The Power that Preserves. Ch. 13: The Healer
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 12:04 pm
In the beginning of the chapter, there are two things going on: The healer is assessing Covenant's state, and Covenant is ranting at the Healer, who in his delusion he takes for Lena.
The healer is an interesting figure who we never really know much about. She tells Covenant that she is "a Healer, an Unfettered One who turned to the work of healing." She also says, "I came to this place from-from my life-because the Forest's unquiet slumber met my own long ache for repose." The description Donaldson gives her paint her to be someone who has been washed away by time, but perhaps also by something more. Her arrival at Morinmoss appears to have been by a long, painful road. Not many other people of the Land would use the word "mercy" as an exclamation the way she does.
There are basically only two apparent aspects of Covenant's personality left, perhaps the only two traits stubborn enough to hold on as the amanibhavam tries to pull it down. The first is grief and guilt over what he had done to Lena, her rape and her demise. The second is his need to hold on to his white gold, and more intrisically, to that which makes Covenant who he is. This is what I believe Covenant at the time considers to be his "cunning."
The forest itself is a central character in this chapter. It summons the healer, shines light at Covenant from the trees to pacify him, and does what it can to fight off Lord Foul's winter. The healer surmises that this is done by the Colossus or Caerroil Wildwood.
After assessing Covenant, the healer takes him to her cave where she eats, cleans and feeds Covenant, and dresses him in a nice, white robe. This is the second time Covenant has worn a white robe in Morinmoss, but this would be better to address in the next chapter.
Finally setting aside her fear of pain, the same fear that made her give up being an Unfettered (un-Unfettered?), she gets to work on healing Covenant. Her work is strangely different than any other lore seen so far.
After making herself and Covenant one, she slams a stone pestle into her ankle to match his injury. For what seems like a very long time, perhaps a day or more, she is consumed with the pain and doesn't move. After she finally gets up, Covenant in his paranoid state kicks her. It doesn't take much for the healer to knock him down, make him eat, drug him, and get him back into bed.
After Covenant is sedated, the healer examines both of their ankles, and they're both whole. She doesn't take any joy in it, though. Her thoughts then lead to the Rites of Unfettering and how she wouldn't have pursued her lore if she had known the cost.
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Eh, I'm not happy with this one at all. Anybody please feel free to add to it. I'll try to make the next one better, though it's gonna take me a couple days (I was thinking the 10th was on Sunday for some reason
)
The healer is an interesting figure who we never really know much about. She tells Covenant that she is "a Healer, an Unfettered One who turned to the work of healing." She also says, "I came to this place from-from my life-because the Forest's unquiet slumber met my own long ache for repose." The description Donaldson gives her paint her to be someone who has been washed away by time, but perhaps also by something more. Her arrival at Morinmoss appears to have been by a long, painful road. Not many other people of the Land would use the word "mercy" as an exclamation the way she does.
There are basically only two apparent aspects of Covenant's personality left, perhaps the only two traits stubborn enough to hold on as the amanibhavam tries to pull it down. The first is grief and guilt over what he had done to Lena, her rape and her demise. The second is his need to hold on to his white gold, and more intrisically, to that which makes Covenant who he is. This is what I believe Covenant at the time considers to be his "cunning."
The forest itself is a central character in this chapter. It summons the healer, shines light at Covenant from the trees to pacify him, and does what it can to fight off Lord Foul's winter. The healer surmises that this is done by the Colossus or Caerroil Wildwood.
After assessing Covenant, the healer takes him to her cave where she eats, cleans and feeds Covenant, and dresses him in a nice, white robe. This is the second time Covenant has worn a white robe in Morinmoss, but this would be better to address in the next chapter.
Finally setting aside her fear of pain, the same fear that made her give up being an Unfettered (un-Unfettered?), she gets to work on healing Covenant. Her work is strangely different than any other lore seen so far.
After making herself and Covenant one, she slams a stone pestle into her ankle to match his injury. For what seems like a very long time, perhaps a day or more, she is consumed with the pain and doesn't move. After she finally gets up, Covenant in his paranoid state kicks her. It doesn't take much for the healer to knock him down, make him eat, drug him, and get him back into bed.
After Covenant is sedated, the healer examines both of their ankles, and they're both whole. She doesn't take any joy in it, though. Her thoughts then lead to the Rites of Unfettering and how she wouldn't have pursued her lore if she had known the cost.
The forest and even Covenant's ring seem to impel her to finish her work, and she again gets ready to heal Covenant, even though she thinks she may not survive. She's not doing it at the most auspicious time, either.But power was not so easily evaded. Costs could not be known until they came to full fruition, and by that time the power no longer served the wielder. Then the wielder was the servant. No escape, no peace or reticence, could then evade the expense, and she could take no pleasure in healing.
Once she starts, it doesn't look very good for the healer. When she sees Covenant's madness, she's unprepared for the depth of it. Even though she saw how his own inner torment was intertwined with the amanibhavam's madness, I don't think she was counting on healing more than the amanibhavam's effects, and she was reticent to do even that. She couldn't handle the strain, but she couldn't break off the healing. She loses the battle, takes on Covenan't insanity, and then tries to kill him with a stone cooking knife. Before she can harm the Unbeliever, little green specks of light, the Forestal's calling card, come and hold her down until the strain of the ordeal she's been though fulfills her fatal premonition.At last she became aware of time; she felt in the brightness of the tree shine that somewhere behind the impenetrable clouds moved a dark moon, readying itself for a new phase of the Despiser's power.
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Eh, I'm not happy with this one at all. Anybody please feel free to add to it. I'll try to make the next one better, though it's gonna take me a couple days (I was thinking the 10th was on Sunday for some reason
)
