In the Land of Who-Knows-Where, Rand, Loial, and Hurin follow a hopeful Darkfriends trail. I don’t know exactly what Darkfriends smell like, but I’d wager it’s a combination of Fritos and a urinal in a public park bathroom. Eventually, because Loial can get stuff after singing to trees, he sings to some trees and earns himself a quarterstaff! +50 luck! Hurin is having some trouble smelling stuff in this weird, distorted, ugly land. Rand tries to be a cheerleader, but he’s not cute enough. They set up camp when it finally gets dark, and Rand decides to take the first watch. Of course, he’s a shitty watch guard and falls asleep almost immediately.

He dreams about Ba’alzamon again instead of having better dreams like fucking Egwene or eating candy. Ba’alzamon taunts Rand, tells him they’ve run into each other a hundred million times before in different permutations. He calls Rand “Lews Therin”, for example, since he was an old Dragon, you see. He also mentioned the unmentionable and mysterious Black Ajah! He even pulls off a mask and reveals his ugly, burned face! Rand is like “aaahhhh!”

Rand draws a sword and Ba’alzamon turns it white hot, burning the heron symbol into Rand’s palm. Rand then wakes up, heron-burn still there…

Short chapter. Time for lunch.