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Hey, brother!
"The Name of the Wind" has proven to be chock full
of mysteries on top of mysteries on top of mysteries.
Who are the Chandrian?
Who are the Amyr?
Where are the Amyr?
Is it a coincidence that Edema Ruh
and Ademre sound so similar?
What is the actual state of the world during the interludes?
And why is Kvothe Kote?
I mean, I could just go on and on,
but I do think it's safe to say
that possibly the most mysterious character is Denna.
I say most, but then there's Auri,
and like, what is she doing down there?
But today, Denna.
Who is she?
Where does she come from?
What is her real name?
Why is she always leaving?
And what does she want from Kvothe?
Is it a coincidence that Denna
seems to be Kvothe's addiction
and denner resin is like
the most addictive thing in the world?
But of course, the main mystery surrounding Denna is
who is her patron?
I mean, even inside the story, the other characters
find the fact that he is so secretive very sus.
And on top of that, Denna herself isn't even
a very accomplished musician.
So whoever picked her seems like they picked her
for a very specific reason.
Could it be that Denna possesses a knack,
a very real, rare, and unique type of ability in this world.
In this case, I think it's Denna's ability
to hear something once
and then just like remember it forever
because she has really good ears.
But I'll come back to that.
Or maybe it's just that Denna is beautiful.
I mean, men flock to her.
And as far as we can tell,
her profession before gaining her patron
is just literally courtship.
But perhaps the reason her patron chose her
is for something more special, mystical, twisted, and rare.
Perhaps he is playing a beautiful game.
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Before we dive on in,
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Oh, wait, it's Kvothe. Ugh.
But seriously, Kvothe,
everyone knows you leave your lovely dual wick,
cozily-scented candles back in your room at Ankers.
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Who is Denna's patron?
What is the true identity of Master Ash?
Well, let's start with what we know to be concrete,
which isn't hard because, well,
we just don't know that much.
We know for sure that Denna first meets her patron
when she and Kvothe were supposed to meet for lunch
at the Eolian, except the Fishery catches on fire
and Kvothe becomes preoccupied saving Fela.
And personally, I'm not sure yet whether or not
I think it's a coincidence
that on the very day that Kvothe...
Oh my God, that light is not on.
Now it's on.
Now personally, I'm not sure whether or not I'm convinced
it's just a coincidence that on the same day
Kvothe and Denna are supposed to meet for lunch,
the very careful people at the Fishery have an accident
with the material they were just warned is very dangerous.
But that's what happens.
And then Denna goes missing for an entire span.
But for reference, here's the passage about being careful
around the bone-tar, which is what starts the fire.
"This container is designed to keep the agent cold
"and under pressure.
"Be mindful while it remains in the workshop.
"Avoid excessive heat in its immediate vicinity.
"That's it? What else needs to be said?
"Kilvin doesn't let anyone work here unless they're careful,
"and now everyone knows what to be careful of."
All right, so careful people are told to be careful
around the thing,
the thing that promptly causes the problem.
That's the thing?
Sure, sure, sure, sure. Sure.
Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
Suspicion circumstances or not, we'll press on.
The point is the fire happens, Denna meets her patron,
and then she's gone for a span.
And during that span, another suspicious event happens
at the Mauthen Farm involving the total wipe out
of an entire wedding.
Everyone's dead except for a single sole survivor: Denna.
Now Kvothe hears about the incident
and learns there's some blue fire,
which might mean the Chandrian were there.
So he has to get there as soon as possible.
But on his way,
we learn something very important about Kvothe.
And that is that Kvothe has a knack,
which might seem like a random detour we're taking
but I promise this is important.
Now, a knack, in case you need a refresher
and I wouldn't blame you if you did
because it's only mentioned once when Kvothe
and Abenthy are talking when Kvothe's a kid.
But Abenthy is discussing his giller and says,
"To its owner, it's just warm.
"That's how you can tell the difference between an arcanist
"and someone who has a knack for finding water
"or guessing the weather.
"Trip has something like that. He rolls sevens.
"That's a little different.
"Not anything so unexplainable as a knack.
"I suspect Trip has a pair of clever dice
"or an equally clever skill
"which probably extends to cards as well.
"I thank you for your timely warning,
"but a knack is something else entirely.
"Trip can't cheat to save his life.
"And anyone in the troupe can tell good dice from bad.
"Trip throws sevens.
"It doesn't matter whose dice he uses, he rolls sevens.
"If he bets on someone, they roll sevens.
"If he so much as bumps a table
"with loose dice on it, seven."
This conversation is the only time knacks are mentioned
by anyone in the rest of both books.
This makes the entire concept extremely forgettable,
but I assure you we are running into characters
with knacks, including Kvothe.
Speaking of whom, let's get back to his journey
towards the Mauthen wedding to investigate
the blue fire and the massacre.
He knows he needs to get there fast, ASAP, today,
this afternoon, right now.
Trouble is it's very far away
and Kvothe is gonna need a very good and expensive horse.
So in an act of desperation, he heads the Devi
and takes out a 20 talent loan.
Money in hand, he heads to the nearest stable
and is very clear with the the salesman
that he is not there to dicker.
He needs to travel 70 miles today.
Give me your best horse.
And finally, after a bit of not dickering,
the salesman brings out a full blood Khershaen,
who he assures Kvothe is the The Horse.
And quietly, Kvothe agrees,
and he knows he can rush the sale,
but not his relationship with the horse.
So he begins walking around it, talking to it,
but he's not really talking to the horse.
He's just trying to get the horse comfortable
with the sound of his voice.
And so, what he's trying to come up with
is a good name for the horse.
And since the horse is all black,
he's coming up with black-themed names.
He disregards names like Coal or Shadow
and finally land on the Caeldish word for twilight,
Tu Keth-Salhan.
And upon saying the name Tu Keth-Salhan out loud,
the horse responds immediately and kindly to Kvothe,
who, thick headed as ever, simply attributes this action
to the apples in his bag.
He declares the name and returns to negotiations
which suddenly seem to be going way better
than they were before.
Rather than the 20 talents he was expecting to pay,
he's now being allowed to pay just 15.
and Kvothe can't believe it.
Like why the sudden price drop?
But he's also not one, if you'll pardon the expression,
to look a gift horse in the mouth, ah.
He's on his way.
After riding about 99% of the way to the wedding
and crossing a few rivers, he runs into a Tinker.
And looking to make his money back
so that he can repay Devi,
he offers to sell the horse to him for 20 talents.
"It's a full black Khershaen," he tells the Tinker.
"You gotta pay extra for the full blackness."
But lo and behold, the horse is not fully black.
In fact, its back left hoof is white.
And the paint that was used to fool Kvothe has washed off
in the river.
So the Tinker notices this and laughs and says,
"Didn't the name tip you off?
"It means One-Sock."
So here's what happened during that first exchange.
Maybe this was super clear to you on your first reading,
but to me it took the second pass.
Kvothe's Caeldish is bad
and he accidentally names the horse One-Sock by mistake.
The salesman who painted over the white sock
in order to raise the price of the horse
thinks that Kvothe is onto his trick
and drops the price in a hurry so he doesn't lose the sale.
But then later, Kvothe realizes the horse
actually does have one sock,
meaning he gave it the exact perfect name.
He just didn't realize it.
And that does not just happen.
Like it's way too big of a coincidence.
It happens because Kvothe's knack is naming.
And Tu Keth-Salhan the horse is not the only time
Kvothe manages to find the perfect name for someone.
The other great example is Auri.
Kvothe gives her that name and it intrigues Elodin.
"'Why Auri?'
"'Because she doesn't have anyone else,' I said.
"'And neither do I.
"'If we don't look out for each other, who will?'
"'No, no. Why did you pick that name for her?'
"'Ah. Because she's so bright and sweet.
"'She doesn't have any reason to be, but she is.
"'Auri means sunny.'
"'In what language?'
"'Siaru, I think.'
"'Hm, Sunny is leviriet in Siaru.'"
Leviriet, Leveireit, Lev...
I don't know how to say it.
Well, Kvothe might not know what Auri means,
but I can tell you that here in the real world
Auri means gold.
No, we don't know yet why
that's going to be extremely relevant at some point
in the story,
but I guarantee you it's going to be
because we also know that Auri is an alchemist
thanks to "The Slow Regard of Silent Things."
And alchemists have a long history with gold.
But I won't go into that right now.
Anyway, the point is the reason that Elodin is so intrigued
by this is because he, master namer,
doesn't know what the correct name is,
but Kvothe managed to find it.
The reason I'm going to all this trouble
to establish Kvothe's knack
is because it is critically important
to identifying Denna's patron, Master Ash.
And at this point, I'm going to assume
that I have sufficiently convinced you
that he does have a knack for it and move on.
Good job, self.
When Kvothe finally arrives at the inn
near the remains of the Mauthen wedding,
he runs into Denna and together they team up
to go investigate everything that happened.
And whilst they're out sleuthing,
they begin to talk about Denna's patron,
who she says she absolutely cannot reveal the identity of.
But Kvothe suggests that they come up with a name
they can simply refer to him as.
And to be fair, Kvothe starts out being a little ridiculous.
He suggests Annabelle, the Duke of Richmoney,
and then rattles off a bunch of different names
starting with the letter F.
"Federick the Flippant. Frank.
"Feran. Forue. Fordale."
Now, that list of names is pretty significant,
and I'll come back to it in a minute,
but after he begins rattling those off,
he chokes on a leaf the wind blows into his mouth
and it turns out to be an ash leaf.
And that's how they land on Master Ash.
Or was it an elm leaf?
They are easily confused.
No, it's ash. For sure.
Actually, I've always thought the rest of the scene
was kind of weird
because almost immediately after that happened,
Denna thinks she has chaff blown in her eyes from the farm.
Notice how the wind delivers both things. Subtle.
But it's not chaff. It's actually ash.
But not an ash leaf like Kvothe just choked on.
An ash like from a fire
because there's a burning building ahead
from the remains of the Mauthen wedding.
So to be clear, this time it's ash ash, like from a fire.
A cinder, if you will.
Yeah, okay, so we're finally there.
Yes, we believe Master Ash is Cinder.
I mean, first of all, ash and cinder,
basically the same word.
And just like before with Auri or Tu Keth-Salhan the horse,
Kvothe has correctly exactly named something or someone
but doesn't realize it.
And what's even crazier is that he almost actually does it
twice in the same scene.
They land on Master Ash because of the ash leaf.
But remember that list of F names
that just sounds like Kvothe is being ridiculous?
Well, he's not.
He's actually so close to being dead on.
And you might be thinking, and correctly I might add,
that J, Cinder doesn't start with the letter F.
And you're right. Well done.
I'm so proud of you.
Great class today, everyone.
But Cinder has another name.
Let's go back to the very first time we meet him
right after Kvothe's parents are killed
and Haliax is talking to Cinder.
"'You are a tool in my hand,"
"the shadow man interrupted gently.
"'Nothing more.'
"A hint of defiance touched Cinder's expression.
"He paused. 'I wo-'
"The soft voice went as hard as a rod of Ramston steel.
"'Ferula.' Cinder's quicksilver grace disappeared.
"He staggered, his body suddenly rigid with pain.
"'You are a tool in my hand,' the cool voice repeated.
"'Say it,'
"Cinder's jaw clenched angrily for a moment,
"then he convulsed and cried out,
"sounding more like a wounded animal than a man.
"'I am a tool in your hand,' he grasped.
"'Lord Haliax.'
"'I am a tool in your hand, Lord Haliax,'
"Cinder amended as he crumpled, trembling to his knees.
"'Who knows the inner turnings of your name, Cinder?'"
Ferula. That is Cinder's true name.
Well almost.
It actually gets a little better.
Fast forward a lot to chapter 128 of "The Wise Man's Fear"
when Shehyn, the leader of the Adem school
Kvothe is training at, is telling Kvothe what she knows
about the Chandrian.
This is the story, you may recall,
that can only be told once every 1,000 days
and after you've traveled 1,000 miles.
"Cyphus bears the blue flame.
"Stercus is in thrall of iron.
"Ferule chill and dark of eye."
It goes on but I'm gonna stop there
because that third one, Ferule, is the important one.
That one is Cinder.
Cinder has all black eyes with no sclera.
And he's the one standing in snow in the pottery.
That accounts for the cold.
Plus, you know, Ferule, Ferula.
But let's go back to those F names one more time
because here is where it gets crazy.
Feran, Forue, and Fordale.
If you take the beginning, middle, and end
of the first, second, and third words respectively,
you end up with Ferule.
Boom. All of the pieces are right there.
And just to clear things up, you might be wondering,
wait, why does it end in an E this time instead of an A,
like when Haliax said it?
Why the change in spelling?
Or who knows?
Maybe you're totally on board at this point.
I think it's splitting hairs
to discuss the difference in spelling,
but we want to be thorough here on this channel.
So how can you be sure?
Because remember, Kvothe is telling us the story
the way he wants to,
and he didn't say the name just right the first time
because of what we see happen next.
What happens is Bast totally freaks out.
"Reshi! No! Stop!
"You shouldn't say such things!"
But what he means is you shouldn't say such names.
Chronicler is actually worried too and asks,
"'Does that mean they might come here?
"'You've certainly been talking about them enough.'
"Kvothe made a dismissive gesture.
"'No. Names are the key.
"'Real names, deep names.'"
Kvothe didn't say the real name the first time
in the conversation with Haliax,
but he does say the real name here
when he's talking with Shehyn.
This is all part of the 1,000 days, 1,000 miles thing.
Like Kvothe knows that he's eventually gonna say
the real name when he gets to the part of the story
with Shehyn so he messes it up the first time
because he's obviously not gonna travel 1,000 miles
and let 1,000 days pass before he continues the story.
Because again, in case you've forgotten
and it's easy to because the books are very long,
but in the present only two days have passed.
But there you go, guys.
Master Ash is Cinder.
It's right there in the name.
It has been staring us in the face the whole time.
And honestly, I believe this story goes even deeper,
but we will get to that in another video.
For now, let me pass the question onto you.
What do you think?
Is Master Ash Cinder?
Let me know your thoughts in the towel section down below.
Guys, thanks so much, as always, for watching today's video.
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But Ben, until next time,
I will see you in another life, brother.