Interesting tidbit from chapter 14:
Vast was the night. Great was the ground.
And yet they yielded. They yielded.
Step-step-leap. Incantations of space. World crossing world.
The hares darted from his path. The thrushes burst from his feet, hurtling into the starts. The jackals raced at his side, their tongues lolling, their loping limbs tiring.
"Who are you?" they panted as their hearts failed them.
"Your master!" cried the godlike man as he outdistanced the. And though humor was unknown to him he laughed. He laughed until the sky shook.
Your master.
This passage describes Kellhus' journey to Kyudea. What's interesting to me is it how it's written. It has a distinctive, almost scriptural quality that might be unique in PON. It seems unlikely that a tonal shift like this isn't intentional -- an editor would catch the inconsistency in a heartbeat.
Perhaps this is the moment when Kellhus steps off the path? Or at least, the moment where he thinks he steps off the path?
While I didn't note it, I did notice that. It certainly seems possible this is the time.
Chapter 15:
It stood at the edge of a greater hill near the heart of the debris fields, the twin of black Umiaki in girth and height.
I do wonder if Umiaki also marked the location of a Nonman mansion too...
Setmahaga fell first, struck in the eye by an absence affixed to the end of a stick. An explosion of burning salt …
So, the ciphrang actually salt. I wonder if that supports the idea I had that they are actually damned sorcerers brought back...
He raised a cloth, pressed it into the pits of his eyes. When he withdrew it, two rose-coloured stains marked the pale fabric. The face slipped back into the impenetrable black.
I still don't understand this part, why the stains. Had he really been sighted before and only blinded himself recently?
Screens of tumbling water, breaking the world beyond them into glittering lines and smeared shadows. Kellhus had ceased trying to penetrate them.
Why the water? Moe certainly chose the spot to meet Kellhus on purpose. Was it to distract him?
“You have not the power to overcome me.”
“But I do, Father.”
Another pause, imperceptibly longer.
“How,” his father finally said, “could you know this?”
“Because I know why you were compelled to summon me.”
Scrutiny. Calculation.
“So you have grasped it.”
“Yes … the Thousandfold Thought.”
Hmm, I go back and forth, pretty much every time I read this part. Are they both lying to each other, or not. Perhaps not, perhaps this is the point at which Moe realizes it's OK for Kellhus to take over TTT and go forth in his stead.