TOT-Chapter 21: Mother's Child

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TOT-Chapter 21: Mother's Child

Post by caamora »

Back on Starfare's Gem, Linden sits in her cabin. She is filled with horror about Ceer. She does not blame Cail for his lack of forgiveness. She also cannot forgive. She understands him. However, she is afraid of what Covenant will think of her once he finds out about Ceer.

She goes up on deck to face Covenant's hatred. Covenant is there on the deck. She approaches him but is side-tracked by Pitchwife. ( SRD uses a word at this point which I don't know if anyone has looked up: unhermeneuticable. Whew!) Pitchwife says that TC is telling the story of what happened with Kasreyn. Brinn interrupts him saying that Cail also told of Ceer. The First recommends that she return to her cabin. Brinn says that she should answer for her actions and calls her "Corruption". Pitchwife sticks up for her but Linden is focused only on TC. He is also staring at her as Brinn continues his tirade. Brinn thinks that there should be retribution. He wants her to speak the name of a Sandgorgon.

Linden says no. She then begins a tirade of her own and she blames Kevin's despair on the "purity" of Bloodguard service. How could anyone live up to the Bloodguard, she wonders outloud. No wonder he went crazy! They make people destroy everthing that is not worthy to them! Covenant was not looking at her but listening to the exchange. Something in him snapped and he let out an arc of white gold. But it was gone as soon as it started. He then spots her arm damaged in the flight from Bhrathairealm. She tells him the truth - Cail kicked her to keep her from killing Ceer.

TC has seen enough. Brinn agains demands retribution but TC stops him. "I'm not going to turn my back on her just because she did something I don't understand." I truly love TC at this point. He insists that Brinn and the other Haruchai leave her alone - "Do you hear me?" with a concussion of wild magic. They yield and bow and agree.
Findail shows up again, wanting TC to calm down - not to let the wild magic loose again. TC turns to Linden. It is then that she realizes that he never would have allowed any retribution against her.

They move to a private part of the deck where TC asks Linden why she did it. It is now that Linden finally tells of the death - her murder - of her mother. Told how the melanoma could have been cut out if the doctor's had believed her mother. Told of the religious zealot her mother turned into and the whiner that no one wanted to listen to or help. For a month, 15-year-old Linden had to listen to her mother whine and moan and compalin. The nurses and doctors would only do what was absolutely necessary - everything else was left to Linden. The drooling, the sweat, the mucos of this horrible woman was left to Linden to deal with. She could not even make her mother look at her. Her mother would only say, "Please God, let me die." Linden needed power - she needed to do something. So, she granted her mother's wish. She unhooked her breathing tubes and stuffed tissues into her mothers mouth and let her mother suffocate to death. When she was dead, Linden flushed the tissues and re-hooked the tubes and called the nurses.

It was like that with Ceer, she said. She needed to do something. There was so much blood and Death was power. She gave her mother want she wanted and it was evil. Covenant protests, saying that she was just a child and how she had saved all of them. She denies any action on her part and says that he should let Brinn punish her.

It is at this point that TC says "no. That is not the whole story," Linden is the only woman who was not afraid of him, of his leporsy. "Don't you understand that I love you?"

This takes Linden by surprise. Not only has she lived her whole life without love, but she was expecting TC to reject her once he found out her secret. Instead, it only brought him closer to her.

Covenant, embarrassed and afraid of rejection himself, turns to leave. But Linden catches him, pulls his head down to hers and kisses him.

Let your imagination run wild with what they do next!

:wink: :hnk: The music swells.........
The King has one more move.
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Post by duchess of malfi »

I have always loved Covenant in this chapter, too.

His actions have always reminded me of Lord Mhoram's gentle answer to Hile Troy about not judging others. :)

What Linden's parents did to her is unforgiveable, IMHO. It shows what a strong person she is that she survived them, and used her life to help others -- from the time she snapped when watching her mother until she fell under the spell of the Elohim and tried to kill Ceer...there is so much darkness in her, but she has always striven and sought to be more than that.
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Post by Haruchai »

I was torn in this chapter.
I really liked Covenant, and felt sorry for Linden, but admired her at the same time. She went through hell, and then dedicated her life to helping people.
But I also sympathised with the Haruchai. Poor buggers.
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Re: Chapter 21: Mother's Child - THE ONE TREE

Post by Seafoam Understone »

No entry found for unhermeneuticable.
That's from dictionary.com ... did SRD just make that up? Hmmm?

Linden was brave enough to go and face her companions in the aftermath. Knowing that the Haruchai would be damning her to Covenant and why not? She deserved it didn't she?

What I love was the First...clearly torn between duty and compassion, she tries to give Linden an out:
"Chosen." The First's throat was clenched as if words were weapons which she gripped sternly. "There is no need that you should bear witness to our discord. It is plain to all that you are sorely burdened and weary. Will you not return to your cabin for aliment and slumber?"
Pitchwife is clearly fond of Linden and stands up for her:
"Paugh!" Pitchwife spat. His grotesque features held more ire than Linden had ever seen in him. "You judge in great haste, Haruchai. You heard as all did the words of the Elohim. To Covenant Giantfriend he said, 'She has been silenced as you were silenced at the Elohimfest.' And in taking that affliction upon herself she purchased our lives from the depths of the Sandhold. How then is she blameworthy for her acts?"
The one thing I had to giggle in retrospect of the Haruchai was the request/demand that Linden speak the name of a Sandgorgon. They may have beaten one of their own but obviously the Haruchai admired the efficency of the creature to want them to met out punishment. I mean what worse punishment can you met out eh?

I grew with admiration for Linden when she again stands up to the rock-hard judgement and defends herself admirably, counter-arguing the Haruchai.

Now comes and pardon the aforemention pun...the (obigiatory love scene??)
caamora wrote: It is at this point that TC says "no. That is not the whole story," Linden is the only woman who was not afraid of him, of his leporsy. "Don't you understand that I love you?"

This takes Linden by surprise. Not only has she lived her whole life without love, but she was expecting TC to reject her once he found out her secret. Instead, it only brought him closer to her.

Covenant, embarrassed and afraid of rejection himself, turns to leave. But Linden catches him, pulls his head down to hers and kisses him.

Let your imagination run wild with what they do next!

:wink: :hnk: The music swells.........
LOL The Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet played with that line Caamora... classic!

My question is?
Spoiler
Is there such a thing as Wild Magic induced orgasms????
remember the Oath Of Peace!

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Re: Chapter 21: Mother's Child - THE ONE TREE

Post by Guest »

Seafoam Understone wrote:No entry found for unhermeneuticable. That's from dictionary.com ... did SRD just make that up? Hmmm?


hermeneutic
Unfolding the signification; of or pertaining to interpretation; exegetical; explanatory.

So un-hermeneuticable would be unexplainable or non-interpretable. What a great word!!! Geez, I wonder where he found it?
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Post by I'm Murrin »

Heh, I looked up unhermeneuticable back when we did that topic on obscure words, and apparently it derives from the name of a greek interpreter (I use britannica.com, it gives better results than most) - it's certainly the most obscure word in the chrons, IMO.


This is certainly a great chapter - Just hearing Linden's story, you would expect to feel the way about it that she expects - you'd think it would make you hate/dislike her more - but it doesn't. It only makes you understand her, and I think it helps empathise with her more, knowing why she is the way she is.
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Post by Furls Fire »

This, I have to say is my second favorite chapter in the One Tree. (my favorite is the next one). And this, right here, is the reason...
"No." Covenant had been trying to stop her. "Linden. Don't. Don't blame yourself like this," He was gaunt with dismay. Every line of his form was an appeal to her across the stone of the deck. "You were just a kid. You didn't know what else to do. You're not the only one. We all have Lord Foul inside us." He radiated a leper's yearning for the wounded and the bereft. "And you saved me. You saved us all."

She shook her head. "I possessed you. You saved yourself." He had let the Elohim bereave him of mind and will until all that remained was the abject and unsupportable litany of his illness. He had accepted even that burden in the name of his commitment to the Land, his determination to battle the Despiser. And she had surrendered herself entirely, braved the worst horrors of her past, to bring him back. But she saw no virtue in that. She had done as much as anyone to drive him into his plight. And she had helped create the conditions which had forced her to violate him. "All my life" -- her hands flinched -- "I've had the darkness under control. One way or another. But I had to give that up, so I could get far enough inside you. I didn't have any left for Ceer." Severely, she concluded, "You should've let Brinn punish me."

"No." His contradiction was a hot whisper that seemed to jump the gap between them like a burst of power. Her head jerked back. She saw him clearly, facing her as if her honesty meant more to him than any act of bloodshed. From the depths of his own familiarity with self-judgment, he averred, "I don't care about your mother. I don't care if you possessed me. You had good reason. And it isn't the whole story. You saved the quest. You're the only woman I know who isn't afraid of me." His arms made a wincing movement like an embrace maimed from its inception by need and shame. "Don't you understand that I love you?"

Love? Her mouth tried to shape the word and could not. With that avowal, he changed everything. In an instant, her world seemed to become different than it was, Stumbling forward, she confronted him. He was pallid with exhaustion, damaged by the pressure of his doom. The old knife-cut marked the center of his stained shirt like the stroke of fatality. But his passion resonated against the added dimension of her hearing; and she was suddenly alive and trembling. He had not intended to refuse her. The efforts he made to withhold himself were not directed at her. It was himself that he struggled to reject. He was rife with venom and leprosy; but she recognized those things, accepted them. Before he could retreat, she caught her left arm around him, raised her right as high as she could to hold him.

For a moment longer, he strove against himself, stood rigid and unyielding in her clasp. But then he surrendered. His arms closed around her, and his mouth came down on hers as if he were falling.
...his mouth came down on hers as if he were falling...

Oh, how I whooped when I read that for the first time! I kept saying over and over again... "it's about time!"

I just love the language in those last few paragraphs.

His arms made a wincing movement like an embrace maimed from its inception by need and shame.

"There is also love in the world". :hearts:
And I believe in you
altho you never asked me too
I will remember you
and what life put you thru.


~fly fly little wing, fly where only angels sing~

~this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you~

...for then I could fly away and be at rest. Sweet rest, Mom. We all love and miss you.

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Post by dlbpharmd »

I'm reminded of the movie The Princess Bride - when little Fred Savage says "Do we have to hear about the kissing?" :D
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Post by duchess of malfi »

The lack in trust between the Haruchai and Linden had certainly been building for a long time -- since they boarded the dromond, in fact.

Which leads to what is another of the great themes running through the second chrons, IMO -- the danger in the lack of communication. (The most important one, of course, is that there is also love in the world. :D ) If Linden had explained her decisions and actions to the Haruchai then perhaps things would not have built up to such a crisis level...
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Post by Guest »

duchess of malfi wrote:The lack in trust between the Haruchai and Linden had certainly been building for a long time -- since they boarded the dromond, in fact.

Which leads to what is another of the great themes running through the second chrons, IMO -- the danger in the lack of communication. (The most important one, of course, is that there is also love in the world. :D ) If Linden had explained her decisions and actions to the Haruchai then perhaps things would not have built up to such a crisis level...
I dunno, the impression that I get from the Haruchai is that it wouldn't have mattered to them. She tried to kill one of their own, she prevented them from performing their duty (sending them away from the Elohimfest), and all the other charges Brinn laid out on the deck. They were absolute.
The Haruchai did not retreat. "Ur-Lord, there must be retribution."
"No," Covenant responded as if he had heard a different reply. "She's a doctor. She saves lives. Do you think she isn't already suffering?"
"I know nothing of that," retorted Brinn. "I know only that she attempted Ceer's life."
Yet Brinn does show a moment of disconcernation though you wouldn't see or hear it in his face/voice.
But Brinn did not remain silent. "Linden Avery." The detachment of his tone was as flat as the face of doom. "Is it truly your claim that the Bloodguard gave cause to Kevin Landwaster's despair?"
A moment of doubt, a moment of hesitation as it were.
But they still know how to obey orders.
"No!" Covenant's passion carried so many implications of power that it shocked the deck under Linden's feet. "You've gone too far already!" His chest heaved with the effort he made to control himself. "In Andelain-with the Dead- Elena talked about her. She said, 'Care for her, beloved, so that in the end she may heal us all.' Elena" he insisted. "The High Lord. She loved me, and it killed her. But never mind that. I won't have her treated this way." His voice shredded under the strain of self-containment. "Maybe you don't trust her." His half-fist jabbed possibilities of fire around him. "Maybe you don't trust me." He could not keep himself from yelling, "But you are by God going to leave her alone!"
Brinn did not reply. His flat eyes blinked as if he were questioning Covenant's sanity.
Instantly, light on the verge of flame licked from every line of the Unbeliever's frame. The marks on his forearm gleamed like fangs. His shout was a concussion of force which staggered the atmosphere.
"Do you hear me?" Brinn and Cail retreated a step as if Covenant's might awed them. Then, together, they bowed to him as scores of the Haruchai had bowed when he had returned from Glimmer-mere with Loric's Krill and their freedom in his hands. "Ur-Lord," Brinn said in recognition. "We hear you."
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Post by variol son »

While I love the Haruchai, I always felt that there inflexability meant that they judged Linden unfairly. All they know is that they are (apparently) infallable, and so they look down upon weakness in others. I find them a lot more palitable after
Spoiler
the merewives, the death of Seadreamer, and the possession of the Clave
, when they have to face up to not only their own weaknesses, but also the cost or their strengths. Strength, like Kevin's Lore and the Krill of Loric, is a two edged blade.

Sum sui generis
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You do not hear, and so you cannot be redeemed.

In the name of their ancient pride and humiliation, they had made commitments with no possible outcome except bereavement.

He knew only that they had never striven to reject the boundaries of themselves.
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Post by duchess of malfi »

I can certainly understand how and why the Haruchai judge Linden so harshly. All they have to go on is what they have seen her do -- and the attempt on Ceer was the straw that broke the camel's back for them. They do not know why she was so unwilling to help Covenant back with the Raver rats and their venomous bites. They do not know why she allowed them to be seperated from the party at the Elohimfest. They do not know why she was willing to have Covenanat seperated from the party at the Sandhold. They certainly do not know why she tried to kill Ceer.

Yes, they are proud and passionate men. But I do not know if they are completely unreasonable men. They have seen someone commit a series of very questionable (and criminal in at least one case) actions with no explanations at all. Without even an attempt at any explanations.
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Post by variol son »

I don't doubt their worth. It's just that the First, Pitchwife, Honniscrave and others also saw all those things, and yet with no more information or explanation than the Haruchai, they trusted Linden.

In addition, the Giants were realistic and knew their own limits. One of the reasons I can relate to Cail better in White Gold Wielder is that he has learned that there are some things that he cannot overcome by physical prowess and blind devotion alone, and that this does not make him any less worthy.

Sum sui generis
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You do not hear, and so you cannot be redeemed.

In the name of their ancient pride and humiliation, they had made commitments with no possible outcome except bereavement.

He knew only that they had never striven to reject the boundaries of themselves.
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Post by dlbpharmd »

In addition, the Giants were realistic and knew their own limits. One of the reasons I can relate to Cail better in White Gold Wielder is that he has learned that there are some things that he cannot overcome by physical prowess and blind devotion alone, and that this does not make him any less worthy.
You make a good point but
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I don't believe that Cail came to accept any part of his service as worthy. After all, didn't he fail the Haruchai challenge in the rain against Harn? His lack of self-respect was the determining factor in his decision to go back to the merewives, to find some worthiness in his existence.
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Post by variol son »

True, but
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after Cail released the other Haruchai from their possession at the hands of the Clave, he told the rest of the party that he and his people had decided that such weaknesses as his could be useful. Perhaps in seeing his weakness against the merewives, Cail was able to learn enough to resist the Clave. Or perhaps being released from one possession rendered him immune to others. Also, I believe in seeking the merewives, Cail was seeking to understand weakness, as opposed to judging it as he had previously done. I would call this a victory, wouldn't you?
You do not hear, and so you cannot be redeemed.

In the name of their ancient pride and humiliation, they had made commitments with no possible outcome except bereavement.

He knew only that they had never striven to reject the boundaries of themselves.
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Post by SoulBiter »

I always thought that they (Brinn and Cail) had already decided to
Spoiler
come back to the Merewives. Not because of their unworth but because the experience somehow changed them. The change I think was perhaps a closer understanding of themselves. Ak-Haru Kenaustin Ardenol told Covenant
Spoiler
Cail will accept my place at your side until the word of Bloodguard Bannor has been carried to its end. Then he will follow his heart.
Spoiler
His heart in this case was to follow the Merewives. Had Brinn not found and fought the guardian I suspect that he AND Cail would have gone back after fulfilling the promise they made to Covenant.
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Post by Durris »

As I mentioned in an earlier discussion, this chapter pulled my identifications with Linden and the Haruchai directly against each other to dislocating effect.

Though I admire Covenant's fidelity and mercy to Linden when he uses his power to demand that the Haruchai give up their retribution, I'm conflicted about the morality of this act. There was some justice to their case, though the proposed punishment was excessive. I'm not entirely comfortable with Covenant using the threat of wild magic to obtain their submission. To override a moral claim by ontological intimidation doesn't make the moral claim go away.

What SRD said in the gradual interview about Law vs. Grace (in the comment on why the name "Covenant") applies here. The Haruchai embody rigidly righteous Law raised to the status of a vice. Covenant, having been broken of his own intransigent Unbelief long ago, has evolved a capacity for grace that seems to them not only unimaginable but unjust.
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Post by Fist and Faith »

I guess sometimes the result of might makes right happens to be the right thing. Could anything have convinced the Haruchai that she didn't deserve punishment? I doubt it. They heard Findail:
"But for her it will not endure. It is yours, formed for you, and will not hold her. She will return to herself in her own time."
So they knew there was at least one difference between the silenced Covenant and the silenced Linden. If she had told them about the confusion she felt - Help me rise. I must fight./Let me die! - and what she told Covenant,
"It was the silence. The distance. It was in me. I knew what I was doing. I knew what was happening around me. But I didn't seem to have any choice. I didn't know how or even why I was still breathing."
do you think they'd have considered the possibility that the Silence had yet another difference for her, and thought that it truly wasn't her fault? Or was the best we could hope from them that they would have thought she was just weak, as she was with the geas, and figured they were better off without her either way?
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
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Post by duchess of malfi »

I think part of what drove the Haruchai nuts about Linden is that they had seen her use remarkable power in TWL...in the healing of her leg, in the use of the voure...but they don't understand her darkness, her combination of lust and fear of power...they do not understand what the Raver and the Sunbane have doen to her...

I think at this point in the story they have more faith in Linden's power than she does.

The fact that she will not/cannot use her power for healing others, especially Covenant, is another mark against her in their eyes. :(
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Post by Revan »

EEK! My turn next! why didn't anyone give me any warning?! heh.

I love this chapter... well... I actually wouldn't care for it if it were not for the finally section...
"No." Covenant had been trying to stop her. "Linden. Don't. Don't blame yourself like this," He was gaunt with dismay. Every line of his form was an appeal to her across the stone of the deck. "You were just a kid. You didn't know what else to do. You're not the only one. We all have Lord Foul inside us." He radiated a leper's yearning for the wounded and the bereft. "And you saved me. You saved us all."

She shook her head. "I possessed you. You saved yourself." He had let the Elohim bereave him of mind and will until all that remained was the abject and unsupportable litany of his illness. He had accepted even that burden in the name of his commitment to the Land, his determination to battle the Despiser. And she had surrendered herself entirely, braved the worst horrors of her past, to bring him back. But she saw no virtue in that. She had done as much as anyone to drive him into his plight. And she had helped create the conditions which had forced her to violate him. "All my life" -- her hands flinched -- "I've had the darkness under control. One way or another. But I had to give that up, so I could get far enough inside you. I didn't have any left for Ceer." Severely, she concluded, "You should've let Brinn punish me."

"No." His contradiction was a hot whisper that seemed to jump the gap between them like a burst of power. Her head jerked back. She saw him clearly, facing her as if her honesty meant more to him than any act of bloodshed. From the depths of his own familiarity with self-judgment, he averred, "I don't care about your mother. I don't care if you possessed me. You had good reason. And it isn't the whole story. You saved the quest. You're the only woman I know who isn't afraid of me." His arms made a wincing movement like an embrace maimed from its inception by need and shame. "Don't you understand that I love you?"

Love? Her mouth tried to shape the word and could not. With that avowal, he changed everything. In an instant, her world seemed to become different than it was, Stumbling forward, she confronted him. He was pallid with exhaustion, damaged by the pressure of his doom. The old knife-cut marked the center of his stained shirt like the stroke of fatality. But his passion resonated against the added dimension of her hearing; and she was suddenly alive and trembling. He had not intended to refuse her. The efforts he made to withhold himself were not directed at her. It was himself that he struggled to reject. He was rife with venom and leprosy; but she recognized those things, accepted them. Before he could retreat, she caught her left arm around him, raised her right as high as she could to hold him.

For a moment longer, he strove against himself, stood rigid and unyielding in her clasp. But then he surrendered. His arms closed around her, and his mouth came down on hers as if he were falling.
Ahhhh! Isn't it just the sweetest thing ever?! |G |G |G You gotta love it! :D :D :D No words suffice for this part in the book... So nice. |G
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