There are two things that really grabbed my attention in this chapter. One was intended to by Jordan and the other was not. I'm going to start with the latter one first:
- Rand went back to his food, but he saw that Mat had stopped eating. "I thought you were hingry," he said. Mat kept staring at his plate, pushing one piece of potato in a circle with his fork. "You have to eat, Mat. We need to keep up our strength if we're going to reach Tar Valon."
Mat let out a low, bitter laugh. "Tar Valon! All this time it's been Caemlyn. Moiraine would be waiting for us in Caemlyn. We'd find Perrin and Egwene in Caemlyn. Everything would be all right if we only got to Caemlyn. Well, here we are, and nothing's right. No Moiraine, no Perrin, no anybody. Now it's everything will be all right if we only get to Tar Valon."
My immediate reaction to this passage was to wish that I could slap the stupid out of Mat and order him to shut up if he couldn't say anything constructive. I am not the sort of person who jumps down characters' throats the instant they bemoan their circumstances. I think Shinji Ikari is a pretty cool guy, even if he does afraid of anything. But the combination of Mat saying variations on the exact same thing every chapter he's talked in recently and my chapter-a-day pace in a stretched-out book is starting to make me hate this character now. (Now that I think about it, I'm probably holding Shinji up to a double standard because I haven't seen Evangelion in a long time. Oh well.)
I started thinking of how much longer I could stand to tolerate this attitude coming from Mat, and when I finished the chapter I began to thought of in-story events that could make him stop being such a broken Simple Plan record. Here's what I came up with, in order of my preference for those events:
- Reuniting with any of the traveling companions he got separated from in Shadar Logoth,
- Losing that dagger he found there by theft or destruction, breaking a spell it had on him,
- Getting fed up with Rand and leaving either permanently or temporarily,
- Turning on Rand to save his own skin,
- Dying.
As long as Mat changes for the better before the end of the book, I'd rather not see that last option happen. Otherwise, though, all bets are off.
I spent so much time thinking about Mat at first that I forgot the conversation Rand had with Gill before they got their (pitiful) meal. Rand tells Gill the whole story, but with the Fades an Trollocs changed to ordinary men and Darkfriends, since not everyone believes in them. Gill offers his help, and points out that going to Elaida (or the Guards) would be a bad idea since it's likely she'll ascertain the connection with Thom, who left Morgase on very bad terms. Rand eats with mat, hangs around the common room, then gets uncomfortable and moves to the library (which this inn has, I guess), where he finally meets someone who managed to put Mat out of my mind for a while.
Rand stumbles into a guy named Loial in the library, who's in there not because he wants some privacy from the hustle and bustle of the crowd, but in order to keep people from panicking about the fact that he's ten feet tall and furry with a snout-like nose and eyebrows that grow so long that they dangle from his face like leaves on a weeping willow. Yes, Loial is the Wheel of Time's very first non-human character!
He belongs to a race of beings called the Ogier, which I vaguely remember hearing some characters talking about before. All I remembered is that they lived long ago and built ancient cities like Caemlyn and Manetheren, which lead be to believe that they were an ancient precursor civilization of humans that died out long ago. Instead, they turn out to be a reclusive, long-lived species with barely any similarities to be had with humans. Because it's the only other high fantasy story I have reference to, I immediately thought of the Ents from Lord of the Rings when I heard that the Ogier were patient and slow to act in accordance with their longer lifespans.
Unlike the Ents, though, Loial is a hot-tempered youth of ninety years, who brazenly left the stedding he's bound to in order to see the world! His age is a bit of a sensitive matter to him, as he can't take part in Ogier meetings for another decade, even the meeting that decided whether he could leave the stedding or not. When Rand tells him the story of his travels, Loial even expresses a wish to come with him so that he can visit the grove in Tar Valon.
Even so, Loial is polite and subdued; when Rand reacts with shock upon first seeing him, mentally mistaking him for a Trolloc, Loial just says, "I wish you humans wouldn't do that." Indeed, his reaction to human prejudice and being sequestered in the inn's library is confusion and not pain. He also reminisces on when cities had different names and when there was a grove in Caemlyn. When Rand tells him that Two Rivers was once named Manetheren, Loial suddenly recognizes it and apologizes that the Ogier couldn't get there in time.
Because Rand gets a vibe of naivete from Loial, he reluctantly tells him the whole truth about the journey, from which Loial concludes that he is ta'veren, a thread in the Pattern that tangles up other threads (a metaphor for Rand's destiny influencing the destiny of others). He explains this with the air of a proud student who wants to prove that he did in fact learn something from school, which is appropriate since nobody who graduated from school is surprised that Rand is destined for Great Things (TM). Is there really a need to beat us over the head with this, Jordan? But I am glad that the Pattern allows for a little leeway in how most people can live their lives, as long as it doesn't really interfere with whatever grand scheme of things that vague metaphysical forces have in store for the world.
Despite the corniness of the revelation that Rand is a VIP (which Rand humbly denies, of course), I am kind of interested in Loial. True, I would have preferred that Rand run into old companions than new ones, but I guess it would be nice to see Thom's slot in the party get filled.
NEXT TIME: We catch up with someone else.
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