Well, before my current post, this chapter has tied ‘Stuff of Legends’ for the fewest responses, which is bizarre, because both chapters are two of the most interesting in the Last Chronicles. Our first look at Berek and the Viles? Where are you people?!?
Ok, to be fair, I didn’t catch up until over a month later. Maybe others are catching up, too. But if not, I’m proud to be among the Lingering Few. You guys rock!
Lurch, once again, I’m not exactly sure what you said, but boy did you say it! I’m simultaneously hungry and mystified. Coincidentally, I’m making my own spaghetti sauce right now. No kidding. Reading your post, right after I had minced fresh garlic, was pretty surreal. (I think . . . )
Sleeplessone, good job getting us started.
How the hell did Linden earn the title ‘Lover of Trees’ ?
I have no idea. Viles seem to be telepathic minder readers . . . but then why would they have any confusion over her intentions?
How had Esmer known that Linden would encounter the Viles ? Does he ‘know’ time as the Theomach does, or was he privvy to Covenant’s plan to steal Linden into the past as it was being planned
Good questions . . . ! Seems like Wayfriend picked up on them, too.
Wayfriend wrote:
My, Linden seems to be forever at the mercy of these mysterious entities who know everything!
Ha! You’re right. It does wear on one’s credulity.
For millennia, the trees had suffered slaughter.
Maybe my sense of time is off, but I had no idea that the trees were being slaughtered for several thousand years before Berek.
I like that the forest towers so high that the distant mountains can’t be seen. You get no impression of this from the Map. Sure, it’s a detail meant to explain why Covenant and Jeremiah must travel in small line-of-sight leaps (rather than merely transport to MS), but it’s still an appreciated visual detail. This really gives us a sense of space.
Ok, plot mechanics time. It’s the only way I can attempt to wrap my head around this story.
Rock and a hard place. This has two distinct meanings: 1. L/C/J caught between Wildwood and the Viles, using their battle to distract both parties so L/C/J can escape. 2. Linden caught between Viles and her own helplessness, so she’ll give the ring to Covenant.
There’s evidence that Covenant wasn’t serious about 1. Page 220:
“We want to do this with as little fanfare as possible. . . The more effort we put into it, the more attention we’ll attract. So we’re going to move in short hops.”
Why would he want to use CW and the Viles against each other, but not want to attract their attention? This is meant to mislead Linden. . . who is the real target (IMO) of ‘rock and hard place.’
Covenant doesn’t tell Linden who is the “opposition” when she asks. Donaldson writes that he seemed too impatient to answer. Instead, Jeremiah answers. And
how he answers is important. Donaldson describes it in terms that relate right back to the most important issue of Jeremiah:
“His tone reminded her of his anger when she had insisted on seeing whether he had been shot.” Wow. That’s linking J’s “explanation” to a great source of angst. Could it be that J is misleading L, and feels the pressure of this duplicity? His answer is: to name them will only draw their attention. But doesn’t he
want to draw their attention? How can their purported plan work if he *doesn’t* draw their attention? Again, the purpose here is to keep Linden in the dark, which serves 2, not 1.
And Linden seems to know it.
“She was acutely aware of the manner in which her companions manipulated her.”
Then we start hopping. Linden doesn’t like it. She felt “vaguely appalled.” Though Law and the surroundings weren’t harmed, she felt aided by violence. Something about this shortcut—removing the necessity of physical effort—distressed her.
Covenant then tells her (p.222), “Once we get to the mountains, we won’t have to be so careful.” As if he didn’t have a plan involving rocks and hard places! But he clearly does. Again, he is trying to hide it from Linden. Why would he hide it if she weren’t the target? Linden notes the discrepancy of traveling through the forest and loathing it at the same time (which means Donaldson wants to point it out to us), and then thinks about “
rock and. . . .” again.
The more they hop, the worse her ‘metaphysical dislocation’ becomes. Why does her distress grow now, rather than later after many more hops? Right now, a sense of ‘crepitation’ grows.
Crepitation: 1. A rattling or crackling sound like that made by rubbing hair between the fingers close to the ear. 2. The sensation felt on placing the hand over the seat of a fracture when the broken ends of the bone are moved, or over tissue in which gas gangrene is present. 3. The noise produced by rubbing bone or irregular cartilage surfaces together, as in arthritis.
Holy crap! That’s the nastiest sound/sensation in the universe! Another definition: “A dry, crackling sound or sensation, such as that produced by the grating of the ends of a fractured bone.”
Ok, we get it. She’s distressed by the hopping. She asks for a break, but Covenant is too scared to stop; says “they” are aware of them. “They” are putting up barriers. Hey, what do you know? They weren’t able to avoid attention. It’s almost like this was planned!
And then time starts to act funny. Their jump wasn’t instantaneous. Darkness, disorientation, shock overwhelm her. She has forgotten how to breathe; may have broken bones.
Then we meet the Viles. This is indeed a treat on the level of meeting Berek. It’s one of the single most bizarre confrontations in any Chrons. Donaldson still manages to surprise and satisfy my thirst for the fantastic. This is magical. These are beings so alien that just confronting them requires a realignment of her senses.
“Limned in condensation and grue, the voiced announced . . . “
Grue. Check out
this shit for some blow-your-mind philosophical examination on the nature of perception, time, and expectation! And the problem of induction thrown in to boot! Wow! What a word.
And
this one is a bit more fun. Grue:
The first mention of grues in the Zork games is the following ominous line:
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Further investigation will reveal more about their nature:
> what is a grue?
The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its favorite diet is adventurers, but its insatiable appetite is tempered by its fear of light. No grue has ever been seen by the light of day, and few have survived its fearsome jaws to tell the tale.
[snip]
Grues were invented to limit players' options when faced with unlit areas. Without them, a player might attempt to blunder about in the darkness, perhaps (for example) to reach a lighted area beyond a dark passage. The presence of grues ensures that such tactics will fail, and forces players to solve any light-related puzzles first.
Ok, back to the point. On page 226, we learn see Covenant make another plea for his ring. He has brought her to these straights so that she will willingly choose to do so.
And here, we finally see the point of Esmer’s warning.
Esmer wasn’t warning her about the Viles!He was warning her about this moment when Covenant would make her vulnerable, and then ask for the ring. Donaldson spells that out here:
“Helfire, Linden! Give my my ring! Just throw it. I’ll catch it. I can’t protect you without my ring!”
Viles, she thought dimly. Sensory distortion made a writhen vapor of her mind. She could not think consecutively. Covenant wanted his ring. The beings around her were Viles, the makers of the Demondim: absent in their proper time, but present here. He had always wanted his ring, ever since he had first ridden into Revelstone with Masters and Jeremiah.
Spectres and ghouls. Tormented spirits. [Note: I believe this is double meaning . . . Esmer pretending to speak of viles, but really speaking of Jeremiah and Covenant.]
Esmer had tried to warn her. Instead of answering her most necessary questions, he had described the history of the Viles and Demondim.
Her former lover hungered for wild magic: he craved it to repay some of this pain, although he had not said so.
If you go back to chapter 2, you can see on page 32 that Esmer “diverges” into a discussion of Viles precisely where Linden asks why the Demondim allowed Covenant to reach Revelstone. Esmer knows the answer, so he tried to tell her something that won’t be too overly helpful. But it turns out to be exactly what she needs when the time comes.
Don’t give Covenant the ring!
[It’s also fascinating to go back and read other details of this diversion, where Esmer talks about Demondim and Loric and Kevin. They actually helped precipitate the RoD! This makes me wonder if later books will delve into these times, as well—that perhaps Esmer was giving warning of more than one event.]
And she comes close to giving it to him. Page 227, she says that if the chaos of this experience hadn’t overwhelmed her, she may have “drawn it over her head and tossed it aside, abdicating it indelible responsibility.”
Again the warnings:
just be wary of me, remember, I’m dead. And
Linden, fine me. So this moment was clearly intended by Donaldson to touch upon the identity of Covenant.
The Vile conversation is nearly too oblique to discuss. However, it reminds me of the visit to the Elohim. Both in style, form, and structure. Two opposing camps. Esmer also warned of a darkness taking hold on the Viles, and compared it to the Elohim (p.33).
They mention her “unearned knowledge,” though I don’t think they describe it that way. They say she has no lore. She has been taught—by Esmer—about the Viles. Aside from their disdain (and their own advice from Ravers), I was wondering about the consequences of this unearned knowledge. Is there a betrayal lurking in Esmer’s advice, as there must? Or does the original betrayal of not stopping C and J in her own time, suffice?
Back to C and J, p. 230: they discover that Linden is trying to *reason* with the Viles. And it’s important that Linden does this because of another bit of advice from Esmer:
that which appears evil need not have been so from the beginning, and need not remain so until the end. This is more than just Donaldson giving Viles their props. Esmer is telling Linden she can reason with them, which gives Linden hope, so she won’t give up the ring. It changes the dynamic, so that C and J must cause Wildwood to get involved. This wasn’t the original plan! They *change* their plan because Linden doesn’t give up the ring. Very important. This makes the fullest sense of Esmer’s warnings.
Jeremiah (with grudging admiration): “I remember her. She doesn’t give up.”
Covenant:
Then we’ll have to do it.” !!
Finally, Wildwood attacks the Viles. But it’s important to note that he didn’t do it until C and J lured him to do it. They caused it. And it was a backup plan to the true “rock and a hard place,” pitting Linden against Viles and the choice of giving up the ring. Page 238, “She had baited a trap by trying to reason with Viles.” But that reasoning wasn’t part of the plan, because Cov was upset and surprised by it. So the trap wasn’t really the plan, and the Viles weren’t really the prey.
Finally, the chapter ends with this:
She had been used. –a rock and a hard place. Covenant and Jeremiah had deliberately exposed her to the Viles—and for what? So that she would surrender Covenant’s ring? And when she ignored him in order to argue with the Viles, he and Jeremiah had created a conflict between them and Caerroil Wildwood.
What would he have done if she had complied? Would he have abandoned her to the debate of the Demondim-makers?
His design for the salvation of the Land made no provision for his ex-wife’s wedding band—or for their fatal son.
Joe Biden … putting the Dem in dementia since (at least) 2020.
