Rand POV#

After returning from the failed meeting, Rand spends hours walking through the Stone of Tear. Rand thinks of himself as something artificial, not really human. He had two hands, one to save and one to destroy. Which did he lose? A small voice in his heart disagrees with what he has become. Seeing Hurin made him melancholy for old times when Mat mocked him and he thought he would marry Egwene. When he traveled with Hurin and Loial following Fain to get back the ruby dagger.

He sees a vision of Perrin in a dark camp under that sword statue[1] and then Mat in a city that looks like Caemlyn.[2] He can barely feel Elayne through the bond. Falme changed him. He realized he could never go back so he set out to Tear alone, seeing Ishamael in his dreams. That is happening again.[3] He reaches the Heart of the Stone where Callandor hung and wonders about the sword. It is an inferior sa'angreal because of its flaw, yet it is in the Prophecies, not the Choedan Kal.[4] He wonders where Cadsuane hid it.[5] He must be strong, but he cannot control the anger. Everyone is defying him and his plans are unraveling. He failed when he tried to use Callandor against the Seanchan but he has a better tool now. He only needed a fraction of its power to destroy Graendal and all of Natrin's Barrow. He will make a strategic strike and take out all of the Seanchan command and army in Ebou Dar.

Lews Therin recognizes a hallway as he walks through; the place where he tried to use Callandor to bring the dead girl back to life.[6] Moiraine stopped him then. He cannot bring life, but he is very good at bringing death. He tells the Maidens following him to gather a strike force; they are going to battle.

He returns to his rooms and finds Tam waiting. Janduin was his real father but Tam raised him. Rand asks how Tam got there from the Two Rivers and Tam tells him he was with Perrin. Rand assumes Nynaeve went to the statue and brought back Tam. Perrin has been balancing the Seanchan, the Prophet, the Whitecloaks[7] and the queen. Morgase is alive.[8] Rand apologizes for losing Tam's sword. Tam says he earned it when he killed a man who needed killing, but he still never forgave himself. Rand tells Tam that he feels like a puppet, but Tam chastises him. He may not be able to choose what he does, but he can choose why he does it. Tam lets slip that it was Cadsuane who came to him, not Nynaeve, and Rand reacts with rage. He nearly kills Tam then in horror he opens a gateway to Ebou Dar.

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