Make sure to read Part 6 here first!
Chapter 13: Business in the City
So Moiraine and Siuan have made sure to join their first dinner with their Aes Sedai peers and they are certainly in more luxary than Accepted were – now being able to choose from a range of options and not needing to clear up after themselves anymore. They choose to still wear their shawls although it attracted looks.
Damn, they get a year allowance of money from the Tower now that they are Aes Sedai? Not bad. Looks like Moiraine has her own bank that her family has always used which is where she deposits money. This bank even offers wine, tea, honeyed cake, and poppy seeds – fancy!
Huh – sounds like someone tried to access Moiraine’s financials – a Cairhienin dressed like a captain of the Tower Guard calling themselves Ries Gorthanes – but the banker had not been fooled and got him detained but then he unfortunately managed to bribe his escape before any information could be gotten out of him.
So something mysterious is going on there. I am not sure if Moiraine suspects forces in the Tower to have maybe been behind it? Not sure if I am fully understanding Moiraine’s suspicions by how they are laid out in words in the book. But I am sure things will start coming together soon enough.
Anyway, looks like Moiraine and Siuan are off to get more dresses from a recommended seamstress called Tamore Alkohima. Siuan does not seem so keen to be getting dresses though. Moiraine on the other hand is getting TWENTY… damn. But Moirainre is also trying to give off the appearance she is meaning to stay at the Tower while she also seems to be looking for a way to ‘escape’ her situation at the moment.
Moiraine is getting a bit impaitient with how Siuan is acting around the Seamstress. I mean I cannot blame Siuan there seems to be so many social rules and puzzles to follow and solve here just for some dresses its quite crazy. But then what do I know?
Clearly Moiraine is also planning something here but I feel there is a lot of Game of Houses going on again that I am probably not picking up on.
Chapter 14 – Changes
Damn, Red is not allowed within clothing in the Blue quarters – that is my favourite colour! I wonder what caused animosity between the Blue and Red Ajahs – I mean is that not typical? Of course blues would be opposed to reds and vice versa! But I mean surely if they do not even remember what started it in the first place they should just put it behind them? Ah who am I kidding we cannot even do that in real life.
Yeesh as if things could not get more complicated, what a tangled mess of alliances and fueds between the different Ajah groupings. Not really surprising I guess. But it makes the social puzzle even more of a balancing act than it already is. Like I said before I’d be cooked. I’d probably be one of those that don’t make it past Novice to be honest – heh that kind of rhymes.
There are secret weaves only known to certain Ajah groups? And weaves they do not tell you about until you are Aes Sedai. I guess weaves are almost limitless then? Can you invent them, like new ones? It sounds like you can if you are clever enough I guess but surely at some point there is a limit to how many different kinds of weaves can be made with the elements available – calling them elements cause I don’t fully remember the actual name for it.
The Feast of Lights sounds like a very pretty event which I’d love to see. Also back on the topic of the Tower dwindling – I wonder why that is? Are less girls getting the spark now?
Moiraine just throwing away her invitations into the fire that she is getting from Cairhienin nobles as if hiding will solve anything. This is obviously going to come back to bite her.
Siuan is like me when it comes to clothing – caring very little. I mean over the years I’ve come to care a bit more about clothing but it certainly is not an interest of mine. Speaking of Siuan she is still getting trouble from that Cetalia with whatever she is getting her to do. That whole deference thing is so dumb.
Damn so Moiraine really is planning to run away rather than ending up on Cairhien’s throne as an Aes Sedai. That would be quite a dangerous thing to do, no? And what about Siuan? Would she follow Moiraine or stay behind? Tough to say where this goes. I feel like Moiraine will end up on the throne one way or another though.
Jeez well that answers my question from before – you can die in the test to become Aes Sedai. RIP Ellid. Damn, that sucks. Ter’angreal’s are now pretty scary to me.
Moiraine and Siuan seem to be making a lot of connections with other Aes Sedai now at least. And Elaida is also currently away from the Tower – GOOD – I hope she never comes back. It also looks like the search for the ‘boychild’ is now underway and Siuan seems to be getting on a bit better with whatever Cetalia is getting her to do – DON’T CARE still dislike her.
Damn, the pies did not work out then.
And we have a few more Accepted brought up to Aes Sedai including Sheriam. But no further Novices had become Accepted and no new Novices had joined the Tower in the time since Moiraine and Siuan became Aes Sedai themselves – certainly no resurgence.
What the heck and just like that they throw in another 0-100 moment out of nowhere with the announcement that Tamra, the Amyrlin, had died in her sleep. What the heck! Now that is unexpected. We need to know more!
I think Moiraine giving herself penance for thinking of ways to use the new situation to her advantage to get away from something she does not at all want to do is a bit silly. Like, if you do not want to do something then try and get yourself out of it – in fact Moiraine does not just want to not do it but there seems to be a lot trauma around her family life? Seems pointless to make yourself suffer even more when you are already suffering.
Hmm, this new Amyrlin – Sierin Vayu – seems like a bit of a tyrant. She dismissed all the male clerks due to ‘too much flirting’ and also seems to be torturing and stripping down a number of Aes Sedai? Something seems very sus right now. She has also chosen a new Keeper and Mistress of Novices from the Reds rather than her own Grays as was expected? Hmm. Apparently many were surprised that Vayu had chosen the gray Ajah over the red. Curious. Sus and mysterious times.
So Sierin disagreed with the bounty but I think it is pretty clear she does as she did not know its true intention which to me says the searchers who Tamra sent looking for the ‘boychild’ had not informed the new Amrylin of the search – something Moiraine thought would be the case, so that is possibly something to explode up in the future.
Moiraine managed to get herself taken off overseeing the clerks distributing said bounty but unfortunately for her the Amyrlin still ‘ordered’ her to stay at the Tower. Still no escaping then, seems Sieirin is aware at least of the possible plan for putting Moiraine on the Cairhienin throne. Oh yes, and Sierin being of the gray does mean they are very strict on law, no? But Sierin seems to take even that to an extra extreme. Yikes.
Ah. So Moiraine is indeed making a run for it and right this moment. I was not expecting that! And it was also very clever she managed not to lie to one of the Sitters she encountered by saying she had no plans to ‘cross the bridge’ as in leave the city by that way as instead she went from the docks in a rivership. Clever. That Cairhienin man that tried to get her fianancial information from the bank was there watching her go on the rivership though – so he is still after her and Moiraine believes he is an assassin intending to kill her off to ensure she does not get the Cairhien throne, although she does not want it anyway I guess she is still a threat, especially if the White Tower want her to take that throne.
And in any case not only will that assassin be after her but she will also probably be chased by the wrath of the Tower, in particular Sierin. And Moiraine is going to be looking for the ‘boychild’ herself! Things certainly getting exciting. I reckon Siuan will be finding a way to also help her discreetly from the Tower? Perhaps giving her heads up or intelligence on the Tower’s or Sierin’s plans.
Thank you for reading this post, if you have any queries please Email me, you can find my Email in the Contacts & Community section. Please also follow The Weekly Rambler on Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Instagram, Threads and Facebook which you can access through the buttons at the bottom of this website (Threads is accessed via Instagram). You can also use the social media buttons under each blogpost to share with your family, friends and associates.
You can also subscribe to Email notifications at the right-side of this website to know whenever a new post goes up (you can easily unsubscribe from this at any time through a button in each Email notification), or alternatively you can use an RSS Feed Reader.