The Great Hunt

In a vast, opulent-turned-sinister chamber, a masked man calling himself Bors observes a hundred similarly masked Darkfriends from many nations. Cold, heatless fires and identical, dead-eyed servants unsettle the gathering. Trollocs enter and bow as a Myrddraal commands everyone to prostrate themselves.

A red-robed, red-masked figure—Ba’alzamon—appears, declaring the Day of Return near and promising eternal rule to the faithful. Three images materialize: a mischief-eyed country lad, a heavily built youth with yellow eyes and an axe, and a tall villager with a heron-mark sword. Ba’alzamon says one who will be the Dragon walks the world and must be turned if possible.

Each Darkfriend receives silent, individualized instructions. Bors is commanded to intensify his work in Tarabon, to have his followers watch for the three dangerous youths, and to keep matters involving Toman Head and the Domani secret. Ba’alzamon sears something further into Bors’s mind with blinding visions—skies of fire, a monstrous helm, a raven, a golden horn—then erases Bors’s conscious recall of the details.

As the audience ends, Ba’alzamon and the Myrddraal vanish, leaving the three images hanging. An eerie servant addresses Bors by name and leads him away, implying others are likewise escorted. Back in his room, Bors changes into his own white cloak bearing a golden sun and a red shepherd’s crook, contemplating the scope of his orders and the Shadow’s reach.