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Fist and Faith
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 Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2004 4:59 pm Post subject: The Wounded Land, Chapter 23: Sarangrave Flat |
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Sorry for the delay folks. As you might know, I was on vacation for a couple weeks. And as you surely never suspected, I’m a bit of a dope at times. I forgot that chapters are posted in pairs, and doubled how much time I had. Duh! Sorry. This chapter is a bit of a rush job, because I want to get it posted.
OK, so Linden and Cail are recovering, thanks to the voure. Linden tells Covenant how horribly violated everything makes her feel. Her health sense doesn’t have many pleasant things to show her. And the venom in him, which she got a real good look at earlier, makes it very difficult for her to look at him.
She also tells him what she sees when she looks at Vain: | Quote: | | ”I’ve tried. But I don’t understand. He isn’t alive. He’s got so much power, and it’s imperative. But it’s – it’s inanimate. Like your ring. He could be anything.” |
Quite the mystery, our Vain. 
Sunder announces that the Clave can track them through Memla’s rukh, now that he has mastered it. Like they needed more bad news!
Linden takes care of Cail’s injured arm, in a way that would be pretty horrific to us, but not much of a problem for a Haruchai. She sterilizes Hollian’s dirk in the fire, cuts open his wound to let out puss, wraps the arm, and pours boiling water over the whole thing. Cail’s reaction to the pain was “a slight tension between his brows” while she was cutting him. Wimp. Linden “stumbled to her feet, moved away from him and sat down against the gully wall, as if she could not bear the sight of his courage.”
Cool stuff now. Linden seems to think the Sunbane starts the mornings weaker, before gaining its full strength. After a few days, she realizes what’s going on. The Sunbane is not coming from the sun itself, it’s coming from the Earth. The Earthpower itself has been corrupted! It’s twisted power now emanates from the ground, and the sunlight is twisted when it shines through! DAMN that’s nasty! As they approach Landsrop, the border of the Land - the border of the corrupted Earthpower - the sun shines through less of the strong ill in the air. Linden’s sight lets her see this days earlier than anyone else.
Now they all go into the Sarangrave Flat. (Actually a nice place, in the right light. Just a little damp.) At one point they notice glowing green lights in the distance, which eventually surround them. | Quote: | The creatures came seething noiselessly through the dark. The ones beyond the water stopped at its edge; the others continued to approach. They were featureless and telic, like lambent gangrene. They looked horribly like children.
Hergrom dismounted, became a shadow moving to meet the line. For a moment, he was limned by slime fire. Rain stippled his silhouette.
Then Linden coughed, “No! Don’t touch them!”
“Chosen.” Brinn’s voice was stone. “We must breach this snare. Hergrom will make trial, that we may learn how to fight.”
“No.” Her urgency suffocated her. “They’re acid. They’re made out of acid.”
Hergrom stopped.
Pieces of darkness whirled at him from Ceer’s direction. He caught them, two brands from the quest’s store of firewood. |
How cool, and crazy, are those Haruchai?  Willing to risk Hergrom’s life so we can learn what’s up. And I’d have been, “What the heck’s that flying through the air??” That telepathy sure is handy. So when Hergrom touches the yucky things with the wood, they’re destroyed. But there’s plenty more of them, and they just fill in the gap. But they don’t seem to be attacking.
Meanwhile, the lurker starts howling, and the Courser’s go nuts. They start attacking Sunder and Stell. Linden’s yelling at Covenant to not use his ring. Sunder goes down under their hooves. Covenant’s trying to figure out how the lurker even knew the company was around. It's really crazy at the moment!! 
Suddenly Covenant realizes the lurker can sense the power of the Clave in the Coursers. He yells for Sunder to throw the rukh away, because that’s the only reason the Coursers were staying near everyone in their maddened – and highly dangerous – state. Stell grabs it and throws it into the quagmire. All the Coursers charged after it. In their terror, they strove to destroy the thing which prevented them from flight.
Unfortunately, one of them knocks the uncaring Vain into the muck. Brinn lassos his head before he sinks. (I guess the Bloodguard learned something from the Ramen.) But Vain sinks, and the rope comes free.
And the green children are gone.
_________________
We are not required to save the world. We are required to stand up as truly as we can for what we love. -SRD
Mi alasharia la shantih, Darling Silezia.
Isaiah ShadowLurker, mi alasharia la shantih, shantih. |
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matrixman
cheek turner
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 5:02 am Post subject: Re: The Wounded Land, Chapter 23: Sarangrave Flat |
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| Fist and Faith wrote: | | Now they all go into the Sarangrave Flat. (Actually a nice place, in the right light. Just a little damp.) |
This is another chapter that starts with a quiet scene between Covenant and Linden. I like these moments they have between them. Linden is especially touching to me here:
| Quote: | | Her hand covered her eyes. For a moment, she could not steady herself. "Covenant, it hurts. It hurts to see him[Vain]. It hurts to see anything." Reflections formed orange-red beads below the shadow of her hand. |
Though her health-sense tortures her, that doesn't stop Linden from using it to help her friends, as in her treatment of Cail's wound. She's coming into her power, and recognizes that it need not be something that's used against her. She is asserting it for the benefit of the company, thus empowering herself. When Linden first glimpses the weakening of the Sunbance, but her friends doubt her vision, I felt angry for her. Like they can just dismiss her senses after all they've been through!
About the Haruchai: their pain threshold is obviously remarkable, as shown by Cail's ability to accept Linden's treatment--quietly--without any anaesthetic. Does their telepathy help them to endure tremendous pain by distributing that pain among themselves?
We also see here how the venom is really putting pressure on Covenant's ability to contain the wild magic. That and the pressure of feeling responsible for, well, everything, makes him just a little frayed at the edges:
| Quote: | | "Linden!" he snapped, as if her dread were an accusation he could not tolerate. The backs of his hands burned venomously, lusting of their own volition to strike her. Was she blind to the pressures building in him? Deaf to the victims of the Clave? |
Okaaay, calm down there, Mr. Covenant. Keep your hands where we can see them. No slapping of the female protagonist, please. That's very bad form, even if you are the white gold wielder.
Poor Covenant also misinterprets the Stonedownors' apprehensions when they go up to him. He unintentionally insults them by blurting out, "You don't have to go," thinking they want to go no further than Landsdrop. Sunder, of course, merely wanted to voice his humble concern that he and Hollian may be useless to Covenant under a sun other than the Sunbane. Thomas, Thomas.  Fortunately, he redeems himself by saying, "You're my friends. Let's try it and see." |
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Furls Fire
Oh that I had wings like a dove...
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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HEY!! You did it!! Great lead-in Fist!!
I, for one, smiled big when Linden realized that Landsdrop was the border of the Sunbane's power. Her triumphant shout sent chills thru me...
| Quote: | Linden stared intently at it for a moment, then whirled and sent her gaze arcing up and down the length of Landsdrop. Covenant could hear insects burring as if they had been resurrected from the dead ground.
"By God." She was exultant. "I was right" |
This chapter made my skin crawl...the Sarangrave under the Sunbane. Dear Gods...
_________________
And I believe in you
altho you never asked me too
I will remember you
and what life put you thru.
~fly fly little wing, fly where only angels sing~
~this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you~
...for then I could fly away and be at rest. Sweet rest, Mom. We all love and miss you. |
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dlbpharmd
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Fist!
So we come to understand the true meaning of the Sunbane - it's Earthpower-filtered solar energy. Amazing! |
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duchess of malfi
Mother of Dragons, Slayer of Lies
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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That realization chilled my heart -- here was the Earthpower -- which once spoke to Berek, telling him how to use itself, and inspiring him to form the Council-- a force of such great good -- so corrupted that it is contributing to the daily rape of the Land and the destruction of life.   |
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