Reeling from the card attack, Mat checks in with Thom. He’s desperate to leave Tear, but believes events have conspired to keep him here. Thom is secretly engaging in Tairen espionage.
Thom is busy doing some shady business: forged notes, Tairen High Lords, and whispered affairs. It sounds like Cairhien’s Game of Houses, which makes it all the more surprising to see Thom involved, since this is exactly the sort of chicanery that got his girlfriend murdered less than two books ago.
When Mat interrupts, Thom pretends to have been roused from sleep. Not that Mat is in the mood to pry — he just wants to know if any inanimate objects leapt to life and tried to kill Thom recently. Thom has no idea what Mat is talking about, but he offers to play a game of stones.
At first, Mat insists he doesn’t have time, because he’s leaving Tear this instant. Thom is indifferent, but asks why he hasn’t left already if he’s really so desperate to get away. Mat’s answer?
MAT: Something always comes up.
He says that something always stops him from leaving, which sounds an awful lot like someone inventing excuses for saying one thing and doing another. Or maybe it’s just that Mat is ta’veren, with a destiny to fulfill. Or maybe it’s that Rand is still Mat’s friend, underneath of the Dragon Reborn business. Who knows?
He’ll leave when the time is right.