Adar 27, 998 NE (May 9th)

I was screaming, on my hands and knees right where I had been before, except now Egwene was at my side. "Rand! What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Her hands reached out for me, but I fled from them on instinct alone.

After that moment I realized that I was no longer stuck still in that gray void, with that strange Spirit that revealed so much to me, that had changed me. I stood up, backed away, and laughed, before shouting "I'm alive, I'm back. I'm not mad!"

My body felt quite energized now, the aches and pains and bruises disappearing like dew on a summer morning. A warm weight sat in my right hand. Egwene stepped back at the shout, looking at me oddly, fear in her eyes and in the eyes of Nynaeve, the Aes Sedai just looked at me with a chilling gaze.

"It's okay," I scrambled to tell Egwene, hands twitching with a desire to touch someone, to prove this is real. "I'm fine. I just. Something horrible happened to me just now, but I'm glad I'm back here and safe," I rambled, "safe here with you, Egwene, that is all I really need." I smiled at her, feeling relief.

Egwene looked at me like I was an idiot before she looked away, cheeks slightly blushing as she scolded me. "You wool-headed fool, are you sure you are okay? First you push me out of the way of that… man before running off with him chasing you. Then you scare me to death staring at us all confused and all beat up, stumbling to the ground like that and then screaming in pain, before jumping up with laughter. You want us to think you're mad, Rand?"

"I'm not mad!" I spoke, perhaps a bit forcibly and Egwene flinched. Burn me, I scared her. Calm down, idiot. She doesn't know. "I'm sorry, I did not mean to speak so loudly, but I am not mad, Egwene." I protested in a quieter voice.

"Let us sit down Rand, there is… there's a lot to talk about." She cannot possibly already know, I thought worriedly. I followed her, nerves squirming in my stomach and dread lurking in my heart.

I sat down in the green grass near Moiraine and Nynaeve, Egwene sitting tentatively beside me. I took a deep breath of clean air, enjoying the cool breeze in the spring sun, and frowned at the scent of decay. When I looked around, I spotted leaves turning brown and falling, fruits rotting off trees, flower petals dropping. Whatever protected this beautiful place, wherever we were, was dead. I turned my attention back to the women and decided to pretend my outbursts did not happen. They were all looking at me, waiting.

"Are all of you alright?" I asked, looking specifically at Moiraine, who was sickly pale with a scattering of purple bruises visible. Perhaps I should fear her, perhaps she will gentle me by sunset. But the Father of Lies told me the Aes Sedai would use me as a False Dragon, and he did not know my… parentage. He lied, and Moiraine had done nothing but act to protect me, even if it involved controlling me, even if she keeps all her secrets locked up tight. I vowed to myself that I would try to trust her in a way the old Rand did not; a new beginning even if she may not know it.

Her voice was soft, with a little rasp, like rusty bells, pretty but damaged. I found myself leaning in to listen to it, not having ever truly heard her voice in the memories. "Egwene and Nynaeve are fine, and I suffered more injury to my pride than anything else. Aginor was surprised and angry that I held him as long as I did, but fortunately, he had not time to spare for me. I am surprised myself, as he was known to be nearly as powerful as the Kinslayer and Ishmael in the Age of Legends." she said irritably. Her eyes were sharp and full of power, stuck in a frail mortal form. She looked beautiful in the moment, powerful despite the unfortunate circumstances that led her to be injured.

"The Dark One and all Forsaken," Egwene quoted in a faint, unsteady voice beside me, "are bound in Shayol Ghul, bound by the Creator…" She drew a shuddering breath. The Forsaken are not bound or not bound well if Ba'alzamon is supposed to be one. I almost spoke up but Moiraine beat me.

"Aginor and Balthamel must have been trapped near the surface." Moiraine sounded as if she had already explained this, impatient at doing so again. I nodded along. "The patch on the Dark One's prison weakened enough to free them. Let us be thankful no more of the Forsaken were freed. If they had been, we would have seen them."

I had to interrupt, to let her know what I was told. "That's not true, Moiraine Sedai. I saw Ba'alzamon. I thought he was the Dark One when I had those dreams, but when I fought Ba'alzamon today he was attached to a cord that went off into a towering shadow that was blacker than black and gave him power. Ir makes me believe he actually a Forsaken, maybe one who never was never really bound, if what he said in dreams was true. He's also mad, thinking he is the Dark One… or he was tricking me, tricking us."

Nynaeve looks unnerved, scooting away from me, while Egwene turned and looked worried for me.. Moiraine sat up straight as she could, which was not very, looking me dead in the eyes,. "Tell me everything, EVERYTHING that happened to you."

I swallowed, before steeling myself. "If Aginor was wearing a green cloak, then I killed him. At least, I think I did. I woke up after my battle with Ba'alzamon, with no memories in stinking oily ashes and I was in a lot of pain. When I entered the clearing I did not recognize any of you, except that Egwene was the important person I was looking for. And when you spoke my name, Egwene, it was like you unlocked something and I knew who I was, but with it came intense pain and the moment seemed to last hours." I shivered, remembering again the burning. The flames worming in through every part of me, even my soul. Heat just on the edge below painful, and the pressure rising.

Egwene reached over and softly put a hand on mine. I did not move away, enjoying the comfort and the newness of the sensation. I do not have as many memories of anything as I wished. I paused, realizing who I sat with. I may lose Egwene with this next reveal. "Moiraine Sedai, this next part. I'm not sure you want anyone else to hear it."

"They know, I told them you could channel," she said dismissively, "they are to be Aes Sedai, so I see no reason to hide it from them." That sent shivers down my spine. Was she planning on gentling me when I confess? Did I survive Ba'alzamon only to die to an Aes Sedai? No, no I have to trust her. She has protected me. I felt the weight of her gaze, Moiraine's eyes fixed on mine with an emotion I could not read. I was panicking.

I glanced at Egwene, who sat frozen and wouldn't look at me. I took my hand away feeling the beginnings of a stinging loss deep in my heart, and the next moment she flung herself into my side, squeezing me tight. "I'm so sorry, Rand. I'm sorry. I don't care. Truly, I don't." Her shoulders shook. I patted her hair and held her close for a minute, taking the comfort to calm myself, before looking over her head at the other two women.

"The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills," Nynaeve said slowly, "and you are still Rand al'Thor of Emond's Field. But, the Light help me, the Light help us all, you are too dangerous, Rand." I flinched from the Wisdom's harsh eyes, sadness and regret like earthquakes shaking at my foundations, but I was already accepting the loss. I did not want to think about what Perrin or Mat would say. I did not want to think of it all. Will my father even be able to look at me when he knows I can channel? When he knows I'm the Dragon Reborn?

"That is only part of what I learned. The other is my place in the Pattern, Moiraine Sedai." I shuddered, my stomach doing loops. I am the Dragon Reborn. I am the man who Broke the World reborn. Light save the World from me.

Moraine was surprised, for once, and peered at me curiously. "I had suspicions about you from the first," Moiraine said. "Suspicions are not proof, though. After I gave you the token, the coin, and made that bonding, you should have been willing to fall in with whatever I wanted, but you resisted, questioned. That told me something, but not enough. Manetheren's blood was always stubborn, and more so after Aemon died and Eldrene's heart was shattered. Then there was Bela."

"Bela?" I said. What does the farm's horse have to do with me being the Dragon?

The Aes Sedai nodded. "At Watch Hill, Bela had no need of me to cleanse her of tiredness; someone had already done it. She could have outrun Mandarb, that night. I should have thought of who Bela carried. With Trollocs on our heels, a Draghkar overhead, and a Halfman the Light alone knew where, how you must have feared that Egwene would be left behind." Egwene squeezed tighter. "You needed something more than you had ever needed anything before in your life, and you reached out to the one thing that could give it to you. Saidin. The Dragon could channel, therefore the Dragon Reborn must channel as well. Neither of your fellow ta'veren showed the same signs." Nynaeve and Egwene both gasped in shock, Egwene stiffening under my arm.

I decided to dive right in, and tell my tale. Telling the group of my faded memories, and glossing over the gifts. "Then the spirit gave me a gift," I said, "the gift of a Foretelling. The prophecy spoke of me 'binding six women to my heart', to gain the power to transform into the extinct animal known as a dragon. All so that I will survive the Last Battle to usher in a new Age of Light."

"What exactly was the Foretelling, Rand. Tell me everything." Moiraine's eyes look fevered now.

And so I told her. Moiraine's eyes widened at a couple of the lines, Nynaeve was staring at me with contempt and Egwene let go of me, backing away to glare at me with those beautiful brown eyes. I felt helpless in that moment, at the fire in those eyes. I simply had to explain.

"I didn't ask for this Egwene. I already decided when I was viewing my memories that I needed to mend our distance I created on this journey of ours, and be honest that I care for you. I do not care if you become an Aes Sedai." Egwene's eyes teared, that hateful glare gone. My voice became slowly faster now, and I'm stared straight ahead at nothing, an almost cold feeling washing over me as my heart began to pound. "But the Iridescent Flame… they did not care what I felt, really, for all their claims of gifts. When they helped 'refine' me, what they actually meant was burn me alive inside every single part of my body, even those that I didn't even know of, while I couldn't move or even speak. I felt them all burning for what seemed like hours." In through the nose, out through the mouth, comes an unbidden thought and I do just that, thrice.

I was calmer then. My heartbeat dropped, and I focused on the women. They all stared at me, Egwene and Moiraine with concern. Nynaeve's face was flat and I could not read it.

Moiraine spoke up then, concern in her tone as well, "Rand, you do not need to explain anymore right now. We can wait. Perhaps tomorrow you can ride your horse beside mine, while I lay in my litter."

I shook my head. "I should finish. There's just a little more. The spirit told me that when I…. Is there not a better word than bind? It feels not right speaking of 'binding women'." I looked uncomfortably to the Wisdom expecting a fountain of anger and got it, a newly fallen leaf crowning her braid fluttering as she tugged it with a red face, muttering rapidly on her breath. It was so funny looking I almost smiled before I caught myself. Do not give her more reasons to hate you, Rand.

Moiraine spoke up rather quickly. "It would be best to consider it a bond, and members as bond-mates or perhaps wife if they would rather that title." She said with a calm gaze on Egwene.

Bond? I guess I like that. I like the idea of that well enough. "Bond will work, Moiraine Sedai, thank you. After I bond with the first women, I will become a chinnar'veren, is what he called it. And I'll have my first form, the so'shan or Lord Form."

"What is a chinnar'veren?" asked Egwene.

"A shapechanger," said Lan and I startled, turning and reaching for my father's sword before I remembered who Lan was.

Lan stood just as tall as me and more heavily muscled, if not quite so broad in the shoulders. A narrow band of braided leather held the Warder's long hair back from his face, a face that seemed made from stony planes and angles, a face unlined as if to belie the tinge of gray at his temples. He had one of the Wisdom's bandages wrapped around his chest and he stood stiffly with some discomfort. "I've been listening. You have about three minutes before the rest come up, Moiraine Sedai."

Moiraine nodded, thinking for a moment, before stating, "Explain the chinnar'veren until they come," then seemed to close her eyes and drift to sleep.

And so Lan explained the history, of their origins, and got through the first two Forms before

"During the War of Power, the War that ended the Age of Legends, the Creator blessed humanity with the chinnar'veren. People began to be born with the power, over time and experience, to assume three different forms, or so, with enhanced physiques and strange abilities beyond human that were not the One Power, becoming great warriors who fought on the frontline of the War, leading men and women to battle, as the so'shan or the Lord Form, the first form of a shapechanger. Even until the Trolloc Wars, so'shan lead the armies of Jaramide, and Aramaelle from the front. The second form is called the so'gaighael, the Battlebeast form. It is described in writings most often as if Trollocs were made by the hand of the Creator, powerful beastmen lacking any obvious human characteristics, who stand as tall as Ogiers, and can fight off entire Fists by themselves, even if the chinnar'veren was no Aes Sedai. It takes years for a shapechanger to grow experienced enough to advance their forms, so they were—" Egwene was enthralled, looking to me excitedly.

Lan stopped as I saw Mat stride up behind him, holding what looked like pieces of pottery in his hands, Perrin with a large white cloth bundle in his hands and leading them Loial carried a large gold chest, ornately worked and chased with silver. No one but an Ogier could have lifted it unaided.

"So you're alive after all." Mat laughed. His face darkened, and he jerked his head at Moiraine. "She wouldn't let us look for you. Said we had to find out what the Eye was hiding. I'd have gone anyway, but Nynaeve and Egwene sided with her and almost threw me through the arch."

"You're here, now," Perrin said, "and not too badly beaten at all, by the look of you. Just covered in ash." His eyes did not glow, but the irises were all yellow, now. How strange. Egwene made a strangled noise. "That's the important thing. You're here, and we're done with what we came for, Whatever it was. Moiraine Sedai says we're done, and we can go. Home, Rand. The Light burn me, but I want to go home."

"It is good to see you alive, sheepherder," Lan added gruffly. "I see you hung onto your sword. Maybe I'll truly teach you how to use it, now." I felt a sudden burst of affection for the Warder; I barely knew him, and Lan knew, but on the surface at least, nothing had changed. I thought that perhaps, for Lan, nothing had changed inside either. I needed that.

"I must say," Loial said, setting the chest down, "that traveling with ta'veren has turned out to be even more interesting than I expected." His ears twitched violently. "If it becomes any more interesting, I will go back to Stedding Shangtai immediately, confess everything to Elder Haman, and never leave my books again." Suddenly the Ogier grinned, that wide mouth splitting his face in two. "It is so good to see you, Rand al'Thor. The Warder is the only one of these three who cares much at all for books, and he won't talk. What happened to you? We all ran off and hid in the woods until Moiraine Sedai sent Lan to find us, but she would not let us look for you. Why were you gone so long, Rand?"

I looked at Moiraine for help, absolutely certain I could not tell a worthwhile lie. She mouthed so'shan and I thought furiously for a long moment before coming up with a truth. "You've read a lot of books. Have you heard of chinnar'veren, Loial?"

His eyebrows jiggle excitedly and he gave me a wide smile. "Oh I have indeed, Fal Dara had a veritable gold mine of journals and histories of these shapeshifters. I managed to get a moment to read from one of the last journals before the Trolloc Wars, sent to Tar Valon and returned by the current Amyrlin, and it was—"

I coughed.

Loial looked startled and abashed, drooping. "Well yes, shapechangers. They were said to be a gift from the Creator to mankind during the War of Power, when certain people, after an…"—He looked at me with realization.—"ordeal or trauma…will be able to transform partially into an animal, with three so, or Forms. The so'shan, the Lord Form was said to be mostly human with certain animal features, but stronger and more resilient. They were said to heal far faster and had strange abilities related to their animal that Aes Sedai of this Age call Talents."

I interrupted Loial, not wanting to risk a tangent. "When I face Aginor today, I found out I was a shapechanger, a shapechanger of a lizard that can breathe fire. Aginor did something before he burned away, that caused me hit my head pretty badly and I woke up with some memory loss. Then I stumbled out of the ashes and found my way here."

Egwene once again makes a frustrated noise, but this time I looked. She glared at me, and I knew exactly why: she was scrubbing ash from her dress.

"I told you what it was. You were the one that hugged me!" I protested.

"I know! That's why I'm so angry!" was her reply which made no sense at all, so I turned back.

"What does it mean, now that Rand's one of these Age of Legends shapechangers," Mat spoke cautiously, looking at the Aes Sedai. Perrin looked suddenly worried at that.

"It changes everything. It means Rand has been chosen to fight the Shadow. Lan will begin training him immediately. He will not be returning home with either of you, not for a long time," Moiraine said with the supreme confidence of a Queen pronouncing a new law.

Perrin and Mat turned to look at me to see my reaction, both clearly mad. I gave a sad smile and a shrug. "The Aes Sedai has spoken."

"Blood and ashes, you're just giving up?" Mat said scornfully.

I tried to stay calm. "I'm not 'giving up'. I'm just not stupid, Mat. It's better to be close to Moiraine Sedai than alone with the servants of the Dark One hunting me. Hunting us."

"You think she is safer?" Mat laughed incredulous. "Look at you, she led us here, and you burnt a man alive today, Rand! You're bloody mad to think being with her kind will keep you safe."

"I'm not mad!" I shouted back. "You're mad if you don't think we'd be dead or worse without her with us. Would you have survived Winternight? Can you fend off fists of Trollocs and Halfmen, Mat? Can you go toe-to-toe with Forsaken? No, so shut your fucking mouth." My heart raced, my hands shook. Mat turned the color of puce, but kept silent when Perrin put a hand on his shoulder.

The others watched us, Moiraine's eyes open, gazing at me. Loial looked worried between me and Mat, while Nynaeve had taken Egwene aside and spoke quietly to her, as Egwene shook her head.

"The Dark One and all the Forsaken are boun-" Perrin started.

I interrupted. "They are not. Aginor, Balthamel, and Ba'alzamon were all here today."

Mat scoffed at that, face frowning. "Ba'alzamon is the Dark One." Then he gave a sour laugh. "You are mad, Rand, if you think he was here."

Just ignore him. Just ignore him. Just ignore him, went the chant in my head, I focused on my breathing and calmed myself. I did not wish to lose all emotion and thought into the Flame and the Void, and found the breathing exercise useful, though I do not remember how I learned it.

"Egwene, Nynaeve, help me up. While the boys argue I would like to examine what exactly they found in the Eye." The girls brought Moiraine up to a sitting position between them.

"How could these things be inside the Eye," Mat asked, anger still sharp in his voice as he ignored me, "without being destroyed like that rock I threw?"

"They were not put there to be destroyed," the Aes Sedai said curtly, and frowned away their questions while she took the pottery fragments, black and white and shiny, from Mat. They seemed like rubble to me, but she fitted them together deftly on the ground beside her, making a perfect circle the size of a man's hand. The ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai, the Flame of Tar Valon joined with the Dragon's Fang, black siding white. For a moment Moiraine only looked at it, her face unreadable, then she took the knife from her belt and handed it to Lan, nodding to the circle.

The Warder separated out the largest piece, then raised the knife high and brought it down with all his might. A spark flew, the fragment leaped with the force of the blow, and the blade snapped with a sharp crack. He examined the stump left attached to the hilt, then tossed it aside. "The best steel from Tear," he said dryly. Mat snatched the fragment up and grunted, then showed it around. There was no mark on it.

"Cuendillar," Moiraine said. "Heartstone. No one has been able to make it since the Age of Legends, and even then it was made only for the greatest purpose. Once made, nothing can break it. Not the One Power itself wielded by the greatest Aes Sedai who ever lived aided by the most powerful sa'angreal ever made. Any power directed against heartstone only makes it stronger."

"Then how…?" Mat's gesture with the piece he held took in the other bits on the ground.

"This was one of the seven seals on the Dark One's prison," Moiraine said. Mat dropped the piece as if it had become white-hot. For a moment, Perrin's eyes seemed to glow again. The Aes Sedai calmly began gathering the fragments.

"It doesn't matter anymore," I said. My friends looked at me oddly, Egwene sympathetic, and it just made me wish I had kept my mouth shut.

"Of course," Moiraine replied, giving me a secret smile, like Egwene would when she knew something I did not. She carefully put all the pieces into her pouch. "Bring me the chest." Loial lifted it closer.

The flattened cube of gold and silver appeared to be solid, but the Aes Sedai's fingers felt across the intricate work, pressing, and with a sudden click a top flung back as if on springs. A curled, gold horn nestled within. Despite its gleam, it seemed plain beside the chest that held it. The only markings were a line of silver script inlaid around the mouth of the bell. Moiraine lifted the horn out as if lifting a babe. "This must be carried to Illian," she said softly.

"Illian!" Perrin growled. "That's almost to the Sea of Storms, nearly as far south of home as we are north now."

"Is it...?" Loial stopped to catch his breath. "Can it be...?"

"You can read the Old Tongue?" Moiraine asked, and when he nodded, she handed him the horn.

The Ogier took it as gently as she had, delicately tracing the script with one broad finger. His eyes went wider and wider, and his ears stood up straight. "Tia mi aven Moridin isainde vadin," he whispered. "The grave is no bar to my call."

"The Horn of Valere." For once the Warder appeared truly shaken; there was a touch of awe in his voice.

At the same time Nynaeve said in a shaky voice, "To call the heroes of the Ages back from the dead to fight the Dark One."

"Burn me!" Mat breathed.

Loial reverently laid the horn back in its golden nest. "I begin to wonder," Moiraine said. "The Eye of the World was made against the greatest need the world would ever face, but was it made for the use to which... we... put it, or to guard these things? Quickly, the last, show it to me."

After the first two, I could understand Perrin's reluctance. Lan and the Ogier took the bundle of white cloth from him when he hesitated, and unfolded it between them. A long, white banner spread out, lifting in the slightly warm breeze. I could only stare. The whole thing seemed of a piece, neither woven, nor dyed, nor painted. A figure like a serpent, scaled in scarlet and gold, ran the entire length, but it had scaled legs, and feet with five long, golden claws on each, and a great head with a golden mane and eyes like the sun. The stirring of the banner made it seem to move, scales glittering like precious metals and gems, alive, and I almost thought I could hear it roar defiance. A banner of the Dragon. Of my Dragon. My stomach dropped. Egwene gasped in recognition. This cannot be happening. They will know. They will know when Moiraine tells them.

Loial asked, "What is it?"

Moiraine paused, then answered, "The banner of the Lord of the Morning when he led the forces of light against the Shadow. The banner of Lews Therin Telamon. The banner of the Dragon." Loial almost dropped his end.

"Burn me!" Mat said faintly.

"We will take these things with us when we go," Moiraine said. "They were not put here by chance, and I must know more." Her fingers brushed her pouch, where the pieces of the shattered seal were. "It is too late in the day for starting now. We will rest, and eat, but we will leave early. The Blight is all around here, not as along the Border, and strong. Without the Green Man, this place cannot hold long. Let me down," she told Nynaeve and Egwene. "I must rest."