u/Pythias

Welcome knights, ladies, lords etc. to our latest discussion of The Bright Sword. Today we'll be discussing chapters 25 through 29 and God's blood do we have a lot to discuss. You can check out the marginalia here and the schedule here. Next week u/IraelMrad will lead the discussion for chapter 30 through Chapter 34. For Camelot!! Let's do it.

Summaries

• Twenty-five Miracles After the tournament, the knights shake hands with Lancelot du Lac except Dagonet (who apparently doesn't shake hands with anyone) and Bedivere. Lancelot swears to Bedivere that he didn't betray Arthur and would not have left Arthur had he not been forced to. Bedivere does not care and walks away after threatening Lancelot. Lancelot escorts the rest of the knights to Hoxmead Abbey, which is where Lancelot has decided to spend the rest of his days. Dinadan and Constantine recount their story of the Battle of Camelot to Lancelot, and then Lancelot shares his story. After the disaster of Camlann, Lancelot swears that he never betrayed Arthur, but the shame of his failure ran so deep he fled instead of facing it. The knights ask why Lancelot didn't tell them who he was when he was fighting as the Indigo Knight, and Lancelot states that he couldn't because as soon as he put on his armor, he couldn't speak. He guesses that "God didn't want me to spoil the surprise." The Knights tell Lancelot that they are looking for the Holy Lance, hoping it will give them a new king, and ask Lancelot to join them. He declines, saying that his place is at the abbey. The following night, Lancelot recounts an adventure he had in his early days in which he healed Sir Meliot de Logres's wounds with a bloody cloth from the Chapel Perilous and that while he was healing Meliot with magic, he could feel God work through him. Lancelot also tells them about growing up with the Lady of the Lake (a different Lady of the Lake from the one who presented Excalibur). He is trained by the fairy in the lake for seven years, and when he turned seventeen the lady states that Lancelot must pay his boon and sleep with her. Lancelot refuses and kills her. Lancelot strives for the rest of his days to be the perfect knight in order to feel God's love and warmth again as he did when he healed Sir Meliot. Lancelot admits that though he didn't betray Arthur, he would have had Guinevere wanted him. The knights wonder who sent the summons to Lancelot that night and think it could have been Mordred. With that, Lancelot bids them good luck with their adventure.

• Twenty-six The Waste Land King Arthur and Guinevere are going through parchment rolls pertaining to the kingdom, and then out of nowhere King Arthur throws a tantrum and walks out to the courtyard. Guinevere notices that King Arthur is wearing himself thin. The adventure of the Holy Grail has been disastrous for the past eight months, and Arthur is trying to find the meaning in all of it. She convinces him to back inside where it's warm to give the latest news of the Holy Grail. Inside, Arthur wants to wait for Mordred before receiving the news. We learn that Lancelot has returned from his adventure but did not find the Grail. After dismissing Mordred Arthur and Guinevere discuss their options. Arthur, as a man of action, doesn't know what to do. Arthur guesses that God is "washing his hands" of them. Guinevere then suggests they go hunting and tells Arthur to meet her on the grounds. Arthur is late meeting Guinevere because he is held up by King Erec, who told him a story about some knights causing trouble in Destregales. The knights Lavaine and Bellangere kill a giant named Umfrey who was on friendly terms with the locals. So the locals being upset, Erec had the ringleader hanged and the rest put in the stocks. King Arthur comes to the conclusion that no one cares about the search for the Holy Grail and, with that, that God must not care as well. Arthur denounces God as his God. Guinevere states that God may abandon them, but she will never abandon Arthur. They decide that without God Britain may become a wasteland without God and that they will have to find a way to live in a waste land or bring it back to life.

• Twenty- seven The Barrow Collum is woken up by a Saxon hunting party. The knights fight off the Saxons with the exception of Dagonet; he climbed a tree when the fighting started. The knights continue their journey, and Bedivere tells Collum that maybe Collum could be a child that Arthur had hidden away. Collum is annoyed and states that it's not him because he thinks he would know if it was him. Nimue wants to know why he is so bent on denying it being a possibility, and Collum states because there's no way it could be him. Collum states that though he never met his father, he knows that he knows that he knows that he is a fisherman's bastard. Nimue counters with, "Why is it that Morgan le Fay is always sniffing around Collum?" Collum states that Morgan is perverse and that he is not. They come upon a foul smell, and Nimue knows by the smell that they have reached Merlin's Hill. Nimue suspects that either God or Merlin brought them to the hill. Nimue doesn't trust Merlin, but the knights think that she should put aside her feelings and free him from the hill so that he can aid them. Merlin speaks to them from underground and admits that he was not the one who brought them to the hill. Merlin taunts and tempts them, but Nimue refuses to set him free. Merlin believes that the fall of Britain began with his own downfall. Merlin agrees to give them a spell that will send them north if Nimue gives him a key to the cave so that he can do God's will. Merlin gives them the spell, but they do not set Merlin free, and he is angry that they lied. He yells at them to let him out as they walk away.

• Twenty-eight The Tale of Nimue Nimue's life as a fifteen-year-old laundress leads her to slowly starve herself as she tries to provide for her seven-year-old sister, Mary. Mary learns that she cannot survive on her laundress's salary and also learns that the steward of the castle was waiting for her to come to this conclusion so she could sell herself. Nimue refuses to become a prostitute but doesn't know how to make enough money, so she prays to God. And with that, Merlin arrives and takes her as an apprentice once she causes a machine that he built to respond to her touch. Nimue doesn't trust Merlin and feels conflicted about practicing pagan magic. But she continues to devote herself to God and learn magic from Merlin and is allowed to visit her sister once a year. On day Merlin tries to force himself on Nimue, and what ensues is an epic battle between Merlin (and the major gods like Taranis) and Nimue and the minor gods (such as Tumbo, Awel, and Durelas). With the help of Durelas and Taranis striking down Merlin, Nimue is able to escape, and Merlin is buried deep within a hill.

• Twenty-nine The Wild Hunt Nimue prepares the spell that Merlin gave them, and it yields an arch between two beech trees that leads to somewhere. Before they set off, Constantine states that he will not be joining them and that he intends to change Lancelot's mind about being king. They make their way north and push through an empty gate in Hadrian's Wall. Sometimes, people who are willing to talk to them share news of Camelot, but the knights take the news to be confused rumors. One night Collum wakes up to a hunting horn, and an assortment of Otherworld animals trot through their camp. Nimue seems worried, and it becomes clear why she is worried when Morgan shows up. Morgan claims the rules of old magic state that because their party witnessed The Wild Hunt: one of the knights must now join them. Palomides joins them. They continue their journey, and when they arrive north, Collum recognizes it as Mull. Even Alasdair is there. Alasdair invites them in, and Collum, not wanting to be around Alasdair, goes out to gather firewood. Collum wrestles with his feelings about Alasdair and hates the idea of forgiving him. Nimue joins him outside and tells him that he has, like Merlin, made her feel weak; Alasdair made Collum feel weak. She kisses him and tells him that now he can show Alasdair how strong he was then and now. Back inside, Alsdair asks if Collum can forgive him since it's Christmastime. Collum says no and stabs Alasdair's hand to the table. Collum knows that whoever or whatever Alasdair is, it's not the real Alasdair. The Alasdair transforms into a fiend and proves Collum right. They try to escape, but the back door and windows that used to be in the house have vanished. So Collum leads them to a pantry in the kitchen up a ladder that leads to a trapdoor that opens onto the roof. As the fiend chases them Bedivere decides to stay behind and the others escape, but Collum doesn't think it's Bedivere's fight; it must be his (Collum's fight). As they argue Scipio shows up and forces Bedivere to give up the fight and escape with Collum. As they leave Scipio yells that Collum must be Arthur's heir and must be taken to the end of the adventure.

Welcome everyone to our third discussion of The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman. Today we'll be discussing chapters 16 through 19. I hope you enjoyed the reading and I feel there's so much to discuss. Let's get to it.

Links

• Schedule

• Marginalia

• Summaries Be wary of spoilers.

Welcome, y'all, to our second discussion of Chapterhouse Dune by Frank Herbert. Today we'll be discussing chapters 12 through chapters 21. I hope you enjoyed reading the politics, scheming and philosophy in these chapters. Below are some useful sites. Let's get to it.

USEFUL LINKS

• Schedule

• Marginalia

• Terminology glossary

• Where the summaries came from

• Chapter Epigraphs

Summaries Note: These are not my summaries, I got them verbatim from the website listed above.

• Chapter 12 - Reverend Mother Lucilla is brought before Great Honored Matre in a cage. The cage is for Lucilla's protection should she try to use voice. HMs react with a violent reflex to it. GHM also has a pet futar there in a cage. Lucilla is starting to experience melange withdrawl and feels she'll have to kill herself soon. She suspects GHM plans to toy with her then feed her to the futar. The Lampadas hoard begs her to keep her hopes up. GHM releases Lucilla from the cage and gives her some food and a melange drink. GHM reveals that its the BG science they seek, with it they can control things better and create a utopia. Lucilla says this is paradox because science is inovative. GHM asks about the BG involvement with the BT and the Missionaria Protectiva. She also asks about Leto II and prediction. She leaves Lucilla in the room alone in her cage, the conversation is to be continued the next day.

• Chapter 13 - Odrade goes to dine with the acolytes and their proctors. She does this periodically to judge the true state of Chapterhouse. This can't be deducted through the masks of full sister but can by the acolytes. While eating, she decides to go visit Sheeana and prepare her to take Tamalane's place on her council. The Acolyte seated next to her clears her throat a couple of times then finally gathers enough courage to speak to Mother Superior. She's making the map for Odrade's quarters, and has submitted a report on the orchards around central to her, either action must be taken to save the orchards or they must be abandoned to the approaching desert. Odrade asks her to repeat the report verbatim, which she does. While thinking of a response, simulflow intrudes with memories of her thopter training with an inept acolyte who nearly kills them. The instructor grounds her and she asks Odrade to tell him to let her try. She remembers a joke written on a bathroom mirror, "Silence is often the best thing to say". She decides to respond with humor and asks the acolyte in the dinning hall how she would like to be a horse. She doesn't understand and Odrade asks her how her meal was. Strerggi doesn't think it was horse and Odrade laughs, for which she is thankfull. She explains that she wants her to carry a child on her shoulders and to report to her quarters the next morning. Odrade decides it's time for Duncan to awaken the ghola Teg's memories.

• Chapter 14 - Murbella sits on the practice floor feeling abandoned in a fever dream, as usual after a visit from Mother Superior. She damns Odrade for telling her to be true to herself, she's been taught to cheat her whole life. She wants to be like them, shocked by this feeling, she begins practicing again. She looses concentration and falls. She isn't commited to the Sisterhood yet but she's not sure if she's still an Honored Matre. She can't get Odrade's words out of her mind and thinks she might be sick. Idaho enters and catches her just as she falls. A suk diagnoses her as overstressed and Odrade comes to see her. She tells Murbella that she has to learn how to mesh her decisions with her sensitivity to her limits. Murbella tells Ordrade that she wants to be like her. They leave her to rest, fever gone and she thinks of when she took the Bene Gesserit oath:

I am a Bene Gesserit. I exist only to serve. I stand in the sacred human presence. As I do now, so should you stand some day. I pray to your presence that this be so. Let the future remain uncertain for that is the canvas to receive our desires. Thus the human condition faces its perpetual tabula rasa. We possess no more than this moment where we dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence we share and create.

The words had no meaning to her until that moment and Murbella, realizing she was physically and emotionally unprepared for it, begins to cry.

• Chapter 15 - Odrade is prowling Chapterhouse, looking for slackness, with Bellonda and Tamalane. They contemplate their scattering and infinity. Odrade suggests the Honored Matres may be running from something. Bell comments that foldspace may introduce them to other universes or even an infinite number of expanding and collapsing bubbles. Odrade secretly wonders if they suspect what she's going to do. Bell again brings up the danger of Idaho and becomes furious when Odrade ignores her. Bell insists Odrade stop using Duncan as a mentat if she insn't going to have him killed. Odrade says he's a superb mentat but what she needs is an inventor. Odrade tires of the inspection and they all go back to her workroom. Bell says they should be ready to kill Duncan at the smallest sign he's a Kwisatz Haderach and Odrade tells them both to get out and go do some work. Bell and Tam worry that Odrade doesn't look good but she insists it's just fatige. They think she's setting a bad example with her affecctions. Odrade says it doesn't effect her decisions so it's not a problem. Odrade decides to reveal the first step in her plan. She calls Streggi in and asks her to bring in ghola Teg, then asks Streggi to wait outside. She tells them all that Teg will be sent into the no-ship and Duncan will restore his memories. Bell and Tam think he's too young and they're moving too fast. Odrade tells Teg to get Streggi to take him to his no-ship quarters and she'll be along later to introduce him to Duncan. Odrade reveals that she plans to organize a punishment force commanded by the ghola Teg. Tam says they'd better start growing another one now. Odrade realizes that she is finally seeing themselves through Murbella's eyes, as a Honored Matre sees them.

• Chapter 16 - Scytale is whistling, pacing the corridor in front of his rooms. He wants them to get used him whistling. He takes comfort in the fact that they cannot use his cells to find his secrets. He recalls an earlier encounter with Odrade. He wants more freedom but she doesn't want to strengthen him but he is very valuable to her alive. Still he doesn't trust her. She intends to make the Honored Matres aware of their mortality. Scytale feels she's doing the same to him ans says so. Odrade is obviously happy that he's aware of this and grants him a special stimulant drink. Back in the corridor he's thinking of what held the old empire together. Things such as economy and the Great Convention. But what if nothing offended your peers? That says a lot about the Honored Matres. He goes back to his room, regretting his lost society. He vows to make them pay dearly. He contemplates how he will write the history of this moment after he's victorious.

• Chapter 17 - Odrade is stalking the halls of Chapterhouse again, instead of going to the practice floor. She thinks the Bene Gesserits have lost their conscience. She's afraid they are loosing their humanity and panics momentarily when she thinks she's loosing hers. It is not enough for them to flow with the current of humanity, they must swim in it. She's been trying to hard to think like an Honored Matre at the risk of her humanity. Survival of the Bene Gesserit is not more important than the Golden Path, that would make their purpose meaningless. She gets back to her workroom to find reports piled on her table. Despite the danger to her humanity, she must continue to think like an Honored Matre. Dortujla, an old Reverend Mother from a punishment planet, Buzzell, appears at Chapterhouse. A group of futars and handlers had sought her out to send a message to Chapterhouse. They want to ally with the BG against the HMs. The futars were genetically engineered to hunt HMs. The handlers appeared human but gave Dortjula the first impression of being face dancers allthough none of the signs were there. They also warn of a HM secret weapon and another threat. The HMs seem to want Buzzell intact. Dortjula suggest that she goes back as bait and try to arrange a meeting. Odrade thinks it's a brilliant idea and tells her to offer Mother Superior's submission of the BG to the HM, even though she has no intention of doing so, and she should suggest Junction as the meeting place.

• Chapter 18 - Day seventeen of Lucilla's interrogation by Great Honored Matre. The caged futar enters first. Lucilla tries to talk the futar into killing Dama but learns that it requires a kill order from a handler. Besides that, the futar says Dama is poisonous and shows her a burn on the inside of it's lip. Dama enters and they continue their discussion of politics from the previous day. They talk about laws, regulations and bureaucrats. Through the discussion Dama revealls that she has kept Lucilla alive to learn more about prescience. Lucilla confirms that the Honored Matres were bureaucrats turned terrorist. She also comes to the conclusion the the Honored Matres are no longer human. They discuss the form of democracy the Bene Gesserit practice and the futar decides he likes Lucilla, Dama is angered that Lucilla has ruined the futar for her. Lucilla finally enrages Dama, who kills her.

• Chapter 19 - All day long Odrade has been going from comeye recordings of Scytale to Teg, Duncan and Murbella to staring out her window and thinking about Burzmali's final report. Would Teg obey when restored? How soon can they do it? What happened to the Rabbi? Should they start Sharring in extreme and devistate morale? After they agrue about what kind of hold new sandworms in The Scattering might have on the universe Bellonda resorts to staring at Odrade mercilessly while she oscillates. Tamalane enters, the Proctors have voted in confidence of Mother Superior by one vote. Still no word from Dortujla either. They contemplate an all out attack on Gammu, in reaction the Honored Matres surely redouble there efforts to find Chapterhouse and wipe them out. Odrade refuses to use her little bit of prescience, they learned the nature of that trap from Paul and Leto II. They discuss attacking Junction, Teg has the place mapped out in his memory. Odrade orders spies and agents sent out, they must push for a meeting with the Honored Matres on Junction. Bell will figure her plan out by morning. After Tam and Bell leave, Odrade stretches out in her bedroom and tries to imagine what the Honored Matre commander, or Spider Queen as she calls her, is like. Is she sane? They are beyond megolomania. Opposition provokes them into hysteria by choice. Teg's last stand on Rakis and the males they have been training to enslave Honored Matres may have provoked this. If the stories about Teg from Gammu were true would the no-ship hold him? Why did they accept Taraza's plan unquestioningly? What would the Honored Matre hysteria become when they finally suffer a meaningfull defeat? The violence would escalate. Evidence confirms that Honored Matres evolved from an autocratic bureaucracy. They thought they had the right to rule, no decisions are wrong, it never happened. Odrade realizes that this is the key to defeating them. She hopes the ghola Teg would still have his ability to break cycles of violence. She must go face Sheeana, there are plenty of sandtrout, but why are there still no worms? She feels sure she's seen the weakness of the HM this night.

• Chapter 20 - Duncan stands with the ghola-Teg on the no-ship practice floor thinking of how he must restore Teg's memories. The Bene Gesserit designed his childhood after the original. Duncan discusses Teg's life with the ghola. He warns him that restoring his memories will cause great mental and physical pain and it's his job to prepare him for that. This ghola is a special case since his cells were taken before the Bashar died so there is no memory of death. He tells the ghola to limit his trust, especially for the Bene Gesserit. Duncan tells him a story about a dog he had in a former life. On a beach, the dog got spit in his eye from a clam hole. The dog dug up the clam and brought it to his master. The dog was pleased because he eliminated the spitter and pleased his master at the same time. Teg realizes that they are obedient dogs to the Bene Gesserit. The story was for Murbella too, who was listening at the door. She warns that Bellonda will not like him talking about the Sisterhood that way but Duncan says he's been given a free hand. Duncan and the ghola begin training again. Murbella sees things with a new awareness and feels a step further away from her former sisters. She still misses the unstoppable power or the Honored Matres though. She misses the flow of males to sexually bond also. She feels defeated, which Honored Matres aren't used to feeling. She considers the Bene Gesserit ultimately valuable to the Honored Matres and judges them and her former self to be vain. She looks back on the Honored Matres as being childish. Duncan and the ghola rest and Duncan warns him that he's an Atreides and he shouldn't do things just to make grand gestures. The ghola say even a dog's life has it's price. Duncan decides to talk to Sheeana about this to find a better way to restore Teg's memories. Chapter 21 - Duncan is sitting at his console in the no-ship and sees "the net" and the old couple again. The seem god-like yet common with the garden behind them. This is the fist time he's had one of these visions outside of the no-ship's hold. He wonders if he's a Kwisatz Haderach and fears the Bene Gesserits would kill him if they found out. The old couple seem familiar. The old man holds a metal sphere in one had which begins to make a piercing whistle that forces Duncan to hold his ears. It doesn't help but it eventually goes away. Duncan realizes why they look familiar now, they look like face dancers. He leans forward, whispers "face dancers" and the net and old couple vanish. He then realizes he's looking at Murbella who's just come from the practice floor. She knows something is wrong, he's all sweaty. He tells her he thinks the Tleilaxu have tampered with his mind. He thinks about all his past lives and realizes the common thread thru them all is what it means to be alive. He worries what happens if the Bene Gesserit should fail and looks up at the comeyes and tells Odrade he needs to talk to her. He think's he's getting into the minds of the Honored Matres. He feels matched with Murbella the way the old couple in the visions are matched and wonder if they are sexually trained by them. He has looked at their problem from the perspective of the Honored Matres, how to overcome the Bene Gesserit. The Scattering dwarfs this little episode. He suspects that the old couple in his vision are who the Honored Matres are running from. If they are Face Dancers, they are not Tleilaxu but individuals.