Chapter 25: Cairhien

Rand, Loial, and Hurin reach Cairhien under Tavolin's escort. The Foregate outside the walls is loud and shabby, packed with farmers driven off the land by the Aiel War. King Galldrian keeps them quiet with bread, daily races, and fireworks from the Illuminators' chapter house. Inside the walls the city is silent and gridded, the burned Topless Towers ringed in scaffolding.

At the gate Asan Sandair registers Rand as a lord of Andor and orders him to report his inn the next day. Rand asks after the Lady Selene.

At the Defender of the Dragonwall, Cuale the innkeeper takes Rand for an Aielman at first glance. Three sealed invitations from noble Houses are already waiting. Rand throws them in the fire. Hurin warns him too late that refusing Daes Dae'mar is itself a move, and that he has just made enemies of three Houses.

Restless, Rand walks back into the Foregate and ducks into a hall to hear a gleeman. The man on the dais is Thom Merrilin, alive, with a stiff leg from the Fade at Whitebridge. Thom wants his harp and flute back and tells Rand to come to the Bunch of Grapes.