Rand walks in on Aviendha taking a bath, and she’s so embarrassed she creates a portal to a place where a blizzard is going on. Rand follows her and rescues her from a river, and as they wait to warm up in a shelter, Aviendha declares the temptation has become too much and they have sex. But afterward, she makes it clear that this is as far as it’s going between them.
Oh dear. The first half of this chapter has some great stuff, as the descriptions of the blizzard are quite uncomfortably convincing, but then we get into the romance. Aviendha being in love with Rand herself is a very awkward development, and with the way he’s explicitly described as partly wanting her, Elayne, and Min, I’m definitely getting a sexist vibe, because just imagine how a woman with those kinds of thoughts would likely be portrayed. There’s no way this is as final as Aviendha says, but I wish it was.
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