First major non-Akka POVs, from Esmi and Kellhus.
Esmi remains suspicious of Kellhus, until he 'disarms with charm'.
Esmi has never
pleasured so many men
as she did on the walk to Momemn.
She has taught her self to swim, which makes her feel
to be cleansed all at once
However, whoring was
flattening her, pounding her into a shape she could never fit into her previous life
Then she finds Akka, which makes her feel
an almost perilous vulnerability, a sense of submission unlike any she'd ever known - and it was good
She is now a
... camp-wife. Now at long last, she belonged to Drusas Achamian. At long last she was clean
She notes that Akka has become more desperate, he is going mad, because of Kellhus.
She remembers Akka's thoughts on the differences between men and women. She wants Kellhus given to the Mandate for selfish reasons, not because of principle. But it is actually the principle that upsets her. She has given up her life, he will not give up Kellhus.
Serwe has
perpetual vulnerability
. Is this significant to her role?
Kellhus tells Esmi about Svylvendi swazonds. they mark
the point where one life yields it momentum to another
Cnaiur is
the single stone that has become an avalanche
.
A correspondence with the end of Chapter 1, where Kellhus causes a mini-avalanche to demonstrate unintended consequences?
Kellhus gets Esmi to tell him what its like to be a whore. Sometimes like a street rutted by the passing wains. Sometimes like a thief, fooling/ duping customers - feels like being free. An Ajokli reference?
Riders appears- they are assumed to be Fanim. Akka uses sorcery to reveal they are in fact Galeoth - and Sarcellus.
Kellhus spots the skin-spy. He goes through his options. He can tell both Akka and Esmi have come across Sarcellus before.
Consequence and effect.
Only the Logos could illuminate the path... Only the Logos.
Sarcellus has
tracked them like a dog...Do you know of these things, father?
Everything had transformed since he'd taken Drusas Achamian as his teacher. The ground of the world, he now knew, had concealed many, many secrets from his brethren. The Logos remained true, but its ways were far more devious, and far more spectacular, than the Dunyain had ever conceived. And the Absolute... the End of Ends was more distant than they'd ever imagined. So many obstacles. So many forks in the path...
Is this Kellhus being 'brought to the Gnosis', as he later tells the Multilated. Interesting that the Logos is described as devious - Another Ajokli reference?
He believes much of what Akka has told him about the past, but cannot believe the Celmomian Prophecy
by defintion, the future couldn't anticipate the present. What came after couldn't come before... Could it?
Shades of doubt.
A solution to the problem of Sarcellus presents itself. Saubon seeks him out. He reads him - out loud, and convinces him to launch an attack on Gedea. He seems to hear something
You must make certain the Shrial Knights are punished
Back to Esmi. Sarcellus is pestering her. Kellhs gets rid of him. She tells Akka not to give him up to the Mandate.
