The small group had traveled for days since leaving Shienar desperately trying to catch up to the trollocs that had stolen the horn and dagger. Or rather Rand, Mat, Perrin and Loial were desperate. Mallen, Pat, and Ralph knew that they had plenty of time. Though the question on the three time traveler's minds was exactly what they could do with their time. It was one thing for them to know what happened in their time, but at the moment they did not have the resources to do anything with that knowledge.

So they found themselves up late one night long huddled around a fire, long after their past selves and the ogier fell asleep. Mallen still had a disgruntled expression on his face, one that had formed once he learned what his name was. It seemed that being forced to bear the name Mallen had destroyed his cheery outlook on life. But the one with the worried expression on his face was Pat who sat clutching his medal.

"Ran- Ralph," he said remembering that they could never reveal their true identities, "I think something's wrong. My medallion should have destroyed your disguise, but it doesn't. "

Ralph who had been staring moodily into the fire looked up at Pat's face and grinned reassuringly. "Oh, that's no mystery, "he said "in fact if I knew it would work I would even have made you take off the medallion. It destroys flows that come into contact with you, so I gave the space between you and the disguise a relatively large amount of room. Essentially the disguise is masking the air under it, you just happen to be hiding behind it."

Ralph knew that the explanation was poor but he had other things on his mind. The first thing the group had to do was retrieve the horn and dagger; there was obviously nothing more urgent than that. But there were so many options to pursue once that was done with it was impossible for him to decide. "I suppose we could take over Tear," he said reluctantly, "but-"he was caught of by Mallen.

"No," he growled without looking at anything in particular, "it's a trap." Shocked Pat and Ralph stared at him until he continued. "I've been thinking, it was prophesied that you'd win the Last Battle, and you should have. Even with Taim's betrayal the fact remains that you completed every other prophecy, except the last one. Which means that the prophecies aren't as infallible as people think, and what did they do anyway? We didn't realize it, but they tied us to a course of action, one that the Dark One could predict. He knew exactly what forces we would bring to the Last Battle, because they were the ones he told us to bring!"

Amazed Ralph and Pat stared at Mallen as the idea began to take hold in their minds. It amazed them to think that the prophecies were nothing more than traps made by the Dark One, but it made a twisted kind of sense. But if it did then it raised more questions than it answered. "But…then what do we do?" Pat asked obviously overwhelmed.

"I'll tell you what were going to do," Ralph said with anger in his face. "We are going to get the Horn and Dagger back, then we're going to see to it that the mistakes that I made aren't repeated. I was too nice, too lenient, too weak to do what was necessary last time. For starters we won't give nations a choice to join us anymore, letting them keep their lords with their plotting and scheming. We'll take control and only we" he indicated the people around including those sleeping, "will have any control. As for the Shaido and anyone else who stands in our way we're going to crush them before they even have a chance to dream about defying us!"

Pat and Mallen grimly nodded though Pat did so uneasily. What Ralph was saying reminded him of someone or something, but he shook his head ignoring the idea. Everything they would do would be for the greater good after all, sometimes to achieve it a person had to do something less than good. For some reason the pure logic of that statement kept Pat up as he tried to fall asleep.

Rand awoke to find Ralph staring at him. Before Rand could say anything Ralph tossed him a sword then rushed at him with his own drawn. Rand gaped in shock then barely managed to raise the sword as Ralph's came crashing down. The contact between the weapons sent shudders through Rand's arm. Ralph attacked him again and again, Rand confused and utterly outmatched did not comprehend how he was able to stay alive for so long. He looked around desperately for one of his friends, but they were nowhere to be found. Scared he wildly swung, and strangely made contact. The wound didn't seem all that deep to Rand, but Ralph gave a wild cry and sank to the ground.

Rand was tired, to the point that all he could do was lean against his sword and try to get enough air into his lungs so he could ask Ralph what was going on. In seconds he found himself pinned to a tree Ralph's arm against his neck and his eyes burning in Rand's. "Do you really think your enemies will ever stop, that you can stop till they are dead? The thing you know of as mercy is a tool of the weak to seem strong. You trusted me, you still can but you should not give your trust so easily. Your friends are being given the same lesson."

Ralp dropped Rand to the ground and turned around. As he walked on Rand called out that he no longer trusted Ralph, this cause Ralph to smile and spin around to face him. "Your learning," he said with a grin that made Rand feel cold.