Once the group reaches Chachin, Lan tells Moiraine to get lost. At the palace, we meet Lady Edeyn. It seems that her history with Lan gives her a measure of power and control over him, and she is eyeing him to become her daughter’s husband.
Once the group crosses the bridge into Chachin, Lan promptly declares that their obligation to “Lady Alys” is fulfilled, so she can kindly piss off and get out of their lives. Oh Lan, we both know that isn’t going to happen. You’ve obviously got a thing for Cairhienan women and you clearly can’t get her out of your head. But first, we need to find out what “keeping custom” means.
At Aesdaishar Palace, Lady Edeyn wastes no time sending a note to Lan’s chambers:
Come to me, sweetling. Come to me now.
I was hoping we could avoid this, but it looks like we’re going to have to talk about this concept of carneira. Back in Chapter 16: The Deeps, when Lady Edeyn was introduced, so was this word. The book says it refers to one’s “first lover.” But let’s call it like it is: it’s the person who took your v-card. This chapter notes that whereas young women chose their carneira, young men were instead chosen by their carneira. Fine. That fits with the matriarchal theme of this world.
So Lady Edeyn is more than a cougar who made Lan into her boy-toy for a few years, because Borderland society has institutionalized this sort of relationship and a whole shitload of baggage that comes along with it. This includes creating a daori — a braided lock of the boy’s hair — which, in keeping with custom, a carneira will present to the woman the boy eventually marries. You want to call it custom, Lan? I’ll call it a ritualized loss of agency wrapped in a bow of tradition.
The chapter closes thusly:
EDEYN: Look out that window, boy. Do you see my daughter Iselle? She is all grown up now.
LAN: She is as beautiful as her mother, I am sure.
EDEYN: She needs a husband, and since you have no surviving female relatives, your marriage is up to me to arrange.
LAN: You can’t be serious.
EDEYN: Oh, I am. But first, let us fuck.
…
Dear Mr. Jordan:
When I am wrong, I admit it. And I was wrong to have declared that every single character in the Wheel of Time is puritanical to a fault. The last page of Chapter 22 reads like the setup for a porn scene. I had no idea when I was reading The Eye of the World that Lan’s ship had visited so many ports! I was like 12 years old at the time, and I didn’t realize he was this irresistible stud of a ladies man, but Lan’s bachelor days are speaking for themselves! Barmaids and noblewomen alike line up to throw themselves at him. He has a story to tell about a massive ten-day bender he went on in Cairhien. He is truly a man who has sowed his wild oats! So maybe I would sort of understand Lan being eager to begin a new chapter in his life. We’ll see.
For now, Lady Edeyn still has her hands wrapped firmly around Lan’s balls. Will Lan choose to become Moiraine’s Warder out of sheer desperation?