Towers Of Midnight Prologue: Scenes 5 and 6

By Linda


This post discusses the last two POVs of the Prologue of Towers of Midnight, available at Tor.com and selected ebook retailers.

My commentary is hidden under the link because it contains spoilers.

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Fain

It’s hard to know how to refer to this character. He truly is neither Fain nor Mordeth, as he says. It looks like he will rename himself soon (I wonder what?), but until then, I guess Fain will have to do.

Fain plans to kill Rand personally and then the Dark One and is moving through the Blight to that long prophesied meeting in Shayol Ghul. He’s devastating the Shadowspawn there as he goes.

He has an obsession with red blood on black vegetation and under black skies:

Blood dripped from the tip of the dagger down onto the weeds. Crimson spots to cheer him. Red below, black above. Perfect. Did his hatred cause that storm? It must be so. Yes.
The drops of blood fell beside spots of darkness that appeared on dead leaves and stems as he moved further north into the Blight...
The creature that had been Padan Fain opened his mouth in glee, closing his eyes to the tumultuous black sky and raising his face, lips parted, enjoying his feast. After it passed, he sighed, holding his dagger tighter--cutting his flesh.
Red below, black above. Red and black, red and black, so much red and black. Wonderful.

- Towers of Midnight Prologue

It reminds me of the ‘red on black’ prophecy in the Karaethon Cycle:

Twice dawns the day when his blood is shed.
Once for mourning, once for birth.
Red on black, the Dragon's blood stains the rock of Shayol Ghul.
In the Pit of Doom shall his blood free men from the Shadow.

- The Great Hunt, Discord

and the red and black of Moridin’s livery. That’s three uses of this symbol: Rand, Moridin and Fain.

Cutting his hand is important to Fain; he seems to celebrate his kills by shedding his own blood in this way, and it mirrors Rand’s blood sacrifice.

Fain’s other obsession is hatred of the Dark One and his compulsion to hunt Rand. He loves the Dark One’s tempest because it inspires him:

The sky was black. A tempest. He liked that, though he hated the one who caused it.
Hatred. It was the proof that he still lived, the one emotion left. The only emotion. It was all that there could be.
Consuming. Thrilling. Beautiful. Warming. Violent. Hatred. Yes. It was the storm that gave him strength, the purpose that drove him.

- Towers of Midnight Prologue

Fain is literally consumed by hatred. He hates the Dark One, but he also likes what the Shadow likes. The Shadow is an old friend as well as an old enemy, as Aginor said of the Shadar Logoth evil at The Eye of the World. The Shadar Logoth evil that Mordeth made is so extreme in fighting the Shadow that it became like the Shadow. Another instance in the Towers of Midnight Prologue of the story coming full circle.

Mashadar is acting like Fain’s pet animal, rubbing around his ankles. With it, he can kill Myrddraal instantly. Aginor made the Trollocs and Myrddraal by twisting human and animal genetic stock with the True Power. Fain can corrupt the bodies of Trollocs and link with the undead Shadowspawn to him like a Myrddraal, only more effectively.

Their eyes had grown sluggish and dull, but when he desired it, they would respond with a frenzied battle lust that would surpass what they had known in life.

- Towers of Midnight Prologue

Madness has made Fain free – of the Pattern and of the Dark One:

He was mad. That was good. When you accepted madness into yourself--embraced it and drank it in as if it were sunlight or water or the air itself--it became another part of you. Like a hand or an eye. You could see by madness. You could hold things with madness. It was wonderful. Liberating.
He was finally free.

- Towers of Midnight Prologue

Jordan said that Fain has a lot of skills and abilities outside of channelling and in some ways, has unwittingly side-stepped the Pattern. We certainly see that here.


Borderlanders

The last scene of the Prologue shows us the arrangements for Borderlander security and the care in designing the defenses. Despite the number of soldiers taken south, there is no lack of forces to man it.

There is a feeling of rising creepiness as the Shadowspawn attack approaches; a realisation that the defences aren’t going to be enough:

It was time for Tarmon Gai’don. And looking out into that storm, Malenarin though he could see to the very edge of time itself. An edge that was not far distant. In fact, it seemed to be growing darker. And there was a blackness beneath it, on the ground northward.
That blackness was advancing.

- Towers of Midnight Prologue

He’s certainly seeing the Last Days.

Keemlin’s courage and sacrifice are moving. Unfortunately it seems inevitable that these outlying fortresses – and maybe towns and cities further in - will be destroyed.

Malenarin’s affirmation that:

But every man atop that Tower knew their duty. They’d kill Trollocs as long as they could, hoping to buy enough time for the messages to do some good. Enough time for lamps to be lit, for mirrors to be focused, warnings to be sent.
Malenarin was a man of the Borderlands, same as his father, same as his son beside him. They knew their task. You held until you were relieved.
That’s all there was to it.

- Towers of Midnight Prologue

foreshadows that other Bordlerlander centres are/will be in the same predicament – such as those where Ituralde, Lan, etc are. Some might be saved or relieved but not all. Maybe even the nations will go under.

Is Malenarin right when he says:

The queen would not have gone south to seek a false Dragon, no matter how cunning or influential he might be. She believed.

- Towers of Midnight Prologue

Hopefully it was the right move by the Queen. Maybe the Borderlander rulers have unwittingly preserved a substantial part of their forces to be better used elsewhere.