Source Abilities

 Continuing from last week on further connections to the Mull-tiverse that “Return of the Dragon Slayers” offers us, I’m going to write today about the most obvious one of all: The Source.  Dragonwatch is not the first time we have heard about The Source.  It’s even called the same thing in The Five Kingdoms—it’s what the slipstreams in the Echolands (which are made of a substance called ether) lead to.

Playing devil’s advocate for a second (just because that’s fun sometimes), let’s make the argument that “The Source” is such a generic term that it can be used in different series, even by the same author, and not be the same thing.  Plausible.  Until you hear this from Konrad:

“This world can be debilitating,” Konrad said.  “But better, higher purer realms exist.  The Source is proof of that.  It connects to them” (519).  And later this, when he is talking about entering the Source himself: “The Source unnaturally prolonged my life… Too many of those days have been spent without my wife.  It’s time to see if I can catch up to her” (543).

I would argue that this is more than a wink and a nod to anybody who has read The Five Kingdoms series.  So today, I’m going to spend some time exploring the connection between Seth, and another Brandon Mull hero who spent some time in the Source… Or at least something that led to it: Cole Randolph.  The burning question that pulled me into my explorations for this post was this: Was Cole Brandon Mull’s first Shadow Healer?  After all, both spent time in the Source, and both had remarkable healing abilities after that experience: Cole was able to unblock the effects of shapecraft, reuniting others with their powers, and Seth was able to end the suffering of the undead.

So let’s dive in:

Cole spent more time in the ether of the slipstream than Seth spent in the aether of the Source—or at least more page space—which means we have a lot more detail on Cole’s experience.  In the fourth book of the Five Kingdoms series, “Death Weavers,” Cole dives into the slipstream to rescue Destiny, and stays behind so he wouldn’t get captured.  At first, the ether whips around him, physically trying to pull him toward the Source.  But his experience changes when his thoughts changed:

“But somebody had to save Tess.  And so many others.  He had to hold on… He needed to live.  He had to see his family again.  He had to help Dalton and Jenna find their way home.” (411)

These noble thoughts cause a shift in how Cole experiences being in the slipstream:

“The windy fluid still mostly whooshed around him, but now it felt like some of it flowed through him.  As he paid attention to the sensation, it gradually increased.” (412)

This is our indication within Five Kingdoms that the slipstreams do more than just carry echoes—or at least living echoes like Cole—into the next realm.  And it doesn’t take a whole lot for it to do more—just the right thought pattern. 

As a side note at this point, I love that there is something tangible that changes Cole that is directly tied to his thoughts; Cole has been heroic up until this point, but I would argue that this is the point where he truly becomes a hero.  And as a side note within the side note, being a literary nerd, I also love that this follows one of the conventions of Epic Heroes, which is a descent into the afterlife.

Okay, back to it.  Cole’s thoughts change, and the more he focuses on those thoughts, the more his experience in the ether changes.  One of my favorite moments as we are following Cole’s thought process starts off feeling like a tangent, but ends up being a remarkably profound moment:

“A memory stirred.  When had he heard wind like this?  The terminal void behind the cloudwall!  He wondered if the swirling maelstrom might be composed of this same ether.” (412)

As I read this section again this morning, preparing for this post, I had a total geek out moment at the use of the word… you guessed it… “void!”  Granted, this is void with a lower-case “V” but it’s no accident that “void” was used here.  There are plenty of other words to use—maelstrom, for instance.  In this little “this seems familiar” moment that Cole has—which happens SO MANY times in the course of a normal day—Cole hits on something profound: Although there are drastic contrasts between the Void, and the Source, they are connected.

Also, which other Mull-tiverse hero has experienced both the Void and the Source?  Seth!  Okay, Kendra, too, but we’re focusing on Cole and Seth today because he was immersed in it.

The passage with Cole in the slipstream is one of the richest passages in the Mull-tiverse.  And it doesn’t end with Cole’s connection between the void and the slipstream:

“Cole began to feel hot inside.  Although the ether penetrated his body, something within him resisted the shrieking gale, causing incredible friction.  The heat became uncomfortable before Cole recognized the scalding element as his power.

“He was feeling his power!” (412-413)

Unlike Seth, who discovers what the change within him means only after leaving the aether, Cole discovers it while ether is still swirling around and through him.  It heals him of his wounds, and he starts to hear the homesong:

“Cole had lost everything—his home, his family, his friends, his future—but this song promised restoration.  Peace and joy and endless abundance that included all he believed he had lost.” (413)

Even though Cole ultimately decides to leave the slipstream rather than continuing on to The Source, this is a significant experience, and completes his journey to becoming a true hero: he goes from desperation to resolve to pain to peace.  It is only after Cole feels peace that his transformation is complete, he can harness his power, and go on to complete his quest.

Now let’s explore Seth’s experience in some more detail.  We don’t have as much to explore here since Seth’s experience is a quick dip in the aether rather than a prolonged battle with a slipstream.  But there are definitely similarities.

I “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” Seth is invited to either drink from the Source or bathe in it.  Not wanting to become one of the undying, Seth opts for the bath.  I might add here that this likely prolonged his life, which I thought was interesting, though never directly addressed.

So the circumstances of the experience were quite different, though both Cole and Seth chose to “dive in.”

Before taking the dip in the aether, the Alderfairy asks Seth, “Do you formally renounce darkness?” and before answering, here is what we get for Seth’s reaction:

“He considered the champions of darkness he had met… then compared them to those who favored the light…Seth reflected about how he felt in the presence of the Void, contrasted with how he felt here beside the Source” (520).

Even though this is much more condensed, it is essentially the same though process that Cole goes through.  Seth thinks about his enemies and then his friends.  Then he thinks about the Void and the Source.  I’ll point out here that Seth has been dealing with darkness for NINE books now!  He became a Shadow Charmer in the second book of Fablehaven, and is reflecting on it near the end of the fifth book of Dragonwatch.  So even though we have a brief paragraph here, he is reflecting on TONS of experiences.  So it is not a light decision (pun intended) when he answeres, “I renounce darkness.  I’ll fight for the light.  I’ll help keep the balance” (520).

It’s also important to point out here before we go on that Seth has gone through a TON of desperation and suffering at this point.  He has also been firmly resolved for a long tome to not allow the darkness within him to get the better of him—and that includes the suffering caused by the stab from the unforgiving blade.  This is not to cheapen Cole’s experience at all—he had been through a lot too, and his experience was also after a lot of desperation and suffering.  We are just given a great illustration of those stages while he is in the slipstream.

Now, let’s look at Seth’s experience when Konrad has fully immersed him in the aether:

“For a moment, time slowed, and Seth experienced overwhelming bliss.  Not a single fear could trouble his mind.  He was forgiven and deeply loved.  Whether he lived or died, everything was going to be fine.” (520-521)

Seth finally gets the feeling of peace he has been longing for.  In his mind, the word is “bliss” and later “happiness,” but the idea is the same.

I said earlier that I felt like Cole became a true hero when he left the slipstream.  Even though Seth enters the Source so close to the end of the Dragonwatch series, I would make the same argument for Seth.  He was incredibly heroic in several instances through the entire Fablehaven and Dragonwatch saga.  But he became a hero and did the most heroic things of all after leaving the aether.  This is when “darkness is replaced by light” (paraphrasing what Konrad says on 521) and Seth becomes a Shadow Healer.

This leads us back to my original question: was Cole Brandon Mull’s first Shadow Healer.  Through most of my exploration on this topic, I was convinced that he was:

Seth, who actually has the title of Shadow Healer is able to end the suffering of the undead.  He is able to dispel the darkness within them and show them the light.  Cole is able to heal the damage caused by shapecraft to those in the Outskirts, and almost everyone in the Outskirts, at least in a way, is undead because they are in a “space between.”

Both heroes were fully immersed in substance connected to the Source, which travels through many dimensions, as established in Dragonwatch.  This means that even though it was called aether in one and ether in the other, it’s the same stuff.  Both had powers before, and both powers changed after being in the Source.

I am telling you, I was so convinced of this.  But then I read this:

“The aether works a little differently on everyone, depending on who they are and what they really want.” (519-520)

So I had to ask: what did Cole want?  Considering Cole’s specific experience, I had to go with what caused the change in his experience once he was in the ether.  Here’s that passage from “Death Weavers” again:

“But somebody had to save Tess.  And so many others.  He had to hold on… He needed to live.  He had to see his family again.  He had to help Dalton and Jenna find their way home.” (411)

To sum up: Tess, The Outskirts, Life, Family, Friends.

And for Cole, this isn’t a priority order, it’s a sequence order to the end result of getting back home.  He has to make it home, but he has to save the Outskirts in order to do that.  It’s important to point out that he is still willing to help save the Outskirts even if it means he can’t get home, but that is his goal, and his powers are uniquely suited to allow him that opportunity—in the Outskirts.  Not on Earth.  Because that is also a contributing factor.  After all, the Mull-tiverse is a multiverse.  That, and healing the effects of shapecraft is not Cole’s only ability.  He is able to use raw shaping to recharge magical devices and others with magic abilities in the Outskirts.  So ultimately, I do not think Cole is a Shadow Healer.

Just for fun, let's look back at Seth for a second.  What does he want?  His statement in “Return of the Dragon Slayers” is “I renounce darkness.  I’ll fight for the light.  I’ll help keep the balance” (520).  And again, I’ll point out: On Earth.

Their powers are in separate dimensions, where magic works in different ways.  Cole loses his abilities when he returns to Earth, and I am guessing the same would happen to Seth if he ever went to the Outskirts or Lyrian... even though these abilities were gained in a substance that travels through all dimensions within the Mull-tiverse... or would he?  What would happen if Seth ever traveled to other dimensions?  And what if Cole somehow found the Source on Earth?

Well, those are questions to explore later on.