On a dark night, outside a building with a six-pointed roof, a little girl plays among stones, one embedded in the ground with strange symbols. As Trollocs rush out of the night toward her, she runs inside, where hooded figures are around a table, listening to Ishamael speak about Rand al’Thor. From under the table, she sees a woman with long fingernails, a person wearing black gloves and a black Aes Sedai ring, a soldier with a black hawk sigil. When her mother flat out ignores her, Ishamael takes her outside to show her Trollocs aren’t as evil as everyone says, and neither is he. Before they leave the room, Padan Fain pulls down his hood and grins at the girl, menacingly.
Moiraine is wearing a plain, beige-colored dress as she pulls water from a well and carries the buckets back to a house. No blue clothes? Hard labor? She fills her bath but can’t use the Power anymore to heat the bathwater. Tears.
Shirtless Lan practices his sword forms among the trees as a horse and rider pass him, heading toward the house. He goes inside to dress, where Verin, her warder Tomas, and her sister Adeleas are sitting around in a courtyard. Adeleas is hungover and staring at shirtless Lan. Adeleas is all of us. We learn the rider is a visitor for Moiraine, one of many who have come, but Moiraine has not been forthcoming about who these people are, not even with Lan.
Lan tells Moiraine that she has another visitor, this one from Illian. Moiraine snaps at Lan to send him in, and if Moiraine doesn’t stop taking her own shit out on Lan, we are going to have words. The man, Master Bayle Domon, a ship captain, enters as Lan is coldly dismissed, and Moiraine says they have business.
In the Tower, Egwene is puttering around collecting dishes to clean She takes a long look at the Amrylin’s official dress, propped up in one of the rooms. In another, she gets a close look at Alanna and her Warders giggling and rolling around in bed. Guess what? The Tower has more than one hallway and there are plenty of other Aes Sedai around! When Egwene gets to the kitchen, Nynaeve and some other Novices are cleaning. Nynaeve is not about this at all. Alanna struts in to give them a weaving lesson. They need to pull the elements out of a glass of dirty dishwater. Egwene tries to channel with no hands, while Nynaeve is completely blocked. Alanna reminds them of their potential Power that Amalisa used in Fal Dara, and says Nynaeve is ten times stronger than Egwene. Ouch. No one can leave without drinking their water, so Nynaeve defiantly chugs her dirty dishwater and I gag.
Alanna gives an update on the girls to Sheriam, the mistress of Novices, and a few other Aes Sedai, including Liandrin. They have all tried working with Nynaeve to no avail, all except Liandrin, who has not been allowed since she killed a girl that one time. Liandrin tries to convince them that the end of the age is coming, the Hunt for the Horn has been called and another False Dragon is rising in Saldaea. They are going to need Nynaeve’s power. Sheriam agrees to let Liandrin talk to her. Alanna is against it.
Perrin and Loial are with the Sheinarans on the Hunt for the Horn of Valere. Perrin is writing a letter to Egwene… I mean, Egwene and Nynaeve, yeah sure. He thinks Rand is dead and he doesn’t know where Mat is. Lord Ingtar, their leader, has just hired a new tracker. Perrin and Loial mess with Uno about how he keeps just missing finding Fain. The new tracker, Elyas, appears in front of them. He brings them to a destroyed Tinker camp, with dead Tinkers and burned wagons. Perrin’s eyes flash yellow, we hear wolves howl, and he sees a vision of Fain killing people and a little girl running away. Elyas has that same info. Weird. A little further away, they find a dead dog and a dead Sheinaran, wearing that black hawk sigil we saw earlier. Ingtar commands them to bury all the dead, even the traitor.
Bayle Domon shows Moiraine a piece of cuendillar, broken, though it’s impossible to break.
Lan laments to Tomas about the loss of the Bond. Tomas says Lan can leave if he wants; he already protects Adeleas, even though he’s not her Warder, and he can protect Moiraine, too. Lan’s not fucking leaving!
Domon explains he found the cuendillar outside Cairhien, a piece of a broken moon dial. On the dial was a poem written in blood, that he just happened to copy down. Moiraine negotiates the shit out of him and gets the poem, which is all she wanted. Domon tells her two men have been following him but spoiler alert: they’re Fades! She tells him to get the hell out of Dodge.
Nynaeve trains in the Warders’ quarters with Maksim and Ihvon. They tell her that Warders go through harsh training as well, but they push through by remembering the reason they came to the Tower in the first place. So why is Nynaeve here? She goes to see Egwene but her room is empty.
That’s because Egwene is visiting Alanna. She asks her questions about how to handle two weaves but Alanna thinks she’s talking about handling two men. Hilarity ensues.
Nynaeve is practicing the dishwater weaves when Liandrin walks in. She disparages Nynaeve’s time sword training and then attacks her and belittles her until she gets angry enough to channel back. Liandrin shields her. She tells her Nynaeve is here to learn about Power and Liandrin wants to see her become more powerful than any of them. She releases the shield and leaves.
The Shienarans bury the dead. Ingtar tells Perrin he showed the traitor mercy because revenge won’t bring his people back. Perrin still wants revenge on Fain. Ingtar says they don’t know what Fain’s reason was for doing what he did; maybe Perrin should ask.
Moiraine continues to ice Lan out while she reads the poem to herself. Lan smashes things; yes, go off, Lan!
Happy Bel Tine, everyone! Nynaeve forgot about the holiday, while Egwene puts together a lantern. Nynaeve reads her Perrin’s letter. Perrin is overly dramatic about how he misses his friends. He hopes they can all meet up next year, with Loial and Mat.
Cut to: Liandrin reading the same letter to Mat! She purposely leaves out any mention of his name. Mat stares at a candle, sadly, while Liandrin makes him feel worse. Mat says he hasn’t touched the dagger in six months, so what the hell does she want with him? Liandrin just leaves, locking him in.
Perrin sets his Bel Tine lantern afloat on a river. He decides at the last second not to send his wedding ring off with it. Egwene sobs over Rand; gee, it was really nice the way he bounced on her right after they had sex and let her think he was dead. Mat is digging away at a wall in his room. Nynaeve puts their lantern out for Rand’s spirit. But Rand is off somewhere, lighting his own lantern, fully alive! You son of a bitch.
Lan sets out a dinner plate for Moiraine and asks everyone to wait for her. But they’re hungry, so they try to convince Lan to ignore Moiraine’s attitude. It’s hard to be cut off from the One Power! Tomas tells Lan to be quiet and listen to her, and it’s the first time anyone has ever said that to Lan. Lan gives in and brings Moiraine her dinner but she’s gone, and she dangerously left 100 candles burning in a room full of paper.
Moiraine rides Aldieb off into the night and in seven seconds, encounters a Fade. This was a good plan. She stabs and kills one Fade but there’s another who gets her in the gut. Thankfully, Lan shows up at the last second to kill it. More Fades pop out of the shadows and Lan has a great fight that you can really see if you turn up your brightness. However, he can’t finish it alone, so Verin and Tomas swoop in just like Caramon and Raistlin Majere- with swords and magic- to finish off the last Fade.
Comments