The group discovers they’ve landed in a bleak alternate reality that seems twisted toward the Shadow. They rescue a woman named Selene, whose charm and mysterious knowledge quickly cause them to let their guard down.
Rand, Loial, and Hurin press on and spot a spire in the distance. At first they believe it is a spire Artur Hawkwing built hundreds of years ago to commemorate a victory of the Light over the Shadow. The monument has long since crumbled in the real world, but it stands here still. However, coming closer, they realize that it is a raven emblazoned on the top — not a hawk. Uh oh. The Trollocs won in this reality. As if that weren’t disconcerting enough, Loial points out that they are in sight of Kinslayer’s Dagger — a mountain range that should have taken them three days to reach. Hmm… a place where time and distance are funny and nothing seems right. Don’t worry, everybody. I’m sure the resemblance to the Ways is merely superficial!
This happy chain of thought is broken when a woman’s scream shatters the silence. Rand carelessly rushes toward the sound and is met by the sight of a woman barely holding a huge bear/frog thing at bay with a tree branch.
The damsel and the Gleeok
It’s time for a brief aside. When I was a child in the 1980s, Nintendo created a cartoon — The Legend of Zelda — based on the video game of the same name. It was one of those curiosities that never would have been green-lit today, portraying Link as a horny, lazy, sarcastic smart-ass who is always trying to get into Zelda’s pants… or at least get her to kiss him. In one episode, a monster disguised to look like an attractive woman heads into the woods and contrives a situation where she is in danger from a Gleeok. Link’s reputation as a womanizer is well-known, so he won’t be able to resist coming to her aid, thus falling into her trap.
So thanks, Nintendo — even when I first read The Great Hunt in 1995, I knew exactly what this woman’s game was when Rand planted an arrow in the monster’s eye and “saved” the damsel in distress. Unfortunately, Rand never had Saturday morning cartoons.
The woman introduces herself as Selene, and she says the monster Rand killed is called a grolm. Right off the bat I’m suspicious of this woman because her name is — honest to God — the first Robert Jordan character name my spell checker actually recognizes since Mat was first introduced. Selene explains that she is a noblewoman from Cairhien and came to this world accidentally, the same way the men did. And honestly, who cares about the rest, because everyone present is instantly enamored by her womanly charm.
SELENE: Oh, Lord Rand — won’t you help a poor, lost damsel in distress find her way back home?
LOIAL: Uh–
HURIN: [drool]
RAND: Of course, my lady.
SELENE: Who are you tracking?
Hurin, operating in full think-with-his-dick mode, says this verbatim:
HURIN: Darkfriends and Trollocs, my Lady. They did murder in Fal Dara keep and stole the Horn of Valere, my Lady, but Lord Rand will fetch it back.
Thanks, Hurin. Thanks for spilling all of our beans, motherfucker.
SELENE: I’ve always dreamed of holding it with my hands. Promise me, when you have it, you will let me touch it.
LOIAL: Duh–
HURIN: [nods, nearly panting like a dog]
RAND: Of course, my Lady. You can touch it however you like.
After getting Selene mounted on her horse, Rand practically has to slap Hurin upside the head before he will snap to his senses and pick up the trail again.
Selene notices Rand’s injured palm and quickly heals it with a salve, leading Rand to ask if she is Aes Sedai. She is unable to mask her contempt as she refuses to be compared to Aes Sedai. They are cowardly weaklings, she says.
Selene says that the Ways were indeed inspired by worlds like the one they are in. She read this in a book called Mirrors of the Wheel. According to it, time and space work differently in each world, and there is an infinite number of variations. There are even worlds where you can meet a different version of yourself. Wow, OK. This is definitely straight up borrowing the many-worlds theory from quantum mechanics. Physics nerds, enjoy yourselves, because this is probably as close to Einsteinian physics as Wheel of Time is going to get. I think it’s for the best that this remains unexplored, though — this story is complicated enough without bringing infinity into the picture.
Selene continually hints at Rand becoming a legend and achieving greatness, and even though it annoys him, he finds himself infatuated with her. She’s such a beautiful, smart, brave woman — “what more could a man ask from a wife?” Whoa, dude — the W-word. You just met this chick today.
Selene wants Rand to take her to the Portal Stone that brought her to this world, but Hurin says the trail is leading in the other direction. They don’t get to finish hashing out what to do next because a pack of five grolm headed straight for them.