Coldfire Reread 2021: Black Sun Rising - Chapters 22 and 23

[alice_montrose]

Our re-read progresses, much like Damien and Zen's little unplanned detour to the Forest!

Plot Summary

Chapter 22
Senzei digs out Damien and they recap the situation. As an afterthought they admit they've both been injured, but move on soon to the fact that the mysterious woman has helped them while Tarrant has made off with Ciani towards the Forest. In true heroic demon-hunting fashion fashion they ignore their condition, patch together demon-killing bullets, and are on the road again. They come upon a scenic view of the Forest, then encounter a group of men who think it is a very bad idea to enter the Forest to try and get a woman back from the Hunter.

Chapter 23
The creatures who harmed Ciani are regrouping after their run-in with our intrepid travelers. Backup has arrived for them, and their leader decides to wait until their prey comes out of the Forest again.


Quotes

• “I’ve been a Worker all my life, you know. Moved the toys near my crib without touching them, and all that. Now . . .” He wrapped his arms about himself and shivered. “It almost killed me in Kale. It’d be a thousand times worse here, this close to the Forest. I think I’d rather bleed.”


• “Oh, I’ve killed nastier things. None of them were quite so eloquent... but remember, we’re not playing by his rules this time. And I do have a weapon that’ll hurt him.”


• “What a woman,” he breathed. “Give me ten like that, and I could take an empire.”


• In the distance were trees. They began suddenly, a solid wall of brown and black and beige trunks jutting up from the half-frozen ground, overlaid by jagged branches and brown, dying leaves. The Forest. From their vantage point Senzei and Damien could see far into the distance, over the treetops to the mountains beyond. The Forest’s canopy stretched out for miles upon miles, a thick tangle of treetops and dead leaves and parasitic vines that smothered the entire region like some vast, rotting blanket. Here and there an evergreen peeked out, a hint of somber green struggling for sunlight. Yellow-green light washed over it all, sculpting the canopy with light and shadow so that it seemed like a second landscape, with hills and valleys and even meandering river beds all its own.


• There was a murmur at that, and several glares, passed between the men. One voice spoke up, openly hostile. “Yeah, we’ve seen one. A Lord of the Forest, that one. Came through like fire - untouchable, y’know? We don’t look, we don’t ask. Them’s the rules.”


• “The Hunter’s merciless,” someone muttered. And another urged, “Give it up, man.”
  “The Hunter can take his Forest and shove it,” Damien said sharply.


• “Save your money,” he said. “It’s one thing in the Hunter’s eyes to trade a little gossip - and quite another sell His secrets for profit.” He glanced toward the ringe of the Forest and added soberly, “He reminds us that distinction, every now and then.”


• But mind over matter - or any other conscious control of the flesh - required the fae. And for the first time in his life, Senzei was beginning to understand what it meant to do without that.

Thoughts

• Awwwwwwww, Hesseth saved Damien because he was the only one who wanted to protect her.


• As beat up as Damien is, he's willing to go on. This means he's likely faced worse in his past. And I really, really want young Damien prequels. But well, we cannot have that, so I'll focus on having our warrior priest be driven by the urge to kick Gerald's ass.


• By contrast, Zen is pretty much out of his element. He's no longer in the city, he cannot Work, he's wounded. The one thing that keeps him going is Ciani.


• Speaking of Senzei, he says he's Worked all his life. so Working is something that can be taught, but also something that you can learn on your own, naturally, without being an Adept? Interesting... And it stands to reason children would be more likely to be self-taught, but then why would some learn naturally when they don't know what the fae is, while others would have to teach themselves later in life?


• The human encampment next to the Forest is interesting on many levels. In the previous discussion, we compared them to the villagers in Dracula. :D They are very convinced the Forest will kill you. But they also tell us that the Hunter lives in a fortress, and that there's a hunt "three or four times a year". Seasonal, maybe? In as much as there are seasons in the Forest


• The dark creatures regroup, and it is obvious the little group that got Ciani wasn't the only one in human lands, because the reinforcements had to come from somewhere. The Forest makes them nervous, they are plotting an ambush when the group comes out, and they do plan to feed on Hesseth. Hmm...

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

On Thursday, we shall meet up with the Forest' most proficient tour guide and animal lover. And his puppies!

Comments

[rekishi]

“There was something on top of you. Feeding. The woman was pulling it back, twisting its neck so it would let go ... it had scaled wings, and a tongue like a snake, and its mouth was dripping with blood ...

Who of you has a former grasp of mythology and can determine what this is?

Speaking of Senzei, he says he's Worked all his life. so Working is something that can be taught, but also something that you can learn on your own, naturally, without being an Adept? Interesting... And it stands to reason children would be more likely to be self-taught, but then why would some learn naturally when they don't know what the fae is, while others would have to teach themselves later in life?

This seems super weird and not in line with what else we have been taught about Working in the book so far (or that we learn about later).

So either there's people who have a natural inclination or....Zen's parents were also Workers? He saw a picture of a Key? He really really wanted to move his toys?

I find it interesting that Gerald seems to have his Rules of how he treats the people (or rather the lack of treatment) making a living off the Forest. He makes a point of reminding them every once in a while of what they are but he largely leaves them alone so long as they don't interfere with his business and his safety. So does the beer come from these folks or is Gerald actually the one making beer?

[lunabee34]

Maybe it's a lamia?

[rekishi]

Do they have wings?

[lunabee34]

I don't think so? I think they are snake women.

[shadaras]

I mean, it could be a dragon-like beast? some kind of wyvern or wyrm? It certainly sounds like a heraldic drake, or something of that sort.

The Working thing is so confusing to me because it blurs the line between Worker and Adept in ways that make it much harder to understand the distinction.

[rekishi]

Hmmmmmmm you may be right.

We get some insights later via Casca but yeah. Argh.

[prettyarbitrary]

It seems like what makes an Adept is that they can see the fae, whereas a sorcerer is someone who is trained to Work it. They overlap in the Venn diagrams, but you could probably have an Adept who isn't a sorcerer at all--in fact, that'd be the Patriarch.

I imagine almost all Adepts learn sorcery as a matter of survival, though. It's the only tool they'd have for taking control of their environment instead of being at its mercy.

[alice_montrose]

Succubus? It would fit the non-defined shape trope.

Or it could be a new thing all of its own, inspired by many creatures.

[rekishi]

Wouldn't that have a sexual component though?

[prettyarbitrary]

And I really, really want young Damien prequels.

God, right?! He keeps dropping these little comments and asides throughout the books, and it's such a tease!

I keep trying to put together how sorcery works. We're told on the one hand that it requires strict mental discipline, practiced focus, and what sounds like an almost meditative use of symbology and...ritual? Mental ritual. Ugh, I'm blanking on the word I want.

But anyway. We're also told that some people are 'naturals.' Damien identifies the Patriarch as a natural sorcerer (even before he realizes he's actually an Adept). Senzei is one. Some people are naturally gifted with 'luck' or are natural jinxes. And these things seem to do with how one's subconscious trends. Certainly it's true that most people bounce around mentally and emotionally, depending on circumstances. But some people are pretty steady.

The fae WILL responds to people, whether they're trained or not. But I suppose the point of training is to override the natural, undisciplined fluctuations of the human mind and impose disciplined, predictable responses in their place.

Though frankly that makes a 'natural Worker' seem like a pretty terrifying prospect. It'd mean someone like Senzei is somebody the fae naturally responds to with unusual potence...but that doesn't mean they had any control over it till they went out and learned it (probably out of self-preservation). Seems like a good way for a lot of people like that to die young.