The One Tree, Chapter 10: Escape From Elohim

[kastenessen]

Linden tries to penetrate the veil that clouds Covenant's mind and fails. When she tries to go even deeper she falls into a void and has to get herself out of him. She can't help him, can't see what has happened...

They are surrounded by Elohim, still she accuses them of having planned his silencing all along, to destroy him. The Elohim cut back and tell Linden and the company icily that they don't understand these matters. Whereupon Linden pleads for TC's restoration. Seadreamer attacks Infelice but is awails nothing:

"Assail me not with your mistrust, " she articulated slowly, "lest I teach you that your voiceless Earth-Sight is honey and benison beside the ire of Elemesnedene.

Funny, theElohim have a mean streak. They aren't strangers to punishment and causing pain as we see here. I have said it before. They are not a wise people...(or?)

Most of the Elohim leave while Linden is pleading for TC. She checks on Seadreamer and realises he has been changed:

...all relief had been denied and bore his Earth-Sight as if he knew that it would kill him.

Chant and Daphin comes back and Daphin tries to explain to Linden:

"Sun-Sage, you do not comprehend our wurd. There is a word in your tongue which bears a somewhat similar meaning. It is "ethic"..."..."In our power...many paths are open to us which no mortal may judge or follow. Some attractive- others, distasteful. Our present path was chosen because it offers a balance of hope and harm. Had we considered only ourselves, we would have selected a path of greater hope, for it's severity would have fallen not upon us but upon you. But we have determined to share with you the cost. We risk our hope. And also that which is more precious to us-life, the meaning of life. We risk trust."..."Therefore some among us"-she did not need openly refer to Chant-"urged another road. For who are you that you, that we should hazard trust and life upon you? Yet our wurd remains. Never have we sought the harm of any life. Finding no path of hope which was not also a path of harm we chose the way of balance and shared cost. Do not presume to judge us, when you concieve so little of import your own acts. The fault is not ours that Sun-Sage and Ring-Wielder came among us as separate beings."

A very interesting self-defence, and a very interesting speach in all...When we came to Elemesnedene I believed the Elohim weren't familiar with paradox at all. But now we understand they have taken a course which they believe is a balancing one. When Sun-Sage and Ring-Wielder were separate they needed to take action and balance here is very close to paradox. It is as if they know everything but cannot tell (the Quest) but still have to act...And when I think about knowledge which is power, they act close to how the creator works. Power without freedom doesn't really count. And still I have the feeling that they aren't wise enough, they couldn't realise that their vision might be incomplete, and yet mabe they are wiser than I can fathom...

Ok; then comes the realisation that Vain is missing. Chant tells them:

He was a peril to us. His dark makers spawned him for our harm. He was an offence to our wurd, directed with great skill and maybe to coerce us from our path...We have imprisoned him.

Also a very interesting quote, again aimed at the future, and shows that they are both right and wrong...

Spoiler

We who have read the second chrons know that in the end Vain and Findail merge and create the new SoL. So Findail, the conscience of the Elohim, will meet his end (the harm in the quote above) for a good cause, the new SoL (redirected from the path, wasn't part of their plan, the SoL I mean)...The powers of this world aren't agreed on what to do are they? Demondim, Elohim, the Creator...

Daphin and Chant leave and suddenly they are at the travertine, the entrance to Elemesnedene, where we meet the Haruchai who tells them they have been away only moments. Brinn demands of Linden what has happened to TC. Pitchwife tells the story of their dealings with the Elohim and ends it with the imprisonment of Vain. Linden wants to leave but the Haruchai wants to rescue him. They say they don't understand her and that they doubt her, even the Giants question why she wants to leave without Vain. She persists on leaving on behalf of TC. It's what he would have done, and she believes they are in a hurry. The Haruchai are reluctant to leave, but Linden now knows that Elemesnedene is closed to them and is afraid they might change their mind. The Haruchai wants her to heal him, to which she replies "Not here. Not now." So maybe she will someday? She is also afraid of destroying what is left of his mind. Brinn seems not to hear (probably parleying with other Haruchai), which she sees as a refusal on her part again, refusing to act. Then she pleads with the company again that they must leave. Finally they agree...

They follow the river Callowail back towards Woodenwold...and suddenly she hears bells again, outraged and desperate. She understands that Vain is escaping. The sky darkens, there are concussions and tremors like an earthquake. The Elohim fight with Vain and soon is he visible in the river Callowail, magic fire burning him. Ceer and Hergrom jump into the water to help but aren't hurt by the fires which seem to melt Vain. When the Haruchai reach him he is soon restored to himself with the help of the sun...They hurry back to Starfare's Gem. The longboat is where they had left it and soon they hoist anchors and are away through Rawedge Rim...

We have now left the land of the Elohim...



Kastenessen

[Dragonlily]

There's a loose end left over from Chap 6, and now we have fled Elemesnedene without it ever being addressed.

Studying them with her percipience, [Linden] knew that these mountains were angry. Affronted. Only the ancient slowness of their life prevented their umbrage from taking palpable form.

We never hear any more about these angry mountains. I think there is much that could have been said. I wonder if this is perhaps one of those "backdoors" SRD said he left himself in the 2nd Chrons, to open for the 3rd Chrons.

[tonyz]

Let us note that the <i>Haruchai</i> are so eager to do something that they jump into an apparent river of fire. Linden doesn't see this (I don't think), maybe because she doesn't trust herself to <i>see</i> them right now, but they've got courage and drive in measureless quantities.

[Haruchai]

Let us note that the <i>Haruchai</i> are so eager to do something that they jump into an apparent river of fire. Linden doesn't see this (I don't think), maybe because she doesn't trust herself to <i>see</i> them right now, but they've got courage and drive in measureless quantities.

Yes, I think the Haruchai must have felt pretty helpless during the last two chapters. No wonder they were p.o at Linden, especially in the state that TC came back to them in.

[danlo]

Sun-Sage, you do not comprehend our wurd. There is a word in your tongue which bears a somewhat similar meaning. It is "ethic"..."..."In our power...many paths are open to us which no mortal may judge or follow. Some attractive- others, distasteful. Our present path was chosen because it offers a balance of hope and harm. Had we considered only ourselves, we would have selected a path of greater hope, for it's severity would have fallen not upon us but upon you. But we have determined to share with you the cost. We risk our hope. And also that which is more precious to us-life, the meaning of life. We risk trust."..."Therefore some among us"-she did not need openly refer to Chant-"urged another road. For who are you that you, that we should hazard trust and life upon you? Yet our wurd remains. Never have we sought the harm of any life. Finding no path of hope which was not also a path of harm we chose the way of balance and shared cost. Do not presume to judge us, when you concieve so little of import your own acts. The fault is not ours that Sun-Sage and Ring-Wielder came among us as separate beings."

As others have noted it is very hard to discuss whats going on in the Elemesnedene chapters without jumping ahead in order to look back properly. In fact, it may not even be fair to dissect them in 4 or 5 chapters-the only way I have ever been able to start to make sense of these chapters is to reread them as a whole experience, not chapter by chapter. However if there is a pivot point, or a key summation, in all that happens there then this quote is it.

Without retrospect it is very easy to misunderstand and hate the Elohim but what if we try to look at their Wurd in another way. I'm not sure if I can make myself clear here, but what if the Elohim really are on another level? This may be hard to except because, other than Foul, noone in the books, so far, has actually been on another level-even when we 1st saw the Lords in LFB they appeared, at first to be, but then we found out otherwise. If the Elohim are the stuff of stars and this fuels the Earthpower perhaps their foresight is greater than we expect it to be and perhaps their hurt goes back even deeper. If the Sunbane is effecting them so, then how, exactly did they react to the Ritual?

Now back to the quote and their foresight. Kast has correctly noted the wild paradoxes in this quote-if the Elohim aren't mortal then perhaps they are aware of or play some part in the summoning process? That would make sense to me-even if it's (exclusively) a Creator-Foul thing-which we know it isn't it still must take a sufficient amount of Earthpower to happen. If the Elohim are Earthpower incarnate prehaps they could see, to some extent, what was happening with the last summoning. Perhaps they knew Covenant was dying in our world, perhaps they knew he had the venom and believed it would kill him sooner. Or perhaps they saw Joan as the victim in the summoning and misread her as the "Sun Sage"?

They may not be mortal but I doubt they're perfect. Yes I agree that the "Joan theory" is a bit farfetched (but she did posses white-gold)-I just put that in to stir up discussion. But when Linden says to Infelice something like, "we mere mortals" I don't think Linden understands the difference between a "mortal of the Land's world" and a "mortal from our world". Infelice says in the above quote, when you concieve so little of import your own acts The same way that Covenant seemed to effect things in the Land in the first three books just by being from another world-the Elohim recognize a power in Linden that Linden doesn't know she has. (Is it possible that if both TC and LA as seperate entities realized there real inner powers it would cause too much chaos and destroy the Land's world?).

Could this be the real reason why Covenant must be nuetralized? Or, and here's the real wild meat: do the Elohim somehow know that Covenant is very near death in our world and must be put in statis to conserve any energy he might have left? Then again if the Elohim are "attuned" to the summoning process and can barely glimpse into our world can they completely comprehend the time differential? I doubt it-which pares my original proposal back to Joan as the Sun-Sage or Covenant dying in the Land before they reach Elemensnede. Or...that they had foreseen LA's weaknesses and expected her to possess TC and take the ring. But that assumes a bit too much preeminance, so I'm still confused

[Durris]

It is as if they know everything but cannot tell (the Quest) but still have to act...And when I think about knowledge which is power, they act close to how the creator works. Power without freedom doesn't really count.

Suddenly I'm remembering a quote about the knowledge of lore from the First Chronicles (is it Amok who says this? I don't recall): "It must be achieved rather than granted, else it misleads." If the Elohim had just told the quest directions to the One Tree--or had "just solved" any of the other problems put before them in the Elohimfest--would that have short-circuited other things that happened in the characters in the process of dealing with the quest the hard way? (I'm not primarily talking about plot, but about the characters' experience & motives--i.e. process as opposed to product.)

then comes the realisation that Vain is missing. Chant tells them:

He was a peril to us. His dark makers spawned him for our harm. He was an offence to our wurd, directed with great skill and maybe to coerce us from our path...We have imprisoned him.

This bit made me grind my teeth; Chant's interpretation of Vain comes from a self-serving, paranoid, distorted self-righteousness.

Spoiler

Retrospectively, it becomes clear that Vain's purpose was not "malice" but Chant called it so because it required a sacrifice from the Elohim.

The description of Linden's response to Covenant's silencing is interesting.

Linden nodded dumbly. Her hands made fumbling gestures. She had trained them to be a physician's hands, and now she could hardly contain the yearning to strangle.

*flinch* I see in this "yearning to strangle" not only Linden's just rage for what has been done to Covenant, but also an echo of what she had done to her mother--another person she had been unable to save from dire straits. Linden's way of thinking and feeling when she witnesses suffering she's helpless against is dangerously similar to Kevin's willingness to destroy the Land he couldn't save--both are motivated by outrage against their own incapacity.

Let us note that the Haruchai are so eager to do something that they jump into an apparent river of fire. Linden doesn't see this (I don't think), maybe because she doesn't trust herself to see them right now, but they've got courage and drive in measureless quantities.

Amen! Measureless indeed.

I think Linden was just plain reluctant to look at the Haruchai at this point; not only with health-sense but with her outer eyes. Though her decision to send them away probably spared the quest from an even more virulent accession of Elohim wrath, she's morally in their debt, and she and they both know it. There's so much accusation in their eyes that she won't meet their gaze if she can help it.

Yes, I think the Haruchai must have felt pretty helpless during the last two chapters. No wonder they were p.o at Linden, especially in the state that TC came back to them in.

Well, now they know how Linden has felt three-fifths of the time, not only here and now but throughout her prior exposure to the Sunbane and to Covenant's venom and leprosy.

(The previous time we saw Haruchai this helpless before something, it was the Giant-Raver at Coercri, and the fight with him that resulted in the disastrous capture of the Illearth Stone was fueled by the anguish and rage of having been unable to save the Giants.)

Spoiler

I'll be paying close attention in the coming chapters to how the humiliation before the Elohim affects their motives in every challenge encountered after it. The results can hardly be more disastrous than the breaking of the Vow, but the moral similarity is interesting.

Someone in the last chapter's discussion asked what the Haruchai would have done to protect Covenant from Infelice if they had been there. I don't think they could have done a blessed thing: their prowess is physical and moral, and Infelice was using ontological means. They might have gotten themselves or the company a fate worse than death trying to protect Covenant, but I certainly don't think they would have prevailed.

I doubt that they themselves would have realized or admitted this short of having it proven to them the hardest way, however.