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 is 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. He 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 ounces?
The 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?
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 levelheaded man would proceed with these questions, but Mat?
MAT: Why should I?
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 sound in his bones. They 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 shakes this time like a gong, and suddenly the weird creatures usher Mat out of the room as though he’s the last unruly drunk left at the bar come closing time. Mat continues to dig:
MAT: What fate? Burn your hearts, what fate? What fate?
THE WEIRD ONES: To marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons! To die and live again, and live once more a part of what was! To give up half the light of the world to save the world!
Wow, a fourth answer? What an honor. They call after him, addressing him as “son of battles,” “trickster,” and “gambler” as they urge him to go to Rhuidean. Then they drag Mat to the redstone doorframe and hurl him back into his own world. Mat tries to go back through the doorframe, but nobody gave him the memo that it only works once per person.
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. Of course not. We’ve still got nine more fucking books to fill after this one. Why should anyone coordinate anything?
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.