After a few days doing chores, Egwene is assigned to a slightly more experienced novice to prepare for her lessons, none other than Elayne! It’s mentioned that there are very few people coming for training these days, so it doesn’t come off as too contrived. Plus, once Egwene figures out who she is, she immediately realizes Rand was telling the truth about meeting her. Thank god, the problems this story has don’t need that kind of thing added.
There’s a cameo by Logain, who’s been gentled and now just wanders around the garden, and Elayne promises two other girls we’ve met are here. One is Else Grimwell, the randy farmer’s daughter from that one chapter that now looks a lot less like filler. I’m intrigued to see where that goes, though she doesn’t make an appearance. The other is Min, who’s only here so they can try to figure out how her aura ability works, as it’s not the One Power.
And the hits keep on coming, as Gawyn and Galad also show up. Though this isn’t very good for Egwene, as she has a groan-inducing lusty reaction to Galad after she’d just gotten done mentally crucifying Rand for his string of not-quite-girlfriends. Then Elaida shows up to remind us of what a bitch she is, and we get a brief Min viewpoint letting us know Moiraine asked for her for some secret reason. And she’s also in love with Rand, and I gag some more.
The last bit with Min gets a bit problematic, but until then it’s quite exciting to see the parade of familiar faces, really giving you the idea that all this is going somewhere, even if it ended up taking its sweet time. I’m especially glad to see Elayne, as her one sequence in book one was one of my favorites, and seeing her become fast friends with Egwene is nice. Add more neat additions to the mytharc, and here’s a real winner.
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