Bors attends an honest-to-God Darkfriend conference where Ba’alzamon names Rand, Mat, and Perrin as threats and gives each attendee private orders.
Welcome to Book 2: The Great Hunt!
Yes, Darkfriends have conferences too.
I’d like you to meet Bors. Lord Bors is attending a Darkfriend convention. Stop laughing — I’m completely serious! I know I joked about it in Chapter 33: The Dark Waits (The Eye of the World), but lo and behold, Darkfriends actually do convene. If you can imagine the party scene from Eyes Wide Shut, only with less sex and much worse ambiance, you won’t be too far off. Sounds terrible, right? If the Dark One wants followers, he’s not exactly selling the lifestyle.
Bors clearly thinks he’s a much better Darkfriend than all these other idiots. I hate to break it to you Bors, buddy — but I’m pretty sure even the forces of evil need to collaborate from time to time, so you’d better set that superiority complex aside and learn how to be a team player.
Bors is still busy sneering when a pair of Trollocs enters the room, followed by a Fade. When Ba’alzamon appears, floating in mid air, Bors and his masked compatriots fall to the floor and grovel. It seems Bors is still having a crisis of faith: his mouth pledges allegiance to the Dark One, but his mind clings to prayers to the Light.
Looks like whatever Rand did to Ba’alzamon at the end of The Eye of the World wasn’t anything too permanent, because he seems to be in top form. He tells everyone that they stand in a place that lies in the shadow of Shayol Ghul, and that the Day of Return is near. But he wants everyone to know their enemy, so likenesses of Rand, Mat, and Perrin appear in the air — they are extremely dangerous, explains Ba’alzamon, and they need to be carefully manipulated.
Each Darkfriend receives private instructions from Ba’alzamon. Then they return to a private room where they can change out of their disguise. Bors, it seems, is a Questioner with the Children of the Light. Given the Children are essentially what you would get if you crossed the Spanish Inquisition with the Ku Klux Klan, it actually makes perfect sense that Bors worships the shadow.