Chapter 39 (Weaving of the Web)

Mat's slowly getting worse, but Rand doesn't realize yet the extent of Mat's illness.  It seemed obvious to me, the reader, so by extension, Rand should have realized the same conclusion I had come to. That stupid dagger was causing all the paranoia, the weakness, etc., the conclusion I came to was drawn from things Rand  himself had observed. But hey - I'm just the reader. And Rand was just an inexperienced kid in a big city for the first time. Of course he's going to go off and explore.

This chapter was really interesting to me - a city putting aside their political differences for just one day - one common problem they all had: Logain, the "false dragon". Although how they or anyone knew he was false (at this point in time) was anyone's guess. The reader, of course, can speculate that Rand must be the "real" Dragon, though we have no idea what that means, what the end game of the Dragon would be. Back to the city and its differences. Although the citizens put aside their differences, they weren't reckless - Rand noticed that there were no women or children out and about and the air was charged. 

Rand ran into the beggar that had been looking for them - and I'd thought it was Fain, but Rand didn't seem to recognize the beggar, so just another Darkfriend? 

This short scene with Logain gave me quite a bit of a lasting impression of him. Not defeated, never defeated. It also gave me (perhaps unintentionally) a rather bad view of the Aes Sedai and I couldn't tell you exactly why, except, if I hazard a guess it would be because they were keeping Logain prisoner and I wasn't sure exactly why, so I didn't like it.

Also learn that it takes several women to block a man from touching the True Source, but it can happen. I'm sure I missed that the first time around as it happens right before in true Rand fashion - in trying to get away from the crowds, away from the action and merely observe, Rand falls into the castle.