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masterghandalfThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2. Previous installments of this spork may be found here.
Warning: This chapter contains depiction and/or discussion of slavery, brainwashing, body horror, sexism and transphobia.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Robert Newcomb’s The Scrolls of the Ancients! Last time, the pirate plotline finally wrapped up as Tristan was rescued, the pirate fleet was rather easily destroyed, and Rolf was killed. Today, it’s time to check back in with Wulfgar and Serena as Krassus continues their initiation into the Vagaries. Joining us today will be Tahiri and Ash! And, ladies, fair warning – you’re both probably going to hate this one.
Ash: *grating* Duly. Noted.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Tahiri: Well, we open with Wulfgar standing with Krassus and looking lovingly down at someone asleep on a marble table in the Scriptorium (oh, wow, who could that possibly be?). The Scroll of the Vagaries hovered nearby, glowing brightly. Wulfgar’s hazel eyes danced with the power of the craft. Oh, goodie, he’s gone full dark sider (or, uh, Vagaries-sider, I guess) on us already – Newcomb really is rushing this, isn’t he? Krassus tells him he’s doing well, and apparently his blood and natural gifts (aren’t they the same thing on this warped planet, anyway?) have let him decipher the Scroll even more quickly than Krassus. Apparently, he’s already become more powerful than Krassus himself, and Krassus guesses he’ll be even stronger than Wigg and Faegan put together (ah, if only…). And of course we’re just bluntly told this, and not shown some awe-inspiring display of magic or anything…
Krassus goes on to tell Wulfgar that after today, he and Serena won’t need him to give them any more Forestallments – apparently there are still thousands of those in the Scroll they haven’t used yet, but they’ll be ready to move on to other things. The work for which you have been prepared is about to commence. Krassus then thinks to himself about how Wulfgar has become powerful beyond his wildest dreams – and he guesses beyond Nicholas’s dreams too. His mind and blood were alight with the power of the craft; his determination to see Nicholas’s work through to its glorious end had become even more resolute than Krassus’. So… he’s evil now, and all that characterization we got of him before has gone out the airlock, is that about right?
Blood Matters: 190
Exposition Intrusion: 215
He wore emerald-green silk breeches and a short, matching jacket that lay partially open to reveal his chest. Black leather sandals adorned his feet. The hard, smooth muscles of his body rippled every time he called upon them, as if even they had somehow been enhanced by his recent transformation. His sandy blond hair was still tied behind his neck, but the old worn leather strap had been replaced with a narrow, flat band of solid gold.
Ash: …at least turning evil gave him a decent sense of style? I’ve certainly seen much worse… Anyway, we learn that Wulfgar has been given the time enchantments and is now also completely committed to the Vagaries because clearly, this is something else we had to be told rather than shown. He’s also apparently eager to complete his mission, but Krassus hasn’t told him what that is yet (apparently that’s a common problem with wizards in this world, Wigg). Krassus reaches out to touch the belly of the sleeping person on the table – it’s Serena, of course it is, we knew that – and smiles before announcing to Wulfgar that she’s pregnant with a daughter. Wulfgar says he knows, since apparently the azure glow gathered around Serena as soon as she conceived, and goddess, that is disturbing – does that happen to all endowed women when they get pregnant? Anyway, this means that the child will be born with all the same Forestallments as Serena has already received and… wait. They went ahead and put Serena through this whole procedure between chapters, off-page? Meaning that, like Wulfgar, she’s probably become a completely different character and we didn’t even get to see it? *spitting the name like a curse* Newcomb.
We get a brief reminder of how Wulfgar still loves Serena – that would be much more heartwarming if either of these people still had their free will – and some description of how beautiful she looks, which feels the need to describe her hair as dark ringlets covering her shoulders and breasts; she’s also wearing a black gown, matching slippers, and gold jewelry. She was a true queen, Wulfgar thought. Worthy of standing by his side in their coming struggle with the Chosen Ones. Krassus goes on to explain that Serena will possess powers in the Vagaries that are virtually unheard of, with only Wulfgar himself being stronger (of course…). Krassus says that it is her time as well as his and tells Wulfgar to wake her up so she can finally see the world through her newborn eyes.
Tahiri: *hissing angrily* I am going to kill him. I am going to cut Krassus in half and find a way to restore Wulfgar and Serena’s true selves, I promise you that.
Exposition Intrusion: 218
Gender Wars: 67
Tahiri: *composing herself* So, Wulfgar places his hand on her forehead and clearly does some magic and she wakes up. She stands up off the table and immediately stretches like a cat, clearly reveling in her newfound power before sauntering over to Wulfgar and kissing him hard on the lips. *disgusted face* Because clearly, that’s what the true face of someone corrupted by dark magic looks like in this world – a confident, sexually assertive woman! Gods, I guess Newcomb really is nothing if not predictable. She thanks Wulfgar for giving her the time enchantments, and for so generously opening the psychic portals of the Vagaries and exposing their many wonders to my mind. Now I am able to serve you not only with my heart, but also with my endowed blood. I shall be forever grateful. *stunned and horrified* That does not sound like Serena. That sounds like some sort of droid that’s been programmed to pretend to be Serena, badly. Or like she’s somehow been turned into a droid and can only follow her programming. Yun-Yuuzhan’s sake, Mezhan Kwaad may have intended to rewrite my whole personality, but at least she intended me to still have a personality when she was done with me! Oh, and Serena also realizes she’s pregnant, too. A girl. It truly seems there is no end to the gifts my lover has bestowed upon me. *stunned silence* AAAARRRRGHH! What did they do to her!?
*calming herself* There is no emotion, there is peace… there is no passion, there is serenity… Anyway, Krassus tells them to come with him, opens the doors with magic (show-off…) and leads them out. They head out onto a balcony under a red sunset, where Krassus tells them they’re now linked to each other (yeah, Anakin and I were linked too, but we built that link together over years, it wasn’t forced on us!) and he tells them that he bequeaths the Citadel and everything else they see, including the Consuls, the fleet, and the demonslavers, to them, just as Nicholas bequeathed it to him. From here, they have a safe haven they can use to work to destroy the Vigors, however long it takes, just as Tristan and Shailiha will work against them from Eutracia. Before he can continue, Krassus is hit with another coughing fit – Wulfgar tries to help him, but he waves him away, telling him that soon his mortal life will be over with, and basically wastes a lot of rather pompous words to say that the he doesn’t have long before the disease Nicholas infected him with kills him (I still don’t understand why Nicholas did this to him in the first place…). Before he goes, he has two more duties remaining – find the Scroll of the Vigors, and finish instructing Nicholas and Serena. Both of which could’ve been better served if Krassus didn’t come with an expiration date, but what do I know, really…
Blood Matters: 190
Gender Wars: 69
Protagonist-Centered Morality: 86 (yes, these are our villains, who we’ll be politely ignoring are victims of brainwashing, actually)
Ash: And here I thought I couldn’t hate these damned books any more than I already do… Krassus says he still hasn’t heard from Janus and Grizelda, but he knows that even if they have the Scroll it will still take them a while to return, so he intends to use the time they have. First off, he wants Wulfgar to give the “new and improved” Serena the tour of the Citadel; then they’ll all have dinner together, and he’ll explain Nicholas’s plans to them. He then gestures for the Scroll of the Vagaries, which gathers itself up and drifts over to his arms, and then he heads out of the room with it. Wulfgar then promises Serena he has much to show her, and leads her out of the Scriptorium as well. They walk along together for a while, arm-in-arm, occasionally passing demonslavers or Consuls who bow to them. And suddenly we’re in Serena’s head as she thinks about how powerful Wulfgar is and how much more beautiful and comforting the Citadel seems to her now; it now seemed a wondrous, enchanting place. Considering this is a place where she was kidnapped to and enslaved… yes, I’d say that’s the dark magic speaking.
We get some discussion of how Serena is noticing things about the place she hadn’t before, including its age and how it seemed to have been carved from the rock by magic. For the first time, we learn that the island it’s on is angular and much larger than the Citadel itself, also supporting farmland and livestock. The outside is dark and ominous compared to the inside, and the whole thing is apparently more like a city than a fortress. Goddess, it might have been interesting to know this before now – and it’s not like we’re only learning this now because our point of view characters are, we’ve been in Krassus’ head plenty! The inside of the building is made up of many towers and other structures, hundreds of feet tall, with lots of balconies, narrow bridges between them, and fountains and gardens. Sounds kind of nice. Which doesn’t mean it’s not a terrible place. The followers of Lolth are capable of creating great beauty and art, and trust me, you don’t want to meet most of them. At the center of the Citadel is an immense tower, at the top of which a demonslaver watch is always posted to look out for approaching ships, while the seas around the island are patrolled by the slaver fleet. So many, in fact, that their numbers virtually filled the waters surrounding the island. *stunned* I… had no idea they had that many ships! Clearly, being the villains means they have access to infinite resources!
Contrivances and Coincidences: 50
Exposition Intrusion: 220
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 92
Tahiri: Finally, Serena asks Wulfgar who the demonslavers are and why they serve them. *she groans* Great, this is going to be horrible, I just know it… Well, apparently Krassus already told Wulfgar this off-page and the answer both surprised and delighted him, which sounds absolutely deranged, good job, Newcomb. Krassus had told Wulfgar that the slavers serve them just like the Minions now serve Tristan, and like Failee created the Minions, the slavers are also products of the Vagaries, which is presumably why no one ever heard of them until recently. However, before Wulfgar shows Serena how the slavers are made, he wants to show her something else. He leads her through a nearby door, thinking about how Krassus told him that he and Serena would retain all their memories, just like everyone else these Forestallments have been put on over the centuries (gods…) but they would nonetheless become loyal only to the Vagaries, just as the Heretics intended. *clearly shaking with barely-controlled outrage* Mezhan Kwaad tried to rewrite my entire life to try and forcibly turn me into a Yuuzhan Vong and turn me to their cause, all so they’d have a Jedi on their side. It still didn’t work. I spent years untangling my mind from what she did to me, and even then I’m no longer the person I would have been, but I fought her and I won. You can’t just… flip a switch in someone’s mind and completely rewrite their allegiance while keeping everything else about them intact! That’s not how it works! That’s not how anything works, and I swear upon the gods and the Force that I shall make this Krassus and the author who spawned him pay dearly for this! Do-ro’ik vong pratte! Or, for those of you who don’t speak Yuuzhan Vong, and woe to our enemies!
*breathing heavily, catches herself* Luckily for Newcomb and Krassus, I am still Jedi, so I’ll be holding back on the violence until I’m in a better frame of mind… anyway, Wulfgar and Serena have entered the same prison chamber where Janus made Serena take her meals before, with the fancy dining table still set up and the walls still lined with cages. The prisoners, now clearly starved, start shouting curses at her as she approaches, but she notices that there are fewer of them now, and both endowed and unendowed are here. Serena walks over to her table, then turns back to look out over the slaves… and this time, she’s not moved by their plight at all. Wulfgar guesses that the Vagaries have truly become part of her, and she indeed declares that these puny untrained beings now mean nothing to her, and she now clearly sees that they are only tools for them to do with as they see fit. In fact, she’d like to keep eating here, so she can keep gloating over their misery! *beat* Newcomb! Gah, every time I think you can’t sink any lower… for one, as if we needed any more proof that this isn’t really Serena but some foul simulacrum stuffed into her body, I guess this is it. But no doubt Newcomb is going to keep acting like she chose this of her own will, isn’t he? Also, wow, he has no subtlety at all when he wants to show someone’s turned evil, doesn’t he? I mean we knew that already, but… pretty sure this is an all-new low.
Blood Matters: 192
Dastardly Deeds: 128
Gratuitous Grimdark: 54
Ash: Wulfgar agrees *growls under her breath* but warns Serena she may not have much time left to, uh, enjoy that. He leads her through the forges, still in use as the weapons and equipment for the demonslaver armada are being made, where she notes one slave who seems to be supervising but who the guards aren’t allowing to do any work. She asks about him, and Wulfgar confirms this is our friend Twenty-Nine, who he’s been told is a troublemaker but will be dealt with soon enough. And we’re suddenly in Twenty-Nine’s head, as he recognizes Wulfgar and Serena from their brief interactions before and tries to get their attention, only for the slavers to shove him to the ground. Wulfgar walks over and Twenty-Nine starts begging, insisting that they met at the docks and that he knows him; Wulfgar admits he has met Twenty-Nine before, but I don’t care for his welfare. He does want him as one of “the forty,” whatever that means (Necrophagian offerings, maybe? Or something worse, knowing Newcomb?). Serena is also confused, but he promises her she’ll understand, and they head through another door. They pass through a cool, green room where a number of Consuls are doing… something… to demonslaver uniforms while some of the slavers themselves wait, and then a number of slaves her herded into the room, including some Serena recognizes as those who had insulted her in the dining room earlier. She wonders if this is what Wulfgar meant about their time growing short, and yes, that seems pretty obvious to me…
Wulfgar snaps his fingers and the slavers bring in two chairs and some glasses of wine for them; he and Serena take their seats and toast to each other (Dark Maiden’s sake, I’ve known Lolthite priestesses who aren’t this crass!). Observing the slaves, they see they’re both men and women, and both endowed and unendowed. The slavers start tying them to tables while the Consuls watch; once they’re secured, the head consul turns to Wulfgar and Wulfgar gives him the go-ahead. He raises his arms, and the torches dim as an azure glow fills the room. Serena hears a strange tearing sound as the slaves start screaming, and realizes they’re being magically stripped of their clothes (…I don’t like where this is going…); Wulfgar nods for the Consuls to continue, and the slaves start writhing and then transform:
First the color of their skin changed into the stark, blanched white so characteristic of demonslavers. Serena watched, her mouth agape, as the slaves’ hair began to fall out, sliding from their skulls and bodies to drift down onto the various tabletops and the green marble floor.
Then, surprisingly, their genitalia began to disappear. The women’s breasts flattened, coming to resemble those of the males. Gasping with disbelief, Serena realized that what she had long assumed about the demonslavers being male had not been true. They were asexual beings, made that way by the craft.
As she watched, the slaves’ fingernails and toenails began to fall away, drifting silently to the floor. In their place talons emerged. Suddenly, still screaming and struggling against their bonds, they all closed their eyes. When they opened them again, their eyes had been replaced with the white, lifeless-looking orbs of the demonslavers. Then their muscles began to bulge, becoming hard and strong. Their ears lengthened to points, and as the victims twisted their mouths with agony, Serena could see that their teeth had become pointed and black.
The azure glow slowly faded, and the room became strangely quiet as the subjects on the tables finally stopped wailing and lay still, their metamorphosis complete.
Blood Matters: 194
Dastardly Deeds: 130
Gender Wars: 70
Gratuitous Grimdark: 56
MG: And so, we have the origin of both the demonslavers and of the horrible screams Twenty-Nine and other characters had been hearing, and of the horrible sight he saw that one time. Show of hands… is anyone really that surprised? Maybe I’m just genre-savvy, but when I was first reading the book and came to this part, especially with Newcomb having drawn the mystery out so long, I think I’d pretty much pieced together that the demonslavers were mutated humans already. And, frankly, it puts me in mind of the idea in Tolkien that the first orcs were elves Melkor captured and corrupted, though I couldn’t tell you if this was a deliberate shoutout or not (and I’m not sure how much fantasy that isn’t Wizard’s First Rule Newcomb ever actually read). But I think Ash has something to say on a specific aspect of this topic, and she largely speaks for me as well:
Ash: *sighs heavily* So, especially considering Newcomb’s… past proclivities and his handling of gender in this book and the previous ones, I can’t help but notice how much attention he draws to the fact that the demonslavers are all sexless, regardless of the gender of the person they were made from. And that is horrifying, don’t get me wrong there – forcibly altering someone’s body (and mind, presumably) against their will is a ghastly thing to do, and I’d gladly cut down every Consul in this room with a song in my heart for being complicit in it if it was up to me. But I can’t help but feel that to someone like Newcomb, and from the way the description lingers on it in particular, the more shocking crime here is not that, but how instead the transformation blurs the line between male and female.
Let me tell you something about myself. I… didn’t always look like this *gestures down at herself*. Growing up, I thought I was a boy. I never really fit in with the boys in the gang I ran with after my mother died, and I was never comfortable in that life, but… I didn’t really understand I had any other options, either. But when I saw the Dark Ladies of Eilistraee for the first time… something clicked. I knew that they were who I wanted to be like, and not just because most of them were drow and I’m half-drow. Long story short, they took me in, raised me, trained me and eventually I danced my changedance and became, well, me, outside as well as inside. The point is, gender is complicated, it can be messy, wonderful, horrible… but complicated, and it doesn’t always fit in easy boxes. But Newcomb seems like the kind of person who thinks it does, and that anything outside the boxes is shocking and horrifying by nature. I have no doubts what he’d think of me, or what most of his characters would, for that matter. Anyway, maybe I’m just reading too much into it, and the scene is horrifying enough on its own merits, but considering Newcomb’s past track record with gender and especially with women… I’m not really inclined to give these books much in the way of doubts.
Tahiri: *puts her arm around Ash’s shoulder* Hey, I think you’re all right. And when we get through with this we can burn this Citadel to the ground, and then maybe hop over to Eutracia and get Wigg and Faegan too, for good luck. So we’ve got something to look forward to! Serena asks how this is possible, and Wulfgar explains that, of course, it has to do with Forestallments – I’m really starting to hate that word. He also tells Serena that soon Krassus will teach her how to use her new Forestallments, and it’ll be a wonderful moment he can’t wait to share with her. Awww, that’s almost sweet… if you forget they’re, you know, brainwashed and acting out a horrible pantomime of their true selves, that is. Anyway, now that Krassus has the Forestallments he needs and has put them in Wulfgar’s blood, he doesn’t need the slaves anymore and can convert them all into demonslavers. Meanwhile, there’s one single Forestallment in Wulfgar’s blood that everything will depend on, but Wulfgar doesn’t know what it does yet and hopes Krassus will tell them tonight (hey, he used to be part of Wigg’s order – don’t get your hopes up).
Wulfgar grants the Consuls permission to continue the process; they help put the new demonslavers in their uniforms and arm and equip them, then escort them from the room, leaving Wulfgar and Serena alone. When they’re gone, Wulfgar gets up and walks over to the window, watching the moons for a while. Finally, Serena comes over and asks what Krassus’ part in all this is. Wulfgar says they need Krassus for now, but he thinks Krassus was always meant to enable their victory, but not to carry it out himself, and soon he’ll be dead (yeah, dead for no reason!). Soon all the slaves will be transformed, but they’ll still need the other Scroll. At least, according to Krassus, but he’s not told Wulfgar why (yeah, I don’t get it either – can they even use it? It’s of the Vigors – not their kind of magic! Or are they just going to burn it or something so Wigg can’t use it? Which would be kind of a letdown). Serena thinks maybe they’ll get their answers at dinner, and so they turn and make their way through the Citadel towards Krassus’ quarters. Inside, Krassus is seated at a table waiting for them, with a meal set out in front of him. He watches the two magnificent beings of the craft enter with genuine admiration, then invites them to sit down, and we shall talk of the wondrous things to come. And they sit down, and the doors are closed behind them… and the chapter ends there, without actually revealing anything. Argh, Newcomb – how long are you going to drag this out? But at least we’re done for today! That was… particularly horrible.
MG: And so it was! Partially, this chapter seemed to exist to answer some lingering questions, some of which – like what the Citadel actually looks like – it feels almost like Newcomb suddenly realized he hadn’t included and panicked; others, like the true origin of the demonslavers, feel like the mystery has been drawn out so long it’s lost its impact. But the other part of the point of this chapter is to make sure we know that Wulfgar and Serena are totally eeeevil now, in ridiculously ham-handed fashion. Like, Serena in particular is clearly a completely different character (and she talks like a damned robot now, which isn’t disturbing at all…) compared to before… but so is Wulfgar! Which, as I’ve mentioned before, makes me wonder why Newcomb even bothered giving them sympathetic personalities to begin with, when he was just going to throw them away partway through the book. And if you think their status as victims of brainwashing is going to get them any sympathy from our heroes… ha, think again. Anyway, that’s all for today. Next time, Tristan makes it home at last! We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Blood Matters: 194
Contrivances and Coincidences: 50
Dastardly Deeds: 133
Exposition Intrusion: 224
Gender Wars: 70
Gratuitous Grimdark: 58
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 93
Protagonist-Centered Morality: 88
Retcons and Revelations: 26
Warning: This chapter contains depiction and/or discussion of slavery, brainwashing, body horror, sexism and transphobia.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Robert Newcomb’s The Scrolls of the Ancients! Last time, the pirate plotline finally wrapped up as Tristan was rescued, the pirate fleet was rather easily destroyed, and Rolf was killed. Today, it’s time to check back in with Wulfgar and Serena as Krassus continues their initiation into the Vagaries. Joining us today will be Tahiri and Ash! And, ladies, fair warning – you’re both probably going to hate this one.
Ash: *grating* Duly. Noted.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Tahiri: Well, we open with Wulfgar standing with Krassus and looking lovingly down at someone asleep on a marble table in the Scriptorium (oh, wow, who could that possibly be?). The Scroll of the Vagaries hovered nearby, glowing brightly. Wulfgar’s hazel eyes danced with the power of the craft. Oh, goodie, he’s gone full dark sider (or, uh, Vagaries-sider, I guess) on us already – Newcomb really is rushing this, isn’t he? Krassus tells him he’s doing well, and apparently his blood and natural gifts (aren’t they the same thing on this warped planet, anyway?) have let him decipher the Scroll even more quickly than Krassus. Apparently, he’s already become more powerful than Krassus himself, and Krassus guesses he’ll be even stronger than Wigg and Faegan put together (ah, if only…). And of course we’re just bluntly told this, and not shown some awe-inspiring display of magic or anything…
Krassus goes on to tell Wulfgar that after today, he and Serena won’t need him to give them any more Forestallments – apparently there are still thousands of those in the Scroll they haven’t used yet, but they’ll be ready to move on to other things. The work for which you have been prepared is about to commence. Krassus then thinks to himself about how Wulfgar has become powerful beyond his wildest dreams – and he guesses beyond Nicholas’s dreams too. His mind and blood were alight with the power of the craft; his determination to see Nicholas’s work through to its glorious end had become even more resolute than Krassus’. So… he’s evil now, and all that characterization we got of him before has gone out the airlock, is that about right?
Blood Matters: 190
Exposition Intrusion: 215
He wore emerald-green silk breeches and a short, matching jacket that lay partially open to reveal his chest. Black leather sandals adorned his feet. The hard, smooth muscles of his body rippled every time he called upon them, as if even they had somehow been enhanced by his recent transformation. His sandy blond hair was still tied behind his neck, but the old worn leather strap had been replaced with a narrow, flat band of solid gold.
Ash: …at least turning evil gave him a decent sense of style? I’ve certainly seen much worse… Anyway, we learn that Wulfgar has been given the time enchantments and is now also completely committed to the Vagaries because clearly, this is something else we had to be told rather than shown. He’s also apparently eager to complete his mission, but Krassus hasn’t told him what that is yet (apparently that’s a common problem with wizards in this world, Wigg). Krassus reaches out to touch the belly of the sleeping person on the table – it’s Serena, of course it is, we knew that – and smiles before announcing to Wulfgar that she’s pregnant with a daughter. Wulfgar says he knows, since apparently the azure glow gathered around Serena as soon as she conceived, and goddess, that is disturbing – does that happen to all endowed women when they get pregnant? Anyway, this means that the child will be born with all the same Forestallments as Serena has already received and… wait. They went ahead and put Serena through this whole procedure between chapters, off-page? Meaning that, like Wulfgar, she’s probably become a completely different character and we didn’t even get to see it? *spitting the name like a curse* Newcomb.
We get a brief reminder of how Wulfgar still loves Serena – that would be much more heartwarming if either of these people still had their free will – and some description of how beautiful she looks, which feels the need to describe her hair as dark ringlets covering her shoulders and breasts; she’s also wearing a black gown, matching slippers, and gold jewelry. She was a true queen, Wulfgar thought. Worthy of standing by his side in their coming struggle with the Chosen Ones. Krassus goes on to explain that Serena will possess powers in the Vagaries that are virtually unheard of, with only Wulfgar himself being stronger (of course…). Krassus says that it is her time as well as his and tells Wulfgar to wake her up so she can finally see the world through her newborn eyes.
Tahiri: *hissing angrily* I am going to kill him. I am going to cut Krassus in half and find a way to restore Wulfgar and Serena’s true selves, I promise you that.
Exposition Intrusion: 218
Gender Wars: 67
Tahiri: *composing herself* So, Wulfgar places his hand on her forehead and clearly does some magic and she wakes up. She stands up off the table and immediately stretches like a cat, clearly reveling in her newfound power before sauntering over to Wulfgar and kissing him hard on the lips. *disgusted face* Because clearly, that’s what the true face of someone corrupted by dark magic looks like in this world – a confident, sexually assertive woman! Gods, I guess Newcomb really is nothing if not predictable. She thanks Wulfgar for giving her the time enchantments, and for so generously opening the psychic portals of the Vagaries and exposing their many wonders to my mind. Now I am able to serve you not only with my heart, but also with my endowed blood. I shall be forever grateful. *stunned and horrified* That does not sound like Serena. That sounds like some sort of droid that’s been programmed to pretend to be Serena, badly. Or like she’s somehow been turned into a droid and can only follow her programming. Yun-Yuuzhan’s sake, Mezhan Kwaad may have intended to rewrite my whole personality, but at least she intended me to still have a personality when she was done with me! Oh, and Serena also realizes she’s pregnant, too. A girl. It truly seems there is no end to the gifts my lover has bestowed upon me. *stunned silence* AAAARRRRGHH! What did they do to her!?
*calming herself* There is no emotion, there is peace… there is no passion, there is serenity… Anyway, Krassus tells them to come with him, opens the doors with magic (show-off…) and leads them out. They head out onto a balcony under a red sunset, where Krassus tells them they’re now linked to each other (yeah, Anakin and I were linked too, but we built that link together over years, it wasn’t forced on us!) and he tells them that he bequeaths the Citadel and everything else they see, including the Consuls, the fleet, and the demonslavers, to them, just as Nicholas bequeathed it to him. From here, they have a safe haven they can use to work to destroy the Vigors, however long it takes, just as Tristan and Shailiha will work against them from Eutracia. Before he can continue, Krassus is hit with another coughing fit – Wulfgar tries to help him, but he waves him away, telling him that soon his mortal life will be over with, and basically wastes a lot of rather pompous words to say that the he doesn’t have long before the disease Nicholas infected him with kills him (I still don’t understand why Nicholas did this to him in the first place…). Before he goes, he has two more duties remaining – find the Scroll of the Vigors, and finish instructing Nicholas and Serena. Both of which could’ve been better served if Krassus didn’t come with an expiration date, but what do I know, really…
Blood Matters: 190
Gender Wars: 69
Protagonist-Centered Morality: 86 (yes, these are our villains, who we’ll be politely ignoring are victims of brainwashing, actually)
Ash: And here I thought I couldn’t hate these damned books any more than I already do… Krassus says he still hasn’t heard from Janus and Grizelda, but he knows that even if they have the Scroll it will still take them a while to return, so he intends to use the time they have. First off, he wants Wulfgar to give the “new and improved” Serena the tour of the Citadel; then they’ll all have dinner together, and he’ll explain Nicholas’s plans to them. He then gestures for the Scroll of the Vagaries, which gathers itself up and drifts over to his arms, and then he heads out of the room with it. Wulfgar then promises Serena he has much to show her, and leads her out of the Scriptorium as well. They walk along together for a while, arm-in-arm, occasionally passing demonslavers or Consuls who bow to them. And suddenly we’re in Serena’s head as she thinks about how powerful Wulfgar is and how much more beautiful and comforting the Citadel seems to her now; it now seemed a wondrous, enchanting place. Considering this is a place where she was kidnapped to and enslaved… yes, I’d say that’s the dark magic speaking.
We get some discussion of how Serena is noticing things about the place she hadn’t before, including its age and how it seemed to have been carved from the rock by magic. For the first time, we learn that the island it’s on is angular and much larger than the Citadel itself, also supporting farmland and livestock. The outside is dark and ominous compared to the inside, and the whole thing is apparently more like a city than a fortress. Goddess, it might have been interesting to know this before now – and it’s not like we’re only learning this now because our point of view characters are, we’ve been in Krassus’ head plenty! The inside of the building is made up of many towers and other structures, hundreds of feet tall, with lots of balconies, narrow bridges between them, and fountains and gardens. Sounds kind of nice. Which doesn’t mean it’s not a terrible place. The followers of Lolth are capable of creating great beauty and art, and trust me, you don’t want to meet most of them. At the center of the Citadel is an immense tower, at the top of which a demonslaver watch is always posted to look out for approaching ships, while the seas around the island are patrolled by the slaver fleet. So many, in fact, that their numbers virtually filled the waters surrounding the island. *stunned* I… had no idea they had that many ships! Clearly, being the villains means they have access to infinite resources!
Contrivances and Coincidences: 50
Exposition Intrusion: 220
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 92
Tahiri: Finally, Serena asks Wulfgar who the demonslavers are and why they serve them. *she groans* Great, this is going to be horrible, I just know it… Well, apparently Krassus already told Wulfgar this off-page and the answer both surprised and delighted him, which sounds absolutely deranged, good job, Newcomb. Krassus had told Wulfgar that the slavers serve them just like the Minions now serve Tristan, and like Failee created the Minions, the slavers are also products of the Vagaries, which is presumably why no one ever heard of them until recently. However, before Wulfgar shows Serena how the slavers are made, he wants to show her something else. He leads her through a nearby door, thinking about how Krassus told him that he and Serena would retain all their memories, just like everyone else these Forestallments have been put on over the centuries (gods…) but they would nonetheless become loyal only to the Vagaries, just as the Heretics intended. *clearly shaking with barely-controlled outrage* Mezhan Kwaad tried to rewrite my entire life to try and forcibly turn me into a Yuuzhan Vong and turn me to their cause, all so they’d have a Jedi on their side. It still didn’t work. I spent years untangling my mind from what she did to me, and even then I’m no longer the person I would have been, but I fought her and I won. You can’t just… flip a switch in someone’s mind and completely rewrite their allegiance while keeping everything else about them intact! That’s not how it works! That’s not how anything works, and I swear upon the gods and the Force that I shall make this Krassus and the author who spawned him pay dearly for this! Do-ro’ik vong pratte! Or, for those of you who don’t speak Yuuzhan Vong, and woe to our enemies!
*breathing heavily, catches herself* Luckily for Newcomb and Krassus, I am still Jedi, so I’ll be holding back on the violence until I’m in a better frame of mind… anyway, Wulfgar and Serena have entered the same prison chamber where Janus made Serena take her meals before, with the fancy dining table still set up and the walls still lined with cages. The prisoners, now clearly starved, start shouting curses at her as she approaches, but she notices that there are fewer of them now, and both endowed and unendowed are here. Serena walks over to her table, then turns back to look out over the slaves… and this time, she’s not moved by their plight at all. Wulfgar guesses that the Vagaries have truly become part of her, and she indeed declares that these puny untrained beings now mean nothing to her, and she now clearly sees that they are only tools for them to do with as they see fit. In fact, she’d like to keep eating here, so she can keep gloating over their misery! *beat* Newcomb! Gah, every time I think you can’t sink any lower… for one, as if we needed any more proof that this isn’t really Serena but some foul simulacrum stuffed into her body, I guess this is it. But no doubt Newcomb is going to keep acting like she chose this of her own will, isn’t he? Also, wow, he has no subtlety at all when he wants to show someone’s turned evil, doesn’t he? I mean we knew that already, but… pretty sure this is an all-new low.
Blood Matters: 192
Dastardly Deeds: 128
Gratuitous Grimdark: 54
Ash: Wulfgar agrees *growls under her breath* but warns Serena she may not have much time left to, uh, enjoy that. He leads her through the forges, still in use as the weapons and equipment for the demonslaver armada are being made, where she notes one slave who seems to be supervising but who the guards aren’t allowing to do any work. She asks about him, and Wulfgar confirms this is our friend Twenty-Nine, who he’s been told is a troublemaker but will be dealt with soon enough. And we’re suddenly in Twenty-Nine’s head, as he recognizes Wulfgar and Serena from their brief interactions before and tries to get their attention, only for the slavers to shove him to the ground. Wulfgar walks over and Twenty-Nine starts begging, insisting that they met at the docks and that he knows him; Wulfgar admits he has met Twenty-Nine before, but I don’t care for his welfare. He does want him as one of “the forty,” whatever that means (Necrophagian offerings, maybe? Or something worse, knowing Newcomb?). Serena is also confused, but he promises her she’ll understand, and they head through another door. They pass through a cool, green room where a number of Consuls are doing… something… to demonslaver uniforms while some of the slavers themselves wait, and then a number of slaves her herded into the room, including some Serena recognizes as those who had insulted her in the dining room earlier. She wonders if this is what Wulfgar meant about their time growing short, and yes, that seems pretty obvious to me…
Wulfgar snaps his fingers and the slavers bring in two chairs and some glasses of wine for them; he and Serena take their seats and toast to each other (Dark Maiden’s sake, I’ve known Lolthite priestesses who aren’t this crass!). Observing the slaves, they see they’re both men and women, and both endowed and unendowed. The slavers start tying them to tables while the Consuls watch; once they’re secured, the head consul turns to Wulfgar and Wulfgar gives him the go-ahead. He raises his arms, and the torches dim as an azure glow fills the room. Serena hears a strange tearing sound as the slaves start screaming, and realizes they’re being magically stripped of their clothes (…I don’t like where this is going…); Wulfgar nods for the Consuls to continue, and the slaves start writhing and then transform:
First the color of their skin changed into the stark, blanched white so characteristic of demonslavers. Serena watched, her mouth agape, as the slaves’ hair began to fall out, sliding from their skulls and bodies to drift down onto the various tabletops and the green marble floor.
Then, surprisingly, their genitalia began to disappear. The women’s breasts flattened, coming to resemble those of the males. Gasping with disbelief, Serena realized that what she had long assumed about the demonslavers being male had not been true. They were asexual beings, made that way by the craft.
As she watched, the slaves’ fingernails and toenails began to fall away, drifting silently to the floor. In their place talons emerged. Suddenly, still screaming and struggling against their bonds, they all closed their eyes. When they opened them again, their eyes had been replaced with the white, lifeless-looking orbs of the demonslavers. Then their muscles began to bulge, becoming hard and strong. Their ears lengthened to points, and as the victims twisted their mouths with agony, Serena could see that their teeth had become pointed and black.
The azure glow slowly faded, and the room became strangely quiet as the subjects on the tables finally stopped wailing and lay still, their metamorphosis complete.
Blood Matters: 194
Dastardly Deeds: 130
Gender Wars: 70
Gratuitous Grimdark: 56
MG: And so, we have the origin of both the demonslavers and of the horrible screams Twenty-Nine and other characters had been hearing, and of the horrible sight he saw that one time. Show of hands… is anyone really that surprised? Maybe I’m just genre-savvy, but when I was first reading the book and came to this part, especially with Newcomb having drawn the mystery out so long, I think I’d pretty much pieced together that the demonslavers were mutated humans already. And, frankly, it puts me in mind of the idea in Tolkien that the first orcs were elves Melkor captured and corrupted, though I couldn’t tell you if this was a deliberate shoutout or not (and I’m not sure how much fantasy that isn’t Wizard’s First Rule Newcomb ever actually read). But I think Ash has something to say on a specific aspect of this topic, and she largely speaks for me as well:
Ash: *sighs heavily* So, especially considering Newcomb’s… past proclivities and his handling of gender in this book and the previous ones, I can’t help but notice how much attention he draws to the fact that the demonslavers are all sexless, regardless of the gender of the person they were made from. And that is horrifying, don’t get me wrong there – forcibly altering someone’s body (and mind, presumably) against their will is a ghastly thing to do, and I’d gladly cut down every Consul in this room with a song in my heart for being complicit in it if it was up to me. But I can’t help but feel that to someone like Newcomb, and from the way the description lingers on it in particular, the more shocking crime here is not that, but how instead the transformation blurs the line between male and female.
Let me tell you something about myself. I… didn’t always look like this *gestures down at herself*. Growing up, I thought I was a boy. I never really fit in with the boys in the gang I ran with after my mother died, and I was never comfortable in that life, but… I didn’t really understand I had any other options, either. But when I saw the Dark Ladies of Eilistraee for the first time… something clicked. I knew that they were who I wanted to be like, and not just because most of them were drow and I’m half-drow. Long story short, they took me in, raised me, trained me and eventually I danced my changedance and became, well, me, outside as well as inside. The point is, gender is complicated, it can be messy, wonderful, horrible… but complicated, and it doesn’t always fit in easy boxes. But Newcomb seems like the kind of person who thinks it does, and that anything outside the boxes is shocking and horrifying by nature. I have no doubts what he’d think of me, or what most of his characters would, for that matter. Anyway, maybe I’m just reading too much into it, and the scene is horrifying enough on its own merits, but considering Newcomb’s past track record with gender and especially with women… I’m not really inclined to give these books much in the way of doubts.
Tahiri: *puts her arm around Ash’s shoulder* Hey, I think you’re all right. And when we get through with this we can burn this Citadel to the ground, and then maybe hop over to Eutracia and get Wigg and Faegan too, for good luck. So we’ve got something to look forward to! Serena asks how this is possible, and Wulfgar explains that, of course, it has to do with Forestallments – I’m really starting to hate that word. He also tells Serena that soon Krassus will teach her how to use her new Forestallments, and it’ll be a wonderful moment he can’t wait to share with her. Awww, that’s almost sweet… if you forget they’re, you know, brainwashed and acting out a horrible pantomime of their true selves, that is. Anyway, now that Krassus has the Forestallments he needs and has put them in Wulfgar’s blood, he doesn’t need the slaves anymore and can convert them all into demonslavers. Meanwhile, there’s one single Forestallment in Wulfgar’s blood that everything will depend on, but Wulfgar doesn’t know what it does yet and hopes Krassus will tell them tonight (hey, he used to be part of Wigg’s order – don’t get your hopes up).
Wulfgar grants the Consuls permission to continue the process; they help put the new demonslavers in their uniforms and arm and equip them, then escort them from the room, leaving Wulfgar and Serena alone. When they’re gone, Wulfgar gets up and walks over to the window, watching the moons for a while. Finally, Serena comes over and asks what Krassus’ part in all this is. Wulfgar says they need Krassus for now, but he thinks Krassus was always meant to enable their victory, but not to carry it out himself, and soon he’ll be dead (yeah, dead for no reason!). Soon all the slaves will be transformed, but they’ll still need the other Scroll. At least, according to Krassus, but he’s not told Wulfgar why (yeah, I don’t get it either – can they even use it? It’s of the Vigors – not their kind of magic! Or are they just going to burn it or something so Wigg can’t use it? Which would be kind of a letdown). Serena thinks maybe they’ll get their answers at dinner, and so they turn and make their way through the Citadel towards Krassus’ quarters. Inside, Krassus is seated at a table waiting for them, with a meal set out in front of him. He watches the two magnificent beings of the craft enter with genuine admiration, then invites them to sit down, and we shall talk of the wondrous things to come. And they sit down, and the doors are closed behind them… and the chapter ends there, without actually revealing anything. Argh, Newcomb – how long are you going to drag this out? But at least we’re done for today! That was… particularly horrible.
MG: And so it was! Partially, this chapter seemed to exist to answer some lingering questions, some of which – like what the Citadel actually looks like – it feels almost like Newcomb suddenly realized he hadn’t included and panicked; others, like the true origin of the demonslavers, feel like the mystery has been drawn out so long it’s lost its impact. But the other part of the point of this chapter is to make sure we know that Wulfgar and Serena are totally eeeevil now, in ridiculously ham-handed fashion. Like, Serena in particular is clearly a completely different character (and she talks like a damned robot now, which isn’t disturbing at all…) compared to before… but so is Wulfgar! Which, as I’ve mentioned before, makes me wonder why Newcomb even bothered giving them sympathetic personalities to begin with, when he was just going to throw them away partway through the book. And if you think their status as victims of brainwashing is going to get them any sympathy from our heroes… ha, think again. Anyway, that’s all for today. Next time, Tristan makes it home at last! We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Blood Matters: 194
Contrivances and Coincidences: 50
Dastardly Deeds: 133
Exposition Intrusion: 224
Gender Wars: 70
Gratuitous Grimdark: 58
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 93
Protagonist-Centered Morality: 88
Retcons and Revelations: 26
