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 13: The Bowl of the Winds
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Aviendha
Aviendha is on a boat with Elayne, Nynaeve, and Birgitte, trying to grasp in her mind the vast amounts of water that make up an ocean. They worry a bit since being warned by Egwene that Moghedien escaped, but they resolve to just be careful. Aviendha suggests they rely on Mat’s ta’veren abilities to help find the bowl. Nynaeve immediately rejects the idea but Elayne considers it to be a good idea, but Elayne asks Birgitte to broach the subject with Mat. They arrive at the largest Sea Folk ship in the harbor and prepare to board. The Sea Folk do not wish to allow Aes Sedai on their ship but Elayne tells them that they already know that the Windfinders can channel.
Aviendha finds the jewelry worn by the Sea Folk to be very strange, especially the nose rings. Malin din Toral Breaking Wave is the Wavemistress for clan Somarin. They move to a cabin where they encounter Nesta din Reas Two Moons, the Mistress of Ships for the Atha’an Miere. As usual Nynaeve attempts to bully them but Elayne intervenes and asks for channelers to help fix the weather when they find the ter’angreal bowl. When Elayne describes the bowl, the Sea Folk identify it as the Bowl of the Winds. The Sea Folk begin working on terms of a bargain for their aid with the Bowl of the Winds and the shorefolk are way out of their depth.
REACTION:
I love that this is an Aviendha POV. Have we had one of those before? I can’t remember one. One of Jordan’s best talents as a writer is world building. And adjacent to that, he’s outstanding with writing from the perspective of someone who is feeling out of place in someone else’s culture. I mean, that’s 80% of this series. Avi’s near panic at being surrounded by so much water was really well done.
The gist of this chapter – and it’s not completely clear until we get to the end – is that the women have decided that in lieu of the fact they can’t return to Egwene (due to Nicola and Areina) after they secure the Bowl, they need to secure additional channels to use the Bowl after they find it. The Sea Folk make the most sense given their abilities with weather. This was Avi’s idea.
Adjacent to this, the women discuss how to deal with Nicola and Areina back in the Rebel AS camp. Aviendha suggests killing them and even draws a line across her own neck for emphasis. I don’t know why that was funny, but it was. I think her warrior background borders just enough on parody to land in the comedy lane, but not so much so that it takes away from anything. The fact that this is also a fish out of water situation (or maybe more like a camel at sea one given the desert warrior on a boat situation) that it adds to the humor. Birgitte agreeing is interesting, given how much time she spent with Areina.
I think the thought process for Birgitte is something like, “The woman I was friends with turned out to be a blackmailer? Well, I have other friends.”
Siuan in the last chapter. Avi and Birgitte in this one. A lot of the good guys are very comfortable with the idea of killing Nicola and Areina. Those two needed someone with sense to counsel them with caution before they embarked on the blackmail journey.
In addition to coming up with the idea to recruit the Sea Folk, Avi is the first one to bring up actually utilizing Mat’s ta’veren nature. It’s pretty absurd that none of the others have done so, but I guess I understand it from Nynaeve’s standpoint. She is not only biased against him from their dealings back home, but she also knows she’s done him wrong more than once and can’t bring herself to apologize. So being around him rubs that in. Elayn’s lack of sense e is less forgivable, but she’s at least quick to acknowledge her error.
Birgitte is great in this sequence because she pretty clearly agrees with what Nynaeve says is Mat’s assessment of herself and Elayne.
“He’ll take charge… he thinks we’d walk into a bear’s den just to see the bear.” (an actual quote) ::Birgitte nodding::
Elayne then completely undoes whatever good will she might have won with the readers by patronizing Mat and saying that it’s in his own best interest that they not let him run loose.
“He needs to be made fit for decent company. We will put him on a short reign from the start.” (an actual quote) Robert Jordan at some point will either give me a reason to like Elayne (we aren’t there at book 7) OR I’ll assume the fact that he has not was entirely intentional.
“Only a ninny thinks she can threaten people and still get anywhere.” – Nynaeve
The lack of self-awareness is always funny, but it is extra funny from Avi’s perspective. She’s kind of like a stand-in for the Readers in that moment when she burst out laughing.
There’s some really fascinating world-building added very, very subtly into this chapter. On first blush, as a Reader, my reaction to the conversation with the Sea Folk about the ter’angreal is to ask how in the Light they know what this is, or what it does. But they mention that it has been lost for 2,000 years. That means it was lost 1,000 years AFTER the Breaking, in and around the time of the Trolloc Wars. That, Sea Folk knowledge of it, and its location in Ebou Dar (a major global harbor) strongly imply that the Sea Folk had been in possession of the Bowl of the Winds until it was lost. This could also explain why the Sea Folk have so much knowledge about working weather. They might have spent 1,000 years after the Breaking being the primary weather workers on the planet. Further, people during the Breaking might have put the best weather workers on boats in the first place. That goes a long way toward explaining why they know so much about something that the Aes Sedai do not.
It’s too bad we don’t get to see the origins of the Sea Folk, like we witnessed the origin of the Aiel.
The chapter ends with the bargaining, but a lot of that is just a barrage of independent questions to indicate how badly it’s going. It’s like a literary montage to display everyone’s discomfort. The Sea Folk beliefs about the Aiel are hilarious. Of course, pretty much everyone believes crazy things about the Aiel. I suppose when you keep to yourselves, people fill in the gaps creatively.
The chapter ends with Avi thinking she’s failed everyone, when in reality she’s proven to be the lone voice of reason and the savior of the situation. Jordan enjoys writing his characters into wrong perceptions and it’s fun to read, provided it doesn’t go too far. It doesn’t here.