As Egwene grows accustomed to life as a slave, Nynaeve plots to free her.
In Falme, Nynaeve and Elayne are staking out the building where the Seanchan keep their damane. Nynaeve thinks she has figured out how to use the One Power to remove an a’dam from a damane’s neck. Do yourself a favor and don’t ask how she made any progress without having an a’dam on hand, because all you’re going to get is hand-waving: Oh, she can do savant-level things with the One Power because it’s Nynaeve, and she’s, like, really good at channeling.
Egwene, meanwhile, is growing accustomed to life as a damane. Min is allowed to visit her once weekly, and it is through this lens we see how deep and thorough a damane’s subjugation runs. She can’t channel more than a trickle without feeling extremely ill, nor can she touch anything that she considers to be a weapon without the same result. Same thing with trying to move the a’dam’s bracelet. To make matters worse, Egwene’s handlers discovered she has a talent for detecting iron deposits in the ground, so they’re eager to ship her back across the ocean and use her as a human metal detector.
Min’s visit is cut short when Egwene’s primary sul’dam, Renna, comes into the room and discovers Egwene has been channeling, trying to figure out a way to get the collar off. She decides she has been too lenient by allowing Egwene to keep her name, so she renames her Tuli, after a kitten she used to have. What a delicious display of villainy! Seanchan is basically the mystical equivalent of North Korea.