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LoC: Chapter 15 A Pile of Sand

Summary

Egwene POV - Egwene wakes at dawn with a headache. Since Lanfear's attack, she always has headaches after visiting Tel'aran'rhiod. She is exhausted and hugely embarrassed by last night. She is so tired she goes back to sleep and dreams of Gawyn again. Then her dreams change.

• Him kneeling while she cupped his head in her hands.¹
• Twice, right on top one another, she dreamed of taking him by the shoulders and trying to turn him to face the other way against his will. Once he brushed her hands away roughly; the other time, she was somehow stronger than he. The two blended together hazily.
• In another he began swinging a door closed on her, and she knew if that narrowing gap of light vanished, she was dead.
• Perrin came and stood before her, a wolf lying at his feet, a hawk and a falcon perched on his shoulders glaring at each other over his head.² Seemingly unaware of them, he kept trying to throw away that axe of his, until finally he ran, the axe floating through the air, chasing him.
• Again Perrin; he turned away from a Tinker and ran, faster and faster though she called for him to come back.
• Mat spoke strange words she almost understood - the Old Tongue, she thought - and two ravens alighted on his shoulders, claws sinking through his coat into the flesh beneath. He seemed no more aware of them than Perrin had been of the hawk and falcon, yet defiance passed across his face, and then grim acceptance.³
• In another a woman, face shrouded in shadow, beckoned him toward great danger; Egwene did not know what, only that it was monstrous.
• Elayne forcing Rand to his knees with one hand.
• Elayne and Min and Aviendha sitting in a silent circle around him, each in turn reaching out to lay a hand on him.⁴
• Him walking toward a burning mountain, something crunching beneath his boots. She stirred and whimpered; the crunching things were the seals on the Dark One's prison, shattering with his every step. She knew it. She did not need to see them to know.

Her dreams change to nightmares, then Cowinde wakens her. Amys, Bair and Melaine are there to check on her. The Wise Ones are about ready to let her rejoin them in Tel'aran'rhiod. They think the Aes Sedai they are now meeting are fools. Actually she has been going nightly since ten days after Lanfear hit her. She still gets a headache every time, but she tells the Wise Ones she feels fine. Melaine sends Cowinde to do useless work trying to shame her into putting off gai'shain white and rejoining the Maidens. Bair has beaten Juric and Beira but they still will not put off the white. Carlinya suggested that the Wise Ones were holding Egwene against her will so the Wise Ones put scarlet puffers in her dress. A scarlet puffer looks like a red adder but is not poisonous. Egwene carefully asks about being pulled into someone else's dream. They reply that it is easy to be trapped by another's dream if you love or hate them. That is why the Wise Ones do not watch the dreams of Sevanna or the Shaido Wise Ones. Amys and Melaine never heard of anyone actually being pulled in. Bair is the only one who heard of it. Mora, the Wise One of Colrada Hold when Bair was a girl, taught Bair about it. She still looked young when she died of a bloodsnake bite when she was nearly three hundred years old. She taught that one can only pulled into dreams by extreme love or hate so great that it leaves room for nothing else. Egwene then asks if the Wise Ones if they ever see other dreamwalkers.⁵ The Wise Ones reply that they occasionally see other women, but they do not know of other dreamwalkers. Egwene thinks that she can avoid Gawyn's dream now, if she really wants to.

Elayne POV - Everyone in Salidar crowds around the Little Tower the next morning. Elayne and Nynaeve are still yawning from last night. Elayne sees Leane with one of her agents. She also sees Birgitte. About dawn Birgitte told Ashmanaille that Elayne looked unsteady so she got a little sleep. Birgitte was up all night.⁶ Areina is nowhere to be seen.⁷ Nynaeve was up all night as well. Moghedien spent the night hiding under her bed. Siuan joins them. There were seven killed in Salidar last night and nearly a hundred in the soldiers' camps. Bryne is fine. Siuan and Nynaeve jab at each other, then Siuan tells about the woman Myrelle found masquerading as Green Ajah in Chachin.⁸ The woman probably wished she were stilled and dead. The door to the Little Tower opens and Tarna comes out escorted by the Sitters. Tarna rides out of town with an honor guard of Warders. The eldest Sitter, Romanda, amplifies her voice with Air and makes a nice sounding speech that actually says nothing. After the ceremony is over, Elayne and Nynaeve catch up to Sheriam who is with Morvrin and Carlinya. They ask to speak to her in private and they all go into a private room in the Little Tower. Nynaeve tells them about the ter'angreal⁹ that they found. Sheriam says they will send a letter to Merilille Ceandevin, the Salidar Aes Sedai envoy in Ebou Dar. Elayne makes it clear that they want to go. Morvrin points out that sisters do what they must. Afara, Edesina and Guisin went to Tarabon because someone had to. Kiruna and Bera are probably in the Spine of the World on a wild goose chase after Rand. Elayne and Nynaeve's duty is to remain in Salidar and study. Elayne lies telling them they need to send a message to Caemlyn because the ter'angreal needs a man channeling to make it work.¹⁰ They argue some more and Nynaeve finally blows up. She recognized the few Aes Sedai involved in the circles last night meant that only a few were in on planning a defense against the Forsaken.¹¹ The reason is fear of the Black Ajah.

Because of the explosion Nynaeve and Elayne are scrubbing pots. Faolain is watching them. She says she has her own special project she would rather be working on.¹² Sheriam told them that they were about to be raised to the same status as Faolain and Theodrin but that is now postponed until their penance is done. Nynaeve and Elayne apologize to each other, then attack the pots again. Elayne swears to herself that she will go to Ebou Dar, find the ter'angreal and use it to tie the Salidar Aes Sedai to Rand.

Sheriam Bayanar POV - Sheriam, Morvrin and Carlinya listen in. Sheriam regrets having to punish them. Carlinya points out that less than two dozen Aes Sedai know what is really going on.¹³ Morvrin admits that Rand terrifies her. Sheriam thinks they may have run out of options.

Notes

1. This is the first dream Egwene fully interprets. It means she will bond Gawyn as her Warder. (LoC,Ch25)
2. The hawk and falcon are Berelain and Faile.
3. This could be Mat's new status in KoD,Ch37.
4. Especially in light of her first dream, this probably means their bonding Rand. (WH,Ch12)
5. She is still wondering who Siuan and Leane are.
6. The benefit of her Warder bond to Elayne.
7. So where is she and what is she up to?
8. This is a different incident from the one that Brys told Lan about in NS,Ch22. The location is wrong and Myrelle would not be raised to the shawl for another six years. (LoC,Ch40)
9. The Bowl of the Winds
10. Elayne has no idea that the Bowl really does draw saidin as well as saidar. (TPoD,Ch5)
11. In LoC,Ch14, Anaiya was disappointed when no Forsaken showed up. Only a few insiders knew about the defense plan for fear of betrayal by the Black Ajah. Hence the disorganization that Nynaeve noticed.
12. Is she just blowing smoke or does she really have something going on?
13. This must mean bringing Egwene to be Amyrlin.

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