Kelsingra's silver and Verity's Skill river questions

[laurenejj]

Hello, so I'm new here so please forgive me if someone already started a post about this, but I've been doing some google searching and noone has mentioned anything.

I will be referring to stuff in both the Farseer trilogy and the Rain Wild Chronicles so there will be spoilers.


I've been wondering... Kelsingra was blatantly the location to where Fitz went when he went to look for Verity in FST. The references about the tower, fire, broken window and hand prints on the walls in the map tower and some of the other places and locations Fitz refers to in AQ and the same places referenced when the keepers and their dragons show up in Kelsingra are blatantly the same places.

And it's safe to assume that from Mercor's comments about the "silver marks" on the back of Malta's neck (which we know Amber/Fool put there with their Skill touched fingers thanks to Fitz/Verity) are the same as liquid skill.

My question is... there was blatantly an open and easily accessable skill river in FQ as both Verity and Kettle were able to just lean down and dip their arms into it without too much drama (and Kettle was notibly a rather small woman, so it wouldnt have been a very far drop).
And its fairly safe to guess that no more than.... lets be excessive and say 20 years could have passed between these two series' (because RWC starts about 5 years after LST end as Thymara talks about the birth of the dragons (1 year after the end of LST and a few years passing of them being a hassle for the Rain Wilders). 

So my point is now that we have established that Fitz and Verity did go to Kelsingra and no more than 20 years have passed since then... how, if there is a giant skill river out in the open flowing through the city, has noone found it yet?..
Seriously, think about it:
1. how has no dragon seen that from the air despite their amazing eyesight?
2. how has none of the keepers stumbled on this throughout their whole exploring of the city?
3. how has none of the dragons smelled it? if Mercor can smell 3 small fingerprint marks on Malta, how do they miss an entire river? Even if it is just a stream...

Surely it couldnt have disappeared in such a short time - and if it did, where did it go?

Also, side question.. how have none of the dragons found the elderling dragon graveyard?

Please let me know your thoughts because this has been bothering me for some time now.

[Bananafish]

I think Verity's skill river went back underground... maybe due to seismic activity.. and maybe very shortly after Verity took Kettle to it. Fitz couldn't find it when he looked for it on his extended journey home after the end of the Farseer trilogy. I agree that the silver river couldn't still be aboveground with dragons flying about with their keen sense for it.

[harshvaria]

I think Verity's skill river went back underground... maybe due to seismic activity.. and maybe very shortly after Verity took Kettle to it. Fitz couldn't find it when he looked for it on his extended journey home after the end of the Farseer trilogy. I agree that the silver river couldn't still be aboveground with dragons flying about with their keen sense for it.

Agreed Fitz never discovered the skill river. Maybe it's something Verity can help him find in the last book so he can make his own Elderling dragon. I am also hoping that Fitz can show the new elderlings how the skill works. It seems the Farseers have inherited most of the elderling customs liike making dragons and skill and they can pass them on to the new generation.

[Lady Persephone]

It's a very good question and it still never truly got answered: Where did Verity's Skill River go in the last book (AF).  We know it went underground, but still . . why can't the dragons get to it somehow?  I think they probably will but Robin Hobb hasn't written that book yet.  That's how all the liveships will turn into dragons, when they find this underground river and drink their fill.  

There's SO much we never really find out that needs it's own trilogy after the Fitz and the Fool trilogy.  I don't want to put any spoilers in here so I won't voice my thoughts on this.  I really ought to start my own thread about it at some point.

[Nedcase]

It's a very good question and it still never truly got answered: Where did Verity's Skill River go in the last book (AF).  We know it went underground, but still . . why can't the dragons get to it somehow?  I think they probably will but Robin Hobb hasn't written that book yet.  That's how all the liveships will turn into dragons, when they find this underground river and drink their fill.  

There's SO much we never really find out that needs it's own trilogy after the Fitz and the Fool trilogy.  I don't want to put any spoilers in here so I won't voice my thoughts on this.  I really ought to start my own thread about it at some point.

I assumed the river was either a) in a different, as yet undiscovered city or b) in a different timeline, and that the pillars can transport over time as well as distance.