Chapter 117: Barbarian Cunning

Kvothe’s training with Vashet intensifies, interspersed with pragmatic sexual encounters she initiates to refocus him. When not with Vashet, Kvothe practices the Ketan, reflects on the Lethani, and explores Haert, discovering communal baths, a friendly smithy, wordless shop signs, and buying local clothes. He grows fascinated by the sword tree’s shifting patterns.

Vashet arranges a “fair” sparring partner: Celean, a small, ten-year-old student in yellow. Despite Kvothe’s initial humiliation and restraint about striking a child, Celean immediately outmaneuvers him, targeting his knee, toppling him with Threshing Wheat, and stunning him with speed and balance.

When Kvothe tries a strength-based submission, Celean unveils her own variant of Break Lion, stripping his grip and flooring him, then lightly signaling a decisive victory. She claims proud authorship of the technique but withholds instruction, teasing his reluctance to strike her.

They fight again; Celean uses feints and repeated Turning Millstone to disrupt Kvothe’s balance, then binds him in Ivy on the Oak, forcing his submission. Kvothe acknowledges her superior Ketan.

Afterward, they discuss gendered norms of fighting. Kvothe explains that many women in his land do not fight; Celean is baffled, asserting the Lethani is universal. Kvothe counters with a water metaphor. Celean declares her ambition to learn every Ketan—ribbon, chain, moving pool, and the paths of joy, passion, and restraint—and promises to throw Kvothe again, which she promptly does.