Glimpses of What Is To Come...

Introduction

There are still a great many events in store for Matrim Cauthon, and I believe that a great deal of them will occur in the immediate future... namely his encounters with the Daughter of the Nine Moons. When we left Mat in A Crown of Swords, he was in Ebou Dar, being buried under a building hit during the Seanchan invasion. He did not appear in The Path of Daggers (much like Perrin in an earlier volume), so one would assume that he is either being held captive or in recuperation... either of which would cover the time frame that passed in The Path of Daggers.

Here are some insights into his future...

Min's Viewings[TEotW, 181]
An Eye on a balance scale

Egwene's Dreams [TDR, 234]
Mat, placing his own left eye on a balance scale.
...There had been a dream of Mat and Seanchan too but she was willing to dismiss that as a nightmare.

Egwene's Dreams [TDR, 352-3]
Mat, riding desperately toward something unseen in the distance that he had to reach...

Perrin's Dreams [TDR, 425]
Mat, rattling a dice cup. His opponent stared at Mat with eyes of fire. Mat did not seem to see the man, but Perrin knew him. "Mat!" he shouted. "It's Ba'alzamon. Light, Mat, you're dicing with Ba'alzamon!"

Egwene's Dreams [TDR, 468-9]
Mat dicing with the Dark One, shouting "I am coming!" at her...

Egwene's Dreams [TSR, 177]
Mat wrestling with a Seanchan woman who tied an invisible leash to him.

Answers to Mat Question through the Doorway in Tear [TSR, 177]
To marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons
To give up half the light of the world to save the world.

Perrin's Dreams [TSR, 612]
Mat stood naked and bound, snarling; an odd spear with a black shaft had been thrust across his back behind his elbows, and a silver medallion, a foxhead, hung on his chest.

Egwene's Dreams [TFoH, 214]
Mat throwing dice with blood streaming down his face, the wide brim of his hat pulled down low so she could not see his wound...

Egwene's Dreams [TPoD, 308]
Mat, weighing two Aes Sedai on a huge set of balance scales, and on his decision depended... She could not say what; something vast; the world, perhaps.

To begin, we all know that Mat is going to be heavily connected to the Seanchan. He was left, under a building, in Ebou Dar... One can only assume he was abducted or taken captive by the Seanchan invading army. I would guess that he was taken prisoner... hense Perrin's vision of him "nake and bound... [with] an odd spear with a black shaft... thrust across his back..." And we also know that he will marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons, who has been established, although not specifically, as some sort of Seanchan noble. (This could either lead to an alliance with the Dragon or the White Tower. It's hard to tell, but Egwene has seen herself allied with at least one Seanchan.)

As for the eye on a balance scale... I believe that Mat will lose an eye, and somehow him losing this eye has something to do with the decision between the two Aes Sedai. In each "vision", something is seen on the balance scale. I would assume that in order for him to leave, and eventually aid Egwene in her trouble (whatever that may be), he will sacrifice "half the light of the world" (hence, one eye) in order to save her.

Finally... the "dicing with Ba'alzamon" is a bit more difficult to decipher. We know that High Lady Suroth is a Darkfriend of some fairly high pedigree. Possibly, some events will transpire in Ebou Dar, or wherever the Seanchan army takes Mat, and this inevibatly leads to some sort of confrontation with the Darkfriends, a Forsaken (maybe even Moridin), and the eventual loss of his eye and the decision that somehow risks the fate of the world.