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: The Kin
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Reanne Corly
Reanne watches Elayne and Nynaeve leave the house and discusses the situation with Berowin. Members of the Kin are those that left the White Tower, often for failing the test for Accepted or for the shawl. Sarainya Vostovan enters and informs Reanne that Callie is dead and the One Power was used to kill her. They are confused about who would do such a thing.
Point of view: Nynaeve al’Meara
Nynaeve realizes she will have to apologize to Elayne about the value of letting Setalle Anan lead them to the Kin and she hates to apologize. Elayne wonders aloud how old Reanne must be to show gray in her hair; Nynaeve feels put upon that slowing makes her look too young to hold authority. Nynaeve is struck in the head and groggily notices that Elayne has collapsed to the ground. A man and woman attempt to help them to a carriage but Nynaeve notices a blunted arrow laying on the ground. It must have grazed her and struck Elayne. Nynaeve channels to force would-be helpers (and a cutpurse) away. She Heals Elayne and they start debating who might want to kidnap them. They finally agree, though, that Mat will have to be the one to help find the Bowl of the Winds.
REACTION:
One of my absolute favorite writer-tricks is when you see a main POV character from the outside, through the eyes of someone else. Jordan does this so perfectly here, with the Kin as they watch Nynaeve and Elayne walking away from their window. We get so used to the characters, living in their heads, that it’s *really* fun to be reminded that from the perspective of others they are larger than life mysteries.
We didn’t get a sense from the Supergirls’ POV that the Kin were freaked out by them, but we see it here, with Berowin pointing out, alarmed, that Elayne and Nyn weren’t sweating. It’s been such a small background detail for those two (one that both were happy to learn how to do) but from the perspective of a knowledgeable outsider, it’s MASSIVE and it marks them as Aes Sedai. Jordan is phenomenal with that kind of stuff.
We learn here for sure – though we guessed in the last chapter – that Reanne Corly was kicked out of the White Tower when she wouldn’t finish the Accepted test. This provides a pretty big clue that at least *some* of the Circle / Kin know who Setalle Anan is, if she also used to be part of the White Tower in some way. My guess is that she’s a burned out former Aes Sedai given her significant knowledge about the Aes Sedai inside the Palace, how channeling works, her inability to channel personally, plus the level of deference the Circle showed her.
When discussing Setalle Anan, as they speculate fearfully about how she knows about their group, and punishing whoever told her, Reanne reminds them to “remember who she is.” That statement is not clarified, but it makes sense within the rest of their conversation if 1) Setalle is a former Aes Sedai, and 2) if the Kin believe Aes Sedai do not know about their group.
The biggest clue here about her identity is that she’s been in Ebou Dar for twenty years – because Reanne mentions that they helped her to deliver a child twenty years ago. This does not square with Setalle being burned out, because we have been told that Aes Sedai who are burned out do not live long thereafter. However, we are also told that those who do find something else to live for. Siuan before her healing was living via politics. Maybe Setalle lived via a family.
That makes me wonder, then, if her husband was previously her Warder. You know… assuming the theory is right.
We learn that the Circle/Kin don’t accept Wilders and in the last chapter we learn they don’t accept Runaways. We also learn that they don’t go looking for people to teach. So… that implies that their numbers are entirely former Tower initiates who failed a test and were tossed out? It doesn’t make sense that this group would be a secret… but we shall see what additional information we get.
As this POV section ends, we find out one of their number was murdered with the One Power. As a reminder, we saw in the Black Ajah POV earlier in the book that the Black Sisters killed one of the Kin trying to get information from her about the storehouse, when we learned they were in the city looking for that storehouse of One Power objects on Moggy’s orders. Moggy, of course, stopped checking in on them so they were wondering about that fact.
They then wonder if Nyn and Elayne are the murderers.
We switch to a Nyn POV section for the remainder of the chapter, where as they discuss events, Nyn is also thinking in the background about buying dresses that Lan would like and about how much she wishes she had gray hair. Lol. They’re both kind of childish, to the point of great irritation at times, but this is pretty endearing.
On their walk back to the palace, they are attacked. Nynave turning her head abruptly saves her from getting knocked out, and that allows her to channel her way out of danger. They don’t know who might have attacked them but suspect it might have been the Kin with whom they were just speaking. Alternatively, they consider it might have been the White Tower Aes Sedai inside the Palace. The people who actually sent the attackers are almost certainly the aforementioned Black Sisters who know Moggy would *love* to have these two in hand – and they discussed getting them earlier in this book.
Elayne comments on Reanne’s age and the implication of that conversation is that Reanne might be *very* old given the amount of gray hair. Even most Aes Sedai, who are well over a century old, only have gray hairs, or streaks of gray. They aren’t fully gray. I think this was a similar line of thought that came up for Eggy re: Sorilea among the Aiel. Jordan is obviously going somewhere with this detail, but it remains to be seen where. It’s also interesting that the *only* women who seem to look “Ageless” are Aes Sedai. The other women around the world who can channel slow in aging, but they aren’t described as Ageless. That means the women of the White Tower do something differently than their channeling counter-parts to cause this and none of them seem to realize that this is the case.
The chapter ends with Nyn and Elayne knowing Mat is their best hope to find the Bowl… which along with other things makes Nyn cry. (I remember when she was the high-tempered but mature, clever, and self-possessed Wisdom… my girl has been brought down and down and down since she caught up with Moiraine and the gang in Baerlon back in Book 1.) Don’t worry though. I’m sure Mat will pull their bacon out of the fire as he always does.