The Name of the Wind: Chapters 36–56

The Chancellor nodded gravely, “Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing that you actually have studied with an arcanist without proof of some kind. Do you have anything that can corroborate your story? Any other correspondence?”

“The first law I mentioned, ‘Similarity enhances sympathy,’ simply means that the more things resemble each other, the stronger the sympathetic link between them will be.”

“He would say that I knew by heart the first ninety sympathetic bindings. That I could doubledistill, perform titration, calcify, sublimate, and precipitate solution. That I am well versed in history, argument, grammars, medicine, and geometry.”

“He would say that I knew by heart the first ninety sympathetic bindings. That I could doubledistill, perform titration, calcify, sublimate, and precipitate solution. That I am well versed in history, argument, grammars, medicine, and geometry.”

I finished listing the muscles of the hand and started in on the ligatures when Arwyl waved me into silence and asked his next question.

“And do you enjoy this sort of thing?” he asked dubiously.

“Partly because Lord Nalto was an inept egomaniac. Partly because the church went into upheaval and denounced the Order Amyr who were a large part of the strength of Atur. Partly because the military was fighting three different wars of conquest at the same time, and high taxes fomented rebellion in lands already inside the empire.”

“Partly because Lord Nalto was an inept egomaniac. Partly because the church went into upheaval and denounced the Order Amyr who were a large part of the strength of Atur. Partly because the military was fighting three different wars of conquest at the same time, and high taxes fomented rebellion in lands already inside the empire.”

“Partly because Lord Nalto was an inept egomaniac. Partly because the church went into upheaval and denounced the Order Amyr who were a large part of the strength of Atur. Partly because the military was fighting three different wars of conquest at the same time, and high taxes fomented rebellion in lands already inside the empire.”

“They also debased their currency, undercut the universality of the iron law, and antagonized the Adem.”

He looked like the archetypal sinister magician that seems to be a requirement in so many bad Aturan plays.

“Master Namer,” the Chancellor said with equal parts deference and trepidation.

“Master Namer,” the Chancellor said with equal parts deference and trepidation.

It seemed almost rhetorical, a ritual before the masters discussed the applicant’s tuition.

But the narrow bed had clean sheets, and there was a trunk with a lock where I could keep my meager possessions.

“Fumbled my cipher,” Wilem said sullenly.

“There is nothing in this place I do not hate. Your weather is wild and uncivilized. Your religion barbaric and prudish. Your whores are intolerably ignorant and unmannerly. Your language barely has the subtlety to express how wretched this place is...”

“Listen, I’m going to give you a little advice for free. Back home you were something special. Here you’re just another kid with a big mouth. So address me as Re’lar, go back to your bunk, and thank whatever pagan God you pray to that we’re not in Vintas. My father and I would chain you to a post like a rabid dog.”

Which, as I see it, was an inadvertent kindness.

“I’m afraid I’m already familiar with the basics, sir. I know the three laws and the fourteen corollaries. As well as the first ninety—”
“Yes, yes. I see,” he cut me off.

They were equal part knight-errant and vigilante.

As the student brought it up to me, Hemme smiled in genuine amusement, certain that the more grandiose my preparations were, the greater my embarrassment would be in the end.

He made a magnanimous wave of compliance and settled back into his chair, folding his arms in front of him, confident in his safety.

“I mean, we are talking about malfeasance here, aren’t we?”

“Today, first-term student Kvothe, not of the Arcanum, did perform sympathetic bindings on me with malicious intent.”

“You let the boy make a simulacrum of you, then bring him here on malfeasance?”

Stupefied from the side effects of the nahlrout, it took me a moment to recognize it for what it was: a handheld sympathy lamp.

Ambrose’s expression was perfectly aghast.

“Even so, Ambrose wasn’t so silly that he bought the fellow’s debt himself.Manet made a dismissive gesture. “He had someone else do that, but he made sure everyone knew he was responsible.”

Before helping me limp to the Medica, Elodin made it clear that anyone stupid enough to jump off a roof was too reckless to be allowed to hold a spoon in his presence, let alone study something as “profound and volatile” as naming.

However, even with my vendetta against Ambrose, I still had a great deal of time on my hands.

It was roughly four times what even the most avaricious moneylender would charge.

I kept to the tar and tin, knowing that red tiles or grey slate made for treacherous footing.

With a reluctant sigh I pulled my hands back and opened my eyes.

I laughed and Simmon’s relief was almost tangible.

Auri was scrupulously clean and full of joy.

Benches were recessed into niches in the walls.

He had always smiled at me before, an over-sad pantomime smile, with mockery in his eyes.

So,” he said, “Before I leave you to the adulation of your peers, I have to ask. Where did you learn to do that? Play missing a string, I mean.”

Either one would provide only the most tenuous sympathetic link to my lute string: one percent at best, perhaps only a tenth of that.