After a Trolloc attack, Rand and Loial seek refuge in an Illuminator’s compound, where Rand is forced to use fireworks to defeat the Trollocs and escape.
The sun is setting. Rand and Loial have been in Cairhien long enough to have grown used to street performers. Much like the dragon dance at a Chinese New Year festival, Cairhienan street performers use poles to control the movements of the Trolloc effigies they parade around the city. As such, nothing seems unusual about the performers… until the Trolloc puppets leap at them with murderous intent. They dispatch the Trollocs, but it’s clear that Fain has his Darkfriends combing the city.
Obviously, Rand needs to get back to the inn and make sure Hurin and the Horn are safe, right? I mean, the fate of the world hinges upon having the Horn for the last battle, so surely Rand would be willing to cut his way through a few more Trollocs to get back to it ASAP. Unfortunately, no! Rand al’Thor, savior of the Light, instead allows himself to be herded toward the outskirts of the city, just to avoid another confrontation with a Trolloc. That’s it. If this guy is our savior, we’re all doomed.
Outside the city, there is a walled-off compound that belongs to the Illuminators. Yes, in the Wheel of Time universe, fireworks are such a big deal that there is an entire guild devoted to crafting them. Loial has heard that they will protect their secrets with violence if necessary, so Loial is understandably leery of Rand’s plan to use their buildings to hide from the Trollocs. Luckily, Selene shows up to grease the wheels. She’s shocked that the man who possesses the Horn of Valere would allow Trollocs to herd him like sheep, and for once, I agree with her completely.
Selene locates a door into the Illuminators’ compound and lets them inside. Sneaking amongst the fireworks, Loial manages to bump one with his big ass and send it screaming into the sky. The compound stirs like an ant nest and they narrowly avoid detection. But Trollocs are sneaking into the compound and sooner or later something has got to give. Selene is thrilled by the danger — and equally upset that Rand isn’t. If he will not embrace greatness, she says, then perhaps he deserves to die. Damn, dude — I know you don’t have a lot of experience with women, but the moment she starts talking like this is when you drop-kick her ass to the curb.
Fortunately, Selene saves him the trouble by abandoning him and Loial in the compound without so much as a goodbye. Rand uses a firework like a medieval bazooka to take out the Trollocs and igniting enough chaos in the compound to allow him and Loial to escape. They head straight back to the inn and find Hurin relaxing unmolested with a pipe in his mouth. It’s too bad Moiraine wasn’t here to see this — blowing up a fireworks factory definitely would have made her to-do list.