10 things we need to see in The Doors Of Stone, Kingkiller Book 3

1. Kvothe and Bast’s first meeting

Right at the outset of The Kingkiller Chronicle, we’re introduced to two characters: Kvothe and his roguish assistant Bast. Bast is to Kvothe (or Kote, as he calls himself when tending the Waystone Inn) what Puck is to King Oberon in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One part helper, one part student, and one part mischievous Fae who serves his own ends. While he may appear human, he in fact is a Fae under a glamour spell that hides his cloven hooves and entrancing blue eyes.

He’s also a fan favorite character. Bast even got his own short story, The Lightning Tree, in George R.R. Martin and Gardener Dozois’ Rogues anthology in 2014.

Bast came from the Fae realm, and part of Kvothe’s claim to fame is that he is one of the few humans to visit that fabled plane and return to tell the tale. Bast also deeply respects Kvothe, despite the fact that Kvothe is a human and young (only in his late twenties or early thirties in these sections of the book, compared to Bast’s 150 years). Bast goes so far as to use the honorific Reshi for him, the Fae word for teacher.

There’s a scene in The Wise Man’s Fear where Bast says he once met Denna, Kvothe’s on-again-off-again love interest. So the two have history, but to date Rothfuss has kept the details of their meeting unclear, leaving fans something to look forward to in Book Three.

There’s also Bast’s under-riding motive to consider, one that drives the story. Bast is the one who invites the Chronicler to come record Kvothe’s story, in an effort to remind the disillusioned magician who he once was..and to help him reclaim his power, so that he can set the world to rights.

Telling the story of how Bast and Kvothe first met is something that has been hinted at a lot, and that will be integral to Kvothe’s transformation into Kote. We definitely need to see a young(er) Bast show up in The Doors of Stone.