Coldfire re-read: When True Night Falls - chapter 39

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

It's a quick chapter tonight, but with a major impact - if this were a fic, I'd warn for character death.


Plot summary

There's not much plot to summarize for this one - it's action all the way. Our heroes realize that they're being hunted by some sort of animal pack, and attempt to escape to a more defensible position. They reach it just in time, and manage to create a tree trunk bridge across an abyss. As the rules of suspense dictate, battle ensues when they've all made it across and the animals start to come over too. They fend them off for a while, but when they attempt to destroy the makeshift bridge, disaster strikes and Hesseth is dragged down into the abyss with the last of the beasts and dies.



Quotes

• According to theologians, the Hell of the One God was a truly terrible place. It was so bad, they said, that if you tried to imagine all the terrible things that might exist in the universe, and then you put them all in one place, and then you multiplied them a thousand times over, the combination still wouldn't hold a candle to the horrors of Hell.



• In the distance similar creatures were moving silently, swiftly, their movements so perfectly coordinated that it seemed as if some single will might have organized them. As well it might have, Damien thought suddenly. How much sorcery would it take to reach out from the Black Lands and take control of these creatures? Very little, if they had been created for that purpose.



• When the women of my species are ready to have children . . . it's different than with humans. They can't think of anything else, they can't do anything else . . . and humans would notice that. So when the khrast women want to leave the plains, they have to give that up. Forever. That's what I did.



• Hesseth. She was gone. The Wasting had killed her. She had been by his side for so long now that it seemed impossible that he would never see her again. Tears ran down his face as the loss of it - the terrible, fearsome loss of it - hit home. For a moment he envied Jenseny the freedom of childhood, which permitted her to rant and rave with total abandon; all he could do was lower his head, his whole body shaking, and let the tears come.



• But then she whispered, with tears in her voice, "After we do it for Hesseth, then we . . . can we please . . . say one for my father?"
  "Oh, my God." He pulled her to him, oh so gently, wary lest she reject the contact. But she came to him and she put her arms around him and she sobbed into the fabric of his shirt, shedding tears that had been kept inside for so long that they must have burned like fire as they flowed. "Of course, Jen. Of course." He kissed the top of her head. "God forgive me for not having thought of it sooner. Of course we can."

Thoughts

• Sometime after Tarrant's creation of Church canon, someone's put a lot of thought into creating Hell. Small wonder that Tarrant, as the one person who knew exactly how real that sort of belief would make things, balked at the idea of potentially ending up there. It always fascinates me that he almost managed to create a religion without hell or an equivalent. Conversely, I'd be interested to know whether he initially thought of Heaven or whether that was introduced later too (and if it was introduced at all).



• I wonder how the khrasts' sacrifice of their fertility works. It's a big sacrifice, and in a way it explains their special status among the other rakh - it's a bit like an order of monks, isn't it? The exchange of reproduction for a higher purpose.



• What do you think of the creatures that hunt them? Do they normally prowl the Wasting, or were they sent? Damien seems convinced of the latter, but I can't quite find real proof for it.



• Did you see Hesseth's death coming when you read for the first time, or did you expect her to survive past the end of WTNF? I remember expecting her to die at some point, though it came a little earlier than I'd thought.



• Since it's Hesseth's final chapter - what do you think of her character? Interesting? Token alien/indigenous character? Are you happy with the way she's portrayed, or would you have liked to see more? Is there something you're wondering about, where she's concerned? For me it's always been a bit of a struggle to stay really interested in her; partly because the rakh as a whole never quite grabbed me, but also because she feels a little underused. With this detailed re-read, I'm appreciating her a lot more, but she never feels essential to the story. They could have done it all without her, couldn't they?

You'll hear from me again on Thursday, when it's chapters 40-42 - the big betrayal finally comes!

Comments

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

It does make me wonder, randomly - humans are the only creatures on Erna that sacrifice to get what they want. Everything else works with the planet. Except the rakh, in the khrast-case. Does that make Hesseth kind of an equivalent of what Gerald was before he got sick? She left her people to learn and know.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Hm. Now that you mention it, it's a bit of an odd thing. The khrast are not really necessary, are they? The rakh could simply get their information about humans with workings (if it weren't for the Canopy, but I admittedly am not entirely sure why that is there at all since it doesn't stop anyone). There's no real need for them to move among humans, and their society is isolationist in the extreme where that contact is concerned.

Offhand, I'd assume it's either curiosity to find out more, or it's a considerable step up in the hierarchy. Although the latter doesn't make too much sense in a species with strong animal instincts, where status is a means for procreation.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I suppose it would be someone of strong nerve to actually go among the creatures that massacred your kind. Doesn't she dominate the alpha male sometimes as well?

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

She even says somewhere that the smell of humans is disgusting. So why does she do it? And more to the point, why do the rakh even have an institutionalized position for it?

I think she did some alpha male domineering, which is more than other female rakh got to do. So being khrast either means she started otu with that sort of position, or gained it by taking the khrast route. Which makes me wonder whether she chose to be khrast, or became so because of her family background since the khrast come from certain families.