Egwene is dragged into a bare stone cell by her new sul’dam, Renna. Egwene tries to beat the hell out of her but learns the hard way that any pain she tries to inflict on Renna, she feels twice over. Same thing with trying to remove her new collar, an a’dam. Renna wants to be her friend but then tortures her into telling her name so, good start. The moment Renna leaves, Egwene tries to grab the bracer she’s left on a hook but her pain is so intense she vomits. Puke count: 1.
In the Tel’aran’rhiod desert, Lanfear continues to manipulate Rand. She tells him that she’s been protecting his dreams from Ishamael and that he plans to turn all Rand’s friends to the dark to control him. Rand says Lanfear needs to give him a reason to trust her, and when he stands up to her, he reminds her of Lews. Aww. She tells him she will help him on one condition.
Rand wakes up in Moiraine’s house in Cairhien, where Moiraine is still standing over him, watching. He says Lanfear’s condition was that he leave Moiraine. She admits to him that she did have Logain brought to Cairhien, to teach him. Ignoring her protestations, Rand leaves.
Mat and Min have arrived in the Foregate of Cairhien. Mat is fully into all the partying that’s going on, but Min looks incredibly uncomfortable and wants to leave. Why, just because the top Forsaken is controlling every move you make?
Nynaeve and Elayne are bickering in the attic of Ryma Sedai and her warder, Basan. Ryma and Basan bring them some tea and Ryma recognizes Nynaeve’s wisdom belt. The girls tell Ryma about Liandrin breaking her oaths. Ryma is horrified to learn of the true existence of the black Ajah.
Liandrin is visiting her son when Lanfear appears. She asks Liandrin why she works for Ishamael when she hates men. She figures out Liandrin swore her oaths to the dark to keep her son alive but, since he’s holding her back, Lanfear will just go ahead and kill him for her. Hey, Liandrin, how’s your dead son?
Loial is doing his slave duties in Suroth’s court, full of gaudily dressed Seanchan lounging around and being generally obnoxious. Suroth orders Loial to sing and he does, a low rumbling that makes a plant on the table begin to grow. The Seanchan laugh and clap at Suroth’s little plaything and I want to punch all of their faces.
In the hallway, fellow slave Ingtar tells Loial that the horn is in Turak’s room of curiosities and is barely guarded. Egwene is another story. She’s being kept in the kennels with other damane, and the horn is more important anyway. Loial insists they will find a way to rescue her, and knows how strong she is, despite only knowing her for a day and a half.
Egwene is in her cell having pitcher dreams about cracking Renna over the head and beating the hell out of her. But you’re not listening, Egwene, you can’t even pick up anything you might think of as a weapon. Renna says they’ll do no more training until Egwene can pick up the pitcher only to pour some water. She tells Egwene that she can feel how powerful she is and that strong damane are the hardest to break, but it doesn’t look like she’s worried it won’t happen. When Renna leaves, Egwene longingly stares out her cell window at a beautiful tree, that will surely stand forever.
Ishamael visits Min in her dreams. Their deal was he would take away her curse once she brought Mat to Cairhien, but he is altering the deal, pray he does not alter it any further. Now, she has to get Mat to leave here with Rand.
Lan, Alanna, and her Warders stop for the night at an outdoor temple to the forsaken. Lan says he will need Siuan’s permission in order to return to the tower and Alanna tells him Siuan’s not there. She’s returning from a trip to Caemlyn. Which was just the information Lan needed to try and sneak off to find her. Unfortunately, the others were waiting for this, since they now think Lan is a Lanfear Stan. Lan doesn’t want to be murdered so he spills the beans that he and Moiraine found the dragon reborn.
Rand is having another “I killed all my friends” dream. As he sobs, Ishamael shows up to taunt him. Lanfear appears, calls him Ishy, and sends him away. See, Rand? She’s nice. She tells him a little more about the dream world, including that you can visit and talk to anyone you want. Rand says Egwene, so he’s not good at making Lanfear think he loves her. But she does take him to Egwene’s cell and they talk for just a moment before Lanfear ends it. Rand demands to know where she is and says he’ll do anything.
Egwene awakens from her dream and calls for Rand, but then just assumes she’s losing it. Rand’s dead, remember? She hears a voice from the cell next-door, but the other woman isn’t very conversational, she’s just repeating the lessons that her sul’dam taught her.
Ryma Sedai went out of her way to secure passage on a ship for Nynaeve and Elayne, so they can get back to the tower and rat out Liandrin. But they are not leaving here without Egwene. Ryma pulls out an a’dam and tells the girls to rescue her, they will have to figure out how to open it.
Moiraine is sitting at her desk, trying to pen a letter to Siuan about how she’s been stilled. Barthanes enters with some little sandwiches Moiraine used to like, but per usual, Moiraine is rude as hell, so he leaves. In the hall, Anvaere sees how upset he is and busts in to chew Moiraine out for being such a bitch, and for not coming home when their father was on his deathbed. But Moiraine can’t tell her that she was busy looking for the Dragon Reborn, no one should tell anyone about that! Anvaere tries to throw her out but Moiraine pulls the older sister card and my husband continues to hate her.
Siuan is traveling in her carriage, which is suddenly stopped by an approaching horse. Siuan has some halo knife weaves ready to attack, but the door flies open and it’s just Lan and he is ready to spill all the tea.
Rand interrupts Logain playing stones and demands Logain show him battle weaves. He says teaching him is the only way for Logain’s life to matter. Logain tells him not to surrender to the power, but to take it. Rand overdoes it immediately and almost burns himself out. Puke count: 2. Logain tells him he can fight anyone with that much power, so I guess that was enough lessons?
Rand overhears his gambling friend Mat as he walks through the Foregate. They have an emotional reunion and Mat asks Rand where everyone else is, so they grab a drink to catch up.
Ryma and the girls are working on how to open the a’dam, which they figure out is a ter’angreal. Ryma tells them the story of how she ended up here, traveling with a group of Aes Sedai to investigate the Seanchan threat. A gray and green Aes Sedai and their Warders were killed, and a blue sitter was captured; Ryma shows them their rings, and says they died to get her that a’dam.
Renna tells Egwene that an Aes Sedai is the one who created the a’dam. With the Seanchan, Egwene will reach her true power. Together, they look at the tree outside, and Renna guides Egwene into channeling to feel its roots, its sap, and then setting the entire tree ablaze. Renna is so happy about what they’ve done together but Egwene still cannot pour that damn water, and Renna snaps, literally kicking her while she’s down.
Nynaeve tries to convince Elayne that she should go on the ship back to the white tower, but Elayne has no intention of leaving her only friend.
Over drinks, Rand tells Mat that everyone thinks else he’s dead. But now Ishamael has Egwene in Falme. Mat insists he will accompany Rand to save her. He just has to let Min know he’s going.
Min is getting drunk in her room alone. Mat tells her he ran into Rand and he’s going with him but Min tries to stop him by telling him she saw him kill Rand in Falme with the dagger. But how does she know Rand? Mat figures out that Min has been setting him up from the beginning, but she still pleads with him not to go.
Moiraine has her letter sent to Anaiya Sedai, book shoutout! Moiraine must have heard my last paragraph about her because she apologizes to Barthanes about how terrible she’s been to him. Anvaere enters and says Siuan is in Cairhien with 14 Aes Sedai and she wants to see Moiraine. Stop that letter!
Siuan emerges from her carriage in a courtyard, surrounded by other Aes Sedai and Warders, including Liandrin, Verin and Tomas, and Yassica. No one’s commenting about Liandrin‘s new cloak color choice.
Rand is waiting for Mat, but of course Mat has decided not to go and he feels like shit for it. Rand tries to leave the city but he is stopped by Lan, Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon, and the gang is almost literally all here.
Egwene is a bloody mess working on her pitcher issues.
The girls and Ryma are channeling into the a’dam. Ryma gives Nynaeve some good advice about channeling but she channels a large burst, which draws the attention of patrolling damane. Nynaeve says the a’dam cannot be broken, as a knock on the door alerts them that they have been discovered. Ryma tells the girls to stay hidden and asks Nynaeve to return her ring to the flame, so she’s got no intention of coming back.
Renna enters the cell again and asks Egwene to pour herself some water but she still cannot do it.
The damane, sul’dam, and soldiers approach Ryma’s house and the streets clear out fast. Ryma, my new favorite character, gets started fucking shit up, as Basan dives in with his sword. The fight is interspersed with Egwene being asked again to pour the water. When she can’t, Renna hangs her from a hook by her collar and she struggles to breathe. Ryma begs Basan to kill her as they are overrun but he hesitates and is killed. Egwene is almost dead. Ryma knows it’s over but before it is, she breaks every bone in a sul’dam’s body. Renna saves Egwene at the last second. Elayne and Nynaeve watch from the window, holding hands, as Ryma is collared, wailing.
Egwene finally pours a cup of water, which Renna dumps onto the floor. She calls her a good girl and leaves, and Egwene chugs the rest of the water from the pitcher. She screams and cries and we see her neighbor, saying Egwene lasted longer than she did. It’s Maighan, the blue Ajah sitter.
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