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i_read_whatSo last time, Cadderly totally killed that dude. The curse seems to be resolving. Let's see what's left in the aftermath...
The first paragraph is a little heartwrenching actually:
Cadderly so desperately wanted to close those eyes! He willed himself to go over to the dead priest and turn his head away, get that accusing stare off him, but it was an impotent command and Cadderly knew it. He hadn’t the strength to go anywhere near Barjin. He moved a few short steps to the side, to get to Danica, but looked back and imagined that the dead priest’s eyes followed him still.
Cadderly wondered if they would forever.
So I'm reminded of my reaction to Catti-brie's similar "I just killed a human being" angst in Streams of Silver. This is a much better version of that scenario. Mostly because Cadderly didn't spend a chapter or two utterly mowing down gully dwarves before having this specific angst.
It makes complete sense that the poor kid is reacting this way. He's a very young adult, who's been mostly sheltered his entire life. He's never really been on adventures and weapons and such were more like interesting toys and puzzles.
And, while he's proven himself pretty well in battle this book, it was battle against undead creatures that had no mind or will of their own. So yeah, I absolutely believe that this kid is horrified by the reality of killing someone.
He tries to get rid of the guilt and foster no regrets, but I doubt it will be that easy.
On the plus side, Percival's back! I guess he ducked out of the battle like the pet cat in Another Eden. Wise move. I approve.
Cadderly goes to check on his friends: Danica and the dwarves all seem to be sleeping peacefully, the dwarves even snoring, but he can't wake them up. Cadderly starts to be worried that there's more to the curse: like that it'll last a thousand years or more conditions need to be met. Fair worry. This is a fantasy realm after all.
Then he notices that the mist is still dissipating, and wonders if they'll just sleep until it's gone. Cadderly does sense something in the bottle still: a "pulsating evil". So he's probably going to want to put it in a safe place.
Cadderly, as a cleric and scholar, recognizes the name Talona.
Cadderly came out of his trance and sat down to consider the situation. The key, he decided, was to accept the Talonite priest’s description of the bottle and not think of it simply as some secular, though potent, magic.
“Battle gods with gods,” Cadderly mumbled a moment later.
I like when characters are clever. Anyway, he starts very gently fucking up the altar: tipping over the bowl of water in front of the bottle, then using Barjin's clothes and Newander's waterskin, he wipes the bowl off. Percival helps by climbing onto poor dead Newander and finding his symbol of Sylvanus. Cadderly realizes that Newander's spirit probably helped with this.
So Cadderly does a ritual, calling on both his own god and Newander's. Then he immerses the curse bottle in the new blessed water - which turns red and cold. But then, the red hue disappears. It seems to be neutralized, and Ivan, Pikel and Danica all wake up with splitting headaches.
We end switching scenes to Headmaster Avery and Rufo. The latter's in bed, pained by his wounds. Avery seems to be doing okay, if very uncomfortable due to his very bloated stomach. He asks Rufo about Cadderly.
Rufo seems to be at a crossroads of sorts here:
He hardly thought of the pain at that moment, however. What had happened to him? What had caused him to so foolishly go after Danica? What had caused him to reveal his jealousy, in the form of outright hostility, to Cadderly?
“Cadderly,” he breathed quietly. He had almost killed Cadderly; he feared that memory nearly as much as the potential consequences. His memories came to him as if from a dark mirror in his heart, and Rufo wasn’t certain he liked what he saw.
It could be interesting if Rufo decided to change paths here and become a better person. I'm not sure what I think he'll do.
--
We skip ahead to Dean Thobicus leading a gathering. Everyone's present, well, everyone who survived. It's been five days without incident and they're optimistic that the Library will recover. Though everyone's still a bit traumatized by everything that happened to the Ilmatari sect members and Newander.
Thobicus thanks Cadderly and his "nonsectarian friends" - though technically, only Newander was involved.
Rufo seems to have decided to double down on toolishness instead:
Kierkan Rufo subtly nudged Headmaster Avery.
“Yes?” Dean Thobicus inquired.
“I have been requested to remind us all that Cadderly, brave though he was, is not without responsibility for this catastrophe,” Avery began. He cast a look at Cadderly that showed he was not angered by the young scholar, but that he indeed held Cadderly’s actions against the invading priest in high regard.
So...why bring it up?
Cadderly doesn't mind though, and thinks kind of wistfully about how chatty Avery had been under the curse - he'd like to hear more about his father. You could ask?
He also considers accusing Rufo of his actions against Danica and probably knocking him into the catacombs to begin with, but given all the chaos of the curse, it isn't likely that Rufo would get in trouble. And he didn't SEE Rufo kick him. It could have been Barjin instead.
Cadderly decides to let it go, considering it a time of forgiveness. Unfortunately, his ill-timed laughter almost gets him in trouble, but the druid, Arcite speaks up for him, reminding them that Cadderly can't be blamed for opening the bottle, was brave to admit it, and basically saved them all.
Thobicus agrees, and comes up with a good reward/punishment: a "year quest" to learn more about Barjin, the curse, and so on. It really is more of a reward than a punishment as a "year quest" is an honor normally only given to high ranking priests or headmasters.
Rufo storms out of the audience chamber.
Cadderly has a moment with the druids. Arcite and Cleo are pretty humbled by the fact that they couldn't fight against the curse. Cadderly thinks about how ironic it is that Newander had thought NOT falling to the curse was a failure. Aw. The other druids know better.
Cadderly thinks about asking them about the Newander-Percival moment but decides to keep it to himself. He's also giving up on weapon-fuckery for the time being:
For all that it had aided him, Cadderly didn’t look upon his crossbow with admiration. The thought of copies being constructed horrified him. Truly, the crossbow’s power was meager compared to a wizard’s fireball or the summoned lightning of a druid, but it was a power that could fall into the hands of the untrained. Warriors and magic-users alike spent years training both their minds and their bodies to attain such proficiency. Weapons such as smoke powder, and Cadderly’s crossbow-and-dart design, circumvented that need of any sacrifice or self-discipline. Cadderly understood that it was that very discipline that held the powers in check.
He decides he understands now why Danica wouldn't show him how to do the withering touch, his crossbow design is similar and shouldn't be commonplace.
--
We switch scenes to Druzil, waiting in the lower plane. Barjin's gate is closed, and Druzil doesn't know if it was intentional. He's impatient to be summoned again. And Aballister eventually does so.
Aballister's magic mirror, by the way, is cracked now. He'd over-extended it "trying to aid Barjin." Did he now? That's not what I remember.
Aballister, as always is pragmatic: declaring Barjin too reckless in choosing the most defended structure in the region. He sees this as a minor setback to the cause.
Druzil thinks Aballister is enjoying this a little too much. So do I. I get that this is build up to the later books in the series, but it might have been nice to see the guy accomplish SOMETHING. Right now, all we know about him as a villain is that he's passive and inactive. It doesn't build suspense.
Anyway, the ogres are going to march against the elves, and Aballister thinks they'll win. Druzil liked the curse method better though, and whines that Barjin had been so close to victory. And that leads us to an unsurprising revelation:
“Perhaps,” Druzil conceded, “but it was that one human, the young man who had first opened the bottle, who came back to defeat him. Barjin should have killed that one right away.”
Aballister nodded, remembering the last image he had seen of Barjin’s altar room, and could not help but smile.
“Surprisingly resourceful, that one,” Druzil grumbled.
“Not so surprising,” Aballister replied. “He is my son.”
I am a little sad that Aballister was so wasted in this book. At the beginning of the story I was actually more invested in his power struggle with Barjin than I'd been in Cadderly's hijinx, but he's hampered by the fact that he hasn't really DONE anything since.
Well, except for that one time where he secretly aided Cadderly. I am rather intrigued to see where this goes. But I wish we got to see more of Aballister's strong points in this book.
--
So now the epilogue.
We get basically a set of cut scenes. Cadderly is buried in tomes, obsessively researching curses and symbols.
Danica is watching Cadderly from a distance, musing about how his focus and determination is excluding everything else. Including her. She doesn't seem to mind though, confident that they'll continue their relationship when time permits. I do like the casual lack of drama in their relationship a lot.
The dwarves are happily bored and recovering. Pikel still intends to be a druid, and now that Ivan's seen a badass druid in action, he's cool with it.
The last scene though is someone new: the elf prince Elbereth. He's just had an encounter with a bugbear group and he knows a scouting party when he sees it. He intends to go to the Edificant Library to learn more about this new potential enemy.
The story ends here. Verdict forthcoming.
The first paragraph is a little heartwrenching actually:
Cadderly so desperately wanted to close those eyes! He willed himself to go over to the dead priest and turn his head away, get that accusing stare off him, but it was an impotent command and Cadderly knew it. He hadn’t the strength to go anywhere near Barjin. He moved a few short steps to the side, to get to Danica, but looked back and imagined that the dead priest’s eyes followed him still.
Cadderly wondered if they would forever.
So I'm reminded of my reaction to Catti-brie's similar "I just killed a human being" angst in Streams of Silver. This is a much better version of that scenario. Mostly because Cadderly didn't spend a chapter or two utterly mowing down gully dwarves before having this specific angst.
It makes complete sense that the poor kid is reacting this way. He's a very young adult, who's been mostly sheltered his entire life. He's never really been on adventures and weapons and such were more like interesting toys and puzzles.
And, while he's proven himself pretty well in battle this book, it was battle against undead creatures that had no mind or will of their own. So yeah, I absolutely believe that this kid is horrified by the reality of killing someone.
He tries to get rid of the guilt and foster no regrets, but I doubt it will be that easy.
On the plus side, Percival's back! I guess he ducked out of the battle like the pet cat in Another Eden. Wise move. I approve.
Cadderly goes to check on his friends: Danica and the dwarves all seem to be sleeping peacefully, the dwarves even snoring, but he can't wake them up. Cadderly starts to be worried that there's more to the curse: like that it'll last a thousand years or more conditions need to be met. Fair worry. This is a fantasy realm after all.
Then he notices that the mist is still dissipating, and wonders if they'll just sleep until it's gone. Cadderly does sense something in the bottle still: a "pulsating evil". So he's probably going to want to put it in a safe place.
Cadderly, as a cleric and scholar, recognizes the name Talona.
Cadderly came out of his trance and sat down to consider the situation. The key, he decided, was to accept the Talonite priest’s description of the bottle and not think of it simply as some secular, though potent, magic.
“Battle gods with gods,” Cadderly mumbled a moment later.
I like when characters are clever. Anyway, he starts very gently fucking up the altar: tipping over the bowl of water in front of the bottle, then using Barjin's clothes and Newander's waterskin, he wipes the bowl off. Percival helps by climbing onto poor dead Newander and finding his symbol of Sylvanus. Cadderly realizes that Newander's spirit probably helped with this.
So Cadderly does a ritual, calling on both his own god and Newander's. Then he immerses the curse bottle in the new blessed water - which turns red and cold. But then, the red hue disappears. It seems to be neutralized, and Ivan, Pikel and Danica all wake up with splitting headaches.
We end switching scenes to Headmaster Avery and Rufo. The latter's in bed, pained by his wounds. Avery seems to be doing okay, if very uncomfortable due to his very bloated stomach. He asks Rufo about Cadderly.
Rufo seems to be at a crossroads of sorts here:
He hardly thought of the pain at that moment, however. What had happened to him? What had caused him to so foolishly go after Danica? What had caused him to reveal his jealousy, in the form of outright hostility, to Cadderly?
“Cadderly,” he breathed quietly. He had almost killed Cadderly; he feared that memory nearly as much as the potential consequences. His memories came to him as if from a dark mirror in his heart, and Rufo wasn’t certain he liked what he saw.
It could be interesting if Rufo decided to change paths here and become a better person. I'm not sure what I think he'll do.
--
We skip ahead to Dean Thobicus leading a gathering. Everyone's present, well, everyone who survived. It's been five days without incident and they're optimistic that the Library will recover. Though everyone's still a bit traumatized by everything that happened to the Ilmatari sect members and Newander.
Thobicus thanks Cadderly and his "nonsectarian friends" - though technically, only Newander was involved.
Rufo seems to have decided to double down on toolishness instead:
Kierkan Rufo subtly nudged Headmaster Avery.
“Yes?” Dean Thobicus inquired.
“I have been requested to remind us all that Cadderly, brave though he was, is not without responsibility for this catastrophe,” Avery began. He cast a look at Cadderly that showed he was not angered by the young scholar, but that he indeed held Cadderly’s actions against the invading priest in high regard.
So...why bring it up?
Cadderly doesn't mind though, and thinks kind of wistfully about how chatty Avery had been under the curse - he'd like to hear more about his father. You could ask?
He also considers accusing Rufo of his actions against Danica and probably knocking him into the catacombs to begin with, but given all the chaos of the curse, it isn't likely that Rufo would get in trouble. And he didn't SEE Rufo kick him. It could have been Barjin instead.
Cadderly decides to let it go, considering it a time of forgiveness. Unfortunately, his ill-timed laughter almost gets him in trouble, but the druid, Arcite speaks up for him, reminding them that Cadderly can't be blamed for opening the bottle, was brave to admit it, and basically saved them all.
Thobicus agrees, and comes up with a good reward/punishment: a "year quest" to learn more about Barjin, the curse, and so on. It really is more of a reward than a punishment as a "year quest" is an honor normally only given to high ranking priests or headmasters.
Rufo storms out of the audience chamber.
Cadderly has a moment with the druids. Arcite and Cleo are pretty humbled by the fact that they couldn't fight against the curse. Cadderly thinks about how ironic it is that Newander had thought NOT falling to the curse was a failure. Aw. The other druids know better.
Cadderly thinks about asking them about the Newander-Percival moment but decides to keep it to himself. He's also giving up on weapon-fuckery for the time being:
For all that it had aided him, Cadderly didn’t look upon his crossbow with admiration. The thought of copies being constructed horrified him. Truly, the crossbow’s power was meager compared to a wizard’s fireball or the summoned lightning of a druid, but it was a power that could fall into the hands of the untrained. Warriors and magic-users alike spent years training both their minds and their bodies to attain such proficiency. Weapons such as smoke powder, and Cadderly’s crossbow-and-dart design, circumvented that need of any sacrifice or self-discipline. Cadderly understood that it was that very discipline that held the powers in check.
He decides he understands now why Danica wouldn't show him how to do the withering touch, his crossbow design is similar and shouldn't be commonplace.
--
We switch scenes to Druzil, waiting in the lower plane. Barjin's gate is closed, and Druzil doesn't know if it was intentional. He's impatient to be summoned again. And Aballister eventually does so.
Aballister's magic mirror, by the way, is cracked now. He'd over-extended it "trying to aid Barjin." Did he now? That's not what I remember.
Aballister, as always is pragmatic: declaring Barjin too reckless in choosing the most defended structure in the region. He sees this as a minor setback to the cause.
Druzil thinks Aballister is enjoying this a little too much. So do I. I get that this is build up to the later books in the series, but it might have been nice to see the guy accomplish SOMETHING. Right now, all we know about him as a villain is that he's passive and inactive. It doesn't build suspense.
Anyway, the ogres are going to march against the elves, and Aballister thinks they'll win. Druzil liked the curse method better though, and whines that Barjin had been so close to victory. And that leads us to an unsurprising revelation:
“Perhaps,” Druzil conceded, “but it was that one human, the young man who had first opened the bottle, who came back to defeat him. Barjin should have killed that one right away.”
Aballister nodded, remembering the last image he had seen of Barjin’s altar room, and could not help but smile.
“Surprisingly resourceful, that one,” Druzil grumbled.
“Not so surprising,” Aballister replied. “He is my son.”
I am a little sad that Aballister was so wasted in this book. At the beginning of the story I was actually more invested in his power struggle with Barjin than I'd been in Cadderly's hijinx, but he's hampered by the fact that he hasn't really DONE anything since.
Well, except for that one time where he secretly aided Cadderly. I am rather intrigued to see where this goes. But I wish we got to see more of Aballister's strong points in this book.
--
So now the epilogue.
We get basically a set of cut scenes. Cadderly is buried in tomes, obsessively researching curses and symbols.
Danica is watching Cadderly from a distance, musing about how his focus and determination is excluding everything else. Including her. She doesn't seem to mind though, confident that they'll continue their relationship when time permits. I do like the casual lack of drama in their relationship a lot.
The dwarves are happily bored and recovering. Pikel still intends to be a druid, and now that Ivan's seen a badass druid in action, he's cool with it.
The last scene though is someone new: the elf prince Elbereth. He's just had an encounter with a bugbear group and he knows a scouting party when he sees it. He intends to go to the Edificant Library to learn more about this new potential enemy.
The story ends here. Verdict forthcoming.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-18 01:36 pm (UTC)And of who knows what else in the future as well!
no subject
Date: 2025-01-19 10:51 pm (UTC)I just think Salvatore could have done a bit better job in making Aballister seem like a villain to be wary of. He's clearly intelligent, and his early accomplishment in making the curse happen is significant, but it's also pretty much over and done by chapter two. The rest of the time, we just saw him wait impotently.
He's got elements that make me think he'll be a great villain when he gets there, but I feel like it's a missed opportunity not to show us some of that now.