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 15: What Can Be Learned in Dreams
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Nynaeve al'Meara
Nynaeve decides to see if she can find out what is going on in the White tower from within Tel'aran'rhiod. She tries to go to the Amyrlin's study, but fails, so she goes to the room of the Mistress of Novices. She disguises herself as an accepted with Melaine's face. When she arrives at the Amyrlin's office, she finds it completely different from what she remembered, which is why she was not able to dream herself directly there. Egwene comes into the room, also disguised, but she realizes it must be Nynaeve and reveals herself.
Egwene reinforces to Nynaeve the dangers of the dream world. Nynaeve is still unrepentant, so Egwene conjures a nightmare of vile men trying to force themselves on Nynaeve. This finally convinces her to relent. Then they begin to search through the papers in the study and in the Keeper's room outside. The papers fade away as they are being read, sometimes before they can be read. Egwene finally finds a paper signed by Elaida as Amyrlin and calls out to Nynaeve. Elaida wants Moiraine to be detained and returned to the tower to be tried for treason. They realize the tower has split over Elaida taking charge. Nynaeve tries to remember a report about a gathering of Blues she started to read, but she can't find it again and can't remember where the Blues were gathering. Nynaeve suddenly realizes that Egwene has taken charge of their relationship and is unhappy over that. She blames her lie about not being drugged by the forkroot and confesses to Egwene the truth. Egwene threatens her with a cup of boiled catfern and powdered mavinsleaf. Egwene convinces Nynaeve not to speak of their trip to the White Tower to the Wise Ones.
Point of view: Egwene al'Vere
Egwene wakes and worries about whether a Wise One caught her in Tel'aran'rhiod alone, but they didn't. She decides that Rand needs to know about what has happened in the White Tower, so she dresses and goes to tell Moiraine. Moiraine is eavesdropping on Rand when Egwene arrives. She tells Moiraine that Elaida is now the Amyrlin. She also mentions the message Nynaeve received about all sisters being welcome to come back to the Tower. Moiraine is not happy though that the Tower is split, even if one side of the split might support Rand. Moiraine asks if Egwene knows this from Dreaming. Egwene remembers recent Dreams:
- Rand sitting down in a chair that belongs to a woman who would be upset if she knew.
- Perrin kissing Faile, with two banners behind them: a red wolf's head and a crimson eagle. A Tinker with a sword was there, too, and it boded ill every time he moved closer to Perrin.
- Mat throwing dice with blood streaming down his face and Thom Merrilin putting his hand into a fire only to draw out Moiraine's small blue stone.
- A storm rending the earth with identical forked lightning bolts.
Egwene also mentions that most of the Forsaken have been seen in Tel'aran'rhiod and they may be plotting together against Rand. Moiraine muses that they might not have to worry about Lanfear much longer. Egwene also asks why Moiraine is now obeying Rand. Moiraine replies that she remembered how to control saidar: by surrendering to it.
REACTION
Long chapter. Lots to cover.
I'm as big a fan / defender of Egwene as you'll find, but this is the first time I really remember actively disliking her. The power shift between her and Nynaeve is one thing. The World of Dreams is the first time Egwene has ever been senior to Nynaeve, in anything, and that fact probably causes her to flex that power more than she should. In fact, she probably *has* to flex that power more than was proper because Nynaeve might not have accepted the shift, otherwise. But unapologetically letting Nynaeve be injured by a nightmare, to prove a point, felt like going too far. Even if the injury was needed to get the point across, she could have shown more compassion / humanity.
Egwene punishes Nynaeve for lying, too, despite actively lying to Nynaeve herself, in that moment. She avoids the question of whether the Wise Ones know she is in the Tower, on her own, and then she manipulates Nynaeve into keeping this visit a secret, convincing her that it is for her own good, rather than for Egwene's good.
Then to make it worse, Egwene giggles about the power shift after she and Nynaeve part. To be clear, she's giggling about learning a new and effective manipulation tactic, not about what happened to Nynaeve... but still I cannot imagine Nynaeve laughing to herself about hitting Cenn Buie with a stick over some confrontation in the Two Rivers. She would have complained bitterly about him (from her perspective) making her do it. Nynaeve's deepest self wants to help and heal people.
Egwene has gone through a lot in this series, but she comes off as a bully here, and she does it to the person who loves her more than anyone except maybe her parents. I wish she had been caught by the Wise Ones.
On the other hand, I understand Egwene's selfish perspective and her actions are somewhat mitigated by the fact that they apparently happened by accident to some extent. Most people at some point have their first "I'm the adult in a room of adults" moment and this seems like that moment for Egwene, who is still around 19 or 20 years old at this point. I think she's growing, even if it's not always happening in an artful way. Rand bullies people to get what he wants, too. They'll both learn (or not) that there are better ways to get things done. I particularly liked this bit of insight that Egwene has:
There was an old saying that she had never really understood before: "He strains to hear a whisper who refuses to hear a shout."
I'm not sure how this fits with letting someone get scratched up by a nightmare to make a point, but I think there's something to be said for learning that calmness sometimes trumps indignation.
Let's discuss Egwene's dreams and see what we can do with interpretation (foreshadowing):
- Rand sitting down in a chair that belongs to a woman who would be upset if she knew.
- Perrin kissing Faile, with two banners behind them: a red wolf's head and a crimson eagle. A Tinker with a sword was there, too, and it boded ill every time he moved closer to Perrin.
- Mat throwing dice with blood streaming down his face and Thom Merrilin putting his hand into a fire only to draw out Moiraine's small blue stone.
- A storm rending the earth with identical forked lightning bolts.
On the first one... this feels like Rand taking a woman's throne. Elaida? Morgase? We haven't met many female monarchs yet, and those are the two current big ones.
Perrin is Lord of the Two Rivers, with his own banner and the banner of Manetheren. That's fairly clear from the previous book. The new information is that we should now be expecting Aram to pose a threat to Perrin at some point.
The Mat dream is too vague, but the Thom portion points toward him rescuing Moiraine at some point.
The storm and lightning bolts business is pretty vague, but I'd guess it portends a battle using the One Power.
Moiraine gives a great line when talking to Egwene:
There is a saying in Cairhien, though I have heard it as far away as Tarabon and Saldaea. 'Take what you want, and pay for it.' Siuan and I took the path we wanted, and we knew we would have to pay for it eventually."
It's worth remembering, re: Moiraine, that she has seen the future in the ter'angreal in Rhuidean. She's also quizzed Min multiple times. She might not be crying over Siuan because she knows more about events - and how they will go - than Egwene does currently.
On that point, Moiraine also says vaguely that with luck they won't have to worry about Lanfear.
I appreciated that Moiraine is now advising Egwene to not try controlling Rand. Maybe the news about Siuan has demonstrated to her, once and for all, that Rand's decisions have a way of being right more often than her own. Her plan - the one she'd been infuriated with Rand over - involved Siuan on the Amyrlin Seat. Maybe she's really internalizing "the wheel weaves as the wheel wills."
Jordan gives us one more satisfying line as the chapter ends - again from Moraine. She explains to Egwene why she starting doing what Rand says.
Why? Because I remembered how to control saidar."
After a moment, Egwene nodded. To control saidar, first you had to surrender to it.
It was extremely irritating watching Moiraine fail to see this obvious solution to her issues with Rand, for five books, but it's highly satisfying that she sees it now and that the solution was analogous to how women channel. Jordan seems to be making a point here about gender roles, too, which I'm sure many readers will take issue with.
Does a wife who surrenders to her husband ultimately exert more influence over him than one who tries to wrestle with him over power? That's an interesting question. It might lead one to ask if she should have to do that. Does that make feminism analogous to the inadvertent drilling of the bore into the Dark One's prison? Lanfear is the Lillith character of this story, after all, unwilling to truly surrender to anyone.
Hmmm.
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