Chapter 16 opens with Egwene and Gareth Bryne observing the river above Tar Valon. All the sailors on the six ships currently coming into the city harbor seem extremely nervous that the besiegers will attack them, but anything done to sink the ships would qualify as using the One Power as a weapon, which those under the Three Oaths literally can’t do. Egwene is holding herself to behaving as if already bound by the Three Oaths, even though she is not.
She thought about weaving a flare, a starburst of light, perhaps with a loud bang, just above each of the vessels. That would certainly let anyone aboard with brains realize that neither speed nor distance kept them safe here, only a forbearance born of the Three Oaths. They should know that they were safe because of Aes Sedai.
She upbraids herself for the thought, knowing that such a display might invite a counter-display. She observes the iron chain that can be drawn taut just above the waterline, used to block the harbor from invading ships, but lowered to allow in friends. Bryne warns her that both soldiers coming to enlist and foodstuffs are flowing freely into Tar Valon; as long as the harbor is open, Tar Valon will eat better than they do, and grow stronger too. Every day she waits means more bloodshed, and Bryne urges her to have sisters put his men behind the walls as soon as possible.
Egwene thinks privately to herself that war has always been ugly, and new discoveries like Traveling are only going to make it uglier. She tells him that she knows that some deaths are unavoidable, but that she has to keep the White Tower alive to be ready for Tarmon Gai’don, and to stand between the world and the Asha’man. But the White Tower will die if sisters start killing sisters in the streets of Tar Valon.
They turn back towards the escort of two hundred light cavalry waiting just in the tree line. Sheriam is also there, as well as Nisao, Morvrin, Myrelle, Anaiya, Beonin, and Carlinya, plus their Warders. The creation of the council to advise Egwene was suggested by the Hall, and on Egwene’s orders, all the sisters secretly sworn to her managed to become the ones elected from their Ajah. This has made it easier for her to communicate with them without the need for secret meetings and furtive messages.
Egwene sees that Delana has joined them. The two ride ahead of the rest of the sisters on their way back to their camp, as children in the small hamlets they pass stop to gape at the soldiers wearing the flame of Tar Valon and the Warders with their color-shifting cloaks. Egwene thinks about how far away the Two Rivers girl she used to be feels now.
Delana tells Egwene that the council was created to watch her, and warns that listening to the council’s advice too closely could put Egwene at odds with the Hall. Egwene can’t decide if Delana thinks she is a fool, or if she is trying to make Egwene angry for some reason. Finally, Delana tells Egwene that there has been talk among the Sitters about possibly opening negotiations with Elaida.
Egwene feels a little alarmed at this. All the sisters mentioned were Sitters before the Tower was broken; they are normally divided between supporters of Romanda and supporters of Lelaine. Egwene can’t see either Romanda or Lelaine considering negotiations with Elaida. She calls her advisors to hear what Delana has to say and they all react with disbelieving outrage. But Beonin, who is a Gray, speaks up, arguing that they absolutely should consider negotiation. Egwene listens, asking if Beonin is truly willing to open negotiations with the Sitters in the Tower. When Beonin says yes, Egwene gives her permission.
Everyone reacts vehemently, shouting and arguing, but Egwene remains calm, telling Beonin that the only terms that she will accept is Elaida resigning and going into exile.
Because Elaida would never accept back the sisters who had rebelled against her. An Amyrlin had no say over how an Ajah governed itself, but Elaida had declared that the sisters who fled the Tower were no longer members of any Ajah. According to her, they would have to beg readmittance to their Ajahs, after serving a penance under her direct control. Elaida would not reunite the Tower, only shatter it worse than it already was.
Beonin goes from excited to practically fainting at Egwene’s words, but Egwene knows that she must find a way to make her plan succeed, or Aes Sedai are going to end up fighting each other in the streets of Tar Valon.
Egwene watches Delana ride off, then casually asks if any of those with her had heard anything about the rumor; they all vehemently deny it. Egwene trusts these women more than most, given that they could have not sworn to her if they didn’t intend to keep their word. Unless they are Black Ajah, of course—a worry that is often in the back of her mind.
They argue about what Delana’s motives might be. Nisao asks if they can afford to stop anyone from discussing the idea of parlay with the Sitters in the Tower, given how restless and fearful everyone is feeling now that they have arrived at the White Tower. She worries that the longer the siege stretches on, the more sisters might start making excuses for Elaida’s crimes, and might even start trying to sneak away to rejoin Elaida’s side. Egwene orders Beonin to stretch the talks out as long as she can; Beonin looks much less excited about her task than she did before.
Since she isn’t wearing her stole, Egwene decides to make use of her temporary anonymity to ride through and observe the camp. She takes note of the novices and Accepted moving through the camp. There are nearly a thousand novices, more than the White Tower has had since before the Trolloc Wars, who have been functioning much better in the new lives since the institution of an organizational system that groups them into “families.” The new system has made teaching such vast numbers of novices much easier for the Aes Sedai, and has also reduced the amount of runaways. She notices two Brown sisters, Phaedrine and Shemari, coming out of one of the tents set aside for Traveling, and wonders where the two were. She considers the possibility of sisters slipping away to Elaida, and how just one with the knowledge of Traveling would give away their biggest advantage.
Eventually Egwene dismounts, and after some trouble finding someone to take her horse—since she isn’t wearing her stole—she gets help from Leane and returns to her identity of Amyrlin Seat. She enters a tent where Tiana, the Mistress of Novices, and Sharina Melloy, the grandmotherly but powerful novice acquired in Murandy and responsible for the novice-family system, are watching over some other Aes Sedai and students, who are practicing making cuendillar. Only a few sisters besides Egwene have the ability—you have to be strong in Earth—and not all of them are enthusiastic about learning how to make it, but Egwene has instigated the program as a way to generate revenue.
For once, [Egwene] felt no shame at being praised for one of her supposed discoveries. Unlike nearly everything else except Traveling, this one actually was hers, though Moghedien had pointed the way before she escaped.
A gong rings, telling the student that it is time to go to their next class, and Sharina urges Bode (a Two Rivers girl) and Nicola to hurry off. Bode moves quickly, but Nicola complains that she could get much better at the weave if she had more time to practice, and suggests she could be a little late to her next class. Sharina only has to gesture, however, to have the girl moving with alacrity. As she leaves the tent, Egwene spots Areina falling into step beside her. Sharina leaves as well, and the Aes Sedai discuss the three novices for a while. Nicola has been a particular problem, always trying to find ways to learn weaves early, even if it is on the sly.
Egwene considers all the work that has been done, and which women, after herself, are the best at creating cuendillar.
It would have to be Kairen and Leane, but even Leane was barely fast enough. Kairen needed time to improve. Days? Weeks? Whatever was necessary, because anything less meant disaster, for the women involved and for the men who would die fighting in the streets of Tar Valon and maybe for the Tower.
Alright, I’m going to go ahead and make a prediction. I think that, once her students are capable enough, Egwene’s plan is to change the iron harbor chain into cuendillar, which will block entrance and complete the siege properly, without Egwene’s army needing to secure a single ship. Since cuendillar is unbreakable, the only way to get rid of the chain would be to break whatever it’s attached to at the ends, but then Tar Valon would, of course, lose its protection against invading ships.
If I’m right, that’s a very cool idea, and, like the concept of using Traveling to launch a surprise attack in the middle of the enemy’s forces, a way of using channeling in warfare that could be very effective, and could even change the nature of warfare, without violating the oath not to make weapons or to use channeling itself as a weapon.
It’s interesting to ponder the rather subjective nature of the Three Oaths. We’ve seen a lot of examples of how the oath against lying is not an oath against telling untruths; if the speaker truly believes that what she is saying is true, then she can say it easily, even if everyone around her disbelieves it. But the other two oaths, not to use the One Power as a weapon and not to forge weapons with the One Power, have perhaps even more wiggle room. Obviously something like a sword or a spear counts as a weapon, but what about using the One Power to strengthen a shield or a piece of armor? Such items are used specifically, and only, for combat, but they are technically not weapons. In the same sense, channeling a ball of fire at someone is obviously using the One Power as a weapon, but the Three Oaths don’t stop you from throwing someone with the Power, or from wrapping them in Air until they can’t move, or any number of actions that one would certainly call aggressive. And because the Oaths allow a sister to defend her own life, as well as that of her Warder or another sister, there’s always the chance for an accident, if a sister were to somehow believe she was in immediate danger, or that another sister was, due to some misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Perhaps not likely, but Aes Sedai are only human, for all that they pretend otherwise.
As Egwene and Elayne try to live as though they are already under the Three Oaths, we can see how much thought they have to give to the question of interpretation. In chapter 17, Elayne wishes that she had already held the Oath Rod, because living by the Oaths would be so much easier then. She is primarily thinking about the temptation of the ability to lie, but I wonder if it wouldn’t also be easier because the weave would do some of the interpreting for you. Somehow, it must know whether or not you truly believe what you are saying, or whether you truly believe your life is in immediate danger, or if your intent when channeling is, um, weapon-y.
Elayne and Egwene (and Nynaeve too, though we haven’t seen as much from her POV on the subject) have to spend a lot of time actively thinking about it. I imagine that once the Oaths have settled on a woman, she can probably feel, at least to some extent, which actions are accessible to her and which are not.
I’ve always wondered why the exceptions to the “no using the Power as a weapon” rule included an Aes Sedai’s Warder and other sisters but not anyone else. Surely, I thought, people would want Aes Sedai to have the ability to rescue innocent civilians from, like, bandits and the like. However, it occurs to me now that, if an Aes Sedai could justify violence against a human being in defense of any other human being, they could intentionally send civilians into danger in order to engineer a situation that would allow them to use the One Power as a weapon. Such a loophole would allow the Aes Sedai to choose sides during a battle: What happens if two (or more) civilians are attacking each other? Ostensibly the sister could just choose which one she wanted to defend. After all, there are many non-lethal, non-weapon options when it comes to stopping bad guys with the Power, like everyone’s favorite, bonds of Air.
The subjectivity of the Three Oaths is also probably part of why the restrictions governing who can test for the shawl and what tests she must pass to obtain it are the way they are. When Moiraine was tested in New Spring, there was so much focus on maintaining the outward appearance of serenity and composure (and indeed, this is focused a lot upon in all the books) that I kind of forgot how much composure a woman also needs just in general, in order to manage the demands of being an Aes Sedai. The focus of the test for the shawl is on a woman’s ability to maintain outward serenity at all times, but also on her ability to perform complex weaves under incredible pressure, both physical and emotional, to stay focused while multitasking, and to be adaptable. One must have a certain level of strength to be allowed to test for the shawl, but to pass the test one must also be intelligent and able to maintain a high level of calm in fraught situations.
Imagine if a woman was strong enough to become an Aes Sedai, but not intelligent enough to realize that burning the ships coming into Tar Valon would result in deaths even if she didn’t intend it to. Conceivably, there’s a chance she would then be able to perform such a weave. Or, imagine a woman who was strong in the Power and smart, but easily frightened and prone to panic. An easily panicked Aes Sedai might believe herself in danger more easily, and might use the One Power as a weapon in a way that would reflect poorly on the Oaths’ ability to control that usage.
Of course, there are many other factors that contribute to why the Aes Sedai are the way they are, but as Siuan pointed out, most sisters feel like the Oaths are what make them Aes Sedai. I don’t think you can easily overstate the importance of the Oaths when it comes to the way the White Tower is structured, and the way the Aes Sedai define and control who can join their ranks.
Another way that Aes Sedai define themselves is through the White Tower itself. We see this particularly strongly in this week’s chapters, as Egwene feels homesick for the Tower even though she barely lived there. It was only a few months, I think, hardly enough time to develop such feelings. But it isn’t about how long she lived there, it’s about how the White Tower defines the Aes Sedai. The White Tower needs to be whole for Tarmon Gai’don not just because the world will need every channeler it can get and because the Aes Sedai will be important leaders in the battle, but also because the White Tower is a symbol, and it is that symbol to the Aes Sedai as much as it is to the rest of the world. In chapter 17, Egwene reflects that the different Ajahs are very separate from each other, with the Hall their only point of connection, and that the sisters themselves are basically just a “a convocation of hermits” who only have deeper relationships with a few other friends.
I was a little surprised to read this—yes, women like Moiraine and Siuan are isolated from the rest of the sisters, women like Verin, and certain others who chose to travel more than stay in the Tower, but I always read them as being outliers, women who, through temperament or circumstance (or both) were drawn into a life that was largely separate from their fellow Aes Sedai. But the more I think about it, the more this assessment actually does fit what we’ve seen of Aes Sedai.
I think I’ve been assuming the state of affairs was very different before Rand was discovered and Egwene and Nynaeve went to the Tower, but if it isn’t, the idea of the sisters not feeling very connected to each other really explains why they struggle so much to work together in a team, and why strict hierarchical structures are needed to keep everyone functioning together. And yes, some of the structures that were keeping the institution of the Aes Sedai functioning and strong have weakened and fallen apart due to extraordinary circumstances like the coming of the Dragon Reborn.
I think it goes pretty far to explain why the Aes Sedai seem so… petty and argumentative with each other. Because they only feel connected symbolically, by their oaths and their connection to saidar and the things the White Tower stands for, it kind of makes sense that they have trouble working together. Also, the strict hierarchical structure largely negates the need to work together and compromise, at least among regular sisters and on a day-to-day basis.
At one point Egwene considers that even Black Sisters must yearn for the White Tower to be whole again, which I was inclined to scoff at. After all, the Black Ajah’s whole purpose is to undermine and destabilize the White Tower. But then I remembered Alviarin’s ambition to be Amyrlin, and I remembered how Carridin saw sisters wearing their serpent rings to the meeting of Darkfriends where they were first shown the faces of Rand, Mat, and Perrin. And I thought, yeah. Maybe she’s right. A White Tower run by the Black Ajah would of course look and function very differently than one controlled by the Light, but their identity as Aes Sedai is clearly important to Black sisters.
One wonders how this new system of novice “families” might change that, going forward. Sharina’s system is designed for efficiency, to allow the Aes Sedai to easily manage the greater numbers, but Egwene observes that it has also cut down on the number of runaways, since having five or six “cousins” gives the novices friends to lean on for emotional support. These bonds, allowed and even encouraged, might well last even if members end up choosing different Ajahs, encouraging interconnected support and communication. It’s a big if, but it certainly might be possible.
The inclusion of older women like Sharina, women who have life experience and established ways of thinking and doing things, might also change how the Tower functions. Sharina may well learn to do many things the established Aes Sedai way, but she will never be molded the way teenage girls can be molded; that’s the whole reason for the age restriction in the first place. Sharina is also very powerful, perhaps even stronger than Nynaeve, which means her opinion will carry a great deal of weight basically the second she obtains the shawl.
It’s interesting that we keep encountering women who are as strong or stronger than Nynaeve, given how big of a deal her strength was when she was discovered.
Of course, interactions with the Kin and the Windfinders, and whatever Egwene establishes for those Tower initiates who don’t manage to obtain the shawl, might also affect how the Aes Sedai function. Being one of several groups of women who can channel is very different than being the only (widely known) organization.
Anyway, assuming that I’m correct about Egwene’s plan, it’s kind of ironic that she is both hiding the fact that there are not going to be any ships for a blockade, but that she does have a plan to make the blockade viable another way. The time that the negotiations are supposed to buy is just as valuable as if the ships were coming.
It took me two passes to realize that the first time Egwene told Beonin that she had permission to try to negotiate with the Sitters in the Tower was not really meant as permission, but as a way of shutting the idea down. Obviously, the odds of being able to successfully negotiate for Elaida’s immediate resignation and removal from Tower life aren’t high—although it might be a more palatable idea to the White Tower Hall than Egwene or Beonin expect, given all of the recent decrees that Elaida has put through under Alviarin’s orders. I didn’t quite realize that Egwene’s point was that her conditions for such talks would be just as impossible to fulfill as Elaida’s.
The conversation that follows between Egwene and her council made a lot more sense when I realized that, though technically a yes, the first “permission” she gave was actually intended as an admonishment, and that she probably intended to use the same technique with the Sitters who are talking about negotiations. Nisao’s interjection, and the debate that followed, was all about whether or not Egwene should try to shut those conversations down in the same way. The debate also reiterates the conditions that the Salidar forces are in, morally speaking. Egwene pushed all of them, hard, to get them to commit to action against Elaida; it’s no surprise that they all feel anxious and overwhelmed going from paralyzing inaction, to sudden commitment, to waiting and uncertainty. Even Gareth Bryne is feeling it. He’s too professional and calm to show it, but he pressed Egwene pretty vehemently to get her to commit to sending his forces into Tar Valon. Bryne is looking at it with the eye of an old campaigner; his urgency is based on his knowledge that, without a complete siege, the odds of successfully taking Tar Valon with soldiers is diminishing every day. Most sisters might not realize this, but they must realize that something is wrong, or at least not going according to plan, since the army came all this way and is now just sitting idle.
This is why Nisao suggests that Egwene can’t afford to squash the idea of negotiations. Setting talks in motion is a way to show their followers that the Hall and the Amyrlin are doing something, and to explain why they’re just sitting outside Tar Valon for an extended period of time.
Egwene tells Beonin and the others that anyone who talks with the Sitters in the White Tower Hall must be very careful about not letting slip any information about Traveling, but it’s also mentioned that no one keeps track of Sisters’ comings and goings.
Where had they been, she wondered. Somewhere indoors, perhaps, or at least warmer than the camp. No one really kept track of the sisters’ comings and goings, of course, not even the Ajahs. Custom ruled everyone, and custom strongly discouraged direct questions about what a sister was doing or where she was going.
This also speaks to the way the Aes Sedai are more like a collection of hermits than a unified group who mostly work together. The thought had certainly occurred to me that, if the Salidar Aes Sedai thought to send spies back to the White Tower to sow discord there and strengthen their own cause, surely the Hall of the White Tower, and possibly Elaida herself, would have had the same idea. The goal of reuniting the Tower would almost seem to demand it. While Elaida has rescinded her original offer to accept sisters back, she did make the offer at one time. Plus of course there’s always the Hall or even the Ajah heads, who might well be willing to send their own agents to try to bring home more members of their own Ajahs.
I would also absolutely expect Elaida to employ spies for other reasons, hoping to learn about the rebels’ weaknesses to exploit them, as she desperately wants to destroy anyone who stands against her. Delana has even raised this suggestion in the Hall! And I believe that at one time early on in the Tower division, Elaida mentioned something to someone about having agents in Salidar. If she does, it feels to me like all it would take is one of those agents learning how to Travel for Elaida to find out about it. I don’t think she’d have Egwene’s same compunctions about its wartime uses, either.
Speaking of secrets, it was interesting watching Egwene and the others try to make sense of Delana’s meddling, given that they don’t know she is Black and the reader does. Carlinya is no doubt correct: Delana is probably trying to sow discord wherever she can, to weaken the Salidar Aes Sedai just as Elaida’s side is being weakened by Alviarin. No doubt her orders come directly from “Halima,” who could further isolate Egwene if the young Amyrlin became suspicious and scared of the plots her council and the Sitters might be concocting.
Of course Egwene is confused because she can’t think of a reason that Delana would want such discord among the Aes Sedai. The theories—that she might want to advance some plan of her own, or is grabbing for power, or trying to gain Egwene’s favor—are all perfectly plausible, but there’s no clear aim on Delana’s part to prove or disprove any of them. No one would suggest Black Ajah, of course. Maybe no one would even think it, although once you invoke the idea of sowing general discord amongst the Sitters or maybe even the Ajahs, unless you have another strong reason at hand, I feel like you would definitely at least feel the specter of Black sisters in your mind. Egwene thinks briefly of them later, when she’s considering exactly how far she can trust her council, but it doesn’t seem to be on her mind with Delana. Maybe Delana’s continued insistence that Elaida is Black is throwing people off her scent after all?
I keep thinking about how both Amyrlins have Black Sisters as their Keepers. It shows how powerful and efficient the Black Ajah can be, though Egwene’s council, the former unofficial Hall of Salidar, also managed to maneuver themselves quite effectively. So maybe it shows how powerful and efficient Aes Sedai can be if they are strong enough in the Power and clever enough to see how the political winds are blowing. As Egwene observes to herself as she considers their comments about Delana’s probable motives and intentions, Aes Sedai are very experienced in the Game of Houses.
The real question, I think, is not whether Egwene can win out over Elaida, but if she can reunify the Tower despite the damage the Black Ajah has done to her followers and especially to Elaida’s. Will she come to suspect Delana, or Sheriam? Will she offer a place in her reunified Tower to Alviarin, even though Alviarin was Elaida’s Keeper?
Egwene may not be the Dragon Reborn, but she is taking a similar position in the world, as head of the White Tower and the de facto leader of all female channelers, just as Rand is the leader of the male channelers. As long as Taim doesn’t steal the Black Tower out from under him, anyway… but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
We’re staying with Egwene for now, covering chapters 18 and 19 next week. But before I go, I wanted to mention a realization I had recently. I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it in all the years I’ve been reading The Wheel of Time, but I’ve been thinking a lot about J.R.R. Tolkien’s work recently because of The Rings of Power. The prefix “tar-” meaning “high,” “noble” or “royal” was a Quenya word used by the rulers of Númenor instead of saying “king” or “queen.” The naming of Tar Valon must certainly be an homage to the work that inspired so much of Jordan’s, especially The Eye of the World. It’s a really nice touch, and it pleased me very much to (finally) realize it!
