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

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An excerpt from Bee’s journals precedes “The Butterfly Cloak,” which begins with Fitz ruminating on long ocean voyages, not entirely happily, as the Paragon proceeds towards Clerres, passing beyond what reliable charts the ship and crew have. The progress of the vessel and matters among the crew are glossed, and Fitz considers the value of boredom.

At one point, Lant approaches Fitz to note his concerns about Kennitsson’s interest in Spark. The pair confer, Fitz suggesting to Lant that he leave matters be until and unless he is asked to intervene, and Lant begrudgingly accedes. Fitz finds himself musing on his own history as he considers whether or not he should intervene, himself, and decides against it. He does, however, confer with the ship about it when the figurehead summons him to talk, and he finds himself subjected to the memories of trauma and abuse that the ship has taken in and held for others. How Igrot and his crew died is attested, as is more of what befell Paragon before the ship’s return to Bingtown.

Kennitsson joins the conversation, distracting the Paragon into discussion of the plan to return to draconic form, and Fitz absents himself. Returning to his cabin, he encounters the Fool, and the two move towards reconciliation over their earlier anger towards one another. The Fool notes the urgency of sharing prophetic dreams, and they talk together of what the Fool has dreamed until he falls asleep. Fitz tends to him, and then he reaches out towards Nettle with the Skill. She informs him that Chade has died and relates his final days. Fitz relates his contact with Bee to her sister.

After Fitz releases contact with Nettle, he reaches through the Skill towards Bee and finds an echo of Chade in the Skill-current. In the dark, Fitz weeps.

There are some things that attract my attention in the chapter, as might be expected. One of them is in the prefatory remarks, which might well also be expected at this point. In them, Bee writes that “Wasps are more like men [than are bees], able to kill again and again, and still go on living” (423). The simile is of interest; in context, Bee contrasts wasps with bees (meaningfully, given her name), juxtaposing the usual fatality to the bee of using its sting with the ability of wasps to sting repeatedly. Implied is the idea that the wasps do not suffer harm from their repeated stings, although I note that so much is not made explicit, and I read with the fact that Bee is a White Prophet in mind; exact wording matters (something of a theme across Hobb’s work, as I’ve motioned towards), and what is not said is as important as what is. Implied also is that she, herself, cannot kill and remain alive, although this, too, must be read with the fact that Bee is a White Prophet in mind; in that case, it may simply be an acknowledgment that acting in such a way is a death of innocence. Further explication is suggested, and while it may well be the case that many would argue such exercises are of little value, I would reply that they both serve to deepen engagement with–and thus likely enjoyment of–the text so treated and to foster skills in attention and interpretation that are likely to be useful when applied to other media and to the non-media environment. But that’s something of an aside, I admit.

Another matter of interest in the chapter is the reassertion of butterfly imagery. Commonly associated with transformation and rebirth, the insect is referenced more than a few times across the Realm of the Elderlings novels. That it is here juxtaposed both with Bee’s comments about bees and wasps and with Chade’s death (itself foreshadowed heavily in the previous chapter) makes a bit more interesting of a reading; there is a lot of talk of transformations and of moving through stages of existence in the chapter, whether in Bee’s journal and its implications or the liveship’s intention to transform (from parts of chrysalides, no less) or in the idea that something of the person persists beyond death in the flow of those magics which Fitz and other Farseers employ. The imagery, although it does end up mixing with other images, seems to work well, here, and I’m always glad to see such things in what I read.

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