Gaiety abounds in the Stag and Lion common room! Why, Thom the Gleeman hops around the room like a loon regaling the clientele with fanciful legends and tales like The Great Hunt and The Great Cunt and Larry the Bard’s Trip to Disney World. Then he grabs a flute like Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull and everyone dances! Oh, the joy! The fun! It feels good to live life to the fullest again! I’m sitting here jealous that I can’t enjoy an evening of dancing to some child molester’s flute playing. I really was born in the wrong time.

Several times during the dancing, Rand notices a man with a large scar across his face sneering at him. Mat noticed the man as well. Lan tells them he’s a spy for the Whitecloaks, and that’s going bite them all in the butt come morning. Forget about that now, it’s time for bed. Rand goes to the kitchen to get some milk and runs into a Fade on the way back to his quarters. It scares the shit out of him. He thinks he’s gonna die, and he almost does! But then the Fade tells Rand that he belongs to the Great Lord of the Dark, which sounds like the alter ego of some goth teenager named Brian.

It totally sucks, man, that this Fade showed up at the Stag and Lion in the middle of the night. Lan ain’t havin’ it, and they prepare to leave forthwith! Moiraine implores Mister Fitch the Innkeeper Extraordinaire that his inn is in danger, but he will hear none of it! Darkfriends! Darkfriends! They’re gonna come getcha.

The party leaves. Nynaeve joins them because she still intends to shepherd these kids back to Emond’s Field even if they all die a horrible death doing so! Plus, she doesn’t want to leave them alone with this bitch over here points to that Moiraine bitch

They all reach the gates leading out of the city and get ambushed by a group of Nazis. I mean, Whitecloaks. They get all up in Lan’s face, but he remains stoic. Moiraine gets attacked when they learn she is an Aes Sedai, which makes her grow about ten feet tall. All like “RAAWWRRR GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” It works, they retreat a bit, and the party leaves through the gate with none the wiser!

If Moiraine being an Aes Sedai didn’t freak the kids out enough, this event was even freakier. Is there no end to what the Aes Sedai will do in front of them?! A menace, to be sure. Especially since, get this, the Stag and Lion has been attacked and is now on fire and she wants them to continue on without looking back! Whomever attacked the inn thinks the three boys are still there, so it’s all their fault. Nynaeve yells at Moiraine to go back and help, but Moiraine tells her go eat dirt.

So Nynaeve eats dirt. They continue on with their journey.