The Eye of the World: Chapter 16
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Author: Dinn da Noor
Chapter Icon: Three Leaves on a Branch
Point of View: Rand
Setting: Baerlon
Characters: Perrin, Mat, Rand, Thom, Min, Moiraine, Nynaeve, Lan, Egwene
Contents
Outline
Nynaeve arrives and tries to make the Two Rivers folk go back with her. They refuse so she decides to accompany them.
Summary
As Perrin, Thom, Rand and Mat make their way into the depths of the inn, Min seizes Rand's arm and pulls him aside from the others. Thom hurries Rand on but Min replies to the bard that he should go juggle something. Rand protests but Min quiets him. She tells him that a young woman with dark eyes and dark, braided hair arrived at the inn a while ago. Min saw a lot of sparks around her, just as she had with Rand and the others. Rand understands that it's Nynaeve, but tells Min that she won't harm them.
He meets up with the others and tells them that Nynaeve is 'a part of it'. They ask what she's part of and if Min knows something, but Mat says grumpily that she's a part of the same bad luck they've had since Winternight. Rand quickly tells them that she saw Nynaeve arrive and talk to Mistress Alys and thought she might have something to do with them, something his friends accepts. Rand dislikes keeping things secret from his friends, but thinks that Min's secret can be dangerous for her, so he holds his tongue.
When the party enter the room they'd eaten in the night before, Moiraine, Nynaeve and Egwene are seated and Lan is leaning against the mantel.
The rest of the men sit down and Lan offers Nynaeve a cup of wine as he asks her how she found them. When she tells him that she followed their trail, Lan looks surprised and remarks that he must be getting careless. She says that her father often took her hunting with him and taught her what he would have taught the sons he never had.
When Nynaeve asks why she should help hide them, Thom tells her that there are people in Baerlon that would kill Moiraine for what she is, and Lan too. And since the rest are all associated with them, it's enough facts for the Whitecloaks. He says that the Whitecloak Questioners assume that you're guilty even before they start the interrogation and don't care about finding the truth.
Rand says that they must go on to Tar Valon when the Aes Sedai and the Wisdom start discussing what is safest for them. At last Moiraine tells Egwene and the others to leave her and Nynaeve alone and everybody but the two women leaves the room.
Rand starts wondering how Nynaeve can be a part of it and how any of them can be involved with Trollocs and Fades at all. The villagers stand outside the door with Lan for a while before Nynaeve walks out. When she looks at Rand, he realizes that the others had quietly left him alone with the Wisdom. When Rand asks her whether she's going to join them, she tells him that Mavra Mallen came from Deven Ride to see to things and that she'll want to return as soon as she can.
She tells him that the village meeting had been a shambles and that while everybody agreed that somebody should be sent for them, it didn't seem that they would come to an agreement on who should be sent. Nynaeve called the Woman's Circle together and told them what needed to be done, and while they didn't like it, they saw the right of it, and therefore she came.
When Rand asks her about what Moiraine had told her, she says that she asked some questions about the boys and when Rand tells him that Tam had said he wasn't his son, she tells him that people say weird things in a fever, things that are not true.
Further on, she says that when Tam returned to Emond's Field, he brought a red-haired outlander wife and a babe. Kari al'Thor took care of that babe with as much love and delight as any other woman with a babe.
Rand then asks her what she's going to do and she tells him that they will have to see.
Notes
Visions and Prophecy
Viewings
- The Group
"The sparks, Rand. She met Mistress Alys coming in, and there were sparks, with just the two of them. Yesterday I couldn't see sparks without at least three or four of you together, but today it's all sharper, and more furious. You're all in more danger today than yesterday. Since she came"
Mysteries
- How does touching the Source give protection against the Dark One?
Character Development
- All three boys tell Nynaeve they cannot go back with her
- Lan
- Lan is truly impressed at Nynaeve's ability to track them and seems actually surprised for the first time Rand knows.
- Nynaeve
- Nynaeve is suspicious of the wine Lan brings her but is angered when he suggests she is afraid
- Nynaeve blushes when Lan praises her tracking skills, something she never does.
- Nynaeve thinks Aes Sedai are not to be trusted.
- Rand
- Nynaeve thinks Rand has grown since he left the Two Rivers
- The sword is fitting Rand more
Characters
- First Mention
Spoilers
This section contains Notes on this Chapter which may contain spoilers. Please expand to view.
Mysteries
- How does touching the Source give protection against the Dark One
This is never really resolved. It may be something Moiraine is mistaken about, or she might mean that she can sense the evil of the Dark One. Its also somewhat limited, as we do see Bryne succumbing to Compulsion even when bonded to Suian
