Coldfire Reread 2021: Black Sun Rising - Chapters 19 and 20

[alice_montrose]

Plot Summary
Chapter 19
Our travelers reach the somewhat seedy city of Kale, a port town if ever there was one. To re-orient themselves and figure out whether Ciani's assailants are present, Senzei Divines their situation and almost gets sucked into the dark fae vortex of the Forest. Damien patches him up and gets him settled, then heads out to find them transport for the next leg of their journey. He encounters difficulties in the form of a ship captain who can't be hired and not even be bribed to take them. Assistance arrives in the form of Gerald Tarrant, whose presence is enough to make the captain reconsider. Tarrant and Damien have yet another almost-argument, which does little to put Damien's misgivings about him to rest. After performing the Divining for the demons' presence for Damien, Tarrant is invited to join them on their hunt. It's only afterwards that Damien finds out that Tarrant is connected to the Forest.

Chapter 20
Our new mystery traveler arrives in Morgot, and takes care of the loose end that is her ship's captain by letting him meet an accident with the xandu he was promised as payment.


Quotes

• Evil is what you make of it, the Prophet had written. Bind it to a higher Purpose, and you will have altered its nature. And: We use what tools we must.
  Damien wondered if - and how - Gerald Tarrant could be bound.


• And one thing is as certain as the night sky above him, the broad disk of Domina looming overhead: he alone can channel this power, can make it serve their purpose. Who else? Certainly not Ciani, whose skill was excised from her. Nor Damien, whose priestly Workings are too entangled with intellect, with questions of morality and correctness and Revivalist philosophy . . . no, of all of them only he can master this terrible force and make it serve their will.


• “An adept,” Senzei muttered. “Can you imagine? To live with that vision, endlessly... one would drown in it...”
  “Which is why there are no adepts in Kale,” Damien reminded him. “Remember your notes?”
  Unless there is now, Senzei thought. Unless Tarrant followed us.


• Tarrant’s expression tightened, ever so slightly. The pale eyes narrowed. “Am I what?”
  “Human.”
  “Ah. Let’s not get into philosophy, shall we? Say that I was born a man - as you were - and as for what a man may become . . . we don’t all follow paths that our mothers would have approved of, do we?”


• He met Tarrant’s eyes - so pale, so cold - and suddenly understood what made the man so dangerous. Control. Over himself, over his environment . . . and over everyone who dealt with him.


• One corner of Tarrant’s mouth twitched slightly; a smile? “We do serve the same cause,” he observed. “If you won’t trust me, trust in that.”
  “Should I trust you?”
  “I would say . . .” He smiled, and shook his head. “No. Not you.”


• The man hesitated; for a minute, it looked like he wished he were somewhere else. Anywhere else. Damien just waited. And finally the man muttered, “The Forest. The Hunter. His servants wear that sigil.” He looked up at Damien; his expression was a warning. “We don’t anger that kind. I suggest you don’t either. Not in this region, anyway.” Maybe nowhere at all, his face seemed to say. “They take care of their own. Their enemies die. No exception. You understand?”


• Wordlessly, she took a small bit of cloth from out of her right hip pocket. And wiped its two horns dry, of blood and sea-spray both.

Thoughts

• It's getting clearer and clearer that Damien takes his Prophet quotes seriously. Very seriously. He must have studied those writings and scriptures very hard. (Yes, I am cackling every time this comes up.)


• Senzei's vision of the black sun and his desire to Work and master the fae, the sheer hunger that comes across in that section... He's getting lost in it, and in his obsession. And at the same time, he appears in his element.


• So. I always keep missing this bit: "Golden figurines from Lyama rested in sealed crates, next to precious spices from Hade and spring wine from Merentha County." Merentha Country still exists, even without an actual Neocount. And it makes wine. Wine good enough and in enough quantity to export it. No wonder Andrys is many things, but poor is not one of them. XD


• Gerald is back, and being helpful. Every bit in Damien's body is suspicious about this, naturally. And we finally find out that he serves the Hunter (riiiiiiiiight....).


• Bonus points for the two-sided medallion. I always found it a very good reflection of its owner's dual nature, and of his greatest creations. On one side, the Church: its focus on taming the fae, control, light, hope. On the other, the Forest: dark power, uncontrollable for most, hunger, fear. Both of them shaped by the same man's will. Both of them self-supporting ecosystems (in as much an organization can be considered an ecosystem).


• It is clear that the people in kale are used to interacting with the Hunter's servants. So there is probably more than the occasional passage to find victims. Also, this makes me wonder: does Gerald usually cross by boat, or does he prefer to fly? (A matter for another chapter to discuss.)


• The xandu wins bonus points for sheer awesomeness. Hesseth, for her patience. And the author for implying that the nasty Tobi Zendel was killed.

Link to the previous discussion post (imported from LiveJournal).

On Saturday, prepare yourself for Morgot. Always a fun time, that chapter. *cackles*
(Read ahead? Me? I don't know what you're talking about...)

Comments

[rekishi]

trobadora, maybe we have the answer to the question of earthquakes for post CoS in Kale and surroundings where the fae can't be Worked? 🤔

Damien is very particular about the Prophet's words. Binding Gerald by the Prophet's words isn't such a bad idea in itself. I mean, especially at this point with this knowledge Damien has and with the fact that Gerald carries the Church's medallion. He can't know yet.

(Is the River Stekkis perhaps a bastardization of the River Styx? Like a sound-shift? Considering the names of other towns around the Forest and the river as well?)

There was an absence of Working all over the city, Senzei pointed out, which was doubly jarring after the proliferation of wards in Jaggonath and the daes.
More like home, Damien thought. It was oddly comforting.

So. There are not just fewer fae in the West, there are also fewer Worked items. Might it be that the West could be a model for the East eventually?

Also we know that the cities around the Forest have ominous names, but we must appreciate what literature must have survived the sacrifice or been remembered by the first colonists? Hade(s) (and perhaps the River Styx), Morgot(h), Mordreth.... It's pretty awesome.

The silver eyes met his. Cold, so cold. The dead might have eyes like that. “You don’t trust me, do you?”
“No,” he said bluntly. “Should I?”
“Some have chosen to.”
Ciani wants to, Damien thought. And: I never will.

Mhhhh Damien. You say that now. And yet..

What I find interesting is how Gerald reads the fae and how they're affected by their quarry. Did we ever get any read from him on the rakh beyond a mere impression at the start? Do we ever learn how he sees e.g. Hesseth affecting them fae? I don't think in the rakhlands after we meet Hesseth's tribe.

“That’s enough. You’re too full of questions, priest. I don’t make a habit of explaining myself.”

He says that now and yet...

Also, I find it quite interesting that Gerald is willing to disguise himself as a servant. Or anyhow, leave the people thinking that's what he is.

And yes, I think Gerald is in the surrounding towns even beyond looking to Hunt. I guess even Gerald wants the occasional human contact who is not Amoril. But yeah, he probably flies, I don't think he fancies even the chance of getting wet.

Also as a sidenote: My inner beta reader is writhing, how did I never notice the rampant use of epithets before?????? (I probably did each time and then chose to forget again.)

[lunabee34]

I had the same thought re: Stekkis = Styx.

[prettyarbitrary]

Oh, I bet Stekkis is Styx! This reread, I finally put together that Kale=Kali. And I think Jahanna might be Gehenna.

It's interesting, because all these names really demonstrate how the Forest was super bad news even when the colonists were first going around naming things. The hyper-reactive whirlpool of emotional energy predates Tarrant. He just moved in and made the best of it.

Ahaha, yeah, it turns out Gerald LOVES explaining himself. The man is a natural academic. Just imagine his reaction if Damien was like "Nope, don't know, don't care" to all his sciencing and logicking. He'd pop an undead blood vessel.

There are a lot of epithets. In general the language of the writing is somewhat flamboyant. I notice it every time I reread, but it kind of works for the story.

[rekishi]

Omg. Of course Jahanna is Gehenna. Omg you're a genius. I've been trying to puzzle out for a DECADE what it is. Omg. That makes so much sense. Also Gerald, you vain bastard.

But yes, the Forest was a pool of earth fae from the start, Gerald just took possession.

It's not like Gerald has much intellectual company to talk to all day long. I wonder if he has a PO Box somewhere in a town, to correspond with other academics.

Priest and adept and such, fine, but the whole 'dark haired Worker' really threw me once again.

[prettyarbitrary]

Eyyyyyy.

Yeah, 'dark haired Worker' catches me every time because I have to stop and figure out which dark haired Worker.

Sometimes I actually pause and take a bit to think about the works Friedman uses and how she deploys them from a technical standpoint. She does some excellent work. For instance, the way the word 'hunger' threads through the narrative and appears over and over, where she could just as easily have used 'want' or 'desire' or 'hope' or something, really highlights a theme of the story and also tidily aligns the way the reader perceives and value-judges the various desires of many characters.

And then again, sometimes it seems needlessly melodramatic, or even inappropriate to have certain words coming out of certain characters' mouths. Now and then I read something Damien says and it sounds so much like the way Tarrant would be more likely to phase something.

But I like that. She's not the most perfect, glossy writer but she has her strong suits and she gets the job done admirably well. She makes it easy to separate appreciation for words vs appreciation for storytelling, and she reminds me that when I'm writing, I absolutely don't need to labor over picking the exact, most beautiful word or phrasing in order to tell my story successfully (a lesson I need frequent reminding of!).

[trobadora]

I haven't reread these chapters yet, so I'll come back with a proper comment after I have, but I just want to say that I'm delighted to (re-)discover that the original discussion on LJ was 99% beer and Lederhosen. :D

[prettyarbitrary]

SO THAT'S HOW IT HAPPENED.

I was staring at that piece of art like "How in the world did I come up with THIS?"

[trobadora]

Haha, I had totally forgotten about it as well. :D

[prettyarbitrary]

Damien wondered if - and how - Gerald Tarrant could be bound.

With the power of friendship, Damien! Or maybe pigheaded stubbornness and geeking out with him.

I wonder often about the Hunter's servants thing. How many servants does he have? Does he send a lot of them around? Or most of the 'servants' actually him?

“I would say . . .” He smiled, and shook his head. “No. Not you.”

EEE HEE HEE HEE one of my early favorite lines. The SMILE as he says it! :D And the implications.

Tarrant's relationship with his own nature is endlessly interesting. When he explains about how his nature adjusts to suit the deepest fears of the people he encounters, it's hard to get a read on how much of it is automatic/instinctive and how much is deliberate, but he seems to be quite well-aware of the nuances (of course; he's all about that) and furthermore tends to take quite a bit of pleasure in it.

And he really seems to like this little dance of corruption he's working out on Damien. No wonder, maybe. It plays right into his favorite aesthetic: sleek, intelligent, seductive, powerful, AND Churchy.

But it's so...like. He isn't really the double-crossing type, we see from the get-go. He's not going to go on a mission this bullshit-crazy for a lark. If he's there risking his life this much, he's doing it because he feels he NEEDS to. So from the get-go, he's got the party's best interests in mind (even if he kind of resents it). He'll look out for them. He'll keep them in one piece--at least in the ways he needs them to be to get to the end in one piece.

But along the way, he's looking forward to fucking up this priest.

[prettyarbitrary]

Thanks to trobadora I went back to read through the previous discussion of this chapter. And besides the beer and lederhosen, a major discussion last time was dislike of Senzei.

I keep skipping past him in favor of the more dynamic characters, so I want to think about him a bit this time.

I feel like the fact he's so skippable is part of it? He's...a bit of a pathetic character in so many ways. Desperate for something he can never have (and frankly doesn't need). Constantly feeling outshone by the people around him. And...generally not that interesting or remarkable otherwise. The most momentous things about him in the whole story are that his fiancee breaks up with him and then later he dies.

I guess I don't quite dislike him because I feel sorry for him? But I also wonder sometimes, what does Ciani see in him? She's such a remarkable person, and the two of them are so close. She doesn't seem like the type who would take someone under her wing just out of a sense of pity. She must have seen something worthy and worthwhile in Senzei...and admittedly he seems to be a hell of a sorcerer. But otherwise, as a person you would be friends with, I'm left feeling uncertain.

I also suspect I find him annoying. I think I mostly distract myself from that in various ways, but he...well, he whines a lot, doesn't he? He keeps it in his own head thankfully, but.

But then thinking that always makes me wonder if I'm being hypocritical, because don't I complain plenty about life in the privacy of my own head? Don't most people? It's not like he's going around being a jerk to their faces. Isn't it fair for him to feel bad in the privacy of his own mind? And I guess that's what makes me hesitate about him. I can't tell whether I identify with him or not. If he's sympathetic or not.

And I guess his friendship with Ciani makes me give him the benefit of the doubt. She seems to see something worthwhile there, and I figure maybe we aren't seeing the whole story with him. Or maybe he IS being outclassed by the people around him. Because he does have moments of bravery, and compassion, and keen insight, and exceptional skill. He's just not larger than life.

I dunno. TLDR I still can't figure out how I feel about him.

[rekishi]

Idk, I wasn't a huge fan of him even my first read through (but perhaps that was because I wanted to get back to Damien and Gerald, ahem).

But I think Zen is pretty brave. He got Ciani out of the shoppe after the attack and hid her in his own house when easily the assailant could have come after him, he does set out with her and Damien to the unknown just to get her back, he will go after her later with a wound that almost costs him his life in the Forest.

He's not the most sympathetic kind of guy, but not everyone can be Damien. And Damien, let's be honest, can back it up physically and he's not exactly thinking things through necessarily. He commits to things bravely, but he also does it without initial sanction, he just banks on being allowed to do what he wants to and otherwise forcing it anyway and damn the consequences, because consequences are for future!Damien to face.

I'm pretty sure Gerald says things to that effect much more eloquently than me later on.

[prettyarbitrary]

You're right. He has the real-people kind of bravery, where you feel sick to your stomach from how scared and miserable you are but you do it anyway. Points to him for that.