Egwene’s test to become Accepted is predictably Rand-themed.
Egwene runs into Sheriam immediately after leaving Verin. It’s time for her to take the test to become Accepted. She has no way to divest herself of the papers or the ter’angreal, so she reluctantly carries them with her. Alanna — one of the Aes Sedai operating the testing ter’angreal — reports a resonance that has never been present before. But it quickly disappears, so they proceed with the test.
We already covered Nynaeve’s test to become Accepted in The Great Hunt, Chapter 23: The Testing. Now it’s Egwene’s turn. She will have to face her greatest fears about the past, present, and future. Each and every scenario is about — yes, you guessed it — Rand al’Thor.
Inside the first arch, Egwene is in one of those alternate realities where none of them ever left Emond’s Field. Yes, news trickles in now and then about the world going to shit around them, but they’re happy to make believe that it will never affect their neck of the woods. Egwene is training to become Wisdom, and she’s good at it. She’s married to Rand, and they’ve started a family. Everything is perfect… except for those headaches Rand gets, and the weird lightning strikes and earthquakes that seem to come in lockstep. Egwene has to step back through the arch and leave Rand behind when he is having a particularly bad headache.
In the second arch, another alternate reality is waiting. Caemlyn has fallen to a Trolloc invasion. Rand is inside the palace, pinned under too much rubble for Egwene to move safely. Rand could free himself, but he’ll lose himself to the madness if he does. He asks her to kill him before the Dreadlords can turn him to the Shadow, but she refuses, and has to step back through the arch as his agonized screams chase after her.
Before entering the third arch, Egwene asks Sheriam if it’s true that channelers can be forcibly turned to the shadow. She admits that it is: thirteen Dreadlords have to weave flows through thirteen Fades to force the change. Egwene realizes that this is the exact number of Black Ajah who left the Tower.
In the third arch, a dystopian future plays out. Egwene is the Amyrlin Seat, and she’s Green Ajah. But Rand has been captured, and is brought before the Hall of the Tower to face judgment. Elaida calls for Rand to be gentled, but Egwene refuses to do it, so Elaida stages a coup and becomes the new Amyrlin Seat by force. In the end, she has to choose between saving Rand and going back through the arch. The plot must go on, so back through the arch it is.