Potential Spoilers Below
“All records insist that gentling or stilling
cannot be cured, but cases have been rumored of limited healing, using all of the threads of the
Power. Historically, however, loss of the ability to channel has been irreversible.
Certainly in the Age of Legends, when feats beyond the
comprehension of the present day were a matter of course, severing was
considered final, beyond all ability to heal.”
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| Healing performed by an Aes Sedai |
“Clearing her throat, she wove
filaments of saidar
into him, Air
and Water,
Fire
and Earth,
Spirit.
All the elements of Healing, but used now to probe. It would have helped to lay
her hands on him, but she could not bring herself to do that. Bad enough to
touch him with the Power. He was healthy as a bull and
almost as strong, nothing wrong with him in the slightest— except for the hole.
It was not really a hole, more a feeling that
what seemed continuous was not, that what seemed smooth and straight
was really skirting around an absence. She knew that sensation well, from the
early days, back when she thought she might really learn something. It still
made her skin crawl.”
“She directed the full flow of
saidar into where the hole should have been — and was almost surprised to find an emptiness.
Of course, she still did not expect to learn anything. Men were as different
from women in the Power as they were in flesh, maybe more so. She might as well
study a rock to find out about fish. It was hard to keep her thoughts on what
she was doing, knowing she was only going through motions, killing time as it
were.”
“There it was. Something cut.
Just an impression, but the same as in Siuan and
Leane.
So how do I find her? If only she’d pop into our dreams again. I’ll bet I can
talk her into joining us. The three of us would do much better with Rand.
Together, we could tell him what we learn in Tel’aran’rhiod,
keep him from making some woolheaded mistake with the Aes Sedai. She’ll see that. Something
about that cut... If it was bridged with Fire and Spirit, so...
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| Leane |
It was the slight widening of Logain’s
eyes that told her what she had done. Breath froze in her throat. She backed
away from him so fast she stumbled over her skirt.
A heartbeat, and Nynaeve had
all of saidar she could hold redirected into a shield. “Go find Sheriam,” she said hurriedly. “Nobody
else but Sheriam. Tell her... ” She drew a deep breath that seemed like her
first in hours; her heart was speeding to beat galloping horses. “Tell her I’ve
Healed Logain.”
 |
| Sheriam |
“Saidar filled her, and she
channeled as she had with Logain, blending all of the Five Powers. She knew
what she was looking for this time, that almost not there at all sense of something cut.
Spirit and Fire to mend the break, and...
For a moment Siuan only
stared, expressionless. Then the glow of saidar enveloped her. Gasps filled the
room. Slowly Siuan leaned forward and kissed Nynaeve on either cheek. A tear
leaked down her face, then another, and abruptly Siuan was weeping, hugging
herself and shaking; the gleaming aura around her faded away. Sheriam quickly
folded her into comforting arms; Sheriam looked as though she might cry too.
The rest of the room was
staring at Nynaeve. The shock shining through all that Aes Sedai serenity was
quite satisfying, and the disgruntlement too. Shanelle’s eyes, pale blue in a
dark pretty face, seemed about to fall out of her head. Nisao’s mouth hung
open, until she saw Nynaeve looking at her and snapped it shut.”
“I have the most wonderful
news, Cadsuane.”
By the sound other, she was not all certain how wonderful it was. “I know you
said I should keep Damer busy
here in the Palace, but he insisted on looking at the sisters still in the Aiel camp. Mild tempered as he is, he’s very insistent
when he wants to be, and sure as the sun there’s nothing can’t be Healed.
And, well, the
fact of it is, he’s gone and Healed Irgain.
Cadsuane, it’s as if she’d never been . . .” She trailed off, unable to say the
word. It hung in the air even so. Stilled. “Wonderful news,” Cadsuane said
flatly. It was. Every sister carried the fear somewhere deep inside that she
might be cut off from the Power. And now a way to Heal what could not be Healed had been
discovered. By a man. There would be tears and recriminations before
this was done with. In any case, while every sister who heard would consider it
a world shaking
discovery — in more ways than one; a
man! — it was a storm in a teacup compared to Rand al’Thor. “I suppose she is
offering herself up to be beaten like the others?”
 |
| Cadsuane |
 |
| Aiel warriors |
So, what was found was that if
a woman healed a man; he is restored to his full strength in the One
Power. If a woman healed a woman; the
one healed finds that they are much weaker in the One Power than they used to
be. If a man heals a woman; she is
restored to her full strength in the One Power.
I have been saying for a long
time now that ASOIAF
and TWOT are mirror
worlds to each other and the same rules seem to apply to
both. This to me is the reason why IMO
between the differences between Beric Dondarrion and
Jon
Snow/Lady Stoneheart. Beric was
brought back by a man whereas Jon Snow was brought back by a woman and Lady
Stoneheart was brought back by a man.
Beric comes back less than he was while Jon comes back with all his
memories intact. When Beric gives his
life for Catelyn Stark and she becomes Lady Stoneheart she comes back less
gracious and forgiving but her memories remain intact. She is just consumed with anyone she thinks
betrayed her and her son, Robb.
This is confirmed by what Lem says to Merrett Frey:
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| Beric Dondarrion - Fire Wight??? |
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| Jon Snow dead |
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| Jon Snow alive |
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| Artist rendition of Lady Stoneheart |
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| Robb dying at the Red Wedding |
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| Lem Lemoncloak |
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| Merrett Frey |
“She don’t speak,” said the big man in
the yellow cloak. “You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for
that. But she
remembers.” He turned to the dead woman and said, “What do you say,
m’lady? Was he part of it?”
Lady Catelyn’s eyes never left
him. She nodded.”
“Arya looked at him warily, remembering all the tales told
of him in Harrenhal. Lord Beric seemed to sense her fear. He
turned his head, and beckoned her closer. “Do I frighten you, child?”
 |
| Arya |
“No.” She chewed her lip.
“Only . . . well . . . I thought the Hound had
killed you, but . . .”
 |
| The Hound in battle with Beric before killing him |
“A wound,” said Lem
Lemoncloak. “A grievous wound, aye, but Thoros healed
it. There’s
never been no better healer.”
 |
| Thoros healing Beric |
Lord Beric gazed at Lem with a
queer look in his good eye and no look at all in the other, only scars and
dried blood. “No better healer,” he agreed wearily. “Lem, past time to change
the watch, I’d think. See to it, if you’d be so good.”
“Aye, m’lord.” Lem’s big
yellow cloak swirled behind him as he strode out into the windy night.
“Even brave men blind
themselves sometimes, when they are afraid to see,” Lord Beric said when Lem
was gone. “Thoros, how many times have you brought me back now?”
The red
priest bowed his head. “It is R’hllor who brings you back, my lord. The Lord of Light. I am only his
instrument.”
“How many times?” Lord Beric
insisted.
“Six,” Thoros said
reluctantly. “And each time is harder. You have grown reckless, my lord. Is
death so very sweet?”
“Sweet? No, my friend. Not
sweet.”
“Then do not court it so. Lord
Tywin leads
from the rear. Lord Stannis as
well. You would be wise to do the same. A seventh death might mean the end of
both of us.”
 |
| Tywin |
 |
| Stannis |
Lord Beric touched the spot
above his left ear where his temple was caved in. “Here is where Ser Burton Crakehall broke helm and head
with a blow of his mace.” He unwound his scarf, exposing the black bruise that
encircled his neck. “Here the mark the manticore made
at Rushing Falls. He seized a poor beekeeper and his wife, thinking they were
mine, and let it be known far and wide that he would hang them both unless I
gave myself up to him. When I did he hanged them anyway, and me on the gibbet
between them.” He lifted a finger to the raw red pit of his eye. “Here is where
the Mountain thrust
his dirk through my visor.” A weary smile brushed his lips. “That’s thrice I
have died at the hands of House Clegane. You would think that I
might have learned . . .”
 |
| The Mountain |
It was a jest, Arya knew, but
Thoros did not laugh. He put a hand on Lord Beric’s shoulder. “Best not to
dwell on it.”
“Can I dwell on what I scarce
remember? I held a castle on the Marches once,
and there was a
woman I was pledged to marry, but I could not find that castle today, nor tell
you the color of that woman’s hair. Who knighted me, old friend? What were my
favorite foods? It all fades. Sometimes
I think I was born on the bloody grass in that grove of ash, with the taste of
fire in my mouth and a hole in my chest.
Are you my mother, Thoros?”
Is the hole in that Beric says
that is in his chest the metaphorical hole that Nynaeve see’s in those that are
severed from the One Power? Is the thing
that the red priests do similar to Nynaeve bridging that hole with Fire and
Spirit only with life? It was said that
any man or woman severed from the One Power normally killed themselves because
living without the One Power was that addictive. So, in a sense they saw the One Power as life
and thus what the red priests do is similar.
Comments encouraged. Love to hear the
ideas of others. Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact
like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth. I
simply look at the information presented and go from there. If you can
shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.
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