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

5. What’s in the Lackless Box?

During the course of The Wise Man’s Fear, Kvothe is taken on as a court bard by a wealthy noble patron in the city of Vintas named Maer Alveron. After helping Alveron court the noble lady Meluan Lackless, Kvothe is eventually made privy to one of Meluan’s family secrets: an heirloom box that cannot be opened.

The similarities between the Lackless Box (or Loecless, the Lackless family’s historical name) and Kvothe’s thrice-locked chest are striking. For a start, both are made of smooth, polished wood, so tightly constructed that the seam in the box is nigh invisible. Like the inner layer of Kvothe’s thrice-locked chest, the heirloom box of the Lackless has no visible locks, thus inspiring another name: the Lockless Box. It’s believed that the Lackless box has never been opened, and given Kvothe’s frustrations at being unable to open his own chest, readers have drawn all sorts of conclusions.

It’s said that the Lackless Box contains something ancient, possibly even the key to a “door of stone,” or a piece of the moon itself. There’s also strong evidence to support the idea that Kvothe himself is actually the last heir of the Lackless line, owing to the idea that his mother was a noblewoman who turned her back on her upbringing to travel with her minstrel husband.

All this is to say, there’s a lot of foreshadowing around this box, and we want to know what’s inside!