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

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Transcribed records of the environmental disaster that ravaged the Realm of the Elderlings precede “Under Sail.” The chapter begins with the Paragon making ready to depart Divvytown in haste, the dragons having departed. Kennit’s son takes ship and is stymied to find himself treated as a common deckhand rather than as an entitled princeling, Brashen and Sorcor having conferred to that effect. Fitz finds himself addressed by name and title and swiftly intuits Brashen’s purposes before taking himself off to confer with Amber. The conversation between the two is strained and interrupted by another summons to work.

A day out, Motley rejoins the group, having seemingly conferred with and been enriched by Heeby. After conferring with Perseverance about the crow, Fitz finds himself addressed by Kennitsson, the younger man trying to sort out the hierarchy in place aboard the ship. Fitz considers the change in his status and the return to working aboard ship. He also continues to marvel at the ease of working aboard a liveship as compared to a more normal vessel, remarking on the attitudes of the crew towards the same. How his companions fare as part of the crew is noted, as well, both for good and for ill.

Fitz is later summoned to Amber to discuss rescuing Bee. Plans for doing so are discussed, and changes to the mission to destroy Clerres are noted. Fitz’s own ongoing desire for revenge is also noted.

Amid the tedium of a slow ocean voyage, Fitz is reached through the Skill by Nettle. She notes having received his written report of events in Kelsingra, and they exchange news. Fitz thinks of Chade and is nearly overwhelmed by the old man’s Skilling. As Nettle and those in Buckkeep move to restrain Chade, Fitz hears Bee through the Skill, and he is thrown from his magics. Although he sorrows for his mentor, Fitz is buoyed up by the certain knowledge that Bee lives.

When Fitz takes the news to Amber, he finds only rebuke, and he contrasts her with the Fool. Fitz takes himself away, leaving Amber angry behind him.

Fitz is roused by Spark, who tells him, with apologies, that Amber has dreamed his death. Fitz considers it and his history with the Fool, and he muses on how Bee will live after he retrieves her. So musing, he dismisses Spark.

There’s a lot going on in the present chapter. The tensions surrounding Kennitsson continue to increase as he takes ship and starts work. As noted, Fitz quickly comes to understand what is happening with the younger man; he is being tested, and in ways he was not expecting to be challenged. I am put in mind of Regal as I read, as well as of Dutiful, and the thought suddenly occurs to me that I need to look at how often Hobb puts forward only sons and how they compare across her works. The thought also occurs that I need to keep better track of all of the scholarly somedays that pop up for me; I seem to have a lot of them, and I despair of ever addressing them all. Perhaps I will luck into being able to do so.

Tension also increases between Fitz and Amber. Both of them seem to me to be talking past one another, failing each to hear and understand the other. Some of that has always been the case, particularly as Fitz regards Beloved; he has always had trouble understanding what the White Prophet says. But then, the Prophet is rarely clear or direct in speech, occasionally making self-aware comments to the same effect, and it is also the case that the Prophet has known Fitz for as long as Fitz has known Beloved; for the Fool or Amber not to realize Fitz will react as Fitz does, as Fitz ever has, seems an oversight. I’ll admit that there are other concerns for both characters; Beloved is still early in recovery from substantial trauma, and Fitz is barely holding onto himself amid his own. Both have reason to be other than at their best. Both may be following paths of recovery that may not and need not be linear. But that does not mean it is not marked that they are at odds as they are in the present chapter.

The issue of Chade’s decline is also somewhat pointed. In some ways, it is to be expected. Chade was already old when Fitz first met him, and that is some sixty years prior; Fitz remarks being in his seventh decade–so his sixties–in the present chapter, and he is around six years of age when he first meets Chade, who was senior to his grandfather, Shrewd. Chade is therefore easily at or past a century old, and it hardly defies belief that so aged a person would not be in full possession of faculties. That Chade has abused himself with drugs and reckless experimentation with addictive magics does not help matters, either. I find myself wondering once again if biographical criticism might apply here, despite knowing how fraught it always is; an author need not experience something to depict it, and there are levels and levels of experience. I spent a lot of time around those who had engaged heavily with addiction, and I have a fair bit of exposure to people in age-driven decline, and what is presented of Chade in the present chapter rings true for me; it lines up with what I’ve seen and, frankly, what I fear.

Again, I find myself remembering why I read Robin Hobb.

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