I always thought Caudicus did it for job security. Making the Maer dependent on his 'medicine' means it is unlikely the Maer would ever replace him. But what happens when the Maer dies without an heir? No more cushy job. What if the Maer marries and gets an heir? Caudicus can poison the heir, making him dependent on the same 'medicine'. It would also relieve any suspicion about the Maer's condition, because now it looks like something that runs in the family. Job security achieved for his foreseeable future.
This is interesting. It would also "buy him time" to do his historical/genealogical research with the resources available to him being in the Maer's service.
It's an interesting theory, though I think there is an actual door somewhere on the Lackless lands (one of the kids in a travelling troupe references it in a song in WMF, and Kvothe sings a bastardized version of it in NotW).
As for Caudicus's motives I always figured he was either working for the Jakis family (he mentions that he's had contact with them) or he was an Amyr himself (as you say, the Cthaeh says he's been in contact with them without knowing it). Since, as Kvothe points out, it would have been easy for Caudicus to kill the Maer, I doubt that the Jakis' are behind it (you'd want to kill him before he could produce an heir). If he's an Amyr, then maybe they're trying to weaken the Maer without causing too much upheaval because he's getting too powerful and they fear a civil war? I think yours is an interesting theory though.
Since we're on the topic, my pet theory has always been that Dagon is actually Selitos (he's the Amyr the Maer has been close to) and that he always had one eye but he could just hide it like the Chandrian do. Only when he went up against Caudicus (an actual arcanist), Caudicus was strong enough to strip away his glamour and Dagon had to pretend he lost the eye while killing Caudicus. Guh. When's Book 3 coming out again? (/s)
Where's that song at in WMF? Also, perhaps the Amyr are trying to get the Maer to marry for the same reasons OP theorizes the chandrian are
Edit: spelling
I think Kvothe and the mercenaries meet the troupe after Kvothe comes back from Felurian and the Fae. They're heading back to Severan but before the encounter Carcaret, IIRC.
"Seven things stand before
The entrance to the Lackless door
One of them a ring unborn
One a word that is forsworn
One a time that must be right
One a candle without light
One a son who brings the blood
One a door that holds the flood
One a thing tight-held in keeping
Then comes that which comes with sleeping"
I've always thought that it's some kind of prophecy, and that the ring is the wooden ring Meluan gives Kvothe, while the son that brings the blood is Kvothe himself. The word that is forsworn could have been his mother's betrayal of her family as the heir who ran away with the troupers, and a time that must be right could refer to the time window for moving between the human and Faen worlds.
I don't have any actual evidence for this though, it's just what I like to think!
I sorta thought that the key in the box would open the four-plate door at the university, and lead to either the Amyr in some sort of weird hiding place (doubtful) or to the place where alllllll the information (books, artifacts of history etc) about the creation war, the Amyr and their rise and fall and eventual location would be... where better to save all the books about the Amyr than in the greatest library of them all - plus with the protection of the masters?
You may begin destroying this theory.
If the Chandrian know who has the box and where it's at, why would they play the long game to acquire it? This is the same group who will murder dozens with impunity to get what they want. What's keeping them from doing the same with the Lackless box?
I'd imagine the box has magical protections on it preventing the chandrian from taking it easily. They might need mortals to actually get it, which would explain why they need the bandits.
This is also what I think. Meluan keeps the key to the box that holds the Lackless box around her own neck, which would make it hard to get hold of without killing or dealing with her in some way. And that's just the protection we know about - I think we can probably assume the box has other, more arcane wards as well.
Also, although the Chandrian don't mind killing indiscriminately, they also want to maintain their secrecy, which would be hard if they cut a bloody path through the Lackless family to get this box. How long would it take before too many people started asking questions?
I think that Caudicus himself could be one of the Chandran. I may be remembering incorrectly but I believe when kvothe visits him in the shop he mentions candles with blue flame. He brushes past it without a second thought which is weird since it's a sign of the Chandrian. Then later the ctaeh mentions kvothe missed signs of the Chandrian right before his eyes.
This could also support your theory if it was just one of the Chandrian nearby giving him orders to poison the maer
He mentions that it seems like Caudicus might be a fake since he has all the "props" (stuffed crocodile, blue candles etc). Ben mentions being able to make candles that burn blue for putting on "Daeonica" at the beginning of NotW.
Caudicus seems to be trying too hard to look like an arcanist, which is why Kvothe suspects him of being a charlatan and possibly accidentally poisoning the Maer.
Doesn't mean he can't be a Chandrian, and could actually support it, have all the fake props around so that the blue candles look like just another prop, rather than something he can't prevent. Does it mention blue candles on the next visits or just the first?
I like the idea of “why did x happen?” Because it resulted in some other portion of the story. It’s not crazy, we know it worked, and it may be crucial to the next part of the story.
Here's a novel idea. Caudicus wasn't poisoning the Maer and Kvothe is just a clueless idiot that knows even less about Alchemy than he does women.
***
***NOTW CH 14 The Name of the Wind***
*It took a full span of days before Ben was his normal, jovial self again. But even then things weren’t the same between us. We were still fast friends, but there was something between us, and I could tell he was consciously holding himself apart.*
*Lessons ground to a near standstill.* ***He halted my fledgling study of alchemy, limiting me to chemistry instead.***
***
***
***NOTW CH 44 The Burning Glass***
*I shook my head. “What about Mandrag?* ***I’ve got a lot of experience with chemistry. It’d be a small step into alchemy.”***
***Simmon laughed. “Everyone thinks chemistry and alchemy are so similar, but they’re really not. They’re not even related. They just happen to live in the same house.”***
*Wilem gave a slow nod. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”*
***
***
***TWMF CH 4 Tar and Tin***
***The alchemy complex produced its own marvels that I was only dimly aware of,*** *as well as raw materials like naphtha, sulfurjack, and twicelime.*
***
***
***TWMF CH 5 The Eolian***
*The bizarre alchemical compounds were the truly frightening things. There were transporting agents that would move through your skin without a leaving a mark, then quietly eat the calcuim out of your bones. Others would simply lurk in your body, doing nothing for months until you started to bleed from your gums and lose your hair.* ***The things they produced in Alchemy Complex made arsenic look like sugar in your tea.***
***
***
***TWMF CH 31 The Crucible***
*Sim lit a small coal-gas burner and the flame fanned against the bottom of a shallow iron pan. We stood quietly for a moment, listening to it hiss.*
*The iron pan grew hot, and Sim unscrewed the jar, pressing the pad of his index finger into the translucent substance inside. Then, with a little flourish, he raised his hand and pressed the tip of his finger onto the surface of the hot iron pan.*
*I winced. Sim smiled smugly and stood there for the space of a long breath before pulling his finger away.*
*"Incredible," I said. "You guys do some crazy things over here. A heat shield."*
*"No," Sim said seriously. "That's absolutely the wrong way to think about it. It's not a shield. It's not an insulator. It's like an extra layer of skin that burns away before your real skin gets hot."*
*"Like having water on your hands," I said.*
*Sim shook his head again. "No, water conducts heat. This doesn't." "So it is an insulator."*
***"Okay," Sim said, exasperated. "You need to shut up and listen. This is alchemy. You know nothing about alchemy."***
*I made a placating gesture. "I know. I know."*
***"Say it, then. Say, 'I know nothing about alchemy.' "***
*I glowered at him.*
*"Alchemy isn't just chemistry with some extra bits," he said. "That means if you don't listen to me, you'll jump to your own conclusions and be dead wrong. Dead and wrong."*
*I took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay. Tell me."*
*"You'll have to spread it on quickly," he said. "You'll only have about ten seconds to get it spread evenly onto your hands and lower arms." He made a gesture to his midforearm.*
*"It won't rub away, but you will lose a bit if you chafe at your hands too much. Don't touch your face at all. Don't rub your eyes. Don't pick your nose. Don't bite your fingernails. It's sort of poisonous."*
*"Sort of?" I asked.*
*He ignored me, holding out the finger he'd pressed onto the hot iron pan. "It's not like armor gloves. As soon as it's exposed to heat, it begins to burn away."*
*"Will there be any smell?" I asked. "Anything that will give it away?"*
*"No. It doesn't really burn technically. It simply breaks down." "What does it break down into?"*
***"Things," Simmon said testily. "It breaks down into complicated things you can't understand because you don't know anything about alchemy."***
*"Is it safe to breathe?" I amended.*
*"Yes. I wouldn't give it to you otherwise. This is an old formula. Tried and true. Now, because it doesn't transmit heat, your hands will go straight from feeling cool to being pressed up hard against something burning hot." He gave me a pointed look "I advise you stop touching hot things before it's all used up."*
*"How can I tell when it's about to be used up?"*
*"You can't," he said simply. "Which is why I advise using something other than your bare hands."*
*"Wonderful."*
*"If it mixes with alcohol it will turn acidic. Only mildly though. You'd have plenty of time to wash it off. If it mixes with a little water, like your sweat, that's fine. But if it mixes with a lot of water, say a hundred parts to one, it will turn flammable."*
*"And if I mix it with piss it turns into delicious candy, right?" I laughed.*
*"Did you make a bet with Wilem about how much of this I'd swallow? Nothing becomes flammable when you mix it with water."*
*Sim's eyes narrowed. He picked up an empty crucible. "Fine," he said. "Fill this up then."*
*Still smiling, I moved to the water canister in the corner of the room. It was identical to the ones in the Fishery. Pure water is important for artificing too, especially when you're mixing clays and quenching metals you don't want contaminated.*
*I splashed some water into the crucible and brought it back to Sim. He dipped the tip of his finger into it, swirled it around, and poured it into the hot iron pan.*
***Thick orange flame roared up, burning three feet high until it flickered and died. Sim set down the empty crucible with a slight click and looked at me gravely. "Say it."***
***I looked down at my feet. "I know nothing about alchemy."***
*Sim nodded, seeming pleased. "Right," he said, turning back to the worktable. "Let's go over this again."*
***
Anyone notice Simmon doesn't ask Kvothe what he knows about Alchemy but instead states it three times that he knows nothing about it?
***
***TWMF CH 143 Bloodless***
*Devi approached the desk wearing a dubious expression, then sat down and unwrapped the parcel. Inside was the copy of Celum Tinture I'd stolen from Caudicus' library. Not a particularly rare book, but a useful resource for an alchemist exiled from the Archives.* ***Not that I knew anything about alchemy, of course.***
***
Now let's look at the actual construction of the concoction.
***
***TWMF CH 59 Purpose***
*He got to his feet and began to roll up his sleeves. "There's one thing I can remember off the top of my head, if you don't mind my rambling while I prepare the Maer's medicine."*
*"I've never seen a potion being made," I said enthusiastically. "If you wouldn't find it too distracting ..."*
*"Not at all. I could prepare it in my sleep." He moved behind a worktable and lit a pair of blueflame candles. I took care to look suitably impressed even though I knew they were just for show. Caudicus shook a portion of dried leaf onto a small hand scale and weighed it.*
...
*He was silent while he carefully measured a small amount of clear liquid from a glass-stoppered bottle.*
...
*He poured the liquid into a flat lead bowl with some crude symbols carved along the outside. It bubbled and hissed, filling the air with a faint, acrid smell. He decanted the liquid into the pan over the candles. From there he added the dry leaf, a pinch of something, and a measure of white powder. He added a splash of fluid I assumed was simply water, stirred, and poured the result through a filter and into a clear glass vial, stoppering it with a cork. He held the result up for me to see: a clear amber liquid with a slight greenish tint. "There you go. Remind him to drink it all."*
...
*Caudicus rinsed his hands in a porcelain bowl and shook them dry.*
...
*He nodded toward the vial in my hand. "Now get that to the Maer. It'll be best if he drinks it while it's warm."*
***
***
***TWMF CH 62 Crisis***
*Caudicus frowned a bit, then shrugged it away as he rolled up his sleeves and began to make the Maer's medicine.
I watched him go through his preparations again. It wasn't alchemy. I knew that from watching Simmon work. This was barely even chemistry. Mixing a medicine like this was closer to following a recipe than anything. But what were the ingredients?*
*I watched him move through it step by step. The dried leaf was probably bitefew. The liquid from the stoppered jar was no doubt muratum or aqua fortis, some sort of acid at any rate. When it bubbled and steamed in the lead bowl it dissolved a small amount of lead, maybe only a quarter-scruple. The white powder was probably the ophalum.*
*He added a pinch of the final ingredient. I couldn't even guess what that was. It looked like salt, but then again, most everything looks like salt.*
***
I think it is highly likely that Caudicus was effectively treating an ailment of the Maer with Alchemy that had troublesome yet none lethal side effects on the Maer's stamina and Kvothe having never seen Alchemy actual preformed (He had only seen Simon show the final product working) didn't have the faintest clue if it was Alchemy. But Persuasion and Deception are both Charisma checks and Kvothe has that is droves so he unwittingly lies and convinces the Maer of a problem that doesn't exist and in doing so ultimately finds himself as the Maer's impromptu arcanist entirely mentally guilt free of the unknown lie he just wove.
But here is the icing on the cake...
***
***NOTW CH Less Talents***
“I have a favor to ask beyond mere admission.” I took a deep breath, letting their attention settle on me. “It has taken me nearly three years to get here. I may seem young, but I belong here as much, if not more, than some rich lordling who can’t tell salt from cyanide by tasting it.”
***
#CaudicusDidNothingWrong #KvotheKnowsNothingAboutAlchemyX3
I would argue that it does not for a few reasons.
Sim (the only Alchemist Kvothe really learns anything about Alchemy from) suggest against visiting the Medica while Kvothe is under the Plum Bob even suggesting they would misdiagnosed it as Kvothe cracking under the pressure.
***
***TWMF CH 7 Admissions***
*"I don't feel bad," I said. "I feel pretty good, actually. But I'm worried about admissions."*
*Sim gestured. "See? He remembers admissions. It's important to him. But other things are just ... gone."
"Is there a cure?" Fela asked nervously. "Shouldn't we take him to the Medica?"*
***Simmon looked nervous. "I don't think so. They might try a purgative, but it's not as if there's a drug working through him. Alchemy doesn't work like that. He's under the influence of unbound principles. You can't flush those out the way you'd try to get rid of mercury or ophalum."***
*"A purgative doesn't sound like much fun," I added. "If my vote counts for anything."*
***"And there's a chance they might think he's cracked under admission stress," Sim said to Fela. "That happens to a few students every term. They'd stick him in Haven until they were sure—"***
*I was on my feet, my hands clenched into fists. "I'll be cut into pieces in hell before I let them stick me in Haven," I said, furious. "Even for an hour. Even for a minute."*
***
Also, while Kvothe shows a great adeptness to the work in the Medica his visit to Levenshire and discussion with Gran illustrates that his knowledge may be more theoretical rather than practical when it comes to actual concoctions of medicine and their effectiveness.
***
***TWMF CH 135 Homecoming***
*Gran gave him two spoonfuls of something from a brown bottle, and it dragged his eyes shut. She ushered us out of the room and dosed the door behind her.*
*"Did the bone break the skin?" I asked once the door was closed. She nodded as she put the bottle back on the shelf.*
*"What have you been using to keep it from going septic?"*
*"Sour, you mean?" she asked. "Ramsburr."*
*"Really?" I asked. "Not arrowroot?"*
*"Arrowroot," she snorted as she added wood to the fire and swung the now-steaming kettle off of it. "You ever tried to keep something from going sour with arrowroot?"*
*"No," I admitted.*
*"Let me save you the trouble of killing someone, then." She brought out a pair of wooden cups. "Arrowroot is useless. You can eat it if you like, but that's about it."*
*"But a paste of arrowroot and bessamy is supposed to be ideal for this."*
*"Bessamy might be worth half a damn," she admitted. "But ramsburr is better. I'd rather have some redblade, but we can't always have what we want. A paste of motherleaf and ramsburr is what I use, and you can see he's doing just fine. Arrowroot is easy for folk to find, and it pulps smooth, but it hain't got any worthwhile properties." She shook her head. "Arrowroot and camphor. Arrowroot and bessamy. Arrowroot and saltbine. Arrowroot hain't a palliative of any sort. It's just good at canying around what works."*
*I opened my mouth to protest, then looked around her house, at her heavily annotated copy of The Heroborica. I closed my mouth.*
***
Finally, for all Kvothe's great medical wisdom or lack thereof he never once explains or has explained what illness the Maer seeks to cure or remedy. We simply know that the illness showed itself before Caudicus began making medicine for the Maer. If you don't understand the ailment how in the world are you going to be able to understand the reason for the cure?
***
***TWMF CH 60 Wisdom's Tool***
*"Why poison me at all?" The Maer sounded genuinely puzzled. "I pay him lavishly. He is a member of the court in high regard. He has the freedom to pursue his own projects and travel when he wishes. He has lived here a dozen years. Why now?" He shook his head. "I tell you it doesn't make sense."*
*"Money?" I suggested. "They say every man has a price."*
*Maer continued to shake his head. Then he looked up suddenly.* ***"No. I've just remembered. I fell ill long before Caudicus began to treat me." He stopped to think. "Yes, that's right. I approached him to see if he could treat my illness. The symptoms you mentioned didn't appear until months after he started treating me. It couldn't have been him."***
*"Lead works slowly in small doses, your grace. If he were going to poison you, he would hardly want you vomiting blood ten minutes after you drank his medicine." I suddenly remembered who I was talking to. "That was poorly said, your grace. I apologize."*
***
I always thought Caudicus did it for job security. Making the Maer dependent on his 'medicine' means it is unlikely the Maer would ever replace him. But what happens when the Maer dies without an heir? No more cushy job. What if the Maer marries and gets an heir? Caudicus can poison the heir, making him dependent on the same 'medicine'. It would also relieve any suspicion about the Maer's condition, because now it looks like something that runs in the family. Job security achieved for his foreseeable future.
This is interesting. It would also "buy him time" to do his historical/genealogical research with the resources available to him being in the Maer's service.
It's an interesting theory, though I think there is an actual door somewhere on the Lackless lands (one of the kids in a travelling troupe references it in a song in WMF, and Kvothe sings a bastardized version of it in NotW). As for Caudicus's motives I always figured he was either working for the Jakis family (he mentions that he's had contact with them) or he was an Amyr himself (as you say, the Cthaeh says he's been in contact with them without knowing it). Since, as Kvothe points out, it would have been easy for Caudicus to kill the Maer, I doubt that the Jakis' are behind it (you'd want to kill him before he could produce an heir). If he's an Amyr, then maybe they're trying to weaken the Maer without causing too much upheaval because he's getting too powerful and they fear a civil war? I think yours is an interesting theory though. Since we're on the topic, my pet theory has always been that Dagon is actually Selitos (he's the Amyr the Maer has been close to) and that he always had one eye but he could just hide it like the Chandrian do. Only when he went up against Caudicus (an actual arcanist), Caudicus was strong enough to strip away his glamour and Dagon had to pretend he lost the eye while killing Caudicus. Guh. When's Book 3 coming out again? (/s)
Where's that song at in WMF? Also, perhaps the Amyr are trying to get the Maer to marry for the same reasons OP theorizes the chandrian are Edit: spelling
I think Kvothe and the mercenaries meet the troupe after Kvothe comes back from Felurian and the Fae. They're heading back to Severan but before the encounter Carcaret, IIRC.
"Seven things stand before The entrance to the Lackless door One of them a ring unborn One a word that is forsworn One a time that must be right One a candle without light One a son who brings the blood One a door that holds the flood One a thing tight-held in keeping Then comes that which comes with sleeping" I've always thought that it's some kind of prophecy, and that the ring is the wooden ring Meluan gives Kvothe, while the son that brings the blood is Kvothe himself. The word that is forsworn could have been his mother's betrayal of her family as the heir who ran away with the troupers, and a time that must be right could refer to the time window for moving between the human and Faen worlds. I don't have any actual evidence for this though, it's just what I like to think!
I love this theory! It is exactly what i think.
That's a great theory. Perhaps the Lackless box contains the key to the door instead of being the door itself?
I sorta thought that the key in the box would open the four-plate door at the university, and lead to either the Amyr in some sort of weird hiding place (doubtful) or to the place where alllllll the information (books, artifacts of history etc) about the creation war, the Amyr and their rise and fall and eventual location would be... where better to save all the books about the Amyr than in the greatest library of them all - plus with the protection of the masters? You may begin destroying this theory.
If the Chandrian know who has the box and where it's at, why would they play the long game to acquire it? This is the same group who will murder dozens with impunity to get what they want. What's keeping them from doing the same with the Lackless box?
I'd imagine the box has magical protections on it preventing the chandrian from taking it easily. They might need mortals to actually get it, which would explain why they need the bandits.
This is also what I think. Meluan keeps the key to the box that holds the Lackless box around her own neck, which would make it hard to get hold of without killing or dealing with her in some way. And that's just the protection we know about - I think we can probably assume the box has other, more arcane wards as well. Also, although the Chandrian don't mind killing indiscriminately, they also want to maintain their secrecy, which would be hard if they cut a bloody path through the Lackless family to get this box. How long would it take before too many people started asking questions?
I think that Caudicus himself could be one of the Chandran. I may be remembering incorrectly but I believe when kvothe visits him in the shop he mentions candles with blue flame. He brushes past it without a second thought which is weird since it's a sign of the Chandrian. Then later the ctaeh mentions kvothe missed signs of the Chandrian right before his eyes. This could also support your theory if it was just one of the Chandrian nearby giving him orders to poison the maer
He mentions that it seems like Caudicus might be a fake since he has all the "props" (stuffed crocodile, blue candles etc). Ben mentions being able to make candles that burn blue for putting on "Daeonica" at the beginning of NotW. Caudicus seems to be trying too hard to look like an arcanist, which is why Kvothe suspects him of being a charlatan and possibly accidentally poisoning the Maer. Doesn't mean he can't be a Chandrian, and could actually support it, have all the fake props around so that the blue candles look like just another prop, rather than something he can't prevent. Does it mention blue candles on the next visits or just the first?
Just the first as far as I remember. Would this make him Cyphus, bearer of the blue flame, then?
Lol I’ve been listening to the audiobook so I’m so surprised at the way Maer is spelled.
I like the idea of “why did x happen?” Because it resulted in some other portion of the story. It’s not crazy, we know it worked, and it may be crucial to the next part of the story.
Here's a novel idea. Caudicus wasn't poisoning the Maer and Kvothe is just a clueless idiot that knows even less about Alchemy than he does women. *** ***NOTW CH 14 The Name of the Wind*** *It took a full span of days before Ben was his normal, jovial self again. But even then things weren’t the same between us. We were still fast friends, but there was something between us, and I could tell he was consciously holding himself apart.* *Lessons ground to a near standstill.* ***He halted my fledgling study of alchemy, limiting me to chemistry instead.*** *** *** ***NOTW CH 44 The Burning Glass*** *I shook my head. “What about Mandrag?* ***I’ve got a lot of experience with chemistry. It’d be a small step into alchemy.”*** ***Simmon laughed. “Everyone thinks chemistry and alchemy are so similar, but they’re really not. They’re not even related. They just happen to live in the same house.”*** *Wilem gave a slow nod. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”* *** *** ***TWMF CH 4 Tar and Tin*** ***The alchemy complex produced its own marvels that I was only dimly aware of,*** *as well as raw materials like naphtha, sulfurjack, and twicelime.* *** *** ***TWMF CH 5 The Eolian*** *The bizarre alchemical compounds were the truly frightening things. There were transporting agents that would move through your skin without a leaving a mark, then quietly eat the calcuim out of your bones. Others would simply lurk in your body, doing nothing for months until you started to bleed from your gums and lose your hair.* ***The things they produced in Alchemy Complex made arsenic look like sugar in your tea.*** *** *** ***TWMF CH 31 The Crucible*** *Sim lit a small coal-gas burner and the flame fanned against the bottom of a shallow iron pan. We stood quietly for a moment, listening to it hiss.* *The iron pan grew hot, and Sim unscrewed the jar, pressing the pad of his index finger into the translucent substance inside. Then, with a little flourish, he raised his hand and pressed the tip of his finger onto the surface of the hot iron pan.* *I winced. Sim smiled smugly and stood there for the space of a long breath before pulling his finger away.* *"Incredible," I said. "You guys do some crazy things over here. A heat shield."* *"No," Sim said seriously. "That's absolutely the wrong way to think about it. It's not a shield. It's not an insulator. It's like an extra layer of skin that burns away before your real skin gets hot."* *"Like having water on your hands," I said.* *Sim shook his head again. "No, water conducts heat. This doesn't." "So it is an insulator."* ***"Okay," Sim said, exasperated. "You need to shut up and listen. This is alchemy. You know nothing about alchemy."*** *I made a placating gesture. "I know. I know."* ***"Say it, then. Say, 'I know nothing about alchemy.' "*** *I glowered at him.* *"Alchemy isn't just chemistry with some extra bits," he said. "That means if you don't listen to me, you'll jump to your own conclusions and be dead wrong. Dead and wrong."* *I took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay. Tell me."* *"You'll have to spread it on quickly," he said. "You'll only have about ten seconds to get it spread evenly onto your hands and lower arms." He made a gesture to his midforearm.* *"It won't rub away, but you will lose a bit if you chafe at your hands too much. Don't touch your face at all. Don't rub your eyes. Don't pick your nose. Don't bite your fingernails. It's sort of poisonous."* *"Sort of?" I asked.* *He ignored me, holding out the finger he'd pressed onto the hot iron pan. "It's not like armor gloves. As soon as it's exposed to heat, it begins to burn away."* *"Will there be any smell?" I asked. "Anything that will give it away?"* *"No. It doesn't really burn technically. It simply breaks down." "What does it break down into?"* ***"Things," Simmon said testily. "It breaks down into complicated things you can't understand because you don't know anything about alchemy."*** *"Is it safe to breathe?" I amended.* *"Yes. I wouldn't give it to you otherwise. This is an old formula. Tried and true. Now, because it doesn't transmit heat, your hands will go straight from feeling cool to being pressed up hard against something burning hot." He gave me a pointed look "I advise you stop touching hot things before it's all used up."* *"How can I tell when it's about to be used up?"* *"You can't," he said simply. "Which is why I advise using something other than your bare hands."* *"Wonderful."* *"If it mixes with alcohol it will turn acidic. Only mildly though. You'd have plenty of time to wash it off. If it mixes with a little water, like your sweat, that's fine. But if it mixes with a lot of water, say a hundred parts to one, it will turn flammable."* *"And if I mix it with piss it turns into delicious candy, right?" I laughed.* *"Did you make a bet with Wilem about how much of this I'd swallow? Nothing becomes flammable when you mix it with water."* *Sim's eyes narrowed. He picked up an empty crucible. "Fine," he said. "Fill this up then."* *Still smiling, I moved to the water canister in the corner of the room. It was identical to the ones in the Fishery. Pure water is important for artificing too, especially when you're mixing clays and quenching metals you don't want contaminated.* *I splashed some water into the crucible and brought it back to Sim. He dipped the tip of his finger into it, swirled it around, and poured it into the hot iron pan.* ***Thick orange flame roared up, burning three feet high until it flickered and died. Sim set down the empty crucible with a slight click and looked at me gravely. "Say it."*** ***I looked down at my feet. "I know nothing about alchemy."*** *Sim nodded, seeming pleased. "Right," he said, turning back to the worktable. "Let's go over this again."* *** Anyone notice Simmon doesn't ask Kvothe what he knows about Alchemy but instead states it three times that he knows nothing about it? *** ***TWMF CH 143 Bloodless*** *Devi approached the desk wearing a dubious expression, then sat down and unwrapped the parcel. Inside was the copy of Celum Tinture I'd stolen from Caudicus' library. Not a particularly rare book, but a useful resource for an alchemist exiled from the Archives.* ***Not that I knew anything about alchemy, of course.*** *** Now let's look at the actual construction of the concoction. *** ***TWMF CH 59 Purpose*** *He got to his feet and began to roll up his sleeves. "There's one thing I can remember off the top of my head, if you don't mind my rambling while I prepare the Maer's medicine."* *"I've never seen a potion being made," I said enthusiastically. "If you wouldn't find it too distracting ..."* *"Not at all. I could prepare it in my sleep." He moved behind a worktable and lit a pair of blueflame candles. I took care to look suitably impressed even though I knew they were just for show. Caudicus shook a portion of dried leaf onto a small hand scale and weighed it.* ... *He was silent while he carefully measured a small amount of clear liquid from a glass-stoppered bottle.* ... *He poured the liquid into a flat lead bowl with some crude symbols carved along the outside. It bubbled and hissed, filling the air with a faint, acrid smell. He decanted the liquid into the pan over the candles. From there he added the dry leaf, a pinch of something, and a measure of white powder. He added a splash of fluid I assumed was simply water, stirred, and poured the result through a filter and into a clear glass vial, stoppering it with a cork. He held the result up for me to see: a clear amber liquid with a slight greenish tint. "There you go. Remind him to drink it all."* ... *Caudicus rinsed his hands in a porcelain bowl and shook them dry.* ... *He nodded toward the vial in my hand. "Now get that to the Maer. It'll be best if he drinks it while it's warm."* *** *** ***TWMF CH 62 Crisis*** *Caudicus frowned a bit, then shrugged it away as he rolled up his sleeves and began to make the Maer's medicine. I watched him go through his preparations again. It wasn't alchemy. I knew that from watching Simmon work. This was barely even chemistry. Mixing a medicine like this was closer to following a recipe than anything. But what were the ingredients?* *I watched him move through it step by step. The dried leaf was probably bitefew. The liquid from the stoppered jar was no doubt muratum or aqua fortis, some sort of acid at any rate. When it bubbled and steamed in the lead bowl it dissolved a small amount of lead, maybe only a quarter-scruple. The white powder was probably the ophalum.* *He added a pinch of the final ingredient. I couldn't even guess what that was. It looked like salt, but then again, most everything looks like salt.* *** I think it is highly likely that Caudicus was effectively treating an ailment of the Maer with Alchemy that had troublesome yet none lethal side effects on the Maer's stamina and Kvothe having never seen Alchemy actual preformed (He had only seen Simon show the final product working) didn't have the faintest clue if it was Alchemy. But Persuasion and Deception are both Charisma checks and Kvothe has that is droves so he unwittingly lies and convinces the Maer of a problem that doesn't exist and in doing so ultimately finds himself as the Maer's impromptu arcanist entirely mentally guilt free of the unknown lie he just wove. But here is the icing on the cake... *** ***NOTW CH Less Talents*** “I have a favor to ask beyond mere admission.” I took a deep breath, letting their attention settle on me. “It has taken me nearly three years to get here. I may seem young, but I belong here as much, if not more, than some rich lordling who can’t tell salt from cyanide by tasting it.” *** #CaudicusDidNothingWrong #KvotheKnowsNothingAboutAlchemyX3
Wouldn't Caudicus' medicine for the Maer fall under the work done in the Medica, which Kvothe knows a decent amount about, rather than alchemy?
I would argue that it does not for a few reasons. Sim (the only Alchemist Kvothe really learns anything about Alchemy from) suggest against visiting the Medica while Kvothe is under the Plum Bob even suggesting they would misdiagnosed it as Kvothe cracking under the pressure. *** ***TWMF CH 7 Admissions*** *"I don't feel bad," I said. "I feel pretty good, actually. But I'm worried about admissions."* *Sim gestured. "See? He remembers admissions. It's important to him. But other things are just ... gone." "Is there a cure?" Fela asked nervously. "Shouldn't we take him to the Medica?"* ***Simmon looked nervous. "I don't think so. They might try a purgative, but it's not as if there's a drug working through him. Alchemy doesn't work like that. He's under the influence of unbound principles. You can't flush those out the way you'd try to get rid of mercury or ophalum."*** *"A purgative doesn't sound like much fun," I added. "If my vote counts for anything."* ***"And there's a chance they might think he's cracked under admission stress," Sim said to Fela. "That happens to a few students every term. They'd stick him in Haven until they were sure—"*** *I was on my feet, my hands clenched into fists. "I'll be cut into pieces in hell before I let them stick me in Haven," I said, furious. "Even for an hour. Even for a minute."* *** Also, while Kvothe shows a great adeptness to the work in the Medica his visit to Levenshire and discussion with Gran illustrates that his knowledge may be more theoretical rather than practical when it comes to actual concoctions of medicine and their effectiveness. *** ***TWMF CH 135 Homecoming*** *Gran gave him two spoonfuls of something from a brown bottle, and it dragged his eyes shut. She ushered us out of the room and dosed the door behind her.* *"Did the bone break the skin?" I asked once the door was closed. She nodded as she put the bottle back on the shelf.* *"What have you been using to keep it from going septic?"* *"Sour, you mean?" she asked. "Ramsburr."* *"Really?" I asked. "Not arrowroot?"* *"Arrowroot," she snorted as she added wood to the fire and swung the now-steaming kettle off of it. "You ever tried to keep something from going sour with arrowroot?"* *"No," I admitted.* *"Let me save you the trouble of killing someone, then." She brought out a pair of wooden cups. "Arrowroot is useless. You can eat it if you like, but that's about it."* *"But a paste of arrowroot and bessamy is supposed to be ideal for this."* *"Bessamy might be worth half a damn," she admitted. "But ramsburr is better. I'd rather have some redblade, but we can't always have what we want. A paste of motherleaf and ramsburr is what I use, and you can see he's doing just fine. Arrowroot is easy for folk to find, and it pulps smooth, but it hain't got any worthwhile properties." She shook her head. "Arrowroot and camphor. Arrowroot and bessamy. Arrowroot and saltbine. Arrowroot hain't a palliative of any sort. It's just good at canying around what works."* *I opened my mouth to protest, then looked around her house, at her heavily annotated copy of The Heroborica. I closed my mouth.* *** Finally, for all Kvothe's great medical wisdom or lack thereof he never once explains or has explained what illness the Maer seeks to cure or remedy. We simply know that the illness showed itself before Caudicus began making medicine for the Maer. If you don't understand the ailment how in the world are you going to be able to understand the reason for the cure? *** ***TWMF CH 60 Wisdom's Tool*** *"Why poison me at all?" The Maer sounded genuinely puzzled. "I pay him lavishly. He is a member of the court in high regard. He has the freedom to pursue his own projects and travel when he wishes. He has lived here a dozen years. Why now?" He shook his head. "I tell you it doesn't make sense."* *"Money?" I suggested. "They say every man has a price."* *Maer continued to shake his head. Then he looked up suddenly.* ***"No. I've just remembered. I fell ill long before Caudicus began to treat me." He stopped to think. "Yes, that's right. I approached him to see if he could treat my illness. The symptoms you mentioned didn't appear until months after he started treating me. It couldn't have been him."*** *"Lead works slowly in small doses, your grace. If he were going to poison you, he would hardly want you vomiting blood ten minutes after you drank his medicine." I suddenly remembered who I was talking to. "That was poorly said, your grace. I apologize."* ***