Quote from: H on December 16, 2015, 12:30:06 pm

Finished chapters 13 and 14.

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She smiled tears of rapturous joy. She could see him as he truly was now, radiant with otherworldly light, haloes like golden discs shining about his hands. She could see him!

This is the first time we have someone see the halos.

Also, we have Serwë's insistence that the baby is Kellhus'.  I'm not sure what to make of that though.

Yea, this is where I get mighty confused as to why Serwe is so important/sacred to the books. I get that her belief in Kelhuss is what made the haloes appear. But, she is delusional, right? Kelhuss even remarks that they haven't even slept together. The metaphysics and all that seem to be above me here. I can't sort it out for nothing.

Yeah, I can't say I get it either.  Is it her "innocence" that spawns it?  I don't think so, she really isn't all that innocent to me.  Then again, maybe she is though, driven to things by forces beyond her control.

No, I would guess it has to do with her desire to believe.  She wants to believe Kellhus is a savior, just like she wants to believe the baby is his.

And my guess is that there is no more glamour than aurang uses when he possesses esmenet in TTT,  here he has possessed a passing john and overwhelms esmenet by proxy much as kellhus was overwhelmed.

Note the purpose would be the same in both instances of possession if this were so: direct interrogation.

I'm not sure the possession is even needed, the Synthese is present the whole time, just in a form that appears altered to Esmenet.

Not that it really matters in the end.

Why doesn't proyas recognize kellhus as looking like maithanet?

Do they really look alike?  I thought Maithanet had darker skin and a black beard, Kellhus is fair skinned and blonde though, right?

My mental image of what everyone looks like is completely wrong, so I constantly have to go back to the books to remind myself what it's said they look like.

"You are the first, Chigra, and you will be the last" the thing call Skeaos said.....

The last what?

Not there in my reread yet, but the Celmomian Prophecy has him saying something similar, that I quoted before:

“They call to me. They say that my end is not the world’s end. That burden, they say, is yours. Yours, Seswatha.”

Is it possible that Seswatha isn't really dead?  Is he hiding in Attrempus?  Which, mind you, means “Tower of Respite.”  Respite for who?  For Seswatha?  Details of how Seswatha died are also curiously absent from the whole story.

The Sarcellus agent could easily be the source of the coin.  It is said by Esment several times how rich he seemed to be.  This means the coin would be nearby, rendering the problem of transport largely moot.  For all we know, Sarcellus agent could have been just outside the door.

There is of course the alternative theory of it simply grasping the coin by the husk.  Naturally, we will have to ask Bakker about the air-speed of an unladened Synthese to know for sure.

Another thing that gives us a hint to Mek, is that Bakker was pissed off at himself that he revealed who Mek was. Before long, I believe we'll be seeing a lot of Mek.

Exactly, if it Mek's identity wasn't of consequence, the revelation wouldn't mean much.  Presumably though, it did though.

Actually, thinking along these lines, Cnaiür says they found Moe as a captive of a band of Sranc.  Since when do Sranc take captives?  No, this would seem to also point to the Mek-Moe connection.  He was no captive, he was traveling with Mek's band of Sranc and used them to guide himself to the Steppe.

Moe in league with Mek to drive him ever further south, to the Steppe, perhaps?

Slogging ever onward!

Chapter 12.

And by demonstrating need, he’d opened his heart, had allowed the serpent to enter.

Clever, clever Bakker.  Even if unintentional, what a great foreshadowing.

Moënghus’s face rises from the depths of a pool, pale through the greenish cast of the water. Throughout the surrounding darkness, caverns intertwine, like the thin tunnels one finds beneath large stones pulled from the grass. Just beneath the surface, the pale Dûnyain pauses as though tugged by some deep restraint, smiles, and raises his mouth. With horror, Cnaiür watches as an earthworm presses through the smiling lips and pierces the water. It feels the air like a blind finger. Watery and obscene, the bland pink of hidden places. And always, his own inarticulate hand drifts over the pool and, in a quiet moment of insanity, touches it.

Moe in a dark set of "caverns" surround by water?  Is Moe sending these dreams?

Was this what you intended, Father? Is he an obstacle you’ve placed in my path? Or is he an accident?
Likely the latter, Kellhus decided.

No, I am certainly not buying that.

I'm on the fence about if I believe Kellhus about being on a mission to kill Moe.  Prima-facie, I don't believe it.  Before meeting Cnaiür, he speaks only of meeting Moe, "dwelling in his father's house," not killing him.  I believe he tells Cnaiür he wants to assassinate Moe because he knows this is what will motivate him to help him.

So, what did they really send out Kellhus for?  And for that matter, why did they send Moe out, really?