


Faced with the tension of sharing Rand with others, as well as coming to understand their similar stubbornness and devotion towards him, Egwene al'Vere "steps aside", formally inviting her close friend and Daughter-Heir of Andor, Elayne Trakand, to take Rand as her own. At the beginning of this book, all major protagonists are together at the Stone of Tear, where Rand al'Thor had recently, at the end of The Dragon Reborn, shown to the world that he was the Dragon Reborn by wielding Callandor.ĭuring the lull that occurs between the Dragon's taking of the Stone and the coming separation of the characters once more, several changes manifest within the social order of the protagonists.
