“He closed his eyes and formed the flame. The void came slowly, hesitantly. He knew his own fear was holding it back,
fear of what he was trying. As fast as
he fed fear into the flame, more came. I
can’t do it. Channel the Power. I don’t want to. Light, there has to be another way…He
could feel sweat beading on his face.
Determinedly he kept on…And the void was there. The core of him floated in emptiness. He could see the light – saidin – even
with his eyes closed, feel the warmth of it surrounding him, surrounding
everything, suffusing everything It wavered like a candle flame seen through
oiled water. Rancid oil. Stinking oil.” – The Great Hunt, p.
219.
It is at this point in The Great Hunt where
something very important happens to Rand al’Thor, he reaches out and grabs
saidin on his own for the first time. He
finds himself with Loial and Hurin transported into a parallel telling of the
Wheel of Time through what is known as a Portal Stone, only accessible via
channeling the One Power, at a time when there were male Aes Sedai. Rand channeled in his sleep, playing on the
idea that he wished to get away from his troubles. This idea of Rand running away is something
shared by Mat and Perrin, both unable to run because of the dagger constricting
Mat’s health. There has been a lot of
discussion on Rand being put into a leadership role, it being revealed he’s
secretly the second in command of the hunt for the Horn of Valere, but it is at
this point where Rand actually has to confront this fact. He’s the one who can channel and he’s the one
who is going to be able to get Loial and Hurin out of this. There is this display of complete fear from
Hurin, which adds realism to the piece.
Hurin to this point had been stoic and fitting into a stock strong
armyman trope, but he’s got a family waiting for him: ““My Lord Rand?” Now on his feet, Hurin seemed calmer, but he
clutched his coat at the waist with both hands, his face urgent. “My Lord Rand, you’ll get us back, won’t
you? Back where we belong? I’ve a wife, my Lord, and children. Melia’d take it bad enough, me dying, but if
she doesn’t even have my body to give to the mother’s embrace, she’ll grieve to
the end of her days. You understand, my Lord. I can’t leave her not knowing. You’ll get us back. And if I die, if you can’t take her my body, you’ll
let her know, so she has that, at least.”
He was no longer questioning at the end.
A note of confidence had crept into his voice.” – The Great Hunt,
p. 217-218.
Rand has to be the one to lead them through this other
world, he’s the one in charge of the group, and having Hurin outwardly be
relying on him in that tone makes that come together. There is an encounter with Ba’alzamon in this
other world which is where we get the first real confirmation of Rand as the
Dragon Reborn. He is referred to
directly as Lews Therin, and while he is still rejecting the title of Dragon,
this is yet another confirmation that Rand is the Dragon Reborn: “Oh, I know
the name you use now, Lews Therin. I
know every name you have used through Age after Age, long before you were even
the Kinslayer…I
know you, know your blood and your line back to the first spark of life that
ever was, back to the First Moment. You
can never hide from me. Never! We are tied together as surely as two sides
of the same coin” – The Great Hunt, p. 242. This tying together is something which has
already been foreshadowed with the idea of the Dark Prophecy already coming to
past, though this is something which Rand hasn’t heard, explaining that the
Great Lord of the Dark is coming and the Time of Change has come. There is another prophetic moment here, Rand defying
Ba’alzamon’s offer to teach him to channel, something that Rand is still
actively avoiding despite having to actually grab saidin in this section of the
book. “The dark eyes became fire again, and
that mouth, flame that blossomed and grew until it seemed brighter than a summer
sun. Grew, and suddenly Rand’s sword
glowed as if just drawn from the forge. He
cried out as the hilt burned his hands, screamed and dropped the sword…There
across the palm was branded a heron.” – The Great Hunt, p. 245. While he has the strength to resist Ba’alzamon,
he does not resist Selene, a woman whom Rand saves and takes along with
them. There are hints that she has been
following the party since before the Portal Stone things, as she matches a
description of a woman seen, but Rand immediately trusts her. She gets Rand to discuss legends and promise
to take her home, they are chased by Shadowspawn, but aren’t actually there. Now there is something which gets them back,
Selene gives Rand just enough information for him to grab saidin and they get
back, but it’s all there subtly. She is
manipulating Rand, beginning Rand’s actual issues with women. This will be discussed
with much more depth later on, but Rand is a character easily led when it comes
to certain women, like the woman who reminds Rand of Egwene.
Finally,
while Rand, Hurin, and Loial are traversing this alternate path, Perrin has a
minor point of development. Chapter 14
is entitled “Wolfbrother”, sharing its title with Chapter 23 of The Eye of
the World. This is not the first
time Jordan reuses a chapter title, nor will it be the last, but it is
important as Perrin essentially parallels Rand’s development here. This is the chapter where Perrin first
actively seeks out speaking with the wolves, and not just allowing them in the
background. They give him a name, Young
Bull, and he muses over the fact that he killed men in the last book, something
which has been on his mind in The Eye of the World, but because he
always looks contemplative it’s something which isn’t changing. He also has to have the trust to tell Ingtar
he is able to essentially keep them moving, because they’re stuck without Hurin. This leap of trust is important as it’s
something that the last time he mentioned he was actively captured by the
Children of the Light, something that doesn’t happen here. There is some obfuscating, telling the party
that he has the same gift as Hurin (he doesn’t), but he is the one to notice
Verin arriving and asking after Rand (and only Rand). Perrin is the contemplative one and in
parallel actively accepts this part of himself and uses it once he’s
accepted. He can trust Ingtar while Rand
is still hung up on being captured and going insane, real concerns, but the
refusal to accept is something that starts to break. This is the point where magic of The Wheel
of Time changes from being something for other characters to being actively
used by our point of view characters.
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