The Fires of Heaven: Chapter 6

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Author: Val a'Shain

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Gateways


Chapter Icon: Crescent Moon and Stars

Point of View: Rand

Setting: Rhuidean, The Aiel Waste

Characters: Rand, Moiraine, Lan, Mat, Lanfear, Enaila

Summary

Rand wakes up in the middle of the night, unsure of what woke him. He feels something foul approaching. Quickly he gets up grabs saidin and moves to another part of the building where he can fight it without any other people getting hurt. Then he waits for the enemy to approach. Three pony-sized dogs appear. Rand thinks a sword should be enough to kill them. He dances the forms among them and soon the dogs are dead. He underestimated them though, the dogs turn into a kind of liquid shadow and the pools of liquid draw together again. Soon the dogs are before him once more. Remembering a weave that might work a bar of liquid light hits the dogs and they disappear. He uses too much of the Power though and a part of the wall disappears too.

Moiraine has entered the room and wants to know if any of the dogs bled on him or bit him. Rand wants to know why the Maidens let her in. They grant Moiraine some Wise One privileges it seems. The dogs were Darkhounds, their blood and saliva are poison. She may not have been able to Heal those wounds. She tells him they must speak of what he used to kill the Darkhounds. She also says packs are usually larger. Rand cuts her off at that and runs out to see if there are more Darkhounds around. Lan sees him storming past and wants to know where Moiraine is but Rand doesn't reply.

He sees three more Darkhounds trying to claw their way into a building Mat is sleeping in. He uses the same weave and manages to control it better this time. The door is heavily damaged but Mat only has a minor injury on his arm. Moiraine and Lan arrive at the scene and Moiraine tries to Heal Mat's Darkhound wound. The foxhead medallion blocks her weaves though. Reluctantly Mat takes it off. When Mat is Healed Rand breaks up the crowd. Moiraine wants to talk to him alone.

Rand wants to wait till tomorrow and he makes it quite clear he will not help her get that medallion. Mat paid a high price for it and it is his. Moiraine now resorts to pleading to get Rand to listen. Lan doesn't like this one bit and his opinion of Rand drops even further when Moiraine takes an oath to obey him and apologizes for any offence she may have given. This gets Rand's attention. He accepts her help and apology and apologizes for acting rude towards her.

Moiraine now explains the dangers of balefire, the weave Rand used to destroy the Darkhounds. Balefire pulls a thread from the Pattern. Whatever the creature did till a certain point before it was balefired ceases to exist. In the War of the Shadow whole cities were destroyed using this weapon until both sides realized the Pattern might unravel. The weave is forbidden by the Tower. Rand has seen Moiraine use it once though. Rand can't promise not to use it again.

Rand now opens a gateway, something Moiraine didn't know he could do, to check on someone and tells her he'll see her in the morning. Darkhounds had been near Asmodean's quarters. Did his traps destroy them or did they go back to report? Rand removes the tracks and goes to check on the powerful ter'angreal he hid elsewhere. They too are where he left them.

Lanfear shows up and sees him with the ter'angreal, she thinks he is considering her plan. Lews Therin speaks up and tells Lanfear she is only ambition. Once he saw that, he didn't love her anymore. Lanfear says Asmodean has been telling lies about her. Rand wants to know why she is here. She tells him Rahvin sent the Darkhounds tonight. He is in Caemlyn using Morgase as a puppet to control Andor and gain the Sun Throne. With Rand's Tairen soldiers moving into Cairhien and Rahvin's Andoran soldiers crossing the border as well, something has to be done soon.

Lanfear now wants to know why he wards his dreams against her. He tells her he wards his dreams against everyone. He doesn't mention she is high on the list of people he wants to keep out though. Lanfear claims she can break through and he wouldn't like it if she did. She has been looking at the Wise Ones dreams as well, and Egwene's. Lanfear seems to think he will get jealous if she tells him Egwene dreams of the princes of Andor. Then someone approaches and Lanfear disappears through a gateway.

Enaila comes in and​ tells him the clan chiefs have come to see him. The Shaido are on the move. And the other clans as well. They are heading for the Jangai Pass. If they leave now they won't catch the Shaido before they enter Cairhien. Rand gives the order to rouse the spears and prepare to leave at dawn anyway. He means to be as close behind them as he can.

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