Nynaeve POV#

Nynaeve and Naeff hurry through Tear. Another bubble of evil struck. She still feels the unnatural storm to the north. He tells her another Fade is following them, a delusion due to his partial madness. They head to the All Summers district, a prosperous area inside the western wall. They reach the area of the bubble of evil. An entire block has been turned into insubstantial dust including all the people inside. Anyone who was touching the area at all is dead. Nynaeve nearly crashes into a cellar when a floor falls apart. Nynaeve Delves a corpse with Spirit, Air and Water and finds no sign that it was ever alive. Naeff and Nynaeve give the area a gust of wind and all the buildings shatter and collapse. Naeff gathers the dust in a compact cyclone. Nynaeve touches it with Fire and it disappears in a roar of flame.

Nynaeve Delves Naeff and finds a network of black veins with thorn-like projections in his mind. She pulls the thorns free and Heals the wounds. When the last one comes free the network shakes then vanishes. Naeff is now sane and no longer sees Fades following him. He rushes off to tell Nelavaire Demasiellin the good news. Rand returns and finds her. Somma and Kanara are his guards. He thanks her for caring for his people. Rand says the Dark One will do to the whole world what he did to this area. She asks him about breaking the seals. He explains that they must face the Dark One directly as soon as possible and she believes him. She tells him she must return to the White Tower. Rand tells her that she must keep her passion like Moiraine did. He asks her to be by his side at Shayol Ghul and she agrees. He wants her in the circle with Callandor, perhaps with Elayne or Aviendha. She Delves him and is shocked to find the same black network as in Naeff, but it is enormous with thousands of thorns. However, there is a white lacing coating the network.[1] It is far more than she can Heal. She tells him that she can now Heal madness and he is delighted. She promises to Heal Narishma and Flinn, at least, before she leaves. She offers to try to go to the Black Tower but he warns her to stay away.
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Egwene POV#

The clouds have returned to Tar Valon. Tea tastes stale and grain is spoiling. Egwene stands on the flat roof of the White Tower with Saerin, Yukiri and Seaine. She set them searching for information on Mesaana and defeating the Oath Rod. She quotes an ancient Brown scholar Yasicca Cellaech. Seaine has three theories on how to defeat the Oath Rod. Mesaana may have another Oath Rod that she can somehow use to negate the Oaths with an inverted weave of Spirit. She could have used Compulsion and the Mirror of Mists to have another sister swear in her place. Finally, she could have used a weave to alter her words so that what she actually swore to and what others heard are different. She orders them to keep working on it. Saerin reports that little is known about Mesaana herself. Marsim of Manetheren wrote about her. Alrom wrote about her schools. She was rejected as a researcher. Elandria Borndat wrote that she was more a direct leader than Graendal or Moghedien, sort of a Shadow Amyrlin. Lannis wrote that she was second only to Demandred in anger. She was angry at herself, the other Forsaken, the world that she was not the most important. She was an administrator who hated that position. She tried to deliver a broken White Tower and failed. She probably was part of Rand's kidnapping which also failed. Maybe also the women sent to the Black Tower which failed. Mesaana must need a great victory to regain her standing. Something like killing Egwene. Gawyn was mortified that she might use herself as bait, but she will have to do something to draw out Mesaana.

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