Min returns to the White Tower and meets with Siuan, who plans to use Min to root out the Black Ajah. Elaida grows suspicious of basically the entire main cast of characters. Dain Bornhald and Ordeith (Padan Fain) cross the Taren toward the Two Rivers. High Lady Suroth vows to retake the land of her ancestors.
This chapter seems longer than it really is, owing to an insane amount of bloat from recapping things from previous books. This was present in The Great Hunt. It was noticeable in The Dragon Reborn. But in The Shadow Rising, it has finally risen to the level of insulting. Viewers are Goldfish is the name of the trope, and unless you really do have the memory of goldfish, you can skim right over a lot of paragraphs in this chapter.
It took Min a whole book to reach the White Tower after Moiraine sent her to let Siuan know Rand went rogue. As she negotiates an audience, Min is unsettled to see visions surrounding people at the White Tower presaging violence and death. One woman even has a silver collar around her neck, similar to the a’dam from the Seanchan. Min lets Siuan know this, even though she knows it won’t do any good — everything Min sees always comes to pass, and there is nothing to be done about it.
Siuan says it can only mean one thing: an attack from the Black Ajah. Astoundingly, she claims that few at the White Tower are aware of the Black Ajah’s existence. Really? During the events of New Spring, the Black Ajah was as desperate to find the Dragon Reborn as Siuan and Moiraine were. They weren’t exactly being subtle about it either, going around and killing any random man who might be the Dragon. What are we supposed to think happened after New Spring? That the Black Ajah just took a sabbatical? Or that everyone on both sides has been doing a standout job of pretending that Aes Sedai can’t be Darkfriends? Come on! That’s like telling your kid that Fluffy didn’t die, she just went to Heaven — it only works on five-year-olds.
Min delivers the news about Rand heading for Tear, and accuses Siuan and Moiraine of manipulating him. Siuan realizes Min is in love with Rand, but Min doesn’t try to deny it. Not that you can blame her — if you’re certain of your fate and powerless to change it, a sense of resignation is inevitable.
Min wants to go find Rand, but there is no way Siuan is letting her go. Not when there are Black Ajah hiding in plain sight within the White Tower. Because the Aes Sedai all know about Min’s talent, Siuan decides the only way to keep her useful is to make it look like she never came back. Min will pose as Elmindreda, a woman who is in most ways Min’s polar opposite. She’ll wear dresses, curl her hair, put on *gasp* makeup, and pretend to be sheltering in the White Tower while she decides between two suitors. To Min, a quintessential tomboy, the prospect is horrifying, but the Amyrlin always gets her way.
Unbeknownst to Siuan, Elaida noticed Min enter her audience chamber. Elaida stews, thinking about how Min is friends with Egwene and Nynaeve, women from the same village as Rand al’Thor. She got a bad feeling about Rand when the two met back in The Eye of the World, after which Moiraine had been the one to spirit Rand away from Caemlyn. Moiraine, who used to be very close friends with Siuan. Elaida can sense that something is going on, and she is determined to find out what it is.
Holy shit. It’s like Robert Jordan had a stroke and forgot what a chapter is. Here’s what Wikipedia says about a chapter:
A chapter is any of the main thematic divisions within a writing of relative length, such as a book of prose, poetry, or law.
Robert Jordan’s definition of a chapter:
A chapter is whenever I feel like taking a fucking break.
Seriously, how many different, unrelated things is this guy going to throw into chapter one?
Next up, hundreds of Dain Bornhald’s Whitecloaks are crossing the Taren. His orders were to hasten there to meet a fellow named Ordeith. And since we’ve been taking notes, we remember that Ordeith is Padan Fain’s new moniker, even though we haven’t seen him for a whole book now. So far they’ve interrogated a band of Tinkerers and are making their way through the backwaters of Andor in search of Darkfriends. But Bornhald is only interested in finding Perrin, whom he blames for his father’s death.
Meanwhile, High Lady Suroth — the Seanchan to whom Liandrin was meant to deliver Egwene and Nynaeve in The Great Hunt — has gathered together some of the splintered fleet and taken Aile Somera, an island belonging to the Atha’an Miere. She is vexed that most of the destruction at Falme must have been wrought by a man who could channel — a man who could possibly even be the Dragon Reborn. But Suroth is determined to succeed where High Lord Turak failed. Either that, or she will die trying, because the one thing the Seanchan fear more than anything else is living to apologize to the Empress of the Nine Moons.