Mat uses the redstone doorframe and learns he must go to Rhuidean if he is to live long enough to fulfill his fate and marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons. After Mat is thrown out of the doorframe, Rand and Moiraine also emerge from it, but their motives are opaque.
Mat makes his way through the basement hallways of the Stone of Tear, following Egwene’s instructions on where the redstone doorframe is. This is a major Mat moment I’ve been waiting for since I started re-reading these books.
When Mat steps through the doorframe, he is suddenly in a large hall. It’s dimly lit, and large columns rise into the gloom. There to greet Mat is a man who falls somewhere on the trope spectrum between Rubber-Forehead Aliens and Humanoid Aliens — not really human, but only inhuman enough to evoke an exotic atmosphere. I guess everyone refers to these guys as “the Snake People,” whatever that’s worth. Alien Dude praises Mat for not bringing a lamp and makes him swear he bears no iron or musical instruments. What’s next, no liquids in containers larger than 3.4 fluid ounces?
Alien Dude leads Mat to a chamber where three more of these humanoid beings are sitting on pedestals. “It has been long,” says one. “Very long,” agrees another, and they keep going on like this! Jesus — this is what you’d get if you took the Three Supreme Beings of the Future from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and made them talk like the witches from Macbeth.
The Weird Ones prompt Mat to ask his questions, so he carefully paints a picture of his current situation, and the one in Emond’s Field, then asks:
MAT: Should I go home to help my people?
Aw, what a selfless sweetheart he is!
(Or he’s just trying to avoid a guilt trip — I don’t know, you decide!)
WEIRD WOMAN: You must go to Rhuidean.
A bell tolls. Mat is not happy with this answer. His carefully prepared second and third questions — about how to get away from Aes Sedai, how to recover lost parts of his memory — are forgotten. A boring, levelheaded man would have been happy with this answer. I mean, at least it wasn’t yes/no, right? Go to Rhuidean. I mean, c’mon, they didn’t have to tell you about Rhuidean. She could have just said “no,” so let’s calm the fuck down and cut her some slack. The thing is, Mat is not a levelheaded man.
MAT: Why should I?
Oh, for fuck’s sake, Mat! That was your second question!
WEIRD WOMAN: If you do not go to Rhuidean, you will die.
Another bell tolls. For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for he who has pissed away yet another question. Although admittedly the answer was kind of worth it. This time, Mat can feel the bell reverberating in his bones. The Weird Ones urge him to ask another question.
MAT: Why will I die if I do not go to Rhuidean?
WEIRD MAN: You will have sidestepped the thread of fate, left your fate to drift on the winds of time, and you will be killed by those who do not want that fate fulfilled.
The entire room reverberates like a gong, and suddenly the Snake People usher Mat out of the room as though he’s the last unruly drunk left at the bar come closing time. And in keeping with that metaphor, imagine this bar has a vending machine. The redstone doorframe is a vending machine, too. It dispenses wishes. You put a quarter in, you get three questions. Mat’s perspective is that his bag of chips just got stuck halfway out of the fucking retaining ring. He put the quarter in and the machine did something, but he still doesn’t have what he came for. So he grabs that machine and he shakes it with all his might:
MAT: What fate? Burn your hearts, what fate? What fate?
THE WEIRD ONES: To marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons!
THE WEIRD ONES: To die and live again, and live once more a part of what was!
THE WEIRD ONES: To give up half the light of the world to save the world!
Wow, he really popped the cork. Now they’re just spewing out answers like a broken ticket machine at a 1980s arcade. Even as he is dragged from the room, they call after him. They address him as “son of battles,” “trickster,” and “gambler,” and urge him again to go to Rhuidean. The Snake People shove Mat through the redstone doorframe, banishing him back to his own world. To great comedic effect, Mat immediately tries to go back through the doorframe. Oops! Looks like he didn’t get the memo about it serving one per customer.
Mat is still swearing at the doorframe and what he has learned of his fate when first Rand comes through the doorframe, followed soon by Moiraine. The conversation that follows makes it clear that all three of them independently decided to go through it at more or less the same time. Moiraine is angry that anyone would have told Rand and Mat about the doorframe, but Rand staunchly tells her he read about it in a book, and Mat unconvincingly follows suit.
So let me get this straight: everyone independently decided to visit the doorframe at roughly the same time, and none of them will tell the others what their questions were, or what answers they received. Nope, of course not. We’ve still got nine more fucking books to fill after this one, so why should anyone coordinate anything? Let chaos reign.
Rand and Moiraine leave the room, abandoning Mat to contemplate his future. He’s going to the Aiel Waste, and he’s not happy about it.