Coldfire re-read: When True Night Falls - chapter 49 and epilogue

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Time to finish up! Tying up a few loose ends, a meeting with Toshida that ends in a catastrophe, and Calesta goes to Hell to run an errand.


Plot summary

Chapter 49
Tarrant and Damien return up north; on the way they find that something akin to the Spanish Inquisition has taken root and the rakh are being exterminated. They reach Mercia, where Toshida has set himself up as supreme ruler, and go to have a talk with him about how he might want to rethink keeping his subjects in this state of murderous frenzy. It doesn't go that well; in fact it goes badly enough for Tarrant to momentarily forget himself and influence Toshida into saving the continent from the onset of the dark ages. Which, considering Tarrant's nature and a few clauses on his survival, is not an ideal way of going about it. Tarrant leaves in an attempt to do enough evil to rebalance the scales, while Damien is left to worry, be horrified, and organize the trip back home.

Epilogue
Calesta tattles. To the Unnamed, who at first don't want to take that little fly of a demon seriously but who eventually decide to take action against Tarrant, amidst much hinting that there's more to the Iezu than anyone knows.



Quotes

• His men had seen the Prince take over his body, and until he informed them of the new state of things - or until he made some vital mistake that caused them to guess at it - the throne and the power were his for the asking.



• Survive my hunger, he said, and I will free you. Keep me alive for the months it will take us to reach my homeland, and I'll set you up as a rich woman in a land with no princes, no religious wars, no slavery.



• "We had no chance. No chance at all. Not with a Iezu involved, and a sorcerer of that caliber. I perceived that the only way to get near enough to strike was to allow ourselves to be taken by him, and thus I designed my subterfuge. I wanted to tell you," he said, and his tone was one of rare sincerity. "I wanted you to share in the choice. But it was already apparent to me that there was a real connection between the Prince and our adversary in the rakhlands, and I suspected their strategies would be the same. She Knew me, as you may recall, in order to determine what you would do; I guessed that he would proceed similarly. Which meant that you couldn't know, Reverend Vryce. The whole plan hinged on your ignorance. I'm sorry," he said softly. Facing the night. Addressing the waves. "I did try to make it easier on you. Tried to bring us in at Freeshore for an early capture, or arrange for a controlled ambush afterward. I wanted to spare you the hardships of the Wasting, but you fought me at every turn. I'm sorry."



• "In my lifetime," he said solemnly, "I created only one thing of lasting value. One thing of such beauty and promise that long after I had committed my soul to darkness I still reveled in watching it grow, in seeing what turns it would take and what new paths would open up for it. Your Church, Reverend Vryce. My most precious creation. The immortality the Prince offered me was based upon its corruption. He would have taken my work and twisted it - destroyed it - reduced it to some neo-pagan drivel in order to harness its power for his own ends. And I couldn't stand by and let that happen. My vanity was too great in the end, my pride too all-conquering; to accept immortality on those terms. It would be like letting part of myself die in order that a lesser part might live. So you see," he said quietly, "it was that very offer which turned me against him."



• "You said you gave us one thing of value. But there were two. Have you forgotten? The Church of the Unification . . . and horses." He smiled slightly. "I know some who would even argue that the second was the more important creation in the long run."
  "Pagans," he retorted, dismissing the thought. But it seemed to Damien that he, too, was smiling, and as he left the priest's company his step seemed lighter than it had in too many long, hard nights.
  There's hope for you yet, Hunter.



• Quickly the humans learned their weaknesses, and the rakh who had once terrorized small human villages now cringed in terror as their victims rose up, their souls filled with fury, their hearts set on vengeance. And all the while Calesta fed, Calesta inspired, Calesta rejoiced, as a holocaust of epic proportions took root in the Church's most blessed lands.



• Tarrant smiled coldly. "I came east on the Golden Glory along with Reverend Vryce. However, as I chose to disembark before the ship reached Mercia, I regret we haven't met yet. Sir Gerald Tarrant, Neocount of Merentha." And again he bowed.



• Toshida turned on him. "Will you teach me my own religion now? I was raised in the Church; I think I know the Prophet's teachings well enough."
  "You may know them," Tarrant said coldly. "But you clearly don't understand them."



• "What I've done," the Hunter whispered fiercely, "is to commit suicide. Have you forgotten my pact? Have you forgotten the power that sustains me? There are conditions set on my existence, priest. And if in truth I inspired Toshida to lead this region away from its current course, then I just broke them all."



• "You brought me to this, priest. You and your philosophy! You and your human influence! Are you happy now?" he demanded. "Is this what you wanted? Will it please you to imagine me suffering in Hell while you plan your next campaign against Calesta?"



• "I must be what I was meant to be," he said coldly. Bits of his intentions were manifesting about him as he spoke, fueled by the raw power of his desperation; the images were filled with violence and pain. "So don't look for me to return to Mercia until you're ready to leave here, Vryce. Because my only hope in surviving that passage - in surviving to begin that passage - lies in defining myself anew. In praying that the power which sustains me is capable of forgiveness . . . or at least of forgetfulness. If I please it."



• They began to coalesce once more, and a new thought took root. This Iezu, a voice mused, does not know what he truly is.
  No, another voice agreed. None of the Iezu do.
  

Thoughts

• Once again a rakh ends up pretending to be someone he isn't. It's a nice little parallel to the Matrias, don't you think?



• On the topic of Katassah - Damien trusts him surprisingly much, even with their route and their progress. It would not have been this amazing earlier in the book, but right now I'd have expected him to be a bit more cautious about these issues.



• What do you think about Tarrant's bargain with Sisa? Fair, or a mere extension of the Hunt?



• The explanation that it was the threat to the Church that turned Tarrant against the Prince is something I had trouble with for a while. I'm still not sure it entirely fits, in part because while his curiosity and interest in pretty much everything is plain, his interest in the Church doesn't really stand out much and so far we haven't seen him take action to influence or protect the Church. How about you?



• Looking at the parallels to the witch-hunts and the Inquisition here and at the quasi-crusade in CoS, I'm left wondering how many other religious motifs there are. I wish I'd read with that in mind.



• It's quite intriguing that Tarrant is present at Jenseny's funeral. Why do you think he did it? For Damien, or also in a way for her?



• Tarrant, all aristocratic and impressive towards Toshida. Did we get him introducing himself as Neocount before? Or is this a bit of groundwork for CoS and the little inner-familiar... issues?



• Ah, Toshida, don't argue theology with the Prophet. Damien could tell you it doesn't work.



• Tarrant's shock about the shared Divining and the potential influencing of Toshida is understandable, but what was he expecting to achieve with their meeting anyway if not influence his course? It could have happened in a less dramatic fashion, but he'd have pushed him towards this if it was the only viable future. Would the Unnamed have viewed salvation by manipulation more favourably than an outspoken demonstration?



• Once again Evil sticks with an agreement. I've always wondered why - surely the nature of evil would include betrayal, so compacts with it would be null and void? In this case I can explain it to myself as that the compact is binding because Tarrant believes it so, but it's something that's bugged me for years about that particular literary device. And, just wondering: how does Calesta know about the compact?

We're done! On Monday we'll take a last look at WTNF - the perfect time to go back to things we missed, things you want to discuss a little more, and for an overview of the book.

Comments

[ladyphoenix9]

I never really bought that the shared Divining was enough to null the contract and set up what happens in CoS. It wasn't like Tarrant actually intended to show Toshida what to do (or at least not from my readings of it.) My take is that Tarrant was pretty frustrated at that point and intended to show Toshida the decline of his civilization, not how to save it...you just can't control what the Divining shows, nor is there a guarantee Toshida would succeed, anyway. I was pretty nonplussed that THAT was what caused the Unnamed to decide to take out Tarrant. I was under the impression from CoS that Tarrant had ridden to the rescue on his shiny white horse and whipped out the Prophet card and done some proactive work himself. *shrugs*

I think a lot of my general dissatisfaction with WTNF is here at the end...I can't logically connect all the dots without a lot of hand waving and guessing. "Pay no attention to the plotholes behind the curtain!" Heck, I can barely even rationalize why this book is anything but BSR Take Two, Now with New Villains and Terrain! But I should probably save that for the next discussion post. *g*

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

The doom by shared Divining might just as well have been Doom by saving Damien on occasion. It's a show of mercy and compassion either way, the only difference is in scale. And like you say, there's no guarantee Toshida will even bother with that one future among thousands where he saves his civilisation rather than let it go down. There's not even a guarantee he saw it, even less understood - after all this is someone who's grown up completely without sorcery, so how would he know what he saw there?

Mmmm, Tarrant on a white horse doing prophety things... *g*

I like WTNF, but these last chapters have always left me wanting. The Divining thing is just not convincing enough, and I wanted more of a bang at the end in any case. There could at least have been a bit more of a justification in the epilogue, but the Unnamed simply swallows the same plothole covering we're expected to accept as well.

[ladyphoenix9]

I had a really great thought this morning about how to reconcile the end of this book when I woke up, but it went bye bye after I worked. That'll teach me not to write stuff down when I think of it. -_-

It almost would have been more fun if Friedman hadn't tried to justify what happens in CoS with that Divining, just let the Unnamed be as unpredictable as she says it is and spring it on Tarrant as a surprise homecoming present. I'm sure that there was plenty of justification just for saving Damien, as you said...Tarrant's smart, he had to know what he was risking every time he pulled Damien out of the river/prison/rock slide...etc. *g* One rescue too many caught up with him.

This is all reading like AD&D for alignment changes. Tarrant falls out of being lawful evil and starts veering toward good. Whenever he hits the magic turning point from evil to good, the Unnamed decides to make a snack out of him. Retribution doesn't have to happen that second, I'd just have the consequences up my sleeve for when things are going too well for him. (That's how I'd run that, anyway...)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Any chance the reconciliation idea has come back by now?

The Unnamed could just have replaced him with Calesta. Where suffering and evilness is concerned, Calesta is a far better match since he wants the suffering while for Gerald it's more or less a job to be done.

I wonder how he'd have reacted if the Unnamed had just ended things without the big Divining. I don't think he would have, but it would be fun to see him deal with it without having a single incident to blame. Or even if it's just looming over him and he can never be sure whether that next time he does a bit of magic is going to be the one where he crosses the line.