At least I'm not too late for this chapter.
Esmenet's daughter was never far from her thoughts. It was strange the way anything, even the most trivial happenstance, could summon memories of her.
Once her daughter had sniffed an apple at the market. It was a breathless memory, wan, as though rinsed of colour by the horrific fact of her death.
For a first-time reader, this would just be Esmenet's lingering grief over her daughter's death. We, however, know it's guilt - she tried her best to make herself believe Mimara really was dead, but it did not work. Everything still reminds her of the worst thing she ever did. And notice how she doesn't even
think of Mimara by name until Kellhus makes her reveal the truth in TWP.
No one, she would often think, knows him the way I do.
Theirs was a strange marriage, if it could be called that. A marriage of outcasts sanctified by inarticulate vows.
I do have my issues with Achamian and Esmenet's relationship, but those are mostly TAE-related. Their relationship in PON is clearly very loving and just so tragic.
Esmenet calls it a marriage here, and later they will indeed go on to consider themselves husband and wife.
Such men may be safely loved-the way mothers love tender sons.
I can see why you fear for him so, Akka.
Poor Inrau really was one of the few genuinely good characters we see in this series. So, his fate was sealed...
Then this soft-hearted, portly man would arrive, a man who looked even less like a spy than he did a sorcerer, and for a time the roof of her life would be torn away, and sun and world would come pouring in.
I do love you, Drusas Achamian.
Regardless of what might be said about their relationship later on, this is a beautiful passage.
The world, on the other hand, was filled with stones for harlots.
Some short-term foreshadowing for what happens just a few chapters later...
"If the Scarlet Spires can keep such a thing secret from the Mandate for ten years, Akka, then how is it that Maithanet, a man who has only recently become Shriah, knows?"
Maithanet really does seem
extremely suspicious at this point, it's not surprising in the least that people reading the books for the first time (me included) started to wonder if he was a Consult agent.
The world turns about people such as these, and I've just joined them. The air, she thought, smelled of water and flowers.
Interesting how this matches that quote from before about young Mimara:
"Mama, it smells like . . ." she had said, hooking her voice as insight failed her, "it smells like water and flowers."
Esmenet is so overjoyed by belonging and feeling part of something important, and her choice of words matches little Mimara's childlike joy. It's very bittersweet...
"You must get closer to Maithanet, Inrau. Your Shriah is altogether too canny."
Absolutely, though none of them could even begin to suspect exactly
why Maithanet is so canny.
Inrau lowered his face, tried to grimace away his weeping. If only he could forget. If only . . .
The Shriah. But how could it be?
Please! Let me forget this!
If he could only have forgotten . . . forgotten what the Mandate had taught him. If he could've done that, then this last heartbreaking revelation would have been meaningless to him. If only Achamian had not come. The price was too high.
Okay, so this is where I am a little confused. I remember it being mentioned in earlier discussions that this points to Inrau having found
something incriminating in Maithanet's apartments, right? (The first time I read this, it didn't even register.) I suppose it's not just the fact that Akka and Esmenet have pointed out to him that there is something suspicious going on with Maithanet.
Prayer seized his tongue. Blasphemy tumbled from his lips.
Heartbreaking - Inrau tries to fall back on his faith, but ultimately is moved by the Mandate's reasons for being. He chooses to damn himself to (hopefully help) save the world.
He raised a Chorae in his other hand, whisked it over Inrau's cheek. Searing agony. (...) The skin flayed away beneath his fingers, transformed into salt by the Chorae's touch. The exposed flesh burned.
I'm going to take note of this passage, as partial saltings have been discussed often in this forum, and they're something I'm still curious about. Looks like I have something else to keep track of other than wolves and timeline references.
Any price, old teacher. The stone rail slammed against his hips, broke like cake. Again he was floating, but it was so different-air whipping across his face, bathing his body. With a single outstretched hand, Paro Inrau followed a pillar to the earth.
Inrau's death is such a sad moment, every time.
There's a parallel with Proyas here, too - both of them had their faith questioned (or shattered, in Proyas' case) by a disturbing revelation, both of them think of Akka, expressing regret, shortly before they die.
