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 10: Unseen Eyes
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Egwene al’Vere
Egwene prepares for bed with assistance from her maid, Selame. She looks out the tent window and sees a woman watching the tent. She puts herself to sleep the way the Wise Ones taught her and enters the World of Dreams. She warns Nynaeve and Elayne about the blackmail attempt by Nicola, and also about the escape of Moghedien, by passing a message to them in their dreams. She then finds Amys and makes a request to meet her, which is accepted. Gawyn‘s dream almost catches her, but she moves to the meeting place in the Stone of Tear to wait for the Wise Ones.
Amys, Bair, and Melaine arrive and sit down beside Callandor to hear what Egwene has to say. She informs them that she has been raised as Amyrlin to the rebel faction of Aes Sedai. They correctly deduce that she may only be a figurehead rather than truly in command. The Wise Ones let Egwene know that Merana and the other Aes Sedai have traveled to Cairhien but did not bring pigeons so they can report back. They do not tell her about Rand’s kidnapping by the White Tower Aes Sedai or that the Aes Sedai have sworn fealty to him.
Egwene dreams of Gawyn after she returns from Tel’aran’rhiod, but they are a Dreamer‘s dreams not normal dreams.
- Gawyn walking barefoot across broken glass, his feet bleeding.
- Gawyn on a horse faced with a choice of two paths. One path lead to his death, the other to a long life.
- Mat reaching into the sky to grab exploding fireworks, which would lead to many deaths.
- Egwene with her neck on a headman’s block with an axe descending and someone rushing to save her
- Logain stepping over Rand’s body to mount a black stone
- A golden female hawk touches Egwene and they become tied together
- A man lies dying in a bed; it’s important that he live, but a funeral pyre is prepared
- A dark young man holds a brightly shining object
REACTION:
Who is the woman watching the tent? I’d guess Halima. I’d also guess that’s the source of Eggy’s headaches. I’m not sure that I see the point, though.
“I’m going to mildly inconvenience your plans. Muahahaha.”
I’ve been on the lack of cleverness from Aes Sedai lately, in this re-read, but I want to congratulate Eggy for being smart here. She warned Nyn and Elayne ASAP about a loosed Forsaken that 100% is holding a grudge against them both – Nyn in particular. She also remembered to warn them about Nicola and Areina’s blackmail threat.
It also makes sense that she seek out a meeting with the Wise Ones. I’m frustrated that she isn’t seeking out a face-to-face with Rand (even a secret one), but this is the first step toward arranging that. The Wise Ones actually suggest this – passively – but she doesn’t see the hints. I think they know that she’s blind to certain realities and needs to see them for herself. But they can’t tell her outright because they don’t trust the people around her and know she’d have to tell some of them.
From Eggy’s POV, I think she’d visit Rand without the Hall’s permission, and accept the consequences if caught, if she knew what the Wise Ones know. She just doesn’t know. They hint to her and she doesn’t pick up on it. They probably learn something from her by her lack of reaction, too.
Eggy tells them that she’s Amyrlin. And they immediately pick up from her that they chose her to be a puppet Amyrlin. They actually figure it out so fast that I wonder if they’ve been spying on dreams somehow. Aes Sedai ward their dreams… but still. They picked up on that way too quickly, clever and wise, or not. It is useful to remember that characters can take actions off the page. My head canon is that Avi is relaying what she knows and she’d know that by now.
Bair asks Eggy about whether her Aes Sedai will kneel to Rand and this tells us 1) Rand is now free and the Battle at Dumai’s Wells is over, and 2) they’re testing her to see what she knows and whether they can trust the coalition she represents. Eggy doesn’t pick up on any of this. This is also why they don’t tell her about Rand’s captivity, I think. If she’d been open to that idea of kneeling, they might have told her more. I suspect they wish that they could tell her more. But after what just happened to Rand…
Egwene muses on how the Wise Ones want to guide Rand. And how pretty much every group of powerful women want to guide him. She thinks she’s doing the same thing and adds to herself “only I’m right” arguing that she is the only one working for what’s in his best interests, too. First, I don’t think Eggy is correct about the other women caring about Rand’s best interests. The Aiel do. Second, none of them contemplate being guided by him. Moiraine is the only powerful woman in the series who openly tries that and she’s been the most successful with him by far.
(Note: I just don’t understand people who read this series and think Jordan is writing a pro-feminism fantasy series. Feminism is almost always portrayed negatively by Jordan – or more to the point – it’s portrayed as being ineffective. He’s writing a series about gender roles and gender balance. You know… among other things.)
After all of the confusion about what Eggy knows, and doesn’t know, and her new role, and after she fails to pick up on hints that she should visit, both Eggy and the Wise Ones seem eager to keep Rand from finding out that she is Amyrlin. I suspect on the Aiel end, they probably view Eggy as a potential snare for Rand, even if an unwitting one. Eggy’s probably not wrong that Rand might just appear in her camp, too. So… a lot of things that could be cleared up with a face-to-face are going to be problems for multiple books.
Welcome to The Wheel of Time!
It will be difficult to keep Rand’s captivity secret. So maybe when that gets out, it will change things. The chapter ends with Egwene Dreaming some prophecies.
Let’s go through them!
- Gawyn walking barefoot across broken glass, his feet bleeding.
- Gawyn on a horse faced with a choice of two paths. One path lead to his death, the other to a long life. One path is marriage to Egwene and the other not.
- Egwene with her neck on a headman’s block with an axe descending and someone rushing to save her
- A golden female hawk touches Egwene and they become tied together
He’s going to have to rescue her at some point, and he’ll suffer for it. The second one is more interesting though. What are the options?
A) Marriage to Eggy and long life
B) Marriage to Eggy and a violent death
C) Moving on from Eggy and long life
D) Moving on from Eggy and violent death
Option A seems the most unlikely, IMO.
The third point could also be Gawyn-related, but it’s not spelled out that way. I guess being rescued by tall blue-eyed red haired men is her destiny. Or the third thing above could be related to the 4th. I have no idea who that would be, though. Golden female hawk? Berelain is a hawk but never a golden one so far. So someone tied to Hawkwing? One of the Seanchan? I have no idea here.
Mat reaching into the sky to grab exploding fireworks, which would lead to many deaths.
It seems likely that Mat is going to figure out how to use the technology of fireworks to make weapons. It’s been hinted at already.
Logain stepping over Rand’s body to mount a black stone
So maybe Logain will be Rand’s successor at the Black Tower? That fits Min’s vision of future glory for him, too. But it sounds a lot like Rand will die.
A man lies dying in a bed; it’s important that he live, but a funeral pyre is prepared
This is probably Rand, right? People outside are singing songs of joy and sadness. So Rand wins a big battle, and is dying, but it’s important he doesn’t doesn’t die. BUT… if it was Rand… why not say Rand? Who else could it be? I guess it could be Mat with the “die and live again” prophecy, but I think Mat’s already done that AND she’d recognize it as Mat. There has been a lot of “Rand dies” foreshadowing. It could be something else, though. If Egwene gets a Warder (Gawyn) and he dies… that’s bad. Again though… she doesn’t recognize this person. So… no idea.
A dark young man holds a brightly shining object
If this was someone we’ve met, we would have gotten a name. So I assume this is someone we have not yet met. I’ve got nothing to add to that. Hmm. Let’s keep an eye out for new characters with dark hair.
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