55 The Threads Burn

Rand stalks Rahvin through Caemlyn’s palace, following destruction Rahvin left behind. Rahvin strikes with balefire, forcing Rand to open a gateway into Tel’aran’rhiod’s reflection. Inside, Rand struggles with Lews Therin’s presence and the realm’s mutable rules while Rahvin manipulates reality, attempting to unmake Rand and transform him.

Elsewhere in Tel’aran’rhiod, Nynaeve drags a terrified, collared Moghedien through the palace, determined to help Rand despite Moghedien’s warnings that men in the flesh are overwhelmingly dangerous. When Rahvin pauses to strike at Rand, Nynaeve ambushes him with searing fire, briefly holding him as he resists.

Seizing the opening, Rand unleashes a massive bar of balefire that erases Rahvin from existence. Rand then meets Nynaeve, allows her to Heal his fresh wounds, and grimly resolves to do what the Dragon Reborn must. He uses the Dream’s quirks to depart, and instructs Nynaeve to tell Elayne (and from Lan to Nynaeve) to forget them for their own safety.

Nynaeve, anticipating the a’dam’s disappearance upon waking, doses Moghedien with forkroot so the Forsaken cannot enter Tel’aran’rhiod, revealing she knows Moghedien has learned identities in Salidar and intends to seize her in the waking world.

Back in Caemlyn, Rand smashes the palace gates and finds Aiel and others fighting Shadowspawn. He uses precise, narrow balefire to annihilate Myrddraal and Trollocs without endangering allies, then discovers Mat, Aviendha, and Asmodean alive—the result of Rahvin’s erasure undoing their deaths. Despite joy, Rand mourns fallen Maidens and orders the Aiel to hunt down fleeing Shadowspawn and watch the Queen’s Guards.