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 21: The Gift of a Blade
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Rand al'Thor
The Aiel make camp in the hills near Taien. Rand observes the preparations and notes that Melaine is with the Wise Ones even though she just married the clan chief Bael. Rand decides to get some rest that night and tells Natael that they will not have lessons in channeling that night. Rand puts a ward around the entire Aiel encampment, to give warning if Shadowspawn cross. He enters his tent and Aviendha follows him, with a wrapped package. She hopes the package will cancel the debt between them. Rand continues to deny there is a debt, while Aviendha feels compelled to give him something back for the bracelet he gave her.
She gives him Laman's sword which is elaborately decorated with jewels. Rand believes it must have been costly, but because of the way Aiel feel about swords, no one wants to be its owner for long. Rand examines the blade and finds it is heron-marked and probably also power-wrought so that it does not need sharpening. He gives the begemmed scabbard back to Aviendha saying just the sword is enough to cancel the debt and he will also return the gems from the hilt when he has that remade.
Rand is distracted as he prepares for bed, as he has been every night since leaving Rhuidean, since Aviendha is now sleeping in his tent. Rand believes this to be so she can spy on him. Aviendha hates the situation because she does not want to betray Elayne. Rand goes to sleep and dreams of Min and Elayne and Aviendha performing an Aiel marriage ceremony with him.
REACTION:
One thing that I believe is worth noting and remembering. Aviendha isn't actually loyal to Elayne. She barely knows Elayne. Elayne's name is merely Aviendha's shield against her own unwanted feelings toward Rand. Her actual friend is Egwene and her excuse for bringing up Elayne to Rand is that Elayne is Egwene's friend... so she's defending Elayne's rights toward him *for* Egwene.
As I have established in prior chapters (most of them in The Shadow Rising) I do not believe that Egwene actually stopped having romantic interest in Rand. I think she pushed Rand away for his own sake. She didn't want Rand to be hurt trying to save her. That had already happened twice. If they weren't together, that was less likely to happen. Her behavior after they left together for the Waste implies to me that she still has feelings for him and that she believes he returns them toward her. There's also the possibility that Lanfear encouraged Egwene to move on from Rand, using the Power. Rand's ta'veren nature might also have led to that outcome. Egwene would probably have been eventually murdered by Lanfear if she had remained with Rand.
So... I wonder how Egwene would feel about the situation brewing between Avi and Rand. I don't think she realizes yet that Aviendha is very attracted to Rand and vice versa. That will boil over sometime soon, I think. It will be fun to see how Jordan treats that Egwene / Avi dynamic after that happens.
Secondarily, but probably more importantly: I wonder how Lanfear will react to finding out that there is sexual tension between Rand and Aviendha.
Rand's behavior with Laman's sword only makes Avi want him more. He keeps unintentionally doing incredible things for her. He declared that the Maidens carry his honor. He gave her the gift from the Maidens and unwittingly went through a ceremony declaring his intentions for her. He's obviously jealous about her other jewely gift (from Egwene.) He has insisted publicly that he wants her to be his teacher and that she's good at it. Here - despite the fact she feels like she's giving him a gift that will leave him permanently in her debt - he flips her effort on its head and puts her permanently in his own debt. By giving her the gems back, and still declaring her debt to him cancelled, he is making her very wealthy and he's doing it indirectly.
On the subject of Laman... man, what a buffoon. His entire nation's wealth depended on safe passage through the Waste to Shara. He spat in the face of the Aiel, lost that safe passage, hurt his entire country, and then was hunted down and killed. I guess he did not even consider that the Aiel might be offended by that action or that their army would be capable of hurting him. Pride will lead you do be near-sighted and stupid.
It's funny that Rand still thinks the Wise Ones are using Avi to spy on him. They are being, well, wiser than that. They don't want what's in his head. They want his heart. If you have to be led by an outsider, then you want that outsider to love you. The best way to make Rand love the Aiel as a people is for him to love one Aiel person, individually.
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