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Siuan Remembers Her Past and Looks Towards Her Future in The Gathering Storm (Part 6)
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The Wheel of Time
Siuan Remembers Her Past and Looks Towards Her Future in The Gathering Storm (Part 6)
The former Amyrlin Seat gets complimented on her laundry skills—and meets Egwene in Tel’aran’rhiod.
By Sylas K Barrett
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Published on October 21, 2025
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Welcome back to Reading The Wheel of Time! This week we’re covering chapter 8, which is all about Siuan and how different her life is now from before she was disposed and stilled. There’s some great character work here, though there’s also her burgeoning romance with Gareth Bryne, which I am not so much a fan of.
But before we get into that, let’s recap.
Siuan is walking with Lelaine, reflecting on the ominous look of the sky. The fishers call it a dockmaster’s sky, because dockmasters waive the fees they charge to moored vessels during a storm, but not on days when it only might storm, which means each fisher must decide whether to play it safe or to venture out in an attempt to recoup the dock fees.
But if a storm did come on a day like this, it tended to be very bad. Many of the most terrible tempests in history had sprung from a dockmaster’s sky. That’s why some fishers had another name for clouds like those. They called them a lionfish’s veil. And it had been days since the sky had offered anything different. Siuan shivered, pulling her shawl close. It was a bad sign.
In Egwene’s absence, Lelaine has commandeered Siuan as her own attendant, in order to establish herself as someone who speaks for Egwene in her absence. To this same end, she has also made a show of valuing all the new novices brought in by Egwene’s changes, a change to the system that most other Aes Sedai have struggled to accept, and Romanda is openly against. Lelaine is beginning to win the struggle between her and Romanda, and that is a problem for Siuan.
When Siuan mentions that she needs to attend to Bryne, Lelaine remarks that an Aes Sedai shouldn’t be doing such work and that she intends to buy out the rest of Siuan’s debt to him. Siuan is horrified at the idea of Bryne thinking she is trying to escape her oath, and doesn’t like the idea of being beholden to Lelaine. She points out that her position near Bryne affords a valuable opportunity to keep an eye on the man responsible for their army, and Lelaine agrees, thanking Siuan for her sacrifice.
On her way to the soldiers’ camp, Siuan reflects upon how different her life is now from what it once was. She thinks about the sacrifices she made in becoming the Amyrlin Seat, locked away in the tower, never enjoying the world or even seeing much of it, as she traded in secrets and tried to nudge the world closer to readiness for the declaration of the Dragon Reborn and the arrival of the Last Battle. She doesn’t regret her choices, but she and Moiraine had nothing left for themselves in their life dedicated to finding and guiding the Dragon Reborn.
Siuan the Amyrlin hadn’t had any time for entanglements, but what of Siuan the attendant? Guiding people with quiet manipulations required a lot more skill than bullying them with the power of the Amyrlin Seat, and it was proving more fulfilling. But it also left her without the crushing weight of responsibility she’d felt during her years leading the White Tower. Was there, perhaps, room in her life for a few more changes?
As she arrives at her destination, she thinks of herself as a foolish girl, and reminds herself that there is still too much work to do to be thinking about Bryne that way.
She finds him in his tent, at his desk. After some good-natured teasing between the two of them, Bryne compliments Siuan’s skill with his laundry. She is somewhat irked, but also somewhat struck by the compliment; she knows he sees all people as equal and esteems only those who do their duty and keep their oaths. Then, Bryne asks again why she broke her oath to him.
She repeats the reasons she has told him: her need to deliver information to the Aes Sedai in Salidar, the need to make sure Logain was safely delivered into their hands. But Bryne remarks that these are only excuses—true, but not the real reason. He also tells her that it is the question of why she broke her oath that drove him to follow her, even going so far at to swear an oath to the Aes Sedai. He had to know why she broke her oath.
Siuan tells him the truth, about witnessing Gitara’s Foretelling with Moiraine, about the Black Ajah murder of those the Amyrlin sent to hunt for the Dragon, and of the Amyrlin herself. Of how only Siuan and Moiraine were left, the only two people in all the world who knew the truth, and how Siuan dedicated her life to seeing the world through to the Last Battle, swearing to do whatever was necessary to carry the burden she had been given.
“So you see, Gareth Bryne,” she said. “I had to delay fulfilling my oath to you because of other oaths. I swore to see this through to the end, and the Dragon has not yet met his destiny at Shayol Ghul. A person’s oaths must follow their order of importance. When I swore to you, I did not promise to serve you immediately. I was intentionally careful on that point. You will call it an Aes Sedai wordplay. I would call it something else.”
When she realizes Bryne is about to release her from his service, Siuan cuts him off, informing him that she isn’t done with him yet, and that she will decide when their association is complete. They fall back into comfortable banter, until Bryne tells Siuan that it is time for her to bunk down; he has noticed that every third night she goes to bed early, wearing the ring she keeps hidden under her pillow. He tells her to say hello to the Amyrlin for him.
Siuan is astounded, and infuriated at the man’s perceptive nature, able to deduce she was communicating with Egwene even though he can’t know about tel’aran’rhiod. He falls asleep while figuring out the right way to punish him. Perhaps by putting mice in his sheets.
In Tel’aran’rhiod, Siuan tells Egwene about the true identity of Halima, and about the offer to bond Asha’man to balance out the number of bonded Aes Sedai. Egwene takes the news about Halima, who had attended her, stoically, and has heard the rumors of Aes Sedai being bonded, though she admits she hoped they were exaggerated.
Egwene agrees with the Hall’s decision to accept Rand’s offer, and declares that eventually Rand will still have to answer for the bonding of Aes Sedai, whether he knew his men were doing it or not. Siuan tells her about the claim that saidin has been cleansed.
Egwene raised an eyebrow, but did not object. “Yes,” she said, “I suppose that might be a reasonable possibility. We will need further confirmation, of course. But the taint arrived when all seemed won; why should it not leave when all seems to be approaching pure madness?”
Egwene tells her to let the Hall handle al of it, for now, and she isn’t particularly worried about the fact that Lelaine appears to be winning her power struggle against Romanda. She explains to Siuan that Lelaine is building up Egwene’s authority and legitimacy in her attempts to usurp Egwene. Her gambit will only work if Egwene doesn’t return, in which case the Salidar Aes Sedai will need a strong leader. Siuan reminds Egwene that Lelaine has good reason to try to prevent Egwene’s return, and that she is betting against her Amyrlin, but Egwene admits that she would be tempted to bet against herself, if she were on the outside.
They talk a little about the Last Battle, and Siuan tells Egwene about a basement storeroom in the Tower which holds many objects of power. Egwene sends Siuan back to get some real sleep. Leane wakes to the sound of Gareth Bryne sleeping on the other side of the tent, and thinks of this notable event that she did not report to Egwene.
I just can’t get behind the Siuan/Gareth Bryne relationship. Part of me really wants to—you all know by now home much of a mushy romantic I am. And there is something in Siuan’s journey I really do like, and which is brought to the fore in this chapter.
As Siuan explains to Bryne, she and Moiraine sacrificed everything—their personal hopes and dreams, their freedom, their safety, their power of choice—to save the world. They were the only two survivors who knew of the Dragon’s birth and the only hope that someone would find him before the Shadow did. There was no room for them to have their own desires once this fate fell upon them.
How Siuan feels about sacrificing everything for the sake of the Dragon and the world has been touched upon a few times in the narrative, and I found it especially poignant in New Spring, when we learned about her dreams of being able to leave the Tower and explore the world. She thought she would attain this goal once she became Aes Sedai, but those hopes were dashed by fate and circumstance, first when she and Moiraine witnessed the Foretelling, and then again when, as a newly raised sister, her skill with puzzles and knack for political intrigue caught the attention of more senior sisters. Siuan never even had a chance to choose the manner in which she would enact the duty she and Moiraine dedicated their lives to—even that was decided for her.
By the Wheel, presumably, and one might argue that it has dictated her steps the entire time, as surely as it has dictated Rand’s.
Just as Rand wishes (hopes, I think, though he does not allow himself to believe in hope) that he might have a legacy other than that which is prophesied for him, and just as he wishes he could survive the Last Battle and have a life of his own, so does Siuan. And now, in this chapter, we see her begin to consider the possibility for the first time.
Siuan the Amyrlin hadn’t had any time for entanglements, but what of Siuan the attendant? Guiding people with quiet manipulations required a lot more skill than bullying them with the power of the Amyrlin Seat, and it was proving more fulfilling. But it also left her without the crushing weight of responsibility she’d felt during her years leading the White Tower. Was there, perhaps, room in her life for a few more changes?
I like the idea that Siuan might find a life on the other side of Tarmon Gai’don. That she might get to live in the world, rather than standing almost outside it, directing its fate from afar. A part of her so clearly longs for her childhood home, to be on the water again, to be part of a community again. And we see how she hangs on to that world through her language, through the way she decorated her chambers when she was Amyrlin, through her knowledge of the weather.
I loved the parallel between Siuan and Nynaeve here, as well. Both women come from a background where understanding the weather was specifically tied to the livelihood of their community, and despite having left that community, both women still see great value in the understanding and connection between man and nature. Siuan considers her ability to read the sky to be the result of “generations of wisdom” and “good sense,” but it is also a part of her heritage, and when Lelaine dismissed her thoughts about the weather as “superstitious nonsense about the sky,” I was reminded of Nynaeve’s conviction that becoming an Aes Sedai did not stop her from being who she was. A Wisdom, in spirit even if she is not currently acting in the position. Some part of Siuan is still a fisherman’s daughter, which is something to be proud of, and makes her more valuable, not less, as an Aes Sedai or in any other role she fills in her life.
Which is why Bryne’s compliment of her laundering skills kind of works. The narrative acknowledges it as much, as Siuan reflects upon the fact that Bryne sees all people as being equal, even washerwomen, and that to Bryne “a compliment on laundry well done was as meaningful as a medal awarded to a soldier who had stood his ground before the enemy.”
Compare this attitude to Lelaine’s comments about Siuan’s superstitious nonsense, and you can see a flaw that exists in the White Tower: They are a powerful political force that directs and shapes the world, but despite having a profound connection to the very forces that drive the Wheel and power creation, they largely stand apart from connections with nature. Their food is provided by others; they are protected from the elements by some of the most impressive architecture in the known world, bolstered by wards and weavings. Even when they leave Tar Valon, they have the ability to shape nature to their will, to some extent, such as when Siuan and her entourage created winds to drive their ships to Fal Dara.
Even when Siuan was Amyrlin, her fellow Aes Sedai saw this part of her as a strange quirk, an oddity that existed despite her power and political acumen, rather than as another sign of her wisdom and knowledge.
Perhaps this is why the Yellow Ajah don’t seem to care about anything but Healing. Their work is very different than that of any other Ajah, as it is focused entirely on the human body, and therefore a part of nature. Healing is such a useful ability that it makes sense to have an Ajah dedicated to it, but it is very different than the work done by any other Ajah, even the Brown.
In any case, Bryne’s circumstances are more alike to Siuan’s than I first considered. He was once the Captain-General of one of the most powerful nations in the world and First Prince of the Sword to Morgase. Then he was betrayed and ousted from that position by Morgase (under the control of Rahvin). After that he is only a minor noble, living on a small estate and dealing with the problems of a small town. Not so high a rise or meteoric a fall as Siuan experienced, but there is a lot of similarity in their journeys, especially as they have now both found themselves back in service to an important woman, and an even more important cause.
But the narrative lost me when it suggested that there was more freedom in Siuan’s new position than in the old, and then added to that “freedom” a very traditional, heteronormative female experience and set of desires. Suddenly she is blushing at being praised for her laundry skills, and reveling in the power of being a manipulator rather than a commander, and falling in love with a man who is almost twenty years older than her and looks much older than her.
It’s just icky the way that all the main female characters are either younger than the men they end up with, or look younger, or both. Jordan’s affinity to write all the main women as being petite and childlike (with Aviendha being one notable exception) always rubbed me the wrong way. In Siuan’s case, any middle-aged gravitas she might have had (she’s a bit over 40, I believe, which is young for an Aes Sedai but middle-aged for a non-channeler) was robbed from her by her stilling, which somehow made her look younger than she is and a little more traditionally pretty than she was even before she got the ageless look. It would have been such a perfect move to make her and Bryne contemporaries, but instead, we get “old man with a young woman.” Again.
I also have to complain for a moment about the fact that Jordan writes every male/female relationship the same. Not everyone’s courtship has to either be The Taming of the Shrew or Benedict and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, Mr J! There’s more than one way for men and women to have a relationship.I think it’s Jordan’s upbringing and life as a good southern gentleman at play here (with Sanderson continuing to write the relationship as it has begun). Much of the American patriarchy likes to believe that women’s power, the power of suggestion, of feminine wiles, of manipulating behind the scenes and browbeating their poor, beleaguered husband whenever they get them alone, is better than the power that men wield, and that there is more freedom and less of a burden in it than the power that is wielded by men.
This is, of course, not true. It is certainly interesting and worthwhile to tell a story about Siuan realizing that she still has power in her new role and her new life, and in finding that new life—one with advantages and drawbacks, with new opportunities and new restrictions. However, when all of these details are combined together, it is impossible to escape a narrative that is moving her from a position of what most societies still see as “masculine” power to one of “feminine” power and calling it a better life. From a perspective that takes into account the prejudices of both Siuan’s world and the world of the reader, it’s impossible not to feel like the story has removed Siuan’s teeth, made her prettier, and put her in a relationship that makes the patriarchy feel safe and comfortable.
I don’t mean to say that this was Jordan’s intention with the character. It strikes me more as an oversight, as something he didn’t notice as a man of his time and his upbringing, just as his wife and editor, Harriet McDougal, was a woman of the same time and upbringing. I think Siuan’s journey also might hit differently if it wasn’t mirrored by so many of the women who began this story in positions of power, such as Morgase.
The story is not finished yet, and we don’t know where Moiraine will end up. She’s in love with Thom for some reason (another old man, probably about the same age as Bryne, give or take) but I don’t know how that relationship will play out on the page, so I will try to reserve judgment.
Still, I can’t help thinking about how fed we were by the television series, which gave us Rosamond Pike and Sophie Okonedo, two middle-aged actresses bringing all the beauty and gravitas and power to these rolls that they deserve, and giving these wonderful female characters a love that matches how special and fabulous they are. A love not defined by men, a love restrained by duty and sacrifice but never intimated, either intentionally or by accident, to be less feminine and beautiful because of it.
That show was far from perfect, but with Siuan and Moiraine it gave me everything I wanted and then broke my heart, and I’m so deeply regretful that it got canceled.
And oh, how I would have loved to see what they did with Tuon.
With all that being said, I did really like the conversation between Siuan and Bryne when she finally told him her story, and it felt very cathartic to have someone else know the truth about her. It is easy for me to forget sometimes how few people actually know the truth about Siuan and Moiraine’s experience even now that the Dragon has declared himself. We know Moiraine confided everything in Lan, but has Siuan ever told anyone even part of this? She might have told Alric, but somehow I kind of doubt it—even though their relationship seemed to be very strong and she must have trusted him, sharing that information with anyone, even a Warder, would always come with some risk. And Siuan would never have accepted even a small risk to the success of her goal just to ease her own burden.
She’s told it to Egwene, of course. But in that context it was duty, and there would have been little relief in it. Telling Bryne is probably the only time she’s been able to unburden herself of the secret, just a little, for her own sake. And it probably meant even more since she’s lost Moiraine.
Her acknowledgement of that loss also really struck me, even though it was only a passing comment in the conversation. “There was only one other person I knew I could trust, and she is now dead.” The fact that it is so brief only makes me suspect more pain in Siuan, more grief for her friend, and for herself.
Perhaps Moiraine’s death is also a factor in Siuan’s new desire to have a life outside the White Tower.
I really want to know what Egwene thought when she learned about Halima and her strange ability to wield saidin, as well as the confirmation about the bonding of Aes Sedai by Asha’man. She kept her thoughts from Siuan, remained stoic as an Aes Sedai and an Amyrlin is supposed to, but surely she must have some decently large emotions around the knowledge that one of the Forsaken was working on her headaches, and was almost certainly the cause of them.
She also mentions that Rand will have to answer for the bonding of the Aes Sedai, even if it was done without his instruction or knowledge. She’s made a few comments like this, worried about Rand running around “uncontrolled.” She has also considered the respect he will owe to her when they finally meet. It’s making me a little nervous, to be honest, especially since we know that Rand feels incredibly distrustful of Egwene, now that she is Amyrlin. I wonder how the two will find compromise when they are both feeling so stubborn and righteous about the other.
I was also interested in the difference between Siuan and Egwene’s attitude towards Lelaine’s rise to power. While they both make some good points, I don’t think Siuan’s instincts are wrong about the way the power is flowing among the rebels in Egwene’s absence. However, I believe Egwene is already looking at the Aes Sedai as one group again; she is just as intent on saving those inside Tar Valon (with a few notable exceptions) as she is on restoring the rebels to their rightful place in the White Tower. Even if Lelaine does become the leader of the rebels, Egwene no longer intends to bring down Elaida’s followers through siege or war. She intends to strengthen them behind herself, and then to reunite both sides as followers of the true Amyrlin.
From where she stands, therefore, Lelaine’s actions are not really a threat to her goals, or at least not the most pressing one. She acknowledges that someone on the outside can’t see what she can, and although she’s speaking about Lelaine’s doubts, specifically, I think she is also considering Siuan’s perspective. Siuan doesn’t see less clearly than Egwene or understand less—she simply isn’t standing in the right place to see the whole problem,
Perhaps that is the real burden of leadership. Looking at the big picture, and all the pieces, rather than having your assigned section. Like with Siuan’s laundry duties, you wouldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, say that there is freedom in that job, or in living the life of a washerwoman. But there is a line one can draw around what is and isn’t one’s responsibility, and it’s not hard to understand the relief that comes from such a boundary. From being able to say, that danger, that burden, that worry is not my worry.
Siuan doesn’t feel more free now because she is less strong in the One Power. She feels more free because for nearly twenty years, she has been responsible for everything, for the fate of the entire world and every human being in it, including the Dragon Reborn himself. Now the Dragon is taking his place in leading the world now, and Egwene carries the responsibility for the world that Siuan once had. Siuan is just as dedicated as she ever was, and just as ready to sacrifice anything and everything of herself that becomes necessary. But her duty is different now, the role she plays has boundaries that her previous role did not have. And yes, there is great freedom in that.
If she survives the Last Battle, she might even get to enjoy it.
Next week we’ll cover chapters 9 and 10, catching up with Perrin and then with Ituralde. I am so so curious about how things are going to go when Ituralde meets Rand and hears the Dragon’s plans for Arad Doman. But until then, I leave you with this exchange between Siuan and Bryne, which I honestly did really enjoy, despite all my complaints. It’s just really funny, and I like how quick-witted Siuan is. I guess Bryne does, too.
Siuan sniffed, letting the tent flaps droop closed behind her. Not a single lamp! That man! “You will ruin your eyes reading by such poor light, Gareth Bryne.”“I have read by the light of a single candle for most of my life, Siuan,” he said, turning over a page and not looking up. “And I’ll have you know that my eyesight is the same as it was when I was a boy.”“Oh?” Siuan said. “So you’re saying that your eyesight was poor to begin with?”
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The post Siuan Remembers Her Past and Looks Towards Her Future in <i>The Gathering Storm</i> (Part 6) appeared first on Reactor.
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