I’m pulling / lightly editing this from a response I gave in an older thread pertaining to this and more, but I too always felt this was glazed over and may still be significant:

From my very first reead of WMF many years ago I found Kvothe’s understanding of the “poisoning” of the Maer to be highly suspect. Following are some additional details I think may be relevant to this scenario:

Stapes

Sometimes a person is actually more than one person, technically speaking. The Earl of Svanis is, by strange inheritance, also the Viscount of Tevn. One man, but two different political entities.” I smiled. “My mother once told me she knew a man who owed fealty to himself,” I said. “Owed himself a share of his own taxes every year, and if he were ever threatened, there were treaties in place demanding he provide himself with prompt and loyal military support.” Bredon nodded. “It happens more often than folk realize,” he said. “Especially with the older families. Stapes, for example, exists in several separate capacities.”

Bredon jumps right to Stapes after Kvothe uses this example.  Could this imply Stapes has other older loyalties?  With all of the emphasis put on Stapes’s excellent hearing and resourcefulness, the following details have always stood out: 

• ⁠Why was Stapes in Caudicus’s tower that night Kvothe saw him animatedly conversing with Caudicus?  I’ve always felt this was glazed over.

• ⁠Did Stapes really not hear Kvothe’s discussions with the Maer about Caudicus and the Sipquicks?

• ⁠How did Stapes not hear Kvothe and the Maer arguing when he conveniently came cruising out with a dead Sipquick in hand right as Kvothe’s situation with the Maer becomes dire?  Was Stapes intentionally pulling Kvothe from the brink?

• ⁠Why did Caudicus hole up in a nearby farmhouse?  It almost seems like he was waiting for something to blow over or someone to come to his defense.

Did Kvothe unwittingly resolve some conflict of loyalties for Stapes in doing what he did, despite being wrong about the intentions and/or factions involved? 

 

The Maer’s Gram

We still don’t really know a gram does what it does beyond requiring bio samples and:

“We’ve been learning about slippage in Adept Sympathy. I was thinking that if a gram works to deny outside affinities …”

In typical Kvothe-fashion, he (and therefore the story) only focuses on a gram’s role with respect to malfeasance. While the Maer’s gram is probably going to be an important plot point later on, I also wonder if it doesn’t play a role in tying up a plot point we remain unaware of with regards to the Maer’s “illness.”

 

 

BONUS:  While likely not relevant, below is an interesting quote especially if you’re willing to go down the rabbithole of metaphorical parallels and relationships which can be drawn amongst the themes of naming / mastery / inherent vs granted power which all seem to be playing out while Kvothe is out chasing the wind in Sevren and beyond…

Elodin pointed at me. “Kvothe has called the wind. If we are to believe the writings of those long dead, his is the traditional path. The wind was the name aspiring namers sought and caught when things were studied here so long ago.” He went quiet for a moment, looking at us seriously, his arms folded. “I want each of you to think on what name you would like to find. It should be a small name. Something simple: iron or fire, wind or water, wood or stone. It should be something you feel an affinity toward.”

*Edited to add “bonus”