Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne discuss how to investigate the Black Ajah. Else delivers a message from the Amyrlin Seat telling them where to find the items Liandrin and her companions left behind.
Egwene is hanging out with Elayne and Nynaeve. They’re pissing away time complaining about the enormity of their task and how little useful information they’ve been given. If these three spent half as much time investigating as they do bellyaching, the Black Ajah would be eradicated by now. Despite the negativity in the room, Elayne does manage to make a good point: the distribution of the thirteen traitors is so uniform, they must have been selected from a larger pool of Black Ajah.
After talking about the women themselves, the conversation turns to the list of stolen ter’angreal. A good many of them were last studied by Corianin Nedeal — the same woman who studied the Dream ter’angreal. One of these is described as:
A rod of clear crystal, smooth and perfectly clear, one foot long and one inch in diameter. Use unknown.
Use unknown? This artifact sounds like it came right out of an adult novelty store. I think Corianin knew perfectly well how to use this one.
Later, the women discuss the possibility that Elaida or Sheriam could be Black Ajah:
ELAYNE: I have never been able to like Elaida, but I cannot truly believe she is Black Ajah. And Sheriam? It’s impossible.
Oh ho, impossible? Why? Because she’s the Mistress of Novices? Apparently nobody ever told you about this little incident in Kandor twenty years ago. The Mistress of Novices turned out to be Black Ajah and used the Power to throw members of the royal family off a fucking bridge. So don’t try to tell me that Sheriam can’t be Black Ajah.
Eighteen braid tugs and counting.
During the course of this conversation, Nynaeve commits two and a half braid tugging infractions, bringing our running total to eighteen. Just to prove I’m not crazy, I went back to books one and two. The Eye of the World has her pulling on that braid only once. The Great Hunt? Zero! The Dragon Reborn has already outpaced the first two books combined many times over, and we’re not even halfway done. Someone needs to have an intervention.
In the end, the best lead the three can come up with is to experiment with the Dream ter’angreal, because of its tenuous connection to the stolen artifacts. As they argue about who is going to use it, Else shows up bearing a message from the Amyrlin Seat: the belongings Liandrin and the others left behind are in a storage room under the library. Else leaves quickly, leaving everyone stunned that a blabbermouth like her would be entrusted with a message about Liandrin. Egwene chases after her, but instead runs into a mystery woman who sounds a lot like Lanfear. Egwene tries to ask about Else, but the moment she looks away, she finds herself standing alone.