“The wise man’s fear” is the second part of the Kingkiller Chronicles. It is composed in the same way as the first part. The story begins at the Waystone Inn, still wrapped in three silences, all of them profound, and rather uncomfortable.
Kote, the innkeeper continues with telling his life to Chronicler, a scriv. Bast, his young companion, listens, too, and has Chronicler forced to do as he wants, apparently to refresh his masters strenght. Bast fears that Kote has forgot to be Kvothe, the bravest hero the commonwealth has ever seen. They need him, because it is the dawning of a great war, but Kote seems to be waiting only for his death. He has resigned.
Again, this 2nd part is a great ride through Kotes middle years. He leaves the University because he has managed to get himself trialled for using of dark forces before the iron law. This hasn’t happened for more than a couple of hundred years and obviously the Masters of the University, while acknowledging that it was done more to defend himself against his powerful counterpart, Ambrose Jakis, the son of the wealthiest nobleman there is in the commonwealth, don’t take it lightly when the reputation of their institution is damaged so heavily.
So, Kote takes a ship to find himself a wealthy patron. He makes his living as a musician, playing the lute as no one ever has before. But nobody gets rich by the offerings of the guests at the taverns only. So every musician looks for a better shield to protect himself against the rainy days in life. Kote finds a place at the court of the Maer Alvaron in the northern part and serves him well by discovering that the medicus is trying to poison the Maer. He gets rewarded a first time and helps him a 2nd time by luring the noblest woman of the country into marriage with the Maer and a 3rd time by killing off bandits in a northern wood. While on the mission of freeing the roads from these thiefs he meets Tempi, a warrior of a special kind. Tempi is an Adem mercenary and follows the Lethani, the secret knowledge which helps to become invincible in a fight. Kvothe is the first to learn the Ketan and become one of the Ademre, once unthinkable being a barbarian.
Kvothe is also the first one to have met a Fae woman and not being held by her for the rest of his life. His Master Elodin, Master Namer, later suspects that Kvothe was able to speak the real name of Felurian, thus gaining power of her. After meeting her, Kvothe is sexually educated. Still, this doesn’t lead to a successful wooing of Denna, Kvothes secret love. Denna is a girl Kvothe met briefly on the road shortly after his parents were killed. She is an independent woman, playing the harp and being under the patronage of a suspicious man who beats her apparently. But Kvothe can do nothing to free her, because she makes her own decisions, leaving her accomodities in the middle of the night when she thinks it’s necessary, leaving no traces behind for Kvothe to follow. He knows he’ll only meet her by coincidence the next time.
Part two again closes at the Waystone Inn. Another day has passed. Chronicler and Bast turn in. Chronicler encounters Bast yet again, freeing him of a bad superstition about a mysterious creature living in the fae wood. It is said to know the future and only the worst will come true. Kvothe returns to his rooms and tries to open a wooden box with several locks, hidden and unhidden. But he fails despite of his murmuring the name of the box. And again three silences fall upon the inn, each one deeper as the one before, but the deepest belonging to the owner, a man who is waiting to die.
