Kevin's Watch

This dissection is dedicated to the memory of Isaiah John Adderly (ShadowLurker).

As the lights go out on the motionless Starfare’s Gem, Linden realizes that the rat that he fried with wild magic has bitten Covenant. Linden has a flashback to the prophetic dream she had earlier in which she tried to staunch the flow of blood from Covenant’s chest, and she is frozen until the Raver leaves the ship.

When she begins to examine Covenant’s wound, the combination of rat saliva and Raver essence takes effect, and Covenant begins to seize.

Already, his right forearm had begun to darken as if an artery were hemorrhaging.

This was the way the venom affected him. Whether it was triggered by bee stings or spider bites, it focused on his forearm, where Marid’s fangs had first pierced his flesh. And every relapse multiplied the danger horrendously.

“Hellfire!” His desperation sounded like fury. “Get back!”

Linden attempts to enter Covenant’s consciousness with her health-sense, but she lacks the power to stop the venom, and a blast of wild magic rocks the night.

The concussion flung Linden away like a bundle of rags. It knocked Brinn back against the railing. Several of the Giants staggered. Before the blast ended, it tore chunks from the rook of Foodfendhall and burned through two of the sails from bottom to top.

The Giants and Haruchai look to Linden for guidance, as this is the first time that they have seen a venom attack. But Linden refuses to attempt to help him, and leaves the deck.

While Starfare’s Gem remains idle on the windless seas, several attempts are made to reach Covenant, without success. At last Cail makes this appeal to Linden:

“Chosen….we have done what lies within our reach. But none can approach him. His fire lashes out at all who draw near. Brinn has been burned – but that is nothing. Diamondraught will speed his healing. Consider instead the Giants. Though they can withstand fire, they cannot bear the force of his white ring. When the First sought to near him, she was nigh thrown from the deck. And the Anchormaster, Sevinhand, also assayed the task. When he regained consciousness, he named himself fortunate that he had suffered no more than a broken arm….We believe that he will not strike at you. You are his nearest companion….surely even in his madness he will know you and withhold his fire. We have seen that he holds you in his heart.”

But Linden’s inherent fear and loathing of possession compels her to refuse:

“I’m already too much like Gibbon.”

And so Starfare’s Gem remains still under the heat of the sun throughout the remainder of the day and into the night. Pitchwife attempts to approach Linden but realizes that she doesn’t want him near. Then Seadreamer comes, and Linden tries to explain her distaste for possession:

“There’s a part of me that wants to do it. Take over him. Take his power. I don’t have any of my own, and I want it…..That’s what paralyzes me. I’ve spent my life trying to deny evil. When it shows up, I can’t escape it.”

At last Linden is confronted by the one person on the ship who can’t be denied: The First of the Search.

“I grant that the burden is terrible to you. That is plain….But the Search has been given into his hands. It must not fail.”

The First places her broadsword on the deck in front of Linden and challenges her to pick it up and use it as a Swordmain, making this point:

“You are Linden Avery the Chosen. I am the First of the Search. We cannot bear each other’s burdens. Yet if you do not shoulder the lot which has befallen you, then I swear by my glaive that I will perform whatever act lies within my strength. He will not accept any approach. Therefore I will risk my people, and Starfare’s Gem itself, to distract him. And while he strikes at them, with this sword I will sever the envenomed arm from his body. I know no other way to rid him of that ill – and us of the peril of his power. If fortune smiles upon us, we will be able to staunch the wound ere his life is lost.”

Realizing that any such act by the First would almost certainly end Covenant’s life, Linden at last is moved to action. She climbs through the ship onto the deck to see for herself how critically ill Covenant has become. She appreciates his febrile condition and grossly swollen right arm, and realizes that there is little she can do to stop this course of illness, so:

She decided to aim herself against his mind. That seemed the lesser evil.

Using her percipience, Linden penetrates Covenant’s mind, to see:

Images whirled insanely into her: the destruction of the Staff of Law; men and women being bled like cattle to feed the Banefire; Lena and rape: the two-fisted knife blow with which he had slain a man she did not know; the slashing of his wrists. And power – white fire which crashed through the Clave, turned Santonin and the Stonemight to tinder, went reaving among the Riders to garner a harvest of blood. Power. She could not control him. He shredded her efforts as if her entire being and will were made of brittle old leaves. In his madness, he reacted to her presence as if she were a Raver.

She cried out to him. But the outrage of his ring blew her away.

Linden is unconscious for some time, and awakens to find everyone gathered over her. Pitchwife remarks that it is a wonder that she survived Covenant’s blast of power. The First tries to console her for her failure to reach Covenant. When Linden brings herself to look at Covenant, she sees that he has totally encapsulated himself in a cocoon of wild magic, and cut himself off from any attempts to help him.

Incredible! Talk about in your face "Cliff Notes"!! I feel like I just read the entire chapter in two minutes! **gasps for air**

dlbpharmd wrote:

But Linden refuses to attempt to help him, and leaves the deck.

But Linden’s inherent fear and loathing of possession compels her to refuse:

This reminds me a bit of the discussions on the main TC forum about how the Oath of Peace limited the effectiveness for good of its devotees as well as protecting them from becoming guilty of Desecration. Linden finally says TFH at swordpoint to the realization that in avoiding this moral risk to herself she would risk everyone and everything else.

SRD wrote:

[Cail is speaking to Linden] "You are his nearest companion….surely even in his madness he will know you and withhold his fire. We have seen that he holds you in his heart.”

Even this early, when neither Covenant nor Linden has yet dared to let down any emotional barriers to each other, Cail sees their pair-bond beginning to germinate. Korik long before him had seen farther into the troubled marriage of Lords Shetra and Verement than they knew:

SRD wrote, in Gilden-Fire:

[Korik] had no answer for Lord Shetra's dour dismay--though he had paid for centuries the cost of the yearning between a man and a woman--and so he stood aloof from it.

Perhaps this faculty of perception grows out of the tragic chastity experienced by Haruchai of all generations during their service, with or without the Vow.

A well-distilled summary, dlbpharmd. (I need to learn from this guy.)

Good points about the Haruchai, Durris. I think their clear perception of people and the world around them springs from their native integrity, their uncompromising perception of themselves. The Haruchai "know" themselves to a degree that most of us likely wouldn't allow ourselves to.

The Haruchai judge themselves severely, so maybe that makes them very sensitive or attuned to how other people judge each other. Of course, their "capacity for judgment" drove people like Covenant and the Lords crazy. And despite the Haruchai's ability to perceive lies and deceit, Kevin still out-witted them. Which made them judge themselves even more harshly. Crazy...

Linden's refusal to attempt reaching Covenant was at first distracting even to me, a confirmed Linden fan. But then I realized I was just blaming her, judging her. It's actually to her credit that she was so against using her power to enter Covenant's mind: it's no small thing, entering someone in the most private way imaginable, no matter the urgency of the situation. Remember how Covenant initially refused to help Mhoram in TPTP because his priority was the snake-bitten little girl in the "real" world? Linden's refusal comes from a basic, decent priority as well: to not violate another human being. As Linden put it:

Once you start believing in evil, the greatest evil there is is possession. It's a denial of life--of humanity. Whatever you possess loses everything. Just because you think you're doing it for reasons like pity or help doesn't change what it is.

If we feel exasperated by Linden's behaviour, maybe that's because we are unwilling or unable to put ourselves in her shoes, to fully appreciate her moral crisis. I start faulting Linden, then Bannor's words come back to haunt me: "Blame is another mask for corruption." (Er, something like that.)

This illustrates again the aspect of SRD's writing that is difficult for many fantasy readers to come to grips with: the agonized soul-searching and moral quandaries of his characters. They come for a fun sword-and-sorcery adventure, and they get this! You're either hooked, or you think SRD is off his rocker.

Hmm, I'll stop now. Those in the back row, wake up!

Matrixman wrote:This illustrates again the aspect of SRD's writing that is difficult for many fantasy readers to come to grips with: the agonized soul-searching and moral quandaries of his characters. They come for a fun sword-and-sorcery adventure, and they get this! You're either hooked, or you think SRD is off his rocker.

So much for the stereotype that fantasy is a genre of "escape" for those lacking the moral fiber to deal with the real world! (In truth, I've never known a fan for whom that is the motive.)

I look on F/SF less as entertainment than as mythotherapy; SRD gives us the latter, in spades.

I have trouble with the way Linden refuses to use her ability to heal Covenant from the inside -- what she calls "possession". To me, it's like a surgeon refusing to do surgery because it will cut flesh.

What Linden doesn't see about herself, over and over again, is that whenever she can bring herself to assert herself to accomplish something, it's toward a positive goal. She should notice that about herself. It's right there before her eyes, except that it contradicts her beliefs.

Matrixman wrote:This illustrates again the aspect of SRD's writing that is difficult for many fantasy readers to come to grips with: the agonized soul-searching and moral quandaries of his characters. They come for a fun sword-and-sorcery adventure, and they get this! You're either hooked, or you think SRD is off his rocker.

Well put, MM. I have run into people who actually think SRD is like the Chrons -- through and through. Excuse me?? It's a difficult struggle not to overwhelm them with quotes that prove otherwise.

This is the part that seems like home territory to most of his readers:

He was already a wasteland, and his illness and power ravaged her. She could hardly hold back the horror pounding at the back of her thoughts, hardly ignore the self-protective impetus to abandon this mad doom. Yet she went on creeping through him, studying the venom for a chance to spring at his mind.

Even stillness in this chapter is dynamic:

The Giantship lay still as if it had been nailed to the water.

Then by contrast we have this gossamer moment:

Her voice slipped out into the night without touching the air or the Sea. But her companion's gentle presence encouraged her.

- - -
"I write because being alive is addictive, and I want more of it." SRD

I have trouble with the way Linden refuses to use her ability to heal Covenant from the inside -- what she calls "possession". To me, it's like a surgeon refusing to do surgery because it will cut flesh.

What Linden doesn't see about herself, over and over again, is that whenever she can bring herself to assert herself to accomplish something, it's toward a positive goal. She should notice that about herself. It's right there before her eyes, except that it contradicts her beliefs.

Me too, Joy! I want to scream at her "For God's sake, help him!" Great analogy of a surgeon as well.

We've debated several times on the Watch about the "You are the white gold" mini-mythos (for lack of a better term.) My question is this: Suppose that Linden had continued to refuse to help Covenant and The First had carried out her plan to cut off his right arm. Would that have stopped the relapse? Would the wild magic have faded and gone away?

I have the impression Foul couldn't afford to have Covenant die. He needed him alive and handing over his ring of his own free will. (At least, that's what Foul thought he needed.) So he would have found some way to stop the First.

I say "die" because Linden was clear that she couldn't save Covenant after an amputation so close to his heart.

Spoiler

The end result of the First's plan would be that the Elohim's vision would have come true, and Sun-Sage and ring wielder would become one. (mod's edit: sorry we're not there yet--danlo)

On second thought: Any bets on how fast Foul would get something nasty there to infect Linden with venom?

Does anybody have the impression Foul has a kind of personal attachment to Covenant, the way he gloats over having him as his instrument? A kind of gratification he could get from no other enemy.

dlbpharmd wrote:We've debated several times on the Watch about the "You are the white gold" mini-mythos (for lack of a better term.) My question is this: Suppose that Linden had continued to refuse to help Covenant and The First had carried out her plan to cut off his right arm. Would that have stopped the relapse? Would the wild magic have faded and gone away?

In his pain and delerium, he has NO emotional barriers at all, and I'll bet he'd still be able to use it! I'll bet physical contact wouldn't be necessary at that point. His rage, fear, and pain would lash out, and connect with the white gold across the few feet separating him from his arm.

Ooo! Cool image, Fist.

Fist and Faith wrote:In his pain and delerium, he has NO emotional barriers at all, and I'll bet he'd still be able to use it! I'll bet physical contact wouldn't be necessary at that point. His rage, fear, and pain would lash out, and connect with the white gold across the few feet separating him from his arm.

This is fully consonant with Covenant's development throughout the mythos to date: in the First Chronicles, and even early in TWL, he absolutely requires a trigger, the proximity of another power source, to use his ring. Why? Because he does not yet grok that he is the white gold. As long as he remains emotionally disconnected from it, as long as he doesn't "own" the part of himself the power comes from, he needs something else to bridge the gap.

The venom has the simultaneous effect of amplifying his power and removing the distance between his power and his will (or passions, or any facets of his being). And even before venom, he has begun to discover that the white gold is not nearly as foreign, as ontologically distant, as it had seemed when he first took it out from under his shirt in the Close in LFB.

Certainly in the state Covenant is in lying on the deck of Starfare's Gem now, no distance remains between him and his power at all; not even volition is required. Fist's hypothesis makes a frightening and inevitable sense.

Even if the First succeeded in hacking off Covenant's arm, eventually it would need to be sewn back on, otherwise

Spoiler

there is going to be a lot of explaining to do after Linden wakes up in WGW and finds Covenant's arm suddenly back in place--which would prove the Land wasn't real after all. Or Linden will wake up and find his arm inexplicably detached or altogether missing--which may prove the Land was real after all, but now she'll have to worry about how the "real" world contrived to match Covenant's condition: was Haven Farm visited by the Texas Chainsaw guy during the night, who sawed off Covenant's arm as a souvenir while our heroes were laying helplessly unconscious?

Durris wrote:Why? Because he does not yet grok that he is the white gold.

And now I genuflect to your taste in books.

Heh. Good point MM. I imagine they'd run across another healer somewhere. Or the

Spoiler

Elohim

would have found cause to fix it.

dlbpharmd wrote:This dissection is dedicated to the memory of Isaiah John Adderly (ShadowLurker).

Fist and Faith wrote:And now I genuflect to your taste in books.

Er...it's premature; I haven't yet read Stranger in a Strange Land. I picked up grok from its frequent use in hackerdom: my mate is a programmer.

*alas*



And yes, dlb, nice touch for Isaiah.

Images whirled insanely into her: the destruction of the Staff of Law; men and women being bled like cattle to feed the Banefire; Lena and rape: the two-fisted knife blow with which he had slain a man she did not know; the slashing of his wrists. And power – white fire which crashed through the Clave, turned Santonin and the Stonemight to tinder, went reaving among the Riders to garner a harvest of blood. Power. She could not control him. He shredded her efforts as if her entire being and will were made of brittle old leaves. In his madness, he reacted to her presence as if she were a Raver.

She cried out to him. But the outrage of his ring blew her away.

Was just re-reading this chapter, and noticed that LA sees the death of Pietten from TPTP. I realize that TC was delusional from the attack, but isn't it strange that this image would be going through his mind?

dlbpharmd wrote: Was just re-reading this chapter, and noticed that LA sees the death of Pietten from TPTP. I realize that TC was delusional from the attack, but isn't it strange that this image would be going through his mind?

Not really... it was guilt. Probably THE first real cold blooded murder that TC had done. Sure he killed during the battle at soaring woodhelven (???) and other places but it was more in defense than anything else. Pitten had slaughtered Lena and rage over came TC and afterwards he had to been feeling guilty for falling (again) to Foul's manipulations

Damn You Foul!!!

You are MINE!

It wasn't coldblooded murder -- Pietten had killed Lena. It was vengeance, a personal murder. That's what set it off from the others. And yes, I agree that must be a major guilt issue for TC, because it was a personal killing, an intentional one.

I never considered it murder at all. Peitten had attacked them, it was self defense. He killed Lena and would have killed Covenant too.