Mappo's Travelling Sack, on Aug 1 2009, 12:16 PM, said:
Maybe it's cos i'm drunk, but I only recognise one name in that post...I probably should reread this serious.
Well, I only mentioned three names. I'll assume you recognized Egwene. Mesaana is one of the Forsaken (there are 13 of those, in case you forgot - the Dark One's supposedly elite bad boys and girls). Alviarin is the head of the Black Ajah in the White Tower. She was also Elaida (the usurper Amyrlin)'s Keeper of the Chronicles (right hand woman to the Amyrlin) for some time, and she was blackmailing Elaida for some time because the Dumai's Wells debacle (where Elaida had Rand kidnapped and he crushed her ruthlessly) and the Toveine expedition (where 51(?) Aes Sedai tried to attack the Black Tower and were captured by Logain (ex-false Dragon, now Asha'man)'s group) were still secret, and Alviarin could have had her deposed with the information. When the news finally came out on its own, Elaida managed to have most of the blame shifted to Coiren (the leader of the Rand kidnapping expedition up until the point he was captured) and Toveine, so Alviarin was removed as Keeper. So, she's been disgraced in the Tower, but she's still the head of the Black Ajah.
Interesting thing is that the Black Ajah hunters in the Tower (a Sitter from each Ajah except the Blue, which fled the Tower whole when Elaida deposed and stilled Siuan, the former Amyrlin and Blue)...anyway, they have info from the one of their number that turned out to be Black - the Green, Talene - that the Black Ajah knew everything that Elaida did, knew her orders in advance, so it was assumed that Elaida was Black, because they didn't realize Alviarin was pulling Elaida's strings at the time.
Also, Egwene had an encounter with Alviarin in Knife of Dreams, where Alviarin offered subtly to help her escape (which we knew from earlier in the book was an order from Mesaana). During that encounter, Egwene thinks of the letters that Rand received in The Fires of Heaven, just before Moiraine's battle with Lanfear. One was from Elaida, and was politically what one might expect from an Amyrlin like her - she expected him to kneel to the Tower or some such. Alviarin's letter was fawning and worshipful, pledging her allegiance and hinting at a secret faction in the Tower that was devoted to him. She also asked that the letter be kept secret from everyone, including Moiraine (and I love the fact that he hands it to Moiraine right after, without hesitating).
Anyway, Egwene thinks of mentioning the letter to Alviarin, and then reconsiders, thinking that it seems like the kind of info that can only be used once.
Jason's comment about 'what is revealed' to Egwene certainly brings to mind the Black Ajah hunters. Other reasons:
The first result of the hunters' efforts was to uncover the nest of rebels that the Salidar Hall had sent to the Tower. All ten of them are now under oath (on the Oath Rod) to obey the Black Ajah hunters (the five Sitters that remain since one of them turned out to be Black - Pevara, a Red; Seaine, a White; Yukiri, a Gray; Doesine, a Yellow; and Saerin, a Brown, who is the leader of them by virtue of being the longest serving in the Hall by a fair margin). The rebel 'ferrets' have taken an Oath to not reveal anything whatsoever about their situation or the hunt, or the prisoners they've taken so far. So, they can't reveal it to Egwene. But they can convince the hunters to take the situation to Egwene.
It's really clear, actually, from the way RJ has set it up that this is what is going to happen. The hunters desperately want to take their hunt to a higher power - and these are Sitters, mind. They want to take it to the Amyrlin because taking it to the Hall is more risky - too many unknown elements - but they suspect Elaida of being Black! So they can't take it to her, even more so now that Seaine has realized that she misunderstood Elaida's orders in the first place.
Elaida's original orders were for Seaine to search out treason, high and low, even to the Keeper herself. Seaine took the last comment as a generalization about how thoroughly Elaida wanted her to search for treason, which she translated to mean 'Black Ajah'. Elaida chose Seaine because Seaine was the only Sitter who did not vote her in as Amyrlin that also did not flee to Salidar (there's another story there - another time, perhaps).
Seaine realized in Knife of Dreams, after another brief meeting with Elaida, the first since the original orders, that Elaida specifically meant for her to investigate Alviarin, because Alviarin had been blackmailing her at the time (though Seaine still doesn't know that).
The assumption that Elaida had ordered Seaine to search out the Black Ajah had been the only thing all along that had convinced the hunters that Elaida was not Black. Now, they are convinced that they were wrong, so the last thing they could do would be to take the information to Elaida.
Now, Egwene is captive in the Tower, but she is letting it be known that she still considers herself to be Amyrlin. It is far from a secret - she is sent to Silviana several times a day for it.
RJ said:
TITLE - Knife of Dreams
CHAPTER: 24 - Honey in the Tea
On the morning of her ninth day back in the Tower, before first light, Doesine herself came to Egwene's small room to give her her morning dose of Healing. Outside, rain was falling with a dull roar. The two Reds who had been watching over her sleep gave her her forkroot, frowning at Doesine, and hurried away. The Yellow Sitter snorted in contempt when the door closed behind them. She used the old method of Healing that made Egwene gasp as though doused in an icy pond and left her ravenously eager for breakfast. As well as free of the pain in her bottom. That actually felt peculiar; you could adapt to anything over time, and a bruised bottom already seemed normal. But the use of the old way, the way used every time she had been given Healing since being captured, reaffirmed that Beonin had kept some secrets, though how she had managed it was still a mystery. Beonin herself had only said that most sisters thought the tales of new weaves were merely rumors.
"You don't mean to bloody surrender, do you, child?" Doesine said while Egwene was pulling her dress over her head. The woman's language was very much at odds with her elegant appearance, in gold-embroidered blue with sapphires at her ears and in her hair.
"Should the Amyrlin Seat ever surrender?" Egwene asked as her head popped out at the top of her dress. She doubled her arms behind her to do up the buttons of white-dyed horn.
Doesine snorted again, though not in contempt, Egwene thought. "A brave course, child. Still, my wager is that Silviana will bloody well have you sitting straight and walking right before much longer." But she left without calling Egwene down for naming herself the Amyrlin Seat.
As I mentioned before, Doesine is one of the Black Ajah hunters. They have not shown any tendency in private to consider Egwene anything more than what she appears to be - a novice who is being broken. But the fact still remains that, 1) they do not trust Elaida and think she is Black, 2) they know Elaida is an incompetent Amyrlin in general, 3) they know that Elaida has pissed off the Dragon Reborn mightily and that Egwene is Rand's personal friend, and 4) they are working with ten women who believe that Egwene is the rightful Amyrlin.
It should probably be mentioned that the rebel 'ferrets' were sent to the Tower before Egwene arrived in Salidar (she became Amyrlin that night). So, they don't know Egwene as Amyrlin - they just know that she was raised Amyrlin, and that she's now a captive. That is probably why this hasn't advanced already. But Egwene has now indirectly taken her own charge of the ferrets.
Egwene had a circle of trusted advisors in the rebel camp, the original inner circle in Salidar, 'Sheriam's Circle'. They were the ones who originally ordered the 'ferrets' to the Tower, and now, all of them have taken oaths of fealty to Egwene. One of them, a Gray named Beonin, felt that she was free of her oath after Egwene was captured. Turns out, she was one of Elaida's 'ferrets' in the Salidar camp, and the first thing she did after Egwene's capture was to report to Elaida.
She didn't get as warm a welcome as she wanted, to say the least. But now she is in the Tower, and Egwene encountered her also (same chapter), and realized that Beonin had told Elaida of the ten rebel 'ferrets':
RJ said:
"You betrayed the ferrets. Are they all down in the basement cells?"
Beonin's eyes flashed up the corridor. Melavaire was talking with her Warder, his head bent close to hers. Squat or not. he was taller than she. Beonin's Tervail was watching her with a worried expression. The distance was too far for any of the three to have overheard, but Beonin stepped closer and lowered her voice. "Elaida, she is having them watched, though I think the Ajahs, they keep what they see to themselves. Few sisters want to tell Elaida any more than they must. It was necessary, you understand. I could hardly return to the Tower and keep them secret. It would have been discovered eventually."
"Then you'll have to warn them." Egwene could not keep her voice clear of her disdain. This woman split hairs with a razor! She took the thinnest excuse to decide her oath no longer applied, and then she betrayed the very women she had helped choose. Blood and bloody ashes!
Beonin remained silent for a long moment, fiddling with her shawl, but at last she said, surprisingly. "I have already warned Meidani and Jennet." They were the two Grays among the ferrets. "I have done what I can for them. The others, they must sink or swim by themselves. Sisters have been assaulted for simply going too near another Ajah's quarters. Me, I will not walk back to my rooms clad only in my shawl and the welts just to try-"
"Think of it as a penance," Egwene cut in. Light! Sisters assaulted! Things were even worse than she had thought. She had to remind herself that well-manured ground would help her seeds to grow.
Beonin glanced up the hallway again, and Tervail took a step toward her before Beonin shook her head. Her face was smooth despite the color staining her cheeks, but inside, she must have been in turmoil. "You know I could send you to the Mistress of Novices, yes?" she said in a tight voice. "I hear you spend half of each day squealing for her. I think you would dislike more visits, yes?"
Egwene smiled at her. Not two hours earlier she had managed to smile the moment Silviana's strap stopped falling. This was much harder. "And who can say what I might squeal? About oaths, perhaps?" The color drained from the other woman's cheeks, leaving her face bloodless pale. No, she did not want that getting out. "You may have convinced yourself I am no longer Amyrlin, Beonin. but it's time to start convincing yourself that I still am. You will warn the others, whatever the cost to yourself. Tell them to stay away from me unless I send word otherwise. They've had more than enough attention drawn to them. But from now on. you'll seek me out every day in case I have instructions for them. I have some now." Quickly she listed the things she wanted them to bring up in conversation, Shemerin being stripped of the shawl, Elaida's complicity in the disasters at the Black Tower and Dumai's Wells, all the seeds she had been planting. They would not be planted one by one now, but broadcast by handfuls.
"Me, I cannot speak for other Ajahs," Beonin said when she finished, "but in the Gray, sisters speak of most of these things often. The eyes-and-ears, they are busy of late. Secrets Elaida hoped to hold, they are coming out. I am sure it must be the same in the others. Perhaps it is not necessary for me to-"
"Warn them, and deliver my instructions, Beonin." Egwene lifted the pole back onto her shoulders, shifting it to the most comfortable position she could find. Two or three of the Whites would use a hairbrush or slipper on her and send her to Silviana if they thought her slow. Embracing pain, even welcoming it, did not mean seeking it out unnecessarily. "Remember. It's a penance I've set you."
"I will do as you say," Beonin said with obvious reluctance. Her eyes hardened suddenly, but it was not for Egwene. "It would be enjoyable to see Elaida pulled down," she said in an unpleasant voice before hurrying away to join Melavaire.
Now that it is obvious to the ferrets that their Amyrlin is still determined to be Amyrlin, the outcome is fairly well inevitable. The ferrets will have to convince the hunters that Egwene is Amyrlin - normally, an impossible task, but with the desperate situation the Hunters are in, they have no choice.
Add this to the fact that none of the Black Ajah hunters are currently involved in the negotiations with the rebels that other members of the Hall are involved in, but, as Sitters, they are quite free to join in...they make up 5 of the 18 Sitters in the Tower Hall (and two of those Sitters are AWOL). The two Sitters that are most involved in the negotiations are also Ajah Heads - Ferane, head of the White Ajah, and Suana, head of the Yellow.
It's possible that 'what is revealed' to Egwene might be 'Elaida is Black Ajah', rather than anything else to do with the hunt, but Egwene has the information she needs (the two letters) to make the connection to Alviarin, and it's hard to see the situation as a 'climax' unless she makes that connection in this coming book.
Also, it's possible that Yukiri and Doesine will be captured by Alviarin before Alviarin herself is outed - that might be an impetus for the hunters to finally reveal what they know to Egwene. Alviarin is watching them, because she noticed Talene deferring to both of them in a meeting before Talene was sent into hiding. She has discovered that their rooms are warded against intrusion, but she is desperate to get them, so I wouldn't be surprised if she works something out. The reason she is desperate is because Shaidar Haran marked her, and gave her the orders to search out those who would threaten the Black Ajah. It's her only hope.
This post has been edited by Terez: 01 August 2009 - 07:27 PM
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