Memory of Light Read-through #56: Epilogue—To See the Answer

By Linda

It’s not a coincidence that the first three POVs are of the ta’veren, with the Dragon first, naturally.

Rand POV

Here’s a thing: if Rand hadn’t carried Moridin’s body out, there would have been no body swap. Nakomi approves of the swap, saying that he’s doing something he needs to do, which is good. Normally a bodyswap would be a wrongness, however both souls choose their fate: one very much wants to live, the other to die.

Is Nakomi the Creator? I don’t think so. The Creator speaks directly the couple of times it communicates—with the minimum of words, and more for reassurance. Nor is the Creator prone to micromanagement or coercion as the Dark One is.

Another possibility is that Nakomi is an Aiel Hero of the Horn. Her name, which Bair recognised as Aiel, seems to hint this. Her conversation with Aviendha in Towers of Midnight is reminiscent of Birgitte’s contact with Perrin, Elayne and Nynaeve in Tel’aran’rhiod in the early books. When Nakomi appears in the real world at Thakan’dar and spoke to Rand, Heroes of the Horn are still abroad in the waking world.

Aviendha queried Nakomi on where she is from, and got a cryptic answer:

"I am far from my roof," the woman said, wistful, "yet not far at all. Perhaps it is far from me. I cannot answer your question, apprentice, for it is not my place to give this truth."

Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

Nakomi's home and people are far from her and unreachable because she is dead, yet still feels tied to the Aiel. Looking further, Nakomi is far from the main world, yet not. Tel’aran’rhiod surrounds the waking world, yet as a shade, Nakomi cannot touch it unless called by the Horn. Nakomi’s favourable opinion of the Westlands, emphasising their beauty and lushness, is as though they are familiar to her, as they would be if she had roamed about Tel’aran’rhiod long term and had cut ties with the Three-fold Land. She would be unlikely to feel this way had she remained in the Waste or only left it recently; recent contact with the Westlands would inspire the kind of wariness or alienation expressed by Aviendha.

Most importantly she is honour bound not to explain further—some precept that she does not violate, such as those the Heroes have...

Nakomi’s name is reference to Nokomis, the grandmother of Nanabozho/ Manabozho, the trickster figure of the Ojibwe First Nation. She is in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hiawatha:

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest.

In fact, in the Ojibwe language, the language of the traditional tale on which Hiawatha is based, Nokomis means “my grandmother” (see Character Names N article for further discussion of Nokomis/Nakomi and Hiawatha/Rand).

Nakomi is not literally Rand’s grandmother although she is wise and knowledgeable. Bair said her name was ancient, and recognisably Aiel, so it is likely she is a Hero who was an Aiel from the distant past in one of her recent births, particularly considering her legendary name.

Rand’s realisation that he asked the Aelfinn a wrong question is a bit mysterious because the exact and full wording of his questions aren’t in the books. However I found them in Robert Jordan’s Rand notes, (see The Aelfinn’s Answers article). The last question is said to be "How can I destroy the Dark One?" and the answer:

"What was, is, and will be. To choose is the fate of your kind. Without choice, humankind is dust."

Rand did not understand this answer until the very end, which is why he said:

"I see the answer now," he whispered. "I asked the Aelfinn the wrong question. To choose is our fate. If you have no choice, then you aren't a man at all. You're a puppet . . ."

A Memory of Light, Epilogue

Humans must have choice or else they are not adults and not responsible for their actions.

Mat POV

The Sun is out because Rand is also out of the Darkness and out of Shayol Ghul. I judge that Mat that killed Shaisam as Rand sealed the Bore. Shockingly, Mat almost reaches for the dagger but restrains himself. It rots as he walks away. If he’d touched it, he may have kept it around longer and started its infection all over again. After this, the dice finally stop.

Perrin POV

There are no swirling colours, or vision of Rand in Perrin’s mind—no ta’veren pull—and after having them influence his actions for months, he misses them.

The Land has had its fertility restored with the Sealing of the Dark One and is already green and blooming. While Perrin acknowledges that “no masterwork comes without a price,” this one includes the death of Egwene.

Loial POV

Loial records that Rand Sealed the Bore at noon, the time of day when the sun (and therefore Rand) is at its strongest and the Dark One at his weakest. The Fourth Age starting in the middle of day distresses Loial’s tidy mind, but he accepts this fact.

Flinn notices that Rand’s three women are not concerned that Rand is dying. It’s a bit obvious, but this also means the women don’t exactly lie…

Mat POV

Mat is convinced that Tuon’s unborn baby is a boy. Each claims this child means they have no further duty there—a certain amount of chest-beating bluffing is going on. What a couple.

Moghedien POV

Moghedien starts getting optimistic that she will get away and set up shop again. Plus, with the Dark One Sealed away, she won’t be punished for her failures. Then she immediately has another failure: the Spider doesn’t reverse her weaves so they cannot be detected, but inverts them and gets complacent enough to weave a light. So she is collared by a satisfied sul’dam, one of Jordan’s mundane, but appropriate punishments.

The Forsaken currently has her coursouvra, but the Seanchan won’t allow her to keep it. It may be destroyed (in which case she becomes an automaton) or it may be given to or taken by someone else, since it looks valuable. Interesting times ahead for Moghedien.

Nynaeve POV

The kings are shocked that Elayne, Min and Aviendha are not crying over the death of Rand’s body and their comments arouse Nynaeve’s suspicions. Nynaeve tries to bully the explanation out of Aviendha, a sitting duck. The Aiel is briefly alarmed but composes herself. I was surprised that Aviendha reacted as much as she did: it’s a measure of her feeling that she is living a lie and has toh.

The Wise Ones’ belief that the glass column ter’angreal warns them of a future that should be changed saved the Aiel from a terrible fate.

Perrin POV

Perrin is in the wolf dream, when he really wanted to sleep. He is there in wolf form, but is thinking like a man. As he dwells on his guilt over leaving Faile in order to help Rand win, he goes to all the important places of his relationship with Faile and with Rand. At the finale, he chooses to visit Faile’s death place rather than Rand’s death bed. During the war, he did “what he was supposed to” and let Faile do her duty. However, what Perrin was supposed to do has a happy ending: he hears a falcon cry in the dream and realises it’s Faile. He tracks her down and uses adrenalin-enhanced strength to uncover her body single-handedly: Perrin epitomises Strength.

Elayne POV

Birgitte lingers after the other Heroes have gone back to Tel’aran’rhiod. Elayne doesn’t answer Birgitte’s question about Rand—again a lie by omission, in the Aiel way. Birgitte has anticipated Elayne’s intention to take possession of the Horn of Valere and sent Olver to hide it. To her surprise, Elayne doesn’t mind, and is glad not to have the temptation. THe Hero realises that Elayne has matured.

Birgitte’s soul is about to move to a baby that is shortly to be born. Knowing that Gaidal was not called by the Horn, and so is alive as a young child, she is looking forward to meeting him again in a new life. It will be one of her usual reincarnations where she is a few years younger than he.

Tam POV

It is so sad that Tam doesn’t know that Rand lives, and probably won’t for at least a few years, if ever. This is his and Rand’s great sacrifice for the world. He thinks the fertility of the Land is Rand’s final gift, but that gift might be prodigal Rand returning some years from now. The three women have an obvious lack of grief; if Tam knew the truth, he also would be unable to dissimulate and the funeral would be a farce. Cadsuane for one, already thinks it’s a farce.

Tam’s thoughts that “Rand could finally rest” are true, just not in the way he thinks. Basically, it represents freedom from burdens and freedom to be as he wishes.

Only Tam carries a light—for the pyre. Everyone else is indistinguishable during their “saluting the body of the Dragon Reborn.” That body deserves honouring, even if Moridin spent a few hours in it. It did do so well.

Min POV

The funeral is the fulfillment of not only Min’s viewing that the three would be there, but also of Egwene’s dream of a man lying dying:

A man lay dying in a narrow bed, and it was important he not die, yet outside a funeral pyre was being built, and voices raised songs of joy and sadness.

- A Crown Of Swords, Unseen Eyes

This dream was anonymous because (apart from wanting to keep the surprise) Moridn’s soul died in Rand’s body, while Rand is restored to life and health in Moridin’s body. A complicated situation. The knowledge of her beloved’s early death was quite a burden for Min to carry for two years.

There is conflicting information regarding whether Nicola’s foretelling of “three on the boat and he who is dead yet lives” refers to this scene. Team Jordan has said that it is an example of an unreliable narrator and referred to Rand’s funeral where the three women stood alone around Rand’s pyre, but on another occasion said that it is yet to happen.

The three women make no pretence of grief and do not comfort Tam, who lights the pyre, but Moiraine does. This is not their finest hour even if they weren’t hypocritical. It’s as though they are looking to the day Rand’s other loved ones find out, and making sure they can say with a clean conscience that they misled by omission only, and not by actual lying.

Rand POV

Rand is a bit stunned with the novelty of a hale body. His eyes have a saa to commemorate Moridin, and also his own channelling of the True Power. Most importantly, it’s not an active saa.

The fulfillment of Min’s viewing that Alivia will help Rand die is mundane. Such outcomes happened occasionally. Min’s anxieties over this viewing were completely unnecessary—worse than if she knew nothing. This has also happened before: in fact, Min’s panic has resulted in actions that fulfilled the viewing. The Empress is wise to insist on hearing a description of the viewing as well as MIn’s interpretation of it to provide the opportunity for another opinion, and cross-check it with her own symbol system. Otherwise there is the risk that Min’s viewings can be as wrong-headed as those of Elaida.

Cadsuane POV

Cadsuane immediately identifies Rand in his new body, which is unexpected. Can she see Rand’s eyes clearly enough to see the saa and also knows what it represents? Or just recognise Rand’s soul somehow? Odd.

The Green sister is bailed up by four Sitters. They don’t begin the traditional way with a formal summons to the Hall—which it is illegal for her to refuse—but try to get her to agree to be Amyrlin willingly instead. This was not Aes Sedai custom until Egwene was raised. It’s curious, given Cadsuane’s track record for avoiding being made Amyrlin by fleeing before any such summons could be issued. Or is that why they have done this? To convince her rather than force her? I do think they chose the right woman—respected, if not feared by all, flexible, tenacious and experienced. And she does actual research.

Rand POV
Speaking of Cadsuane, Rand is one who respects and fears her. He can tell she has recognised him even though she doesn’t say what she suspects. They have the measure of each other. Rand can’t channel either saidin or the True Power now, even though Moridin could channel both. Perhaps the overload of Powers burned Rand (and Moridin) out, but at the same time Rand has moved beyond channelling to be an ascended being, the alchemical buddha who can will things into occurring. The now-ex Dragon is presumed wise enough to be entrusted with this ability. The book has quite a Buddhist ending, which I notice some readers find objectionable or inadequate.

Very tellingly, Rand doesn’t think about Tam (who is grieving—because it would hurt?), just the three women. I do think Rand owes it to his father to grieve for his grief. Instead he thinks of his love for all three women and hopes one or all will come after him.

When Rand told Alivia to get gold and other supplies for him, he didn’t consider that she’d have to steal them. He takes responsibility for this, as he should.

Rand may become an eternal wanderer figure, as well as an itinerant worker and entertainer as he was at the beginning of the story. He will no longer be a recognised Magus—even though he has some mysterious ability. This fits in with the many paths, many lives prophecy:

"And his paths shall be many, and who shall know his name, for he shall be born among us many times, in many guises, as he has been and ever will be, time without end.”

- The Dragon Reborn, Opening prophecy

Will Rand have the long life of a channeller? Will all that power he used in the Pit of Doom make that difference? I think so.

The last words of the book and series—Loial’s—show us Rand not as the Dragon, or as a magus, but as chi, or prana, the breath of life for the world.

I liked the ending. It’s Jordan’s ending, in his words, and where he was heading to over this epically long epic. I knew from the first that the solution to defeating the Shadow would be theological and be Eastern as much as Western, and by the last book I knew that there would be a lot of alchemical symbolism to it also. Truly this is an Opus Magnus.


Now that my read-through is over, I shall resume updating articles with information from Jordan’s notes (which I’ll announce here) and also writing some new articles. My next post here will probably be a recap of which articles I’ve updated already.

Memory of Light Read-through #55: Chapter 49—Light and Shadow

By Linda

Perrin POV

The Dark One’s influence has caused Tel’aran’rhiod to become a Blight—a black wasteland, almost a void. (Rocks still remain, but they are disintegrating.) The world is collapsing in on itself in Tel’aran’rhiod. Perhaps it is a warning of what may happen or a reflection of what is happening in Rand’s battle with the Dark One. Either way, the Land cannot maintain itself against the onslaught. Shayol Ghul is a beacon of light pulling Dragonmount to it. A conjunction of mountains is being added to the other conjunctions—of people, of sun and moon, of Powers. The dual world axis is converging to one, in one way symbolising the danger that the Light could become overwhelmed and corrupted by the Shadow, in another way, heralding the sacred conjunction and the successful completion of the Great Work in removing the Dark One’s access to the world. Rand’s birthplace and death place are merging.

Cyndane was not allowed to disguise herself either in Tel’aran’rhiod or with a mask of mirrors as part of her punishment. Moridin policed this in Knife of Dreams and The Gathering Storm, but in Towers of Midnight he become preoccupied and she began to get away with it and appear more openly as Lanfear.

As Perrin enters Shayol Ghul, he sees Moridin kneeling at the Pit of Doom, and the other three standing tall. Lanfear used Compulsion on Perrin instead of seduction and even then had to pretend to be allied to the Light to manipulate him. (Otherwise she would have had to use such heavy Compulsion that he would be mindless—which would be noticed.) She felt that she “cheated” as Graendal does by resorting to Compulsion to win Perrin’s heart. The Compulsion was only effective because she played on his guilt that he wasn’t there to save his family from Fain and his resentment that Moiraine convinced him to leave the Two Rivers.

It was not because Perrin was un-willing that enables Lanfear’s Compulsion to be undone, more a matter of him willing it away with his extreme strength of will. Despite the Compulsion, Perrin has considerable independence of thought and realises that Lanfear plans to kill Rand and save the Dark One. He knows this is the ultimate wrongness and that he must do his duty. In his previous scene Perrin made two choices, but this is his third and greatest choice—between Lanfear and his beloved Faile (and his dear friends). As a character, Perrin epitomises the choice between virtue and vice which is the Lovers Tarot card. Actually, this time he must follow his duty AND his love. The Wolf King overwhelms Lanfear’s Compulsion with his love for Faile and also for Rand, his love for duty and rightness. By coming out of Compulsion in this way, he has prevented his own living death.

With the ultimate wrongness being to kill Rand, (or Nynaeve or Moiraine) and so prevent the Light’s victory, Perrin commits the lesser wrongness of killing a woman not threatening him.


Rand POV

Shaitan seems little better than Shaisam at the end (as the similarity of their names hints)—saner, and not played for laughs, but just as childishly selfish. The Dragon feels contempt for the Dark One when he realises the extent of his deceit and cruelty. Moreover, Rand realises that he created his own hell, and killing the Dark One would make it happen. This is the ultimate example of the Aiel’s belief that killing an enemy is a lesser honour than taking him captive. So, Rand shielded the Bore and repaired the hole with undifferentiated saidin and saidar: pure duality, no subdivision into “elements”.


Moiraine POV

Once Rand weaves a new prison for the Dark One, Moiraine flees the Bore before it closes, pulling Nynaeve with her. Thom saves her from running off the edge of the path outside Shayol Ghul. So determined is she to Witness the Bore closing, despite the blinding intensity of the Light, that she doesn’t watching where she is going. Rand and Moridin are both standing at this point—as the hole shrinks to nothing. The Blackness has been vanquished and the final stage of alchemical transformation, the Redness, represented by the blood of the Dragon and the Land, also has occurred. The Great Work is complete.

In alchemy, the culmination of the Whiteness phase leaves the alchemist completely free in a state of pure spirit and intelligence, beyond space, time and form, and once back in the body, the soul can realise its state of spiritual completeness. Heaven and earth in the alchemist are then united (Nigel Hamilton, The Alchemical Process of Transformation). Rand felt this at the end of his battles with the Dark One.

Jung wrote:

You can exert no influence if you are not susceptible to influence.

Carl Jung, The Practice of Psychotherapy

Moridin discovered this the hard way after he was linked to Rand. It inspired the desire for death in him, which led to him sacrificing his own corrupt soul, just as Rand sacrificed his corrupt body. So the Dark One who wanted to break the Creator’s champion, broke his own. Not that he cared.

Memory of Light Read-through #53: Chapter 47—Watching the Flow Writhe

By Linda

Aviendha POV

Both very dextrous weavers, Aviendha and Graendal have almost killed each other. This is a huge credit to Aviendha, since Graendal is much stronger in the power than she and drew heavily on her ring to conserve her strength. At the end of her own strength, Aviendha starts unpicking her weave as a last resort. Completely unpicking a weave does nothing (and anyway, Aviendha could just let go of the weave and allow the gateway to close), but incomplete unravelling is what will cause an unpredictable, hopefully destructive, event. Aviendha prefers this outcome, rather than just delaying or preventing Graendal’s return to Thakan’dar, and it is what occurs.

The chapter title refers to the chain reaction the unpicking causes in the weave.

Shaisam POV

Mat does not succumb to Mashadar because he was cured of it in the White Tower and is now immune. The “fox that makes the ravens fly” tricks Shaisam by playing dead to lure him close enough to attack, like the fox does the raven in Western folk tales. As a former Darkfriend, zombie maker, and potential new Dark Lord, Shaisam could be likened to a raven. Trickster Mat gets his revenge while also saving Rand from the very real threat of Shaisam. In fact, Mat is the only one who could safely do so—Shaisam is such a potent evil. The personification of the evil arising from merciless good, Mordeth was corrupted by Fain, someone whom the Dark One had touched, into being a deity himself.

Perrin POV

While in European folktales the wolf was often in competition with the fox, in Ancient Egyptian mythology, the wolf-headed god Upuaut worked with the fox/jackal-headed god Anubis as chief officers of the god of the underworld, the Universal Lord Osiris. This is another trio of gods that Jordan drew on when he developed the three ta’veren characters. In this scene, Perrin wants to help his friend Mat kill Shaisam but is wise enough to refrain and go about his own urgent tasks. First up he rescues Gaul, who was worried about the wolves vanishing from Tel’aran’rhiod. Perrin assures him they were called by the Horn into the waking world.

The Wolf King is torn between aiding Gaul and Mat, and then Faile and Rand in this chapter, and he has a third choice (the number three again!) coming up in his next scene. One of the main themes in Perrin’s sub-thread is that of the Lovers or Choice tarot card—the choice between virtue and vice or duty and pleasure. The choice between making (hammer) and destroying (axe). Perrin also feared that he had to choose exclusively between his human and animal natures, but that was a mistake.

Rand POV

Moridin channels saidin through Callandor, then realises it is also a True Power sa’angreal. This is its danger and its trap as the “blade of ruin” described in the prophecies in Towers of Midnight, A Storm of Light. The “blade of ruin” and “fearful blade” are a link with the Dolorous Stroke of Arthurian legend that caused the wasteland. In this case, it prevented the tainting of saidin or saidar and the wasteland formed by the Breaking of the world; it was a dolorous stroke for the Shadow.

Moridin thought he would get his promised oblivion from the Dark One as a reward for killing Rand. Even though channelling the True Power at Shayol Ghul is death—as Rand and Demandred both believe—Moridin doesn’t die because he is captured by Nynaeve, Moiraine and Rand working together—the three as one, as per prophecy:

He shall hold a blade of light in his hands, and the three shall be one…

- The Gathering Storm, Reading the Commentary

Why does the Dragon need such a flawed and dangerous item reserved for him for three thousand years? Rand needs a True Power sa’angreal indirectly so three powers can be used together at extreme strength. By a quartet. This is the first time in the series that four—the number of the material world, solidity, power, omnipotence, will, and temporal law and justice—is more important than the number three.

Min worked out how and why Callandor was to be used. We saw her early thoughts on this in The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight. Kudos to her.

The Dark One’s own power is used against him to prevent him from tainting saidin and saidar. Nor can he simply cut off the True Power through the modest hole in his prison, due to the vast amount Moridin is drawing. Rand is a mirror of Shaisam as he feels what it is like to be a deity and contemplates killing one. His reaching for the devil through an indistinct “fluid” reminded me of Mat at the Eye of the World seeing the pool of saidin and wondering what’s in it. (Just the Horn, Mat, and the Dragon banner and a Seal. Things for this very moment.) Moiraine described the Eye as:

"The essence of the male half of the True Source, the pure essence of the Power wielded by men before the Time of Madness. The Power to mend the seal on the Dark One's prison, or to break it open completely. "

The Eye of the World, Meetings at the Eye

Rand will soon make weaves of the pure essences of saidin and saidar to mend the Dark One’s prison, linking us to the end of The Eye of the World when the world was greened again, while avoiding the trap of the taint that occurred just before the prologue of that same book.

As Rand grips the Dark One, Light has come—time to break seals. Now that Rand has the Dark One’s undivided attention, so to speak, there is no risk that he will spare attention for cutting off Moridin’s access to the True Power.

And so we come to the moment to complete the Magnum Opus (Great Work) of sealing away the Dark One. In alchemical symbolism, the culmination of the opus is the conjunction, the union of two (or more). Jordan has multiple conjunctions operating to emphasise that his Great Work is the salvation of the world. With the number three so important, the lynchpin conjunction was the triple conjunction of the powers. Opposites are reconciled in a conjunction, and love is both its cause and its effect (Edward Edlinger, Anatomy of the Psyche). Saidin and saidar are perfectly balanced and united at last, and harness the opposing True Power to cut an evil deity off from the world. And it was sealed in blood: Rand’s blood, the sacred link of Rand and the Land, drips to seal the Sealing, “washing away the Shadow, sacrifice for man's salvation” (The Shadow Rising, Reflection). Outside, the Land, one with the Dragon, is slathered in the blood of the fallen.

Most, perhaps the whole, of Rand’s duel with Moridin and then the Dark One at Shayol Ghul took place within the duration of the solar eclipse (which would be up to seven minutes), in astrology the strongest type of conjunction of sun and moon. During this time, Dragonmount and Shayol Ghul pulled toward one another in Tel’aran’rhiod (A Memory of Light, Light and Shadow); in one way symbolising the danger that the Light could become overwhelmed and corrupted by the Shadow, in another way, heralding the sacred conjunction of saidin and saidr and the successful completion of the Great Work.

There is another marker of the sacred conjunction:

The image of a miraculous growth of flowers or vegetation comes up in dreams as evidence of proximity to the coniunctio.

Edward Edlinger, Anatomy of the Psyche

Perrin saws them in the Wolf Dream, and Aviendha in the waking world.

There are three stages of alchemical transformation to achieve the Great Work: the blackness (nigredo), whiteness (albedo) and redness (rubedo). According to the alchemists, matter suffers until the blackness disappears, then a new day will break, the albedo. Rand enters the blackness of the Pit of Doom and the Dark One’s void, and battles the Dark One’s efforts to torment him into despairing and giving up. His spirit was refined at Dragonmount, and the black thorns on his brain overlain with white, but he still suffers physically and has plans of violence—killing the Dark One, the less honourable alternative, by Aiel values.

A shift in his understanding of evil results in his victory. Intense light explodes from Rand at the end of his battle with the Dark One, enough to be seen over the whole continent; it is the Dark One’s moment of judgment as much as Rand’s or the world’s. But in alchemical symbolism this state of “whiteness” is an abstract, ideal state and in order to make it come alive, it must have “blood”, it must have the “redness” of life and humanity (Carl Jung, Interview). Rand’s life blood slowly dripping away. Note also that Callandor turns crimson red as Moridin pulls the True Power through it, heralding the imminent success of Rand’s trap enabling the Sealing of the Bore. Moridin wants to go to the extreme of blackness—oblivion—but he is forced into the triple conjunction, and then Rand brings on the Whiteness and Redness in quick succession as he seals the Dark One away.

Memory of Light Read-through #52: Chapter 46—To Awaken

By Linda

So much tension: the chapter ends on multiple cliffhangers.

Rand POV

Mere minutes have passed since the three entered Shayol Ghul, so the total eclipse is barely over at the Pit of Doom, despite days of battle having passed at Thakan’dar and weeks elsewhere. Rand feels more powerful than Moridin and tells him he’s unimportant, but Moridin laughs and knifes Alanna, his wounded hostage.

Nynaeve POV

Nynaeve can’t stop the knife because Rand has control of her channelling. It is fortuitous that herbs (and the application of mundane knowledge) rather than Healing save the day—and the world. They bring Alanna to consciousness and she releases the Warder bond before dying. On the whole, Aes Sedai consider herbs beneath them, but these plants have changed the course of events repeatedly in the series including for the Aes Sedai themselves. Jordan’s herbs often have real world parallels (see Herbs article for these and part they’ve played in series).

While rightly vilified for being made without consent, Alanna’s Warder bond was not all bad for Rand: it gave him great strength and endurance from Lord of Chaos until Winter’s Heart, when Elayne and Aviendha bonded him. (Min was included). It also was a major motivator for Rand, because of the distrust and suspicion it invoked.

When his first attack doesn’t work, Moridin does the unexpected again in stabbing his hand so Rand feels it and drops Callandor. There’s power in cleverness and determination.

Perrin POV

As Rand let go of his crushing sense of responsibility and pain, so Perrin lets go of his anger and pain. Concentrating on his task—his duty—he is not worried about whether he is wolf or man. In fact, he is truly in between, a liminal being on the thresholds of animal/human and awake/dreaming. All three ta’veren are liminal beings: Mat is liminal between the physical world and the underworld, and Rand between heaven and hell.

As a result, Perrin, who represents the Strength tarot card, is at full strength.

The fall of his hammer was like claps of thunder, the flashing of his eyes like lightning bolts. Wolves howled alongside the wind.

A Memory of Light, To Awaken

These lines also refer to Perrin’s sky god parallels, notably the Norse god Thor and the Slavic god Perun. The instinctual craftsman dodges in and out of Tel’aran’rhiod and the waking world as he concentrates on his prey, and they flicker between multiple worlds when he deals the killing blow. This is reminiscent of the Portal Stone trap/malfunction in The Great Hunt. Perrin sees various mirror and If worlds, notably one with soldiers that are a combination of Aiel and Seanchan.

When Perrin follows him from Tel’aran’rhiod to waking world and back, Slayer finally feels the terror he gave to others. Most of Jordan’s Darkfriends get their just deserts (see Darkfriends article).

Perrin’s expert eye assesses that the Light has lost the battle at Thakan’dar even though they won elsewhere. Where the Shadow has concentrated its attack, all three ta’veren are needed there to win. One or two are not enough. Perrin hears the Horn of Valere sound—not Olver’s first call, though—to summon the Heroes to Thakan’dar, including Hero wolves. The Last Hunt counters the Darkhounds’ Wild Hunt.

Mat POV

Olver and the Heroes are at the base of Shayol Ghul. Unfortunately, Shaisam’s mist is nearly at the path leading up the volcano. Mashadar touches Mat at the end of the chapter. More anon.

Memory of Light Read-through #51: Chapter 45—Tendrils of Mist

By Linda

Mat POV

“Blood stained the rocks” after the battles on the Heights is a reference to the prophecy of Rand’s blood sacrifice for salvation and that Rand is one with the Land. Mat carries Rand’s banner with the Aes Sedai symbol to fight under at Thakan’dar to ensure that the prophecy of “under this sign he (Rand) will conquer” is fulfilled.

Gateways won’t open at Thakan’dar because reality is breaking up there. Mat praises Grady for his efforts at the rather alarming battle at the Ford involving people who are trapped in a different kind of broken reality.

Trickster Mat reiterates that he won’t be bound to the Horn, or anyone. Yet, ironically Mat is bound—to Rand, and objects to this strongly all through the series.

Shaisam POV

Shaisan consumes souls rather like the Machin Shin infestation of the Ways, that was “friendly”—professional courtesy, Jordan called it—to Padan Fain/Mordeth in The Great Hunt. Shaisam’s drones have dead eyes rather than the wrong ones of those Turned to the Shadow. He hides his body among these zombies. Shaisam is still bound to a body but can transcend this dependence; he is on the verge of being a deity, but needs a place to “infest” (again like the Black Wind and like vermin or disease). This sets up the next chapter.

So powerful is Shaisam now, that he is able to convert Myrddraal, whereas before he used to just kill them. His protective mist is the part of Mashadar that was carried out of Shadar Logoth in the dagger by Mat. Once Fain/Mordeth was reunited with dagger, he was able to unite Mashadar with him, control it, grow it and become Shaisam. It seems that with his usual luck Mat chose to steal Mordeth’s most potent item.

Still, Shaisam is played for laughs at times in the last book, which prevents us from taking him seriously and lessens the surprise and daring of Mat killing him. Shaisam has imbued himself in Mashadar and plans to find a suitable place in the world to imbue himself in, too—as the Black Wind did in the Ways. The sun can still burn Shaisam and Mashadar away, but the clouds are too thick for that right now.

Gaul POV

Gaul and the wolves in Tel’aran’rhiod are working together very well to counter Slayer. Slayer tricks the wolves, but not Gaul. However, the Stone Dog honourably reveals himself to protect the wolves and is injured as a result.

Perrin stands with his face toward the sun (a symbol of life, the Creator, and Rand), even though it can’t be seen. Slayer reminds us of the foretelling that Luc will be important in the Last Battle. Luc and Isam both wanted to be part of something important, so this foretelling was a major inspiration for them. Isam wanted the ability to channel but the Dark One gave him other gifts instead, including the ability to enter Tel’aran’rhiod without channelling, which requires a dual-souled nature.

Some have theorised that Moridin channels only the True Power because his body can’t channel saidin even though his mind can. But the Dark One can’t grant the ability to channel, according to Slayer in this chapter. Moridin certainly felt when Rand channelled saidin and he wouldn’t have been able to sense it if he couldn’t channel it. He used only the True Power because he was addicted to it and it showed his status as favoured one. Plus, this intimidated the other Forsaken, who would never dare to use the True Power so boldly because it is lethal. (Tough guy Demandred, for instance, flinches, at Moridin’s saa.) The clincher is that Moridin channels through Callandor with saidin first, then, when he found to his surprise that it could do so, the True Power.

Mat POV

Olver loves flying on to’raken, but poor Mat is terrified. From his aerial viewpoint, Mat is appalled to realise that Fain and Mashadar are in Thakan’dar—and even the Shadar Logoth dagger also. He rightly doesn’t think the Light will be so lucky that the Darkhounds and Mashadar destroy one another, which means he will have to do something about one of them, at least.

Mat sees the ancient symbol of Aes Sedai forming overhead from white and dark clouds. The clouds are a good substitute for Rand’s banner which is lost when the to’raken crashes. No need to consciously fulfil prophecy this time.

Memory of Light Read-through #50: Chapter 44—Two Craftsmen

By Linda

Perrin POV

The hospital in Mayene is well-informed about how the battles are going. By recognising Chiad, Perrin reminds of her potential dishonour as a gaishain in visiting the battlefield to retrieve the injured and tend them. Perrin tells her it’s an exceptional time and what use is honour if the Dark One wins? She says it is everything, and he privately agrees. Otherwise the society ends up like Shadar Logoth or dark Rand, both of which had to be undone to save the world. Perrin convinces Chiad to find him an Aes Sedai that will lessen his fatigue by saying that he has to save Rand and Gaul. (She actually crept in to him to ask about Gaul, which is against tradition, and shows the extent of her love.)

Perrin and Master Luhhan acknowledge each other’s master’s pieces. And Master Luhhan is brilliant: the Whitecloak Byar doubted that the axe he made was indeed made by a village blacksmith. Both craftsmen agree that killing is never beautiful, even if the tools made for it are beautiful.

Perrin saw a vision of Mat talking with Seanchan (to arrange his transportation to Thakan’dar). And like Mat, he feels Rand pulling him to come and help. Perrin thinks he used himself up too early, but Master Luhhan says no, he’s still alive and must keep fighting because it’s an exceptional day. (A variant of what Perrin just told Chiad). It’s so typical of their characters that Mat would object to Rand’s pull because it’s an imposition, whereas Perrin would doubt that he is capable of undertaking it.

Perrin tests Masuri for trustworthiness before he will let her restore him. After all, an Aes Sedai cannot lie and neither does Perrin’s sense of smell. She grudgingly admits she was wrong to try and use Masema and has learned better—especially how excellent Perrin is. The Brown sister says that all the Aes Sedai and Wise Ones with Perrin learned this. Once Masuri washes away his fatigue, she gasps as he vanishes physically into Tel’aran’rhiod. Yep, he’s even better than they know.

Thom POV

The gleeman is another underestimated character. At first Thom appears to be a spectator of the battles recording the events as an epic ballad. But that is only one thing he is doing here. He gives as an accurate view of what’s happening. The Windfinders and the Dark One fighting over control of the weather. The last steamwagon fallen. The mist on one side of Thakan’dar unaffected by either the Windfinders or the Dark One; this is probably Shaisam. Thom muses on how one must do the unexpected to perform well, and in fact, that is what he is doing: being the unexpected last defence of Shayol Ghul in the waking world.

How glad he is to be there to protect Moiraine as much as Rand. Despite his ruminations he is alert and kills Jeane Caide, who was disguised as Cadsuane, but did not walk like her—the fifth Aes Sedai he has despatched. We never do learn what Jeane was doing between Tanchico and now. Nor do we know the names of the other four sisters that Thom killed. Robert Jordan doesn’t want the reader to know everything. But how bold is Thom to calmly knife channellers.

Because he is a very experienced and skilled performer, Thom is an accurate judge of a disguise, and is not fooled by an outer semblance or a faked voice. Thom has some aspects of the Fool in him—as a wandering but wise fool gleeman with his tall tales containing elements of truth—and also some aspects of the Magician, the next tarot card. The magician card originally represented an itinerant performer at fairs and was later developed by the occultists into a magus, and Thom is certainly both of these, as was his most important pupil, Rand, who started out performing at inns and houses on the way to Caemlyn and Tear and probably will again as he wanders the world after the Last Battle. Full circle.

As so often is the case, the chapter title refers to more than one situation. The two craftsmen in the series ostensibly are Perrin and Haral Luhhan, but they also could be Perrin and Thom (the POVs of the chapter) or even Perrin and Masuri, who is so skilled in removing fatigue.

Memory of Light Read-through #41: Chapter 37—The Last Battle Part 2

By Linda

Egwene POV

Egwene thinks that she hasn’t finished with the Empress—but alas, she has. After leaving their hostile meeting, she sees the cracks in reality for the first time. These are mainly, but not entirely, due to balefire. Egwene promptly develops a weave that doesn’t heal them of itself, but cushions the cracks in the Pattern while they heal themselves, and is one of her greatest feats. It leaves a film of crystals.

With all this distraction, she finally notices that Gawyn is not there with her. Bryne volunteers to go and bring him back. (They assume the Warder has gone to the Andoran armies to fight). Egwene permits Siuan to go with Bryne, but indicates that she would like her to be the Tower’s spy among the Seanchan. This tragically means Siuan’s death. If Egwene had known, would she have still asked this of Siuan? I believe so, but she would probably have phrased it differently.

Siuan actually commends her; says Egwene is a great replacement, a wonderful legacy. Most of Egwene’s legacy will be her part in the reform of the Aes Sedai, and her legendary battle with Taim and the Sharans, plus the Flame of Tar Valon weave. It is an outstanding legacy, but as Amyrlin, she is a short-lived replacement. And for Siuan the swan who can’t sing, what shall be her swan song? The fact that she kisses a man openly for the first time. Their last and only public kiss.

Egwene realises her hypocrisy in thinking Captain Chubain is too young for his job. He’s about 10‒15 years too young, she’s about 200.

Mat had the clever idea of setting the dry bush alight around the Shadow’s army to force them back, and for the smoke to cover the Aes Sedai army’s movements (and also the sight of their channelling.)

Gawyn POV

The rings hide Gawyn so well that even a Myrddraal does not see him, and neither does a Trolloc that passes close by him. Nor does Gawyn feel pain. When he runs through the Trollocs, they hear and smell him, but he is a blur. Gawyn is almost like a Myrddraal himself in the way the shadows hide him:

“There were shadows here and shadows were protection.”

- A Memory of Light, The Last Battle

and Myrddraal are slightly out of phase with time and reality, according to their creator, Aginor. The Amyrlin’s Warder is quite knowledgeable in what he can do while wearing the rings, showing some practise.

Gawyn is not going to kill Demandred for pride or glory, but for necessity. Nevertheless, he wants to do something that matters and he thinks he can be risked, but not Egwene or Logain. The fool still hasn’t learned what the Warder bond is because he refuses to listen. He is too impulsive to be a good choice as a Warder.

Demandred tries to balefire Gawyn but he dodges it, thanks to the rings, which make the encounter an actual duel and not an execution. Demandred challenges Gawyn’s loyalties and ethics as they fight. The Forsaken truly outclasses Gawyn—runs rings around him. He asks if Elayne or Rand is any better than Demandred in killing for advantage? Yet for them, it is a last resort against those who are committing crimes; for Demandred it is a first resort to gain advantage.

Demandred believes no one—Rand or anyone else—can defeat the Dark One. Apparently, the best way to save the world is to let him destroy it and protect people after. The Forsaken says Rand claims he can do the same.

Demandred believes that it must be Rand with Lews Therin’s memories who is the Light’s general, and therefore keeps looking for him on the battlefield. No one else could be so skilled in his opinion. He assumes that Rand wove Night’s Shade around Gawyn, not that he could have a ter’angreal with the same effect.

So many beliefs, false assumptions and outright lies. Desperate to be at the forefront of the war himself, Demandred thinks that Rand is personally orchestrating everything. (Mind you, Rand thought the same until he was convinced by Moiraine and others at Merrilor that he can’t do everything.)

Gawyn is not one enough with his sword—it is still a thing he manipulates instead of a part of him. Demandred efficiently wears Gawyn down and then stabs him fatally, although the Warder bond keeps Gawyn alive a little while.

Faile POV

Faile is rightly convinced that there is a Darkfriend among her group, but wrongly that they are one or both of the two men who ran off. She thinks Vanin’s terror is at being caught and not at what he was holding, not understanding how religiously Mat’s men try to avoid danger. Since she believes that it is pointless to hide the Horn, Faile is wearing it openly.

Perrin POV

Berelain pointedly has a chaperon for Perrin while he is in the hospital in her palace. This consideration is partly due to being pulled into line by Faile, but also due to her own desire for marriage to Galad.

Janina is able to selectively Heal. After more than one session, Perrin is finally Healed fully but is exhausted, so Janina probably Healed in the way Samitsu does and not the full five Powers Healing that Nynaeve weaves, that doesn’t take so much out of the patient.

Perrin deduces that three battlefronts moved to Merrilor, but Rand still fights. He informed them that time moves differently at the Bore—much more slowly—which they are all glad of and pass along to the battle command. At first, Berelain held back that Faile’s caravan was destroyed and she has vanished. Perrin insists his beloved is alive, because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate. He is determined to return to Gaul, but finally accepted that he would die without sleep.

Androl POV

Pevara looks down on Theodrin as not being “proper” Aes Sedai. However, Pevara hasn’t behaved as a “proper” Red in decades. She is otherwise understanding and positive towards Theodrin, though, and can accurately identify her feelings.

It’s taken a while, but Androl and Pevara are taking stock of their bond, and then their relationship. To Androl, Pevara is solid and reliable and their relationship life-saving. Androl is awkward around women. Even if they can see into his mind, they see awkwardness there. Pevara has been mentally comparing Androl to her figurines of her family. He will be her new family. All Aes Sedai see their family fade away over time, but Pevara’s family was cut off short.

Androl realises that Pevara’s achievement with the gateway, when she can’t do them easily, and didn’t have control and wasn’t the leader of the ring, was because she acted as him. She is able to overcome her fear of male channelling upon herself.

An inveterate traveller, Androl knows where he is relative to everywhere he’s ever been. He also “knows” any place he’s at in a very short time. He has an extreme sense of location, of place. Androl says that “small things matter.” He is a perfect example of that: his channelling ability is small, but really matters to the whole world.

They laugh at themselves, which is such a positive trait. They need all the mirth they can get in such times. It is something to fight for, something to help them fight. Respite, positivity—things the Dark One knows are the most dangerous—keep them from despairing.

Rhuarc POV

Rhuarc gives us an informative assessment of how the battle is going at Thakan’dar. Ituralde’s defences were finally broken, but they efficiently reduced the numbers of Shadowspawn. He is impressed by the dedication of the Dragonsworn; which is something, coming from an Aiel. As for the red-veiled Aiel, Rhuarc calls them Honorless. Impressively, he himself kills a red-veiled channeller. More concerningly, he feels the Light are losing the battle here.

And then Graendal strikes. She didn’t kill him, but has Compelled him to use his considerable fighting talents for herself, her protection. Rhuarc is robbed of his mind—judgment and values—and is now walking dead. A sad end to a much-loved character. It really shows the vileness of the Shadow. The Dreamwalkers knew something of his fate, we see them earlier in the series asking him if he wants to die old and fat in bed. Graendal turns everyone to herself; these days it’s a compensation for being robbed of her beauty by the Dark One. But she was always a monster even before being reborn as Hessalam.

Rand POV

Rand creates his “perfect” world out of one of the “If worlds” that is an alternate reality that may be less likely. Ogier are rebuilding Emond’s Field as compensation for Rand’s sacrifice. Originally, the Ogier thought of a monument to Rand, but the Two Rivers people made the more practical choice of reconstruction. They worked closely with the Ogier and learned off them.

The Two Rivers is more diverse, and more egalitarian than before and is now a place of pilgrimage or tourism. With the development of gunpowder weapons, the people are renowned riflemen as well as archers. But the only war is in the east, along Sharan border.

A monument was still made, but instead of commemorating just Rand, it honours all the fallen in the Last Battle. Rand rejects the sight of his friends on that monument as not definite fact, and this makes his vision wobble. He is still insisting it’s his sacrifice only, no one else’s.

Darkness only exists when Light falters. The Dark One can’t win so long as Rand is steadfast, which is why he tries to make Rand despair. The Dark One tells Rand that his world is flawed, because it can’t be perfect. There is still crime. The Dark One, being openly and fully evil, is more honest, more true, than Rand’s world—supposedly. Though who would believe such a liar? It’s just another attempt to make Rand give up.

This short vision is the “true” world that Rand should aim for: high ideals, but still with choice and messiness, and not draconian or extreme. Balanced. The Dark One is trying to force Rand to give up, or to be an extremist. Good forced on people is the evil of Shadar Logoth. The Dark One’s contention that if Rand can’t have perfection then his world is inadequate, that a grey world is the same as a black world, and that since criminals break rules there should be none, sounds sadly familiar in the real world.

Silviana POV

Still Silviana digs at the Blues. She is on the whole a very sensible and thorough woman, but Blues (and men) are her blind spots. She carries deep prejudices, which, from time to time, Egwene pulls her up on.

The Keeper assumes that Demandred attacked Egwene—she almost forgot about Gawyn (because good riddance) even though he isn’t there but has gone off on his own. Courageously, she offers to stand in Egwene’s place in the Warder bond. Silviana doesn’t understand the emotional attachment and intimacy of the bond, augmented, in this case, by love and a long-term commitment of marriage. She really misses the point. Instead, Egwene’s group will fight their way to Gawyn.

Elayne POV

Elayne judges that Mat’s plan to send Egwene’s army to attack the rear of the Shadow army fighting Elayne was genius.

Birgitte is fretting over how many of her memories have been lost. Unlike if she were born a baby, she can remember that she knew things she doesn’t now know. She is like an adult baby, or someone in the early throes of Alzheimer’s. It is a cruel situation.

While Galad is Elayne’s big brother, and certainly feels this way toward her, she doesn’t like him enough to accept his advice or criticism, seeing as she outranks him on a social scale. Yet she takes liberties to read a letter written to Galad and not her. She is an entitled miss. Galad doesn’t know the depth of Elayne’s rejection of him (which originated in part due to jealousy of Galad’s place in their father’s heart), but continues as though she feels everything that he thinks she should.

Mat’s letter is more educated than the “joke” letter he sent Elayne in Caemlyn to manipulate her into giving him a hearing (and that upset many fans with its style). Mat sent Galad to Elayne and a messenger there with his orders for Galad, so the spy at military headquarters can’t determine what is going on.

For a long while, as Galad notes, he wouldn’t have killed women (which Whitecloaks certainly would if they believed the women were Darkfriends or could channel), but not now. Galad has seen that women can be evil. Elayne says for once she agrees wholeheartedly with him. Galad thinks that Elayne is joking when she says that she doesn’t want to strangle him for what he says. His belief in right makes him oblivious of his family’s failings, at times. Probably just as well. Galad becomes increasingly appealing over the series. Early in the books we only know him through Elayne’s eyes, and they are highly biased. Away from her, his actions can speak for themselves and although a little stiff (as many Cairhienin are), he is good-hearted, just and reasonable.

Mat POV

Mat is loving the gamble of war, and he admires Demandred’s willingness to gamble also.

Logain won’t take orders at all easily from Mat, and tries to deny that he should cooperate. There’s resentment in his belief that he declared himself Dragon too soon and so was not the one. Yet Logain doesn’t want the Dragon’s destiny. Now he wants the glory and honour of killing Demandred as compensation for how the Reds treated him. Some of this is post traumatic stress and the effects of almost being turned to the Shadow. Mat was probably unrealistic in trying to get Logain to aid the Aes Sedai, considering what they did to him. Sure, everyone needs to work together, since the war is everyone’s—as Mat says—but Logain would be far more motivated to aid a group that had not damaged him.

Mat hasn’t worked out how to get rid of Demandred. He correctly doubts Logain would do much good against such a powerful Forsaken. The Shadow attacks the command tent as Mat wonders how to save Elayne’s forces and Tuon begins their pretend rift.

Min POV

Sharans wear lamellar armour (typical of their strong “Chinese” origins). Tuon breaks free of her ceremonial clothes and runs to save Mat from Grey Men. It is ironic that Tuon is highly mobile, while Min, who used to be admired for wearing men’s clothes, is stuck in her cumbersome dress.

Min is appalled that her rescuer, Siuan, is here and not with Bryne. The two must stay near each other to live. Siuan doesn’t care since if Mat dies, the Last Battle is lost, and insists they must help him. While Min saves Tuon, Siuan is killed by a fiery explosion after attracting attention with her channelling. Another much-loved character is lost.

Demandred POV

Demandred is peeved that his “advantage” in using the eyes of scouting bird with the True Power is overtaken, even eclipsed, by gateways that look down on a battlefield. The people of this Age are not the primitives that the Forsaken had convinced themselves. They have open minds, and are therefore free to experiment, whereas the Age of Legends people had such extensive knowledge that they are comparatively closed to new ideas and techniques.

The Forsaken won’t Travel to Mat’s command post for fear that Lews Therin is there. This is a gamble he won’t take. He’s being cautious, not afraid! It shows just how much he respects and fears the abilities of his despised Lews Therin. He’s also wary of M’Hael, who has been promoted rapidly due to his successes. Demandred’s grudging respect to M’Hael shows how strong-willed and persistent M’Hael is.

Rand showing himself in various battlefields has made Demandred wonder where he is. It adds credence to Demandred’s belief that there’s a trap somewhere. He can’t believe that the master general of this Age isn’t Lews Therin in disguise. This is consistent with his attitude to Third Age people even after expressing surprise at their innovation. His assessment that they are too young and can’t be experienced enough is correct. Mat had a very unexpected genesis: he was manufactured by the Pattern and the Eelfinn—and is a concert of generals.

The Forsaken reluctantly admits that Lews Therin was stronger in the One Power and more popular. (And if he thinks Lews Therin is Mat, a pretty damn good general.) But Demandred was better at war—plus it is an outlet for his anger and resentment. He acknowledges Mat is a very good gambler, as Mat also said of him.

Shendla does not see Demandred as evil. For the Sharans, the Pattern is about fate and balance, and not so much which side you’re on or the choices you make, as it is for the other nations. The Sharans have had little choice until now, but perhaps after the Last Battle they will feel differently about choice and the Pattern. Judging by their conversations in this book and in River of Souls, they accept that since the Pattern calls for two sides, there’s no shame in either side. It could be that they have had to be constrained the entire Third Age to be the sort of people that would fight wholesale for the dark side. Yet they worry about the existence of their nation after this apocalyptic event as much as the fate of the world. Shendla is satisfied that Demandred will try to save Sharans when he remakes the world, and Demandred is surprised that he wants to do well by them. Having been locked into his sterile feelings of envy and resentment for centuries, he is almost surprised to find he has developed feelings for Shendla, too.

M’Hael is roundly punished for insulting Demandred. A True Power shield sucks up the One Power like an a’dam when touched by a man or like a gholam. The shield might have given the idea of a gholam to Aginor—or at least how to craft one using similar weaves and principles.

Rand POV

The Dark One has to work within time’s rules when he touches Pattern. This is why balefire prevents the Dark One from capturing a soul. He is bound by the logic of causality when he reaches into the Pattern.

A Memory of Light Read-through #39: Chapter 36—Unchangeable Things

By Linda

Nynaeve POV

The Pit of Doom is like a black hole sucking everything into a vacuum. It affects time: fifteen minutes have elapsed since they entered, while days pass elsewhere. Also notable is that the eclipse that heralded their entry no longer applies even here.

However, Rand froze after touching the empty darkness, and is not affected by the pull of the Pit. Giving his all to the duel, Rand can’t spare any effort to keep from sweating.

Nynaeve thinks Rand is not weaving, but simply holding all the Power that he can. Her judgment may be coloured by her restlessness at being constrained and not playing a more active role. To relieve it, she works out how to move around the cavern. She is of the opinion that she or Moiraine could have channelled something while Rand fought, if either led the circle, since he is not “doing” anything with the Power. Because of this, she finds Alanna, and realises the repercussions for Rand of the Green succumbing to her injuries. Moridin set his own trap—to drive Rand mad when she dies. Nynaeve wonders why Rand never felt Alanna being stabbed, but it was perhaps only just before the group entered Shayol Ghul, or else she might have died before Moridin was ready.

Eventually Nynaeve realises that Rand is weaving with the Power he holds, she just can’t see the weaves, or feel them much. Nor can she attract Rand’s, and thus Moridin’s, attention.

Dissatisfaction of a geologist reader: the cavern has been depicted as a limestone cave—the Carlsbad cave was used as inspiration for the cover illustration—but it is actually a basalt cavern inside a volcano and nothing to do with limestone or conventional stalagmites and stalactites at all.

Mat POV

Dragonsworn are humble folk that have come to do their bit in the Last Battle, even though they have never fought before. Mat thinks they are crazy, and that he would never have done so. Two years ago, he was one of them, except that he had been well-trained with a quarterstaff as a sport or martial art. This scene really shows how the Pattern has forced Mat to where he is. Amongst the humble fighters, he half recognises from his lost memories the old guy Almen Bunt, who took Mat and Rand to Caemlyn in his cart after they watched a Fade talking to a Darkfriend in a village. After Rand restored health to his family’s apple trees at the base of Dragonmount, Almen has journeyed north to fight.

The young Sigmont who wants to learn the sword, and whose over-optimism Mat quells, is a reference to the hero Sigmund of Norse mythology earning a sword from Odin (a parallel of Mat). In the Völsunga saga, Odin, disguised as a beggar, plunges the sword Gram into the central tree in King Völsung's hall at a wedding feast and announces that the man who can remove the sword will have it as a gift. Only Sigmund is able to free the sword from the tree. Later in his life, Sigmund matches up in battle against an old man who is Odin in disguise, and who shatters his sword so that he is killed by others. His posthumous son Sigurd becomes a dragon slayer.

Mat is wearing a red leather eyepatch now, instead of black with rubies—symbolising that his life is bloodier. He runs away from Tuon’s Deathwatch Guards into Aes Sedai. Egwene assumes he is defecting when he says that Tuon’s guards are after him. He’s just trying to avoid work, and his current line of work is dangerous. Specifically, he doesn’t want to be responsible for executions. He is aware of his own major foibles and unwilling to judge those of others, plus he also just doesn’t like responsibility in general. That’s not to say that he isn’t unsuited to weighing up people: he’s right about Gawyn being quick to judge others. Egwene, too, was upset at ordering the executions of the Black sisters exposed among the rebel Aes Sedai, but now seems more inured to this part of the job.

Mat disputes that he didn’t contribute much to the hunt for the Horn, and considering that he was ill, he didn’t do too badly. In his indignation, he openly says that he blew it—something he has been careful to avoid saying—thereby allowing Egwene and co to escape Falme, which Egwene disputes. In truth, each group’s actions helped those of the other, as is typical of the Pattern. She reminds Mat of the Shadar Logoth dagger and he reacts before he can say that it’s nothing to him.

Egwene almost admits to Mat that the seals were stolen as well as the Horn, which would be a major loss of face. Mat’s unimpressed that she wouldn’t be plainer.

While Mat avoids the guards, he’s checking out the lie of the land for battles. Egwene is fooled by her own judgmental attitude into thinking he’s just being idle. Listening to trials and pleas right now would be a waste of Mat’s time, since he is the Light’s main general.

Delarn and one hundred of the Band have sacrificed themselves to be trapped in Hinderstap until the Pattern rights itself there. Their role in the Last Battle is to defend the Mora River. Mat is very upset at this. Even though the Hinderstap denizens are likely to live, they may remain trapped in a time loop indefinitely, while ordinary soldiers lucky enough to survive the regular battles are free once Tarmon Gai'don is over. Perhaps once the Dark One is sealed away the wrongness will die down and the Pattern restore itself at Hinderstap.

It is time for a last stand at Merrilor because there is no food left, and the populace is only going to weaken. Mat is aware that if Rand wins they also must win completely and utterly by destroying the Shadow’s armies, which otherwise would grow again. One last throw, just as in his visit to Hinderstap. Their present circumstance mirrors that situation, although on a much different scale.

Mat feels the change in the Pattern or the battlefield as the Shadow’s armies arrive; he feels Rand’s pull also.

Mat must do the unexpected. Trick them all. Well he thinks that’s unexpected.

Perrin POV

Perrin seems to draw strength from his hammer to pull himself out of the wolf dream. Another pull was acting in his favour: his ta’veren pull, which had strong Master Luhhan there to carry him to the Aes Sedai for Healing.

A Memory of Light Read-through #37: Chapter 34—Drifting

By Linda

It is Perrin who drifts into nothingness as he lies wounded, but Rand is “drifting” between the Dark One’s nothingness and reality, between all of time and here-and-now, and Faile’s group are directionless as they decide where to go next.


Rand POV

Rand’s contact with the Dark One’s blackness in his previous POV has brought him outside of Time, which is where the Dark One is imprisoned. The Dark One’s nothingness that wants to consume is a black hole personified. Shaitan can’t create independently—only eat or destroy what the Creator has made. The Creator has no other name, as though s/he has no other role. Which brings the question, can the Dark One actually make a world in his own image? He is nothingness, so is that also only what he creates? Is all his other rhetoric about (re)making the world a lie? Or does he do a cheap knockoff of the Pattern he just destroyed? So many questions.

All around him spread a vast nothingness. Voracious and hungry, it longed to consume. He could actually see the Pattern. It looked like thousands upon thousands of twisting ribbons of light; they spun around him, above him, undulating and shimmering, twisting together. At least, that was how his mind chose to interpret it.

- A Memory of Light, Drifting

Twisting ribbons of light is also how the Powers in weaves appear to those who can see them. Rand is watching the Pattern being woven.

As Rand sees, the Pattern is all of time, all possibilities, all at once. This is why if the Dark One wins in one world he will win in all: because all the worlds and times are right there.

In this chapter, Rand, like the Welsh god Lleu Llaw Gyffes, is liminal, on the threshold: he is not in the Pattern, and not entirely outside it either, but in between. This is the only place that Lleu—and his parallel Rand—can be killed, and where the greatest alchemical wedding can take place. Having seen what he is fighting for, Rand steps back into the Pattern/reality a bit so he can make sense of events and not be lost in the vastness. I was always convinced that this confrontation would not be determined by a simple “who would win in a fight”, but a theological or metaphysical solution.

It’s nice to see the Dark One pointing out to that his faithful henchman he has been effective, after he and Rand criticise Moridin.


Perrin POV

Badly wounded, Perrin is dying. He has landed in a world with wolves who have not had wolfbrothers and they reject him. Ironic, after he spent so much time fighting his wolfbrother side and finally accepted it.

Lanfear comes to check on him and is disappointed to see him beaten. Perrin is ashamed at failing her and pleads to be Healed, an indication that he is under her Compulsion. His conscious mind is shocked that he cares about her opinion, so he has some control over himself still, and is not fully under her sway.

Lanfear won’t Heal him because he doesn’t deserve her. A dark Goddess of Sovereignty, she only Heals those who serve her or that she thinks will. In desperation, Perrin thinks of Faile and a portal out of Tel’aran’rhiod, and manages to shift to Merrilor, then collapses. This little scene shows not only that there is still something wrong with Perrin, but how he will overthrow it and be fully himself.


Faile POV

Faile suggests Berisha sent them to the wrong place due to the trauma of the bubble of evil and her injuries from it. Setalle/Martina disputes that an Aes Sedai would fail under pressure—because those are weeded out in testing for the shawl—but we know that at least one has. Faile doesn’t think Aes Sedai are so free of error.

While Aravine says:

”Surely the Shadow has greater things to misdirect than a simple supply train."

- A Memory of Light, Drifting

she knows very well that it is not, but is trying to pass it off as an accident and cut short their concerns that it is a trap or at least a danger. Faile thinks that

If the Shadow had planned a trap for her caravan, it meant the Shadow knew about the Horn. In that case, they were in very serious danger. More serious, even, than being in the Blight itself.

- A Memory of Light, Drifting

This is quite correct, as are many of Faile’s deductions in the series. Aravine has convinced Setalle that the misdirected gateway was not intentional, but the bubble of evil’s fault. An ex-Aes Sedai would want to think that a sister did not fail under extreme pressure, and so accepted the rationalisation readily enough. Faile decides the gateway was an honest mistake that a Darkfriend took advantage of by killing Berisha to strand them. Setalle openly admits to Faile about being a burned out Aes Sedai, something that Faile thinks is suspicious in itself and leads her to wonder if Setalle is a sleeper Darkfriend. While Faile has the right idea, she is looking in the wrong direction for her sleeper. Sometimes paranoiacs are justified; but, unfortunately, Faile becomes suspicious of everyone except her close assistants. To those, she’s very trusting and loyal.

Setalle suggests they head for Shayol Ghul. That must have given Aravine quite a surprise.


Aviendha POV

Aviendha respects Sarene and the way she keeps her emotions under control. That’s something coming from a parochial Aiel, particularly when she says that Sarene would have made a good Maiden. It’s ironic that in the Tower Whites are considered the least practical and worldly, but out in the world others think they would make good fighters.

While Aviendha is killing red-veils, Graendal kills two of her ring, gravely injures another and captures the fourth by Compulsion.

For all that she rejects the red-veils as not Aiel—because ji’e’toh defines Aiel and they don’t follow it—Aviendha takes it personally that the men used to be Aiel, but the Shadow corrupted them. At least she blames the Shadow and not the men for this.

A Memory of Light Read-through #36: Chapter 33—The Prince's Tabac

By Linda

Perrin POV

Perrin and Slayer are currently evenly matched in dreamwalking prowess; in order to beat him, Perrin needs to extend his skills some more and get ahead of the Darkfriend. At least he sees through Slayer talking as a distraction—and the fact that Slayer felt he needed to do that shows he was under pressure and will ultimately be outstripped by Perrin. Slayer’s philosophy is to kill or he will be killed. For a long time, Perrin feared that he would turn into an animal. However, Slayer is more of a predator than Perrin—and is not part animal. It took Hopper to teach Perrin that his wolf side is not responsible for his lack of restraint and proportion.

Getting rid of the Shadow’s henchman is the most important thing Perrin can do. The men fight in air, then earth, then water. The Land is in a parlous state in Tel’aran’rhiod. There are no indications of health at all.

The Dark One does not discard, according to Slayer; he endlessly uses people. Yet Perrin is right in his opinion that Darkfriends won’t be rewarded for their service. Actually, Slayer says the Dark One doesn’t discard useful tools. Slayer is wrong that the Dark One doesn’t fear tools that threaten him—these are classified as disloyal or untrustworthy and are always killed or enslaved. Slayer is kidding himself with this wishful thinking, but the exchange shows how Darkfriends think. At which point Perrin is too exhausted to continue to fight.


Faile POV


Despite taking care to make innocuous dummy caravan runs, Faile’s appropriation of fifty of the Band of the Red Hand’s best soldiers is suspicious to the Shadow. Probably not coincidentally, the very run taking the Horn is the one sabotaged. Unbeknownst to Faile, Aravine betrayed them and the Shadow has kept a very close eye on the group. Further, Aravine is the one checking the lists of supplies. The Horn is something extra, seemingly frivolous, and this has apparently flagged it.

Egwene had Laras bring out the Horn—her most reliable servant, assured by Verin. Faile sees the irony that she left home to be a Hunter of the Horn, and now has been handed it—not for her personal glory, but to guard. An irresponsible action caused her to grow up in the last year or two, and she will do brilliantly, even to the extent of sacrificing herself to save it.

Two steps forward and one step back in the process: Faile planned to object to Perrin “protecting her” by volunteering her to look after supplies and stay off the battlefield. As if there are any safe places. One of her bad habits is to play these games. When reality strikes she forgets such stupidity, hopefully for the final time.

Faile’s judgement that, with an active volcano nearby, Tar Valon should have earthquakes is sound. However, none has been mentioned previously, and this one is apparently a sign of the Land breaking, considering what happens next. Faile has heard of the cracks in reality:

She had heard more than one account of the spiderweb cracks that appeared in rocks, pure black, as if they extended on into eternity itself.

- A Memory of Light, The Prince’s Tabac

She is a good information gatherer and uses it well. (Faile’s parallels are knowledge goddesses such as Saraswati).

I think that Faile’s calm acceptance of the “betrayals of the great captains, including Faile’s own father” is not convincing characterisation. She should be more horrified, dismayed, or angry.

Aravine’s disinterest in her family is suspicious… Faile’s rationalisation that “if Aravine was determined to leave her past behind…” is ironic: Aravine couldn’t escape her past—when she joined the Shadow. Faile is too suspicious of Vanin, but too accepting of Aravine. She is loyal to her own people, but has always had a grudging opinion of Mat and therefore his people. Such as that Mat’s men, like their commander, are lazy but look after their own skins so well that they survive when others don’t.

Within the bubble of evil, Berisha’s gateway did not open where she intended. Was it her thoughts or fear of the Dark One responsible for the evil that led it to open in the Blight? Once done, she was murdered as the ever observant Faile saw. This prevented the Aes Sedai rescuing them or telling anyone where they went.


Aviendha POV

Near Shayol Ghul, people have trouble sleeping because they are tormented by terrible dreams. This could be due to the proximity of Dreadlords and Forsaken as well as the Dark One.

Aviendha considers making sure that she is following Aiel customs, such as about water consumption, and then tosses them aside for the Last Battle. Directly after this, she mistakenly trusts three strangers because they are Aiel. Two years ago, she would not have. Another custom she abandoned without noticing. Rand united the Aiel, but even above that they are united against Wetlanders. Aviendha immediately wonders if these strange Aiel are (despised) Shaido even though their customs are completely foreign to her. She admits that for all that Wetlanders misjudge Aiel, so did she.

One thing she does quickly catch on to is that the red-veiled Aiel are the channelling men that are sent to fight the Dark One—and their descendants (some of whom can’t channel). However, she doesn’t explain this to Cadsuane, even though the Aes Sedai asked about them and Aviendha has toh to her for saving her from the red-veiled Aiel.

In all this, she nearly forgot about the woman channeller she was tracking. Cadsuane notices that Graendal’s Travelling is different—she uses the True Power.

Aviendha rescues Cadsuane and point out that they are now even (ie that Aviendha no longer has toh to Cadsuane). Cadsuane thanks her, but establishes her dominance. The Green sister didn’t like being placed under Aviendha by Rand. Nor did Sorilea.

Aviendha disputes Cadsuane’s warning that there are dozens of channellers now fighting, but Cadsuane says most are men, which is why Aviendha can’t sense them. With that mistake, Cadsuane is back to thinking of Aviendha as a fool child and ordering her to do something. Aviendha smarts at this and tries ordering Sorilea and Amys to compensate, but backs down under their raised eyebrows. When she uses better manners, Sorilea is helpful; Aviendha can’t run roughshod over three-hundred-year-old ladies. Aviendha passes on the information about the red-veiled Aiel being their male channellers that the Aiel have been sending to the Blight for thousands of years.

Then Aviendha warns Darlin about the Aiel Dreadlords, and that a Dreadlord was at his tent so they must therefore make their battle plan very simple and unchanging--to hold the area until Rand’s duel is done. Their plans must be as impossible to corrupt as they can be.

A Memory of Light Read-through #33: Chapter 30—The Way of the Predator

By Linda

Perrin POV

The chapter title is about testing to find the weakness in your opponent. Perrin is referring to Slayer, but we see little of him in this chapter.

Perrin is searching for Graendal, who found the weakness of the Light’s armies: there is only one person devising the strategy for each army. Corrupt them and they lose the battle and the army. At first, Perrin assumed that Graendal was giving orders to Darkfriends in the camps to sabotage the battle, but her plan is more effective.

Quite a bit of time has elapsed, and Perrin is frustrated that they have to rely on others to leave Tel’aran’rhiod. It is difficult to get the timing right and meet up, when time flows very differently in each place, and he considers following Graendal through her gateway to return to the waking world. He senses a similarity between taking a gateway out of Tel’aran’rhiod and waking up.

Seeing his old friend Elyas out of context was disconcerting; it takes Perrin quite a while to recognise him in a place he normally doesn’t go. Elyas has avoided Tel’aran’rhiod because it is dangerous, but all places are dangerous now and everyone has to do their bit.

It takes Perrin little time to put a few snippets of information together and realise Graendal is corrupting the minds of the Great Captains to undermine their armies. Elyas is to wake up and warn the other leaders, and save Ituralde.


Rand POV

The essence of the Dark One is a cold expanse of darkness, infinite and empty like a black hole. Wind surges into the void. The black hole analogy will become stronger as the wind also strengthens and tries to suck everything in along with it. Nynaeve’s eyes are closed in endurance, but Moiraine is determined to witness.

Rand is using Callandor—the sword that is not a sword—in a sword fight. Lews Therin Telamon was always better than Moridin at fencing, and Rand feels more confident after practising fighting one-handed so effectively with his father. (In some ways, that was the least that he was taught in that session, as we will see). Both men are now bleeding on the rocks of Shayol Ghul—another similarity, another link.

The terrain has been changing while the men fight, to help Moridin catch Rand off guard, and also to push Rand into the Dark One’s nothingness, which he eventually does, for the second stage of this battle. All goes black for Rand as he contacts the Dark One’s void.

Elayne POV

Elayne’s army is on the verge of collapse with exhaustion, nearly overrun. The dragons are out of ammunition, but her channellers are too exhausted to make gateways for supplies. Worse, Elayne’s army can’t retreat because they have insufficient space and would be slaughtered as they pull back.

Logain and a hundred Asha’man arrive, a comparison with Lews Therin and the Hundred Companions at the end of the War of Power. They have joined Elayne because they found the Shadow’s battle plans in Taim’s study.

Logain’s eyes are darker than they once were, but not “wrong”. His whole being is very dark but the Turning to the Shadow was not completed so he may be restored. After all: “There is no person so dark that they cannot come back to the Light…” Of course, once Turning is completed, the person cannot be brought back to the Light by natural means.

Elayne’s words that:

"We must retreat—unless you can produce a miracle, Lord Logain."

- A Memory of Light, The Way of the Predator

make Logain smile not because she acknowledged his rank—birth and earned—but because he thinks they can produce a miracle.

A balanced circle of 14 women and 13 men—the strongest type of circle—performs a “great work”. Such a magnum opus is legendary these days. They will perform their own miracle, contrasting with the lack of cooperation between the sexes at the end of the War of Power in the Age of Legends. Both Lews Therin and Logain turned the tide of battle.

Elayne tends to think that strength is the most important factor in a channeller. This is understandable since she has been trained by Aes Sedai—all too well. She also assumes that Androl is not able to do much, and is likely susceptible to being overwhelmed by the power. It’s easy to see in her doubt the start of the Aes Sedai discounting weaker channellers in everything. Furthermore, even numb with exhaustion, she finds Pevara’s affection for a man shocking in a Red. The usual Aes Sedai judgments and stereotypes have already been swallowed wholesale.

Just as Leane is able to achieve as much as she used to by channelling cleverly, so does Androl. Making Gateways to a volcano magma chamber is a brilliant idea and he has the amazing talent to bring it off. Extra Asha’man outside the circle fan the lava and heat away from the humans and blow Trollocs into the flow.

After his feat, Androl is exhausted and surprised that the equally exhausted Elayne immediately plans to fight on. They must wipe out all the Shadowspawn. Elayne is determined and courageous (like a Green); and this is also the right tactic; one side of winning the war is exterminating the Shadowpawn. The other side is Rand winning his battle. They are interdependent, and every win on each side literally advances the other.

A Memory of Light Read-through #28: Chapter 25—Quick Fragments

By Linda

Siuan POV

Siuan boldly tests the Amyrlin (despite being a VERY junior Aes Sedai) but then realises that even more intimate memories could have been passed on to the Shadow. Myrelle, who, incidentally, now has new Warders (plural) from the Black Tower, informed the Aes Sedai about the Turning and how that could be seen in the person’s eyes. However, Siuan is not sure what form this difference takes and how obvious it is really is:

If we can't tell, Siuan thought, then we're already doomed. She would have to trust the Amyrlin as she had so many times before.

A Memory of Light, Quick Fragments

She can’t bring herself to think about it in a plain fashion, which may be adding to the problem. There has been too much pretending there is no Black Ajah and no corruption of channellers. Siuan decides she just has to trust the Amyrlin. Ironically, as far as trust goes, she is looking in the wrong direction. Her own Warder has been corrupted under her nose—the guy she trusts above all other men—and a large portion of their army is doomed.

Egwene is not sure if she trusts Rand’s statement that the Seanchan fight the Shadow. Note that the Seanchan’s top general was not Compelled or corrupted through his dreams, only a second-tier general was. Moghedien’s mode of operation is indirect, as against Graendal’s bold, direct methods. It succeeded for longer, too.


Rand’s POV

Rand’s firmness prevents the Dark One from closing the way down to the Pit of Doom upon the party. Dark One tries to intimidate them with sound, instead. It works on Moiraine, not much on the other two.

At the end of the road, there is no fire, only nothingness. No illusions. Not even Shaidar Haran, now. They also find Moridin being the Dark Knight: on one knee, head bowed, sword “held before him, tip resting against the ground”. Most tellingly, he is at the edge of the light, neither fully in one or the other, but his eyes are almost completely covered in saa.

Moridin wants that nothingness, a negative nirvana in which he will be freed from the cycle of rebirth. Nirvana is a Buddhist concept in which the person reaches non-self and Emptiness—has no consciousness. It is the end of rebirth by stilling the fires (apt!) that keep the process of rebirth going. Moksha, on the other hand, is a Hindu concept in which the cycle of rebirth ends with the soul being united with, and understanding, the whole universe as the Self. To gain his Nirvana, he is prepared to destroy the whole world’s reincarnation cycle and doom them to rebirth into a dark universe. He will weaken Rand, if he can, to help the Dark One win in exchange for the promised oblivion, even though he knows that Dark One is a liar.

The woman that Rand senses is in trouble is Elayne, who has channelled to exhaustion.


Lan POV

Lan realises he is a target of the Shadowspawn army. The only thing surprising about this is that Lan took so long to consider that they would target him.

When he goes up a hill to view the battlefield for a change, he is just in time to see that too many reserves were sent to fill a gap in their lines. He will check the mistake, which leads to the unmasking of Agelmar’s Compelled mind—but not soon enough.


Perrin POV

The chapter title refers to the “quick fragments of an enormous battle” that Perrin sees; plus the quick fragments of a few POVs. No one can see it all. Of interest is that Perrin sees snake-like people in the dream fighting—these are Aelfinn, I expect. Perrin is the only one of the three ta’veren who has never seen them before.

When Perrin sees wolves waiting near Shayol Ghul, he remarks that they don’t say what they’re waiting for. The Last Hunt; they have told Perrin this before.

From Min’s viewing, Perrin knows that Rand will need him at some point, but can’t wait here for that like the wolves are. There is too much for him to do.

Perrin uses Mah’alienir (which does miss sometimes, for all that it's named after Thor’s hammer) to smash Slayer’s arrow from the air, and is led into a troop of red-veiled Aiel. He shows mercy to the two Aiel channellers and doesn’t kill them in Tel’aran’rhiod in case they can't be reborn, a mercy they didn’t show to the wolves. This is before he learns that they were Turned. By Aiel terms, this earns him great ji. He outdoes Gaul, who killed one who could channel. Lanfear says that people don’t die forever if killed in Tel’aran’rhiod, but Perrin realises she could be lying. Gaul kills them after Perrin determines that he cannot Turn them back to the Light. Slayer escaped back to the waking world, and Perrin sets up a message relay service among the wolves to let him know when Slayer returns. He's efficiently set up the final confrontation with Slayer.

Perrin’s perspective shows that the Pit of Doom is a black hole, a negative singularity—the end of everything.

A Memory of Light Read-through #25: Chapter 22—The Wyld

By Linda

Egwene POV

The higher the status of the Sharans, the fewer tattoos they have (see Costume article). Their male channellers are feral, and take pride in how dangerous they are. They have been dehumanised in their upbringing, and glory in that, because the fear they now arouse in others is a type of power. As former breeding stock, they have never had power. The male channellers wear rampant, aggressive vine tattoos from an early age, while the female channellers have a tree tattoo on their back with its branches bearing leaves onto their face. The Sharans appear to be starving their former rulers. Or have they withered away under the contempt of their ex-subjects at how they are puppets bound to the Pattern?

Egwene wonders why the Sharans have invaded now. We will find out that they are the antagonists of the mainland armies, fighting on the side of the Shadow in the hope of liberation from the Pattern that has held them in thrall until this moment. As unforseen and deadly invaders, they represent a combination of the Mongol Horde invading the West and also the Carthaginians invading the Ancient Roman Empire with Demandred as the Great Khan (a mirror and rival to Rand, the Car’a’carn) and the great general Hannibal, respectively.

Demandred uses the True Power to Travel to the site. His superior abilities are shown in how he finds Leane hidden among the tents and carries her to him with weaves. Yet he overlooks Egwene, a stronger channeller, on the perimeter. Leane is brave and controlled. Demandred uses her as a messenger to Rand to deliver his challenge and threat:

”If he does not, I will slaughter and destroy. I will seize his people. I will enslave his children, I will take his women for my own. One by one, I will break, destroy, or dominate everything he has loved."

A Memory of Light, The Wyld

Demandred’s excuse that he killed the newly captured slaves because the Sharans had no time for them and they would suffer without training, and presumably, being provided for properly, has a parallel in the Mongols enslaving who they wanted in the areas they invaded and killing the rest. Demandred and Rand both share parallels with Genghis Khan: Rand in a positive way with his union of the war-like and feuding Aiel clans (see Rand essay) whom he took back to the Westlands, and Demandred in a very negative way with his invasion of the Westlands committing atrocities. Demandred emphasised this very similarity to both Leane and Gawyn (A Memory of Light, The Wyld and The Last Battle).

Demandred also misused religion to demoralise and terrorise, as Genghis Khan did at Bukhara:

“I am the flail of god. Had you not created great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
.

The Forsaken was an agent of Shaitan claiming to be an equivalent of the Dragon, the Creator’s champion who is as much a scourge as a saviour, and whom he threatened.

Demandred’s claim that he fulfilled Sharan prophecy is true:

"Just as the people here awaited him with prophecy, just as they showered him with glory, the people of my land awaited me. I have fulfilled their prophecies. He is false, and I am true."

A Memory of Light, The Wyld

although he didn’t believe it. His mistake is in thinking that the promised one of the Sharan prophecy was the Dragon—it wasn’t. Their prophecy was separate to the Karaethon Cycle and the antithesis of it. Both men are prophesied ones.

Demandred’s title of “He Who Is Owned Only By the Land” is a claim that is also true, and in a way that Demandred did not intend. Rand is one with the Land and the Land one with him. Demandred is owned by his hatred of, and obsession with, Rand. Demandred sees himself as an equal and rival to Rand, and wants to steal everything that Rand has. He never imagined that Rand would ignore him, and not consider him at all. It is the ultimate insult to the Forsaken.


Perrin POV

Perrin wonders why Lanfear gave him knowledge of the Dreamspike. It was to buy his trust and regard; to keep Rand safe for her to kill, and thereby earn the Dark One’s obligation; and to keep Perrin busy in the Dream until she needed him.

Perrin must call the Last Hunt for the wolves; they can’t hunt the Darkhounds on their own, just as the Heroes of the Horn need the Dragon’s banner at the least to fight. The Wolf King follows up on the wolves’ advice that Graendal is in the Dream. She was in Ituralde’s tent reading reports, which would give her intelligence of the Light’s military plans, and then went to Bashere’s dream.

In her ugly new body, Graendal is all the more determined to be the Naeblis. She now looks like Grendel the man-eating monster. It is as though her beautiful parallels, the ancient Greek Aphrodite and Circe, have been robbed of their beauty, but are still capable of destroying men. Graendal was in Tel’aran’rhiod in the flesh, which allowed her to channel at her full strength. She thinks that actual pitched battles against the Light are far less useful than destroying the generals of the Light’s armies, but as we see, a general can be replaced. Perrin is more than a match for Graendal in Tel’aran’rhiod, although he balked at killing her. By Aiel thinking, the greater honour would be taking her captive, as Aviendha did.

Lanfear criticises Perrin for not killing Graendal, but she has an obvious self-interest there, in reducing her competition. While she would not be allowed to kill a colleague at this time, Perrin could. She tells him that not killing women is a weakness. Ironically, he will kill one—and only one—woman, and it is her.

Lanfear tries to manipulate Perrin, but he rejects her charms. She plies him with knowledge instead; this time about Slayer being able to physically enter and leave Tel’aran’rhiod at will. Just knowing that it can be done inspires him to ask the right questions, which leads to him killing Slayer and Lanfear and protecting Rand.

Moridin is too occupied to keep a watch on Lanfear. Nevertheless, Lanfear declines to help Perrin with an action because she will be further punished if found out. She wants Perrin to become powerful in his own right, and tempts him with power and the good he could do with it. He rejects her temptations, while acknowledging her beauty. Again she dispenses knowledge as a lure and tells him whose dream Graendal just invaded: Bashere’s. Did she recognise it and if so was it because she has looked herself?

What is Moridin up to? Moghedien implied that he no longer cared to inflict for cruelty. Is this due to ennui or just being too busy? Rand hasn’t gone to Shayol Ghul yet, but perhaps Moridin has, or he is giving final orders prior to doing so. While he is despairing of his existence, and only wishes to be free of the cycle of rebirth, he assumes it will only happen with the Dark One’s victory, so he can’t sit around in a depressed state, but must continue prosecuting the Shadow’s plans.