Theoryland Chronicles

Members :Eclipse : Fain Killed Asmodean

Let me start by saying, this is not a full write-up as my Ber is Moi or Mat Pawn are. This is more of a mock-up. I don’t have the time to reread just for this one, and a reread is exactly what it takes to note all the page numbers and quote verbatim. So, I’m going by memory, and adding a few page numbers to help out.

Without further ado, Fain Killed Asmodean.

First, let’s understand Fain, to a point. He’s wily in a way Mr. Coyote can’t even dream of. Second, he’s part Aridhol, and part Dark One, a totally new entity, and one the DO fears in a way he doesn’t fear anyone or thing, including the Dragon (in my humble opinion). Third, he’s seriously gifted as concerns the paranormal. For example, I believe that the Dark One’s Own Luck is not just a saying, but a truth, and he’s got it, whether the DO wants him to have it or not. He’s more a part of the DO than the Forsaken, and he’s got that luck in spades. Something else, he can feel ta’veren it seems by his “feeling” Perrin south of him as per page 509 of tSR, so who knows what else he can “feel.” Also, because of what he is (even though we don’t know which part of him makes this possible) he has complete and undeniable access to the Ways, so, not only is he a physically driven and near superhuman track star, but he has the Ways to accelerate his progress across the Westlands.

Qualifier: it wasn’t until the SIXTH book that this reasoning came to me (if I recall correctly), so I’ll start at what I consider the beginning, and work from there. There may be nice little hints that I missed or don’t remember, but what I have is pretty solid, nonetheless.

Starting in The Great Hunt (tGH), we see on page 496, Turok’s Voice, Huan, strikes Fain silly, and Fain thinks to himself that he has decided the way Huan is going to die. I don’t recall the page number, but about the next time (only time?) we get Turok’s POV, he thinks to him self that Huan has been missing for some time, and that he suspects Fain is the reason. This is our first example of Fain showing his skill at killing a VERY high up, and making the body disappear without any witness to the deed.

The next example that comes to mind (frankly, I don’t even remember Fain in book three, except maybe he put in a quick appearance as “Wormwood” in Altara.) is in The Shadow Rising (tSR). He is out with the Whitecloaks in the Two Rivers, and they are practically holding the Tinkerers hostage (not letting them leave the Two Rivers). I did a quick scan of tSR, but couldn’t find it, however, I know it’s there. Ordeith was known to “fiddle” with the Tuatha’an, and there was a scene that describes three Tinker boys disappearing after having been seen consorting with Fain. That would be THREE bodies to remove in secret. Let’s face it, he’s a master at killing, and disposing of the evidence.

The last we see of Fain in tSR is on page 942 when he tells his converted Children that they are headed for Tar Valon, but FIRST, they will go to Caemlyn. I discussed this side trip with a second party not of these boards, and she suggested that his reasoning for Caemlyn first was to make sure rumors of “separation” spread so that the Queen could hear them. Soon after we see Morgaise upset over the “raising” of Manetheren. The next we see of Fain is in The Fires of Heaven (tFoH), and he is already in Tar Valon. If you consider all the movements that have been made in the Westlands since the end of tSR, you will see that that was a VERY quick trip. Siuan, Leane, Min and Logain have traveled not even a third of that kind of distance south from Tar Valon since their escape, so, we know, and it is logical, that Fain is using the Ways to travel quickly (with Lan and Moiraine driving the Two Rivers party north in the first book, and Rand and Mat riding a river, Fain still beat them all to their future destinations, so I don’t see his proselytes keeping that kind of pace; the Ways are the only other option). Fain makes a pit-stop in Tar Valon to get his dagger, then he and his men take a Waygate (and this time it might not have been necessary, but still possible; tFoH page 369 says he has followers waiting for him outside the city, so maybe he went south to Cairhien, Barthane’s manor, and then used the Ways) BACK to Caemlyn (why, I don’t know, nor does it really matter for this theory to work soundly). All we know is that he is again out on the prowl for Rand.

Now, we see in the end of tFoH, as far as we know, only Moiraine knows of Asmodean (page 901). There is absolutely NOTHING to suggest she told anyone else, and not a hint anywhere that anyone else figured it out. So, Moiraine knew, and nobody else, period.

Go a bit further, and we have Asmodean randomly walking through Caemlyn Palace. He stumbles upon someone he knows, and then, to his surprise, is killed. OK, he knows the person. As I said, this is a mock write-up, so I don’t have all the page numbers. If I can ask the reader to correctly recall, Fain is being hunted. He used to be Ishamael’s personal pet, after being bound to the DO, but since he has gone renegade (tEotW), he has earned a price on his head that Mesaana has been charged with collecting (that was Slayer’s purpose in the Two Rivers, hunting down the renegade as per page 687 tSR, and hinted at by Ishamael in the meeting of Forsaken in Winter’s Heart when lamenting Mesaana’s absence from the meeting). Anyway, if Mesaana knows Fain’s visage, then why not all of them? It is a fair assumption that they all know whom the DO’s number one lackey is/was, especially now that he has become so popular (he began to earn his notoriety around book two). He is to be killed on site, and he thinks to himself in Lord of Chaos (LoC), pages 571, 572 (a carry over) ANY of the “Chosen” would kill him on site. Asmodean would have recognized him. Also, from page 570 LoC, we can see Fain is in Caemlyn, the local of Asmodean’s death.

So we have Fain in Caemlyn by (and definitely before) page 570 of LoC, and he has spies so well placed, that he knows that a Gray Man tried to kill Rand in the Palace within veritable minutes of the attack. Fain is in Caemlyn, and he is “set up,” and he has been for a while. It would have been no trouble for him to have found out that the Dragon had come to claim Caemlyn near the moment he did so in the end of tFoH (before the battle with Rahvin was even over), and then raced to reconnoiter (and we all know how physically capable the man is, plus his bizarre luck and his ability to kill swiftly and remove all traces of evidence, bodies especially). Fain takes a chance and sneaks through the Palace for whatever reason, and Asmodean stumbles upon him. Fain kills him to save his own skin, and to keep his presence a secret, and then simply disposes of the body, as he did with Huan and the three Tinker boys. One thing that many have supposed is that he was killed with the One Power. I think that a bunch of huuey. Nothing about that scene indicates the One Power, and with so many channelers in the area, male or female, channeling balefire would alert someone, no matter how fine-tuned the weave was. It’s just too powerful.

Now, there may or may not be more, but as I said, this is from memory for the most part.

And that is the theory of Fain killing Asmodean. I think it possible that the next time Fain and Lews (Rand) meet, Fain may reveal to him that he did indeed remove the Forsaken, and that if he can so easily remove on of the DO’s Chosen, then “Rand,” a simple farm boy, should be no problem.

I challenge anyone to come up with more evidence for a perpetrator of Asmodean’s murder than I have. I have read “plausible” theories, but they are only, “eeeeh, it’s a possibility,” write-ups. Sure, any Forsaken would kill him on site, and if Sammael or Graendal had stumbled upon him, they would have balefired him in a heartbeat. But that is not the case, here. There is NOTHING linking either Sammael or Graendal to the scene, let alone Lanfear. Quite the contrary, Lanfear is being held in Finnland at the time, and there are conversations with Sammael and Graendal that indicate that neither know where Asmodean is, or even worse, that they believe he is already dead.

Fain did it, behind a small door leading to, hopefully, a pantry, with the dagger.