Was awesome. Enjoyed it. Worth the wait.
I'm about 100 pages from being finished, but I was curious,
*small Wise Man's Fear's spoilers coming up*
What do you think of this comment that Vashet made in the book?
"Early on I noticed a gentleness in you. It is a rare thing in one so young, and it was a large piece of what convinced me you were worth teaching. But as the days pass, I glimpse something else. Some other face that is far from gentle. I have dismissed these as flickers of false light, thinking them the brags of a young man or the odd jokes of a barbarian.
But today as you spoke, it came to me that the gentleness was the mask. And this other half-seen face, this dark and ruthless thing, that is the true face hiding underneath"
Vashet gave me a long look. "There is something troubling inside you. Shehyn has seen it in your conversations. It is not a lack of the Lethani. But this makes my unease more, not less. That means there is something in you deeper than the Lethani. Something the Lethani cannot mend."
To give you some referential context, this was immediately after Vashet beat him for saying that the point of carrying a sword was to use it. And, right before this, he was about to leave the Adem - and played his lute for Vashet.
I can't decide whether this might be related to the Cthaeh. Afterall, Bast says that any encounter with the Cthaeh is supposed to leave one diseased/poisonous/contagious. Since it's evil, sees all the possible futures branching out from the current moment, and then picks exactly what to say in order to manipulate the future to cause great destruction(Such as what happened with Lanre, that one powerful Namer stealing the moon and the war it caused, ect.)
"Reshi, the Cthaeh can see the future. Not in some vague, oracular way. It sees all the future. Clearly. Perfectly. Everything that can possibly come to pass, branching out endlessy from the current moment..." Kvothe's eyes went distant as he nodded to himself. "If it knows the future perfectly," he said slowly, "then it must know exactly how a person will react to anything it says." Bast nodded. "And it is vicious, Reshi." Kvothe continued in a musing tone. "That means anyone influenced by the Cthaeh would be like an arrow shot into the future." "An arrow only hits one person, Reshi." Bast's dark eyes were hollow and hopeless. "Anyone influenced by the Cthaeh is like a plague ship sailing for a harbor."..."Kvothe gave a wry smile. "So after a person meets the Cthaeh, all their choices will be the wrong ones." Bast shook his head, his face pale and drawn. "Not wrong, Reshi, catastrophic."
Thoughts?
I only see the relation because the Lethani is supposed to be the right way, the right path, the right choice in any given moment.
While, the Cthaeh is supposed to manipulate a person into doing the wrong things and making the wrong choices.
So it would make sense that people following the Lethani would notice it.
And there's an obvious conflict there.
However, Cthaeh's manipulation would overrule since he actually tells Kvothe he wouldn't find anyone who'd be willing to talk of the Chandrian till he made it to Stormwal - which is where the Adem Mercenaries live. So, part of the reason he went to the Adem and attempts to learn Lethani and Ketan is because Cthaeh's manipulated him into it. Thus, Cthaeh must have already taken into account his learning of Lethani in his manipulation of Kvothe into making choices that will lead to horrible consequences.
In that sense, this influence would be something in Kvothe that is not caused by a lack of Lethani, but deeper than the Lethani and incorporating it.
Or, maybe I'm jumping the gun and this is referring to the look the book mentions that Kvothe gets where his eyes get a darker shade of green and he looks evil/fearinspiring.
Maybe I'm wrong and we'll never know... Or we'll find out in the next/last book.
Those are my ponderings, what are your thoughts?
Though yes, my two favorite characters are introduced in Grave Peril, despite the fact I found the overall plot pretty meh.
