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 16: Unexpected Absences
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Egwene al’Vere
Egwene calls a meeting of the Hall of the Tower, the eighteen Sitters gather around standing early in the day. The meeting is not secret so other sisters gather around to find out what is happening. She orders the camp to rest for two or three days so repairs can be made. Siuan is waiting in her study with reports, mostly that everything is wearing out, supplies are short and coin is shorter.
Point of view: Aran’gar
Aran’gar has buried a corpse in the snow which she expects will not be found until spring. She reflects that she hardly remember what life was like as a man anymore.
Point of view: Egwene al’Vere
Lelaine arrives wishing to talk to Egwene about the Sea Folk. Romanda arrives and mentions it is the Sea Folk in Cairhien that need to be discussed. Rand met the Sea Folk in Cairhien but what they discusses is not known and they wish to find out. They hope that messages could be passed to Merilille using tel’aran’rhiod. Chesa enters with Egwene’s midday meal and mentions that Mari seems to have wandered off. Later Chesa comes in and mentions that Selame is nowhere to be found either.
Siuan mentions a patterns she has noticed and brings it to Egwene’s attention. All of the new Sitters in the Hall of the Tower are younger than they should be, much younger. Romanda arrives again and orders Siuan to leave. Romanda tells Egwene that when they meet with Pelivar Romanda is to be in charge of any discussions that take place. Egwene is only to be their figurehead. Lelaine enters and gives Egwene similar orders in favor of herself. Siuan enters and tells Egwene the meeting is arranged. Both are very satisfied that the situation is now exactly what they wanted to allow Egwene to take control of the Hall.
Point of view: Sheriam Bayanar
Sheriam enters her tent and is then shielded and flung on to her bed and punished for not finding out what Egwene is up to.
REACTION:
A lot of this chapter is really just an effort at helping the Readers get a feel for day-to-day life inside Egwene’s camp. Early on after Egwene was raised as Amyrlin, Jordan gave her a tent chair with a wobbly leg. It’s a metaphor for the tenuous nature of her rule. He leans on it again in this chapter – so much so that we finally see her fall off.
Is it realistic that Lelaine and Romanda could be so dismissive of Egwene that they totally fail to see her maneuvering for authority? Yes, absolutely. It’s frustrating but it’s completely realistic. They’re both over a century old. She’s about 19. They think of her as a child because she more or less is a child. They view Rand the same way, and maybe for the same reasons, but you would think that if you encountered the rebirth of one of the most consequential souls of all time that you’d take him more seriously than they do.
I mean, if I met the reborn Julius Caesar, I’d expect great things.
In any case… Romanda’s telling off of Egwene near the end of the chapter was kind of crazy. Does it not occur to her that berating Egwene might lead Egwene to throw her own weight (or her title, at least) behind Lelaine? The Aes Sedai have never been presented as great thinkers, though, and Romanda is no exception. Lelaine comes off better by comparison, but not by much. She mostly does the same thing but is smart enough to smile while doing it.
Are they wrong for thinking a teenager who is 2 years removed from being an innkeeper’s daughter in a remote village shouldn’t be in charge of the historically most powerful organization on the continent? No. Does Egwene have doubts about being in charge? Also no.
In any case, it looks like whatever scheme cooked up by Siuan and Egwene to make her the Amyrlin in truth is about to come to fruition. I guess we’ll find out *how* once we get there. They both seem excited, though.
Siuan notices that the age of the Sitters implies some kind of conspiracy. Too many of them are either too young or too old for their posts. It might be useful to know how the Sitters shook out in the White Tower, too. Nevertheless… Egwene does not agree. In the previous chapter, Egwene agrees with Siuan about the Oath Rod when I think she’d have been right to disagree. Here Egwene disagrees when she should probably have agreed.
Remember in the last chapter when I pointed out that Halima sleeping in Egwene’s tent, while wearing next to nothing, and while secretly using the One Power on her to cause her headaches, was probably a sign that she was sexually abusing Egwene (off the page), too? Who is most likely to walk in on something like that? Eggy’s maids. Now we’ve seen Halima hiding their bodies in the next chapter. You can argue that they were killed to reduce the influence of Romanda and Lelaine, or to elevate Halima’s role in Eggy’s life (providing a plausible reason for everyone to accept her always being in the Amyrlin’s tent.) But it’s just as likely that they walked in and saw something they shouldn’t have seen.
We get borderline confirmation at the end of the chapter that Sheriam is Black Ajah. That’s been a legit theory since The Dragon Reborn (she was extremely suspicious in and around the events wherein the Gray Man almost assassinated Nyn and Eggy.) Someone rips her clothes off, gags her, and beats her, for failing to find out and report on Egwene’s plans. I don’t think anyone of the Aes Sedai in the camp are strong enough to do this. That points to one of the Forsaken. If so, then that points to Sheriam being Black Ajah. THAT SAID… Jordan does not overtly confirm this because we don’t know to whom Sheriam was reporting. I suppose it’s possible that one of Romanda or Lelaine did that to her as both are said to be relatively strong. It just seems unlikely. I don’t think either are *that* strong.
If Halima is the one who did this… why does she need Sheriam spying for her if she’s using Compulsion on Egwene? I think there are limits to Compulsion. We saw Elayne and Nyn hide info from Moggy when being questioned under Compulsion. The problem was that Moggy had not asked precisely the right question. Using a strong former of Compulsion has the trouble of breaking brains (as we’ve witnessed with Graendal’s “pets.” So the plan here might be a combo of Compulsion and traditional spying.
OR… maybe Halima knew what was going on and simply wanted to punish Sheriam for not finding out on her own. One of the Forsaken might be a type of person who enjoys an excuse to rip off a woman’s clothing. I guess we’ll find out. It is interesting to note that Halima, in her brief POV, reflects on how she could kill everyone in the camp without them realizing what’s happening. The thing holding her back in that she has orders from the Dark One that she dares not disobey.
Anyway… things seem to be getting worse around Egwene and Egwene is at this point very unaware. That’s likely to boil over sometime soon.
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