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Reading The Wheel of Time: Flinn Heals, Cadsuane Studies, and Demandred plots in Winter’s Heart (Part 11)

Reading The Wheel of Time: Flinn Heals, Cadsuane Studies, and Demandred plots in <i>Winter’s Heart</i> (Part 11)

Home / Reading The Wheel of Time: Flinn Heals, Cadsuane Studies, and Demandred plots in Winter’s Heart (Part 11)
Rereads and Rewatches The Wheel of Time

Reading The Wheel of Time: Flinn Heals, Cadsuane Studies, and Demandred plots in Winter’s Heart (Part 11)

Cadsuane and Demandred feature heavily in Sylas's Wheel of Time discussion this week.

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Published on March 12, 2024

Cover art of Winter's Heart

Cadsuane is holding an audience with Wavemistress Harine and her Sailmistress, Derah, who are demanding that Windfinder Shalon be returned to them. Cadsuane isn’t done questioning Shalon about the attack on Rand, and idly cites Tower Law as the precedent they must follow as the windfinder “assists” them with their investigation. She finds the Sea Folk irritating, but her attention is mostly elsewhere.

She has Elza, Sarene, Nesune, Erian, and Beldeine in the room with her, as well as Daigian and Eben. Cadsuane is suspicious of the sisters who recently swore fealty to Rand. The captive Aes Sedai were nowhere near Rand when they decided to swear, and although these five all have believable reasons, some of the others have begun to make Cadsuane doubt.

Sorilea and Verin come in, and Cadsuane sees Sorilea hand Verin a vial of something that helps with sleep, along with a warning about dosages and that too much can be fatal. Cadsuane notes that, like herself, Verin is also having trouble sleeping since “the boy” fled the sun palace.

Harine upbraids Cadsuane for not listening to her, giving her a tap on the cheek to get her attention. Cadsuane restrains herself from using the One Power on the woman.

“I do not care a fig for your Coramoor,” Cadsuane continued, her voice still mild. All the figs in the world for the Dragon Reborn, but not one for the Coramoor. She did not alter her tone by a hair. “If you ever touch me again without permission, I will have you stripped, striped, bound and carried back to your rooms in a sack.”

Cadsuane instructs Sarene to escort the Sea Folk women back to their rooms, where they will fast and meditate on civility; if they are uncivil, Sarene is instructed to spank them. Harine seems ready to resist, but after some whispered words from Derah she allows herself to be escorted out.

Sorilea tells Cadsuane that the last of the prisoner Aes Sedai—Chisaine, Janine, Pavlara, Innina, and Vayelle—have all asked to serve the Car’a’carn. None have been allowed to speak to any of the others, and Sorilea is confident that there hasn’t been any collusion. Thus, she has accepted their requests. Cadsuane wonders what could possibly make a Red sister swear fealty to a man who can channel.

Sorilea moves to speak to the other Aes Sedai in the room, leaving Cadsuane alone with Verin. Verin tells Cadsuane that, since Bera and Kiruna were getting nowhere, she went to have her own conversation with Shalon and Ailil. She was able to get the entire story from the women of how they came to be bound and gagged under Ailil’s bed the day Rand was attacked. The two had begun meeting together to share information about Rand and their respective cultures, and the contact had resulted in a sexual relationship.

Cadsuane is shocked that the women would spend days being put to the question and hiding something so trivial, but Verin points out that the Cairhienin are very prim and prudish in public. And Shalon is a married woman—apparently breaking marriage vows is a very serious offense in Sea Folk culture, and she could be severely punished if this information got out. Cadsuane instructs Verin to use the information to blackmail the women into reporting to Cadsuane—Ailil on her brother, and Shalon on events among the Sea Folk. Verin isn’t sure how far Shalon will betray Harine. 

She will betray what I require her to betray,” Cadsuane said grimly. “Keep her until tomorrow, late.” Harine must not be allowed to think for a moment that her demands were being met. The Sea Folk were another tool to be used on the boy, no more. Everyone and everything had to be viewed in that light.

Corele arrives, seeming uncharacteristically uncertain, and reports to Cadsuane that she let Damer examine the stilled sisters, and that he has completely Healed Irgain. Irgain somehow knows about the oaths the others swore, and is ready to swear as well.

The ability to Heal stilling is a world-shaking discovery, especially since it was a man who did it, although Cadsuane still considers it a storm in a teacup compared to Rand al’Thor. She gives Corele permission to let Damer try on the other two stilled sisters.

Jahar comes in and reports, in a near-panic, that Alanna has passed out and won’t wake up. Cadsuane, Sorilea, Corele and Verin follow Jahar through the halls towards the room Alanna has been taken to, but they are interrupted by Dobraine, who stops Cadsuane to inform her that Lady Caraline and High Lord Darlin are no longer Lady Arilyn’s palace where Cadsuane was keeping them—they are on a riverboat bound for Tear, and out of her reach.

He tells her that she shouldn’t punish the servants who were left in charge of the pair. They were strong enough to keep two “guests” but could not stand up to Dobraine’s soldiers. He also explains that Darlin is to be the Dragon Reborn’s steward in Tear, and that it seemed wise to send Caraline out of the country, in case someone wanted to use her in the fight for the throne. Impatient to get to Alanna, Cadsuane only remarks that she hopes Dobraine will still have the same opinions in a year.

Arriving to where Merise is sitting with Alanna, they examine the unconscious Aes Sedai. Corele tries Healing, and Merise adds that she has tried as well—there has been no change. Verin looks terrified, and Cadsuane feels some terror of her own. With nothing else to do, they all sit down to wait until she wakes up.

Demandred waits in a meeting place near Shayol Ghul, with Graendal, Osan’gar, and Aran’gar. He knows it is hard for Semirhage to attend these meetings, but Mesaana has also stopped coming very often. He wonders if Mesaana is thinking of ending the alliance Demandred has with her and Semirhage, in which they all work together to overthrow other members of the Chosen and promise not to turn on each other until everyone else has been eliminated.

Demandred complains about the failure to kill al’Thor in Cairhien, and about how the man has been seen in many places since. He also complains about the primitive nature of communication in this Age. Osan’gar suggests that probability will eventually turn in their favor, and that chance can’t always work for al’Thor forever. Aran’gar teases him for failing to keep track of al’Thor while she has her own charge well in hand, but Graendal suggests that Aran’gar should be more worried about al’Thor’s successes.

They have learned of Rand’s intention to remove the taint from saidin. Osan’gar lectures that even he himself probably couldn’t devise a way to remove the taint, and al’Thor is just a primitive. Greandal calls him blind.

“If the young man does somehow remove the shadow, well… You who channel saidin will no longer need the Great Lord’s special protection. Will he trust your… loyalty… then?” Smiling, she sipped her wine.

Moridin arrives, shadowed by Cyndane, and announces that the Dark Lord is certain of all of their loyalty, for now. He remarks that Mesaana should be here for what he has to say, and points out that the small, unimportant matters can suddenly become important. 

He is carrying a rat, and when it tries to bite him he incinerates it by channeling the True Power. Demandred thinks the man must be mad, using the True Power so frequently. As Nae’blis, Moridin is the only one allowed to use the True Power, but even when Demandred had the ability, he only used it when he had to.   

When ordered, Cyndane explains to the others that “Lews Therin” has two of the access keys to the Choedan Kal, one for each gender, and that he plans to use them in his attempt to cleanse saidin. Everyone is horrified—back during the War of Power, only balefire had been more feared than the power of the Choedan Kal.

“So it seems he must be killed after all,” Demandred said. Hiding his satisfaction was not easy. Rand al’Thor or Lews Therin Telamon, he would rest easier when the fellow was dead. “Before he can destroy the world, and us. Which makes finding him all the more urgent.”

Moridin replies that, when Rand touches the Choedan Kal, they will know where he is. Then, they are to go there and take him, or kill him if necessary. They all respond respectfully, bowing their heads to the Nae’blis, as Demandred notes that Moridin doesn’t intend to join them in this dangerous act. He considers how he might arrange things so that the next time Moridin dies, he doesn’t get another body.


Wait, hang on. Did Cadsuane have Hopwil, Narishma, and Flinn bonded as Warders?

At first I thought maybe the Eben mentioned in the beginning was not Eben Hopwil but a different person who is also named Eben, but the other men mentioned are Damer and Jahar… more commonly referred to in the text by their last names, Flinn and Narishma. And while the words “bonded” or “warder” aren’t ever used, there are plenty of clues within the chapter.

When she decides to blackmail Ailil and Shalon, Cadsuane considers that she doesn’t particularly like using blackmail as a tactic, but that she has already used it on the three Asha’man. Daigian is possessive over Eben. Cadsuane observes that some of Damer’s firm personality is already rubbing off on Corele. Jahar is described as wearing a blue coat that Merise picked out for him, and later when he is impatient over Dobraine’s interruption, Cadsuane observes that Merise has a firm hand.

Taken separately, none of these clues would make my mind jump straight to the Warder bond, but all together they paint a specific picture. It might be possible that Cadsuane is merely blackmailing the men into behaving as servants to the Aes Sedai, but the close relationships that each pair seems to have developed in such a short span of time, and the fact that it’s only one specific Aes Sedai in charge of each man, makes me think this is a bonding situation. Cadsuane did consider, when she found out about Alanna and Rand, that as abhorrent as Alanna’s actions were, Cadsuane herself was also prepared to do whatever is necessary, even bond someone against their will. So I wouldn’t put it past her to command the followers she trusted most to bond these three, and then blackmail the Asha’man into accepting it—coercing someone into a bond is the same as bonding without consent, just with a little more warning than Alanna gave Rand.

Rand is going to lose it when he finds out. After all, these are the only three Asha’man he feels he may be able to trust—he even mentioned as much to Elayne in the last chapter. No, that trust is going to be replaced by Rand’s intense suspicion of the Aes Sedai and those attached to them. And while he certainly must have expected Cadsuane to get up to (what Rand would view as) trouble in his absence, and certainly shouldn’t be surprised that she had her own designs that she was free to execute in his absence, I doubt he would have expected anything like this. Sure, it happened to him, but he would expect his Asha’man to be on guard against trickery from the Aes Sedai, just as he himself has become even more suspicious and on guard since Alanna took advantage of his trust in her.

I wonder what Cadsuane had to blackmail these Asha’man with that was so serious that she could push all three into accepting Warder bonds with Aes Sedai who aren’t even sworn to Rand. It would have to be something pretty serious, I would think. Although Cadsuane’s forceful personality probably helped as well, and both Hopwil and Narishma are quite young, as well.

After seeing the Sea Folk behave with such disdain towards Nynaeve—and everyone else for that matter—it was kind of refreshing to see Cadsuane take Harine down a peg. Last week I mused over the hostility the Atha’an Miere hold towards the Aes Sedai, and all the shorebound, it occurs to me, in addition to the other theories I had, that the Sea Folk place such a great deal of cultural value on the ability to bargain that it may be difficult for them to respect anyone who isn’t able to hold their own at the negotiation table. Both Nynaeve and Elayne’s bargain (which Harine may or may not be aware of) and the one that Merana and Rafela made on Rand’s behalf favor the Atha’an Miere, especially since Rand’s interpretations of the gift of land hasn’t yet been put into practice.

The reveal about Ailil and Shalon is interesting. Verin claims they are “pillow friends” which as far as I can tell is just an Aes Sedai terms for novices and Accepted who have a sort of friends with benefits situation to find comfort and closeness during a time when life is full of hard work and obedience. However, given what we learn about Shalon—that she is married and that breaking marriage vows is a very grave offense that would result in serious consequences if she was found out—it seems unlikely that she would take such risks for a fling with some shore-bound woman she’s been exchanging information with. It may be that this relationship is actually quite serious, and that in addition to risking punishment (for Shalon) and acute embarrassment and/or shame (for Ailil), being found out might also mean that each would lose someone she truly cares deeply for. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this, and I hope it’s handled well.

Verin is fascinating in this chapter. Cadsuane notes that Verin often notices things others don’t, and doesn’t seem surprised when Verin was able to get the truth from Ailil and Shalon in one conversation after Bera and Kiruna failed multiple times. But she still seems to be underestimating Verin. She doesn’t question if any of Verin’s easy submissiveness towards the Wise Ones might be adopted purely of necessity, and might not come as comfortably as it appears to. She also overhears Sorilea giving Verin a “sleeping” drug which sounds like absolutely the perfect thing to poison someone with and doesn’t even have a second’s thought about it.

In part, of course, this is evidence of how strong the Aes Sedai patterns of thinking are. Even Cadsuane, who uses Daigian to spy on other sisters because she recognizes that Daigian is very smart and capable, but always overlooked because of her lack of strength in the One Power, can miss things, like how Verin might be a common denominator among the Aes Sedai prisoners who swore to Rand. Not that I think she really has enough information to get there, in any case. She probably knows some of what the sworn Aes Sedai get up to as apprentices, since they all report to her, but Verin doesn’t have to volunteer anything she’s not asked about—even if she can’t lie outright, which I sometimes suspect she might be able to, she can still omit information, and Verin is very, very skilled in this area. Perhaps even a match for Cadsuane the legend.

And while Cadsuane is aware of, and presumably on the lookout for, the Black Ajah, nobody’s mind would first suspect that Darkfriends might be in charge of encouraging all Aes Sedai to swear allegiance to the Dragon Reborn. Sure, many of them think it’s dangerous and wrong for Aes Sedai to serve Rand, rather than the other way around, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that it would be in the Dark’s best interest to make sure the two are forced into an alliance. It’s also kind of a leap to suspect Verin is getting the drug from Sorilea to poison someone, given that there’s no suggestion that Verin has anybody she needs out of the way. Cadsuane herself is having trouble sleeping from worry, and Sorilea is a (somewhat) trusted ally, so it makes sense to think that the sleeping drug is for just that.

It’s not so much that I think Cadsuane should be catching onto something that is right in front of her, but rather that I am aware, again, of how easily Verin is glossed over by others. And whenever she is mentioned I’m back to wondering about her. The fact that she is able to use a form of compulsion on other Aes Sedai kind of suggests to me that she is free of the Three Oaths but doesn’t prove it; manipulating someone with compulsion is certainly amoral, but it’s not quite using the One Power as a weapon. Just as bonding someone against their will is amoral, but doesn’t count. We still have the fact that Verin lied that one time about having been sent by Moiraine when she wasn’t, which I’m so curious about for a number of reasons, including that it would have been pretty simple for her to Aes Sedai her way to having everyone conclude that she had been sent.

And Verin does seem to be fighting for the Light. She is securing the Aes Sedai for Rand, views the action of taking him prisoner as foolish and dangerous, and is obviously concerned for Rand’s safety; she and Cadsuane are both terrified by Alanna’s collapse because they think it means something happened to Rand. I still don’t know what to make of Verin, really, but I’m paying very close attention to her, and it’s interesting to see how many characters, even smart, suspicious characters like Cadsuane, don’t seem to be.

I assume what happened to Alanna has to do with Elayne, Aviendha, and Min co-bonding Rand. This bond is something that Elayne invented, so it might have unintended consequences to Alanna that she couldn’t foresee. It’s also possible that this would have happened even if someone else had bonded Rand in a more traditional fashion; since it’s something that isn’t done, there might be preparation that is necessary for the already bonded woman to undergo before the second bond is placed. It’s hard to say, but it will be interesting to see what happens when Alanna wakes up.

But getting back to Cadsuane for a moment, she references in this chapter her two bitterest failures. One is getting close to rooting out the Black Ajah but ultimately having her quarry slip through her fingers. The second, which she regards as much worse even than that, is “failing to learn what Caraline Damodred’s cousin had been up to in the Borderlands until the knowledge was years too late to do any good.” Caroline’s cousin is, of course, Moiraine. Since I skipped ahead and read New Spring in anticipation of the Wheel of Time television show, I know that what Moiraine was doing in the Borderlands was looking for the Dragon Reborn, and that she encountered Cadsuane while she was out there. Cadsuane warned Moiraine about the dangers of galavanting around alone as a newly-minted sister, and Moiraine promptly slipped away to continue her hunt.

At that time, Moiraine and Siuan thought Cadsuane must either have been Black Ajah or one of Tamra’s searchers for the Dragon. We the readers know that Cadsuane isn’t Black, and given the fact that she survived the Black Ajah murdering all the searchers, I doubt she was one of those either. Also, if Cadsuane had had as much information about Rand’s birth as Moiraine and Siuan did, I think she would have been successful in finding him, or at least have been able to keep pace with Moiraine’s search. It’s much more likely, I think, that Cadsuane was observant and clever enough to have a sense that something important was up, and chased after it, but wasn’t quite able to find out the truth. Perhaps she was suspicious about Tamra’s death. It’s possible that she encountered Moiraine in the Borderlands because she was chasing the Black Ajah—they were very active murdering Amyrlins and Aes Sedai at that time, and these events might have caught Cadsuane’s interest.

Of course, New Spring wasn’t published until a few years after Winter’s Heart. There’s a whole other book, Crossroads of Twilight, in between them. Someone reading Winter’s Heart when it came out wouldn’t yet have those background details about Cadsuane yet, and I can imagine how curious and excited I would be at these little hints that maybe she knew something about what Moiraine was doing, even though Moiraine was clearly unaware that Cadsuane was watching her so closely.

Cadsuane is suspicious of the Aes Sedai who have sworn to Rand, especially those who were prisoners first, but it’s even more interesting to see how she also has a team of sisters she really does trust. I can’t help thinking that it must be really great for these sisters who have been operating under her direction for so long. They don’t have to figure out what happened in the Tower schism, or whether or not they should stay loyal to Elaida. Elaida might be the Amyrlin, but Cadsuane is a legend, and one who has decided (very fairly so, in my estimation) that Elaida and the division in the Tower is far less important for Cadsuane to be involving herself in than what is going on in Cairhien—especially with Min’s viewing. These sisters can still have the certainty around who they are following and what they are meant to be doing. After all, the Aes Sedai hierarchy says that they should yield to the strongest sister in the room.

The comment by Corele, echoed in Cadsuane’s own head, that she can’t see letting any sister remain stilled if there’s another option is a good reminder to us, the readers, of how dire a fate being stilled/gentled is. Cadsuane even considers that the revelation will cause a stir among the Aes Sedai in part because every woman lives with the fear of one day having the ability to touch the One Power taken from her. And of course there’s also the fact that the ability to Heal stilling was discovered by a man.

As far as they know, anyway! Nynaeve still got there first, but that news hasn’t made it to Cairhien yet.

Corele remarks that Flinn is convinced that there is nothing that can’t be Healed. Like Nynaeve, he is new to channeling and to Healing, and while part of both of their successes is obviously down to being very strong in the One Power and possibly more exceptionally Talented in Healing than any channeler has been in a long time (or ever?) I imagine that not having a context of what can and can’t be done with Healing helped as well. 

The fact that Flinn was able to fully Heal Irgain “as if she’d never been” stilled at all, and Nynaeve was able to Heal Logain’s gentling and restore him to his full strength, but that Leane and Siuan were restored to a lesser strength is interesting. It’s too small a sample size to come to any definite conclusion, but it’s possible that the connection to saidin and the connection to saidar are different enough enough from each other that the technique of the Healing must also be done differently. When Nynaeve figured out how to Heal Logain she was feeling her way along, trying to understand what she was looking at. With Siuan and Leane, she was recreating something she had already done. Even if she tried to approach it exactly as she approached studying Logain, what she did before would still be on her mind, and she might have missed the fact that she needed to do something slightly differently with them than with him.

Men and women are different in this, after all. The physical/metaphysical something that allows someone to connect to saidar might look a little bit, or a lot, different than the one that allows someone to connect to saidin. Nynaeve’s impression of what she finds in Logain is similar to what she felt in Leane and Siuan, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a difference. In the case of Flinn, he may have been able to examine those men of the Black Tower who burned themselves out—we don’t know for sure. But presumably we would have heard about it if he had been successful at Healing any of them, in either case. But he was able to Heal Irgain.

Perhaps there is something about the connections that’s easier to understand by a channeler of the opposite half of the One Power. Perhaps a man can Heal a woman more easily than he could a man, and vice-versa? The two halves are supposed to be complimentary, after all, the ancient Aes Sedai symbol strongly resembling the symbol for Yin and Yang. Two sides, push and pull, the Flame and the Fang, whose friction drives the movement of the One Power over the Wheel of Time. Just as in the Age of Legends the best works of channeling were done by men and women working together, perhaps if the patient and the Healer are different genders, the Healing works better. I don’t like that idea nearly as much as the idea that men and women simply need to be Healed with a slightly different technique, but it would make thematic and world-building sense if it were true.

If memory serves, I believe we learned at one point that Healing stilling/gentling was thought to be impossible even in the Age of Legends, so it’s also possible that this is a particular Talent that has resurfaced from a by-gone era. Many old things are coming back, as observed by Someshta and others, so Nynaeve and Flinn’s abilities may be something new… as far as anything can be new when all of Time is an ever-turning Wheel, anyway.

Speaking of the Age of Legends, I was intrigued to learn that the giant statues, the Choedan Kal, were actually feared back then—that the power that one could draw through them was too great even for that exalted time. Lanfear didn’t seem too fazed by them, though, when she first suggested that she and Rand could use them to challenge the Dark One, and possibly even the Creator himself. But I guess Lanfear, like Moridin, is considered a little out there even by the other Forsaken.

Last week, after reading the section with Shiaine and Murellin, I wondered if Moridin’s identity as Ishamael was now known to at least some Darkfriends. We now have confirmation that the other Forsaken, at least, know who he is and was, and also know who Aran’gar and Osan’gar are. (Or were? This is getting a little confusing.) Osan’gar also thought that Cyndane was Lanfear reincarnated, but now he thinks otherwise because Cyndane is so much less powerful than Lanfear.

I also assumed Cyndane was Lanfear, although my thought was that she was in disguise, not reincarnated. If the weaves of her disguise were inverted, no one could tell, right, not even another female Forsaken? Except I believe that the illusion is difficult to maintain when touched—we saw that with Alviarin grabbing the hem of Mesaana’s dress, and it has also been mentioned a few other times. With the way Moridin’s always grabbing her, I’m less certain that she could be maintaining a disguise made with the One Power.

But either way, the fact that Cyndane is less powerful than Lanfear is also a wrinkle. Reincarnated or in disguise, I don’t think one’s strength in the One Power is easy to hide. But there could be a way. For that matter, there’s probably a way for Lanfear to have been reduced in strength—we know of at least one way that can happen, after all. There could certainly be others.

I do think I should mention, at this point, that I have been spoiled for something regarding Moiraine and Lanfear’s deaths by falling into the redstone doorway. Highlight the next paragraph to read it, or if you’re a first time reader and want to avoid spoilers, skip it!

A while back I accidentally stumbled across something mentioning that Moiraine ends up marrying Thom Merrilin. I had already formed the theory that she had survived her fall through the doorway, partly because we didn’t see a body and it would be much more narratively interesting for her to have survived, perhaps trapped in that other dimension. No body, no death, is usually how it goes in genre fiction. And also, Moiraine is the Gandalf of the Wheel of Time, so she really has to “come back to life” at a particularly exciting moment. I suppose Thom also plays a Gandalf role in the early books, so I guess in that way it’s fitting that they end up together? Two halves of a whole Gandalf, as it were. Though I’ll be honest, I don’t have a lot of hope for that relationship being interesting to me. Anyway, this knowledge is definitely in my mind when I’m musing over Lanfear, too, and so that’s affecting my predictions about her in a way. I suppose that it’s inevitable that, being on the internet, I might occasionally run across a spoiler or two for a book that was published over twenty years ago.

Moving on, I thought Demandred’s horror of the True Source was really interesting. He wants to be Nae’blis as much as the next member of the Chosen, and surely the Nae’blis should be using the True Power to some extent. Especially if the Dark One ever actually wins and remakes Creation in his own image. Also, why did Jordan have to name the guy Demandred? I’ve accidentally typed Moiraine’s last name instead of his several times already. It’s Elayne and Egwene all over again.

I also noticed throughout this chapter how differently people refer to Rand. Cadsuane calls him “the boy,” even in her own head. Verin’s version is a slightly more respectful “young al’Thor.” Graendal says, “the young man” and Moridin sticks to al’Thor. Cyndane still calls him Lews Therin, which is another reason it seems like she’s Lanfear. Each one is slightly different, some reducing his importance by referring to him as “boy,” most distancing themselves from the truth of who he is by avoiding ever using his name. Everyone, from a legend of the current Age to the Forsaken of the Age of Legends, has a delicate relationship to the idea of who and what Rand is, and what he may become.

Demandred’s section was also a good reminder of how the Forsaken see the current Age as being underdeveloped and backwards, and its channelers equally so. Osan’gar is confident that Rand couldn’t even begin to tackle the problem of cleansing saidin because he’s too primitive to have the necessary understanding. But we the readers know that this Age has its own legends, and its own miracles, and I think that all Darkfriends are predisposed to underestimate the Dragon. Even in Lews Therin’s Age this was probably true—after all, it was the Dark One who defeated him, not the Forsaken. I think that if you’re a Darkfriend, part of the worldview you’re subscribing to is that the Dark One is stronger than the Creator, and that those who join him are stronger, smarter, and better than those who walk in the Light. Otherwise, you wouldn’t believe in your own ability to triumph over them, in the Dark’s ability to triumph over the Light. And that, I think, is one of the reasons that in the end, it’s difficult for the Dark to win.

I have an essay planned for next week, and then it’s off to catch up with the Seanchan, and a very special prophesied someone who is about to arrive and stir some things up. Just when Rand finally had a moment’s hard-won peace from them, too. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a few final thoughts. Have a great week!

– Who’s Isam? I don’t think I’ve heard that name before, but there are a lot of names so I might have forgotten it. It’s interesting that the Forsaken have sent someone to kill Fain, though. I someone doubt they’ll succeed.  

– Apparently peaches are poisonous in Rand’s world, at least in his Age. Nynaeve mentioned something about peaches and poison a few chapters ago, I think, but it didnt’t quit sink in for me until it was mentioned again, here.

– I find it hilarious that Osan’gar, who’s supposed to know about metaphysical stuff, doesn’t understand that of course change can keep favoring Rand. He’s ta’veren, that’s the whole point! icon-paragraph-end

About the Author

Sylas K Barrett

Author

Sylas K Barrett is a queer writer and creative based in Brooklyn. A fan of nature, character work, and long flowery descriptions, Sylas has been heading up Reading the Wheel of Time since 2018. You can (occasionally) find him on social media on Bluesky (@thatsyguy.bsky.social) and Instagram (@thatsyguy)
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