We last left our traveling heroes at the edge of a crumbled Ways bridge! They have no way to get across on this path, and Loial starts freaking out that the Ways could crumble while they’re all in it, trapping them forever! Then Moiraine slaps him 47 times and points out that the stones around the bridge look like they’ve been weathered down over the course of years, not hours. Whew! Loial feels better! He still wants to go somewhere that’s at the end of a safer path, like such as Tar Valon. Moiraine is like NO! FAL DARA! Onward they go!

To rally the troops, Moiraine shares her feelings that Thom the gleeman isn’t actually dead. He’s still part of the Pattern, so expect him to show up in Book 9 juggling for heroin in the slums of Tear. Plus, that one Min woman’s visions had him woven into all this anyway. Mat says Min wasn’t having visions of anything other than getting reamed by Rand. Rand tells him to shove it. Rand actually wants to ream Egwene, but Egwene wants to get reamed by Aram. Then they all go to bed, and Moiraine does some magic Aes Sedai hoodwinkery to give the boys dreamless sleep.

The next day it’s more Travelin’ Thru the Ways. At some point they think they’re being followed. At another point they discover evidence that the Trollocs have been using the Ways to traverse the continent more quickly, proving that there’s a Waygate in the Blight. So that sucks. Later, Rand thinks he hears wind. In the Ways, that can only mean one thing: Machin Shin. The Black Wind.

Uh oh! Uh oh! Uh oh! Uh oh! They start running! Running running running! Escape the wrath of the wind! They make it to their Waygate, which is locked, so Moiraine attempts to blast it wide open as the wind gets closer and closer. Finally, they charge through the now-opened gate as Moiraine channels the One Power to send the wind some other way. I’ll tell ya, I live in Chicago. There’s no way that the wind in the Ways is more dangerous than the wind here in January.

The Black Wind has voices that say creepy things about stripping flesh from their bones and crocheting them into ugly Christmas sweaters. When asked what the Black Wind is exactly, Moiraine responds that she doesn’t know. Only that it’s either a trapped entity or one that was born within the degradation. Either way, don’t fuck with the Black Wind.

They’ve reached their destination of Fal Dara. I don’t remember what they want to do there! Maybe there’s a mall.