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Bast Mirrors Both the Cthaeh and Cinder in the Narrow Road Excerpt

fringe symbolism · popularity 70 · 1 source thread

Bast's tree-circling and blood-deal with Rike echo both Cinder's portrait and the Cthaeh, blurring the two roles.

About: Bast, The Cthaeh, Cinder

Also involves: Kvothe, The Chandrian, The Lackless Box, Rike, Narrow Road Between Desires

The theory§

In the expanded Narrow Road Between Desires, Bast's confrontation with the boy Rike is staged with imagery that mirrors both the Cthaeh and Cinder at once. Bast circles a broken tree while somehow remaining in place, spins like a dancer yet keeps one hand on the broken trunk, and the ground where he stands 'wavers, rippling like a flat road on a blazing summer day.' This wavering echoes Nina's painting of Cinder, in which the black-eyed man stands before a bare tree on a circle of blue wavy lines 'supposed to be water,' amid drifts of snow. Bast's manipulation of Rike and the blood-pact struck at the broken tree parallel the Cthaeh's manipulations from within its own tree, while the summer-road shimmer inverts Cinder's winter-and-water portrait, casting Bast as a hinge between sun and water, summer and winter. Supporting details are drawn in: the lackless box is wood from the Cthaeh's tree, Bast's hearth is described as full of 'ash and cinder,' and the Sithe slay anything that touches the Cthaeh, which Haliax claims to keep Cinder safe from.

Evidence§

  • His careful steps described a circle round the tree, but somehow he still stayed right where he stood.
    OP's opening evidence: Bast circles the tree while staying in place. — u/Smurphilicious
  • The place where Bast was standing wavered, rippling like a flat road on a blazing summer day.
    Key image: the wavering ground echoes Nina's wavy lines. — u/Smurphilicious
  • In the background there was a bare tree, and he was standing on a circle of blue with a few wavy lines on it.
    Cinder's portrait: bare tree and wavy lines mirror Bast's scene. — u/Smurphilicious
  • Bast's Turn is a blazing summer day and sunsets, Cinder's Bad Turn is water and winter.
    OP frames Bast as a direct inverse of Cinder's winter/water portrait. — u/Smurphilicious
  • the thick canopy of hanging branches reminded me of the tree where I had met the Cthaeh
    Kvothe links the sword tree to the Cthaeh's tree, supporting the Cthaeh parallel. — u/Smurphilicious
  • Bast held up his hand, palm bright with blood. He pressed it hard against the barkless trunk. Underhand, he tossed the piece of chipped obsidian to Rike
    Blood-pact at the tree parallels willingness to bleed at the Cthaeh's tree. — u/Smurphilicious
  • So the question is, how can Bast be both the Cthaeh *and* Cinder? Because Rike isn't the one walking around the tree and making 'wavy lines'. Rike's the one striking a deal with the one doing the Turning.
    OP's central claim: Bast occupies both roles, with Rike as the dealmaker. — u/Smurphilicious
  • The lackless box is almost certainly wood from the tree that contains the cthaeh. But I’m confused on how bast is the cthaeh or cinder.
    CounterCommenter affirms Cthaeh-wood link but questions how Bast can be both. — u/Warmachine44-

Book refs: NRBD

Tier reasoning§

single page; tier fringe confirmed: speculative symbolic reading

Contributors§

Source threads§