Winter's Heart - Chapters 23-25

In this section, a minor character observes the action in Far Madding.

Continuing the recent trend of giving new characters the point of view, Shalon, a Sea Folk Windfinder has two chapters told from her perspective. The author chose not to give either of these chapters to Rand, Min, Verin, Cadsuane, Nynaeve, Lan, Alivia, Corele, Merise, Daigian, Damer, Eben, Jahar, Beldeine, Elza, Harine, Moad, Alanna, Tomas, Kumira, Ihvon, Erian, Sarene or Nesune. That is four of the original heroes from the Eye of the World, three major allies found since, and many other secondary characters that were passed over. What advantages are gained with Shalon, or disadvantages avoided by not using the others?

The intent of these chapters is to establish the status quo in Far Madding, including explaining how the Guardian works. When explanations need to be given, authors often use an unknowledgeable character’s presence as a reason to elaborate the explanation, sometimes giving an info-dump. Out of the list above, only the Sea Folk and Asha’man qualify. To best capture the Guardian’s effect, a channeler is preferred, eliminating Harine and her Swordmaster. Not wanting to portray another male channeler yet who could give insight into the madness, only Shalon is left from the group traveling with Cadsuane.  An upside is that it offers a way to explain more about Sea Folk culture, one of the major cultures we have learned little about from anyone with firsthand knowledge from living in it. This adds a little to that alien feeling from earlier chapters.  

Entering Far Madding is described as like losing the sun, which is better prose than the last time Rand entered a stedding. Yet it is not simply the ability to channel that is lost. The loss of the True Source represents the loss of the Light. Shalon has been feeling disoriented and confused from her blackmail, her shame, the risk to her marriage and rank, and to her identity, until her sister offers her unexpected comfort. With her sister’s potential acceptance, Shalon is almost ready to risk confessing. This is a clue as to what Rand should do, and what risks he faces. It is really not obvious at all that Shalon’s personal crisis is setting the stage and the expectations for what happens to Rand later.

Rand and Cadsuane continue playing at not needing each other when they both desperately need each other. After talking with Alanna, Rand realizes he is ready to trust some of the Aes Sedai with some tasks, particularly Cadsuane if he can convince her. For her part, Cadsuane recognizes that Rand’s determination to act alone, with no help, is a danger to himself and to the world. But she waits for him to make the offer, for she fears that being too eager will put his back up.

Verin continues to half-reveal her secrets. She was exiled from Far Madding, which implies bad behaviour. She comes close to poisoning Cadsuane. She is a two-faced and not very nice person. It is quite a balancing act revealing just enough background or motivation for her actions to keep the reader guessing as to her loyalties. It makes fertile ground for all manner of ridiculous theories.

Writing Lessons:

Examine the pros and cons of each potential point of view character before choosing one.

Winter's Heart - Chapters 20-22

In this section, confusion stems from new point of view characters and missing details from a new location.

Bethamin and Egeanin provide new viewpoints from the Seanchan perspective, which when added to Tuon’s makes 3 chapters from three different Seanchan. The author is clearly pointing to the Seanchan as a major part of the ongoing story with this attention to their citizens, and so many new points of view in this book serves as a signal that the story has reached a turning point. While this is useful to establish the background of the various players, jumping from character to character carries risks. In this instance, unfamiliarity with new characters means the reader may be confused, angry that her favorite characters are absent, or simply too impatient to care about these newcomers.   

The two Seanchan characters are particularly unlikely to have the reader’s acceptance because the Seanchan have been depicted as villains up until now. Their culture is evil by all the standards of our heroes, and it also alien to them, which makes embracing a character from there very difficult.

Bethamin is the Wheel of Time’s equivalent of a slave driver, using an a’dam instead of a whip. This is a behaviour that is particularly unlikeable, but the author uses a few techniques to try to overcome that.

First, Bethamin is performing an inspection, which is a simple duty anyone can identify with. The author is trying to establish common traits with the readers. She cares for the health of her damane, which is slightly admirable given that she is talking about humans. She bullies Renna, who had tried to break Egwene to the a’dam. Anyone who bullies Egwene’s enemies can’t be that bad. She doles out candies. Maybe not all sul’dam are bad.  Maybe Bethamin could switch sides.

Before sympathies develop too much, a reminder of Bethamin’s cruelty is given: how she takes away her charges names and gives them new ones. Three gentle strokes, one slap.

Then it’s back to nice Bethamin. She takes special care of damane having problems; she refuses to lose a damane, even that ugly old Tessi. It’s no accident that Teslyn is used an example. Teslyn stood for Elaida, deposed Siuan, is Red Ajah, and has no compelling physical traits, so Bethamin stands in opposition to all that Teslyn represents. Bethamin distrusts Aes Sedai, as do all the readers by now. She makes a note to be more diligent about breaking Tessi. Three gentle strokes, one slap.

Other things which align the reader’s sympathies with Bethamin: she enjoys shopping, she has a healthy sense of self-preservation, and she knows secrets that could be useful to our heroes. Except for her current station in life, which is at risk, she is incredibly normal.

When someone alien is introduced, you want to highlight the differences. But you also need to establish commonalities, with the reader more than with the other characters.

The Seeker exemplifies the highly paranoid nature of the alien Seanchan culture. He has knitted together moonbeams and happenstance into a strangling cord for Egeanin’s neck. He is recognizable as a police officer, a common character type, but the paranoia and limitless power make him ineffectual. Only by blundering into clues does he make any headway, and that in the wrong direction.

Egeanin continues to be the bridge between cultures, with her potential husband and so’jhin Bayle Domon. She is resigned to the fact that she will never fully induct him into Seanchan culture, and with this danger before her, she realizes it is she who might have to embrace his culture instead.

Egeanin’s loyalties would obviously seem to lie with the mainlanders under the circumstances, and readers would accept her since she has been helpful to the heroines in past books. But to place doubt in the reader’s mind, a crucial action she took, handing the male a’dam over to Suroth herself, will taint that association with goodness. At best she was caught with no way out, at worst she betrayed Rand and Nynaeve. When she says she will stay free “whatever it took”, the example of her quick surrender of the male a’dam should come to mind as an example of how quickly she would throw allies overboard.

Rand has an entire chapter set on Far Madding, and we are told that he can safely confront the Asha’man here, but not how. He has a swordfight with one, but we are not told why neither is using the One Power.   The explanation will come a chapter later, which allows readers to enjoy a fight, an assassination, and a second assassination without the context. Keeping the explanation back from readers is meant to convey a sense of secrecy and frustration, just as Rand is experiencing. Similarly, Kisman is lacking information despite giving much insight to readers. Isam also doesn’t know the whole story, but again reveals exciting details. Assassinations of Kisman and the couple staying in Rand’s old room symbolize that what Rand doesn’t know could kill him. Rand really is lost morally and spiritually, but everything he needs will soon be coming in with Cadsuane, which is symbolized by her readers finally learning about the city when she strolls into town.

Writing Lessons:

When someone alien is introduced, you want to highlight the differences. But you also need to establish commonalities, with the reader more than with the other characters.

Winter's Heart - Chapters 17-19

In this section, Mat fatefully encounters a number of women and decides he must attempt a daring rescue. Again.

Mat meets almost every important woman of the next few months of his life in these chapters: Aludra, Setalle, Tylin, Egeanin, Tuon, Anath, Suroth, Teslyn, Joline, Edesina.

The Mat chapters have a very distinctive voice, so let’s take a look at how Robert Jordan creates that voice so that the reader can tell these sections are from Mat’s point of view.

The words he uses to describe Mat’s actions always have a tone of carelessness or haste or suddenness about them. The foxhead medallion is stuffed into his coat pocket, so he can snatch it out of need be; flinging open the doors; the plan had just occurred to him; he sank into one of the bamboo carved chairs; ignoring the protests of his leg, Mat moved faster than he thought he ever had in his life; he went straight to Tylin’s apartments; he walked to the first and opened the door long enough to peek in; he unconsciously began humming. Mat’s section contained no fights, no action, just walking and meetings with various people, yet it has an intensity that comes from the words that describe Mat’s actions, as well as his description of other people’s actions. Mat’s life is filled with spontaneity, impulsiveness, and unpredictability, even if it involves him doing nothing more than walking across the room.

Mat is fairly obsessed with the opposite sex in comparison to the other men in the story. Other male characters certainly enjoy the sight and company of the women around them, but in Mat point of view chapters, physical observations of the opposite sex are moved to the front: the statue of Queen Nariene has three possible explanations for its pose, one of which involves a bared breast; “Mud?” he said to a pretty, smiling maid spreading her skirts in a curtsy; (Tylin) pale green lace trimmed the oval opening in her gown that half exposed her full breasts;  (Suroth) a pretty enough woman despite her hair being shaved to that long crest; (Anath) imperiously beautiful, she put Tylin and Suroth both in the shade; (servants) the yellow-haired man in his indecent garment was not the only one either. A slim but nicely rounded red-haired woman wearing the same sheer robe was kneeling beside a table; (Selucia) a short woman with half her golden head shaved and a bosom that might outmatch Riselle’s. The author does not hold Mat back from expressing his interests, and that gives Mat a unique voice in the story.

To a lesser extent, Mat’s other interests in horses, gambling, wealth acquisition, and battle (or battle avoidance) crop up regularly. Anything that doesn’t fit those interests is quickly dismissed. This narrow focus allows the author to drop obvious hints to the reader while Mat cheerily skims over these details. Playing into this behaviour allows many humourous situations to be created.

Even without that, a great deal of humour comes from Mat’s exaggerated view of even mundane situations. Mat is prone to exaggerate more than anyone else, making his point of view distinctive: what good it would do if she still swallowed the whole faradiddle; her muscular husband was a fishing –boat captain with more dueling scars than Mat wanted to think about; Light, did the whole city know?; he kept shooting frowns at his workmen as though suspecting they would lie down and go to sleep if he did not maintain a close watch on them. A dead man could not have slept in that heat; the day after he first kissed the Illuminator, the grandmotherly maids disappeared from her chambers, replaced by women white-haired and wizened; No one could be friends with Suroth; With dozens of Seanchan just the other side of a door guarded by a cook with a spoon; her ageless face still looked as if she ate briars three meals a day.

Any one of the elements described above could lend a strong voice to a character, but when you combine several of them the effect is multiplied, and the voice becomes unique and memorable.

Writing Lessons:

Create a distinctive voice for your characters by playing up some aspects of their behaviour and playing down others, in content, word choice, and tone.

Winter's Heart - Chapters 13-16

In this section, the villains cement the plot while an old hero returns.

Stories will often have an interlude when readers get to see what the villains have been up to. This is often an opportunity to feed information to the reader they wouldn’t otherwise receive, as well as to throw in plot twists as the villains respond to the hero’s moves and vice versa. Three such moments are presented here, as we peek in on Cadsuane, Demandred, and Tuon.

Cadsuane’s interlude is the least informative. Some background events involving minor characters and politics are revealed. Then Alanna falls unconscious. Odds favour Rand’s triple bonding having some effect on Alanna. Since Cadsuane will show up for the big fight later, establishing that the bond exists, and that she knows about it, and that it still works, are all important. Equally important is that her coterie of sisters and Asha’man will follow her.

With that business aside, the story moves to the more serious interlude featuring Demandred. This is the first time since the early books that the final goal is revealed so bluntly. Rand will try to cleanse the source and the Forsaken will try to stop him. The plots of these later books have jumped from character to character, not all of whom will have a completed story by the end of this book, so it is helpful to the reader to be reminded what the main plot is. Unless the characters are all working towards the same goal, having too many of them fuzzes the plot, and risks losing the reader’s interest.

Moridin has been thinking along the same lines, and has ordered the other Forsaken to follow his plan. This is the first time the Forsaken and the Dark One have been alarmed at one of Rand’s plans, to the point where killing Rand is acceptable when all recent efforts were to keep him alive. The danger they are worried about is that male channelers can be trusted if saidin is cleansed, and the Dark One’s best hope of victory is by dividing humanity, man against woman. Remember that theme from The Fires of Heaven?  

It irks me that after the secret resurrections of Osan’gar and Aran’gar, the other Forsaken all know about them now. What happened to Shaidar Haran’s statement that only he knew they lived again? When a plot point is raised, an expectation is created. Readers might have seen the Forsaken brought to heel by Moridin, all the while two others secretly lurk waiting to take him down on the Dark One’s orders. The irritation would be lessened with any explanation, but there is none to be had, just keep reading between the lines. After a while it sinks in that despite all the plotting and conniving, the Forsaken are being used as typical henchmen. Not quite what was advertised, alas.

Some excitement is conjured up by Demandred’s perception of the battle to come: So they would take al’Thor – while he was trying to use the Choedan Kal, no less, he and some woman drinking enough of the One Power to melt continents! Rand will have the firepower, but for the first time he’ll be facing multiple foes. The steady increase in the scope of battles throughout the series is well carried out. Each conflict makes the last look tame, whether hand-to-hand, with the One Power, or with armies. This battle looks to be epic, which means it has to be, or the reader will get angry.

The last interlude is from a new character, only named by her title before now, and even that is only confirmed in the last paragraph of her appearance. Tuon’s strange superstitious belief in portents and omens, her bland acceptance of slavery and assassination attempts, and her own sidekicks are all designed to make her appear alien. Her customs are strange, yet she thinks of them as the only right way to behave. Using superstition turns out to be an effective way to throw off the reader and make them uncomfortable. Superstitions are familiar and fun, but living one’s life guided by them will make readers shudder. She is dangerous to Rand, and to Mat, yet we know Mat will somehow marry her. She is not depicted as villainous, but nor is she a misguided damsel in distress. Her crazy Seanchan ways are more intimidating and surprising than the armies she commands.

Her appearance also signals the return of the Seanchan in larger numbers than ever. This is the setup of a larger conflict to come, and the author’s intent is to make readers wonder how the heroes will overcome the forces arrayed against them.

The answer is obviously Mat, who is expected to become an insider and undermine the Seanchan from within. Undermining their society has already been mentioned as a viable strategy twice in this book. Mat has no such intentions. He only wants to get out of Ebou Dar, especially after the Gholam tries to kill him again. At this point, readers have had six years to build up ideas about what Mat’s marriage might entail, and to be sure, they expect him to stop the Seanchan singlehandedly.

Writing Lessons:

Used well, interludes can propel your story onward, set expectations, and provide key information. Used poorly, they can confuse and irritate your readers.

Winter's Heart - Chapters 11-12

In this section, Rand and his girlfriends embrace their three-pronged romantic relationship.

An important element of the series is how Rand and three women come to share their affections. Rand is reluctant to accept the love of any woman at all, having gone out of his way to avoid endangering them with his presence. He rightfully knows that his enemies see his love as a weakness to be exploited, and thus avoids feeling any love or warmth towards anyone. Elayne, Aviendha and Min all have to find a way to get Rand to accept and return their love, but also to avoid feeling jealousy towards each other.

Romance is difficult enough to portray, so trying to show a three woman to one man romance requires either establishing the situation and motivations convincingly or using some other tricks to prevent the reader’s disbelief. In this case, Jordan once again opts for humour, using Nynaeve’s distraught reaction to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the situation. The emotional reaction to the humour overrides the immediate logical reaction that the four-way romantic situation is highly unlikely.

But even Nynaeve’s funny reaction isn’t funny enough to simply be thrown into the discussion and distract the reader; the humour is built up prior to that by having Nynaeve in a number of other uncomfortable situations, of which learning about Rand’s live life is the last straw. First she must endure an hour of teaching the Sea Folk, badgering from Alivia and the Kin, and a misunderstanding with Talaan, all of which build up the expectation that events are getting out of Nynaeve’s comfort zone. Subtle phrases set up the distraught reaction later: Having a husband meant that she did not have to share a bed with another woman, or two, and it gained her a sitting room.

An emotional reaction will always trump a logical one, but some readers will have a negative emotional reaction to some topics no matter what tricks or convincing prose are used to try create a different emotional reaction. Sex, love, death and morally difficult topics will always be difficult for some readers, so if your story is going to include such an element, the best you may be able to do is sway readers in the middle into accepting the story element.

When the characters recognize the ridiculous nature of the situation, the reader is complicit, and instead of feeling like they’ve been left out of the story, they feel included. They know their concerns are being addressed, and they will read on to see what happens next.

The women’s willingness to share Rand is an acceptance that Rand does not belong to any of them alone. In this respect he represents the Light itself. When the three women bond him, they feel his love returned. The chapters in Caemlyn opened with a couple of descriptions of the taint, its foulness tainting Rand, Lews Therin’s mad cackling representing his uncertainty about his feelings but it ends with descriptions of warm feelings. The women’s acceptance of Rand’s shared affections, and his acceptance of their affection changes the negative feelings depicted at the beginning of this section into positive feelings.  

Rand’s excitement over the bonding with all three women is presented in metaphor: He spun around, wine sloshing out of his cup, more pouring from his pitcher before he could bring it upright. With a muttered oath, he hastily stepped out of the spreading wetness on the carpet and put the pitcher back on the tray. A large damp spot decorated the front of his rough coat, and droplets of dark wine that he tried to brush away with his free hand. Very satisfactory.

Nynaeve’s training of the windfinders makes excellent use of imagery to describe how she strikes and counters attacks. Were they using swords instead of weaves, the descriptions of parrying and deft manoeuvring of weaves would be just as apt. Piggybacking on existing imagery or concepts that the reader is familiar with makes it easier to explain abstract concepts.

Writing Lessons:

To suspend the reader’s disbelief, build up towards the emotional reaction you want the reader to have when they reach the hard-to-believe element.

Winter's Heart - Chapters 8-10

In this section, Elayne is set upon by Darkfriends.

Elayne is trying to embody the ideals that other people look up to. While Perrin and Aram and others all have competing ideals they are seeking to be faithful to, Elayne is such a faith, and she represents a particular form of idealized woman: virginal, queenly, powerful, kindly, generous, beneficent, and brave. Whatever qualities she does not yet have, she will have forced on her by her quest. She reflects I rule Andor, but at times I think Reene Harfor rules me, establishing that the followers exert as much or more control over the relationship as the leaders.

In one inconvenient relationship, further arrangements are made to provide the Sea Folk with teachers. The debate allows for a quick round-up of the Aes Sedai, Elayne’s other guests, and their activities. The damane prisoners are in the care of the Kin. They cannot be released yet for fear they will turn back to their old relationships and try to free the sul’dam. Even the newest damane taken in Tanchico and Toman Head cannot be trusted to make decisions for themselves. The oldest damane Alivia, who must know about Seanchan history from first-hand experience than any official and untrustworthy record, is ready to be set free.

It is disorienting to know the heroines are the three most powerful channelers, only to find better and more powerful channelers among Egwene’s new recruits, the Kin, the Seanchan and the Sea Folk. It is now very muddled as to who is the most powerful, and therefore highest ranking. Under Egwene’s open invitation to channelers, any one of these women could pass the training and be among the top Aes Sedai within a decade. The threat of losing their standing will keep those most powerful women from retiring into the Kin, but a temporary placement would make an effective punishment.

The Kin themselves have begun filtering out of the palace to find their other members who may need help escaping from Seanchan hands. After all the effort to keep the weave for Traveling out of Seanchan hands, the residues Nynaeve will leave behind from each of her Gateways are a very large risk. Did Nynaeve remember to invert the weave each time? Or would she simply insist that she had obviously been careful?

Two of the other Kin have been placed back in novice White and have reasoned out one of three Aes Sedai are Black Ajah. Vandene insists they be kept busy so Nynaeve foists the duty back on Vandene. The others are equally busy teaching Sea folk, keeping the Kin nearby, or working to take the throne.

When the author creates characters, he often has one who epitomizes the class or culture, and then introduces another who rejects that class and culture and who is intent on setting a new direction, turning all conventions on their head. This is particularly effective when he’s also introduced several very minor characters who all embrace the same culture. For example, by naming a half dozen Kinswomen, the reader feels they all share some common traits, but he then pulls forward one difference between them (two of them were runaway novices, while the others were put out of the Tower), and creates tension among them with it. This tension is strong enough to motivate the one or two Kinswomen who are more fully developed characters, and even to shift some of the major characters in a particular direction.

The discovery of alum which can be mined from Elayne’s estates is convenient and contrived. It fixes a major obstacle by allowing Elayne to borrow any money she needs from local banks. The reader’s reaction is likely to be an eye-rolling “oh, sure” instead of any excitement. There really wasn’t any earlier time to introduce this stream of revenue which could have felt less contrived. The best that could have been done instead would be to have her estates historically producing some resource which was useful but not necessary. Then, with the chaos caused by the Dragon breaking the World again, a shortage could have been created which made Elayne’s resource much more valuable, providing the necessary funds but tying her new wealth to an existing plot rather than coming out of thin air. The resource could even have been alum, just with a more believable reason for it to pay for fixing Elayne’s problems.   

The first real action of the book so far is an assassination attempt on Elayne, which is meant to fail. Elayne observes it is an overly complicated plan. What is its end objective? If it was to kill Elayne, they had it already – Hanlon could have kept other guards away while the four assassins finished Elayne. Instead, Shiaine’s man has spent all this effort getting into a position of authority so that Elayne can be killed at a later time, a time of Moridin’s choosing. The problem is that Elayne’s guard is up against future attempts, the forkroot won’t work again, and the convenient timing of the heroic guardsman has created a bit of scrutiny towards him. It may be that Moridin is overly fond of complex plans for no good reason except that it serves the Dark One’s desires. Holding Elayne as a captive may be a prod for Rand, and it is in line with two other previous attempts to capture, not kill, Rand’s girlfriends. 

Arguments among characters add a dose of realism. No one gets along perfectly in real life, even amongst good friends. Whenever Nynaeve, Elayne, Dyelin, Birgitte, and Aviendha have snippy fits, it fits with the reader’s familiarity of such real-life situations. 

Egwene’s only appearance in this book is in a dream, which takes place before her epilogue in the last book. This is not confusing because the epilogue in The Path of Daggers told of a month-long wait before her Travel to Tar Valon. Since a month has not yet passed, and there has been none of the familiar rumours and news indicating her arrival yet, it is simple and intuitive to reason that her appearance takes place within the month-long wait.

Slayer returns, spying on Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve in tel’aran’rhiod, giving Egwene a chance to show off her skilful use of powers in the World of Dreams. With Rand nowhere to be found, Moridin’s agents are lurking near Rand’s allies watching for any clue as to his whereabouts. So much so that three of them are doing the same independently of each other. The Black Ajah will join up with Shiaine at some later point, but it could just as easily have been now. Why not simply congregate the villains and concentrate their efforts? Is it to have a situation like in Ebou Dar where their efforts interfere mildly with each other? Asne’s perspective ends with her warders drawing nearer, but this has no bearing on later events other than to provide the Black Ajah with a bit of muscle. It is frustrating when a tension-building moment doesn’t amount to anything, but in this case there is enough other Black Ajah tension that pans out the reader is likely to forget it amongst the rest.

Writing Lessons:

Plots which are overly complex, or overly simple and contrived, reduce the believability of your story.

Winter's Heart - Chapters 5-7

In this section, Perrin is victim of a misunderstanding, and Elayne begins her long road to the throne.

Perrin has a habit of entering the wolf dream too strongly. Is it because of the intensity with which he takes actions? Perrin seems to operate in only two ways: wait, and act with full commitment.  He is fervent in his desires. This time, he was weak when he woke, though the healing he received may also have played a role. Does Elyas never enter the wolf dream?

Rumours about Perrin and Berelain begin circulating through the camp. Aram’s later behaviour will stem from him seeking out other people than Perrin to dedicate himself to. He hears the rumours that Perrin has been cheating with Berelain, and seeing that he is fallible, tries to find someone else who won’t let him down.

Berelain offers Perrin a truce, which he interprets as yet another veiled attempt to put him in a compromising position. He even dismisses what his nose tells him, even though it has been infallible in the past. He has already made up his mind about Berelain and no amount of smelling honest will change his mind! Rather than describe Berelain further, we learn how Perrin perceives her through a metaphorical description of her furniture:

One of her camp chairs squeaked faintly as she shifted. He had been here often, with Faile, to discuss plans. The tent was big enough to house a family, and Berelain’s elaborate furnishings would not have looked out of place in a palace, all intricate carving and gilt, though everything, tables and chairs and the bed itself, was held together with pegs. They could be disassembled for storage on a cart, but the pegs did not make for true sturdiness.

But, to reinforce the reader’s discomfort with Berelain, a couple of other verbs and adjectives are used in nearby paragraphs when Perrin meets her followers. Two pairs of followers who are interchangeable with each other, both physically and in behaviour. Is Berelain interchangeable for Faile? Or is it Perrin who is interchangeable with Berelain’s other conquests?

Rosene and Nana tittered behind cupped hands.

Wearily he tramped around the hill.

Once again, Perrin resists the idea that Masema is to be killed, despite that he has been secretly meeting with the Seanchan. Perrin might never have thought of a truce with the Seanchan if not for the fact they were apparently willing to meet with Masema.

Perrin’s commitment to non-violent solutions is hastily tossed aside to save Faile. As important as it is to him, it is insignificant when weighed against his desire to see Faile free. He is quite willing to have his men and those they fight pay the price to save her, but he will still do what he can to minimize that cost.

The scouts return with clues that are convincing to Perrin and the reader. They are convincing in part because of who is reporting. The scouts have all been named as the most competent people in the camp. Sulin and Gaul’s abilities have been seen first-hand, and the fact that Perrin compares Jondyn Barran to them gives him the same credibility. Warders benefit from association with the other warders we’ve seen, so even if we know nothing about these particular Warders, their rank guarantees their competence. Each clue they bring back is quickly and simply explained, and unsurprisingly they get every detail right. Since the reader already knows what happened, all this section needed to do is explain how Perrin has come to know the same things. Had Faile’s disappearance been mysterious, Perrin’s scouts may have been pressed for alternative explanations, and the author would have had to explain what Perrin believed and why. It might have been a slightly longer passage, but with the risk that Perrin gets wrong information.

Masema’s erratic behaviour is portrayed differently than Rand’s oncoming madness. First, he and his followers do something reckless by confrontationally marching out of the woods in a long line, stopping only when physically blocked by Perrin’s men despite their drawn bows. Masema’s physical description is blunt, comparing him to a rabid mountain cat, naming him zealot. He is unaware of snow falling on his scalp, something that would bother normal folk. His actions are unplanned; they are sudden, intense, and surprising. His face doesn’t change or contort like those of his followers, and gives no outward sign of his mood. To hammer home the point, after promising considerable delays to Perrin by refusing to Travel using the One Power, Masema suddenly makes an exception to his rule. Whether this is an expression of his madness, the pull of a ta’veren, or an underhanded plot to kill Perrin is as unknown as Masema’s behaviour.

Elayne is touring Caemlyn, trying to be seen as the symbol of Andor that people will rally around. Andor has an informal democratic monarchy, where both the people and the nobility must agree on a ruler before they can take the throne, however good their claim is.

Elayne has been taking reckless chances of her own, a necessary part of touching the hearts of the citizens of the city, and has nearly been kidnapped once as a result. Elayne is trying to assert her independence, refusing bodyguards, lacking protection when she walks the street at night. The threat to her is more pronounced knowing Faile has also been kidnapped.

The narrator’s internal dialogue often reveals a progression of thought, moving from outrage to denial to grudging admission:  “You talk about my language? At least I know what fits where, and what doesn’t.” Elayne colored, and her neck stiffened. She did know! Most of the time. Often enough, at least. This short evolution of thought allows the reader to learn the character’s original perception, their relationship with their critic, and how they react to uncomfortable ideas. Elayne accepts the truth of the criticism much more quickly and easily than Mat or Nynaeve do.  

Writing Lessons:

With metaphor, the description of any object, character or event can apply to any other object, character or event, either subtly or bluntly.