Rand spends a lot of time running around the Fal Dara keep, acting all sorts of “oh no” and “oh god” because he thinks the Aes Sedai are showing up to kill him or something. Perhaps because he’s possibly the first male Aes Sedai in millennia and the women are all “fuck that” and want to skewer Rand through the heart like a shish kebab.

Rand returns to the quarters he shares with Mat and Perrin and discovers a slew of female housekeepers rummaging through their clothes, throwing them out, and replacing them with new ones per Moiraine’s orders. Rand is ordered to strip down RIGHT THEN AND THERE in front of a roomful of boner-inducing ladies so that he can wear some crispy lord-like clothes. He begrudgingly does it, and even comments upon how nice it is to wear fresh clothes that he hasn’t sweated or pissed in constantly for weeks.

He packs up his soiled, gross clothes (as well as “Dead” Thom Merrilin Gleeman’s harp and flute and clown jacket with the clown patches) and heads to the stables where he intends to book it via horse. On his way, he catches a glimpse of the Big Cheese Aes Sedai, the Amyrlin, step out and address Lord Agelmar and thank him for the hospitality. The Aes Sedai are going to party down, start tearing Fal Dara up, chewing the shit out of it and spitting it out. L’chiam!

A servant at the stables treats Rand as a lord because of the “al” in “al’Thor”, which I surmise is a regal distinction. Rand doesn’t like it, but he can’t make the servants stop doing it. He is informed that, effective about fourteen microseconds ago, no one is to enter or leave the keep until further notice because the Aes Sedai are going to start tearing Fal Dara up. Rand is downtrodden that he can’t escape the keep like he wants to, so he’s going to take his lumps and get his lashes and whatever else he thinks is going to happen. But the opposite is going to happen. I already know that.