Coldfire re-read: Black Sun Rising - chapters 42 & 43

[trobadora]

All right, here goes: Our heroes are all united again, and even being burnt to a crisp won't stop Tarrant from exploring, and then plotting ...

Plot summary

Chapter 42
The Master of Lema complains to Calesta that OMG Damien & company managed to get Tarrant out of the fire, O NOES. We also learn that Tarrant's simulacra worked like a charm when it came to misleading the Master. Calesta tells her that she only needs to wait - she'll get Tarrant and Ciani soon enough anyway when they go after her. (Yeah, right.)

Chapter 43
Our heroes take a break in a cave when they reach the surface, and Damien manages to feed Tarrant some of his own blood. Not long after Tarrant regains consciousness, he finds their first clue what's going on - examining the cave, the Hunter figures out that there hasn't been any tectonic activity here in a long time. Later, everyone trails after Tarrant, who's exploring something he refuses to explain. They find a quake ward, and he exhausts himself testing it. Ciani and Damien talk him into drinking some of her blood to get him back on his feet. Only then does he explain: The Master has warded the crust of the planet itself. Tarrant starts plotting - if they can get her to Work while the Wards are failing, she'll die in the surge of the fae. And Damien agrees to give himself into Tarrant's hands completely, in order to set a trap.

Quotes

• “He must have had to repair his flesh constantly in order to survive. Drawing on what little fae there was, to replace what the fire destroyed ... my God.” He looked at the man’s face - or what was left of it - and felt his sticky hands clenching into fists at his side. “It could have gone on forever. He could never have Worked the fire itself, never have freed him­self ... only this.” He worked himself a Knowing, with care; the mere act of Working was painful. “He’s trapped in it,” he whispered. “Lost in a desperate race against the fire. He doesn’t even know he’s out of there.”


• “You saved my life,” he whispered. The pale eyes fixed on Damien - and in the back of them, deep in the shadows, was a flicker of some­thing familiar. A faint spark of sardonic humor, reassur­ingly familiar in tenor. “I didn’t expect it of you.”
  “Yeah. Well. That makes two of us.”


• The Hunter turned on him angrily; his eyes were red-rimmed, bloodshot. “Don’t be a fool,” he snapped. “Of course it makes a difference. Not because of gender, but because of power. Raw physicality. What can you know of it - you, who were born with the size and the strength to defend yourself from any physical threat? What can you know of the mindset of the weak, whose lives are centered around vulnerability? When you hear footsteps behind you in a darkened street, do you fear being kid­napped? Raped? Overcome by the sheer physical strength of your attackers? Or do you feel confident that with firm ground and a reliable weapon in your hands you could hold your own against any reasonable threat? How can you possibly understand what it means to lack that confidence - or what it can drive a human to do, to try to gain it?”


• “And I’ll tell you something else, priest. I’ve seen that hunger before. Not in such a blind, unbalanced form ... but it might have become that, in time. In fact, I believe that it would have become that, if not for Ciani’s influence.”
  It took him a moment to realize what Tarrant meant. He felt something tighten inside, when he did. “You mean Senzei?”
  Tarrant nodded. “I think so. I think this is what a man can become, when that kind of hunger goes unchecked - when it continues to grow, like some malignant cancer, until it devours the very soul that houses it. Until all that’s left is an addiction so terrible that the flesh lives only to serve it.”


• “It isn’t. But it’s a powerful fantasy, nonetheless. Man has always been loath to accept his limitations. How much easier it is to deny the truth altogether - to imagine that Nature has given us all the same potential, and that a single act of will can suddenly cause all limitations to vanish.” He laughed bitterly. “As if Nature were just. As if evolution hadn’t designed us to compete with each other, so that only the strong would survive.”


• Damien remembered the touch of the man’s soul against his own, which he had endured once in order to feed him. The mere memory of it made his skin crawl - and that had been but a fleeting contact, with no real depth to it. Even the Hunter’s coldfire in his veins, for all the pain and horror it had inspired, had been nothing compared to that. The utter revulsion. The soul-searing chill. The touch of a mind so infinitely unclean that ev­erything it fixed upon was polluted by the contact. He shivered to recall it ... but said nothing in response. The man hadn’t asked if he would enjoy such contact, but if he could endure it. If he would trust him.


• “You saved my life. All of you did. But in the Reverend’s case ... I know what that meant for you,” he told Damien. “We share the same background, you and I - and I remember enough of it to understand what that cost you.” The pain of it, his expression seemed to say. The guilt. He nodded toward where the Lost One had gone, now rendered in­visible by the shadows of night. “Consider this my small gesture of gratitude. A few hundred less deaths to darken your conscience, Reverend Vryce. It won’t outweigh the evil of my existence, in the long run ... but it’s all I can offer you without hazarding my own survival. I regret that.”

Thoughts

• I find that idea of the Hunter in the fire rather horrifying. Constantly fighting it, constantly repairing himself, but never enough to escape ... *shudders* That gives me the creeps every time I read it.


• The "OMG the Master is a WOMAN OMG!" reveal is a bit annoying - unusually clunky for Friedman, if you ask me. But then, the whole charade is rather clunky. *sighs* At least we get some decent backstory out of it.


• The bit we hear about Tarrant's family is fascinating. And I always wonder about the missing history: We hear about his childhood, and then his revenge after his compact with the Unnamed - but what of the time in between? After he came into his power, after he became a sorceror and a church-founder and everything else? How did he deal with his family during this time? Any thoughts?


• Tarrant's view of Senzei - note that he gets no contradiction on it. Not even a token defence; Damien even immediately knows who he's talking about. Why do you think that is? Whatever flaws Zen may have had, he's risked a lot for everyone, and this reads rather cold to me. (And you know by now I'm not much of a Senzei fan.)


• Tarrant on limits: Here I think he really does put his finger on it. He's acutely aware of his own limits - he has to be, to walk as narrow a line as he often does. That's one rather large difference between him and Zen, knowing where your limits are and making the most of them instead of trying to deny them outright.


• Damien remembering the touch of Tarrant's soul - is it just me, or is this (despite the revulsion) excessively erotic again?


• And of course here we see just how far Damien really does trust Tarrant. With his very soul, if Tarrant gives his word - he's that sure of him. How many heroes would be capable of that? Not many that I've seen.


• Once again, Tarrant walks a very fine line here. That he sends the rakh to safety - that's a gesture that must be perilously close to mercy, but he can do it by thinking of it as paying a debt. Just like he can heal so long as it's done by something not officially classed as a Healing, it seems. Semantics. Getting by on a technicality. How far can he really go?

And on Thursday we'll be continuing with chapter 44, wherein Damien, er, takes the Hunter's essence into himself ... :D

Comments

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I've discussed Gerald's family life with bwinter a few times, and I like the idea that his mummy completely mothered him and kept him away from the big, harsh cruel world, which is why his brain didn't implode like many adepts.

Of course, when she either pops her clogs or has to let him go and be a boy, everything's going to seem so much more cruel and unpleasant to someone who hasn't seen it. Given that he'd probably been coddled his whole childhood, his brothers would have been jealous, dealing with the fact their brother is 'special' according to mum, but a freak according to the rest of the world.

He would probably pick up on any envy, distaste, contempt tantrums or anything from his brothers, so even if they didn't strike a physical blow, he would get the empathic blowback through the Fae.

[trobadora]

That's an interesting take on his childhood - and quite possible, too. Although it's also possible that he survived childhood because he was weak as an adept, too, so that everything wasn't quite as overwhelming as it might have been for someone stronger.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I always wondered about different levels of adeptitude. What makes an adept different from a sorcerer? What level do you need to be at to be classed as one or another? How was Senzei a stronger sorcerer than Damien?

[trobadora]

As I understand it, adeptitude is a completely different thing from sorcery - sorcery is a skill, something consciously executed, and adeptitude is an extra sense, the ability to see the fae naturally. Adepts are apparently better sorcerors than most because they have a better understanding of the fae, but they're still two different things. You're born an adept; you learn to be a sorceror.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Apparently sorcery has little to do with anything but skill. As a sorceress, Ciani's just started out, but she kept up with Damien on all the underground working, even to the point of Damien's near-collapse. Tarrant even gives a nod to the Master of Lema, saying that they could possibly be as skilled a worker of earth fae as Tarrant himself (though not dark fae).

Adeptitude seems to have several effects that add up to an adept being much more powerful than a sorcerer. It's pretty clear that they live with the fae all their lives and thus have a deeper understanding. Damien comments that they're so attuned to the fae that they never have a need for the keywords and whatnot that sorcerers use to trick themselves into manipulating the fae. From various descriptions, I gather that adept sight is much more involved and detailed than a sorcerer's Worked sight,
and thus they can presumably work with it in much deeper, more nuanced ways. And by what we see of the Patriarch, it seems that something in their brains simply tunes into the fae instinctively so they can manipulate it more powerfully and naturally than anyone else.

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

it seems that something in their brains simply tunes into the fae instinctively

Yes, I think that's exactly right! Remember what Tarrant says in WTNF about how they kill adepts: "They catch them in the cradle when their senses are still so confused that they can't protect themselves--not even reflexively . . ." [emphasis added]. So they can probably use the fae instinctively as soon as they grow past the baby stage.

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

Here comes a gory comment. (If you happen to be sipping tomato juice right now, you might want to leave this one for later.)

Did anyone else wonder about Damien's choice to let Tarrant drink his blood straight from his arm? Don't get me wrong, I love that it happens like that, but it was probably not the wisest way of going about it. He says that he doesn't think Tarrant knows what he's doing or where he is. If that's true, then how would Tarrant know to stop in time? What was the plan here in case he didn't stop? I can only imagine that forcing his teeth to let go against his will would have been problematic. Even an ordinary human has a lot of force in his bite. (Maybe they thought Tarrant was weak enough here that he didn't pose a threat?) Also, how would Damien know when to stop him? He didn't seem to be keeping track of how much blood he had lost.

I just think Ciani's paper cup method was a much smarter way to go.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

*nods*

And it's a different level of intimacy in the two gestures: Tarrant drinks directly from Damien's body and Ciani's blood gets poured into the paper cup. While it's clear the author didn't mean for us to read it this way, there's a hell of a lot of slashy subtext that can be read into those scenes and their difference.

[trobadora]

Yes, the subtext ... and the next chapter is going to be even worse. *g* I love it.

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

Tarrant drinks directly from Damien's body and Ciani's blood gets poured into the paper cup.

Yeah, it's a very close scene between Tarrant and Damien. That being said, I think there's a lot of intimacy in Ciani's gesture too: remember that he holds her hand with the cup while he drinks (which I think must have been written that way for the effect; although I suppose you could argue there was a practical reason for it too -- paper cups do tend to fall apart easily). Apologies to all the slash fans who don't want to hear about this. :-) I like Ciani, and I like this scene a lot (yes, for exactly the reasons you'd expect; she's such a Mary Sue, but in a good way, and I do wish I could be her, particularly at this point :-)).

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodness.

No apologies necessary. :) I'm a fan of everything!

And you're right; both scenes are intimate. I mean, giving your blood to another person is about as intimate as you get. That's even more intimate than sex, I guess.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Mary Sues tend to be escapist fantasies of what the writer wants to be. Ciani insists on being her own person, with her own foibles and desires. She's a good character.

And you're right, that's very intimate on her part as well. It's...more chivalric, more graceful. And I think that's appropriate for their respective relationships with Tarrant. Ciani is always "the lady." Damien's involvement with him is much more raw and violent.

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

Mary Sues tend to be escapist fantasies of what the writer wants to be. Ciani insists on being her own person

I wasn't using the label to criticize her--I just meant that I'm aware that's how others might perceive her. (I'm actually against using the Mary Sue concept as criticism at all, partly because one of my favorite characters ever--from another book series--is, I'm pretty sure, a fantasy of who the author wanted to be. And I have to admit, if a Mary Sue Coldfire fic happened to crop up, I'd be the first to read it. :-))

And I agree, Ciani is a great character. I especially love how mature she is--how she can be feminine and a "lady" without being girlish. I somehow can't see Gerald having the same kind of relationship with, say, someone like Narilka. (And I do like Narilka too; she's just well-fitted for a different role than Ciani.)

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I wasn't using the label to criticize her--I just meant that I'm aware that's how others might perceive her. (I'm actually against using the Mary Sue concept as criticism at all, partly because one of my favorite characters ever--from another book series--is, I'm pretty sure, a fantasy of who the author wanted to be. And I have to admit, if a Mary Sue Coldfire fic happened to crop up, I'd be the first to read it. :-))

*laugh* Okay, I'll cop to that too.

I also agree about Narilka. She's actually kind of fantastic, in my opinion. It's one thing to find strong female characters who go out and do the heroic (or anti-heroic) stuff, right alongside the men. It's another entirely--and rarer--to find a woman who plays the softer, more traditional female role and is strong and respectable anyway.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a good question. He's a healer and an experienced warrior, so presumably he could feel it when the blood loss was starting to get dangerous. He probably could've walloped Tarrant into submission, given the circumstances, and...well, granted it was faster. But still, it just seems unnecessary and a bit reckless, doesn't it?

Not unwelcome, however! :D

[trobadora]

It's an interesting choice, yes - it was probably written that way because it's more dramatic a gesture, but it's fun to speculate on what was going on in Damien's mind. *g* He didn't even seem to hesitate ...

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about that too, especially when not so many lines before, he worries about getting drained by Working on Tarrant.

One of those heroic gestures that make stories sound better, I imagine. :-)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

After he came into his power, after he became a sorceror and a church-founder and everything else? How did he deal with his family during this time? Any thoughts?

I imagine him as unbearably smug. *g* All those annoying brothers, now having to show him respect. I can just picture him being perfectly kind and civil to them while watching them squirm with worry that he might withdraw favours.

Tarrant's view of Senzei - note that he gets no contradiction on it. Not even a token defence; Damien even immediately knows who he's talking about.

It does read cold. But I think that by this time, Damien had time to both come to terms with losing a companion, and really consider what Senzei almost cost them all. He may have pieced some of it together, but what he's left with as fact is that Senzei stole the Fire from him and almost lost it completely for them. Which is not something I can see Damien forgive easily.

And of course here we see just how far Damien really does trust Tarrant. With his very soul, if Tarrant gives his word - he's that sure of him.

I love the chapter just for that, and for their little earlier heart-to-heart. We're so firmly in slash territory at this point.

Semantics. Getting by on a technicality. How far can he really go?

Depends on how he thinks of it, I guess. Even at the end of WTNF, he might have gotten away with it if he'd not thought of it as saving a civilisation, but some way of prolonguing chaos. As long as he himself is convinced that what he does fits with his contract, the Unnamed probably does too. That whole idea of a filter that comes up again and again... the Unnamed might well keep tabs on him by how he feels about things.

[trobadora]

Even at the end of WTNF, he might have gotten away with it if he'd not thought of it as saving a civilisation, but some way of prolonguing chaos.

That's an excellent point. Considering how Erna works, it's not surprising that everything should depend on perception - he saves himself or dooms himself by his own thoughts.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Doesn't he say something to that effect when Damien accidentally manifests divine power in WTNF? Something along the lines that he's argued himself into a corner and can't get out of it, and that a less intelligent person wouldn't be in such a tangle?

[trobadora]

Yes, you're right! Poor Gerald, trapping himself. *g*

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had never noticed how clunky the Master of Lema thing was until this reread. I think it must have been meant to drive home a point about assumptions--I don't think it was only Friedman showing off her cleverness--but even so, looking back it only worked because of a certain amount of putting words in our mouths, as it were. Would we have assumed it was a man if she hadn't kept using the male pronoun?

Apparently Senzei didn't hide his craving very well. Poor guy. Damien might not have tried to defend him because, well, Tarrant was right, and Damien's not inclined to deny reality. Doesn't mean he didn't like the man.

After the sterling picture painted of him in the prologue, the idea that Tarrant grew up with a bunch of abusive bullies for brothers is jarring. How he might have become a monster like the Hunter is fairly clear...but what kind of person must he have been to have been raised like that and turned out as a shining paragon of humanity? I can only imagine that his mother was a very protective, nurturing woman. From what we know of adepts, he probably seemed not quite "all there" during childhood, so she might've kept him close, and thus had more influence on him than normal.

So I imagine he grew up runty and flighty-seeming, between adeptitude and an intelligence that had him curious about everything. He probably spent most of his time with the women of the household, and had to endure his brothers when they caught him doing his own thing or his father wanted him for something. I'm guessing that around 16 or 17, he sprung up like a weed and sorted himself out, and between his charm and intelligence quickly grew too influential for his obnoxious siblings to bother.

But since even after all his success and his fall, he hated them enough to hunt them down, they must've been real pieces of work. They were still alive, so presumably they hadn't been stupid enough to keep bullying him, but I can imagine them trying to cozy up to him in their own thuggish ways, trying to cajole wealth or favors from him, maybe trying to defame him behind his back. Also he might have had to put up with them as generals in those wars, and who knows what they might've gotten up to there?

[trobadora]

Would we have assumed it was a man if she hadn't kept using the male pronoun?

I doubt it. Some people would have, of course, but not enough for the reveal to really be a big surprise.

I like your image of Tarrant's childhood - makes perfect sense. And I can see his resentment of his brothers just growing, even if they were perfectly decent to him once he was grown up - it would only have convinced him more that power was all that mattered to them. (OMG the idea of his brothers as generals in Gannon's wars - that's a bunny that needs to be written!)

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Damien remembering the touch of Tarrant's soul - is it just me, or is this (despite the revulsion) excessively erotic again?

It's a little erotic, yes, and increasingly so as the series progresses. Honestly, I'm surprised she's surprised. Like a lot of antagonistic relationships that get slashed, it's partly based in the tension of a power struggle...but in the Coldfire trilogy there's also that focus on "hunger," which in this story reads an awful lot like "lust," doesn't it?

She even sexualizes it in other contexts. It's clear in Ciani and her responses to Tarrant, and someone pointed out the Master of Lema's creepy lust for power. There's also Damien's own admission that his interest in Ciani is partly due to her adeptitude. Oh, and let us not forget Tarrant's and Karril's musings about the Hunt and its pleasures. When the writer's deliberately tying up notions of power and control with lust and sexuality, it's hardly the reader's fault for picking up on it.

[trobadora]

When the writer's deliberately tying up notions of power and control with lust and sexuality, it's hardly the reader's fault for picking up on it.

Yes, exactly! She's very good at using very sensual, erotic description for all kinds of power and control issues, and of course we'll follow that to its natural conclusion. *g*

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* It's a theme that continues throughout all her work. I mean, my god, if you think Coldfire's bad, check out In Conquest Born! (Which you probably have, but I speak rhetorically.) A whole society saturated with rape and power issues.

[trobadora]

I haven't, actually. I probably should. *g*

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

hmmmmm. The impression i always got was that the seductiveness of Tarrant was partly to do with just the fact he was an adept - i mean doesnt Damien say at some point about the patriarch that it is often mistaken for charisma - the fae subconsciously wants to make people enact his will - I imagine that age would only have increased this, and he has had a long time to practise.

With Ciani I think that the relationship was a little part like longing on both parts - she has probably never had the chance of intimacy with a true equal, and here is someone who is arguably stronger, and with Gerald - well he cannot interact in the human world, the only relationships with his victims tend to end in their deaths, and I think he must on some level miss the earlier years, to the point that indulging in false chivalry becomes almost like a link to humanity..

It always surprised me the things we learnt about Tarrant's brothers - and in a way it does explain a lot - I mean even when human he was beautiful cold and DISTANT. Even to the woman he was supposedly in love with. I imagine a childhood amongst bullies would leave one capable of hiding a lot of what they feel, and he does this so very well. Even before she understand s just what is happening she comments that loving him is close to pain. Something there was never healthy.

Also I thought that this explained a lot of the fetish about control. A childhood when one has absolutely none could reasonably do this, I think.

About the Master of Lema I wonder - if she had approached him differently, could they have united ever do u think, or would her lack of control have disgusted him to the point that he refused?

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I don't think Tarrant would've wanted anything to do with her in the long run, but if she'd been, well, saner about dealing with him (in itself a stretch, considering what she's like), he might've considered cutting a bargain to get back the one creature that stole Ciani's memories, rather than bringing the Master's whole life down around her ears.

But then, it looks like she would never have agreed to that--she's awfully hung up on Ciani--so probably it would never have worked out.

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

hmmm this seems true... its interesting how the bargain with the undying prince becomes such a possibility but with the woman it is never considered especially given all the emphasis as to why they are so alike and the suggested reasons... I guess she was just slightly less sane...

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Also, the Prince was rational enough to ask. The woman just tried to eat him. :)

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

The woman just tried to eat him.

*laugh* So true!

Yes, the Prince strikes me too as much more sane and intelligent. The woman never seemed very bright. She just calls Calesta whenever she's in trouble. ("Mommy--I mean, Calesta! Attend me now! They screwed me over again, whine, whine, whine. What do I do next?")

[trobadora]

Great point about the fae responding to an adept - and Ciani's no longer an adept herself, so she wouldn't be able to see it, only experience the results. Until he taught her to Work again, of course. *g*

I think Tarrant's backstory is extremely fitting - you really understand where he got his control fetish from. But I think precisely because of that, he'd never have allied with the Master in anything but a short-term deal - she's the opposite of him, she's lost control of herself, and he'd have known that even if they had common interests for a while, in the long run she'd be impossible to deal with. She wouldn't be reliable - her hunger overrides everything else.

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

This is true. I never understood how someone with such a control fetish would allow himself to be swept up in such a mess that would actually leave him vulnerable to another power. It seems as if he could have much better helped Ciani by sending some of his more vicious servants or something but I guess perhaps he cant because it is a personal honour thing?

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Because it's a personal honor thing, and because of that control fetish you mentioned, probably. Would he trust the state of his honor to a servant? And who could reliably control those beasties/servants if he wasn't around? And who would keep Damien from offing them?

[trobadora]

Would he trust the state of his honor to a servant?

Never, since his life depends on his honour.

[trobadora]

Remember, he believes that his very life depends on his honour - that that is all that keeps him human, and if he loses that, he'll become no more than a mindless demon.