BattleAxe First Read: Chapter Thirty: The Mother (Part I)

[teres]

Chapter Twenty-Nine | Table of Contents | Chapter Thirty (Part II)

Content Warning: Animal sacrifice

SCSF: A good day, everyone, and welcome back to BattleAxe! Last time, we met Raum and we had a host of nonsense to get through.

Now for the reader post:

Wolfgoddess points out that Raum being described as having a “mobile mouth” is quite hard to understand.

PPP: 231

She further rightly notes that Faraday being the one to get put through the wringer like this comes across as petty, so…

Petty Ain’t the Word for You: 40

Chess points out that Faraday is asked to participate in a (religious) Avar ritual, when she followed the Axe and the Plough a short while ago. Yes, that is a problem.

Maria Monk Redux: 63

She further has another awesome fic, featuring Ceolmund!

Epistler also has trouble with Faraday’s skin especially being mentioned as white, so…

FYRP: 105

For myself, I note that Raum seems quite a bit more indignant at the former range of the Greater Avarinheim being ploughed than at that forest being destroyed, or indeed at the attempted genocide. It just makes him feel like a mouthpiece for Douglass.

FYRP: 110 (+5)

Well, let me begin with the next chapter, then!

Chapter Thirty: The Mother

I have nothing to complain about that, for once. So, as night sets in, Raum advises Faraday to take Shra and sleep some hours before “the ceremony at the Mother”. Faraday looks to Jack and Yr for guidance, and they tell her to “trust Raum in whatever he ask[s] her to do”. So Faraday cradles Shra in her arms and curls up in a blanket. The last thing she sees is Jack, Yr and Raum talking with each other.

I note that Shra has been very calm and frankly unreactive during the time she has been here. That is certainly not how she would react, and I see that Douglass does explicitly mention it… so is something supposed to be going on with her?

Raum wakes Faraday some hours later, saying it it time. Faraday goes to look around her. It is very cold and she shivers in the air. The cloud cover is gone for now, and she can see “countless thousands” of stars and the full moon just above the mountains. Faraday wakes Shra who, “uncomplaining”, puts her arms around Faraday’s neck as Faraday lifts her. She asks where Jack and Yr are. Raum nods toward the tree line, and Faraday can just see them sitting and watching beneath the nearest trees.

Raum says they will not “disturb [them]”, and he asks that Faraday stay silent unless he asks her to speak. He asks if she is ready, and Faraday nods. Raum tells her to come, and walks to the lake. Some “twenty paces” from the lake he stops and tells Faraday that they need to take their clothing off, as the Mother “demands that [they] meet her as naked as the day [they] were born”. Is there any reason for that, beyond the Avar being generic nature people?

Cardboard Worldbuilding: 60

Faraday goes to protest, but Raum glares her into submission, and she eventually “nod[s] stiffly” and undresses Shra. Then she puts Shra (who is “still placid”) on the ground and undresses herself. She immediately gets gooseflesh and shivers from the cold. “[F]eeling it [is] the right thing to do”, she unbinds her hair and shakes it out. She picks up Shra again (seriously, is this a child or a doll?) and looks away from “Raum’s nakedness”, grateful that her embarrassment will not show in the dark. I quite like this moment; it fits her character quite well and I like that she is allowed this (though naturally she is specifically allowed to be embarrassed).

She then suddenly thinks about what Merlion would say about this, “and for an instant her eyes [sting] with painful tears”, but she blinks them away, and follows Raum to the lake. So there we had another mention of Merlion. I like that Faraday has not entirely forgotten about her, but this is past ridiculously fast. Further, why should Faraday put her mind to other things? She does not care very much for this ritual, so why not stay behind for a bit and try to imagine what Merlion would say of this? Why not try to recall Merlion as best she can, because she does not want to forget?

Instead, she dismisses the memory, and it is written like she dismisses a bad memory. Is that what Merlion is, then? Is she a bad memory that Faraday is right to dismiss? I hope that is not what Douglass meant to write, but it is what she got.

Petty Ain’t the Word for You: 41

When they reach the lake’s edge, Raum again reminds Faraday to be silent, and he tells her to put Shra down, because she “will have to stand on her own for this”. Faraday does so, and Raum quickly picks something up “from a large flat rock at his feet”. Faraday realises he is holding a “large hare” in one hand and “a sharp bone knife” in another. Oh, I see where this is headed.

Raum looks at her again and Faraday bites her lip to keep from saying anything. Do we constantly need to have Faraday being told not to speak up? No, we do not.

Petty Ain’t the Word for You: 42

The hare is still alive, as indicated by its “flickering ears”, but it lies nearly motionless “in Raum’s arm”.

PPP: 232 (how hard is this?)

Raum very softly thanks the hare for their sacrifice “[they] are willing to make for [them]”, and promises they will “join with the Mother”. Hmm, I would like to know more about this practice. Do the Banes always use a hare, and if so, why? And how do they believe the sacrificial animal will join the Mother? I would love to know more!

Now Raum hefts the knife and makes “a long slit down into the hare’s chest cavity”. …I cannot exactly complain about this without being hypocritical, but it still viscerally disturbs me. Blood wells up and shines in the moonlight. Raum puts the knife back, then dips his fingers in the blood and bends down to Shra. He says the following:

“With this blood, freely given by friend hare, I bind you with the Mother. Will you promise to server her, to aid her, and never betray her?”

I simply like that we get to see how this ritual works, as I do not think we have seen anything like this so far. It is nice worldbuilding, though it is naturally a shame that we get so little. I am also curious what this “service to the Mother” entails… Is this the service that the Banes do for the Avarinheim? I presume they get their powers from the Mother, so it might be… I should probably wait for the answers. (Finally, I highly doubt that “friend hare” agreed to this, but alright.)

Shra “lisp[s]” that she swears it, and Faraday realises this is the first time she has heard Shra speak. So… there is something going on with Shra? That is the impression I get from the writing, at least, with Faraday explicitly noting that Shra has only spoken now. I cannot remember anything coming from this later, though, so I wonder if this is actually mean to amount to something, or that Douglass wrote this unintentionally.

Raum then wishes (he uses “may” here, and I do not know how to convert that to indirect speech) that Shra may always be allowed to reach the Sacred Grove. He runs his bloodied fingers over “her face and chest”, leaving “three parallel lines running down her body”. He says she is bound with this blood. So that is how one becomes bound to the Mother, then!

Raum rises and says the same he said to Shra, and asks her if she gives her service to the Mother. That will probably go quite a bit harder. Let me show it:

Faraday thought of her eighteen years of utter devotion to Artor and her complete trust in the Seneschal. She wondered what she was doing, how she could possibly have found herself in this situation? She opened her mouth to say the words, but for a moment nothing would come out. Gaping helplessly, she wondered if she should run, run as fast and as far as she could. Then, just as she was about to break from Raum’s stare, Faraday remembered how she had felt at the Star Gate, how she had thought then that Artor was totally insignificant compared to the deeper mysteries of the Forbidden. There was more to life, and more beautiful, than the Seneschal’s Way of the Plough.

So, this is the moment where Faraday definitely abandons her old religion in favour of service to the Mother. I would wish we had some more focus on this, and we certainly had space to see Faraday lose touch with her religion, but I guess Douglass just did not want to spend time on that.

PPP: 237 (+5) (this is important, after all)

I also see some errors in this. Faraday thought that Artor “paled into insignificance” compared to the Star Gate specifically, not the works of the Icarii and Avar in general. Further, I think that should be “and more beauty” instead of what we have.

PPP: 239

Still, it is not all bad. Faraday is uncomfortable with this, and I like that she wonders how she has ever come to be in such a situation. I also like that she wants to run away; after all, she is asked to swear service to a power of the “Forbidden”, so I would expect her to be afraid here! Her reasons for accepting also fit; however silly it is that she thinks Artor insignificant compared to the Star Gate, I can see that she would use her curiosity to convince herself to agree to this service.

Overall, this bit is lacklustre, but it does have some nuance, as Faraday is allowed to have doubts about her service to the Mother without being painted as bad. So it seems that Douglass could write a more nuanced version of this story, but she just chose not to. I am a bit exasperated with her for this.

Well, Faraday then swears she will do what Raum asked. I do not have a problem with this per se, but it clearly is notable that the end result for Faraday is that she adopts an Avar religious practice. So…

Maria Monk Redux: 68 (+5)

Well, Raum puts his fingers in the blood again (yuck), and trails them across her face, so that his middle finger traces a line “down her nose and mouth to the point of her chin” and his index and ring fingers make trails “down either cheek”. The blood is noted to be “warm” and “clotted”, which… how long has Faraday stood here considering, then??

PPP: 234

Raum says the same he said to Shra, that she is bound with this blood and such. He then runs his fingers down her chest, leaving a trail “down her sternum”, and the other two “down her breasts to her nipples”. Once again, I highly doubt that Raum could spread his fingers enough to do so. With his thumb and little finger, it would be probable, but not like this.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 32

Faraday closes her eyes, repulsed by the feeling of the blood on her breasts, and remembers how the blood spattered on her breasts in the vision. I am reminded of the vision too, though for somewhat different reasons… When she opens her eyes again, Raum is still looking at her, but he now looks “sympathetic”, and Faraday knows he understands what “feelings the blood [has] stirred in her”. That apparently means she feels “empowered” as the Mother enriches her with “strength and courage and understanding”, and her “doubts and fears” fade. I think that is positive? It still feels a little weird to see her be influenced like this.

Raum asks Faraday if she will honour him with “the Mother’s marks”, and he holds the hare out. Faraday now feels “no longer afraid or even cold”. Um, I do get the feeling some mind-control is going on here.

Give Me a Piece of Your Mind: 14

Faraday then dips her fingers into “the hare’s chest cavity”, and realises “with a start” that its heart is still beating. Well, that is quite horrible, and I dearly hope “friend hare” lost consciousness soon. Faraday has no reaction to that, and she raises “her dripping fingers” and marks Raum “as he had her”, while presumably dislocating her fingers, too.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 33

She smiles at him and wishes (?) that the blood “[m]ay renew [his] bonds with the Mother [] and [that his] feet hold firm to the paths of the Sacred Grove”. Good on Faraday for coming up with a version of this for a Bane, I guess? Raum smiles at her, “pleased that she [has] bonded so well”. So… he has decided that it would be better to have Faraday use her talents for the Avar? I guess Jack and Yr told him she was Tree Friend during the meantime, though it would be nice to have confirmation of that (and nicer if they said so immediately).

Then he reaches down to the hare and “[tears] its living heart out with an abrupt twist of his hand”. (winces) That was brutal, though I suppose the hare can at least die now… He then throws the “still quivering heart” into the Mother, and wishes that she will “wake for [them] this night” with “this heart’s blood”. (So… how would one wake Cauldron Lake, for example?) As soon as the heart hits the surface, the whole lake bursts into “a luminous deep emerald glow”. Faraday finds the sight so beautiful that she gasps in wonder.

Raum turns back, “tossing aside the carcass of the hare”, and tells her to behold the Mother. Faraday cannot look away from the scene before her. The lake lights up the whole mountain, and even the stars reflect some of the light, she says, which I think she is just imagining. “Power” seems to come from the lake and call to Faraday, and finally she looks at Raum in “mute appeal”. Raum says it is indeed time to “present her to the Mother”. He picks up Shra and holds out a hand to Faraday. He tells her to take it and walk with him and Shra “through the Mother and into the Sacred Grove”, and to be “welcomed”. So we will be going into the Sacred Grove for real now! That is very nice!

Faraday then grasps his hand, and they begin to walk into the water. And then we pick up with Timozel again. He feels himself being pulled into the nightmare again, and tries as hard as he can to resist it, but it is useless. He forces his eyes open, and sees Gorgrael standing before him, “a full head taller then [him], and five times his weight in muscle”. Power “radiate[s]” from his silver eyes (then he is clearly not evil! He has “power”, after all!) and he again stretches out a hand “in entreaty”. Timozel wonders in parentheses if it is a claw, and I can hardly tell without knowing more.

Gorgrael asks again if Timozel wants to be his friend. With “what he [thinks will] be his dying breath”, Timozel summons his remaining courage and screams that he would rather burn forever in the fire pits of the AfterLife than be Gorgrael’s friend. Gorgrael “bellow[s] with rage” and reaches for Timozel. That was the wrong answer, it seems.

We cut back to Faraday. As she steps into the lake, she does not feel wetness, only power. That is just as with Cauldron Lake, then. It “throb[s] all around her”, and she wonders what it will be like to be completely submerged. Raum holds her hand tighter, and Faraday “smile[s] at him reassuringly”. Shra reaches her arms into the lake, “laughing with joy”. Good to see that this small child is not in any way disturbed by them walking into a lake like this.

They walk further into it, and the glow rises until it has reached their chests. Raum keeps Shra’s head above it. He then tells them to come and dips beneath the surface, drawing Shra and Faraday with him. Faraday does not “feel a moment’s tension or worry” as she goes under. She can breathe perfectly fine and, as the lake bed drops out under her, she can walk “completely suspended” in the light “without any support”. Oh, that is certainly nice! She looks around, amazed, and sees that Raum, Shra, and herself are surrounded by the light and everything outside of the lake has disappeared. I truly like that we get to see how all of this goes!

Raum looks at her, which I guess is to spur her on, and we get a mention of the blood on his body. Faraday goes ahead again and they walk deeper into the light. Gradually, Faraday notes the light change: it becomes darker in some places and lighter in others. She again feels that she is walking on solid ground, and when she looks down, she sees she is walking through “soft, ankle-high grass”. Just now, tall trees appear around her, and the emerald light vanishes, leaving them to “walk[] down a narrow path through a deep forest”. Overhead, the stars spin in a “dazzling display” of power greater than anyone can hope to hold.

So they have clearly reached the Sacred Grove by now! And… I think I will cut here, as I have promised myself. Until next time, then!