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2.1.1: What's up with Mat's new ring?

In [ACOS: 14, White Plumes, 280] Mat acquires a signet ring, by pure "luck." The ring is gold with a dark oval carved stone, and is in the "long style"; the stone is as long as the joint of Mat's finger [ACOS: 14, White Plumes, 279]. Here is a description of the carving: "Inside a border of large crescents, a running fox seemed to have startled two birds into flight." [ACOS: 16, A Touch on the Cheek, 300]

The fact that Mat was "forced" into buying the ring by his luck makes one suspect that the ring will play some important role in his future. Perhaps it will only be that the ring, along with Mat's new fancy clothes, will lead whoever finds him under that wall to believe he is a noble. (Only nobles have signet rings; commoners don't generally have coats of arms)

One theory is that the birds are ravens, which have special significance to the Seanchan. He will be dug up by some Seanchan workers, who will see the ring, and Mat will suffer a similar fate to the two Seanchan nobles who got themselves tattooed with ravens while drunk [TSR, 38, Hidden Faces, 441-442].

There is one problem here, in that the stone can only be slightly larger than 1"x0.5" (the size of Mat's first finger-joint). Squished onto this small area are a bunch of moons (nine, maybe?), a fox, and two birds. The birds can't be very large, and it is doubtful that they are distinguishable as a particular type of bird. However, this doesn't prevent some Seanchan toady from seeing some indistinct bird-shape as a raven, if his fancy takes him. Plus, note that if the images are heraldic and stylized, it could be easier to make a raven appear in that small area.

Another idea is that there are nine moons on the ring, and that this will be significant vis a vis the Daughter of the Nine Moons.

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