Coldfire re-read: Black Sun Rising - chapter 44

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

We're nearing the end! Some of the characters meet it a little sooner than others, and once more we see that madness is not a good character trait if you want to be a villain and live to tell the tale.

Plot Summary
In the manner of heroes on the last fifty pages of books everywhere, Damien risks it all by sneaking into the Master of Lema's citadel. He's just getting into the spirit of things when he's intercepted by the Dark Ones, who get somewhat upset that Tarrant's Workings keep them from being able to eat this tasty morsel. They take Damien up to the Master of Lema, who is not at all interested in Damien himself, but in his knowledge of the whereabouts of Ciani and Tarrant. Damien does a pretty convincing interpretation of 'helpless, clueless, not dangerous at all, I promise!' while she literally picks his mind for what she wants to know. He finally convinces her that the barrier Tarrant has put up needs to be dismantled by a Working, and spends some tense moments hoping that on the other end of the lines and connections going through his mind, Tarrant gets the message. Tarrant, of course, does get the message. The Master of Lema does a careless working, an earthquake is triggered because Tarrant (and presumably some others) have destroyed the quake wards. The Master of Lema fries, Calesta realizes he'd better disappear for now, and Damien, in a new reaction to earthquakes, races down into the underground tunnels for safely, where he gets promptly buried.


Quotes

• He felt naked, thus weaponless. But also exhilarated. Because for the first time since leaving Jaggonath, he was on his own.


• I only hope he’s right, I only hope he understands her as well as he thinks he does. And then he added, somewhat dryly, The ruthless, analyzing the mad . . .


• The citadel was a jewel, a prism, a multifaceted crystalline structure that divided up the night into a thousand glittering bits, turning the sky and the landscape beneath into a cubist’s nightmare of disjointed angles and broken curves.


• She opened her hands and let the precious medallions slip through her fingers like so much refuse. “I think you underestimate me.” And a smile, faint and unpleasant, wrinkled her lips. “I know that he did.”


• And then, suddenly, the sea turned cold. The lust became darkness, and ice shot through his veins. His body shook as the essence of the Hunter filled him - unclean, inhuman, but oh, so welcome! - forcing out the foreign influence, chilling his burning flesh. His stomach spasmed as the force of Tarrant’s unlife filled it and he vomited suddenly, as if by casting out the bitter liquids within him he might also cast out that influence. Never before was the Hunter’s essence so alien, so physically intolerable. And never before was it so welcome.


• “I’m telling you that mere force won’t succeed here. You’ll have to dismantle it, step by step. Reversing the process he used to erect it in the first place. Assuming you can,” he added.


• “I can do anything,” she said acidly.


• This wasn’t just a hunger for vision, like Senzei had known, or even an obsession with power. It had gone beyond that - far beyond that - into realms so utterly corrupted that barely a fragment of her human soul remained, clinging to the flesh that housed it as if somehow the two could be reunited. Could mere hunger do that to a woman? Or would it take something more - some outside influence, that fed on the soul’s dissolution? He thought of the obsidian figure standing beside her and wondered at its source. At their relationship.

Thoughts

• Damien's so much happier now that he can do something dangerous by himself. And it looks as though with his latest escapade, Tarrant has earned himself a spot on Damien's "people to keep out of trouble" list.


• Why build a citadel out of glass and crstal? The sheer effort of cleaning it aside, I imagine it to be incredibly impractical. It's something of a disappointment - another aspect of the Master of Lema that is clumsy compared to what else we get to see in the books. This is standard supervillain behaviour - a structure that serves no real purpose beyond being unusual. What do you think? Why all this crystal-ness?


• That little snippet of dialogue between Calesta and the Master of Lema made me wonder - was he goading her into Working at that point? And could that mean that he knew something was going on?


• I'll echo Damien's thoughts on the mental state of the Master of Lema. Did that just build over time, or was someone helping the madness along? And how long has this been building up?


• The way the Master of Lema is dealt with feels like a bit of a let-down to me. This is the main villain, and yet it is all done and over with very quickly. How do you feel about it?


• How can Friedman put in bits like Damien shivering at getting filled with the Hunter's essence, and then still wonder why we think them slashy? I mean, really...

Join us again on Monday for chapters 45 and 46, to see daring escapes, victory celebrations, and Damien's admission to himself that he could get used to having Tarrant around.

Comments

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Maybe crystal magnifies the fae or something like that?

incidentally, I adore the fact Damien's at his best when he's in trouble ;) It's when he has to be responsible for other people that he gets testy.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Somehow I suspect that if crystal magnifies the fae, Gerald would sit on Erna's biggest diamond. It feels a bit like the Master of Lema hired Ernst Stavros Blofeld as an interior designer.

It's when he has to be responsible for other people that he gets testy.

And he can't not take responsibility because that just wouldn't be him. Here he is, headed for torture and possible death in the den of a madwoman, and he's having the time of his life.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

He's spent so much of the mission being the muscle and the buffet that to actually be the one in danger must be quite refreshing ;)

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

Somehow I suspect that if crystal magnifies the fae, Gerald would sit on Erna's biggest diamond.

Good point. I never thought of this before.

As for the Master of Lema's taste in home design, she's no more irrational than some people I know who will cover every patch of empty space in their homes with crystal vases, porcelain dolls, plush dolls, decorative mugs, useless rugs, you name it. All of which gets in the way of dusting and vacuuming, but of course I can't point this out to them without being told that I'm "like a guy", "too practical" and lacking taste.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Somehow I suspect that if crystal magnifies the fae, Gerald would sit on Erna's biggest diamond.

You just made me snort wine out of my nose.

LOL

[ladyraylen.livejournal.com]

Somehow I suspect that if crystal magnifies the fae, Gerald would sit on Erna's biggest diamond.

It is mentioned in WTNF, I think, that he experimented with crystal, but liked ice and steel better.... Although, why you would want something to hold power that could melt is beyond me.

[trobadora]

And then, suddenly, the sea turned cold. The lust became darkness, and ice shot through his veins. His body shook as the essence of the Hunter filled him - unclean, inhuman, but oh, so welcome! - forcing out the foreign influence, chilling his burning flesh. His stomach spasmed as the force of Tarrant’s unlife filled it and he vomited suddenly, as if by casting out the bitter liquids within him he might also cast out that influence. Never before was the Hunter’s essence so alien, so physically intolerable. And never before was it so welcome.

I just had to quote that again in full because it's such a fantastic paragraph. I love it to itty bitty pieces, and seriously, how can anyone not see the slashiness? *shivers*

The way the Master of Lema is dealt with feels like a bit of a let-down to me. This is the main villain, and yet it is all done and over with very quickly. How do you feel about it?

*shrugs* She was boring as an antagonist from the start, so it's not like I wanted to see more of her. But I think the whole plotline about her is surprisingly heavy-handed, compared to everything else in these books. She's no more than a plot device to force Damien and Gerald together, and to introduce Calesta. Even within the story's world, she's nothing more than Calesta's tool; does she have anything to herself apart from hunger?

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

By now the slash really can't be denied anymore. Just look at them!

During my first read, I remember waiting for the Master of Lema to turn interesting. I was hoping that she'd make an impact in the end, but as it is, I almost missed it. It's a surprisingly bad villain plot when you think about it - does she ever really feel dangerous?

[trobadora]

No, not really. The Dark Ones feel dangerous early on - they're very creepy. But as soon as the Master gets involved, that stops too. She's just too OTT - and in a trilogy like this that thrives on grand gestures and the like, that's saying something,

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

During my first read, I remember waiting for the Master of Lema to turn interesting.

Yes! And then she never does.

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

and Damien, in a new reaction to earthquakes, races down into the underground tunnels for safely, where he gets promptly buried.

I'm afraid they must have heard my laughter all the way down the hall when I read this. Did I mention I love your summaries? I've actually been reading them to my husband to give him a quick overview of the Trilogy, because I know he's never going to read the books.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I think we tried to stay serious for about two posts, then gave it up. It's just impossible. :-D

[fallintosanity.livejournal.com]

IIRC, the crystal thing is actually explained in WTNF, when Tarrant's talking to the Undying Prince, who also has a crystal citadel. The Prince says something about the spiffy fae-storing powers of crystal, and the Hunter responds that he's experimented with crystal but prefers (I think) metal or stone. It's never explicitly stated, but it may be that crystal works better with earth and solar fae, while metal works better with dark fae and coldfire, which would explain the difference in preference. Or it could just be personal preference. :)

My books are currently on loan to a friend so I can't check for sure, but I think that either Damien or Tarrant also comments that the Master of Lema's citadel is basically a replica of the Prince's. So apparently the Undying Prince uses his own, original crystal palace as basically a huge fae battery, and later the Master of Lema came to the rahklands and built her own crystal battery fortress. And a fortress that also serves as a fae battery would make sense for her, given the huge amounts of fae she has to manage to keep earthquakes from happening.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

*nods nods*

I seem to remember something along those lines as well.

I also thought that crystal was significant because crystals are grown. Tarrant, the Master of Lema--these are people who like to tamper, who like to muck about with DNA, who like to mold what already exists to their will often only because THEY CAN. Look at all Tarrant has done in the Forest for the sheer intellectual pleasure of doing it. I imagine part of the draw of a crystal palace for the Master, in addition to whatever power the structure may bring, was the challenge of growing it.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I recall that, too.

I think in this case that it's not made of quartz or something practical (now that would have been a sensible thing to build in an earthquake zone!), but more like lead crystal, which isn't really crystal but just glass that's laced with metal during the melting. Makes it sparkle better and gives it that pretty chime when you strike it.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* I completely forgot about that. They're essentially sitting on a mix of power plant and battery.

I wish we'd had a hint of it here. If you read it for the first time (or, if like me, you occasionally have a mind like a sieve), it's something that makes very little sense. With the fae storage it's still somewhat chintzy villain behaviour, but at least there's some purpose to it.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Remember we find out later that the Master of Lema had been possessed by the Undying Prince for a while. That had to do bad, unhinging things to her psyche. And I suspect that Calesta did his best to aggravate it. Rational people are not sadistic, not the way she is, and she was probably cracked enough that all he had to do was whisper the right things to her to set her off.

She wasn't all that interesting to me, either--the madness promotes a bit of tension, but she's too unstable to present a coherent threat--but I really don't see her as the big villain of the book anyway. She's actually a combination of a clue and a red herring to distract Our Heroes from the true villain, who's standing right behind her left shoulder. Speaking of whom, I really didn't care that she was boring, since I was mostly paying attention to Damien in this chapter.

And then it's Tarrant's turn to rescue him again. Hee. A bit of a pity about the aftershock bringing down the tunnel. I would've enjoyed seeing the two of them take on the rakh.

To clarify on a point: Damien keeps reminding himself not to Work just because of the earthquake, right? Because the first time he considers it, the wording sounds kind of like he can't Work due to what Tarrant had done to him. I've always found that just slightly confusing. (The quote, for reference: "But not with Worked senses. That was impossible, because of what Tarrant had done to him. That was why he'd had to submit to the man..." etc.)

[trobadora]

To clarify on a point: Damien keeps reminding himself not to Work just because of the earthquake, right? Because the first time he considers it, the wording sounds kind of like he can't Work due to what Tarrant had done to him. I've always found that just slightly confusing.

Not just you. If someone can unravel it, I'd appreciate it, but to me it sounds like a contradiction. :-(

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Later in the chapter, he almost Works a couple of time, and then curses himself out for his carelessness. At those times, it definitely seems to be that he's not Working because of the earthquake they're trying to induce--only he knows that's not a threat till he reaches the Master of Lema...

Oh! I think I might have it. He says Tarrant built the ward around his mind so that someone trying to Work it would trigger to Tarrant as a signal to set off the quake wards, right? Maybe Damien's own Working would risk setting it off prematurely?

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Rational people are not sadistic, not the way she is, and she was probably cracked enough that all he had to do was whisper the right things to her to set her off.

I assume she was somewhat unhinged to start with, though. Without a seed of some form, that kind of insanity probably is hard to come by. And like you say, it doesn't help to make her more interesting.

A bit of a pity about the aftershock bringing down the tunnel. I would've enjoyed seeing the two of them take on the rakh.

Um... next chapter?

We should start keeping a tally on who rescues whom how many times. I suspect Damien will come out ahead, but Gerald's little rescues are harder to miss.

To clarify on a point: Damien keeps reminding himself not to Work just because of the earthquake, right? Because the first time he considers it, the wording sounds kind of like he can't Work due to what Tarrant had done to him.

I thought that was because he'd set off things in advance. He only gets scared of working after the Master of Lema has triggered the connection to Tarrant.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

No, he's avoiding Working on his way through the tunnels before the Dark Ones even find him. That quote I quoted is what he's thinking to himself at the first tunnel intersection he comes across. But I think I figured out why, further down in this thread.

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

oooh someone else picked up on the possesssed thing as well I thought thats what it meant and then none of my friends who i forced to read the books agreed with me...

It totally does say about Calesta taking 'that woman' from the Darklands in WTNF and how he once possessed a woman for a time and she went mad and I think it actually explains a lot as well as making her more intersting, at least to me.

I mean Damien at one point picks up on the wierdness that they should have developed similar tastes even living in such a different place with no contact and this would make sense. Also why she is so obsessed about power, particularly about gender and why she can work almost as skilfully as an adept- she shared the sight of an adept for a long time and shared the body of an expert who worked...

I think that this partly explains her insanity in dealing with Tarrant - he is in a way very similar to the undying prince and it cant have been difficult to nudge her into obsessive revenge taking.

And the whole imitation on the princes lifestyle would make sense then also - the inability to cope with the fact that she no longer lives on her own. I always thought it was a pity this aspect of her character was not dwelt on more because it does to me make her a lot more interesting.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

It's high time we get to WTNF - you all remember the details much better than I do. *g*

I'm not sure I agree on the possession aspect. There are too many little things that don't fit for me - she's still imitating him and working along his rules, and I'd expect her to move away from that. It feels more likely to me that she simply was a bit off from the start, and that the Undying Prince's company didn't help with that. Depending on how old she is (and I'd take it as well beyond 100 considering that Ciani isn't far from her first century and looks younger), it might simply be mental deterioration, too.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Actually, some of the other comments made me realize that the Master of Lema does contrast well with Ciani. Ciani is a beautiful woman who keeps herself supernaturally young via the fae. The Master of Lema was once beautiful, but Damien conspicuously noticed how she has aged and shriveled with bitterness. Ciani is an adept who had her memories and Sight taken. The Master of Lema is a non-adept who shared an adept's Sight for so long she would do anything to get it back. Ciani apprentices herself to Tarrant for essentially the same reason the Master of Lema first came to the Undying Prince (and we are told but not shown the far-reaching effects of apprenticeship; could these relationships end up changing Ciani in a similar, if less drastic, way? Damien seems to think so).

I think this is deliberate on the author's part, considering how much we see Lema, well, lusting after Ciani. She never does anything with the connections she draws, is the problem. The connections are there, but they seem to serve no purpose. They create no tension. Tarrant's own single paragraph of comparing himself with Lema serves better to set them up as (not particularly good) foils than all Lema's ties and references to Ciani ever manage. In fact, I hadn't even noticed them till now.

But I don't think Lema's useless. She's dangerous in her flailing insanity--her brokenness does still generate suspense, kind of like a damaged tree that could fall on your house at any moment--but I agree she's not especially threatening. In fact, she's rather pathetic, once you see what she's made of. But I don't know that we are, in the end, supposed to see her as especially threatening after the layers of mystery are penetrated. Later, she will function as an example of the wreckage the Undying Prince (and Calesta) leaves behind him, and I think that's probably her greater purpose in the story.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

The Master of Lema is a non-adept who shared an adept's Sight for so long she would do anything to get it back.

Did we get to that already? If yes, help me out on where it was? I've definitely missed this. For several years, it seems.

But I don't know that we are, in the end, supposed to see her as especially threatening after the layers of mystery are penetrated.

What I think the problem with her is that she's set up as the big threat, but it is never quite delivered. Even in this chapter I don't get the feeling that Damien is in real danger, just because we know she can't be taken seriously. And this is in a story where someone like Tarrant can take, at least part of the time, the protagonist role.