KKC Theory Wiki

Ambrose Didn't Hire the Assassins: Someone Tracked Kvothe From Anilin

plausible motive · popularity 282 · 1 source thread

The assassins who attack Kvothe at the University were already hunting him on the road, having botched an earlier attempt in Anilin.

About: Kvothe, Ambrose Jakis

Also involves: Denna, Pike, Sleat, Imre, Roent, Anilin

The theory§

This theory argues that Ambrose did not hire the two assassins who attack Kvothe at the University, because the men speak of a prior botched attempt 'in Anilin,' a city Kvothe approached during his travelling days, long before his feud with Ambrose could have turned murderous. Roent's caravan, which Kvothe rode and which Denna invites him to follow, was bound for Anilin, placing Kvothe near the city well before he reached the University and supplying a window in which someone could have begun tracking him with a dowsing compass and a strand of his hair. The chronology is read as inverted: Ambrose's clearly lethal move, the plum bob before admissions, comes after this assassination attempt, when a natural escalation would put it before. Kvothe's own narration attributes the attack to Ambrose only as a guess, made when he was a fifteen-year-old prone to leaping to conclusions. Proposed alternative hirers include Pike from his Tarbean past, Master Ash's thugs mistargeting Kvothe instead of Denna, Sleat's masters, or Denna herself; the chief objection is that 'Anilin' may simply name a previous unrelated job, and that candidates like Pike lack the money and knowledge of sympathy to hire and equip such men.

Evidence§

  • Kvothe is attacked by a pair of assassins whom we are explicitly led to believe were hired by Ambrose. … I believe we were led astray. … because he was a fifteen-year-old boy leaping to nonsensical conclusions
    OP's core claim: the Ambrose attribution is a young Kvothe's faulty guess, not fact. — u/Landraeus
  • Ambrose's most potentially dangerous move against Kvothe--hiring someone to administer plum bob to him before admissions--takes place *after* this assassination attempt he's allegedly responsible for. … It simply doesn't fit the naturally escalating progression of their back-and-forth.
    Chronology argument: lethal assassination before the lesser plum bob inverts the feud's escalation. — u/Landraeus
  • We've lost him twice already. (NOTW Ch. 69) … If they've lost him twice already, it stands to figure they've been tracking him for some time, which adds more fuel to the notion that they were hired well before the Kvothe-Ambrose feud had reached murderous heights.
    Assassins' own words imply long-running tracking predating the Ambrose feud. — u/Landraeus
  • I'm not having another cock-up like in Anilin. (NOTW Ch. 69) … If these men were hired by Ambrose and given a strand of Kvothe's hair all while Kvothe was at the University, what could have possibly led them to Anilin in their search for him?
    Crux: a University-based hiring can't explain why assassins searched in Anilin. — u/Landraeus
  • what could have led them to Anilin in their search for him? Well, now that's much easier to answer. Because Anilin is exactly where Roent's caravan was headed. … You could come to Anilin with us. (Denna to Kvothe as he part with the caravan, NOTW Ch. 35)
    Resolves the Anilin clue: Kvothe's pre-University caravan was bound there. — u/Landraeus
  • Pat has written that the thugs went astray while looking for Kvothe though and that must be for a reason or it's an odd detail to add. Why Anilin not Tarbean for example?
    Reinforces that the Anilin detail is deliberate, supporting a tracking-from-travels reading. — u/wildedges
  • I had assumed they were referring to a previous job.
    CounterTop counter: 'Anilin' may simply name an earlier unrelated assassin job. — u/DivisionZeke
  • I highly doubt that it’s Pike for the simple reason that there is no evidence Pike is at all familiar with magic. Therefore it is exceedingly unlikely his chosen method to track and kill Kvothe would rely on magic.
    CounterCounter to the proposed hirer: Pike lacks the money and sympathy knowledge for a dowsing compass. — u/OldBenR2Jitsu

Book refs: NOTW

Tier reasoning§

tier confirmed: plausible, decent textual hook though contested

Contributors§

Source threads§