Chapter 16: The Wisdom

Min pulls Rand aside in the inn: Nynaeve has arrived from Emond's Field, and the sparks Min sees around the group flared the moment the Wisdom met Moiraine. Nynaeve is part of it now too.

The companions join Moiraine and Nynaeve in a cold sitting room. Nynaeve reveals she tracked the party from the Two Rivers, a feat that surprises Lan, and credits the hunting Tam taught her as a girl. She demands the four young people come home with her. Moiraine answers that only an Aes Sedai's protection can shield them from Trollocs and Fades, and Thom warns what the Whitecloaks would do to anyone tied to the party. Rand insists they have to keep going to Tar Valon to find out why the Trollocs hunt them.

Moiraine sends the others out and speaks with the Wisdom alone. Afterward Nynaeve tells Rand the village meeting collapsed into argument over who would chase them, so she had the Women's Circle send her instead. She also mentions Moiraine pressed hard on whether any of the boys were born outside the Two Rivers. Her too-quick denial tells Rand she knows the truth: Tam's fever talk about finding him was not delirium.