What would Winnowill have done with the Palace?

There is more than one contradiction in Winnowill's story arc.

It was strongly suggested more than once that she could be healed by Leetah, then that was reversed at the end of Kings of the Broken Wheel with Leetah telling Rayek at the palace that Winnowill can only heal herself. Now maybe that is because such an immense amount of time had passed. Personally I wish Leetah had healed her at the end of Seige at a Blue Mountain. It would have been a very interesting story indeed if Winnowill, not Rayek, had taken the Palace.

And then there is the matter of Winnowill's lost healing ability. If she lost the ability to heal, what was she doing to help Kureel after Aroree nearly gutted him? And how exactly did she recover from the fall off those stairs, which would have killed nearly anyone? Bedrest doesn't cure those kinds of injuries.

When Winnowill left Blue Mountain to help Voll why didn't she hitch a ride with one of the Chosen Eight? Walk? Would she really? It seems like a plot device to avoid anyone else knowing about Smelt. It also reminds me of the whole "giant eagle" problem in Lord of the Rings. If there were giant eagles around to save Frodo after the ring was destroyed why couldn't they just fly him to Mount Doom?

And finally as you've mentioned the whole "rejected by the shard" thing in Rogue's Curse.

She never 'lost' her healing ability.

I thought that was heavily implied, at least later on. But in general she does use the ability so I'd say you're right.

Thought I'd jump in:

As far as having to be a loving person to use the Palace, here Rayek mentions it was because the elves used love to restore the Palace, and when Winnie was killed, the Palace had not yet been restored.

As far as her healing ability: I was always of the assumption that she didn't lose her ability to knit bone and close wounds, but the ability to ease pain. Mostly because of this, I always thought that it hurt when she healed you.

That's about how I see it too, Allura.

Winnowill once told Leetah that it is the same to shape stone or trees or flesh. But she is obviously wrong. There seems to be a fine, clear line between self shaping, flesh shaping and healing.

Timmain seemed to be the most powerful High One (without the help of the Palace). She could shape herself into different beings - even trees. And she could do it to a degree that a hybrid could be conceived and she almost lost her elfin mind to her wolfish shape.
But when it came to healing they related on Aerth and his limited powers.

Kimo is a shapechanger ... but he hasn't shown abilities to heal - neither himself nor others.

Tyldak cried out in pain when his wings were shaped ... Sunstream obviously had no such problems at all when he got his fin-wings. True - there were several healers involved - nevertheless it's striking.

Mighty Winnowill stated that she wouldn't be able to clean Windkin's blood when he were not half Glider. Leetah cleaned Skywise's blood without problems ... and Willowgreen did it to a whole tribe!

Winnowill can knit wounds, forcing flesh and bones together and grow to their will ... but she seems to have lost the ability to sooth pain, keep the mind sane and hold body and soul together when it becomes difficult.

I don't know whether she has lost the WILL to do so - she is clearly enjoying to give pain. For sure she has lost the LOVE to do so.

Love and understanding for the needs of others - and the readiness to give up the own self - seem to be clues to REAL healing.


*rather off topic ... * XD

I think that is because she wouldn't have done it if there wasn't Glider blood in Windkin and also he wouldn't have his gliding ability if he hadn't a Glider as a father.

What Winnowill said was it was all the same ability, and (consequently) Leetah was self-limiting her own abilities by not even considering or conceiving of the possibilities she was capable of at her level of raw power. Leetah later came to that realization herself after several experiences where she needed to (or was forced to) go past her own self-limitations to achieve something she never wanted to consider herself capable of. Many people can have a raw, general abiltiy in an area, but not necessarily have sufficient power or talent to pursue that ability to its best expression. Or, they may not have a yen for it. Which is why the whole healing/fleshshaping/shapeshifting thing is a 'difference that that makes no difference is no difference', as Mr. Spock would say.

Also, Winnowill actually said Windkin wouldn't have survived the change if it weren't for his Glider blood. As he was a mere baby and Skywise a full-grown man (whose Wolfriderness was always tenuous at best), the statement does seem rational. It wasn't a reflection on Winnie's abilities (she who managed to genetically engineer a troll-elf hybrid!). It was a statement of Windkin's relative strength.

Also, also...those healers who re-shaped Sunstream were amplified by the fully regenerated Palace. Not to mention Sunstream own formidable magic.