Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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All joking aside, following an excerpt from Fitz’s journals, “Collision” begins with Fitz moving to find Bee, whose absence he had had pointed out to him. Riddle advises Fitz as he accompanies him that his care for Bee had not been successful, that he would have to remove Bee from Fitz’s care for her own safety. Shun and Lant attempt to intervene and are decisively rebuffed as Fitz looks out, sees Bee and the beggar, and reacts violently.

Riddle scoops up Bee and affirms her safety as the victim of Fitz’s violence looks to him, revealing himself as the Fool. Fitz recognizes his error and the depths thereof and begins to attempt to address it, entrusting Bee to Riddle’s care as he plies his Skill on his old friend. Realizing the extent of the Fool’s injuries and illness, not all of which is the result of his own knife, Fitz pleads for assistance and purposes to take the Fool to Buckkeep via the Skill-pillars, sending ahead through the Skill to Nettle that he is coming; she reluctantly agrees to assist.

A frantic rush to the nearest Skill-pillars ensues, Fitz trying to get information from the Fool along the way. At Lant’s query, he offers some indication of his own plans, and final preparations for the magical transit are made. Taking one last look at Bee, and with Riddle’s assistance, Fitz takes himself, Riddle, and the Fool into the pillars.

The excerpt from Fitz’s journal comments on his inability to fully immerse himself in the now as Nighteyes had done. There is some commentary on mindfulness to be taken from the excerpt, I am certain, although I’ll readily note that mindfulness is not something at which I excel. I focus on things that need to be done, sometimes to the neglect of what I am doing, or I lose perspective on larger goals while attempting to take steps that I think conduce to them. It’s one of no few things that call for explication by others than me, others who are better suited to the specific tasks; I acknowledge there is much that lies outside my expertise.

The present chapter pretty clearly is the inflection point towards which the novel had been progressing increasingly quickly in the most recent several chapters–and it is quite an inflection, with Fitz potentially fatally wounding someone whose life he had restored and for whose company he had often longed after ragged parting. The irony, operating at several levels, is not lost on me. The chapter opens with opining on not acting in the moment, only to punish Fitz for acting in the moment without gathering additional information. The chapter brings back to Fitz someone he has wanted to see again, only to have him inflict injuries apt to be fatal. The chapter exposes more of Fitz than he would care to have shown, pushing him into reliance on official power structures he had often sought to escape. It also forces him to leave his daughter despite his ongoing efforts to keep her with him. And, as is easily inferred, it removes from Bee perhaps the best teacher that she could have, just as Fitz had removed her from others’ instruction due to perceived insufficiencies in them. So, yes, a lot going on.

And it’s Hobb, which means there’s more such to come…

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