway, Deira gets Perrin to the point of fury hilariously quickly, just like her husband, but Bashere calls her off. Perrin passed the test.
Min viewed Perrin and saw that twice he will have to be there to save Rand. She thinks even if he is there it won’t completely protect Rand. She also informed him that the Salidar Aes Sedai are meeting with the nobles behind Rand’s back. (This is the same thing that the White Tower Aes Sedai are doing in Cairhien, but Rand doesn’t know about the White Tower scheming.) That viewing kind of feels like it needs to happen in *this* book, given the timing of when the Readers are told and based on the fact that Perrin shows back up for the first time in dozens and dozens of chapters.
Sidenote: Almost nothing that the Aes Sedai do (as an organization) in this series is presented positively. They don’t lead from a position of power, or out in the open. They are always scheming from the shadows. Most of the world hates them to one degree or another. I wonder if they’d be better off leading openly. Maybe that’s just one way the world is broken. The Aes Sedai led more openly in the Age of Legends. People don’t mind the use of force, as much, when they see the force being used and its defense being justified publicly. I think even the scheming would be better received if it were accompanied by open wielding of power, too.
Jordan is always kind of making this point. Men lead openly and based on observable force/power. Women do the behind-the-scenes stuff to make that open leading work effectively. What happens without the men? You get the Aes Sedai. He’d probably also argue that the men would not be good at leading with the women doin the behind the scenes stuff. They both need each other. Maybe there’s a turning of the Wheel when society is broken, due to the lack of women doing their (as Jordan sees it) vital role.
Demira Sedai gets stabbed by men dressed as Aiel. They almost certainly are *not* Aiel. They aren’t described as looking like Aiel. The fact that they call her a “witch” points to them being Whitecloaks. Keep in mind that Rand was almost assassinated by Whitecloaks in Caemlyn not that long ago so they’re probably in the city. We also know Fain is around close by, based on his POV section a while back, so they could be *his* Whitecloaks from the Two Rivers.
Perrin and Faile end up having a good conversation regarding Rand. She – as usual – is correct in pointing out that Kings often end up using or using up, even their own friends. Perrin should know that Rand could do that based on their conversation earlier, but he denies that Rand would do that. He’ll learn. She promised not to spy on Rand but I’m guessing she’ll get around that promise and Perrin will be thankful that she did. In contrast to how Aes Sedai manipulative tactics are always presented, Faile’s spying here is treated positively. Something to think about.
I really wonder what Robert Jordan’s marriage was like sometimes. His wife was his editor. She got the details right for him while he set the direction and had his name on the books.
The Aes Sedai blame the Demira attack on Rand… sigh. These are supposed to be smart women, right? They are smart enough to realize that the attack was not intended to actually kill her, but not smart enough to even consider that Rand did not order the attack. Why would he? He doesn’t need to have any of them stabbed if they are obeying his demands. PLENTY of other people have a reason to cause dissension, though. The worst part of this is Demira should know what an Aiel looks like, and what an Aiel doesn’t look like, and she didn’t notice the details of her attackers. The whole group just jumps to conclusions without thought. If they’d been smart enough to find the actual attackers, they’d have realized for sure that those were not Aiel.
Right as they settle on the notion that what happened had to have come from Rand, and that Rand needs to be taught a lesson, though not too hard a one, Verin takes over the Salidar Embassy (oldest and strongest gives her precedence.) She’s thus either going to lead them into a disaster or help them avoid one. Verin has always been a little bit sketchy, so the way that this plays out should help shed some light on her – one way or another.
So… the Salidar Embassy might be on the verge of collapse if they swat at Rand in a stupid way. Odds are good that they will. The book is too near the end to not have some big misunderstandings with big consequences.
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