Rand teleports away from Aginor, nukes the Trollocs at Tarwin’s Gap, and shows Ba’alzamon what he thinks of the Dark One.
Rand scrambles uphill until the ground gives way to a sheer drop — bad news, because Aginor is right behind him. Cornered at the cliff’s edge, Rand has a panic-induced epiphany and opens himself to saidin. He can see Aginor’s connection to the True Source. In desperation, Rand opens his own line to the True Source and teleports away.
His destination? Why, Tarwin’s Gap, of course. You didn’t think Jordan dropped a hopeless battle into the plot just for decoration, did you? Rand sees that the situation is indeed dire. Trolloc armies severely outnumber the human forces. No problem, eh Rand? Nothing a little channeling won’t fix! He send a shockwave of burning, earth-shattering destruction at the Trollocs, instantly causing massive damage and confusion.
Things start getting annoyingly metaphysical here, in that special way that only Robert Jordan can achieve. Stairs appear in the middle of the battlefield, and Rand ascends them. The farther up he goes, the more the world behind him fades away until he reaches a door that leads into a chamber that he had previous visited in a dream. Ba’alzamon is there. He and Rand engage in a verbal pissing contest, but it’s clear the conversation isn’t going anywhere, Rand conjures a lightsaber (not kidding) and uses it to give Ba’alzamon the old heave-ho.
First Palpatine, now a sword made of light. If this story ends with rebels blowing up a fortress, Disney’s lawyers are going to start calling.