Touching the Humbled with the blade?

[QuantumMechanic]

In the final chapter, as TC moves in to kill Joan, he first touches both Clyme and Branl with the flat of the blade of the krill - "touched them both with the inferred possibilities of wild magic". What was the purpose of this?

[starkllr]

As I understood it, it was to enable them to escape the Caesure before it vanished (locking them somewhere in the past).

[Auleliel]

As I understood it, it was to enable them to escape the Caesure before it vanished (locking them somewhere in the past).

That's what I thought too. Joan's use of her white gold ring to attack TC was drawing him out of the caesure, so it makes sense that the krill would have a similar effect, since it mimics white gold.

[ninjaboy]

Also, when they left the Ceasure and began attemting to escape from the tsunami, it seemed to me that the Masters were displaying feats of strength and speed far beyond what we'd seen of them before.. Climbing up cliffs, etc..
Is it possible that the 'inferred possibilities of wild magic' also enabled them to achieve such feats so swiftly?? I mean, they outran/outclimbed a tsunami..

[shadowbinding shoe]

As I understood it, it was to enable them to escape the Caesure before it vanished (locking them somewhere in the past).

Actually I think it was locking them somewhere in a future that will never happen (the white nothingness one) making them nonexistant.

Also, when they left the Ceasure and began attemting to escape from the tsunami, it seemed to me that the Masters were displaying feats of strength and speed far beyond what we'd seen of them before.. Climbing up cliffs, etc..
Is it possible that the 'inferred possibilities of wild magic' also enabled them to achieve such feats so swiftly?? I mean, they outran/outclimbed a tsunami..

Pshaw, they're Haruchai! What chances does one measly little Worm-Tsunami stands against them?

[High Lord Tolkien]

Also, when they left the Ceasure and began attemting to escape from the tsunami, it seemed to me that the Masters were displaying feats of strength and speed far beyond what we'd seen of them before.. Climbing up cliffs, etc..
Is it possible that the 'inferred possibilities of wild magic' also enabled them to achieve such feats so swiftly?? I mean, they outran/outclimbed a tsunami..

I don't think so. Something that radical, WM augmentation, would have been made clearer, imo. The Haruchai are just normally bad-ass.

[ninjaboy]

Well that's fair enough, HLT and Shadow Shoe, I just thought I'd put it out there as a possibility..
If it were the case though, it would essentially make the Masters beings of the kind of power they've been trying to suppress for thousands of years.. Identity crisis much?

[thewormoftheworld'send]

Also, when they left the Ceasure and began attemting to escape from the tsunami, it seemed to me that the Masters were displaying feats of strength and speed far beyond what we'd seen of them before.. Climbing up cliffs, etc..
Is it possible that the 'inferred possibilities of wild magic' also enabled them to achieve such feats so swiftly?? I mean, they outran/outclimbed a tsunami..

Seemingly superhuman feats are a common phenomenon in emergency situations. It's called adrenaline.

[IrrationalSanity]

I think it was just a threat of physical harm to pull them out of their stupor - much as Linden did to release Cail from the thrall of the Merewives.

[thewormoftheworld'send]

I think it was just a threat of physical harm to pull them out of their stupor - much as Linden did to release Cail from the thrall of the Merewives.

You're referring to the touching with the flat side of the krill? His purpose was to bring the two Humbled back into their own time before killing Joan.

Before this, AATE says,

Clyme and Branl remained on either side of him; but now they resembled shadows of themselves, tenuous as spectres or dreams, as though they inhabited a dimension of existence which he could scarcely perceive. When he completed his reality, they would be gone, lost among the effects of Joan’s madness.

It's important to realize that the real Clyme and Branl were trapped in the caesure at this point, and that the figures standing beside Covenant were just "the effects of Joan's madness," imaginary figures.

[I'm Murrin]

Of course it's not so simple - they existed there because Joan was aware of them within the caesure, as she was of Covenant, and in bringing Covenant before her she brought the two of them a little closer to her reality.

[thewormoftheworld'send]

Of course it's not so simple - they existed there because Joan was aware of them within the caesure, as she was of Covenant, and in bringing Covenant before her she brought the two of them a little closer to her reality.

She had to make "Covenant" substantial enough to attack with enough wild magic to exterminate legions of Thomas Covenants. The attack that came brought him part way back into reality. The text doesn't explain how the Humbled came to the same place.

[I'm Murrin]

Because they were in the caesure, and in the same caesure as Covenant. She is connected to all her caesures, but that one in particular had her attention at the time - hence her seeing spectres of what she knew was within it, making it possible for them to be brought into reality by the power of wild magic and the krill.

[thewormoftheworld'send]

Because they were in the caesure, and in the same caesure as Covenant. She is connected to all her caesures, but that one in particular had her attention at the time - hence her seeing spectres of what she knew was within it, making it possible for them to be brought into reality by the power of wild magic and the krill.

Yes, but if her purpose was to kill Covenant - and he was the entire aim of the blast of wild magic, after all - then she should have brought the spectre of Covenant and left the Humbled alone.

[bossk]

I mean, they outran/outclimbed a tsunami..

Big deal. So did Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.