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Reading The Wheel of Time: Loial Makes Vows and Lews Therin Fights a Battle in Knife of Dreams (Part 14)
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The Wheel of Time
Reading The Wheel of Time: Loial Makes Vows and Lews Therin Fights a Battle in Knife of Dreams (Part 14)
Lots of action and a section told from Loial’s POV in chapters 18 and 19!
By Sylas K Barrett
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Published on May 13, 2025
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I was just saying that I thought Knife of Dreams was getting a little boring, so of course Jordan had to go and reel me back in. It’s time for Reading The Wheel of Time to tackle chapters 18 and 19, which have a wedding, a battle, Rand being kind of dim, and Lews Therin just Lews Therin-ing all over the place. Let’s go!
Rand and company are staying in the manor house of a lesser lord, Algarin, who has gone to the Black Tower to become an Asha’man. Loial is interviewing Rand for his book, but is disappointed in the bare-bones account Rand is offering.
Nynaeve is also in the room with them, along with Cadsuane and Verin, two Maidens, and Min. Alivia is guarding the door. Min suggests that Loial ask Cadsuane and Verin about the events of cleansing saidin. Loial agrees to do so, though he keeps mentioning other aspects of the Dragon Reborn’s adventures that Rand has omitted or given very few details about. He mentions Mat and Perrin, and Rand experiences the swirling rainbow of colors upon hearing their names. He knows how to dispel it now, but he chooses instead to let the colors resolve into images: Mat riding through a forest and arguing with a woman, Perrin sitting in a tavern with two people in odd red coats.
He wonders, angrily, where they are when they need him.
A stray thought brings another face into Rand’s mind—the face of the man who saved his life in Shadar Logoth. Somehow, Rand knows that the other man is as aware of him as he is of the man, that this is more than just an image in his head. Lews Therin is also puzzled and uncomfortable. Rand decides that when his balefire met the other man’s, it must have created some connection. He also knows that this man, though not one of the Forsaken, was wielding the so-called “True Power” that comes from the Dark One himself.
Loial notices his expression and mentions his concern, which leads to Nynaeve Delving Rand, without asking first.
A servant announces “Lord Logain,” and Logain comes in wearing a sigil. Rand learns that Logain was once a minor lord, before he was stripped of estate and title for being a False Dragon. Logain reports the conditions in Andor with the siege and the Borderland army, including rumors that there are thirteen Aes Sedai with the Borderlanders and that they are looking for Rand. He has carried out Rand’s orders, sending about half of the Black Tower, including all of those who have bonded Aes Sedai, into Illian and Arad Doman. No one knows for sure if King Alsalam is still alive, and parts of Arad Doman are largely being run by strongarms and brigands. Rhuarc has started putting things right, and Rand decides that Dobraine will have to be in charge for the time being.
Logan expresses concern about Taim, who was desperate to know where Rand is and what he is doing, so much so that Logain thinks Taim might have tortured Logain for the information if he’d had the chance. He’s also concerned about what he calls Taim’s “cronies.”
“There are forty-one of those now, by the way. He’s given over a dozen men the Dragon pin in the past few days, and he has above fifty more in his ‘special’ classes, most of them men recruited just lately. He’s planning something, and I doubt you’ll like it.”I told you to kill him when you had the chance, Lews Therin cackled in mad mirth. I told you. And now it’s too late. Too late.
Rand tells Logain to drop it, but Logain insists that Taim has made a Tower of his own inside of the Black Tower, out of men loyal to himself rather than Rand. In his head, Rand wonders how loyal Logain is. In the end, both men are lesser problems that have to wait, and he tells Logain that if Taim is showing favoritism Rand will deal with it after the Seanchan, and possibly after Tarmon Gai’don.
“If?” Logain growled, slamming his cup down on the table so hard that it broke. Wine spread across the tabletop and dripped over the edge. Scowling, he wiped his damp hand on his coat. “Do you think I’m imagining things?” His tone grew more heated by the word. “Or making them up? Do you think this is jealousy, al’Thor? Is that what you think?”
Their argument is interrupted by Verin and Cadsuane.
Rand tells Cadsuane about his trip through the ter’angreal doorway and how one of the questions he asked the Aelfinn was how to win the Last Battle. The answer he got was “The north and the east must be as one. The west and the south must be as one. The two must be as one.”
Rand initially believed that this meant that he had to conquer everywhere, but now, since the Seanchan hold the west and south, he believes an alliance would fulfill the requirements of the Aelfinn’s words.
He does not tell Cadsuane that he actually asked how to win the last battle and survive, and that he was told that to live, he must die.
The servant returns to tell Loial that three Ogier have arrived and asked for him; one of them is his mother. Loial is immediately alarmed, thinking of his book and asking Rand what he should do. But Cadsuane seems to recognize Loial’s mother’s name, and advises that she isn’t a woman to be kept waiting. The group begins breaking up, but as she’s leaving, Nynaeve stops by Rand and advises him that she is listening to the wind, and it is telling her that a big storm is coming. She isn’t sure if it’s the Last Battle or how soon it will come, but she knows it will be terrible.
Loial wants to ask one of the Aes Sedai to come with him to see his mother, but he’s too tongue-tied to manage it. He follows a servant carrying towels up to the Ogier section of the house where his mother, Covril, is waiting, along with Elder Haman and Erith.
Covril asks Elder Haman to perform the ceremony, which only Erith has the right to put a stop to at this point. Loial finds himself looking at her, thinking of her beauty and how much he’s always enjoyed conversation with her, and wondering whether or not he wants her to stop the marriage. But he is very upset that he’ll never get to finish his book.
The ceremony is performed and Covril expresses her desire to leave as soon as possible—she wants to speak again at the Great Stump. Loial is aghast to learn that the Stump is discussing opening the Book of Translation. Elder Haman does not think that it is time for such an act, but Covril does, and she believes that she will convince the Stump on the matter within a few months.
Loial expresses a bitter wish to address the Stump himself. His mother points out that he is too young and always gets tongue-tied before a crowd, but Erith is encouraging, asking her new husband what he would say. Loial goes and looks out of a window, feeling overwhelmed even at the thought of speaking in front of two important Speakers and his wife. But he thinks of the things he has learned from humans about courage, and about how you can win when there is no hope by fighting with desperate courage.
He begins to speak—not beautifully as his mother does but plainly—about the War of the Shadow and of the Trolloc Wars, in which the Ogier took part. His mother points out that they had learned by the War of the Hundred Years not to get involved in human affairs. Loial responds:
“The War of the Hundred Years was a human affair, and none of ours. The Shadow is our affair. When it is the Shadow that must be fought, our axes have always grown long handles. Perhaps in a year, or five, or ten, we will open the Book of Translation, but if we do it now, we cannot run away with any real hope of safety. Tarmon Gai’don is coming, and on that hangs the fate not only of this world, but of any world we might flee to. When fire threatens the trees, we do not run away and hope that the flames will not follow us. We fight. Now the Shadow is coming like wildfire, and we dare not run from it.”
His mother is just remarking that the content of the speech is good, though not beautiful enough, when Loial realizes that he can see Trollocs emerging from the trees outside. Not just a few, but tens of thousands. He and Elder Haman take down the Ogier axes decorating the wall while his mother and Erith take some long knives.
And then he and Elder Haman were running down the corridor together, pounding down the stairs, bellowing at the tops of their lungs a warning, and a battle cry that had not been heard in over two thousand years. “Trollocs coming! Up axes and clear the field! Trollocs coming!”
Down in the other room, Rand suddenly feels as though he is smelling refuse. At the same moment, Cadsuane announces the presence of Shadowspawn and they hear the warning shouts of the Ogier. Rand runs to the window where he can see Trollocs and Myrddraal running through the rain. Asha’man and Aes Sedai begin channeling at the Trollocs, wielding lightning and fireballs.
Rand holds onto the windowsill to steady himself as he seizes saidin. When the dizziness hits him Lews Therin takes control. Rand is horrified as he watches more and more Trollocs reach the outbuildings, trying to get in.
Flows of Air pushed the casement in front of him out in a shower of shattered glass and fragmented wood. My hands, Lews Therin panted. Why can’t I move my hands? I need to raise my hands! Earth, Air and Fire went into a weave Rand did not know, six of them at once. Except that as soon as he saw the spinning, he did know. Blossom of Fire. Six vertical red shafts appeared among the Trollocs, ten feet tall and thinner than Rand’s forearm. The nearest Trollocs would be hearing their shrill whine, but unless memories had been passed down from the War of the Shadow, they would not realize they were hearing death. Lews Therin spun the last thread of Air, and fire blossomed.
Rand watches the devastation that follows as the Trollocs are blown apart. Lews Therin also makes slightly altered versions of gateways—Deathgates—which rotate open and shut as Trollocs fall or are swept into them. As Lews Therin continues to scream about his hands, Rand raises them and Lews Therin makes a weave that causes red filaments to shoot from Rand’s fingertips—Arrows of Fire.
In the outbuildings, the Saldaeans have cut their way onto the roofs and are shooting the Trollocs with their bows, but Rand sees the Trollocs setting fire to the buildings. He tries to tell Lews Therin to put the fires out, but Lews Therin ignores him, still weaving to kill Trollocs. Other Asha’man are copying the new weaves as well. Desperately, Rand orders Logain to put the fires out, and is relieved when Logain complies.
Eventually all the Shadowspawn are killed, but Lews Therin is still drawing on saidin. Rand tells him to let go but Lews Therin starts talking about how he wants to die and be with Ilyena. He remembers how he killed himself before and begins drawing more and more of the One Power.
Logain asks if Rand was hiding those weaves, if he is like Taim and only wants to teach things to his favorites. Rand absently answers his questions about the Deathgates and how Shadowspawn cannot survive passing through a gateway.
“A Deathgate,” Logain said, his voice tinged with distaste. “Why are you still holding the Power?” he asked suddenly. “And so much. If you’re trying to show me that you’re stronger than I am, I already know it. I saw how large your… your Deathgates were compared to mine. And I’d say you’re holding every drop of saidin that you can safely.”
Cadsuane demands that Min tell her what Rand is feeling, but Rand intercedes, telling her not to threaten Min. He tells Lews Therin that they can’t die yet—they have to reach Tarmon Gai’don or the world will die.
“We can die at Tarmon Gai’don, Lews Therin said, and suddenly, the Power drained out of him.“He released,” Logain said, as if he were suddenly on Cadsuane’s side.
Rand reiterates that Cadsuane is not allowed to threaten Min. He heads for the door, agreeing with Lews Therin that they can die at Tarmon Gai’don.
I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve ever had a section from Loial’s POV, so that’s fun. I really love him as a character. He used to feature more prominently in the first few books, before the extended cast of characters got quite so large, but he still feels like the heart of the story, in some ways.
He’s also just a really cute personality. I know he’s supposed to be very young. (Old enough to get married but not old enough to have a beard, apparently. Not sure how that works.) And the way he was talking to Rand in the beginning of the chapter kind of reminded me of Olver. Loial has seen the horrors of battle. As Erith remarks, he was in the Battle of the Two Rivers and the one at Dumai’s Wells—but he still has this almost innocent passion for the details of events, even dark ones. The excited way he asks about Rand’s imprisonment in Far Madding and about Cadsuane and the others fighting Forsaken almost sound like someone who hasn’t experienced the real world and is still thinking of these events like a story told to them by a gleeman, rather than desperate experiences that caused fear and suffering to those involved.
But Loial is a scholar, after all, or training to be one. Like some of the Brown Ajah, he sees the world through that lens, despite also being very aware of the dark realities of life. Perhaps in the end, that will make him the perfect person to record the events leading up to the Last Battle. As long as he doesn’t get hauled back to the stedding now that he’s a husband. Or possibly… off the planet?
So I guess the Ogier aren’t from Rand’s world. They’re either aliens or some kind of extra-dimensional beings like the Finn. Maybe? The fact that they travel using something called The Book of Translation suggests the latter to me; my brain wants to say it’s like an artifact that “translates” one dimension into another, so that you can go to somewhere that is different and foreign, not just to your knowledge but to your very body itself.
Which makes me wonder if that has something to do with what a stedding is. Since the One Power can’t be accessed while one is inside a stedding, the idea that a stedding is not even of this world, or that it has been transformed to be like another world, would make sense. This might also explain the Ogier longing. The longing developed after the Breaking, when the Ogier were separated from the stedding. Perhaps there is some physical attribute of the land that they need to survive. Loial wonders if the longing will cause a problem if they leave the stedding to return to… wherever it is they come from. But he’s very young; just because he doesn’t understand it doesn’t mean the rest of the Ogier don’t. The Elders might be well aware that their home planet/dimension is the same as a stedding and would present no issue, or even resolve the longing altogether.
I guess I’ll have to wait for more information on this fascinating new piece of information. I’m also deeply curious about how beings from other planes of existence relate to the fight against the Dark One. They are clearly still part of creation and aware of the Dark One, and if the Last Battle was lost it would be every world and every mirror universe that was destroyed. Not all of the mirror universes have a Dragon Reborn, or even still have people, which raises the question whether this world is, in some way, a Prime or originating universe. After all, you can’t have a reflection without an original image to be reflected.
I do think it’s interesting that no one mentioned opening the Book of Translation specifically to escape from the Last Battle. It may be one argument for the Ogier leaving at this time (or against the idea, as in Loial’s case) now, but the looming of Tarmon Gai’don doesn’t appear to be the motivating factor, as far as we currently know. I really want Loial to get to go speak at the Great Stump because I want to know more about how the Ogier are or aren’t considering the Last Battle and how it might affect them. So Loial can give his speech and bring them all into the fight, of course.
The whole thing reminds me again of how much the Ogier are inspired by Tolkien’s Ents. The way the Ogier see humans as moving so quickly and hastily while the Ogier like to talk for years before making big decisions. The connection between the Ogier and trees, especially tree singing and sung wood. The way they are slow to anger but once they get there they are fierce and deadly. Loial is significant because he is particularly curious about the world, and particularly interested in humans. He is also young, like Quickbeam in The Lord of the Rings, which gives him more in common with the humans he is spending time with.
Have you all finished Season Three of the TV show? Does Loial die on the show because he’s going to die in the series? Don’t really tell me because spoilers but I’m not sure my heart can take that twice. Loial needs to get to finish his book and then have a nice life with Erith, visiting his human friends and being a sort of uncle to all their kids! (Mat and Tuon’s kids in particular are definitely going to need some calming guidance from a Wise Ogier.)
It would be nice for Rand, and everyone, if the storm Nynaeve felt coming was this attack, but somehow I don’t feel like they are going to be that lucky. The attack was dramatic, and huge, but it was also over quickly because of Lews Therin and the skills he brought to the fight. I’m assuming that what she heard on the wind either had to do with the Seanchan and meeting with the fake Daughter of the Nine Moons, or possibly something with Moridin. But there are so many storms that are bound to be coming, given how close the Last Battle is. How would you ever know which one was the one you sensed?
I was intrigued about the revelation that Rand asked the Aelfinn about how to survive the Last Battle. I’d kind of forgotten about his trip through the redstone doorway way back, well, whenever that was. The section was from Mat’s point of view and there was a lot to unpack with him, even before we got to the fact that Moiraine and Rand also went through and also had questions answered, and it hasn’t come up in Rand’s narration for a long time. We learned something about what Moiraine asked a while back, but now we finally get to know more about Rand, what he asked, and what he plans to do about it.
He’s been so certain that he is going to die, but we see a slightly different narration in chapter 18. Rand asked the Aelfinn how to survive the Last Battle and was told that he had to die to live, which is certainly a riddle, but I can think of a few possibilities. He could fake his death in some way, maybe to trick Moridin Or he could die but be brought back to life—Mat’s done that a bunch now, and I could see someone doing some CPR on Rand or something and getting him back after he’s stopped breathing or his heart has stopped. They say you can’t use the One Power to bring back the dead, but I bet you could use it if that heart still has a shockable rhythm.
But what’s really interesting is that Rand is still wondering if he really could survive Tarmon Gai’don. I assumed he’d given up on any idea of his own survival, especially from the way he talks about it to everyone, but it seems that there is still one small glimmer of hope in there somewhere. At least we know what Min’s vision means, a little. Whatever the answer to this riddle is, Alivia is going to help him with it.
As for Moridin, of course Rand has become connected to that old rival Ishamael again. They are counterparts of each other, after all: the right hands of the Light and the Dark, respectively. I wonder if the True Power is responsible for Rand’s illness. We know that the True Power is dangerous and can make someone insane, just like the taint can. How ironic for Rand that he obtained a new method of being tainted by the Dark One so soon before the cleansing of saidin. Now every other male channeler is free, but he is still suffering. In secret, as per usual.
It’s not surprising that Rand asked the Aelfinn how to win the Last Battle. Cadsuane points out that it’s a dangerous thing to ask since it touches on the subject of the Shadow, but really, what other questions could Rand have that are even approaching the importance of that one? Worth the risk, I’d say. It will be interesting if his interpretation is correct: The way to win the Last Battle is for the Seanchan to control the west and south and Rand to lead the north and east, and the two of them are then allied.
I’m always harping on the difference between evil and Evil in this world, but this was a moment where I was reminded about the worldbuilding in a really stark way. It feels so strange to think that a culture as horrible as the Seanchan’s would be instrumental in the Light winning the Last Battle, but from a cosmic point of view, the important part is the weaving of the Pattern, which is ostensibly designed by the Creator himself. Every human being is a part of that, their lives the individual threads that get woven together, and even if they are a bad person, that thread is still incorporated.
When Balthamel was reincarnated as Aran’gar, the Dark One told her that the the mind would conform to the body, which irked me as a concept, but I do wonder if it shows a little bit about how lives are different than souls—a person can die and their soul can go elsewhere, to be possessed by the Dark One or sheltered in the Creator’s hand or to await rebirth in Tel’aran’rhiod or elsewhere. But I don’t think souls are being woven through the pattern when they are not tied to bodies and lives that are currently in the world.
Which means that, from a cosmic standpoint, the lives of bad people are still important to the progression of the Pattern, and even the lives of Darkfriends might be important to the final, infinite picture that is being woven.
So yeah, the Seanchan are bad news for everybody, but they have their own Prophecies about their importance in winning the Last Battle, and what the Aelfinn told Rand seems to align with those prophecies. Which is interesting, if somewhat unsatisfying. And I’m not sure what it means in a thematic sense, other than the fact that war is inherently messy and evil, even when it is the only choice available to you.
I even got that feeling reading about the Shadowspawn attack. There was something horrible about the Deathgates and the Blossom of Fire. Yes, they were only killing Trollocs and Myrddraal, beings created by servants of the Shadow, but the narration still carried a horror to it. Logain was even put off by the Deathgates, so much so that his distaste was present in his tone. And we are reminded of how terrible the War of the Shadow was, and what violent methods had to be employed to try to stand against the onslaught of the Forsaken and the Dark One.
Pretty soon we’re going to see Mat and Aludra developing the Dragons and Dragons Eggs, and get to see this Age’s version of developing terrible weapons for a terrible fight.
Rand and Logain’s rivalry is understandable, I suppose, but to the reader—with their added distance and perspective—it does feel a bit petty. And I found myself siding with Logain on this one. The man basically had to escape from the Black Tower, and then specifically came to warn Rand about what is going on there. He’s not being that general about his warnings, either—he’s literally telling Rand that he thinks Taim is a Darkfriend, building a cadre of Asha’man followers, and Rand’s reaction is just to shrug and get annoyed with Logain for badgering him about it?
Rand suggests that Taim wouldn’t have built up the strength of the Black Tower if he was a Darkfriend, but Logain answers that easily. And it makes a lot of sense for a Darkfriend to hide in plain sight somewhere like the Black Tower, especially since Taim is a powerful channeler put in a leadership position with basically no oversight. He can do whatever he wants in the Black Tower as long as he keeps turning out weapons to be used in the Last Battle.
But what if those weapons ended up on the other side of the line, when Tarmon Gai’don finally comes? What better way to counteract Rand’s attempts at building an army of male channelers to fight for the Light than to make a corresponding one to fight for the Dark, filling its ranks by depleting the very forces Rand is trying to create? Rand said that Taim has to wait until after the Last Battle, but what if Taim is waiting for the Last Battle?
Lews Therin was right about him. Lews Therin is mad and afraid of all male channelers, but Lews Therin also had the experience of having friends and colleagues turn to the Dark specifically because they were jealous of Lews Therin’s status. Taim is very jealous and angry that Rand is more powerful than him; I could easily see Taim becoming not just a Darkfriend but one of the Chosen in his own right.
Another thought I had: It has been mentioned a few times throughout the series that there is a way to use channelers and Myrddraal to turn a channeler to the Dark against their will. It’s not something we’ve seen yet and I find the concept somewhat perplexing, but that’s not the sort of detail you include in your worldbuilding without using. If Taim is a Darkfriend, he could certainly be recruiting like-minded men to the side of the Dark, but if he’s high-ranking enough as a Darkfriend (certainly plausible, given his power) he might have access to Myrddraal and the resources to attempt a forced conversion on men. His ranks have grown quickly, after all, and maybe that’s just because many power-hungry people tend to end up swearing to the Dark. But then again, maybe there’s something even more nefarious going on.
And then there’s Cadsuane, who is there to teach Rand the difference between hardness and strength. She made a foray into that lesson in chapter 18, although it was rejected by Rand.
Cadsuane: “Stone cracks from a hard enough blow,” she said, her face an Aes Sedai mask of calm. “Steel shatters. The oak fights the wind and breaks. The willow bends where it must and survives.”“A willow won’t win Tarmon Gai’don,” he told her.
Way to miss the lesson, Rand. Not that I would expect it to be that easy,
Also, the way Verin diffused the moment of tension between Rand and Cadsuane before Rand could do something in anger and dismiss Cadsuane as his advisor? She is so cool and so canny, I love her so much.
Two more chapters next week, my friends. Hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am.[end-mark]
The post Reading The Wheel of Time: Loial Makes Vows and Lews Therin Fights a Battle in <i>Knife of Dreams</i> (Part 14) appeared first on Reactor.
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