Chapter 13:
Three days Sorweel waited after learning of the Nonman Embassy and the Niom.
The question of why these three is an interesting one. As strong as Serwa is, why send her away? Does Kellhus anticipate that there is something up with Sorweel?
"Nil'giccas is a myth," he said with open contempt. "There is no Nonman King."
Moënghus shrugged, picked a curl from his wild black mane to study. "So says Zeüm."
"So says Zeüm."
Well, they are right in the sense that he is King no longer. But they are wrong that he is a
myth...
"Ponder?"
"The Apocalypse," she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "How your city survived when far greater bastions toppled."
The young King of Sakarpus shrugged. "Some live. Some die. My father always said it was a good thing that Men could only trust in the Whore when it comes battle. He believed Men should be wary of war."
We wondered the same thing here, in numerous threads.
"Could it be?" Carindûsû asked in derision. "Have the fabled Dreams of the First Apocalypse led the illustrious Saccarees astray?"
"Yes," the Mandate Grandmaster replied, his honesty so genuine, his humility so reminiscent of their Lord-and-God, that Carindûsû found himself shamed before his peers a third time.
"What we face... The world has never seen the like."
The Consult changing tactics? Seems like it.
"Maithanet," the Aspect-Emperor said. "My brother has seized control in Momemn."
If Kellhus knows of it, then it is part of the plan. If it were contrary to his will, he would have ended it.
"Do I fear for Esmi?" Kellhus asked. He turned his friend smiling. "You wonder, as you have wondered your whole life, what passions bind me." He closed his eyes in resignation. "And whether they are human."
So here it was, the question of questions...
"Yes."
"Love," the Holy Aspect-Emperor said, "is for lesser souls."
Indeed, Kellhus plainly admitting that passion does not guide him, at least not any
human passion. I think he is speaking plainly here and being honest. While I think at times he did feel love, it was always fleeting, never the guide, just something on the way. I think there is a passion, but it is the
striving for the Absolute. The
certainty that he can and will be a God.
"Father," Serwa explained, "says that we have an extra soul, one that lives, and another that watches us living. We are prone to be at war with ourselves, the Anasûrimbor."
Her terms were simple enough, but Sorweel suspected she understood the matter with a philosopher's subtlety.
"So your father thinks you crazy?"
Kellhus mistrusts his own children. He knows that they are not anywhere near his level, just more tools to be used. Another strike, in my mind, that he is guided more by passion or feeling then by the Shortest Path to Godhood.
"To grasp the Absolute."
"Absolute?" he asked, speaking the word, which he had never before heard, slowly so as to make it his own.
"Ho!" Moënghus called, yanking a small bass onto the riverbank. It thrashed silver and gold even as it blackened the bare stone with wetness.
"The God of Gods," Serwa said, beaming at her brother.
I feel this is hitting the nail on the head. Kellhus seeks the Absolute, not just to apprehend it, but to
become the God of Gods and so the God of
Men as well.
"What are you saying?"
"Truth, Horse-King. Nothing offends Men or Gods more..."
Sorweel could only stare at him, witless. Was it possible for a god to be mistaken?
But we know Kellhus does
not represent the Truth. He follows the Thousandfold Thought
still, which is expressly
not the truth.
The children of a god mating. The woman he loved betraying...
Did Kellhus premeditate this? No way this was the first time. Did he send these two because he knew of their sexual relationship? It seems plausible he knew of Sorweel's feelings for Serwa too. Yatwer never seemed to hide that, nor Sorweel from Serwa.
King Sasal Umrapathur, one of their number, was dead, as were his kinsmen and vassals.
I can't help but think that Kellhus knew this would happen. It was all bait, made to eliminate Umrapathur and the Vokalati, perhaps? A true Culling then.
"Henceforth, we eat Sranc."
The major question, of course, what are the consequences?