A Memory of Light Read-through #30: Chapter 27—Friendly Fire

By Linda

Bryne POV

From Bryne’s viewpoint, his battlefield dispositions are working well; there is no conflict or confusion over them, unlike the evident cracks in the Borderlanders’ army. It was a shot-down raken that disrupted the camp—Egwene’s forces not being used to large aerial fighters. The Tower army are increasingly needing the Seanchan to augment them, although if the Seanchan were under Bryne’s command at this time, they would have been needlessly wasted in the near future like his own forces. The Empress’ refusal for her legions to serve under Aes Sedai preserved them.

Min POV

The Aes Sedai are making minimum size gateways to conserve energy, but Min does not think this is reasonable. Once a upon a time, she would not have baulked at all. The Empress remarks that Min thinks herself high and there is an element of truth in this: she has risen high and it has left its mark.

The Seanchan are very careful about infiltrators and assassins; but they have already been infiltrated by Moghedien. Min reluctantly admits the Seanchan are well-organised. She makes excuses for Bryne’s army, but he had the rebels’ army neat and organised, so this may be a symptom of his Compulsion rather than solely an effect of being fired upon. The Empress’ army stands ready, but they take time to make measured decisions along the chain of command, which Min chafes at. She repeatedly comments that the Seanchan could make a big difference to the battle—and so they will, because they aren’t in the control of a general under Compulsion. Part of Min’s mood derives from her resentment that she is not with Rand at Shayol Ghul. She feels insignificant because she is not a channeller; she does not have a proper position in the war, or outside it—but soon will.

Mat thinks well of Bryne’s defensive positions, and Tylee is happy to lead a legion onto the field so she can study hiss methods. The Seanchan, Mat included, make no criticism of Bryne yet. He has worked his troops hard, but well, and tired them out. Soon will come the “errors”.

Our seeress is not surprised Mat has an eye-patch… Interestingly, Mat sees Min as an opportunity for some insight into the future. He wants to know what the omens are! The Raven Prince (and he is very much that now) thinks the Seanchan are mad, but fun. Min thinks Mat is mad to enjoy teasing them, or even living with them. As a trickster, he likes stirring them up and making them uneasy by flouting their rules. Mat loves the challenge of finding loopholes in rules or ignoring customs, and the Seanchan have a lot of both. But the outsider is also an insider, now—he has embraced his high position.

Ironically, Mat spouts old tongue sayings he’s never read or heard, while claiming others are mad. Then he complains about people not reading widely enough to recognise his quotes, when he rarely touches a book himself.

Min grudgingly bows to the Empress while Mat doesn’t. Mat is the butt of his own joke about embarrassing himself:

"How curious," Fortuona said. "That would make her your equal, Knotai. Of course, you seem to have forgotten to bow again…You embarrass me in public again."

"Only as much as I embarrass myself." He smiled, then hesitated, as if thinking through those words a second time.

A Memory of Light, Friendly Fire

There is a point to social rules, and a fine line between “rules are unimportant to me” and “I don’t understand how this society works”.

Mat tries to get Min to leave the room in case the Empress realises what she does and grabs her for her own, but Min blabs on unthinkingly, despite his warning. Now she has a new job—as a sacred woman, an oracle. She is shocked she made such a simple mistake, but Mat’s ta’veren pull played a part. Min is needed here. Tuon is in awe of her—the only time we see such a reaction to someone from her. With her regard for omens and the Pattern she sees Min as blessed to be able to see parts of it, and also a blessing to impart these visions to her. Fortuona also gives Mat huge credit for telling her about Min.

Min was not asked if she wanted to join Tuon’s court, just co-opted, as Mat warned, even though Tuon knows Min is Rand’s love (and also Bryne’s messenger, but she was not told that). A true truthspeaker was not an omen Tuon could ignore. Even better, Selucia will be pleased to not be Sofeia anymore.

A Memory of Light Read-through #29: Chapter 26—Considerations

By Linda

Egwene POV

Until the advent of the Sharans, Egwene had thought the Seanchan one of the worse groups around. Like the Whitecloaks, she will ally against those she is against because of something that is actually far worse.

The Amyrlin is not willingly meeting with Tuon; she is going because Tuon demanded it.

"I needed to meet you," Fortuona said. "You are my opposite.”

A Memory of Light, Considerations

Egwene had expected that Rand’s treaty with the Seanchan would be enough. She assumed Tuon was childish because of her small size, but revised her opinion so far during the meeting that she called Tuon “woman”. Then she stopped Tuon making a speech at her—even though it was in her own voice. Egwene was deaf to the honour of the latter.

The two women quickly get to the crux of their enmity: damane. Egwene argues that her behaviour is proof that the Seanchan attitude to channellers is a fallacy. (While ever the Aes Sedai do not go out into the community and improve lives with their knowledge and ability, they are vulnerable to being forced to do so. This is why the Wise Ones said that those who can channel have an obligation to their people and make such women become Wise Ones.) Tuon lies about how well damane are treated, but Egwene has first-hand knowledge to the contrary (and post-traumatic stress disorder from it). Egwene did go out into the community to help Rand and this is what happened. Had she led a life of shelter, and ultimately privilege, in the Tower, she could never have countered Tuon’s arguments so well—or done many other things.

Tuon thinks she loses face speaking to an escaped damane—shock horror!—but to the Aes Sedai and the reader she lost face by lying. Especially since Egwene had just finished saying that her behaviour shows that Tuon is a liar about channellers with the spark.

Egwene assumes that Mat is playing a part to some end or has been trapped by the Seanchan—she, in turn, is shocked to discover he is with the Seanchan willingly. The incongruity of the pairing (the Queen of Spades (Tuon) with the Jack of Diamonds (Mat), so to speak) makes her laugh. More incongruity follows when Tuon says they were fated to marry and then that belief in ta’veren is mere superstition. Obviously no damane has the rare ability to see ta’veren, or, as Jordan indicates, channelling talents are influenced by the culture and society:

”Certain groups are better at some abilities but it's a matter of need. The Atha'an Miere are dependent on the sea, the wind and water, and it would be natural for them to develop high skills to deal with control of weather and winds. For the Aiel, Dreaming is one of the ways to find new water; using need is how they find water. When the population in a hold is too great, and they have to find a new hold, the Dreamwalker uses need to find it. So yes, there are more Dreamwalkers there. “

2006 book signing

Mat’s sour joke:

"I suppose I should be grateful the Pattern didn't haul me by my boots over to Shayol Ghul.”

A Memory of Light, Considerations

is foreshadowing that he will be heading that way.

Egwene argues minutely over what the Seanchan borders currently are, and succeeds in getting Tuon to admit that the Seanchan haven’t conquered the Sea Folk. The Empress very much wants legitimacy for her rule in the westlands because she claims her right to rule as deriving from being a descendent of Hawkwing rather than an invader.

Tuon insists on the right to recruit for damane in areas she doesn’t hold. In turn, Egwene insists on some equality—or balance—in the rules: especially in damane having the right to be released if they wish, especially women about to be collared. The Seanchan see damane as a resource to be used. Further, Tuon thinks it is better to collar Darkfriend channellers or Sharans than execute them. The Empress effectively sees such damane as bound by the a’dam against committing further crimes (whether or not she knows about binders being used in the Age of Legends), whereas Egwene sees those allied to the Shadow as having betrayed the Creator and no longer deserving of life. They may receive the Creator’s grace in another life—as Egwene thinks about Sheriam when she is executed.

Perhaps the Pattern would be kinder to her next time she was allowed a thread in its great tapestry. But perhaps not.

The Gathering Storm, The Tower Stands

When Tuon denies that sul’dam can learn to channel, Egwene challenges her to be tested. Tuon backs off and says maybe they can learn, but this is not the same as actually channelling. Of course, those with spark may not have actually channelled when they are found during their testing, but they are collared regardless and never given the benefit of the doubt. Neither woman explores this important issue, because they are preoccupied with escalating their challenges to each other until they have to be separated by Mat.

The Raven Prince is all too accurate when he says to his wife:

“we really bloody need Egwene for the next couple of weeks or so. “

A Memory of Light, Considerations

That’s about all the time Egwene had left to live.

An agreement is reached: the Seanchan will fight, but their army is not subject to Egwene. However, in the near future all the armies are going to be subject to a—the—Seanchan general: Mat. Then the two really will be as one for the Last Battle, as the Aelfinn advised Rand:

“The north and east must be as one. The west and south must be as one. The two must be as one.”

Knife of Dreams, News For the Dragon

Elayne POV

Elayne worked herself to exhaustion fighting Shadowspawn. Symbolically, while she was incapacitated, the sunny sky that has followed her since Rand’s epiphany clouded over. Or maybe it was due to the approaching Shadowspawn army that will threaten her.

Just as her army’s trap appears to be working, the second Trolloc army arrives early and without warning. All Bashere’s suggestions to counter this are futile, and Tam accuses him of being a Darkfriend. Elayne notices he isn’t behaving properly. When Bashere is arrested, Elayne is too focussed on salvaging the situation to react.

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 #27: Chapter 24—To Ignore the Omens

By Linda

Tuon POV

Tuon believes her cumbersome garments are assassin-proof and will let her free quickly if she is attacked. However, she has to promptly recognise an attack to be able to save herself.

Beslan doesn’t understand Mat anymore – he has changed since his visit to Sindhol, and yet not. After some pressure from the Empress, the King of Altara has accepted that he has to remain to rule and not go off to battle.

Tuon consciously followed omens—fate—to marry Mat, and have a child by him. So did Mat also follow prophecy. Tuon’s following of omens—regarding them as an indication of event in the Pattern—is no more foolish than going to another world to ask aliens to tell your future and following that. Neither would have married the other if they had not felt pressured by divination to do so.

Divination by omens is augury in its widest sense. It follows the ancient principle of “as above, so below” or that microcosm reflects macrocosm. For more on this, see the Workings out of Fate and Omens articles. We only see passive divination such as dreams, sooth-saying or omens in the series; there is no cleromancy, sortilege or star-gazing.

The chapter title refers to the validity of omens alongside the other types of divination in the series, and also to what the consequences would have been if Tuon had not married Mat—if she ignored the omens. She also followed the omens regarding Rand, which were the strongest possible, and now perhaps Min:

Perhaps the omens would show Fortuona someone else fitting as a Truthspeaker.

A Memory of Light, To Ignore the Omens

The Empress is on the lookout now for a new one. “Seek and you shall find.” After all, a diviner very much participates in their divination process. As does the querent. The *Finns chose how to answer Mat’s questions from what they saw, and he “chose” what questions to ask. Even being impulsive and changing your mind about what to ask is a choice.

The Seanchan very much follow social Darwinism—the fittest survive or rise to the top in society—as does the Shadow. It is something important that they have in common. For the Seanchan, it is a way of accepting a coup rather than being outraged at a violation of proper order. The sudden replacement of one ruler for another stronger, bolder or luckier one is all for the good of the empire and not a usurpation. Yet Tuon is a parallel of an order goddess and brings order to the world.

In contrast, Mat is an outsider and not easily confined in an elaborate uniform or social structure. This is symbolised by the way he “kept snagging [his uniform] on things” in this chapter. Tuon appreciates how his dis-orderliness keeps her rivals off balance, although it does the same to her, too, at times. The fact that he isn’t a rival to her makes her want to protect him. In many ways, Mat challenges Fortuona’s beliefs and values most of all.

Fortuona is undecided how to fit Mat into her military command structure, at least in part because she is unsure of his full capabilities. Galgan is even more unsure, and is waiting to see if Mat undoes himself. Of course, the risk is that Mat outdoes Galgan. The outsider has Galgan unsettled. Betting on Mat because he impressed Karede, Fortuona gives Mat a new name—one with much symbolism—and pronounces him second to Galgan in command of her armies. Galgan must now include him in all decisions.

Tuon is aware that doing battle against the Shadow leaves her exposed in Altara—but to what? The Shadow is the battle that everyone is fighting. All selfish land-grabbing has been postponed to well beyond the Last Battle. With some effort, Mat pushes Tuon to agree to move to save Egwene’s army. Tuon is tempted to capture all the Aes Sedai so she would be invincible in Seanchan. But the Last Battle must be fought. The Empress considers breaking the treaty she signed even though she is a law and order figure. She is weighing everything here until Mat pushes her to keep her word. She thinks Mat is chaos; but she would have aided it, not he. Finally she decides to contribute to the Last Battle. The Seanchan Essanik prophecies gave the Empress a nice mention and it would have been quite a paradox if she ignored that:

The prophecies clearly showed that the Empress would defeat those who served the Shadow, and then she would send the Dragon Reborn in to duel with Lighteater.

The Gathering Storm, A Halo of Blackness

On Seanchan terms, that would be quite an omen to ignore. Galgan thinks Tuon has made a big mistake, but she is betting on Mat and the omens she couldn’t ignore that she hasn’t.


Lan POV

Even Lan is affected by the foreboding, menacing black clouds. In part this is because he doesn’t think they have delayed the Trollocs well enough and won’t be reinforced in time.

Lan disregards Agelmar’s complaints of troubled dreams. Yet they must be unusual if such an experienced soldier and general is concerned by them. Perhaps his own have been protected for so long that he takes this for granted. Agelmar’s concerns are a sign that Graendal’s attacks on the generals’ dreams are starting to bite.

Despite what Lan says about Nynaeve being at Shayol Ghul some time earlier, the eclipse happens in this chapter and it occurred shortly before the party entered Shayol Ghul. Lan is referring to Rand taking his party near Thakan’dar to testing the artham dagger prior to entering the Shadow’.


Elayne POV

The eclipse occurs as Elayne’s exhausted troops are in position. The Queen makes a fine rallying speech convincing her troops that they must fight to save the Land so the Light will return. Resistance is not enough; they must destroy the Shadow. As Rand gives his blood for salvation, so the Land also gives the blood of the people for salvation.

Elayne presses Birgitte into obedience. She is very much in Queen mode, and not an Aes Sedai needing protection or counsel. For the good of all, she has to make a contribution to the battle with her channelling. Birgitte is hurt at first, but concedes that Elayne has a point.

The Andoran queen doesn’t mention the sun shining again in this scene, but eclipses last about seven minutes at the longest, and they can’t be total everywhere. This eclipse is total from Shayol Ghul to Cairhien. It doesn’t end until after Elayne’s speech.

Elayne finally sees what Birgitte saw in Towers of Midnight—that anyone can use the cannon for large-scale devastation with a modest amount of training—and it frightens her. Ironically, this is the effect that the One Power has on non-channellers. It’s a reminder of how right Rand was to make the peace treaty between all parties.


Ituralde POV

Even prior to the battle, Windfinders are using the Bowl of Winds that they earned to counteract the Dark One’s storms. The Sea Folk are interested in technology, such as the steamwagons. The Sea Folk see their potential as land transport of heavy goods in bulk along regular, perhaps ultimately railed, routes, performing a similar role to rakers and cargo ships in shipping lanes. In contrast, Ituralde thinks they are not as good as a team of horses.

Unlike the other armies, who are under threat, Ituralde feels adequately prepared. Nevertheless, he doesn’t expect to win, because he is outnumbered. Like Mat, he can assess when an army is about to break before it is obvious. Ituralde has post-traumatic stress disorder and has flashbacks as he watches the Trollocs advance. Alsalam calms him enough to refocus. The Domani general knows he has to win here and keep the Shadowspawn out of Thakan’dar. All other fights are lesser; this one is to protect Rand.

Every other fight—every battle man had fought, and was fighting—would be meaningless if Ituralde lost here.

A Memory of Light, To Ignore the Omens

Ituralde is a bit of a trickster, like Mat and unlike the other generals, and he will use all the tricks he can think up to buy Rand time. He is the right one of the generals for this job. He is also the strongest in himself of the generals, as it happens, and resisted and survived Graendal’s Compulsion—no mean feat, especially as he feels a wreck compared to how he was before Maradon.

Aes Sedai recognise eclipses as short-lived natural phenomena, but everyone else is ignorant of them, even nobles. In keeping with the chapter title, this eclipse is an omen. As discussed in the previous chapter, it symbolises the potential end of world and the fight of light and darkness, but also the conjunction of saidin and saidar fighting together for good or ill. It also symbolises Rand as the unconquered sun hidden from the Dark One by the artham dagger.

A Memory of Light Read-through #26: Chapter 23—At the Edge of Time

By Linda

Gawyn POV

Gawyn doesn’t recognise Demandred’s original name. Who and what the Forsaken were before their fall has been completely dwarfed by what they became. Their demonization was well-earned—and they gloried in the fame and power it gave them.

Egwene’s Warder relies on the bloodknife rings to keep himself from being seen. He knows this may kill him—or that is how he interpreted what Egeanin said. The rings endow power similar to that of Myrddraal—to be not easily seen, especially in shadows, and to have increased speed. However, they don't give the ability to move from one shadow to another as Myrddraal can. Gawyn realises their power makes him overconfident, but does nothing to correct this.

He rationalises that he is only using the ter’angreal to protect Egwene and therefore it is justified. What he ignores, or doesn’t understand, is that when, not if, this kills him, she will suffer horribly. Egeanin’s actions show that Gawyn’s risk was probably unnecessary to save Egwene.


Egwene POV

Sharans speak in an emotionally flat way. This may be the result of being trapped by the Pattern, and their lack of choice, or, more properly, that they allowed—felt their duty was—to be trapped by it. The Sharan system of demotion or lower status is forever, because tattoos can’t be removed. Hence people are trapped in their social position.

Egwene acknowledges that Demandred is worse than one of the Seanchan. Until now it is as though the Seanchan were the worst thing she had met—and she has encountered Shadowspawn, a couple of Forsaken—if she but knew it—and Black sisters:

The Seanchan captured and used Aes Sedai, but they didn't slaughter the common people with such recklessness.

A Memory of Light, At the Edge of Time

She needs to escape if only to tell the Tower that Demandred has a large nation behind him. She is puzzled that Demandred doesn’t know where Rand is. He appears to be so busy demanding (that word) Rand come and challenge him that he didn’t sense where he is. And by the end of the chapter it’s too late: Demandred has missed his chance at a duel and Rand has gone to challenge the Forsaken’s boss. The Wyld’s further, increasingly strident, challenges are futile.

To Egwene’s horror, she realises that she has no power at the moment because she can’t use it without being discovered. This is comparable to Siuan’s situation and, like Siuan, Egwene won’t let it break her.

The Sharan channeller is not impressed with Demandred:

She walked around Egwene, looking curious. "You watched the Wyld's little show all the way through, did you? Brave. Or stupid."

A Memory of Light, At the Edge of Time

The woman is quite strong, since she was able to shield Egwene and use two weaves of Air at the same time and also make a light without difficulty. The average Aes Sedai has trouble splitting her weaves more than two ways.

Sharan channellers are not particularly peaceable, judging by what she says:

” Few of the Ayyad would reach for a dagger so quickly, rather than for the Source. You have been trained well."

A Memory of Light, At the Edge of Time

Egwene lets herself panic by comparing her situation with that of when she was a damane. Cue a Seanchan to the rescue rather than Egwene’s knight out of King Arthur’s tales—much to her surprise. Egwene always thinks the worst of the Seanchan, and Egeanin’s role is to change this perception. Egeanin’s skill and bravery rival Egwene’s and cast Gawyn into the shade.

The omens Egeanin speaks of would be Demandred and the Sharan invasion. This is her only reminder of what she braved to go back into the camp to find and save Egwene. Gawyn assumes Egwene found someone rather than was rescued by her. He did not recognise Egwene’s alarm through the bond at all, which may be an effect of the ter’angreal, but could just be that he is a very self-centred, emotionally obtuse person.


Aviendha POV

Shadowforgers are like Trolls in their size, strength, and ferocity, and the way they turn to stone and dirt when killed. Killing them all will stop construction of the Myrddraal’s swords.

The eclipse occurs. Those who witness it think it literally is the end of the world. Certainly, it symbolises the potential end of world and the fight of light and darkness, but also the conjunction of saidin and saidar fighting together for good or ill. It has potent alchemical symbolism, as we shall see later in the book.

Aviendha realises the disadvantages of leadership—responsibility and problem-solving. I love the way she and Rand salute each other.

The passage where Aviendha

thrust her hands forward, letting loose a raw weave, only half-formed. This was almost too much power for her to shape.

A Memory of Light, At the Edge of Time

does not make sense, because Aviendha is a particularly skilful weaver. Caire was able to craft intricate weaves in the Bowl of Winds with her powerful circle (that included angreal). Aviendha’s is a larger circle, though far from full. Perhaps it was that Aviendha’s uses saidin as well, which she is not experienced with.

Sarene thinks that there is a difference between Dreadlords and Black Ajah. Maria of Team Jordan verified that there is not, really. It may be that Sarene sees a difference in Black sisters if they are openly fighting in battle.

Graendal uses the True Power to Travel away and leave her minions to bite the dust.


Rand POV

The Eclipse shows the danger to Rand, who is Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun (see Rand essay), as he meets the Dark One. The conjunction is wearing off as Rand goes up the path to enter Shayol Ghul.

Thom stays outside to guard the entrance. His smile is infectious and keeps their spirits up—as he has done in inns throughout the lands.

Moiraine enters Shayol Ghul armoured in her shawl, Nynaeve in her best yellow gown. Rand thinks that Nynaeve looks older without her braid, which puzzles him because it is the traditional sign of womanhood in the Two Rivers. Perhaps Nynaeve looks more timeless when not bound by one culture. Or perhaps Rand has also changed, so to him, the braid doesn’t mean what it once did. Maybe Rand is reacting to Nynaeve’s weight of responsibility and not her outward appearance. Another possibility is that what Rand sees is genuine, and the three oaths may be starting to take effect. For all his memories, Rand is still making clueless remarks about women’s clothing. Nynaeve could not have afforded such an expensive gown in the Two Rivers. No Two Rivers woman could.

Rand wears an outer layer of royalty, but underneath his shirt is in the Two Rivers style, a symbol that he and the series have come full circle. Then and now. The Two Rivers is closest to Rand’s heart, and being raised so well there has been his saving grace. As he enters his wound opens and he drips blood on rocks of Shayol Ghul, fulfilling prophecy.

Rand asks the women politely to make a circle, unlike Aviendha in this chapter commanding the formation of hers. The women are concerned that Rand keeps the lead of their circle. He intends to be seized by Moridin, as portended by the eclipse.

Rand is no longer worried about survival; he is worried about doing it right. This is probably the optimal frame of mind to approach the contest. He is reassured by the Creator that it is the right time, which confirms that the Creator spoke at the end of The Eye of the World, where Rand fought and defeated Ishamael. As the next chapter shows, the Dark One can’t sense Rand on the threshold of Shayol Ghul because of the Artham blunt dagger, so it wasn’t he who spoke.

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.

A Memory of Light Read-through #24: Chapter 21—Not a Mistake to Ignore

By Linda

Siuan POV

Yukiri used a cushion of Air to break their fall through her open gateway. Fortunately it offered a fine escape route. It strikes me that tents are not very strategic, and later we see that the Seanchan are ambushed and trapped within their command tent. Yukiri is probably thinking that using Air to prop up a channeller would enable him/her to fly.

Siuan broke ranks in complaining to Yukiri about her weave, apart from being ungrateful. She is still not following traditional Aes Sedai ranking. True, times are different, and hard, but Siuan also has accepted her new position rather grudgingly. The grumbling is to mask her pain at the losses from this one attack, which are immense—almost 50% of the soldiers and about 32% of the Aes Sedai. While Siuan pretends that the Aes Sedai that died treated her badly:

"Bah," Siuan said, "most of them treated me like fish guts anyway. They resented me as Amyrlin, laughed when I was cast down; and then made a servant of me when I returned."

A Memory of Light, Not a Mistake to Ignore

her off-hand summary of her situation is true in outline. Many sisters have acted in this manner to her, for example, the Blue Sitter Maigan—just not necessarily those that died.

Siuan believes that Egwene is still alive. Like Moiraine, she trusts the Pattern as well as Egwene’s resourcefulness.

Bryne realises that he is making mistakes, but doesn’t know why. The chapter title refers to his mistakes being too large, too obvious, to ignore. Even by him. He has lost confidence and this makes him look old.

Lyrelle POV

As we see from her ‘so-called Black Tower’ description, Lyrelle does not accept the Black Tower as a legitimate entity. This is bolstered by her receipt of a warning from the Amyrlin that the Black Tower has joined the Shadow. Egwene and/or Lyrelle imply that they believe most, or all, Asha’man are Darkfriends. If they truly did believe this, then why Bond them? Just because Aes Sedai were Bonded? This is nonsensical reasoning and a justification for feelings of superiority.

Even though Lyrelle is a Sitter, the thirty reinforcing Aes Sedai accept her leadership reluctantly. In a way, I’m not surprised since I’m not impressed with her attitudes and thoughts.

The Blue Sitter is appalled that she has to accept that the Black Ajah is public knowledge, and that therefore Aes Sedai are not superior to Asha’man—and, in fact, are more like them than is acceptable. Both groups had to cleanse their ranks of Darkfriends.

Lyrelle plans to bind the strongest Asha’man, although she knows—but took a while to accept—that she won’t be able to Compel him. Wait until she finds out that even one of medium strength will probably be stronger than her when he reaches his potential. (Of course, she would be more dextrous in her weaving, which will compensate.) She thinks she can intimidate him in short order into telling her which of the others are the most talented, so her cohorts can Bond them. On the other hand, she doesn’t believe the taint is cleansed, or that the Asha’man could outfight them. We’ve hear this all before… Lyrelle is like a Blue version of Elaida or Toveine. However, unlike Elaida, Lyrelle is observant and good at reading people. I notice that she doesn’t return Androl’s greeting, and I’m sure so does Androl!

Her comment that:

It said something about these Black Tower men that they chose to finish the walls around their grounds before actually building their tower.

A Memory of Light, Not a Mistake to Ignore

shows that she doesn’t understand why the wall was finished and not the Tower, even though her group was kept out, and many men kept in, for weeks. Also, the most important parts, as far as Taim is concerned, are already built.

Pevara says that Bonding Asha’man is a misguided mission. She advises not to Bond randomly by coercion, but to take the willing. Rand’s order for the Asha’man to be men first and weapons second arrived in time to prevent the men from tamely accepting Aes Sedai demands to Bond them. This is definitely for the good of the Asha’man, but does stretch the bargain he made with Egwene, who in turn thinks they may be Darkfriends.

Pevara emphasises that Logain leads the Asha’man now. Like Elaida, Lyrelle wishes he had not survived. For one thing, Lyrelle was going to take over the Black Tower to have more influence than Lelaine, her Ajah Head.

Ironically, not having control through the Bond will mean that she has to treat her Warder as an equal, a partner, and not a servant. It will be a painful shock for one so power hungry that she wants own Asha’man troops forced to her will.

Androl says that his trick is “worthy of an Aes Sedai”, who have the reputation of being tricky by meeting the words of a bargain but not the spirit of it. And yet Androl more than meets this bargain in spirit, since he has gathered men who agree to be Bonded. Lyrelle was going to take whoever she wished. She still can, but it has to be from this select group. It is indeed not the time to whine, but the time for pragmatic politics—what with half Egwene’s army wiped out and Rand in Shayol Ghul.

Bonding goes two ways and negotiating will soften attitudes out of necessity. The Asha’man and Aes Sedai will each live long lives—again, equality. If some non-Green Sitters with Lyrelle are bonding two men, this will doubly break Ajah custom (since it is not customary to bond other channellers).

Pevara POV

Pevara is on the side of the Asha’man against Lyrelle’s cold and calculating intentions. Like Seaine, Lyrelle thinks Pevara chose the wrong Ajah. She has effectively abandoned her position as a Sitter, although for a very good reason.

Androl makes light of Pevara’s warnings about the Aes Sedai, saying that the men will weather the dangers of being seen as a threat or a tool. He points out that Pevara changed—but she was positively disposed towards them compared to some of Lyrelle’s Aes Sedai. Myrelle will also be won over easily to see their points of view.

Pevara and Androl can see the psychological damage that the Turning processes has left on Logain and Emarin. Once complete, the Turning results in irreversible moral as well as psychological destruction.

The Asha’man don’t know what to think about the fact that Rand knew something was wrong at the Black Tower and did nothing. Jonneth, a loyal Emond’s Field man, believes Rand must have had good reason. Emarin thinks the worst of him. Androl points out that Rand’s attitude is all of a piece—he has never had much to do with the Black Tower. Of course, Taim manipulated Rand to ensure that, and Rand fell for it. Emarin is right that Rand became harsh and even callous—but that stopped with his epiphany, which these Asha’man don’t know about. It occurred too late for Rand to do much for the Black Tower except fall into the trap while trying to save them (which Rand was tempted to do).

Logain is their true leader, not Rand, and Androl second. Pevara sees that Rand cannot remain their leader anyway since he is the world’s sacrifice. The Asha’man must be independent and not reliant on any one man. Their own men. Not weapons. They have a positive outlook and a future now beyond the Last Battle.

A Memory of Light Read-through #23: Chapter 20—Into Thakan’dar

By Linda

Egwene POV

Romanda uses traditional Aes Sedai Healing as battlefield emergency medical aid, which is how this type of Healing was actually used in the Age of Legends.

Gawyn makes a good observation about the senselessness of the Trollocs trying to hold the area against all odds and with huge losses.

"It's like . . . like the Fades think that even after a rout like this one, they're in a good position.”

A Memory of Light, Into Thakan’dar

Egwene listens to him and orders the army to pull back. Too late; the Sharans arrive. The coin armour of the soldiers is very typical of ancient Chinese soldiers, and the dresses of the channellers are also Asian in style—Korean and Mongolian, mainly (see Sharan fashions). The Ayyad’s black dresses symbolise their link to the Shadow, and also parallels Chinese history. In the Qin dynasty, the most popular clothing colour was black, since the Qin Emperor believed that the Qin dynasty should eclipse the Zhou dynasty like water extinguishes fire, and black is the colour of yin and water.

Egwene realises that Aes Sedai should be in Warders’ cloaks—the ultimate camouflage—in battle so they can hide, if necessary. They can’t always drive off attacks with channelling and are as helpless as anybody when outnumbered by hostile channellers.


Aviendha POV

Forgers are perhaps more like androids than Shadow constructs, since the Aiel are adamant that they are not alive and Demandred said that they can’t live outside Thakan’dar, but turn to dust if take away from the area (Lord of Chaos, Prologue). They use the blood of people to temper the blades—one person for each.

Rhuarc is now a siswai’aman and perhaps the highest ranked of them. It does not appear to mean that he has abdicated his position as clan chief.

Aviendha owns more than one necklace: the snowflake one from Egwene, plus, judging by what Cadsuane said, one from Rand as a remembrance/regard gift. She is prepared for her own people to pay the ultimate price for the Light’s victory:

Seeing the end of her people had nauseated and horrified her, but also awakened her. If the end of the Aiel was the sacrifice required for Rand to win, she would make it. She would scream and curse the Creator's own name, but she would pay that price. Any warrior would. Better that one people should end than the world fall completely under Shadow.

A Memory of Light, Into Thakan’dar

Like Rand, Aviendha has prepared herself for the enormity of sacrifice to come, and understands Rand wanting to get on with that fight. She feels that they are very alike, and that this comes out in the way they treat each other:

She stepped up to him, and he moved so that he stood just beside her, his shoulder touching hers. He did not drape an arm around her, and she did not take his hand. He did not own her, and she did not own him. The act of his movement so that they faced the same direction meant far more to her than any other gesture could.

A Memory of Light, Into Thakan’dar

Rand also uses an Aiel expression of love to her for the first time.

Aviendha realises that Rand intends to kill the Dark One. Unlike everyone else, she thinks this idea reasonable, but says that the greatest victory would be making the Dark One gai’shain. Rand is dismissive, but Aviendha is correct, as she also is in wondering if sealing the Dark One up is equivalent to taking him gai’shain. She lectures Rand about ji’e’toh, which amuses him—but she thinks the subject too serious for amusement.

The new crossbow crank first mentioned by Mat and Talmanes in Knife of Dreams, As If All the World Were Fog, has arrived among troops outside the Band and it may even hve been improved upon (See Inventions article for further details).

Some gai’shain have temporarily put aside white to fight with the Dragonsworn in the Last Battle—following the prophecy of the Dragon breaking oaths and ties:

"It is said," the one-eyed man said carefully, "that when the Dragon is Reborn, he will break all oaths, shatter all ties."

-The Great Hunt, What Was Meant To Be

Aviendha is inclined to dismiss their abandonment of custom, even honour, as foolishness but then thinks she should reserve judgement. In a way, the prophecy is self-fulfilling when it is being used to justify breaking their oaths. Other people, including Uno, have done this with the prophecy in mind and some were compelled by events without any consideration of the Karaethon Cycle. We also see people—gai’shain and Tinkers—refusing to break their oaths even though they have the bitter realisation of why it is not wrong for others to have done so.

Since Rand declared himself, many people have broken their oaths or ties: soldiers and channellers that were pledged to others have pledged themselves to Rand, some against their rulers’ wishes: Shienarans, Saldaeans, Tairens, Illianers, Cairhienin, Asha’man, Aes Sedai. Gawyn’s choice to put aside his Warder’s oath led to the bond between him and Egwene being broken.

Others are revealed as Darkfriends and so shown to be faithless to whatever ties they were thought to have. People also left their homes, marriages and jobs to wander aimlessly. The breaking of oaths is encouraged (if not caused) by the Shadow as part of the chaos.

With prophecy so prominent, it is easy to see only the workings of destiny in the characters’ lives as though they have little free will and are wholly beholden to follow the Pattern. However, fate is not more powerful than free will; as with the other complementary forces in the series, there is a balance between the two. Some characters have one attitude to this, some another. Rand uses prophecy as a guide to recognising patterns of events and what may arise from them. Aviendha does the same for what she saw in the three rings and is trying to prevent the future she saw in the glass columns. Earlier, in The Gathering Storm, The Ways of Honour, she had expressed dislike of being fated to marry Rand. She wanted to ensure choice, and therefore uncertainty and free will, in her life. Mat uses prophecy as an instruction manual because when he tried to deny fate, he failed; he went from one extreme to the other. But it’s not simple—there is an interplay of choice and the Pattern in people’s lives. Min knew that Gawyn would make a hugely fateful choice between two futures, with no indication which way he would decide. In Jordan’s world history and fate are broadly determined but each individual has the choice to work towards fulfilling their role in the Pattern or to reject this.

Rand proved that the dull dagger worked, preventing the Dark One from sensing him—see ter’angreal article for more information—and feels the touch of the Pattern in the way events have led to it being in his hand at the crucial time. Aviendha wants Rand to stay serious, but he tries to laugh. When she realises something is bothering him, she openly asks what the problem is, instead of telling him off or abusing him as so many others seem to do. Not surprisingly, the theft of the Seals has him concerned that they will not be broken at the right time. Breaking the Seals allows Rand to reforge the prison—clearing rubble so he can build, as Herid Fel said. This is why someone (Logain) will have the role of Sealbreaker once they are stolen back.

Despite earlier criticising Rand for levity, Aviendha makes jokes. He gives her command of the channellers at Thakan’dar to fight Dreadlords and Forsaken. Both Min and Aviendha each wanted to go into Shayol Ghul with Rand, but this would be unwise, since neither would have an actual role there, whereas they certainly would (and will do) elsewhere. As each sees the unsuitability of the other’s wishes, it quietens their own objections.

Nynaeve doesn’t want Rand to use Callandor because it is a trap. But that is the point of it. It’s a trap actually aimed at Moridin, but it has to appear as though Rand is the vulnerable one to lure him into it.

A Memory of Light Read-through #22: Chapter 19—The Choice of a Patch

By Linda

On the surface, the chapter title refers to Mat choosing a patch for his eye, but Elayne has to choose which ground to fight on, and Egwene has to choose whether to avoid Tel’aran’rhiod.


Elayne POV

The chapter also shows the danger of not looking below the surface. Years ago, Bryne advised Gawyn and Elayne against being over-confident or lulled by appearances.

Be careful of currents, he'd said. River currents are one of the most dangerous things under the Light, but only because men underestimate them. The surface looks still because nothing is fighting it. Nothing wants to. The fish go along with it and men stay out of it, all except the fools who think to prove themselves.

A Memory of Light, The Choice of a Patch

Elayne remembers his lesson, but Gawyn did turn out to be a fool that had to prove himself.

Bashere looks well, but isn’t, and that is the case for Bryne, too. The Saldean’s oversight in not thinking of the river is pretty damning, even if he isn’t used to large rivers, since maps have been emphasised all along. To his surprise, Elayne talks of trust:

"You show surprising faith in me for someone you have known a very short time." "Rand trusts you," Elayne said. "Even during the dark times, Bashere—when he would look at every second person around him with darkness in his eyes—he trusted you."

A Memory of Light, The Choice of a Patch

Unfortunately Bashere is no longer able to be trusted.


Egwene POV

Tel’aran’rhiod shows the wearing down of the Land. It has a time-worn look, and is in dire need of renewal; the Age has gone on too long. Such renewal was initiated by sacrifice in ancient times and it seems that the Land now desperately needs Rand’s sacrifice. Remarkably, the Stone still stands as it was, perhaps because it was wrought by the One Power.

Bair confirms Aviendha’s vision in the glass columns. Wise Ones will now need to make three visits to Rhuidean: one for the rings ter’angreal and two for the glass columns. I expect that many qualified Wise Ones will want to see for themselves what the columns show of the future. In the Wheel of Time world, anything done three times has added potency, or “trueness”. Melaine worries at the change, but the glass column ter’angreal shows that the Aiel must change. Or, looking at it another way, they must stick to the spirit of their old ways by educating and training their leaders thoroughly, even if they adapt to life outside the Threefold Land. This way they know which of their traditions are worthwhile and why. The women don’t make decisions for the men, but presumably prospective clan chiefs should also make two trips through the columns.

The vision shows that Aviendha’s children were not well-trained; they were given power too early and not by merit, but because of who their father was. An earlier wannabe Aiel aristocrat, Sevanna, planned for her children to inherit her power and ruined the Shaido before she was stopped.

The first cracks in reality are appearing in Andor, the Borderlands and the Blight, and the cause is correctly deduced to be the Shadow’s use of balefire. The Dreamers decide to not use it, although they acknowledge that some crucial people are alive because this rule was disobeyed. Nevertheless, they are not going to fight balefire with balefire. As upholders of the Pattern, Aes Sedai are already forbidden it. Egwene thinks about how Perrin said that balefire is only another weave. This hints that this most powerful of weaves could be countered, as any other weave can and gets Egwene thinking about solving this.

The Wise Ones decide that Tel’aran’rhiod is now too dangerous to visit unless there is great need. Egwene farewells the World of Dreams “until she Dreams again”. This turns out to be quite an Aiel-like farewell, since according to Aiel belief she awoke from the Dream without visiting it again and won’t be back until she is reborn. Unless she was made a Hero of the Horn. However, after she died, her spirit spoke to Rand before the Horn was blown, but did not appear elsewhere and she was not heard from or seen after the Horn was sounded.

Egwene has realised that Rand deliberately angered her at their last two meetings to manipulate her quite successfully. To her surprise, Rand wants to give her a remembrance gift. It is a ribbon, a simple gift for one of the most powerful women in the world. She feels it is an unnecessary distraction at a time of war; although when she understands that Rand seeks a reconciliation with her, she comes around. She says that he’s been difficult—but so has she. And why wouldn’t they, since they both have been through a great deal.

Lews Therin knew that the Seals would fail. The seals that Egwene hands to Rand are cuendillar, but not genuine. They were probably switched during the robbery, which was made to appear as though the thieves were successfully driven off without taking anything.

When Gawyn learns Rand is Galad’s brother, he feels that Rand and Elayne are connected too closely. As this family tree shows, they are not related by blood, sharing no parents.


Mat POV

In the past, Mat the trickster disliked being watched—because it was usually due to distrust or envy. Now he dislikes the way lower ranked Seanchan won’t look at him. They still watch him—just not his face. While Mat’s egalitarian values are offended, there are practical repercussions too. Mat can’t tell when he is being watched or not and will just have to assume that he is, which makes sneaking around more difficult.

The freckled woman helping the Seanchan tailor clothe Mat is Moghedien, as we find out later. She is disguised as a So’jhin.

Mat refuses to let his old clothes be destroyed, despite being distracted by the valuable jewellery. Nor will he accept any fancy clothes yet—just military wear. Of course, military clothing can be quite fancy enough.

The Prince still picks out rubies in preference to other jewels. Apart from being very valuable, their red colour links them to Mars, god of war. The servants take his lead and drape him in them. Mat is being outfitted in a style is similar to Chinese military clothing in the Western Zhou, or in the much later Qing dynasty, (see Costume in the Wheel of Time article), and also to costume worn by Samurai warriors and courtiers of the Edo period in Japan. The Seanchan have strong links to both China and Japan. Paltron cloths are a reference to the pauldron of armour. The Qing and Samurai robes have pronounced shoulder padding to imitate armour. The dark green colour of his clothes is for the Two Rivers—but also links him with the Deathwatch Guards.

Mat realises he doesn’t need to gamble to get money now. It’s his luck to have married someone so rich that such challenges are meaningless. He always wanted riches and now he has them; but his new position offers a lot of responsibility and no fun. Like a bargain with the Eelfinn, he got what he wanted but it isn’t turning out as expected. Mat fears that his gambling and trickery days are over, but, considering Seanchan politics, they are certainly not. It’s just that the stakes have permanently changed from money to lives.

A Memory of Light Read-through #21: Chapter 18—To Feel Wasted

By Linda

Gawyn POV

Last POV, Gawyn made much of how he had learned and accepted his supporting role, but here he is being restless and discontented again. Instead of killing Trollocs with a long polearm, he wants to duel with the Trollocs with a sword, control the fight and beat them. He is thinking of himself and not protecting the Amyrlin, even if only by staying whole. Her attitude that she didn’t need protecting rubbed off on him, who wants a bigger, more important part on the world stage. It’s not that no Trollocs break through the lines of Aes Sedai—they do; but the killing power of the channellers makes Gawyn feel feeble in comparison. The prince envies the soldiers fighting—who are just doing what is necessary—and would not make a good general due to his hunger for glory.

On the other hand, Gawyn’s tactics for protecting the Amyrlin are sound. However, he is somewhat complacent that the Aes Sedai are winning their war. It’s noticeable that Gawyn gives all other Aes Sedai the honorific except Keeper Silviana, who does not like him, or he her.

Egwene’s group now know that some Asha’man are Dreadlords and immediately fear that all those in the Black Tower may be. Yet the Aes Sedai have direct experience of some of their own being Dreadlords, but not all. Likewise, Egwene still distrusts Leilwin because she is Seanchan.

Gawyn is in the throes of deciding to take risks with the bloodknives’ rings. (For more information on these ter’angreal see here.) Leilwin sees the rings and tells him more about them. Gawyn warns Leilwin and Domon off mentioning assassins and rings to Egwene, because he is tempted to use the rings to fight on the battlefield and Egwene would undoubtedly make him hand them over if she knew he had them. This is the early warning of Gawyn wandering off to win glory. Aes Sedai claim all ter’angreal as their property on the grounds that such objects are either useless or dangerous to others, and Gawyn’s case is a vindication of this attitude.


Rand POV

Rand debates whether killing the Dark One will remove Trollocs from the Land—in other words, whether they are linked to him. Events show that they have to be killed individually or along with their Myrddraal and will not be undone if the Dark One is cut off from the world.

Aginor made monsters because he could, not because he was cruel or mad. It appals Rand to think that the souls of people may be reborn as Trollocs. However, once they are twisted, it appears that these souls are reborn as Shadowspawn thereafter:

A Trolloc, however, bears a twisted, or corrupted soul, and would be reborn as a Trolloc. Though frankly, a Trolloc's soul is such a pitiful thing, it hardly seems worth calling a soul.

- Robert Jordan Q&A

To lift the soldiers’ spirits, Rand makes it obvious at the end of his stint fighting, that he had fought with, and for, them. It also convinces Demandred that Rand is staying in the battlefields. The Forsaken never imagines that Rand went to Shayol Ghul quite early in the war and completely overlooks even the possibility that Rand bypassed him. This highlights the extent of his obsession, since Demandred otherwise is a master tactician.

After showing himself at the three active battle fronts, it is nearly time for Rand to go to Shayol Ghul. Rand acknowledges to himself how much of his sanity he owes to Min, who concentrated on helping him do what he wants rather than instructing him or controlling him.

Speaking of instructors, Cadsuane shows Rand that she knows what Rand is doing—giving people remembrance gifts—which is of concern to her, because it shows that Rand expects to die, and means he may not even seek to live. Rand’s feelings on his sacrifice are understandably very private and he doesn’t let on to anyone his hopes but quietly asks Alivia offscreen to prepare for his departure. Cadsuane probably always intended to use Alivia in the defense of Shayol Ghul, as Rand suggests.

Cadsuane says that she has never cared so much for Rand that she would not trade his life for the world. I think that those who love Rand would at least agonise over the choice. The Green keeps testing Rand by being annoying and pressing on his vulnerabilities—so that he keeps control of them. Rand realises this is valuable practice, though unpleasant, and indeed it does help him in his battle with the Dark One. He lets Cadsuane know indirectly that she will never get a regard gift, but it would be more of a surprise to her if she did. She knows the price for using rough techniques.

Cadsuane’s intelligence gathering is very good: she knows the Black Tower men have finally escaped. Rand realises that Perrin might have helped with that. He feels guilty about staying away from the Black Tower, and has trouble resisting going there, which irritates Cadsuane that he could risk everything trying to free the men himself. It has been a real danger since Rand’s epiphany; before it, he was too dark to make a rescue attempt. I guess Rand was going to feel bad either way, since he was responsible for creating the Black Tower, but falling into the Shadow’s trap there would have made the situation much worse. Another, even greater, danger was if Rand had not ignored Demandred.


Lan POV

Lan recognises that he, like Deepe, would take an opportunity to kill an important henchman if given it. This is foreshadowing of his fight with Demandred, just as Gawyn’s discontented fiddling with the ter’angreal rings is his.

The POVs of the three men in this chapter are linked, with Lan being somewhere between Gawyn and Rand. He is well beyond being a fallen Prince like Gawyn, but is a hidden monarch like Rand, expected to die fighting the Shadow; yet he has played a properly supporting role to more than one powerful woman ungrudgingly and unstintingly for twenty years. The sort of supporting role Gawyn was brought up to do.

Mandarb fought his way back to camp despite being wounded, and Lan promises his horse a peaceful retirement. For the first time, he thinks about life after the battle and the possibility of living with Nynaeve happily ever after—something he has never even allowed himself to imagine before. Like Rand, Lan is starting to hope. Lan is conscious of his similarities to Rand: both were born to fight the Shadow, and die doing so, since the Shadow is endless. Cadsuane and Elayne both encouraged Rand to hope for life after defeating the Dark One. Lan thinks his mentoring and then friendship with Rand broke through his hard shell even before Nynaeve (who also played a large part). In Rand’s case, it was Min—as he acknowledges above—and also Moiraine, with the latter also keeping Lan alive. Both men are weighted with duty and aspire to impossibly high standards.

The chapter ends on a seemingly innocuous note about being human—and therefore fallible. Baldhere has misgivings of Agelmar’s tactics, because he is making mistakes. Lan reminds him that Agelmar is human, but Baldhere still feels that there is something wrong. Unfortunately he is right.

When Lan meets with him, Agelmar faces up to these concerns calmly and admits he is making mistakes. The Great Captain says he will listen to advice, but won’t be undermined or have his command watered down. While it could be argued that Lan made a mistake in trusting Agelmar on this, it would indeed have undermined their military effort if every move was argued over by a committee. Besides, as real world experiences show, a committee is no less difficult to derail.

This is the first sign that the Great Captains are being corrupted. Aes Sedai ward their dreams against invasion and the warder bond protects their warders to a lesser degree, but it never occurred to them that anyone else would need such protection. This is another result of the Aes Sedai holding themselves apart—and above.

A Memory of Light Read-through #20: Chapter 17—Older, More Weathered

By Linda

Mat and Rand have not been in the same place since Lord of Chaos. They won’t be again until the last moments at Shayol Ghul, and then only approximately. There is also the period after Rand has “died”, until he sneaks away, but by this time Rand, at least, may have ceased being ta’veren.

Rand is wearing red, black and white. Mat notes that he is regal, older and more weathered—like Lews Therin, but in Moridin’s colours. These are also the colours of the Aes Sedai banner.

Tuon and her entourage panic when Rand is brought in. Even Mat starts to, because he thinks Rand is mad. In Mat’s opinion, proof of this is that Rand is not afraid of being taken captive. Mat has done all he could to avoid Rand—including avoiding thinking about him. The first thing Rand says is that Mat led him to Tuon. This makes Tuon furious because she feels betrayed by Mat.

It doesn’t last; Mat indignantly discovers that Tuon has his medallion. While she is embarrassed a little at the theft, she is ruthless enough that her feelings of shame are brief. Yet in Knife of Dreams Tuon was outraged at being disguised as a thieving servant in the menagerie.

Rand says that it is futile for Mat to try and keep away from him because the Pattern will never allow it. That’s true, but they have been apart more often than not. The two have a funny bragging contest, typical of Celtic culture.

Mat tells Rand in an offhand way that he cares about him–despite expecting him to go mad—and that he is looking a lot better, even like a winner. And Tricksters have an eye for winners. Mat tries to pass off his poor treatment of Rand during The Great Hunt as teasing, but it rings hollow.

Convinced that Rand is in over his head, Mat offers to talk to Tuon, but the Dragon addresses her formally himself. Tuon claims Rand as a captive ruler who has resisted her, and says he should have remembered his oaths to Hawkwing. To her surprise, he turns her own arguments against her. One of Tuon’s major roles is as a Nemesis figure, including to herself.

It is obvious from her words that if Hawkwing’s heir were still ruling on the mainland that the Seanchan would not have submitted to the heir’s rule but contended with them. After all, the Seanchan are Hawkwing’s heirs also, and contend continually among themselves for the opportunity to rule. Tuon dismisses Rand’s scenario as a non-issue.

Then Rand overturns her claim as the only legitimate heir of the only man to unite and rule the empire. Rand says that he, as Lews Therin, has an older and more complete claim and scares all of them with his powers. There are timely threatening rumblings of thunder that are unexplained. More explicable is how Rand restores the land while shielded; he uses Singing, as Mat observes.

Like his “cleansing of the temple” at Maradon, it has a mundane explanation and yet also shows great skill. There is a show of force and power with nothing to attack. It also demonstrates Rand’s fitness to rule—just as Tuon is fit to rule due to her establishment of social order, so Rand is fit to rule because he restores health and fertility—natural order—to the Land. Rand says he could have easily killed her, but she has done well for nations under her, and so he has stayed his hand.

Mat and Rand both point out to the Empress that her rule is not strong and she has nothing to spare to fight on more fronts. Tuon insists on keeping damane she has—the unspoken reason being that her rule is too dependent on them. It’s not surprising that Mat and Tuon want to get away from Rand; he is someone they can’t control or outwit.

Rand bows to Tuon on one knee as he offers her peace and alliance in exchange for her help in fighting Last Battle and fulfils a Seanchan prophecy that he would bow or kneel—the paraphrasing varies—to the Crystal Throne:

"I must find a way to make contact with the Dragon Reborn as soon as possible. He must kneel before the Crystal Throne before Tarmon Gai'don, or all is lost.” The Prophecies of the Dragon said so, clearly.

Winter’s Heart, What a Veil Hides

He must bow before the Crystal Throne before the Last Battle can begin.

The Gathering Storm, Gambits

Bowing among the Seanchan bowing is formal, either signifying an oath made, as when Egeanin bowed to Elayne, Nynaeve and co in Tanchico after making a vow to them ( The Shadow Rising, Into the Palace); or obeisance of one lower to one higher. Naturally, the Empress would see bowing and kneeling as the same, since everyone makes obeisance to her, and she would not conceive of anyone merely making a courtesy to one who sat the Crystal Throne. The Prophecy indicates that the Dragon Reborn and the Empress as a personification of the Throne must make a courteous agreement before the Last Battle begins. The more Dragon-centric mainland prophecies foretold that he would “bind the Nine Moons”—the name of the Seanchan Court—"to serve him”, which seemed to be in conflict with the Seanchan prophecy and pointed to the latter as an impostor. As it happened, both were true.

By her stated reckoning, the Empress and the Dragon are of equal rank, although his display of restoring the Land shows him as more powerful and holy than her, and therefore Rand’s extra courtesy actually puts her at a disadvantage because she is obligated to him. His prestige is such that his excessive courtesy makes her look inferior or arrogant, and his argument over their respective lineages makes her look like a Johnny-come-lately and lower than he, especially after he exercises his powers. This is not how Tuon expected the prophecy to be fulfilled. Rand undermined her but also offered her help. Balance.

The prophecy was certainly useful: it was the belief that Rand needed to kneel to her which brought Tuon to parley with Rand; otherwise she would never have gone near him.

A Memory of Light Read-through #19: Chapter 16—A Silence Like Screaming

By Linda

While the thinking and talking continues, the action definitely steps up its pace in this chapter. The silence like screaming is the agony of those whose voices are never heard—or who don’t have a voice, but still suffer the horror of corruption and destruction.


Loial POV

Loial doesn’t truly understand hastiness, especially the other side of it—impatience. Humans won’t listen to someone all day, and yes, they do miss out on a lot because of that. The Ogier notice that people live faster because of their shorter lives, but they don’t realise this gives humans a very different perception of time. Loial feels that the Ogier are complacent about the long time they have and so achieve far less. Of course, currently, the risk is that the Ogiers’ very long lives will be cut short.

On the other side, humans do not sense the health of the land as well or deeply as Ogier do. With the Ogier being quiet and deep, the intensity of their arousal into battle fury is all the more unexpected. Loial’s rage is at the corruption and ruination of the land and living things, and at being deprived of peace and forced to kill. The Ogier feel forced to live like Trollocs, and in their rage turn around and out-Trolloc the Trollocs—at least in battle.

Ogier were named after ogres as well as after Ogier Street (itself named after the Ogier family) in Charleston. This scene is when they really show that they are ogres.


Galad POV

The Ogiers’ transformation into ogres scares the Whitecloaks. One of the Children—Golever—thinks that they must be Darkfriends. On the whole, anything that scares the Whitecloaks is believed by them to be allied to the Shadow. The best thing Galad can do for the Children is stop this simplistic thinking.


Rand and Moiraine POV

Rand’s thoughts of “If what Thom said was true, Mat might be the key [to making a pact with the Seanchan]”—refers to the fact that Mat has married the Empress.

Rand kind of regrets not trusting Moiraine. Although she counters him that he did trust her, but wanted to do everything himself. He now freely says that he can’t. Yet even while thinking that he should trust Moiraine, Rand doesn’t tell her anything about Callandor—especially that it is a True Power sa’angreal. Ironically, he destroyed the male Choedan Kal because it was too dangerous, yet Callandor is at least as dangerous as the Choedan Kal was, if not more. The immensity of the One Power that could be pulled through the Choedan Kal balanced the lure of channelling the True Power unaided, yet Callandor is a sa’angreal for the True Power…

However, Rand does tell Moiraine that he aims to kill the Dark One. He thinks he will be able to do this more easily than sealing it way. I am reminded of the Aiel saying that “Even a child can kill”. Re-sealing the Dark One in its prison would be harder, but also much more constructive, as the system of toh would indicate. Moiraine says the Dark One is part of the Wheel and implies that destroying it would damage the Pattern. From what we see when the Dark One and Rand exchange visions at Shayol Ghul, she is probably is right about this, but for the wrong reason. She is worried about causality, but the Dark One offers people choice, and that is its most important role in the Pattern. Rand thinks killing the Dark One will be another of his impossible tasks, his “nine impossible things” as Nicola Foretold, and a parallel with Hercules’ labours.

Moiraine is not fooled by Rand’s bluff that his memories make him old. If that were so, Mat would be old, and Perrin with the wolves’ collective memory probably even older.

Moiraine has apparently heard about the previous failed meeting with Tuon—from her agents, or perhaps from Nynaeve. Like Rand’s abilities, Moiraine’s seemingly magical ability to know things and acquire information may have a mundane explanation.

While Moiraine regards the pact with the Seanchan as an unnecessary distraction, Rand sees it as essential to winning. This time, Rand is right: the Seanchan must join in the fight in the Last Battle. After that, it is important that they be part of the peace pact, as Aviendha’s visions in the glass columns showed. Moiraine has emphasised Rand’s destructive and divisive side, but in order for him to right Lews Therin’s mistakes, he must also be unifying.

Moiraine now acknowledges that Rand is mature, probably because he did not snap at her when she says he is just a youth. She broods that doesn’t know if his ideas are right. What is unspoken, is that her ideas may not be right either. In actuality, each has some things correct, and some not. The Blue sister trusts in the Wheel to weave things right, yet wishes she could understand it.


Lan POV

Unsurprisingly, everyone is in awe of Lan’s feat of killing two Myrddraal simultaneously. As Lan(celot), he is the best of the best, truly “the highest knight on life”. The scene looks ahead to when he does what no one else can do and kills Demandred.

Kaisel is concerned that the Saldaean women, including the queen, are fighting in battle. Lan believes that it is not worth objecting about. Yet Tenobia is killed later on after Agelmar’s judgment is corrupted. Of course, many other rulers and nobles perish in the Last Battle. Everyone has to do their part, and Lan thinks Kaisel is stupid about women in thinking they shouldn’t fight. The Malkieri King’s been among Aes Sedai a long time; it has changed his Borderlander views.

Lan’s plan relies on the Trollocs being so ravenous that they are distracted with eating their dead. It works until the channellers arrive. Asha’man Deepe refuses to retreat when M’Hael attacks and is killed. Realising Deepe’s error of judgment, Lan is also nearly killed, which would have been a triumph indeed for the Shadow if he had been.

A Memory of Light Read-through #18: Chapter 15—Your Neck in a Cord

By Linda

Mat POV

Like any Trickster figure, Mat knows all the entries and exits of the palace; Tricksters need such knowledge for daring coups and escapes (see Trickster essay).

Mat is sensitive at the neck, and his scarf feels like a chain and a ribbon—perhaps even the pink ribbons that he so dreaded when in thrall to Queen Tylin. It’s also a reference to him being hanged. He had just dangled high above the ground, a position nearly as dangerous as being hanged—having your neck in a cord. This neck symbolism has been continuing throughout the series, since The Eye of the World, when Trollocs tried to lasso his neck with a catchpole.

Not only is Mat’s neck motif prominent in this chapter, so is his fool motif:

Well, he would not be a fool and try this sort of thing again, that was for certain. Just this once, and grudgingly. Matrim Cauthon knew to look out for his own neck. He had not survived this long by taking fool chances, luck or no luck.

A Memory of Light, Your Neck in a Cord

Tricksters are often fools; they achieve their objectives by unconventional means, and get out of their scrapes, but are more often than not the butt of jokes in the process. Selucia calls Mat a fool three times in this scene—and something said or done three times in the series is true. Her first words are:

Selucia scowled. "What are you doing here, you fool?"

A Memory of Light, Your Neck In a Cord

Selucia is the Empress’ truth-speaker. No fool herself, she quickly deduced how Mat lost his eye.

"Hush," Selucia said. "You just tried to convince me you weren't an assassin, now you bring up that? Fool man."

A Memory of Light, Your Neck In a Cord

As well as calling him a fool, she mentions his neck:

"There is another way," Selucia said. "Come before you break your fool neck.”

A Memory of Light, Your Neck In a Cord

The joke is on Mat that there was an easier way in and out of the palace unknown to him, the Trickster.

Part of Mat being a fool involves him being forced by circumstances into risking his fool neck no matter how hard he tries not to. The Fool is a wild card—literally so in the tarocco or tarot family of card games—but low in rank. Another wild card in games is the Joker, but it is usually high rank. (And Mat is the only main character to play cards.) Fools like the freedom of having little or no rank, and Mat is grateful Selucia doesn’t refer to his title and his noble rank. He is determined to be a fool here, not the Joker. She and the Empress are well aware that he is both (see Fool and Joker essay).

Rand POV

Unlike Mat, who tries to avoid responsibility, Rand feels the burden of being responsible for peoples’ safety and lives. Making himself harder was the wrong way of handling this, as was deadening himself to pain. Only recently has he discovered that he needs to accept the pain, as the Aiel do physical pain.

Somewhat awkwardly, Rand gives Tam Artur Hawkwing’s sword. Tam tries to deny Rand’s gift, and, in turn, Rand makes him feel obliged to accept it. The gift is an expression of love and also obligation; Rand explains to Tam that his sword and the void kept him alive.

Tam knows that the flame and void is a meditation technique. This is a side of Tam of which Rand is ignorant until now; he never saw his father as a skilled fighter—a blademaster—or as a meditator. It makes sense: Rand thinks about how he has to be calm or at peace with himself to lead well. And the wise and experienced Ogier assure people that only decisions reached in calm can be sure (The Great Hunt, Among the Elders). The Oneness leads to that.

Rand feels weighted down by the burden of duty. Tam uses sparring as another kind of meditation: living in the moment, concentrating on one thing to the exclusion of all else. Such a purposeful activity offers a respite in the waking world, comparable to making a haven of one’s own dreams while asleep.

Rand hasn’t adapted his fighting to reality, to his lack of a hand. He is not living in the now and clings to ways of thought that are crushing him. Tam has anticipated problems—disaster, even—and practised fighting one-handed. He has not pretended that he is all powerful and invincible, or that the Pattern will look after him. Many powerful channellers fall into this trap of self-aggrandisement. Rand did; and he has come a long way out of it, but this is the last of its symptoms and Tam will literally wear it away. Rand sees that one-handed swordsmanship is possible and useful; and is encouraged and pressured by the fight to let go and follow his own instincts.

Interestingly, Rand attributes to Lan the opinion that one-handed fighting is futile—but Lan believes that you don’t surrender until you are dead, so he would acknowledge the necessity of fighting on without a hand.

By focussing on something straightforward, Rand leaves his worries behind. Emphasising the positive helps deal with the negative.

Mat POV

Tuon is also sparring to take her mind off things and stay sharp—with her eyes shut. Mat realises how dangerous she is and how she could have killed him. Except that Mat is dangerous, too, which is why they have a healthy respect for each other.

Their marriage is a self-fulfilling prophecy: they only said their vows because prophecy said they ought to. Mat realises that he has to live with it now. For a long while, he thought of courting her as a game, but marriage is not a game. It’s not an accident, either. Responsibility can’t be passed off. Like all fools, Mat tries to avoid responsibility–yet promptly protects his wife.

Mat acts on instinct—as Rand is doing—and kills a Grey Man. The slightest sound alerts Tuon. She showed that she trusts Mat implicitly, which he found moving.

Tuon calls her guards fools when they catch the wrong guy, then pretends that she never called Trollocs myths. Acceptance is one thing, denial another. This is why the Empress needs a Truthspeaker: to force her to accept that she can and does make mistakes and wrong assumptions, and to remind her of her fallibility and humanity. Selucia is covering too many roles at present, and consequently is not being an effective Truthspeaker, particularly as it does not fit with her previous relationship with Tuon. She is both very attached to her mistress and has obeyed her for a long time.

Tuon deduces that Mat went to save someone—or she was well-informed. Perhaps Selucia listened in to Mat’s plans after he read Moiraine’s letter at the menagerie.

The Empress expects people to serve her well, and therefore doesn’t express pleasure or gratitude when they do. She openly takes people for granted: they should just be grateful that their efforts are accepted and that they are not supplanted by another.

It seems that Mat won’t let his wife push him around too much. He won’t be trivialised, unless he wants to play the fool. She respects that. Tuon sees him as one who has survived great danger, and, moreover, is also glad to see him –an admission that is a major concession from her.

Mat wastes energy trying to avoid responsibility, as Rand does worrying over it. The moral is to accept it and move on. The chapter is about necks in a cord—or a yoke—and being strangled by responsibility as well as danger. But a yoke offers the possibility of progress and achievement, even if the labour is great.

A Memory of Light Read-through #17: Chapter 14—Doses of Forkroot

By Linda

Perrin POV

In Tel’aran’rhiod, the wind blows hard in natural patterns, but Perrin finds it easy to impose calm on a limited area, due to his skill and also his devotion to rightness and the natural order of things. Reality in the dream looks worn and the Land is coming apart. This is a step beyond what Moridin described to Rand earlier in the book:

"It dies, and the dust soon will rule. The dust . . . then nothing."

A Memory of Light, Advantages To a Bond

Moridin saw the end as a winding down of a universe crushed by entropy rather than a big crunch:

”The end is near,” Moridin said. “The Wheel has groaned its final rotation, the clock has lost its spring, the serpent heaves its final gasps.”

The Gathering Storm, Prologue

The storm is no longer gathering: it has arrived and is eroding the Land in Tel’aran’rhiod. It is worse where Rand is, reflecting the conflict between Rand and the Dark One and Rand’s arrival near Shayol Ghul. Fragments of land are sucked up by the wind and pulled toward the black clouds. The winds herald oncoming destruction. This is part of the “hills take flight” motif in the Lord of Chaos rhyme:

The lions sing and the hills take flight.
The moon by day and the sun by night.
Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool.
Let the Lord of Chaos rule.

Lord of Chaos Prologue

Rand becomes Lord of Chaos as he fights the Dark One. It is the Dark One’s aim to make him the Lord of Misrule so that he has trouble garnering support, but the Pattern accounts for this by making Rand’s chaotic actions resulting in unexpected counters to the Shadow’s plan. Perrin sees that sometimes the land comes back together again—resists the pressure of destruction.

Gaul’s strong will, identity and focus keeps him steady in Tel’aran’rhiod. Perrin asks him what he did to deserve Gaul’s loyalty. First was freeing him, which made Gaul follow Perrin because the Aielman had toh. He continued to follow not from what Perrin did, but what he is: ta’veren, strong, wise, an honourable fighter against. Gaul was always impressed with Perrin’s fighting ability and physical and mental strength and has assigned himself the task of supporting him. He won’t explain this to Perrin and deliberately changes the subject.

Gaul has to choose whether to marry two women– one who doesn’t love him and one who does—or no marriage. Mirrors Perrin who had to “choose” between Faile and Berelain, though that was an easy choice, and will again between Faile and Lanfear.

Lanfear surprises Perrin by appearing beside him—like a lamia or succubus apparition. A lamia is a beautiful woman from the waist up and a serpent from the waist down, who kills children, seduces sleeping men, and enchants her victims with glamour and illusion. A succubus is a female demon who takes on a human female form to seduce men in their dreams. Lanfear—or Cyndane, as we should call her, because Moridin is strict with names—is not wearing Moridin’s colours, but her own. When she learns the wolves’ name for her, she denies hunting the moon because it is hers already. The name 'Moonhunter' is derogatory as well as accurate—Lanfear is arrogant and deluded.

The Forsaken declares that she wants vengeance on somebody, this obviously being Rand, whom she blames for her predicament (and perhaps Moiraine, in passing, also). Moridin indicated this earlier:

"Mierin hates you now, anyway," Moridin continued. "I think she blames you for what happened to her.”

A Memory of Light, Advantages to a Bond

The two scenes are linked. Lanfear can sense when Moridin is wondering where she is and quickly flits back to a more acceptable activity.

Perrin says Lanfear has never made any sense to him. He remembers that the wolves said she wants him. He doesn’t know what for, and neither do we. Not yet.


Androl POV

Turned, Toveine has flung aside her reservations about Logain to be openly affectionate. Logain is crucial to either side due to his influence and strength. His resistance and devotion to the Light is very impressive; he has resisted eleven or so attempts to Turn him. Only this time does he scream in agony.

The Black Asha’man are exhausted trying to Turn Logain and his faction. All Reds except Pevara have also been Turned. Graendal—Hessalam, now—is in charge of the Black sisters. She is dressed in black, which she has never worn on screen before. The eleventh attempt at Turning Logain is underway, and with plenty of women, the procedure is close to succeeding, judging by his screams. Truly the eleventh hour, the last chance to save him; a twelfth attempt (symbolic number!) will probably be successful. Women Turn men easily and men women, as with Healing stilling. It is evidence of the necessary balance between the sexes and between saidin and saidar.

Evin still kind and well-meaning to Androl, and persuaded Taim not to kill him. Evin still has anxiety from before his turning, as well as paranoia from taint. Androl plays on it to break free.

The doses of forkroot have been stopped for Androl, because they are going to Turn him soon and also because he is considered negligible, particularly with the dreamspike preventing his only major Talent from working. Which is why he is triumphant when he uses Evin’s paranoia from the taint to make him strike at Abors, who is holding Androl’s shield; using the Shadow’s weapons against them. Later in the chapter he does the same with their weaves. Impressively, he is able to open a tiny gateway under extreme duress despite the dreamspike being still in place. This could well be something the Forsaken consider impossible.

Taim reveals that he has the Seals but hasn’t handed them to the Dark One yet:

"I have already provided a gift to the Great Lord himself. Beware, I am in his favor. I hold the keys in my hands, Hessalam."
"You mean . . . you actually did it? You stole them!"

A Memory of Light, Doses of Forkroot

Taim uses similar tactics to those of Sammael, and she backed off from him also. Androl doesn’t know what Taim is referring to, but he can see that Hessalam does. He doesn’t know who she really is, either.

It is amazing that Androl broke the barrier of the dreamspike for a tiny gateway. He uses gateways to beat Taim’s minions and kill most of them by using their own weaves against them.

Logain he sent far from the Black Tower. On the Shadow’s side, it was Graendal who opened a gateway to safety, and Taim followed her.


Perrin POV

Lanfear explains to Perrin that the Asha’man guards were Turned and what this process is. She thinks Turning people to the Shadow is a waste, because it damages them; better if people come willingly. It is a crude method in her opinion, but since Semirhage devised it, Lanfear was always likely to reject it. After all, she says that Compulsion – Graendal’s preferred method – is cheating. Lanfear’s way to tie people to her was seduction.

She puts a dose of forkroot in the guards’ wine to help Perrin because she is “fond of him”. Perrin says no one should be forced to the Shadow. She counters, saying that they could have chosen to be severed from the Source; then, as non-channellers, they couldn’t be Turned. It’s spiritual warfare.

"That's not much of a choice."
"This is the weave of the Pattern, Perrin Aybara. Not all options will be good ones. Sometimes you have to make the best of a bad lot and ride the storm."

A Memory of Light, Doses of Forkroot

The storm is outside. Time for final choices.

When she reminds him that the Pattern offers only bad choices sometimes, Lanfear implies that’s all that she had when she swore to the Shadow. It led her to be shut in the Bore for over 3,000 years. Perrin is not convinced by her claim—excuse, really—that she has suffered enormously—he is aware of how many she has made suffer enormously. Any thwarting of her desires or plans is agony to such a spoiled brat. Her current sufferings are punishment for trying to use Rand to overthrow the Dark One or make the Dark One owe her—and have not stopped her from promoting this plan.

As “the one who is punished most” (A Memory of Light Prologue) she says she is no longer one of the Forsaken due to the Dark One learning that she was planning to help Rand win. (At the time of the prologue, Moridin indicated that she was a Forsaken, though the lowest ranked.) This sounds more altruistic and cooperative than it actually is: Lanfear planned to use Rand, not help him. He was to either beat the Dark One with her “at his side” or she would kill him as he tried to do so and thereby save the Dark One. Now she is helping Perrin to keep him amenable to her influence.

Perrin is impressed with her skill in Tel’aran’rhiod. Lanfear is not supposed to be able to “do this” – move around independently in Tel’aran’rhiod? The Forsaken is sticking to her usual methods of using powerful men: she tells Perrin how he will be of use to her: to win with her at his side, as though he is doing it for her or sharing it with her. Basically he is to win the battle for her as her Champion, and Lanfear would be the dark Lady of Sovereignty.

Perrin shrugs her off. Lanfear tries a little honey and shows him how to set and unset the dreamspike. Perrin hopes that the retraction of the dome will bring Slayer to him. What it does immediately is enable Androl to make gateways again—gateways that aimed the Dreadlords’ weaves back at them.

In both scenes we see the Shadow undermining itself—Evin manipulated into attacking another Dreadlord, Dreadlords killed by their own weaves, and Lanfear plotting against the Dark One.