“Turn her over to the White Tower, you say?” he said, glancing back into the room. “Which White Tower? Would you entrust her to Elaida? Or did you mean the others? I doubt that Egwene would be pleased if I dropped one of the Forsaken in her lap. Egwene might just let Semirhage go and take me captive instead. Force me to kneel before the White Tower’s justice and gentle me just to give her another notch in her belt.”

Nynaeve frowned. “Rand! Egwene would never—”

“She’s Amyrlin,” he said, downing his cup of wine in one gulp. It was as putrid as he recalled. “Aes Sedai to the core. I’m just another pawn to her.”

Yes, Lews Therin said. We need to stay away from all of them. They refused to help us, you know. Refused! Said my plan was too reckless. That left me with only the Hundred Companions, no women to form a circle. Traitors! This is their fault. But . . . but I’m the one who killed Ilyena. Why?

Weird as Rand has gotten, this outburst of Rand's against Egwene is oddly timed and overly vehement. While Egwene-haters are probably skipping like rabbits on a high, I think this is a significant shift in poition that needs looking into.

True, there is no reason for Rand to greatly trust Egwene at the present time, and given his obvious paranoia about the Aes Sedai, it would hardly be surprising if Rand stated his distrust of Egwene. He's been doing that since tFoH at least, I think.

But here he is, a few days from sending an offer of 47 Asha'man to Egwene (itself a rather irrational decision), claiming that Egwene would send a Forsaken to capture him so he could be stilled, stating that Egwene want "another" notch in her belt.

But for that statement about "another notch in the belt", I might have said this was simply a case of using an extreme example to drive his point home. But it seems here as if Rand resents Egwene, for some success or other, all in the space of a few days!

What are the possibilities?

1) Something happens in the prologue: Maybe Egwene rejects the offer? That's all I can come up with, unless she somehow escapes the Tower in the Prologue and causes some major problem for Rand. Even this is outside the realm of probability since both Lelaine and Romanda were for the offer.

2) LTT's anger against Latra Pose is leaching into Rand: We've seen that memories and skills have been passed on to Rand from LTT. Rand suddenly finds himself able to paint, finds himself remembering an orchard, etc. Could the same be happening with LTT's emotions?

It seems clear enough that Latra Pose was someone with whom LTT had a lot of contact. Certainly, they were the chief leaders of the Aes Sedai of their times, and LP's opposition, according to LTT, caused the taint on saidin and caused Illyena's death.

It wouldn't be surprising if LTT felt a great deal of frustration over Latra's success with the female Aes Sedai. And if he associates Illyena's death with his loss at Shayol Ghul, he probably feels deeply angry that Latra succeeded so well.

It isn't outside the realm of possibility that LTT had to make many concessions to Latra. Could it be that Rand's decision to preempt Egwene's anger by sending 47 Asha'man to her triggered LTT's dormant anger? Just like him, Rand is now having to make concessions to the leader of the female Aes Sedai. Does LTT associate Egwene with Latra Pose? Does he see her as an impediment?

I think this is so, and these feelings of LTT's are unconsciously affecting Rand's thought process. Maybe he finds it frustrating that despite his reasonable distrust of all Aes Sedai, he needs to keep them happy so that Egwene wouldn't be angry with him.

It is an interesting situation, paralleling what happened in the AoL. The Latra Pose of today is trying to unite all the women, but not against LTT's plan but in support of his avatar. Yet, there is now mutual distrust. From Egwene's side, anger that Aes Sedai have sworn to Rand. From Rand's side, frustration that he has to work to keep Aes Sedai placated, while they seem to be of no help at all. Added to this is LTT's own ancient anger against Latra Pose, coloring Rand's view of Egwene.

I think all this makes these paragraphs the most significant of the first chapter. Not only do they set up Rand's search for the final solution, they also give a hint of the greatest hurdle to the Light's success: mistrust between male and female channelers, exemplified by the mistrust between their leaders.