Mat and Juilin free Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne. Perrin rescues Faile from her dream prison. Be’lal battles Rand in the Heart of the Stone, but Moiraine intervenes and kills him with balefire. Ba’alzamon attacks, but Rand grabs Callandor and defends himself. Ba’alzamon tries to kill Rand with balefire, but he deflects the attacks and drives the magic sword through Ba’alzamon’s heart. Rand declares himself the Dragon Reborn.
In her dream, Egwene enters the cell block. Amico, the Black sister guarding the door, begins to doze and she enters the World of Dreams. Egwene severs Amico from the True Source in the dream and binds her with Air. But when she wakes, the shield still holds. Alright, time for plan B! They’re going to… try again? That’s right, the best they can come up with is to send Egwene back into the dream, because that worked so well the first time.
Mercifully, Mat and Juilin find the prison wing. Mat is puzzled when he sees Amico sitting there, half-asleep and begging for their help. But Juilin recognizes her as one of the thirteen. Mat snatches the key, unlocks the cell, and all they have to say is, “What are you doing here, Matrim Cauthon?” That’s gratitude for you. Jordan finally lets Mat be a hero, and this is the thanks he gets.
Perrin finally rescues Faile from the dream-prison. This whole plot line feels very much phoned-in. Like Jordan needed to manufacture a plot line that put Faile in danger, just so Perrin could come dashing to save her, and in the process realize how much he cares for her. Once all of the dream bullshit is done, they wake up in the private dining room, and the figurine is cracked in half.
In the Heart of the Stone of Tear, Rand finds Callandor waiting for him… and Be’lal. The Forsaken is a skilled swordsman, wielding a blade of black fire. As they fight, he keeps addressing Rand as Lews Therin Kinslayer, trying to goad him into taking Callandor.
Moiraine bursts into the room. Be’lal almost completely dismisses her as a harmless annoyance, but screams a Big “NO” as the Aes Sedai scrubs him from existence with balefire. Gosh, this balefire seems too easy. Dogs running straight at you? Balefire! Forsaken about to kill you? Balefire! Character won’t stop tugging on her fucking braid? Balefire! Who is she going to zap next? This is like playing a video game in God Mode.
MOIRAINE: He was right about one thing, Rand. You must take Callandor.
Suddenly, ropes of black lightning grab Moiraine and hurl her across the room. Enter Ba’alzamon. Yes, again. We’ve had to put up with this cardboard cut-out of a villain for three books now, but at least he’s finally changing his tune. He’s done trying to make Rand serve him in life, so he has come to enslave him in death.
Realizing it is his only hope, Rand leaps for Callandor and grasps it. The amount of Power he can suddenly pull in is awesome, and incredibly dangerous. Ba’alzamon turns to face Rand, and villainously teleports away. Rand follows to some kind of alternate version of the Stone of Tear. If that sounds frustratingly metaphysical, it is. It’s like he gets so excited by the action that he forgets to keep things grounded in reality, and pretty soon you can’t see past the language to tell what the fuck is actually going on. Not sure what I mean? Here’s a sample:
Unseen maws gaped to rip his mind from his body, to tear away his soul. He sprang each trap and ran on; what Ba’alzamon twisted to destroy him, he made right without being aware of how. Vaguely he knew that in some way he had brought things back into natural balance, forced them into line with his own dance down that impossibly thin divide between existence and nothingness, but that knowledge was distant.
Holy shit. What the fuck does that even mean? It’s like the final battle for each novel was written under the influence of mushrooms and DMT!
So let’s strip out all of that bullshit: Ba’alzamon keeps going pew pew pew at Rand with balefire. Rand wields Callandor, using it to deflect Ba’alzamon’s attacks and stab him through his chest. Done! Three books of build-up, and the big bad goes down like a mini-boss in Zelda.
Rand finds himself back in the real version of the Stone of Tear where Aiel and Defenders of the Stone are still fighting. To stop the fighting, he holds Callandor aloft and declares himself to be Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn.