What might happen after the epilogue?

Hey all!

First off, spoilers for the Epilogue!

Do not read further unless you have finished the saga.

If you read this without reading the Saga, then I shall have to lop off one or two of your fingers! Or at least make sure you get an itchy rash somehow.

All good? Okay.

So I've been speculating some on what might happen when Tink & family go the Well with Janner's body. Peterson, sadly, has declared he has no intentions of resolving the matter for us, but let us try and think like detectives, sleuths, historians, librarians, and authors, to see what we may determine over this matter.

The first matter of business is this: if this were a story to be told, it would need a plot. And to be a plot, it would need some conflict, some sort of trial or challenge to the characters, through which they might be afforded an opportunity to change for better or for worse. The thing is, unless the journey to the Well were somehow turned into a trial itself (doubtful), there'd need to be some additional story to tell in order to make it a worthwhile tale to tell. How are the characters pushed through this? How do they grow or tragically fail to do so? Etc. Without that extra conflict, we may as well get a simple sentence saying, "Yeah, so, the First Well did/didn't work, and that was that." And how sad would that be? No, we want a story.

But now let us consider some the possibilities of what could happen on reaching the Well.

Two things we know for sure, and a third we can assume with great confidence:

• They will attempt to revive Janner. Based on human psychology, they likely won't give up the instant things don't seem to be working and will cling to hope as long as possible. But whether it'll work or not, we don't know.

• Artham will try the water for himself, hoping to be cured, presumably of both his mental breakage and his melding.

• Leeli will almost certainly be healed of her crippled leg.

Those are the things we can expect with certainty.

But what are the likely results of the first two experiments, and what narrative opportunities result from the things that happen? Let's take the list backwards.

Regarding Leeli's healing, I'm not sure how big or flashy the narrative impact would be. There'd be joy, and there might be some getting used to walking crutchless that would have to take place. She'd also likely keep the crutches as a keepsake of Podo. These things could maybe be spun into room for character growth, but they seem unlikely to bear a lot of plot weight.

What of Artham? Here, I'm not as sure what would happen, but... I doubt he'd get the healing he wants. Not from the Well. If the Well could heal meldings or broken minds, then wouldn't some cloven before Peet have found it and been healed? And upon that happening, wouldn't other cloven find out, and the course of the story entirely change? No, I think Peet would have to find healing a different way, by confronting his guilt and sorrow and actually working through it. And as for his melding... I guess he's just a birdman now? I dunno.

And lastly... Janner. His fate is what scrumples us the most, what we most long to find out about. For he has died heroically, and so young! He should've lived to have a long, happy life! And while he embraced his fate willingly and with loving gladness, it was a tragedy nonetheless.

So... what happens to Janner?

Lorewise, it's unclear. The Well has done some remarkable feats of healing, and considering Nugget's revival in Book 1, we have reason to believe it is capable of resurrecting people. But at the same time, Nugget was revived mere hours after death, not days. Furthermore, Janner's death came by melding, not by natural means; that could, potentially, change things.

There is also some other theoretical evidence: in another post, I've brought forth the possibility that the ancient stones have healing power and have set forth some evidence to that point. I have also explained why it seems that the healing power ascribed to the stones in Yurgen's tale and related lore does not seem rooted in healing-by-melding.

If it is true that the stones have healing power... then why did they not save Janner? Now, from what we've seen, the true power of the stones is only unlocked by music, so that is a cause for hope. But this is a point worth noting.

For now, let it auffice that we have reasons to believe both that the First Well will fail to save Janner, and that it will succeed at the same.

So what about the narrative value of the outcome?

• If Janner is given some water and promptly revives, then the story immediately loses its chief driving power, and the story quickly grinds to a (likely unsatisfying) halt.

• If Janner is given water and remains dead, we have the possibility to explore matters of grief, but the hope that brought people to the table shall be dead, and the story may flicker into stagnant death itself (or at least lose many readers regardless of narrative strength).

It seems, then, that we are at an impasse.

Except... what if there were a third possibility? What if they give Janner some kf the water, and... nothing happens. The family weeps, they mourn, and they go to sleep. But in thw morning, Janner's skin looks ever so slightly more alive. Nothing happens, and so they give him a bit more water. And the next morning, his body looks just a little bit more full. And day after day, they repeat this. Still no pulse, still no sign of life, only the gradual un-damaging of his body and the hope that this heralds coming healing.

We have now created an opening for the story to go on. But this is a meager conflict by itself; it is the lifeblood of our budding tale, but veins need a body. What fleshes out the story into something fuller?

Something unexpected happens. Maybe it's Fangs. Maybe it's Wanderera from the Woes. Maybe it's ridgerunners! But something steals the Wingfeathers away. Except, of course, for the seemingly lifeless body of Janner.

Now, we need to figure out why this unexpected thing happened, what the motives behind it might be, and so on. But the point is that we now have something to give the story a body!

And what of Janner? We leave his fate in mystery, until at just the right moment, when all seems lost, the Throne Warden appears, alive once more, with a single word pulsing through him as he sees his family endangered: PROTECT.

PS. Another featherhead brought up the point in the Stone and the Well post that if the Well and Stones share more similarities than we've seen, and that it proves that the Well could be triggered by music, Leeli could easily trigger said magic by accident at some point in this story.