Rand’s group arrives in Cairhien, and as usual most of the chapter is just them wandering around and letting us get to know this new setting. And it’s quite a good one, with the cold, stoic city itself surrounded by Foregate, a shantytown of refugees from the Aiel invasion. So of course Rand’s hair does him no favors here, and it doesn’t help that he gets his Carrot Ironfoundersson on, bulling his way through the city of Magnificent Bastards with no thought to what they’ll think of him, as Hurin tries to get him to see sense. And then some forward movement at the end, as Rand discovers Thom, who was left alone by the Fade after his leg was injured. And this brief scene is plenty to remind me how fun he is.
Cairhien is another promising location I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot more of, and it’s pretty funny to see Rand not give a crap about the place’s power games with Hurin as essentially his Sassy Gay Friend. Let the consequences come later; for now I’m happy with this. And of course Thom is a joy to see again; the way he just picks up with Rand like nothing happened is a great touch while we also get all we need about how he survived, which makes perfect sense.
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