And yet ... there is trepidation. For if there has not yet been a chapter called "Struggling with Wild Magic" until now, one is left to wonder how much worse things are going to get.
The Setup
Linden has been struggling with wild magic ever since she came to the Land. At times she could use the ring easily; other times, it has eluded her grasp altogether. It's enough to give her insecurity over her ownership of the white gold ring.
But we learn in time that this fickleness was all due to Kevin's Dirt gumming up her percipience.
Without her acute senses, she can't reach the ring to use it - she cannot find that place deep down inside herself where the door to wild magic can be opened. As soon as she figures this out, everything is fine again.In [u]The Runes of the Earth[/u] was wrote:When she did so, she realized that she had never before been able to raise any kind of power without health-sense to guide her. Not during the collapse of Kevin's Watch: not when she had summoned the ur-viles to aid Sahah: not in the Verge of Wandering on Stave's behalf. On each occasion, she had been above the blinding shroud of Kevin's Dirt. In the rift, she had failed to find wild magic. And during her time with Thomas Covenant, she had never lacked percipience. In the past, Kevin's Dirt had not existed.
But then she learns that she can't use the Staff of Law and the ring at the same time. They're antithetical to each other; no mortal flesh is strong enough to weild both forms of power at the same time.
And if that's not bad enough, it turns that Esmer blocks her access to wild magic whenever he shows up. He's got an intrinsic ability to interfere with her access to the white gold.
The problem is, the Staff alone is not enough power to do what she needs to do. Not nearly enough. Even armed with the Seven Words, even tapping directly into the raw power of Earthroot, she isn't strong enough to even so much as even defeat Roger.In The Gradual Interview was wrote:But in general, magic in “The Chronicles” is an expression of the emotional nature of its wielder. So think of Esmer as an alloy (like white gold), a mixture of elements. (Remember that there’s magic on both sides of his ancestry. The Haruchai are magical - or magic-ful - people in the same sense that the Ranyhyn are magical horses.) But where white gold is a mixture of similar elements, Esmer is a mixture of dissimilar, even contradictory elements. The result is dissonance, interference, static. It has a damping effect on the resonances of other alloys.
(11/30/2006)
To make matters worse, Kevin's Dirt is still limiting expressions of Earthpower, preventing it from reaching the highest levels. Linden can't even use the Staff to her utmost capacity.
But Linden works out that the krill can help. With the krill, she should be better able to weild wild magic and Law together. Such a weapon might enable her to channel the combined force of Covenant's ring and the Staff of Law safely. She hopes to find the krill in Andelain, where the hope to be very soon.
As for Esmer, she has no answer yet. She cannot stop him, she can only appeal to his conflicted nature, and hope that he stands aside when she needs him to.
The Action
The chapter opens with the latest members of Linden's Army gathered around the campfire. The tale of Lostson Longwrath has been told, but there is more to speak of. Coldspray questions Linden's motives; Linden matches the Giants bluntness with both honesty and evasion.
Kastenessen seems to be holding off, waiting for something, and so the company is able to sleep the night and continue their quest on the next day.
They pause a moment to make a critical choice: restore everyone's health-sense and lead the skurj right to them? Or travel hampered by the blindness of Kevin's Dirt? They choose in favor of health-sense, and power: the skurj will find them anyway. And maybe they can rush Kastenessen's plan.
Then Liand dares an attempt to heal Longwrath's mind with the orcrest. He fails.
They set off, with the Giants carry the slower members of the party. Longwrath and his guardians travel a distance behind, to keep him away from Linden. Luck holds for a while, but then they tire. They have to seek a place of defense.
And none too soon. The Masters anounce that the skurj are coming.
At the last moment, they find a rocky hill from which to make a defense.
As the skurj near, Linden hands Liand the insufficient Staff, and desperately tries to connect with her ring. But she is thwarted, because just then Esmer joins them. Her access to wild magic is blocked.
Then, ur-viles and Waynhim appear atop their mound as well. All of Linden's Army is here.
Before anyone can think of using the Giantish gift of languages to communicate with the Demondimspawn - to finally find out what they really want - Esmer "withdraws" it.
Linden has no choices left. As everyone else prepares to defend the hill, Linden confronts Esmer, tries to wheedle answers from him, tries to induce him to depart.
The skurj arrive. Eighteen of them. Things look as bad as they could get. But the Ramen and the Masters contrive, with their usual tactical brilliance, a form of defense. Giving the Giants the opening they need to fight back. The battle rages. They all shout out the Seven Words, which helps. But as good as they are, the skurj are to still too mighty.
Suddenly, there is a shout of power. Liand had managed to use the Staff and the orcrest together. The ur-vile loremaster had strengthed him with blood. And while she had been battling words with Esmer, Liand had envisioned an offense against the skurj, and had then brought it to them.
Rain!
Just a few drops. But Linden sees the implications immediately. She grabs the Staff, in order to turn this trickle into a flood."Liand!" she yelled as she scrambled over the rocks toward him. "That's brilliant! You're brilliant!
"Give me the Staff!
Just then, Longwrath arrives. He had escaped his guardians, slain the skurj that lay across his path, climbed the hill, and now raised his sword to behead Linden.
Stave hurls a rock, knocks Longwrath off balance. His guardians subdue him. Linden completes her magick, and brings upon them a downpour.
The skurj flee their elemental foe.
When the monsters are gone, Linden and her companions leave to cross the small distance remaining to Andelain.
The Revelations
Around the campfire, Rime Coldspray doesn't dance around. She points to the bullet-hole in Linden's shirt and asks about Linden being dead.
Linden is at a loss for what to say. Mahrtiir and Stave jump in with the tale of Hile Troy. About how his death in the real world changed the equations for summoning. His spirit could not return to its former life, and his place in the Land was fixed. Those that die in the real world don't have to return.
Linden, it appears, won't be denied her chance.
This is all quite beyond Coldspray's comprehension, however. She gets right to the point: if we're going to get passed Kastenessen's skurj and reach Andelain, we're going to need Linden's ring. "Only wild magic may preserve us."
(And now the title of the chapter rings a knell of doom.)
Linden gives us a heart-wrenching glimpse into the struggles she perceives she has with wild magic.
Oh, Linden. You don't even believe that Covenant gave you his ring any more? Self-doubt has been inexorably etching away at your soul.Trying to be precise, she said, "It isn't literally true that Covenant gave this to me, but it's probably fair to say that he left it for me. I've certainly claimed it." And used it. "You might think that I already have enough power to accomplish almost anything. God knows I've astonished myself-" She still did not understand how she had saved herself and Anele from the collapse of Kevin's Watch. "But it doesn't come easily. I have to work hard for it.
"Maybe I'm afraid of it." Covenant had taught her that wild magic tended to surge out of control; that with each use it grew more rampant and ungovernable. "Or maybe I don't really have the right to wield it." According to Roger, only the person to whom white gold truly belonged could call forth its full strength. "All I know is that I can't chance it when I'm holding the Staff. Apparently Law and wild magic are antithetical."
Talk about jynxing oneself."On top of that," she finished bitterly. "I'm helpless whenever Esmer decides to put in an appearance. I don't know how he does it, but his presence blocks me. I can't touch wild magic while he's around."
Then Anele says, "This stone is unaware that Kevin's Watch is fallen." He might as well be saying, I still believe in you, Linden.
But the Giants agree to come with her to Andelain.
And, true to the jynx, Esmer appears at the worst time. Beyond question, this is what Kastenessen had been waiting for.
Ur-viles and Waynhim follow. Once again, they had completely veiled their presence until a time of their choosing. And once again, their purpose seems to be to defend Linden against Esmer.
Esmer won't let anyone except himself speak with the Demondimspawn. So he "withraws" the Giants' gift of tongues. Originally a gift of the Elohim, it seems that Esmer has inherited an ability to revoke it at will.
Esmer relates that the Demondimspawn cannot help them against the skurj. There lore will not slow them. "They cannot preserve you."
Linden's trying to extract something from Esmer. But she won't reveal her secret purpose in the process.
Her plan, whatever it is - but which we have seen includes finding Thomas Covenant among the dead in Andelain, and which requires recovering the krill - has been on her mind since she discovered Roger's deception, since she had discovered that Thomas Covenant was not already at her side.And she was not going to reveal her underlying purpose: the bedrock on which she had founded all of her actions since Melenkurion Skyweir.
A very revealing conversation follows. Here it is, in a Q&A format.
Linden: Why are you still beat up and damaged?
Esmer: Healing isn't my forte. Plus Kastenessen is really mad at me for bringing you some Demondimspawn to help protect you.
Linden: Help me!
Esmer: I don't know how to serve you, other than preventing you from ruin.
Linden: Ruin?! I can't break the Arch. The ring isn't mine. I don't have enough power.
Esmer: Wrong! There are two rings. Each can damage Law. Two together is worse. Besides, Kastenessen doesn't care about destroying the Arch. He just wants to destroy all the Elohim. So he sends the skurj against you. If you try to stop them, your power will combine with the other Wildweilder's power, and the Elohim will get destroyed.
Linden: That doesn't make sense. If Kastenessen wanted me to use wild magic, why are you here blocking it?
Esmer: This is one of those situations where all outcomes work in his favor. If you die, Roger of the Harrow will get the ring, and then Kastenessen wins. But if you figure out how to turn me against Kastenessen, again Kastenessen wins.
Linden: So if Kastenessen can't lose, why do you help him?
Esmer: I have to try to serve you.
Linden: Then tell me how to get enough Earthpower from the Staff to defeat the skurj.
Esmer: You can't. Kastenessen is crazy. But a Raver tells him what to do. That's why he gave Roger his hand. And the Raver also told he and I to make Kevin's Dirt. The Dirt will block you.
Linden: Blah, blah, blah. Tell me something really useful.
Esmer: Give up your purpose in Andelain, and I'll leave you alone so you can free your son.
Linden: That's not an answer.
Esmer: Sure it is. If I leave, the Harrow will come and rescue you.
Linden: My friends, too?
Esmer: Nope. He could, but he won't. He just wants the Staff and the ring.
Linden: But he knows where Jeremiah is? And that's why you tried to kill him with a ceasure?
Esmer: Yeah. Your son is beyond price. But if you don't go to Andelain, Kastenessen doesn't care if you get your son back. He's just a bargaining chip.
Linden: You still haven't answered my question. Why don't you want me going to Andelain?
Esmer: Because you don't need to go there! The krill protects it. It turned back on when Covenant's ring returned to the Land. Skurj can't go in there.
Linden: Still not an answer!
Esmer: Don't you get it? We fear you! We have no clue what you're up to, but we fear what you will do with the krill. So give it up, or I will have to kill you.
The Analysis
This is the first time, I believe, that Donaldson has stated in the Chronicles that death in the real world frees you to stay in the Land. Donaldson had said words to this affect several times in the Gradual Interview. Perhaps this represents an effort to get something stated in the text that went unstated until now, something that he has come to recognize wasn't obvious to readers. Or perhaps this is an idea that came to Donaldson as he was writing the Final Chronicles, and he happened to mention it in the Gradual Interview before it was revealed in the story. A second reason that this is interesting is, if Linden's ambitions come to be, we will be encountering Covenant soon. In which case, what Mahrtiir and Stave are saying about Troy, they are really saying about Covenant. And also Linden, and Roger, and Jeremiah, and Joan, too. This idea is groundwork for understanding future events in the story. Stave, for example, recognizes that Linden would be able to confront Joan, her summoner, without getting recoiled out of the Land.In The Gradual Interview was wrote:In the most literal sense, death in the "real world" for a character like Hile Troy, or Thomas Covenant, simply means that character can no longer return to his/her "real" life. But of course the implications go much farther (and are explored more fully in "The Last Chronicles"). Literal death in the Land as well is a significant possibility. But neither Troy nor Covenant actually died in the Land: rather they were transformed; became beings of an entirely different kind. In Troy's case, a series of transformations were involved, resulting in a new Forestal. In Covenant's case, the destruction of his mortality freed his spirit to support the Arch of Time (the fact that he retains some form of sentient identity is demonstrated by his ability to speak to Linden during her translation back to her "real" life). In both cases, huge powers were required to cause transformation instead of literal death. So: literal death in the "real world" does not *necessarily* impose extinction in the Land. In the "real world," Troy's body suffered literal death not long after his accident.
(11/21/2004)
Technically, Thomas has seemed to die in the Land at about the same time he has died in the real world. Perhaps, in some way, Donaldson is trying to promise us that he can be alive again. The rules allow it.
I for one am shocked when Linden says, "It isn't literally true that Covenant gave [the ring] to me. ... Maybe I'm afraid of it. Or maybe I really don't have the right to weild it."Is this Linden's fear and doubt speaking?
Or is Donaldson laying the groundwork for something that will happen in the future?
I for one am emotionally invested in the ring now belonging to Linden. Not only because Thomas as vowed to never use power again. But also because Linden Avery kept a sure hold on her wedding ring.
It would totally suck if Donaldson retroactively took it away from her again.
Later, again, she says to Esmer, "The ring isn't mine." Even as Esmer calls her the Wildweilder.
Not only dies Liand completely fail to heal Longwrath, Longwrath seems greatly angered by the attempt. In this, he seems somewhat like Anele. Perhaps he perceives his madness, as well as his quest, as necessary for some reason. Mahrtiir seems to grasp right away that the group needs to find an area of stone to defend themselves. "If it can be done, we must stand among an abundance of loose stones when Kastenessen strikes."The specificity of "loose" stones shows that he has conceived of a defense against the skurj at this early point.
But also we can think back to the previous chapter, where Anele advises Linden, "Seek deep rock." And later, when he says, "It will hold, ignorant of ruin." Could Anele, also, have been speaking of a defense against the skurj?
[Edit to Add] This is another one of those scenes where Linden is having a conversation in the foreground while a battle takes place in the background. The first was with the wolves in Runes. It's a repeated mechanic in the Final Chronicles. Stave, berating Esmer, uses this opportunity to remind us of the mysterious "endless havoc" that Esmer continually warns us of. It looks like Donaldson doesn't want us to forget this bit of trivia. So he reminds us of it from time to time.Fierce with alarm and granite rage, Linden wanted to retort; but Stave spoke first. Facing Esmer impassively, he said "You are swift to cast blame, Esmer mere-son. It is your word that because of the Haruchai 'there will be endless havoc.' Yet is it not sooth that you fault Cail your sire and his kindred for your deeds rather than for theirs? The 'havoc' will be of your making, not ours. When we fall" - his tone sharpened - "we fall by your hand, Esmer, not by any act or reticence of the Haruchai."
I also note here the way Stave says "Esmer mere-son". As if to point out, by proximity, the relationship between the words "Esmer" and "merewives". Long ago, I had suggested that the name Esmer derives from Kastenessen + merewives > essen + mere > Esmer. This seems to confirm it to some degree.
At one point, an angry Coldspray says to Esmer, "Turn, caitiff cateran, and make the acquaintance of my glaive."caitiff Despicable and cowardly
cateran a brigand or highway robber
(Hmm. Rire Grist's title was Caitiffin.)
Also, after reading about Coldspray's "cataphract" and "rerebraces" too often, I discovered that these are "scale armor" and "upper-arm armor" respectively. (Whereas a vambrace is "lower-arm armor".)
Esmer calls Joan a Wildweilder as well. So anyone with a wild white magic gold ring is a Wildweilder.Do we have to go back through the text and look for places where someone said, the Wildwielder will do this or that? Yep. Now we know that they can mean Joan as well as Linden.
The relationship between Kastenessen and Foul is explained here."Kastenessen's desires are not the Despiser's." Kastenessen's out for revenge against the Elohim. He and Foul are natural allies, in that the destruction of the Arch will also destroy the Elohim.
But Kastenessen seems too crazy, too insane with pain, to think about things. Ravers whisper to him, and he follows their suggestions. Enhancing Roger. Making Kevin's Dirt.
I can barely comprehend what the heck it is that Donaldson is trying to say here:Your son is beyond price.: a reference to his unique abilities, I presume."But he knows where Jeremiah is," Linden insisted, panting urgently. "Isn't that why you tried to suck him into a Fall? To keep him from helping me rescue my son?"
Esmer groaned. "It is. It was." His pleading became a kind of frenzy.
"Your son is beyond price. But if you will forswear your purpose in Andelain, the threat to Kastenessen is diminished. Therefore your son's worth declines. The Harrow will serve Kastenessen's desires, though he intends only his own glory. It cannot be otherwise when wild magic and Law are wielded by greed and aggrandizement."
But if you will forswear your purpose in Andelain, the threat to Kastenessen is diminished.: Okay, Kastenessen is threatened by Linden going to Andelain.
Therefore your son's worth declines.: This only makes sense to me as meaning that Kastenessen uses Jeremiah as a bargaining chip to keep Linden from Andelain. Does Kastenessen have Jeremiah?
The Harrow will serve Kastenessen's desires, though he intends only his own glory.: Does this refer to the Harrow revealing to Linden where Jeremiah is? Or to the Harrows willingness to rescue Linden from the skurj? The context suggests either one. (Curse you, Donaldson ambiguity!)
My best guess is that this refers to the willingness of the Harrow to rescue Linden. Because that can only happen if Esmer departs. Because that can only happen if Linden foreswears Andelain. So: the Harrow serves Kastenessen's purpose in that he lures Linden into foreswearing Andelain.
It cannot be otherwise when wild magic and Law are wielded by greed and aggrandizement.: Kastenessen doesn't think much of the Harrow, that at least we can tell.
[Edit to Add] It's worth mentioning that, with Liand's help, Linden managed to evade Kastenessen's "either way he wins" trap. She didn't use her ring; she didn't lose it; she didn't bargain with the Harrow either. She found a way out that Kastenessen possibly did not anticipate, and that he certainly did not hope for. Once again, Liand has demonstrated that not only can he weild power, he is quite adept at learning new power. Based on nothing but a few anecdotes mentioned by Stave earlier, he determines that he can summon a rainstorm. And then he quickly figures out how to do it with the Staff and his stone. He is insufficient to the task, but he recognizes even this, and accepts the loremasters infusion of bloodpower.
Liand is mighty. That's all there is to it.
