Rlain/Shen as a secret agent man

[Secret Ardent Man]

Okay, so I preemptively apologize to everyone if this question exists elsewhere, but I don't know how to find the answers I'm looking for. 

 

I actually have two questions:

 

1) We know that the Parshendi had spies in the Alethi camps (obviously, since I'm talking about Rlain), and we know that they have some weird mental connections. However, we never experience an Eshonai interlude (at least that I can remember) where she mentally communicates with another of her species. Yes, in conversation the Parshendi often "hum" a tone which can be felt by their conversation partners, but so far we have not experienced any other form of telepathy, which I assume is how spies in the warcamps communicate since they and the rest of the parshmen are so closely watched and counted by their Alethi owners. It doesn't make sense that parshmen are just walking back and forth across the barren Shattered Plains--surely they would be seen by the numerous Alethi scouts. 

     Therefore, my first question is how do the spies communicate with the Parshendi at Narak? We know Rlain has been in the warcamps for years -- that is a long time for a spy to sit around being useless, since during wartime information would be needed as fast as it could be brought. So, Rlain is worthless....unless there is some sort bond that Parshendi possess through their Cognitive connections that allow their spies to transmit information nigh-instantly. Remember, Eshonai knew that the Alethi would be marching towards Narak within a short amount of time after Dalinar made the decision to do so. 

      I'm curious what the forums have uncovered via WOB's or from their own speculations. It seems apparent to me that all of this could be explained by the spies running back and forth between the camps and Narak, but once again I feel like that it too much traffic to not be noticed by sharp-eyed scouts looking for movement. 

 

 

2) My second Rlain question revolves around the in-book timeframe. We know that Shen told Kaladin he needed to leave Bridge 4 before Kaladin fell into the chasm, and even before Adolin's 4-person duel and Kaladin's days (weeks?) of imprisonment. We also know that the Parshendi are able to cross the Shattered Plains at a much faster rate than the Alethi due to their ability to jump.

     How quickly can they move across the Plains? Given that they reach the chasmfiend chrysalises at the same time as or often before the Alethi, even Sadeas's troops, and it's unlikely that they have roaming armies, they must then leave from Narak itself. This means that they can move across the vast majority of the Shattered Plains--almost to the warcamps themselves--in hours, when it takes Alethi armies days to reach Narak.

     Admittedly, a dullform Parshendi probably can't move as quickly, but they have to cross the plains somehow. So, at the very least we know that Rlain transformed into warform BEFORE approaching Narak during one of the highstorms. However, he only approached Narak AFTER the final two highstorms before the Weeping! He mentions to Dalinar that the transformation of his people was the reason he stayed away from Narak when he first approached it. 

 

THIS CREATES A WEIRD TIME GAP BETWEEN HIS ESCAPE ONTO THE PLAINS AND HIS ALMOST RETURN TO NARAK! Full weeks pass between his departure and his rediscovery by the Alethi army. He already admitted he never returned to Narak, so what in the world was he doing? How was he surviving alone for weeks out on the barren Shattered Plains? What could have happened here? Please, enlighten me, as I am very confused by this seeming time-progression dichotomy. 

Edited December 15, 2014 by Secret Ardent Man

[king of nowhere]

1) I don't reallly know, but I can theorize: the spies stay in the warcamp, mostly. sometimes, one of them will go out of the camp in the direction opposite to the chasms. no one would question a parshmen, they just assume he's doing some job.

then, some other listeners would be there, hiding in the countryside. while the alethi sentries would easily spot an army, i really doubt they can see a lone warrior moving by night, so this guy could easily cross the plain, come into a secluded place established before, debrief the spies, and come back the night after. other ways could be arranged.

 

2) to cross the chasms one need warform, so I assume rlain waited a highstorm and took warform before moving back to narak. while he claims to have never arrived there, he must at least have been close enough to see that his people took stormform. after that, he remained on the plateaus. maybe he was too afraid to go back to the alethi for fear he was recognized and executed, or maybe there were no more storms to take dullform. anyway, he survived a few weeks on the chasms by himself, apparently. that's hardly impossible. the shattered plains are teeming with life, I suppose some of those rockbuds are edible, or maybe he would snatch cremlings after a storm that he would have wheatered in some crack in the rock. hardly a luxurious life, but I'm confident he could have survived.

[Secret Ardent Man]

The only issue I have with your post is the implication that he hid somewhere before he got warform, which you said is necessary to cross the chasms, since Shen said he needed to leave "immediately," and did so. He walked out onto the Shattered Plains as a dullform and somehow stayed hidden on the permanent bridged plateaus for days? Those plateaus are the most closely watched! I realize that there's really no reason to wonder about this--as far as plotlines goes, his journey from the warcamps to Narak is insignificant and will probably get shunted aside in favor of the Eshonai book, but I'd just like everything to add up if that were possible. 

Why didn't he just leave the camp on the night of a highstorm, transform out on the Plains when all the Alethi were holed up against the storm, and make his way across then?