The Maidens escort Rand to his bedchamber. Aviendha stops by to toss some blankets and angry remarks his way. Isendre is now serving the Maidens as a nude servant (I wish I were making this shit up) and she tries to proposition Rand.
Some Maidens of the Spear escort Rand to his sleeping chamber, which is in the same building they’ve claimed as their home base in Rhuidean. Rand didn’t exactly plan it that way — he moved into the building first, and the Maidens later decided that it would become their society’s home base in Rhuidean. The arrangement makes perfect sense to the Maidens and absolutely none to Rand, but at least it means his bedchamber is well-guarded.
Rand muses that he paradoxically trusts Asmodean more than Moiraine. With Asmodean, at least his motives are clear. With Asmodean, at least Rand is in control. Moiraine’s loyalties still lie with the White Tower, and everyone knows it’s a manipulative hive mind filled with deceptive witches. The Wise Ones are scarcely any better — the first thing Rand learned from Asmodean was to shield his dreams as he sleeps. A crippled Forsaken, by contrast, is a useful and predictable ally.
Once Rand is in his sleeping chamber, Aviendha appears with an armload of blankets and an endless list of grievances. He has besmirched her honor in myriad ways, and she goes out of her way to let him know about each one. She hates Rand al’Thor. Hates him! But hate lies close to love, and she obviously protests too much.
Isendre walks into the room carrying a tray with a decanter of wine and two cups on it. In The Shadow Rising, Isendre was Hadnan Kadere’s side-chick. In The Fires of Heaven, Isendre is caught stealing from the Maidens of the Spear, and her punishment is what you would expect to find in a “Naughty Sorority Sisters” porn video. She’s performing servants’ duties for the Maidens, and her uniform is a head scarf, a bunch of jangling bracelets and anklets, and nothing else at all. When she sees they’re not alone, Isendre is quick to set the tray down, wiggle her ass enticingly, and leave.
I suppose you can look at a chapter like this two ways:
GLASS HALF EMPTY: Rand walked to his bedchamber, got yelled at by Aviendha, and propositioned by a soulless Darkfriend hussy.
GLASS HALF FULL: We got another nude scene that definitely would have made it into the HBO adaptation of Wheel of Time.
Since I’ve got ten more books to go, I’m choosing to be an optimist.