On the other hand; we were following the travels of Chronicler, who was specifically looking for a man with "fire red hair," who happened to find a man with freaking fire red hair.
(This is me tapping my foot in disappointment.)
Chapter 6: The Price of Remembering
Chronicler emerges from his room and walks down stairs to find "Kote" thumbing through a book, happy to see the "unintentional guest" standing on his own two feet.
"It really is you, isn't it?" He said breathlessly.
"I beg your pardon?" Kote's attempts to feign ignorance fail to work on the frail man. Chronicler had already seen through Kote's lies and it was much to late to un-see. After a little chit-chat with this man who has seemingly broken through his cover, Kote wanted to know more about his newest adversary.
He introduced himself as "Chronicler." Agitated and impatient (and prepared to do anything to this man to keep his secret?), Kote asks again for his name. "Devan Lochees," he spits out his long forgotten birth name. Kote understood. He wasn't a chronicler, he was the Chronicler. His tone changes and acknowledges "the great debunker himself."
Chronicler had come to make record of the events of Kote's life two years ago. Kote attempts to buzz off the annoying man and fails. Chronicler eggs him on with stories of his false demise, stories of a red-handed killer, and even stories that paint Kote as exactly that--a story. "They say you never existed." Other stories labeled him as an assassin and not the hero that Kote (obviously) believes himself to be. "Kvothe the Arcane and Kvothe the Kingkiller are two very different men."
--And then there was a woman. What about this woman? Who knows. Kote cuts off Chronicler's dialogue at the most inopportune times.
Chronicler found himself thinking of a story he had heard. One of the many. The story told of how Kvothe had gone looking for his heart's desire. He had to trick a demon to get it. But once it rested in his hand, he was forced to fight an angel to keep it. I believe it, Chronicler found himself thinking. Before it was just a story, but now I can believe it. This is the face of a man who has killed an angel.
(Interesting.)
Chronicler offers to set the record straight and it's a offer that Kote couldn't refuse. Besides, if Kote refused, he would be forced to tell the untruths he had heard about the man in the truth's place. Chronicler tells him that he has an appointment with the Earl of Baedn-Bryt three days from that moment, in Treya. After a look of insanity given by Kote at Chronicler's expense, in the face of Chronicler's protest, they eventually strike an accord: Kote would need a day to get the events of his story in order and it would take three additional days to tell it--Chronicler's timeline be damned.
* * *
Story Within a Story
In the midst of their verbal sparring, Kote tells Chronicler that he had read his book, The Mating Habits of the Common Draccus years ago. "Quite the eye-opener for a young man with his head full of stories," he said. Interesting. In a book that takes place in a world already filled with stories, a well-read man is going to tell his story to another man whose life's work is to gather stories. And while he tells his story, I'm sure there will be other stories that influence that story. It's all very interesting. And as we've already been lectured by Kvothe in the previous chapter--stories lie.
My Prediction: Kvothe is a liar. He's a liar mostly for noble purposes, but he's a liar nonetheless. Not only is this going to be a story within a story, it's also going to be a lie within a lie.
No One Needs Three Days
Something is going to happen at the end of the third day. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm almost certain something's coming. Maybe Kote's waiting for something to happen? Or maybe Kote already had something in the works that will complete? And yet for some reason I believe Chronicler when he says, "No one needs three days." I put more weight into Chronicler's real world experience than I do with Kvothe's three day timeline.
My Prediction: Kvothe has an ulterior motive when he says he needs 1 day to prepare his tale and 3 more days to tell it. (a.k.a. Kvothe is a liar.)
The Woman and the Note
In light of this new information about an important lady in Kvothe's former life when put together with his reputation for his love of notes, it's time to update one of my predictions from chapter 5:
Updated Prediction: The mystery note he left late one night was for the mystery woman to find... while he went off to kill a king.
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