This week in Reading The Wheel of Time, we’re in the White Tower with the Red Ajah and the Black. Pevara has some interesting tasks ahead, there’s a new head of the Red Ajah because everyone thinks that Galina is dead, and Alviarin has a lot to do to make sure the Black Ajah is protected, and more importantly that Shaidar Haran knows that she needed to do that work to protect it.
Let us begin with a recap.
Pevara and Javindhra have been summoned by the new head of the Red Ajah, the Highest, Tsutama Rath. Pevara finds Tsutama’s style, both in decorating her rooms and in dress, to be very flamboyant, and while she’s more capable of meeting Tsutama’s angry gaze than Javindhra, Pevara rather wishes that the third Sitter for the Red, Duhara, was there to spread Tsutama’s attention out. But for some reason, Duhara took a ship out of Tar Valon a week ago, and no one knows why or where she went.
When Katerine brought word that Galina was among the dead at Dumai’s Wells, Tsutama had been raised to replace her by near acclamation. She had possessed a very good reputation as a Sitter, at least before her involvement in the disgusting events that led to her downfall, and many in the Red believed the times called for as hard a Highest as could be found. Galina’s death had lifted a great weight from Pevara’s shoulders—the Highest, a Darkfriend; oh, that had been agony!—yet she was uncertain about Tsutama. There was something… wild… about her, now. Something unpredictable. Was she entirely sane? But then, the same question could be asked regarding the whole White Tower. How many of the sisters were entirely sane, now?
Tsutama informs them that she has received a letter from Sashalle Anderly, saying, among other things, that she is in charge of most of the sisters in Cairhien. She confirms that Logain’s gentling has been reversed, and reports that she and the other sisters who were stilled during the battle at Dumai’s Wells have been restored to full power by an Asha’man named Damer Flinn. She also explains that she has sworn an oath of fealty to the Dragon Reborn until the conclusion of Tarmon Gai’don. She promises to return to the Tower to have this decision judged and to reaffirm her loyalty by re-swearing the Three Oaths, but only after the Last Battle has concluded.
Pevara easily understands that this choice was influenced by Rand’s ta’veren power. Javindhra refuses to believe that gentling or stilling can be healed, but Tsutama tells her firmly that while Toveine and Sashalle may be mistaken about Logain, Sashalle certainly knows the truth about herself. Given everything they have learned, including the threat of the Seanchan and the power used by the Forsaken near Shadar Logoth, Tsutama has decided to go forward with the “distasteful and hazardous” plan to have Reds bond Asha’man. Javindhra, who is very against bonding Asha’man, points out that Elaida will never allow such a thing.
“Elaida will not know until it is too late, Javindhra. I hide her secrets—the disaster against the Black Tower, Dumai’s Wells—as best I can because she was raised from the Red, but she is the Amyrlin Seat, of all Ajahs and none. That means she is no longer Red, and this is Ajah business, not hers.”
They leave Tsutama’s rooms. Pevara walks deeper into the Tower, away from the Red quarters. She meets Yukiri, who informs her that Marris broke, but like the other Black sisters they have found, her “one other” is out of the Tower. Once they managed to take Atuan they were able to obtain the names of the members of her heart: Karale Sanghir, a Gray, and Marris Thornhill, a Brown. But all the other names they’ve been able to obtain are of women who aren’t in the Tower, and although the Black sisters who have taken oaths of obedience will pass on anything they can, the Black Ajah is careful to limit how much information even their agents have access to.
Yukiri reports that Talene received a summons to appear in front of the “Supreme Council” and that the woman believed she was to be punished, so they’ve hidden her away in the lowest basement. Pevara suggests using the meeting to attack and capture the entire Council. Yukiri observes that Pevara’s shawl is red, not green, before pointing out that there will be thirteen Black Sisters at the meeting. Yukiri points out other flaws in the plan as well, including the risk to them if even one member of the Supreme Council—which always meets hooded—escapes.
Pevara is surprised when Yukiri says she has something to ask her, and even more surprised when the question has to do with Toveine. She tells Yukiri most of what was in Toveine’s letter, only omitting the date it arrived and the accusations against Elaida. Yukiri replies that her Ajah has had a letter from Akoure Vayet. She also mentions the impossibility of pulling Elaida down for her role in getting 51 sisters captured, given everything else they have to worry about, and Pevara defends the Amyrlin who started them on the hunt for the Black. Yukiri still isn’t sure that Elaida is not Black herself.
They are startled by the arrival of Seaine, who reports the same information about Toveine and those with her being captured by Asha’man. When she sees that they are unsurprised, she reports her more urgent news: She has just met with Elaida and realized that the Amyrlin did not mean to set Seaine on the trail of the Black Ajah. Rather, she wanted “proof that Alviarin entered a treasonous correspondence with the Dragon Reborn.”
A short time later, Alviarin goes to pick up a Black correspondence from a secret hiding place. Walking through the Tower halls, she feels the weight of being marked by the Dark Lord, and although there is no physical impression or sign of his touch, she finds that her hand keeps drifting to her forehead.
She obtains the message and starts back to her room, passing Seaine and Ferane. Seaine gives her a pitying smile while Ferane—who is also the First Reasoner, head of the White Ajah—looks at her with fury. All the Whites are angry with Alviarin for bringing disgrace on the Ajah, and many for the loss in influence, as well; she has even been getting glares from those who stand well beneath her in the Power.
Back in her rooms she lets herself feel the humiliation and shame, wishing she could kill Elaida, if only that wouldn’t bring too much attention. Alviarin is doing what she can against Elaida—news of Dumai’s Wells is spreading, and soon the events of Toveine’s mission to the Black Tower will as well. This won’t be enough to get Elaida deposed, but it will hamper her, and prevent her from undoing the work Alviarin has done.
Break the White Tower from within, she had been ordered. Plant discord and chaos in every corner of the Tower. Part of her had felt pain at that command, a part of her still did, yet her greater loyalty was to the Great Lord. Elaida herself had made the first break in the Tower, but she had shattered half of it past mending.
The message, once Alviarin has gone through all the precautions and decoded it, is information on the missing Talene, who was seen leaving the Green quarters the day before with a chest and full saddlebags. The question before Alviarin is whether Talene simply panicked at receiving a summons from the Supreme Council or if there is something else behind her sudden disappearance. Remembering the way Talene had looked Yukiri and Doesine, Alviarin can’t help but feel there is a connection there.
She doesn’t dare call Mesaana for help, because after she witnessed Mesaana’s punishment by the Great Lord, Alviarin is confident that the Forsaken will want to kill her. But she needs more proof of a threat to the Black Ajah, so she writes out orders for Talene to be found and for Yukiri and Doesine to be watched until Alviarin figures out a way to capture and question them.
Ah yes, the cyclical nature of the search for the Black Ajah. I still really love how Seaine’s initial misunderstanding of Elaida’s cryptic request has led to the discovery of the Black Ajah’s existence and of the identity of several Black Sisters, even if I, like Pevara, am kind of frustrated by how slow going the whole thing is. Of course, I’ve been aware of the existence of the Black a lot longer than Seaine, Pevara, and the rest, so I’m quite ready to have them all found out. Though I don’t see how they could make it to Alviarin; as the head of the Black Ajah she probably doesn’t have a heart or a “one more” of her own. Or does she? We know that she was raised to be head of the Black by Ishamael, who is described in A Crown of Swords as having, at some point, “pluck[ed] her out of the hidden mass of the Black Ajah to place her at its head.” So, ostensibly, she would have had her own heart at some point, and unless they were all, I don’t know, killed off to protect their leader’s anonymity, someone should know about her, right? Though I suppose there are probably other things that could be done to protect the identity of the Black Ajah’s head, like Compulsion or some other weave that could make someone forget a fact they knew. When you’re Black, nothing is off-limits, morally speaking.
In any case, as excited as I am for people to start actually discovering Darkfriends in the White Tower (and hopefully the Black Tower, before too long), I will never stop enjoying the irony of the fact that Elaida wanted Alviarin to be investigated and taken down while having no idea about or belief in the actual existence of the Black Ajah. And yet, the woman she has targeted is the head of the Black Sisters, and thus the goal she set and the goal Seaine inferred are actually the same goal. Now that Seaine knows the truth about Elaida’s aims, it would be even more enjoyable to see her and her compatriots discover Alviarin’s true allegiance. Then someone within the narrative can share my enjoyment of this turn of events, and maybe muse a little at the way the Wheel weaves.
Come to think of it, that could actually be great for Elaida, too. If she’s still Amyrlin at that point, such a reveal would take Alviarin down even more thoroughly than the discovery of the letter she wrote to Rand or even her manipulation of Elaida. Blackmailing an Amyrlin would certainly be considered a grave offense, one worthy of exile and possibly even stilling, but if Elaida was revealed to have been so thoroughly manipulated by an ordinary sister, her disgrace and punishment would probably be as bad as the sister who was manipulating her. It’s one thing for a weak Amyrlin to be mostly led by the Hall, but quite another for a single sister to be making decisions on behalf of the Tower.
On the other hand, if Elaida is still Amyrlin when/if Alviarin is revealed as Black, not only could she probably take at least some credit for the uncovering of the Black Ajah, if she was very quick and clever (as we know she can be, even if she hasn’t been lately), but she might also be able to make herself look like a brave and strong woman who had the power of the Dark leveled against her and fought back as best as she could, alone and without support, until the truth was uncovered. Everyone’s mad at her at this point. Many of her decrees—both those she made herself and those directed by Alviarin—are terribly unpopular. She might be able to lay all of that at the feet of the Black Ajah, and reclaim at least some of her lost power.
Then again, this is all speculation. There’s every chance that Alviarin won’t be found out, and every chance that Egwene will manage to find her way to reuniting the White Tower and becoming the one, true Amyrlin before the hunt for the Black Ajah is even revealed. In which case all of this is moot. Still, it is interesting to think about, and again, I’d love to see Seaine’s reaction at finding out about Alviarin, regardless of when it happens.
Tsutama is an interesting addition to our cast of characters. She has been mentioned before, in earlier books, in connection with Toveine and another Aes Sedai named Lirene, who were all sent into exile at the same time, and brought back to the Tower by Elaida when she became the Amyrlin Seat. Like Toveine, Tsutama seems to be just a little unhinged, or at least dangerously angry, and I don’t think she can be trusted very far, if at all. Pevara even wonders if Tsutama is insane. Galina being dead is a relief to Pevara—having the head of the Red Ajah be Black was agony to her—but she’s worried enough about Tsutama that she doesn’t feel that relief very keenly. And while it makes sense for the Reds to think they need a very hard Highest, I imagine that Tsutama, like Toveine, might be a bit too focused on getting revenge on those responsible for her exile, and on Elaida, who profited when the other three were punished.
I just have to say it, though; “Highest” is a very silly title. I think the title of each of the Ajah heads is very revealing about how the different Ajah’s think. For example, the head of the White is the First Reasoner, which is a very obvious, straightforward title—all of the white sisters are reasoners, and this person is the foremost among them. Of course the Whites would be as logical about their titles as they are about everything else. The head of the Green is called the Captain-General, a bold title (Greens tend to be quite bold) which is reflective of how the Greens see themselves as soldiers in the battle against the Dark. And then there’s the Blue, whose head is called the First Selector. This title has a very egalitarian ring to it, one that rather reminds me of how Car’a’carn is considered “first among equals.” Even the world “selector” has a very democratic feel to it, since “selector” can sometimes mean “voter.” The one who casts the first vote, or even the most important vote, is still only one vote among many.
This makes sense for an Ajah whose focus is justice. In contrast, the Reds are focused on power and authority because that is what they need to carry out their work finding and gentling men born with the spark. They need to be able to fight and subdue men who have learned to channel, even powerful ones like Taim and Logain, and other False Dragons who have emerged over the years. They also are very focused on the authority of their position, and since the Aes Sedai are already a very hierarchical organization, it makes sense that the Reds are particularly hierarchical, to the point of calling their leader “Highest.”
I do feel that such a title might go to one’s head, though.
It’s also interesting, though not really surprising, that she considers the Reds deciding to bond Asha’man “Ajah business” as though it isn’t a very big deal of a decision—a dangerous move that will greatly affect all Aes Sedai in one way or another—even if it fails, but especially if it succeeds. It’s also clearly appealing to Tsutama because of the extra power and strength the Reds will gain by having Asha’man as Warders. It feels very poignant in a section that also reminds us that all the Aes Sedai now keep their Warders close, guarding their backs within the Halls of the White Tower itself, out of suspicion and mistrust of other sisters. Imagine how that would look and feel if Reds were swanning about with shackled Asha’man at their backs.
No, Elaida would not approve and neither would anyone else, I think. But if it had already been accomplished before anyone found out, what could any of the other Ajah do about it? And if Tsutama is as angry at Elaida as Toveine is, she’s probably very interested in a plan that increases the power of her Ajah while excluding Elaida, who can’t do anything about either fact.
Not that we really have to worry about that right now. What we need to worry about most is how Pevara, Javindhra and those Reds who agree to take part will avoid being captured and bonded themselves. At least they’re forewarned by the news of Toveine’s capture. Forewarned is forearmed, but will they be armed enough for Taim and his followers—especially now that Logain seems to have absconded with most of the good Asha’man?
Also, the narration is conspicuous in the mention of Duhara’s disappearance. Perhaps it feels even more suspect to me because we learn about it right before we learn about Talene’s faked disappearance. Saerin hid her in the basement, but clearly also arranged to make it look like she left Tar Valon, as the correspondences left for Alviarin report that she was seen leaving the Green quarters “carrying fat saddlebags and a small chest.” The description of Duhara just up and taking a ship out of Tar Valon without a word to anyone, and with no one knowing where she went, doesn’t sound that different from the report Alviarin reads about Talene. The paragraph where Pevara muses over Duhara’s disappearance ends with “These days, Pevara was suspicious of everyone and nearly everything,” and I have to say, I feel the same.
It’s possible that Duhara is Black, and was sent by Alviarin or the Supreme Council on some mission (maybe even one intended for Talene) but nothing is alluded to in Alviarin’s section, which isn’t Jordan’s usual style. He could very easily have hinted that someone was sent on a mission without giving away any future plot points, and I feel like he would have. I think there must be another reason for Duhara’s departure, and given that Elaida is out from under Alviarin’s thumb, I suspect the Amyrlin was the one who sent Duhara on a secret mission. All we really know about Duhara is, from the one chapter in The Path of Daggers, that she and some other sisters tried to advise Elaida on reports about the existence of damane and other subjects, and that Elaida considered Duhara to be under her control. From that limited information my surmise feels likely, though there’s certainly not enough information to be certain about anything.
Which is the story of the Aes Sedai’s lives, really. Still, I continue to enjoy Pevara’s character, even if she should have chosen Green and not Red. Her reason for choosing Red, recounted from Seaine’s perspective in A Crown of Swords, is that her family was murdered by Darkfriends, but I’ve never understood if that was meant to imply a man wielding the One Power as well. There was nothing in the text to suggest it, other than her choice to join the Red instead of the Green, and it’s so interesting to see other sisters notice her behaving more like a Green. I’d love to see Pevara become the head of the Red Ajah at some point, maybe under Egwene as Amyrlin. I think she could really do some good in shifting the rather toxic perspective and warped goals of her Ajah.
We have confirmation now that the Dark One’s touch is in fact responsible for the failing weaves, like Keepings and the wards against rats entering the White Tower. This, as well as the appearance of more ghosts, or visions of people who aren’t there anymore—Ituralde saw several ghosts during his attack on the Seanchan camp, though he didn’t recognize them as such—seems to indicate that the Dark One is interfering directly with the Pattern, perhaps more directly even than when he affected the weather. It’s clear that he is breaking out of his prison, and that Tarmon Gai’don is indeed near at hand.
One can’t help feeling the weight of everything our heroes have to accomplish, starting with cleaning up the White and Black Towers and getting some kind of truce with the Seanchan, before the Last Battle arrives.
Next week we’ll be hearing from Galina, who is not, as we know and her fellow Reds do not, dead at all, but rather a captive of the Shaido. As with Suroth and Liandrin, I feel some pity for Galina, bound by an oath rod and subject to the cruel and evil whims of Sevanna and Therava. But not, like, a lot of pity.
A final thought: When Pevara and Yukiri learn that Elaida never sent anyone to hunt for the Black Ajah after all, Yukiri exclaims “I think that fox is walking on my grave.” This is obviously a reference to the real life expression “Someone is walking over my grave,” or as we often say it in the States, “A goose is walking over my grave.”
I’ve always thought this an odd expression, and after a few minutes on the internet (largely on Quora, so make of that what you will) I found that most people seem to believe that this expression comes from the idea that a person walking over the place where one’s grave will be sends chills, as a sort of omen of death. The introduction of the goose seems to be a reference to the experience of getting goose-bumps, though it was also posited that the goose (or a rabbit in some version) might be a spirit.
What’s interesting to me about this is that I started wondering if the origin of “a fox is walking on my grave” is as blurry and lost to time as are the origins of the goose in our world. And if, perhaps, the fox that’s being mentioned is one of the foxy folk whose world (dimension?) can be accessed through the redstone doorway ter’angreal. Those beings are definitely spirits or fae of some kind. Perhaps long ago, back when the redstone doorways were built, people knew more about these strange, dangerous beings, and they became part of a saying designed to describe the sensation of sudden, ominous fear.
That’s pretty neat, Mr. Jordan.
