Moraine lets Loial explain the Ways, even as he cannot be brief about it "I will try to be brief but this is not a thing that can be told too briefly." I cannot help but wonder if (or simply accept that) this was more of Moraine's manipulations; letting Loial speak of the way, maybe believing that putting words to his fears would somewhat calm him down, make him more amiable. It's a thought.
This thought came to me while I was reading my notes - Machin Shin and Mashadar - they are both non-sentient entities whose origins we don't know much of - slightly more of Mashadar than Machin Shin - though they both seem to come from the corruption of the people and/or the corruption of the Source. So basically anything the Dark One touches can become corrupted.
Loial also brings something else up during his commentary - or rather, Moraine brings up it - a good question. Apparently during the Breaking the Ogier offered the men who were going insane (and causing the Breaking to happen) sanctuary and it looks like there were two schools of thought about it. Many of the male Aes Sedai took the offered sanctuary, but in the end, none could stay. So if no sanctuary had been offered, would it have been better that all the men went insane at the same time instead of prolong the Breaking? Or was it good that it was spaced out while the men sought (and then couldn't handle) sanctuary? Without knowing actual damage - just intimated, I'm not sure I could give an educated guess, so my "feeling" is that Moraine is right - better the damage was spaced over years instead of all at once. Thoughts? How many years did the Breaking take anyway?
Of course, even after hearing all about Machin Shin, Rand is the first to speak up, then Perrin and Mat join in (at first I missed the sentence that said they'd agreed, I had to go back to find "did the other two actually say yes?"). Of course, Egwene isn't going to stay behind either, so naturally Nynaeve gets drawn in. And Loial, who wanted to go anyway, agrees to take them through the Ways (after of course, much guilt tripping from Moraine).
Lan going is a given - which reminds me - I would dearly love to know what an "iron-cored drawl" sounds like, which is how Jordan describes Lan's voice.
I did already mention how much Perrin swiftly changed, so I'll not belabor the point. Although, did I miss somewhere other than Perrin and Moraine's short acknowledgement that he has protection in his dreams, did it come up elsewhere? If it did, that must be from me taking like a three year break in between the first half of the book and the second during my re-read.
Aaand then the boys go to sleep - what piqued my interest in my first read, and I still love reading it this go around - "There have been times when you made that choice, times when you lived long enough to know your power."
We end the chapter with the sense that although Ba'alzamon now knows Mat's face - he still doesn't know which one is THE one.
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