Kevin's Watch

Terisa Takes Action

This chapter begins with Teresa, confused by the implications of her talk with King Joyse, and wanting an escape from all the lying going on, not the least of which is her lie to Joyse about his daughter Myste.

Falsehood was her only weapon, the only way she could defend herself. She wanted to flee from it.

Now, Teresa isn’t sure who to talk to; several people have ideas about how to save Orison, but nobody seems to trust anybody else. Geraden, Lebbick, the Congery; all are watching each other quite intently. As for King Joyse, the man everybody thinks is ignorant of the plight of Mordant; well, he seems much more aware of things than Teresa was led to think possible. So, guided by the thought that Eremis had the ability to do the most, as well as some thoughts more personal in nature, Teresa seeks him out, even though he has been imprisoned by Lebbick.

She had descended two flights of stairs and was about to enter one of the main halls before she realized that she had no idea how to get where she wanted to go.

This is no easy task, but with the help of Artagel, she manages to visit Eremis and shares what she has learned about Joyse. But instead of talking about Joyse and Mordant, Eremis seems only interested in bedding Teresa and planting doubt about Geraden's loyalties, and even goes so far as to ask Teresa to spy on Geraden.

"I want you to pretend friendship for young Geraden.... I want you to watch him for me, study him for any sign of betrayal or talent, scrutinize him for any word or deed or implication which may reveal his secrets to me."

Sickened by the thought of what she had agreed to do, Teresa returns to her chambers. Upon reaching her rooms, she is surprised to find Myste’s sister Elega waiting for her. Teresa fears that Elega has come to find out what Teresa knows about Myste’s disappearance, and the thought of continuing to lie for Myste upsets Teresa. Elega does wish to know about her sister, and sees through Teresa's lie, but is strangely happy to see that Teresa is willing to lie for Myste. They talk about several topics (that Teresa wonders why they are talking about); things like the weaknesses of Orison, and the Alend Contender, Prince Kragen. By the end of the conversation Teresa realizes that if Elega could see through her lie about Myste, then surely Joyse did too. Elega's questions and expressions leave Teresa wondering what she's up to, but Teresa can't figure it out. Finally, Elega leaves Teresa alone with her fears.

Great job for a first go dAN! A good clean overview is what we're looking for in a "read lead", as I call it. Fortunately: the devil is in the details-and anytime we "leads" may think, 'ah a small chapter, this should be easy.' We need to think again-SRD is a master of compressing very important information into small spaces. There is a heck of alot going on in this chapter, and it should be the job of we respondents to seek that out.

One fine point that can change the entire story and make you look at things totally differently is what Master Eremis says to Terisa regarding Gilbur,

"Use your mind!" Eremis replied between his teeth. "It was Gilbur who shaped the mirror that first showed the champion. It was he who taught Geraden to copy that glass, he who watched and verified every step of the process, from the refining of the finest tinct to the shifting of the precise sand to the polishing of the exact mold. He must have seen what went wrong, what had changed, to produce the mirror that translated you here.

"Think. While he shaped his glass, Geraden showed abilities which have never been seen before, abilities which allowed him to twist the laws of Imagery to his own purpose--abilities as great in their way as the arch-Imager's ability to pass through flat glass and remain sane..."

Even though it's "hogswallow" Emeris is feeding to Terisa to make Geraden look bad, attemping to turn Terisa into his spy and betray Geraden. It does begin to make you think twice about Geraden. Does he have more talent than he lets on? And the same thing re: Master Gilbur: if Gilbur saw what Geraden was doing and did nothing-is he a traitor too, or THE traitor? We think we know Geraden and that Gilbur was working with Eremis, but what do we really know?

Sorry I missed that; I think I'm just reeling from UPS's attempt to take over KW.

Indeed Eremis is so good at coming up with explanations on the fly that sooner or later he's bound to come up with gems like these.

Eremis really makes my skin crawl in the chapter. Then again, he usually does.
Poor Terisa is so used to her father, and has had so little exposure to good guys, she doesn't even realize that the way her father acts, the way Eremis acts, is not the norm.

Eremis is such an annoying person; he reminds me of all those jerks in high school who could have any girl they wanted but they treated everybody like crap, while I was lucky to maintain one girlfriend at a time and rarely was she the one I wanted to date. I hope Geraden kicks his @$$. Oh, wait a minute; I've read the books! I already know what's gonna happen! Whew!!

I totally agree with you dAN. Eremis is a something that I cannot say in this thread.

Wait till you read the end of the second book!!!!!

Then you'll see what kind of man Eremis really is!!!!!!!

I never really took all the crap about Geraden being bad seriously... I mean the whole concept of him being bad is just stupid... though it would be a good twist if he was evil

"Think. While he shaped his glass, Geraden showed abilities which have never been seen before, abilities which allowed him to twist the laws of Imagery to his own purpose--abilities as great in their way as the arch-Imager's ability to pass through flat glass and remain sane..."

What exactly were these abilities?

heh, I hated Terisa in this chapter to... She really pissed me off in the way she want Eremis...

I also liked Artagel in this chapter... His complete trust in Geraden is cool.

Eremis is such an annoying person; he reminds me of all those jerks in high school who could have any girl they wanted but they treated everybody like crap

Unlike them, he was in fact intelligent.

Don't confuse overconfidence with intelligence, Revan.

dAN... Undoubtedly Emeris was overconfident... but he was also very intelligent... That cannot be denied... He would not have been able to do the things he did without intelligence.

Perhaps you're right, but I respectfully disagree.

How can you? He was intelligent... and any other view would be unintelligent... But as you respectfully disagreed... I shall respectfully agree to respectfully disagree

Eremis was certainly intelligent, and supremely confident in his abilities.

One of the things I like about Mordant is that people only see themselves thru other peoples eyes, so as long as all the women chased Eremis & Saddith was able to 'bed' her way to the top (so to speak ) they were indeed attractive to others and could be popular, unlike our own real world where Eremis would probly be mocked because of his big nose & Saddith would be always looking in the mirror finding imperfections...

Eremis's intelligence is unmistakeable, even though his confidence/arrogance can tend to turn your stomach at times..

Does anybody else hate Terisa in this chapter? I do... Because she just gives herself to Eremis without a second thought... I mean how weak willed she was in this chapter really annoyed me.

According to you guys, Eremis is so freaking smart that you shouldn't be surprised he breaks through Teresa's will so easily. Of course, it could be that Eremis stumbled onto her without understanding her plight (or caring), and completely misunderstands why she seems so willing to sleep with him, which means he's not so smart after all. But you guys are the experts on Eremis.....

Answer the question or leave me alone, you bully!

Indeed... But I did ask a serious question... and wouldn't mind if I recieved a serious answer.

Actually, I'm quite tired of the "I hate Teresa, don't you?" question. It keeps getting asked over and over again, just like the inane sex questions about Teresa & Geraden. I do not consider these questions to be germane to this discussion (and definitely not this chapter), and I'm really, really close to deleting the lot of them. SRD has written quite a good 'fairy tale' here, and there's so much more going on; I'd really like to focus on some of the things that actually are relevant to this chapter.

Come on Darth you promised to be serious here...you promised