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 8: A Simple Country Woman
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Perrin Aybara
Perrin returns to camp with Faile, Aram, Maighdin and Lini. The camp has nine hundred Winged Guards from Mayene, and several Wise Ones with an escort of Maidens. Tallanvor, Balwer and Breane are also part of Maighdin’s group. Perrin also has three hundred Two Rivers men as part of his command along with the Asha’man Neald and Grady. Maighdin is upset when she sees the banners in Perrin’s camp, especially the Red Eagle of Manetheren and voices her opinion. Perrin then reveals that he recognized Basel Gill and Lamgwin, asking to meet with them shortly.
As Perrin begins to question Basel, Lini interrupts and begins lecturing him, plainly trying to make sure Basel doesn’t say anything to reveal that Maighdin is Morgase Trakand. One piece of news startles Perrin, that the Seanchan took Amador and defeated the Whitecloaks. Lini tries to convince Perrin that he should marry Maighdin and Tallanvor whether they wish to or not but he refuses.
Perrin heads to the tent he shares with Faile where she is having tea with Maighdin. Faile offers to take the whole group into her service, which causes Maighdin to choke on her tea before she decides to accept.
Point of view: Faile Bashere
Faile slips out of bed after Perrin falls asleep to meet with her followers. Selande and some of the others have just returned from Bethal reporting that everyone is fearful of the Prophet and worried about food supplies. She gives orders for them to return to Bethal in the morning and carry out her instructions.
Point of view: Morgase Trakand
Morgase notices Faile returning and believes her comparative youth will be an advantage. Tallanvor questions her decision to become Faile’s maid. She is worried because Rand has plans to put Elayne, her daughter, on the Lion Throne and wishes to find out what other plans he may have. Tallanvor reveals his love for Morgase, which becomes possible now since Morgase renounced the throne.
REACTION:
One of my least favorite things about both Morgase and Elayne is their total lack of shame regarding their feelings of ownership of The Two Rivers. It’s one thing to believe the lines on a map – despite the fact you don’t collect taxes from there and haven’t done so in hundreds of years. But if you’re going to be so furious about their declaration of independence, shouldn’t you also feel some shame or regret over the fact that they had to fight a self-defense war (against a foe trying to exterminate all of them) and they did so with ZERO help from Andor? Neither of these women ever express aloud / think privately / give off an emotional scent for Perrin to smell that they feel bad about the fact that they completely and utterly failed to protect their subjects in a time of greatest need. Morgase might be forgiven to an extent for not knowing all the details yet. But only to an extent.
Both also know that the vast majority of the people in the Two Rivers don’t eve know who the Queen is, or that they are considered part of Andor at all. Honestly, Rand should have let someone else be in charge.
Part of me wants to give Perrin a harder time for not figuring out more about Morgase. He knows that she recognizes an Aes Sedai face on sight and that she recognizes Mayene’s military armor. He even puts together that she looks like and reminds him of Elayne. AND he knows she’s traveling with a Queen loyalist from Caemlyn in Basel Gill. That said… I can’t really blame him. Should he be suspicious of her? Yeah. And he is. Should he put that math together about her identity? No. EVERYONE believes that Morgase is dead. If he’d mentioned this to Faile though, she might have done the math.
All it would take to ID Morgase would be for any one of Rand, Mat, or Elayne’s party to run into them. It’s probably lucky for Morgase that none of these particular Aes Sedai recognized her.
It’s early days, yet, but I think Perrin just inherited Niall’s spymaster as his own. Given that Balwer is elite in that role… well, good news for Perrin. He’s probably going to conquer the continent and rebuild Manetheren in the decades after the series ends.
Perrin recognizing Gill and waiting until after the women had explained themselves to reveal this fact was probably the best moment in the chapter. Morgase’s group is harmless to Perrin, most likely, but the fear Perrin calling out to Gill inspired in them, after Morgase’s unearned fury about the banners, was really fun to read. It’s arguable that nobody in the series has had a more precipitous fall than Morgase, but she sitl hasn’t really been humbled yet. Maybe she’ll finally get there now.
I don’t know if I buy that Perrin would recognize Gill, though. Rand would, for sure. Rand and Gill were together and interacted for a long time. Mat would because he went back to the Inn later, with Thom. Perrin was in Caemlyn for one night before he fled to the Borderlands through the Ways. Would you recognize a waiter who served you once, over a year ago, and not only recognize him but remember his name? It seems like a lot – even considering how big that day was in Perrin’s life. Then you get Lamgwin acting like he knows Perrin well, too.
Am I forgetting some part of the story where Perrin went back to Caemlyn and stayed at Gill’s inn? I’ll forgive that though. It was a funny moment.
Speaking of things that I’m not sure make a lot of sense… Faile was in Cairhien for how long? A month or two? In that short span of time, she took the group of Wetlander people pretending to be Aiel all under her wing and then turned them into a spy organization? She won their unswerving allegiance? …. How? It makes some sense that the plotting people of Cairhien and Tear might see an advantage of attaching themselves to Rand through Perrin… but this feels like more than that somehow. Faile must be absolutely maxing out on charisma.
I liked (a lot) her plan to have Perrin hide his real mission, out in the open, by waving the Manetheren flag. It makes sense all by itself. It also starts the process of waving that flag in a country that borders The Two Rivers (Ghealdan.) Ghealdan – like The Two Rivers – was once part of Manetheren, too. It will mean something to wave it here.
Faile can read a map. In the North there is Saldaea, just south of Saldaea is a big expanse of unclaimed nothing, along the eastern side of the mountains, then the Two Rivers, then Ghealdan south of that. You can start connecting geopolitical dots and end up with a major power. She’s the Littlefinger of The Wheel of Time.
I wonder, too, if she has an inkling that these people newly in her service aren’t who they seem. I think she does. She recognized how angry “Maighdin” was over the banners and she heard how angry she was about Elayne being “put” on the throne. From that alone, Faile probably knows they are Andoran but hiding the fact. Faile is nobly raised, and well traveled, so she also probably recognizes their accents. Gill being from Caemlyn is another big clue to anyone looking for one. Worst case… Faile thinks she’s got someone connected to an Andoran noble house in her service. That might be an advantage to have them in her service when playing the Game of Houses for her husband later. She’ll be much happier to realize the fish she netted is MUCH larger.
Faile might be the best female character in the series who hasn’t been given a lot of POV time. She needs more POV time.
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