The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: The First Cracks in the Tower (Chapters 10 to 12)

 

“Siuan Sanche had been poor in Tear, and had worked on her father’s fishing boat, one just like the boats in the drawing, in the delta called the Fingers of the dragon, before ever she dreamed of coming to Tar Valon.  Even the nearly ten years since she had been raised to the Seat had not made her comfortable with too much luxury.  Her bedchamber was more simple still.  Ten years with the stole, he thought. Nearly twenty since I decided to sail these dangerous waters.  And if I slip now, I’ll wish I were back hauling nets.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 158.

 

It would be remiss of me not to mention the importance of Robert Jordan’s use of alternate points of view throughout The Wheel of Time.  From the final point of view in The Eye of the World being from Moiraine to each of the prologues being from minor characters or even villains, Jordan already began hints that the perspective would be expanding as the series would progress.  The Dragon Reborn is the last of the books to keep the points of view insular to the Emond’s Field Five, but it’s already an indication of things to come with Chapter 12 “The Amyrlin Seat” being from Suian Sanche’s perspective coming after two chapters dedicated to reintroducing Egwene, Nynaeve, and the White Tower in general (and don’t worry we will be discussing that), but going to Siuan allows the reader a peak into what has happened in their absence.   There is this idea that the there is something slipping in the tower, there are cracks.  Siuan has been the Amyrlin for a decade but now that the Dragon has declared himself Reborn there is an increased danger in fracturing the White Tower.  There are two False Dragons, one captured and executed, the other captured.  There’s already a crack in Suian and Moiraine’s plan coming to light here with Mat Cauthon’s blowing of the Horn of Valere at the end of The Great Hunt, and implication that they could let him die because it’s believed the Dragon will be the one to blow it at the Last Battle.  It’s Verin whom she meets with at this point to be filled in with goings on in the world, not Moiraine who is still with Perrin following Rand at this point.  There’s also the problem of the Seanchan and their mastery of the One Power without the Three Oaths.  This is recap but it is important to note that there are dangers coming from within and without.

 

The previous chapters, from Egwene’s perspective, is also an important piece in creating this idea of danger.  The section opens with a chapter before the party arrives at Tar Valon and an encounter with the Whitecloaks.  Egwene’s focus is on getting Mat to the Tower due to his worsening condition, here implying that it may only take a few hours before he is killed, and their attempts to Heal him, something Verin has explicitly forbade due to Egwene and Elayne being Novices.  There is, however, lasting trauma here, which wouldn’t be present in the hands of lesser writers.  “There’s no more time to wait, Egwene thought.  I will not be chained again!  She opened herself to the One Power.  It was a simple exercise, and after long practice, it went much more swiftly than the first time she had tried…It was like being filled with light, with the Light, like being one with the Light, a glorious ecstasy, she fought to keep from being overwhelmed, and focused on the ground in front of the Whitecloak officer’s horse.  A small patch of ground’ she did not want to kill anyone.  You will not take me. The man’s hand was still going up.  With a roar the ground in front of him erupted in a narrow fountain of dirt and rocks higher than his head.  Screaming, his horse reared, and he rolled out of his saddle like a sack.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 140.  Egwene is damaged, something that Verin doesn’t have time for, immediately calling what she did an abomination “you will be bound to obey the Three Oaths, but even novices are expected to do their best to live as if already bound.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 142.  Verin doesn’t actually do the full force of punishing the girls, or even Egwene, she has her own motives, but just puts them under guard in their own rooms so they will be dealt with later.  There are other things occurring, they are guarded by three Accepted Nynaeve observes are bound for the Red Ajah due to the way they revel in the power over the three novices who fled.  The cracks are there, they may be hairline, but it’s only seen by those on the inside something that will continue with this plotline and this installment.