I blush to admit it, but I actually made a mistake in this essay. I have been told (and I should have checked anyway) that Egwene's dream about Mat took place before the end of book 3 and thus was fulfilled when he rescued her and the others in Tear. In that case, leave out the parts of this theory concerning Mat (although I still think he may play a part in exposing Halima) - the rest of it I stand by.

Right at the beginning, let me say that I have very little idea where I’m actually going with this essay. I’ll present some evidence, offer a few hypotheses, speculate a bit, but I doubt that I’ll come to any conclusions.

OK? Then let’s start.

In a previous essay, Counter-Coup, I suggested that in fact there would be no battle when Egwene’s forces reach Tar Valon, as, faced with outright war between Aes Sedai, the Tower faction would depose Elaida and accept Egwene as Amyrlin. Now, while I still think that this will happen, a closer reading of the series suggests it won’t be anywhere near that simple.

That is, Egwene will end up as Amyrlin of a unified Tower, but she and everyone else will go through a lot of trouble before ending up that way.

The jacket text of The Path Of Daggers reads as follows: Egwene is determined to unseat the usurper Elaida and reunite the Aes Sedai. She does not yet understand the price that others - and she herself - will pay.

Nor, frankly, do I, and no reference is made to this ‘price’ anywhere in the book itself, but the phrasing of this makes it unlikely that Egwene will simply walk in and take the Tower. Danger lies ahead. A price must be paid.

Now let’s have a look at some of Egwene’s dreams.

Mat dicing with the Dark One, and why did he keep shouting, "I am coming!" and why did she think in the dream that he was shouting at her? 

Twice, right atop one another, she dreamed of taking him (Gawyn) by the shoulders and trying to turn him to face the other way against his will. Once he brushed her hands away roughly; the other time, she was somehow stronger than he. The two blended together hazily. In another he began swinging a door closed on her, and she knew if that narrowing gap of light vanished, she was dead.

He had some distance to cover yet, but he could see her; his gaze was fixed on her like an archer's on the target. A faint sound of crunching and grating hung in the air. She looked down. And felt a scream building in her. On bare feet, Gawyn walked across a floor of broken glass, shards breaking at every slow step. Even in that faint light she could see the trail of blood left by his slashed feet.

Straps at waist and shoulder held her tightly to the block, and the headsman's axe descended, but she knew that somewhere someone was running, and if they ran fast enough, the axe would stop. If not...In that corner of her mind she felt a chill.

And one of Min’s viewings:

For a moment, she let herself think of the images she had glimpsed, just for a moment, flickering around Gawyn's head. Gawyn kneeling at Egwene's feet with his head bowed, and Gawyn breaking Egwene's neck, first one then the other, as if either could be the future. 
The things she saw were very rarely as clear in meaning as those two, and she had never before seen that fluttering back and forth, as though not even the viewing could tell which would be the true future. Worse, she had a feeling near to certainty that it was what she had done this day that had turned Gawyn toward those two possibilities.

What can we conclude from this? That at some point in the future, possibly twice, Egwene will be in great danger. That both Mat and Gawyn will be crucial to her survival. That Gawyn’s part involves a choice between supporting or opposing Egwene.

Almost certainly, this danger is related to the White Tower conflict. What Min did to turn Gawyn towards the two possibilities was, presumably, rescuing Siuan and Leane, and that led more or less directly to Egwene being raised Amyrlin.

Rescue is not certain from either Mat or Gawyn. Mat is dicing - taking chances. The axe will stop if someone (probably Mat) runs fast enough. Gawyn may kneel to Egwene - and he may break her neck.

It’s the last point that needs explanation. Egwene will live, I’m certain of that. Gawyn will make the right choice. But both her dream and Min’s viewing suggest that the chances of each choice are identical. That is, Gawyn could conceivably kill Egwene.

Gawyn loves Egwene beyond all reason. What could possibly turn him against her?

Just her being Amyrlin? He may be sworn to serve the Tower - but does anyone seriously believe that an oath to Elaida would outweigh what he feels for Egwene? His own words were “I will do anything, betray anything, for you.” Not to mention that his oath to his sister Elayne surely takes precedence - and Elayne supports Egwene.

Her friendship with Rand? But he knows about that already.

I cannot think of one thing that Egwene has done, or is likely to do, that could make Gawyn turn against her. Can you? No? Well, let’s skip that and go on.

What is this great danger that Egwene will be in? Capture and stilling by Elaida’s faction? By the Black Ajah? By one of the Forsaken? Being captured and turned to the Shadow? - Wait a minute, there’s something.

If Gawyn believed that Egwene had gone over to the Dark. Could he bring himself to kill her then? I think he just might.

So either an attempt to turn her will fail, but leaving Gawyn thinking it succeeded, and she’ll have to convince him otherwise, or the attempt will succeed and Egwene will be brought back to the Light, possibly by Gawyn’s faith in her.

All right, so I have gotten somewhere with this essay. Nowhere particularly conclusive, but it’s a start.

So let’s go on - What does Mat have to do with anything? Maybe this is related to the Seanchan rather than to the Tower conflict? Maybe it is, but I can’t really think how right now. Hmm - maybe Mat will be the one to take out Halima aka Aran’gar? He already has a shred of suspicion about her, and with that medallion of his he almost has to go head to head with one of the Forsaken.

As a possible scenario, then, perhaps Egwene gets suspicious of Halima, Halima gets suspicious of Egwene being suspicious of her and hits her with some heavy-duty Compulsion. Mat turns up in the nick of time to rescue his friend the Amyrlin from the clutches of the dread Forsaken.

Well, look at that, I got somewhere else.

In fact, I think this essay is coming together coherently after all. Because all these strange ideas whirling around in my head just collided to form - wait for it- a THEORY.

Egwene and company lay siege to the White Tower. Meanwhile, within the Shining Walls, dissatisfaction with Elaida is growing. Seaine, Pevara and the other Sitters they now have working with them go through the entire Hall, root out the hidden Darkfriends, and in the process find out about Alviarin. The Hall, meeting in secret one dark and stormy night (Of course it’s dark and stormy, what self-respecting conspirators would hold a secret meeting on a bright sunny day?) decide that the only thing to do is get rid of both Elaida and Alviarin and invite Egwene in to reunite the Tower.

Alviarin figures out what’s happening in advance and Travels out, Elaida is shielded, deposed, and imprisoned, and kills herself in her cell rather than face trial (and rather than admit she was wrong). Egwene is formally recognised as Amyrlin and the Tower is whole again - until led by the two resident Forsaken, the Black Ajah mounts an offensive.

Egwene is captured, with plans for turning her to the Shadow, gets to play damsel-in-distress until Gawyn and/or Mat rescue her, Gawyn makes his choice (which is, of course, that he’s madly in love with Egwene and should be ashamed of himself for thinking that she could ever, ever be evil) and - well, I suppose the Black Ajah is chased out and everyone rides off to Tarmon Gai’don, at which Egwene and Gawyn and all the rest of the main characters get to be unspeakably heroic.

Reading over what I’ve just finished writing, I think that’s 1) the longest, and 2) the least coherent essay I’ve written in a while. How did it turn out? Any comments, be they compliments or complaints, can be emailed to me, you should know my address by now but if you don’t it’s raina13@oocities.com.
 

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