Towers of Midnight: Chapter 29
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Chapter Icon: Wheel and Serpent
Point of Views: Faile, Morgase, Perrin and Elayne
Contents
Outline
A Bubble of Evil hits Perrin's camp. Elayne sees a demonstration of the Dragons.
Summary
Faile's Point of View:
Setting: Near and in Perrin's camp
Characters: Faile, Berelain, Alliandre, Sulin
Faile is walking with Berelain and Alliandre near Perrin's camp, along with ten Maidens. Berelain asks what they think that Perrin is planning. Neither Faile nor Alliandre answers her, instead Berelain tells them that she wants to go to the Whitecloaks and talk with them on Perrin's account. Faile says no, since Perrin has already made his decision and won't change his mind. They see a group of refugees walking away from the camp. Gateways don't work now, but when they did, ten thousand left for Cairhien through them. Berelain asks again what Perrin is going to do, and she believes that he wants something from the Whitecloaks. Faile thinks to herself that Berelain doesn't understand Perrin very well. Alliandre agrees with Berelain that the trial is not a good idea and that they should either march away, or maybe attack the Whitecloaks. Faile explains that Perrin doesn't want anyone to believe that he has done something wrong. Berelain glances in the direction of the Whitecloak camp. Alliandre notices that and starts talking about how good-looking Galad is, which gets Berelain to blush and to say that he is like a perfect thing from the Age of Legends, left for them to worship. Faile sniffs to it and says that he's passable but she prefers bearded men. They continue walking and Alliandre asks what to do about Morgase. Faile and Alliandre both feel deceived, because they thought they knew her, but Berelain defends Morgase and says that they all would have done the same in her situation. Suddenly they hear screams from the camp and then Faile's knife flies up from its sheath and toward her head. It's a bubble of evil, every weapon in the camp is attacking its owner. Sulin comes, takes Faile's knife and slams it to the ground and it stops moving. They realize that all weapons stop moving if they touch the dirt and they run to tell everyone that.
Morgase's Point of View:
Setting: The Whitecloak camp
Morgase and Galad are in Galad's tent. Galad feels bad for killing Valda when he actually had not killed Morgase, and Morgase comforts him and makes him see that Valda deserved it for other reasons. They then talk about Perrin, who Galad thinks is a Shadowspawn, but Morgase says that he is a good man. Morgase feels like a queen when she is a Galad, because for him she is still the person she was when she was queen. She ponders over what kind of Lord Captain Commander Galad will be. She asks him what he is going to do with his army and he answers that he will take them to fight in the Last Battle. She tells him that they will have to fight alongside the Aes Sedai and he says that he can work with the witches for the greater good. She thinks it is wrong that he names them witches and he tells her that they sent Elayne on dangerous missions and that he had met her outside the Tower, there in the south. He also says that he doesn't believe that all channelers of the One Power are evil, but that it is easy for them to be corrupted. He repeats that the Whitecloaks will fight alongside them, and Morgase says that they should go join the fight immediately and forget about the trial. Galad says no and that it was Perrin who wanted to have the trial. Morgase tells him that Lini was among the people the Whitecloak captured and wonders if he actually would have executed the prisoners. He says that it was just a threat and wonders what the point of their discussion is. She says that she wants him to think and tells him the story of Tham Felmley, a man she gave a death sentence and later she discovered that he had been innocent. What she wants him to understand is that good people can do wrong. They are interrupted by a Whitecloak who comes to tell them that Perrin wants to postpone the trial because of the happenings in his camp, and Galad will consider it.
Perrin's Point of View:
Setting: Perrin's camp
Characters: Perrin, Aravine, Gaul, Berelain, Tam
Perrin and Gaul are checking the camp's different sections to see the aftermaths of the bubble of evil. Thousands are wounded and some have died. Aravine tells Perrin that the Whitecloak's commander will consider giving them more time and Perrin says that it's he that decides, it's Perrin himself. Perrin wants Gaul to let him know when Tam and Elyas are back from the villages he has sent them to see if the people there had suffered from the bubble of evil. Then he talks to Berelain in her tent, she tells him how many of her men are wounded and dead, and he walks to Alliandre's section while Aravine is going to check on the Aes Sedai and Gaul is helping wounded people. Tam comes and says that they hadn't noticed anything in the village, but he is worried about something else and he must leave the camp, it is something with Rand, though he can't say much about it to Perrin. Tam tells Perrin that he's proud of him and that Perrin's father would be too, and then he leaves.
Elayne's Point of View:
Setting: The Caemlyn city wall
Characters: Elayne, Birgitte, Aludra, Mat
Elayne is carried atop the city wall to see the demonstration of Aludra's dragon. She sits in a litter, since Melfane decided that she must rest in bed, although she didn't say that Elayne can't leave her bedroom. On the way up she wonders what people will say when they see her, she looks at the view and she thinks about Cairhien where where all the noble Houses says that they are awaiting her arrival but don't offer her any real support. She thinks that she must find way to ascend the throne without getting involved too much in the local House politics. They meet Aludra on a tower, who is standing with one of the prototype dragons. Mat is on the next tower where also the working dragon is and Elayne thinks that she is a fool, because what if the dragon explodes? Elayne and Birgitte get looking glasses and with them Elayne can see the fifty dressing dummies that will be the dragon's targets. Birgitte is worried, she thinks that it would be better if Elayne watched it from below, because even if the prototype dragon won't be firing some men load it to show Elayne how it is done. Elayne ignores Birgitte and Aludra signals to the men on the other tower and one of them fires the dragon. The powerful sound makes Elayne jump, the ground trembles and a pocket on the mountainside explodes. The blast had missed the the dressing dummies though, but the men reload the dragon and changes its position slightly on Aludra's order and then they fires it off again and this time the blast hits dead-on and destroy a handful of them and knocks down a dozen. Elayne thinks that the dragons perhaps will be as deadly as damane and says to Aludra, when asked, that she finds it pleasing indeed and that Aludra will get the resources of all Andor but that she must keep the plans and designs a secret. Birgitte thinks that the world just changed, but that she has the feeling that it was only the beginning.
Notes
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