Chapter 15: Kinslayer

In the dead mirror world, Rand, Loial, and Hurin ride south following the fading Darkfriend trail through burned, lifeless land. Loial uses his Treesong to craft a quarterstaff from a giantsbroom tree, sensing uneasily that the land itself seemed glad to provide a weapon.

As the day wears on, Hurin reports the trail feels more like memory than smell—as though he senses hundreds slaughtered with no physical trace left behind.

During his night watch, fog rises and Ba'alzamon materializes, calling Rand 'Kinslayer' and 'Lews Therin,' revealing his horribly burned face, and tempting him to embrace saidin in exchange for power and escape from madness. When the vision ends, Rand finds a heron brand burned into his right palm—seared there by the hilt of his own sword.