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

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Commentary from Chade regarding his scrying precedes “Heroes and Thieves,” which begins with Fitz waking in darkness, coming up from the effects of the sleeping draught he had been given. Fitz assesses his experience and surroundings, finding the Fool sleeping next to him. After Fitz rises and dresses, he and the Fool confer about the previous evening, about the Fool’s own shifting personal presentation, and about their long and tumultuous friendship.

Further talk is interrupted by the arrival of Spark, who attends to the Fool-as-Amber, and then breakfast. Over the meal, Spark notes the high regard in which Fitz is held in Kelsingra, and afterwards, they are conducted to meet with Reyn, Malta, and a number of Elderling families whose children are in need of attention. Rapskal confronts them before their meeting, accusing them and approaching taking them into custody when Reyn intervenes.

Fitz, the Fool, and Spark are joined by Lant and Perseverance at the meeting, and proceedings begin. Rapskal, present, does speak against Fitz and his party, to general disapproval. Fitz bows to the pleas of the parents around them, channeling the Skill to amend and ease the changes wrought by dragons upon the children of Kelsingra–including the child of Thymara and Tats, on whom the narrative dwells for a bit. Other healings ensue, and Amber cries out to have Fitz stopped before he expends himself utterly. The surrounding Elderlings plead for more aid, and Lant doses Fitz with elfbark while Amber puts a Silvered hand to him. And at the last, Rapskal cries aloud for their arrest for theft of Silver.

As is not unusual, the prefatory materials on the chapter attract attention. That Chade is able to scry is long established in the Realm of the Elderlings novels; I recall Fitz making mention of Chade trying him on the art, if without success. I also recall that not terribly much is made of it in terms of providing details of scrying’s workings, certainly not to the same degree as other magics at work in the series, whether or not Fitz possesses them–but I will admit that I did not pay particular attention to that aspect of the works. I suppose it becomes another scholarly someday to pore over the works and see how Hobb depicts scrying, at the beginning of the present chapter and elsewhere, and to compare that depiction to others in fantasy literature (Katharine Kerr’s Deverry novels come to mind) and in “real-world” precedents. (If someone’s already done it, please let me know; I’d love to add it to the Fedwren Project, on which I need to do more.)

In the main line of the chapter, I am again put in mind of Fitz as acting something of a Christ-figure. In my remarks on the previous chapter, I noted that healing Phron was not entirely voluntary on Fitz’s part, which, on further reflection, echoes Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:30, and Luke 8:45-46 (possibly something I should have included in my 2019 comments about medievalist religion in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus). In the present chapter, Fitz is beset by a group of whom he notes “Some pushed toward me out of hunger and need. Some strove to be first, others only to see what wonder I would next work, and some pushed to try and break through the wall of people in front of them so that they might have a chance to beg a boon of their own” (749-50), even as he continues to heal them. To my mind, as I read again, the scene rings of Luke 6:17-19 (also something I might ought to have included in my 2019 comments). I’m not sure why such passages are on my mind at the moment, though, and I’m not sufficiently skilled a theologian to unpack it further at the moment. But I do think that looking at how Hobb applies the Christ-figure here is something else worth doing–and, again, I’d love to know if someone’s already done that work.

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