Throughout my read of The Wheel of Time, I’ve done my best to avoid spoilers and to read the books as though I was getting them as they came out—minus the wait in between, anyway. After all, since this is supposed a first read, it made sense to come into it as virgin as possible, and minus a few major spoilers along the way (Moiraine’s fate being the most egregious, I think), I’ve mostly managed it. But when the TV show was announced, I decided to read New Spring early, so I could have more context to bring to season one and so that I could get the background of Moiraine’s hunt for Rand and the beginning of her relationship with Lan from Jordan’s words first. And when it comes to the show, it was very helpful to have read New Spring.
However, after finishing Crossroads of Twilight, the events and themes of New Spring hit very differently than they did when I first read the novella after The Fires of Heaven.
What struck me most of all when I did my second pass over the prequel novel was Moiraine and Siuan’s raising to the shawl, and the way that New Spring shows what it felt like to be an Aes Sedai before the discovery of the Dragon’s rebirth and the civil war in the White Tower.
Crossroads of Twilight ends with a chapter that is very much about what it means to be Aes Sedai, after all. Egwene speaks to Romanda, Maigan, and Myrelle about the true scope of the Kin and the impossibly advanced age of many of its members. She reveals the truth about how the Oath Rod shortens one’s lifespan, and she also makes the first suggestion that perhaps retiring Aes Sedai should be released from the Oaths and join the Kin instead of going into seclusion on some estate and dying not long after.
These are all radical suggestions that challenge much of what it means to be Aes Sedai, and Romanda immediately and passionate rejects the idea, stating that she has lived as Aes Sedai from the day she came to the Tower, and that she will die as an Aes Sedai. Egwene is also met with resistance and distress from the others who heard her plan; it’s clear that what she hopes to accomplish will be a radical shift in how the White Tower understands itself. This girl, who was raised to Amyrlin purely to be a figurehead and who has spent almost no time as an Accepted and even less actually in the Tower, is attempting to bring radical change to the identity of the Aes Sedai.
However, in the same conversation, Egwene also reiterates her commitment to the White Tower and what it means to be Aes Sedai, declaring her intention to swear on the Oath Rod just as soon as possible. In her own thoughts she also considers the White Tower home, despite barely having lived there. Egwene is Aes Sedai, and she is the Amyrlin Seat, the “will of the Tower… in the flesh,” as Tarna Fier is referred to in chapter 11 of New Spring. In Crossroads of Twilight, Egwene is shown walking a very fine line between radically altering the Tower and doing everything she can to restore the traditional history of it, despite never having been part of that history or the conditioning that normal novices and Accepted go through.
In New Spring there is no such balancing act. Siuan and Moiraine are regular, if incredibly talented, Accepted, who achieve the shawl the usual way and swear the Oaths in the traditional fashion.
We have technically had some description of what it feels like to be bound (and to be unbound) by the Oath Rod when Seaine and the rest used it to test for Black Sisters, and when Pevara ordered Zerah to recant her words saying Logain was set up as a False Dragon by the Red Ajah and Zerah was caught between two conflicting oaths. However, Moraine’s experience of swearing the first time offers a slightly more intimate look into what it means to be bound by the Oath Rod, especially since she has little idea what it will feel like beforehand. One day, possibly soon, Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve (among others) may also be swearing the Three Oaths, and after Moiraine’s experience in New Spring, the reader has a greater idea of what that will feel like for them.
I’m not sure if any of them will be required to take the test to be raised, however. It’s hard to imagine that Egwene will be forced to test at any point; either she’ll remain a prisoner of Elaida or she and her followers will win out and she will be Amyrlin in earnest. I don’t see anyone, not Lelaine or Romanda or any other sister, taking that position away from Egwene now that she’s had it, for all that they may well try. Meanwhile, Siuan states that she doesn’t think that anyone will insist that Theodrin and Faolain be tested for the shawl at this point, so one can assume that same truth will apply to everyone else Egwene raised. We can’t know that for certain, however, as Theodrin and Faolain have been with the Salidar Aes Sedai functioning as sisters since they were raised, while Elayne and Nynaeve have been gallivanting around doing their own thing, so it’s possible that Egwene’s Hall (or a united Hall) might hold them to a different standard and demand different proof of their suitability since none of the Aes Sedai have been able to observe them (except for those sworn to Rand, but that’s a different kettle of silverpike altogether, I think.)
It would certainly be interesting to see Nynaeve go through the test for the shawl, considering how difficult it is for her to keep a straight face about anything, ever. As to strength in the Power, I don’t think that she’d have any trouble, but what if someone threw something really mean at her, the way Elaida did to Moiraine? How would Nynaeve al’Meara handle that? Would she be able to hold onto an outward appearance of serenity, something she was never required to do when she faced her deepest fears in the test for Accepted?
Speaking of Elaida, it was very interesting to be reminded of what she was like before Mordeth-Fain and Alviarin got their claws into her. I’d actually forgotten just how personal her grudge against Siuan (and Moiraine) was, that it wasn’t just jealousy over Siuan’s position but actually a resentment that went all the way back to before Siuan and Moiraine were raised. The fact that Elaida was so petty and small as to have it out for two students, just because she made a mistake with them and was taken to task by her fellow sisters, reminds me of what an awful person she is. Or was. Is. I’d been cutting her some slack because I know what Mordeth’s influence can do to people, but I am no longer inclined to do so. Mordeth’s influence and Alviarin’s interference may have made her less capable and intelligent, but she was always petty and ambitious in the worst of ways, seeing herself as deserving the position of Amyrlin even after she herself made the choice to pursue a different path.
Young Siuan is also an interesting study, as there are many aspects of her behavior as an Accepted and young sister that remind me of how she is now, with Egwene. Before the information in New Spring, I saw changes in Siuan—from Amyrlin, to stilled woman working in secret, to lesser-ranking Sister who advises Egwene but ultimately takes her orders—as just that, changes. But New Spring allows us to see a side of Siuan that existed before she was burdened with the responsibility of witnessing Gitara’s Foretelling and preparing the White Tower (in secret) for the coming of Tarmon Gai’don, and I recognized that Accepted/newly-minted sister as being very similar to the woman we know in Crossroads of Twilight.
For example, in chapter 11, Moiraine makes a concerted effort not to open her door too quickly to those who have come to take her to the raising ceremony. She hears the knock, and, despite her sudden nerves and desire to run to the door, she makes herself check her appearance and take her time in answering the knock. She controls her features utterly when she sees Elaida among those who have come to collect her. Then on the other hand, there is Siuan:
Without a word, [Moiraine] stepped outside, closing the door behind her for the last time, and wordlessly they formed a ring around her, escorting her along the dark gallery to Siuan’ s door. Silence was required. Jeaine, a slim, copper-skinned Domani, knocked three times, the green fringe of her shawl swaying. Siuan opened the door so quickly she must have been waiting on her toes for the third knock. The ring of sisters parted to let her in, and her eyebrow twitched at the sight of Elaida, but at least she did not grimace, the Light be thanked.
When I first read New Spring, I thought about how much Siuan has changed since her youth. Now, after Crossroads of Twilight, I feel like I recognize her. And I wonder if someday, maybe Siuan will get some of the adventure she longed for. If she (and the world) can survive Tarmon Gai’don, that is. In her earliest days as an Aes Sedai, she was roped into positions she didn’t want to be in, but once the responsibilities of preparing for the Last Battle are over and she is no longer needed to be the Amyrlin or guide her replacement, perhaps she’ll finally get a chance to see the world the way she dreamed of when she and Moiraine were girls.
And then, finally, there is Moiraine’s bonding of Lan in the Epilogue of New Spring. She tells him she wants him as her Warder, but before that bond is made, before Lan’s decision is even made, she tells him about the Black Ajah, opens up to him in a way she never would to anyone except her bonded Warder. She does that before he is bonded, taking the risk that he could say no, and will have this very secret, intimate knowledge even if he refuses to accept her offer. She also offers him a path forward, a way to fight his war against the Dark in a way that is more effective than his continual forays into the Blight, and that carries with it a greater chance that he might survive the battles. Then, once they are bonded, they share each other’s grief over war and loss and bolster each other in a profound, beautiful way.
I first read New Spring right after The Fires of Heaven, so my thoughts were all about Moiraine’s death and the way she arranged for Lan’s bond to be transferred, without his knowledge or permission, breaking the agreement they made between them and using her power to control him against his will. But compared to Lelaine’s suggestions about ways to alter the bond to control—or as Egwene points out, to Compel—the Asha’man, what Moiraine did to Lan doesn’t seem so bad, especially since she clearly intended him to end up with Nynaeve, the woman he loves. Yes, it was still a violation of consent, but Moiraine’s choice was made out of love: love for Lan and a hope for a future for him, and love for the world and a willingness to break his trust if it is in the best interest of the world’s survival.
I suppose one could argue that those suggesting bonding Asha’man are, in some ways, also trying to protect the world, but the focus on altering the bond that we get when Maigan/Lelaine suggest ways the bond could be altered to have less connection and more control doesn’t feel like love in any respect. It is a sense of necessity and duty at best, and a sense that these men do not deserve to be treated as humans at worst. Egwene likens the idea to Compulsion, which is apt, but it is also an idea very reminiscent of the use of the a’dam. There is a narrative suggestion that the “male a’dam” that Egeanin wasn’t able to throw into the sea might be used on Rand soon, or at least that his enemies will attempt it, and so I find myself thinking about Moiraine’s choices in a very different light than I did after The Fires of Heaven. This reminder in New Spring comes at the perfect time to remind us of what true, good Warder/Aes Sedai bonds should look like, and by its contrast, what they shouldn’t.
Some of you have suggested that I read “The Strike at Shayol Ghul” next, so that’s what we’ll be covering next week. I’m really excited to see what context that reading brings to Rand’s relationship to Lews Therin, to the concept of male Aes Sedai, and to the possibilities surrounding what Rand may eventually have to do to stop the Dark One and seal the Bore more permanently. Herid Fel, this one’s for you.
