originally posted by motley
Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.
A comment made on another one of the threads by Janny in the general discussion, confirmed a suspicion I had, that somehow the F7 would be as keen as the Koriani Matriarch for Arithon to have a child, and would expedite matters, where they could.
Glendien is bereaved, and her grief and drive to be involved in things, a useful tool for them to get a royal heir - yes they can't mess about with the Law of Major balance, but Davien did warn of their long-term plans, AND I recall a wistful comment made by them, about how they wished he would get someone accidentally pregnant.
Even their encouragement of Elaira seems suspect, now that the Beidar were able to cut off the attempt by the Koriani to subborn the child. The F7 must have known this.
However, what I have thought as quite noble - the fact that Arithon refuses to have a child, and the response of Rathain to the conception - is this REALLY noble, or actually another shortsightedness that he has to overcome? That his fate and the fate of Athera are equal. In surrendering to fate, rather than forging it, surely he would heal? He can rule, play music and practice the mysteries… as the episode in the King's Grove proved.
So, based on Janny's comment, did the Koriathan actually nearly manage to slip past the F7 with their spell on Elaira, or did the F7 let it slip past?
originally posted by Lyssabits
Hmmm. It's hard to say, I suppose. If this is plotting on the part of the F7 to ensure that Arithon reproduces, it's way too subtle for me to ever pick up on it. A constant problem I have with these books. 
By all their actions they've indicated they did not want him to have a child by Elaira as long as she remains part of the Korianai Order, the extraordinary lengths they went to prevent their union in the forest that day speak to that. They also didn't seem to want him to be subject to the further binding of the sigil that would have made him father a child every time he had sex with a woman, even one not of the Order's number and they've seemed perfectly willing to sacrifice his personal preference in pursuit of their larger goals in the past, so I can't imagine this was done for his own good. I can't quite bring myself to believe that the F7 let that sigil slip by given how much it's been pounded into us that the F7 have their own problems right now with Sethvir out of commission, Asandir running around trying to fix the Grimwards, and Kharadmon and Luhaine working on other problems. I mean, they did have to send Arithon to defang the Kravloir and Dakar to reseal the wraiths into Rockfell. All the scenes with the F7 have been fraught with how thin they're stretched and how worried they are about missing things… which is what lead me to believe they were bound to miss the sigil Elaira was carrying, especially since the Prime went to great lengths to hide somewhere they wouldn't necessarily be able to detect it. Arithon certainly didn't detect it and he was really looking hard for something.
originally posted by motley
Arithon was not yet what he is in SF. But I still don't quite buy it. Janny's comment 'OR DID THEY???' in another post transformed a niggly hunch into a concrete suspicion - but then, she might be sending us down a possible dead-end, to keep us on our toes? Does she do that?
originally posted by Lyssabits
Eh, Janny is nefarious, but never duplicitous.