Rand uses the nearby Portal Stone to transport the group to Toman Head. The price? Four months of lost time, and now everyone needs therapy.
At the Portal Stone, Rand does more of his signature whining about how he has no idea how to use it. But Verin says it’s the only way — if she tried to channel enough Power to use a Portal Stone, she would be burned to a crisp. She points out a glyph she believes stands for Toman Head, and Rand channels.
Reality flickers in and out of being, and Rand experiences myriad different lives he might have led, had things been slightly different. Married to Egwene, a soldier in the Andoran army, Egwene dying because of her contact with saidar — a mess of different scenarios play out before his eyes, but always they end with a voice pronouncing, I have won again, Lews Therin.
When the flickering finally stops, they are in a different place. Judging from everyone else’s reactions, they too have experienced some of the many lives they might have led. Everyone is disoriented when they regain consciousness.
RAND: What happened?
VERIN: You teleported us directly to Toman Head–
RAND: Hah! See? We’re hot on his trail.
VERIN: –and four months has passed.
Four freaking, fracking, flap-jacking months! Here I was flipping out over them taking the time to say hello to the Ogier elders. Turns out, that was nothing! Rand just pissed away four months, during which anything could have happened. Fantastic job, dude. Is the Savior of the Light going to habitually take long vacations from reality? Because that’s what just happened. Rand, the most important man alive, ceased to exist for four months, then popped right back into being. The only victory here is that you got Mat closer to the dagger without him aging.