Chapter 16: The Wisdom

Min pulls Rand aside to warn him that Nynaeve is now part of the Pattern surrounding the group—she saw sparks when Nynaeve met Moiraine. The companions find Moiraine and Nynaeve in a tense confrontation. Nynaeve reveals she tracked them from Emond's Field—a feat that impresses Lan, as few can follow a trail he has tried to hide.

When the young people are sent away, Moiraine speaks privately with Nynaeve. Afterward, Nynaeve tells Rand that the Village Council argued endlessly, so she convinced the Women's Circle to send her instead. She also reveals that Moiraine asked if any of the boys were born outside the Two Rivers. Nynaeve kept Rand's secret—she remembers when Tam returned to the village with an outlander wife and a baby—but Rand now realizes his father's fever-words may have been true.