Rand wakes up after a few days, in the countryside. Mat, Hurin, Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne are on their way to Tar Valon, while Moiraine and Lan have shown up here. Rand’s in no mood to talk, but after learning that his fight (which also melted his sword, sadly) was broadcast across the west coast Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann style and everyone is calling him the true Dragon Reborn, he pretty much has no choice. And as a bonus, this also comes with letting himself accept that he’s adopted, thank god. The rest of the Shienarans are still there, and ready to pledge themselves to him, but his reply is a cliffhanger. Though given the title of the next book, it loses something now.
This is all setup for the next book, but there is some nice rumination on how Rand is pretty much a Failure Hero by this point. Egwene is free no thanks to him, and he didn’t make it to his promised showdown with Fain, so now Emond’s Field is in danger. So I assume book three will focus on him growing into someone who deserves to be called a hero. And of course, his finally accepting everything rather than keeping up the Shinji act is quite a load off the whole story.