Neya had finally done it. She had found a way to Heal the madness in male channelers.

Any other day, this would have been considered a miraculous accomplishment but, in light of recent events – namely, Rand's performance with the Choedan Kal – it appeared almost mundane. Still, she was quite pleased with herself. It had not been a complete waste of time in any case: the madness that was already corrupting a few of the male Ayyad hadn't magically disappeared after Rand's exploit.

Kalayaan was the first to suggest she try it, after she recounted to him the experiments she'd conducted at the Black Tower a few months ago. She had Delved him but, thankfully, she hadn't found a single dark patch in his brain. He had almost begged her to check on Abrazo as well, because Kal was convinced that it was the reason the older boy was slow-witted, even though Neya explained that the madness was unlikely to have appeared when he was a child. She didn't know that it was impossible, but it was improbable. Upon Delving Abe, she had found a large black web located in his temporal lobe. That might at least explain why he was having such a hard time learning how to speak.

Neya had been reluctant to attempt any actual Healing, for the same reasons as before, but Kal insisted that it could hardly make him worse in any case. That had not been particularly reassuring, but she had let him convince her.

After a more thorough Delving, she realised that there were tiny thorns that seemed to hold the dark web together. She removed them, one by one, slowly and cautiously. She had to Heal the needle-thin pricks caused by the thorns in Abe's brain as she went along, and she had to keep the other thorns from re-entering, but in the end she managed to extract every single one of them. As she'd pulled out the last one, the web had trembled then vanished altogether.

Abe had stared at her blankly with his mouth hanging open, and she had been afraid that she had indeed managed to make it worse, but a bright smile had suddenly lit up his face and he had lifted her off her feet, crushing her in his arms. Kal almost had to pry her out of his grip, although he was laughing the entire time. It wasn't clear exactly what had been the manifestation of madness in the young Ayyad, but he seemed happy to be rid of it in any case. Unfortunately, as Neya had feared, it hadn't made him any less dull. Kalayaan didn't seem to care, however, and neither did Abe.

She set to Delve every Ayyad for the taint's corruption that very day, although it took her the better part of three days to see the task through. She had begun with the boys who could already channel; only seven of them had exhibited a dark patch. Unsure whether those who hadn't displayed any signs of channeling could have been touched by the madness, Neya had decided that it would be safer to make certain they were all clear. She found a surprisingly dense network in the brain of a boy of fourteen, although he showed no outward sign of being afflicted in any way. It made her wonder if the taint had really caused it, or something else. Seven more boys were treated by her that day. The rest of them appeared perfectly healthy, although she would Delve them again if they proved able to wield saidin, just in case.

Neya felt incredibly gratified by her discovery. Those boys she Healed would have a normal life and grow old without fear of destroying everyone they loved. That was all she had ever wanted. She felt like she had fulfilled her mission in life. It was a grand feeling.

And Rand's astonishing feat set her spirits even higher. No male channeler would ever need fear the taint again, bless the man.

She had expected Bao to be righteously furious when he came to announce it that morning, but the Forsaken had simply gathered the boys and explained what had happened, never once mentioning Rand. Obviously, everyone had cheered him as if he'd done it all himself, cries of Glory to the Wyld! echoing throughout the crowd.

Bao met with Neya in her tent afterward, his face expressionless. Either he was seething inwardly and quite apt at concealing it or he really didn't care, unlikely as it was. Or maybe he cared about what it meant for the Ayyad and was pleased for them? Neya doubted it.

She didn't know exactly what had happened in the West that day. She had sensed it, of course; every channeler in the world must have been able to feel the prodigious amounts of the Power that were being wielded. But Bao hadn't given her much detail regarding the event. All she knew was that Rand and Nynaeve – of course it would be her; hadn't Neya said she could Heal anything if she put her mind to it? – had channeled through the male and female Choedan Kal and somehow cleansed the taint, destroying the ancient, cursed city of Aridhol, as well as one of the sa'angreal, in the process.

Although he didn't say it in so many words, it appeared that Bao and the other Forsaken had at least tried to stop them, but Neya couldn't figure out why. Rand obviously didn't realise it yet, but the Black Tower men were ruled by a Dreadlord and the male Ayyad by one of the Forsaken. The cleansing of the taint seemed to tilt the balance heavily in the Shadow's favour. Still, Neya couldn't help but be happy about it. Whoever was in charge of them, she cared deeply for the male channelers, Westlanders and Sharans alike. It filled her with joy to know that this burden had been taken away from them. Besides, if Mazrim and Bao could be somehow turned to the Light…

Now, there was a silly idea. Bao, especially, was surely too far gone. He'd been a Forsaken for thousands of years.

Had he, though? Neya considered this. He'd been one of the last to turn to the Shadow, not long before Lews Therin sealed the Bore. Therefore, in reality, Demandred truly had been a Forsaken only for a few years – his time in the Bore hardly counted, since he'd been… asleep, for lack of a better word. Well, now was not the time to ponder over this. Neya set the thought aside for later consideration.

Bao remained absolutely impassive as he recounted the story of the cleansing, as though he was thoroughly unimpressed. Neya doubted that were the case, but she didn't press him for details; if he'd wanted her to know more, he would have told her.

She took the opportunity of his visit to relay her own good news. He hid pretty well, but Neya thought she caught a glimpse of admiration in his dark green eyes. He even congratulated her, which made her blush. The fact that she knew she was blushing only intensified the burning in her cheeks. Thankfully, Bao quickly changed the subject.

"I shall require your assistance to teach a short lesson to the Ayyad today," he told her. "I need them all to be able to form a circle."

"A circle?" Neya repeated with a frown. "I don't even know what that is, and you can't show me how it's done. How can I assist if I don't know how to do it?"

"Someone will come along to demonstrate, one of the female Ayyad's servants."

"If she knows how to do it, why do I need to assist you? Also, Mintel said that the servants could channel, but that they weren't allowed to. And I thought you had abolished slavery?" She realised she was asking a lot of questions, but she always took the opportunity of Bao's visits to do just that. He rarely seemed to mind and usually answered truthfully – as far as Neya could tell.

"She is not a slave, she is a servant," he replied curtly. Same difference, Neya thought, although she didn't say it aloud. Mintel claimed that the female Ayyad's servants were slaves in all but name. She had a feeling that Bao was perfectly aware of that. It could only mean that the Ayyad had not given in to freeing their own slaves – and the fact that Bao had allowed it for so long said a lot about the difficulties he was encountering in the Capital. "And I told you before that my alliance with the Ayyad is a delicate one," he went on, as though he'd read her thoughts. "They do not answer to me, not yet. The servant has been… lent to me for the occasion, but I need another female channeler for the demonstration."

"But what's a circle?" she asked again.

"That is what we call the joining of two or more channelers to increase their strength in the Power. Men cannot form a circle on their own, however," he explained patiently. Elan had always been slightly pedantic when he explained these things, and Jasin was often downright disdainful of her ignorance, but Bao usually endured the torrent of her questions with impressive self-control.

"But I thought I wasn't supposed to reveal my ability to channel to the female Ayyad." Neya pointed to the heavy gold necklace that supposedly masked said ability. "Won't she snitch on me?"

For a second, Bao seemed puzzled by the word snitch, but he must have deciphered its meaning. "The girl is a Friend of the Dark," Bao told her. "She is loyal to me. She shall do as I command."

Neya wasn't sure how she felt at having to work with a Darkfriend. Then she realised she was being silly: she had been aiding Demandred for weeks now, and had been helping Mazrim for months. It couldn't get much worse than that. Not for the first time, she wondered if she hadn't become a Darkfriend herself somewhere along the way, however unwittingly - and unwillingly. She quickly brushed the disturbing thought aside and shrugged lightly for Bao's benefit. "Fine. Let's make a circle."

While Bao briefly Traveled back to the Capital to fetch the Darkfriend, Neya assembled the boys who could channel. She was explaining what they were about to do, the little she knew, when Bao came back with a willowy, dark-skinned woman in her late twenties. Bao introduced her as Saseko. She had full lips, and large doe eyes the colour of amber. Neya had rarely seen a more beautiful or graceful woman.

She disliked her right away.

Bao didn't waste any time with the lesson. He began by demonstrating with Saseko then asked Neya to join them in the circle. It was easy enough, once she picked up the trick. Of course, Bao never relinquished the lead of the circle to either of them, but Neya was still impressed by the sheer amount of Power that was coursing through her.

The theory behind circles was more complicated than she'd assumed. There were limitations and exceptions; as it were, with only two women, they couldn't form a circle of more than four channelers. They practiced for an hour, until every boy could do it easily, Abe included. It was remarkable how quickly he picked up this sort of things, when he had difficulty even dressing himself sometimes.

At the end of the day, it seemed increasingly obvious to Neya that Bao needed the female Ayyad more than he let on. This shaky alliance he'd established had to be strengthened if he hoped to reach a full circle of seventy-two, which seemed to be his ultimate objective – or at least one of his objectives. Besides, if he intended to lead the whole nation to fight in the Last Battle, he would also need the Ayyad and their prevailing authority over matters of state and war. Indeed, with the Sh'botay and his consort gone, the Ayyad had made it plain that they now ruled Shara in all but name, Wyld or no Wyld. They said it wasn't Bao's place to rule. His sole purpose, they claimed, was to unite the people under them, as was mentioned in their prophecies. Prophecies, however, could be interpreted in many ways, and often turned out to mean something else entirely. Bao argued that no part of the prophecies mentioned the Ayyad at all, but Neya couldn't possibly decide who had the right of it, as she had yet to get her hands on the blasted texts.

In any case, it was clear to Neya that Bao wouldn't let the matter go. She wondered how he was going to make them bend to him, without breaking them. It seemed unlikely that the Ayyad – whom Neya had dubbed the Aes Sedai of the East – would relinquish their newfound supremacy without a fight.