Rand and Mat enter Rhuidean and find the Tree of Life. Rand somehow knows he needs to walk into the glass columns, but Mat stays behind and spots another redstone doorframe. However, Mat soon discovers that this one contains evil genies rather than oracles ready to answer his questions.
Rhuidean is an Abandoned City™ that slumbers beneath a layer of mystical fog in the shape of a bell jar. Rand and Mat pass through the fog into the city, and they come across a majestic tree in the center of a square. Rand figures it must be Avendesora, the Tree of Life. It is surrounded by a forest of impossibly tall glass columns. Strange artifacts litter the ground nearby, which Mat deduces must be ter’angreal.
Rand believes he needs to proceed into the glass columns. Mat offers to go with, but Rand insists on going alone. Unfortunately, when Mat is left to his own devices, mischief is his default operating mode. He looks at the various artifacts and spots one that looks familiar: a twisted redstone doorframe. Since Mat has been through the twisted redstone doorframe in Tear, this obviously makes him an expert on twisted redstone doorframes everywhere. He does briefly wonder if he’ll have enough time to go in, ask his questions, and come back before Rand returns. But damn it, he has questions that need answering, so he steps through.
It is immediately obvious that Mat is not in the same place as before. The decor is different, and while the emissary who greeted him in the Tear doorway was mysterious, the being who greets him in the Rhuidean doorway is downright creepy. Hungry and predatory are words that come to mind. But since this being says the same words, remarking on what “a long time” it has been, Mat allows himself to be escorted to the audience chamber.
When they reach a chamber, Mat’s escort vanishes and others of his kind appear. They stare at him “like foxes staring at dinner” and command him to speak his need. Blindly assuming they operate like the beings in the first doorway, Mat asks a question. They continue to stare at him, and Mat grows exasperated, posing all of his questions at once:
MAT: Who is the Daughter of the Nine Moons and why do I have to marry her? How will I die and live again? What does it mean that I have to give up half the light of the world? Those are my three questions. Say something!
Still they say nothing, so he starts ranting about holes in his memory and how he wants them filled.
MAN: Done.
Mat doesn’t catch on quickly enough. He keeps going, comparing the beings unfavorably to Aes Sedai. He says he wants a way to be free of Aes Sedai and the Power, and that he wants to be away from these beings and back in Rhuidean.
MAN: Done.
WOMAN: Done.
Just like that, Mat has spent his three wishes. The beings commend him on using one of them to get away from this place, but call him a fool for not agreeing on a price. Darkness closes in, something grips his neck, and he struggles to breathe.