Aiel Darkfriends.

[Kaznen]

I thought the Aiel darkfriend Kadre was refering to was the one who tried to kill Mat.

 

He mentioned that she spent a lot of time down by the docks, were Kadere had parked his wagon.

[Prud]

It might well be the one who tried to kill mat, but the note seems to imply theres more then one. Even aside from the note, theres still the "in every country and among every people there are darkfriends" thingy. AND the LoC attack. It's just highly unlikely that theres only ONE aiel darkfriend. I seem to recall more mentions of them somewhere.. but it seems to elude my mind. Maybe it was some mention of how they punish being a darkfriend.. "Shadowrunner". Maybe something Avihendra said? Even the fact that they have a word for it proves their existance!

 

Though if any of rands more prominent aiel friends are darkfriends is pure speculation I think.

 

D:

[PrinceOfRavens]

what about the aiel that stabbed that aes sedai in caemlyn?

[Luckers]

It seems unlikely they were actually Aiel. They were short, had dark eyes, referred to Aes Sedai as witches and Rand as the Dragon reborn. Even darkfriend Aiel trying to do that wouldn't have acted in such a manner.

 

My guess is that they were Asha'man sent by Taim to elevate the conflict between Rand and the Aes Sedai.

 

Concider.

 

The culprit had to be someone in position near Caemlyn to have organised a large scale opperation including people to follow Demira, warn her warder, clear the alley and so forth. More over this action needed to be organised very quickly. Moreover they need men who have no issue with knowingly attacking an Aes Sedai. Finally they needed access to men who knew their way around weapons, and specifically how to wound people without killing them.

 

Their motive seems to have been forcing a schism between Rand and the Salidar embassy, however the speed at which it occured precludes the Tower. That leaves the Forsaken and Taim, at least to my mind.

 

Now whilst there is no evidence against the Forsaken, this does not seem to me to match any of their M.O.s. Meanwhile Taim has used such blunt tactics several times... including the Gray Man he killed in order to 'save' Rand, the attack on Rand in PoD by Kisman and the others, and finally though this is unsubstantiated, the attack on the manor in KoD.

 

Additionally he has access to men trained in weapons, the infrastructure to enact such a plan, men who have little reason to fear making such an attack on an Aes Sedai.

 

Motive, method and methodology all match him, but there is more, though it is INCREDIBLY circumstantial. Specifically two things struck me as i read that scene that i think points to Taim.

 

Firstly.

 

Turning away from the gate, her eyes chanced to meet those of a tall, lean-faced fellow in a carter's vest who was gazing at her much too admiringly. When their eyes met, he winked!

 

She was not going to put with that all the way back to the inn....

 

...She slipped into the narrow shaded gap between a cutler's shop and a tavern.

 

Why is this curious? The alley she slipped into was the alley the trapped was layed in. Why would the trap have been layed in an alley she had no reason to enter? Indeed, she would not have entered except for that chance in encounter, yet her attackers were fully confident that she would. Confident to the point that they had someone waiting to tell the other Aes Sedai she had without any sort of way of substantiating that she had, and had she not such a warning would have made the Aes Sedai more alert, forbidding such a plan from being enacted in the future.

 

They KNEW she would take that alley, despite having no possible reason to think so. Why?

 

Because they did have a reason to think so. The meeting of that mans eye, the wink, it all sounds similar to the basic self-discovered methods of compulsion heard time and again amongst wilders. What we have is an idiosyncratic gesture that resulted in someone doing something they weren't going to do prior to that, something that coincidently another person desperately needed them to do.

 

And who commands male channelers?

 

The second thing of interest is this.

 

Frantically she reached for saidar, but something else pierced her side, and she was down in the dust. That remembered face was thrust into hers, black eyes mocking, growling something she ignored while she tried to reach saidar, tried to... Darkness closed in.

 

Now yes, we have seen injured channelers fail to reach the Source. Or it could have been a shield. Circumstantial? Certainly, but what type of person would attack an Aes Sedai in a culture that makes out that Aes Sedai could essentially channel from the grave to kill you and everyone you love if you so much as glanced at the wrongly...

 

Sorry if i high jacked the thread. This started as a desire to show why i didn't think those men were aiel, and i tend to be long winded. If anyone wishes to discuss this we perhaps should start a new thread... or ignore me. :)

[Kaznen]

I thought they were some of Taim's Whitecloaks.

[Luckers]

Taim's whitcloaks?

[Kaznen]

Sorry I meant Fain. :oops:

[Luckers]

I hadn't concidered that, but would even a twisted whitecloak show that sort of reserve. Fain brings out the worst in people, and the hatred of whitecloaks was never that controlled.

 

Aside from which, does even Fain have the infrastructure to bring this about so quickly? Moreover why would he fascilitate a confrontation between people potentially capable of attacking the man he claims as his own?

 

Also, wasn't he in the Tower around then?

[scarredpelt]

Having just read that scene today Luckers I recall thet Fain is elsewhere but not in the WT.

[Luckers]

Yeah, we actually covered that before the harddrive died. It's covered in LoC chapter 22 and 28 (i believe). I was wrong, Fain was around Caemlyn.