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 30: The First Cup
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Elayne Trakand
Merilille leads a trial against Elayne in the presence of other Salidar Aes Sedai including Adeleas and Vandene. She and Nynaeve are accused of seeking knowledge of the Kin, which is prohibited. In their opinion it doesn’t matter that Elayne and Nynaeve were never told that it was prohibited. Pol rushes in with a letter from Jaichim Carridin, delivered by Tylin, which Elayne reads. Therein, Carridin states that Morgase is alive and he offers Elayne protection across Altara to visit her, where she is currently under the protection of the Whitecloaks and Pedron Niall. Furious and disbelieving, Elayne throws the letter and uses Fire to burn it.
Incensed and energized, she rounds on Merilille and reminds all present that she and Nynaeve are Aes Sedai with the authority of the Amyrlin. Elayne’s authority from the Amyrlin supersedes their own from the Hall of the Tower. The other Aes Sedai agree that she has authority over them. Adeleas, Vandene, and Merilille explain that the Tower has known about the Kin for hundreds of years, and that they rely on the Kin’s network to track down and find runaways. Eventually all present apologize to Elayne and pledge to help her. The Tower believes the Kin is a small group but Elayne tells them that it is not the case.
Point of view: Moghedien
Moghedien spots Nynaeve getting onto a ship with a red cabin, then uses compulsion to have an innkeeper show her a roof in Ebou Dar. She sees the ship with the red cabin in the river and uses balefire to destroy it. At the last moment, pigeons erupt from the roof and startle her, causing her to miss the cabin. Instead the balefire splits the boat in two and its halves sink. She rushes into her coach, fearful that the entire city is now alert to her use of saidar.
REACTION:
Elayne finally gets a good moment. It’s a bit unfortunate that for her to get this moment, women who are more than a century old have to go through collective character assassination first, but… nevertheless.
First of all, if the “real” Aes Sedai, as they saw themselves, really didn’t think Elayne and Nyn were also “real” Aes Sedai… how did it make sense to just turn them loose to do whatever they wanted in Ebou Dar? At this point, they have been doing so for weeks. Also… if Elayne’s big moment of victory is pointing out that they’re all risking treason charges by not recognizing her rank (both as Aes Sedai and as Aes Sedai with superseding authority in Ebou Dar)… how did none of these aged women see it coming? It’s crazy. Then they all just meekly accept their censure? I suppose they must, though. Elayne and Nyn are both *vastly* stronger than the other women in addition to Elayne just being right about the reality of their situation.
Great moment for Elayne… but it required the other Aes Sedai to be extremely foolish. That stole a lot of the joy of that victory for me as a reader.
After we get past all of that, we get an explanation for what the Kin are. They’re a group of Tower failures and Wilders. The last is a bit confusing because it seems to be at odds with what we heard from the Kin when they were interrogating Elayne and Nyn.. but it makes sense that the interrogation may have gone completely differently if Elayne and Nyn hadn’t obviously been *in* the White Tower for training. The conversation is likely very different if they’re both obviously Wilders.
The chapter ends with Moggy trying to kill Nyn with balefire. I suppose it’s pretty fortuitous for her that Nyn has left the Palace while not in a power wrought disguise. Maybe we’ll find out what Nyn was up to, with her face showing, in the next chapter.
Moggy misses Nyn with her balefire blast because she’s absolutely terrified of Moridin finding out she’s doing this without authorization. So some birds move, she panics believing Moridin has arrived to check on her, she misfires, and Nyn lives but she’s now on a boat that has sunk.
Jordan does a little bit of retcon here (or at least indirect explaining) for why Moggy didn’t kill Elayne and Nyn when she had a chance to do so previously. The Spider in her POV section explains that doesn’t kill people because she’s afraid of the fact that dead bodies have a way of pointing a finger at their killer. And she absolutely prefers to remain hidden. That makes sense given what we know about her.
Moggy has a pretty interesting criminal profile. We know her well enough now – thanks to the a’dam – to know that she’s much more fearful than proud. All of the other Forsaken want attention, fame, glory, etc. Moggy wants to survive. She has pride, but it’s secondary to survival. She probably joined the Shadow in the Age of Legends, believing it her best way to survive. It makes you wonder what her life was like in the Age of Legends, before the Bore was opened. She’s the Peter Pettigrew of The Forsaken. She latched onto the biggest allies she could find because she’s scared. She believes herself the most powerful of their entire group in the World of Dreams, and yet she has always been willing to let Lanfear claim the place as her own anyway… almost certainly because she’s afraid of Lanfear (or just fighting / confrontation in general.)
Anyway… we’re left on a bit of a cliffhanger here. Let’s see how Nyn respnds.
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