Chapter 13: From Stone to Stone

Rand, Loial, and Hurin wake to find themselves alone at a Portal Stone—a towering gray cylinder covered in ancient markings, surrounded by seven colored stone steps—with everyone else vanished and the landscape drained of color. Loial recognizes the Stone from an old book fragment: 'From Stone to Stone run the lines of if, between the worlds that might be.' He explains that in the Age of Legends, the most powerful Aes Sedai used these Stones to travel between worlds.

Rand realizes he must have accidentally channeled in his sleep and transported them to this mirror world. He tries to use the One Power to return them, reaching for saidin through the void, but the attempt fails violently—the void shatters into a thousand razor shards.

Hurin can still smell the Darkfriends' faint trail even here, so they ride south, hoping to find the Darkfriends and a way home.