Så, vi vet att användningen av balefire effektivt kan "spola tid", på ett sätt att tala när det används mot människor. Men vad händer om det används på en skog? Gör allt syre det träd som produceras upphör att existera, och de människor som andades det krossas? I slaget med Rahvin använde Rand bål i slottet innan han gick in i Tel'aran'rhiod och förstörde några väggar. Vad händer om den där stenen hade dödat någon i byggnaden av slottet? Skulle den personen komma tillbaka till livet? (Självklart menar jag om bålskål hade använts under byggnaden av slottet)
Påverkar bålfire sömlösa föremål på samma sätt som de lever?
Det tydligaste och oftast citerade exempelet på detta är i bok 7, En krona av svärd , när
Moghedien balefires the boat in which Nynaeve is travelling,
och Nynaeve befinner sig ett stycke bakom där hon tidigare var. Den speciella händelsen inspirerade mycket debatt bland WoT fans - var det båten som var balefire, eller bara roddarna, som orsakade detta? - men det blev slutligen klarlagt av en brev från Robert Jordan till en Thomas Howard inte hertigen av Norfolk):
What the hell is up with balefire (in regards to Nyn and the boat)? The main issue with this was whether or not balefire burned inanimate objects back through time in addition to living creatures. According to Mr. Jordan, yes it does.
[Ra'T note: 1) emphasis mine; 2) "Nyn"? wtf?]
Det var också en längre diskussion om detta med Brandon Sanderson på JordanCon 2011 :
Marie Curie: Even a stone in a wall has a thread in the Pattern, right? You said so...
Brandon Sanderson: As I understand it, Robert Jordan specifically said that even inanimate objects have a thread.
Marie Curie: So, that explains why when, say, a stone pillar is balefired, only the portion that balefire hits disintegrates...
Brandon Sanderson: Right...
Marie Curie: ...because all of those little bits would have their own threads...
Brandon Sanderson: Theoretically. And I was wrong on that for a while—I had to go back and look at interviews before I...[to Terez] Were you the one that sent me that?
Terez: Yeah, I tweeted that to you...
Brandon Sanderson: Yeah...the boat that Nynaeve was on that got balefired...
Marie Curie: She pointed out that inanimate objects...their threads are burned back. But that also explains why a person who has one thread tied to their soul would be completely eliminated by balefire.
Brandon Sanderson: Mmmhmm.
Marie Curie: So...why did their clothes go away?
Terez: (laughs)
Brandon Sanderson: Balefire does spread a bit, from what I've read.
Marie Curie: Then why doesn't it for the column?
Brandon Sanderson: It does, but it's like, you know...just a little bit.
Marie Curie: Right, but if you use a pencil-thin bit of balefire, right, and I shot your shirt, why would the whole shirt disappear?
Brandon Sanderson: Um, if it goes through and hits you, then you disintegrate, and it will spread out from you.
Marie Curie: Then, that doesn't explain Nynaeve's boat.
Brandon Sanderson: No, it doesn't. ... I will be perfectly honest with you. I've worked through and tried to figure out the rules of balefiring inanimate objects quite a bit...because we've got the whole thing with Nynaeve and...
Marie Curie: The rowers.
Brandon Sanderson: Yeah. Well no, not even that...earlier than that with the balefire rod that's like cutting swaths through the palace in Tanchico, and it's just cutting lines through the palace, just slicing big holes...
Marie Curie: Right. That's the stone pillars...the multiple threads...
Terez: It did the same thing in Caemlyn with Rand and Rahvin.
Brandon Sanderson: Yeah. And that's searing little lines, but then you hit something living, and it all poofs. It actually becomes motes...like it hits and it spreads to the full, living thing, and then poof that all goes away. And so...the clothes are something I hadn't even thought of, but balefire does seem to spread a little bit...
Marie Curie: You would think that, you know...where the balefire hit, obviously there would be a hole, the person would poof, and their clothes would drop.
Brandon Sanderson: Yeah. But it's got to spread a little bit because of that. But then, you know, with the boat...yeah.
Marie Curie: You can't imagine how many debates we've had on Theoryland about the boat...
Terez: Oh god...
Brandon Sanderson: The boat is an outlier. You could argue a couple of things on it—distance and power level could both be involved.
Marie Curie: And there are other outliers, like in The Gathering Storm...um...
Terez: The palace?
Marie Curie: Yeah, the palace...
Brandon Sanderson: That, I did intentionally. Looking through everything that is happening, and saying, 'He is continuing to pump balefire into this thing, to expand it through into the entire thing...'
Terez: So, it's a deliberate, directive thing...
Brandon Sanderson: That's got to be possible, because in the Age of Legends...
Terez: Right, whole cities...
Brandon Sanderson: Right, whole cities. And so there's got to be a force-to-spread multiplier. Does that make sense?
Marie Curie: Sure.
Brandon Sanderson: So, I'm using a force-to-spread multiplier. And so you could maybe make that argument with the boat.
TL; DR: det är komplicerat, och till och med Sanderson verkar inte fullt ut förstå vad Jordan verkligen hade i åtanke om den här frågan, men i övrigt är det att balefire gör påverka oanständiga objekt i på samma sätt som de levande, bränna sina trådar från mönstret, inklusive bakåt i det förflutna om bålen är tillräckligt stark.
Läs andra frågor om taggar the-wheel-of-time Kärlek och kompatibilitet Skor Gear 12 Stjärntecken Grunderna