Chapter 36: Web of the Pattern

At The Queen's Blessing, Rand gives Master Gill a careful version of their trouble, leaving out Trollocs and Fades. Gill agrees to help for Thom's sake and promises to watch for any friend coming down from the north, but warns Rand away from Elaida and the Queen's Guards—either would draw the wrong attention.

Mat barely eats, snaps that the others must be dead, and shuts himself in their attic room with the dagger. Rand notices the inn's cook complaining about a sudden plague of rats in Caemlyn and remembers Lan's warning that the Dark One uses rats and ravens as eyes.

In the inn's library, Rand meets Loial, a ninety-year-old Ogier who left his stedding without the Elders' permission to see the old groves and found them gone or forgotten. Starved for someone to talk to, Rand ends up telling him almost everything—Trollocs, Fades, the dreams.

Loial names Rand ta'veren, a thread the Pattern bends others around, and asks to travel with him to Tar Valon. Rand puts him off, knowing a ten-foot Ogier cannot be hidden, but agrees to keep him company at the inn.