Chapter 25: Questions

Team Magikarp are hanging out in their room reading and rereading the list of names that Verin gave them. Egwene reflects on some bad prophetic dreams she's had. In one, the Seanchan bring their damanes to the White Tower and blasted it with lightning, and in another the Whitecloaks are putting her father in chains. There were dreams about Rand as well, him searching for a crystal sword as he unwittingly is trapped by a net, him kneeling in a chamber while wind blows and tiny dragons land on his skin, one where he walks into a tunnel under a fiery mountain, and one where he's fighting the Seanchan.

For Perrin she sees a falcon on one of his shoulders and a hawk on the other. Both birds are female and the hawk is holding a leash in its talons and is trying to fit it around his neck. Then she sees him with a beard leading a pack of wolves so large that it stretches farther than the eye can see. For Mat she sees him weighing one of his eyes on a scale and hanging himself from a tree.

For those of you unfamiliar with Norse mythology, this is imagery lifted straight out the Poetic Edda, in which Odin travels to Yggdrasil the World Tree in search of wisdom and must pay the price of an eye to drink from the mystic well beneath the tree's roots and then hang himself for nine days.

I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from where its roots run.
No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered;
I took up the runes, screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there.

I really hope Mat gets a spear at some point in this series, because that would really complete the picture of Odin.

She also sees a very vaguely described dream of Mat and the Seanchan, and from the way it disturbs her and makes her think of how he railed against the Aes Sedai on the Healing table and how he clearly saw himself being evil in the scene where everybody saw all their horrible alternate futures, I am positive that Egwene saw him on the side of the Seanchan. I told you that Mat was no good! Oh, she also dreamed of him speaking the Old Tongue, seemingly forgetting that she and him both did that all the way back in Book 1.

They talk about the names on the list and the items stolen and the narration gives special significance to a hedgehog statuette than can make you fall asleep and since Egwene has dream powers expect that one to be important by the end of this book. Egwene also points out a set of dice that alters probability and apparently will always land the way you want them to. Expect Mat to get his hands on those in the future. Or here's a thought, maybe he already has them and doesn't know it. He had the dice in his pocket when he called on luck to help him win the sparring match, and Selene was in his room earlier. Who's to say she didn't swap out his dice for the magical ones? Ooh, I love it when I stumble on a theory in the middle of doing a recap!

On top of everyone else, they suspect Verin now, which is finally a suspect that makes sense. Way more than Alanna. I guess when you put everyone you know on the list of suspects, eventually you'll land one that merits suspicion, just like how if Magikarp uses Splash enough times it will eventually start doing damage with Struggle. One person not even they thought to suspect is Else Grinwell, who she notices standing there. In the open doorway. As they discuss their super secret plans. The doorway IS OPEN. Else has been standing in the OPEN DOORWAY listening to their plans and not one of the THREE girls in the room noticed her until right now.



Else has a message from the Amyrlin telling them what storeroom the items left behind by Liandrin are in. So now that idiot Else is in on the plan, Nynaeve complains. She'll blab our secrets to everyone, she says, presumably shouting loudly enough for everyone on the floor to hear through the open doorway. They run after Else but the girl is gone without a trace. Where did she go, they ask to a beautiful woman with white skin dressed in silk who is absolutely not Selene who had absolutely not just pretended to be Else a moment ago. Selene hasn't seen Else anywhere, she says, probably struggling not to laugh. She tells them to turn around and go back with some magical suggestion and when Egwene has the wherewithal to look back, the woman has vanished.

Our heroes, Ladies and Gents.