Chapter 50: Meetings at the Eye

The Green Man leads the party to the Eye of the World—a vast underground pool of pure saidin, the male half of the True Source, created by a hundred Aes Sedai, men and women together, who died to make it pure during the first days of the Breaking. Moiraine reveals it holds the power to mend or break the seal on the Dark One's prison, and that only a man could channel it.

As they emerge, two of the Forsaken appear: Aginor, withered and ancient, and Balthamel, whose ruined body is hidden behind a black leather mask. Aginor flings Lan against the archway and Balthamel seizes Nynaeve.

The Green Man intervenes—he destroys Balthamel with a furious eruption of fungus and creepers, then dies, his last act growing a mighty oak over his resting place. Moiraine opens the earth beneath Aginor with fire, but the Forsaken walks through it, and she screams for the others to run.