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He was draard that fortress nearby Why did he feel he knew this place? He was in the Blight; the plants h, he could s in the su, oppressive despite the clouds

He walked down the shallow hillside, and caught sight of so at trees There were lanced to the side, and saw the nothing that was the Dark One in the distance, consu part of the landscape, like a pit on the horizon A re wasn’t real?

He passed stu firewood? The thock, thock of axes--and the postures of the workers--had none of the steadfast strength Rand associated oods with slurew closer, he recognized hiht Tahty Why was he out working so hard?

It’s a vision, Rand thought A nightmare The Dark One’s own creation Not

real

Yet, while standing within it, Rand found it difficult not to react as if this were indeed real And it was, after a fashion The Dark One used shadowed threads of the pattern--the possibilities that rippled from creation like waves from a dropped pebble in a pond--to create this

"Father?" Rand asked

Tam turned, but his eyes didn’t focus on Rand

Rand took Tam by the shoulder "Father!"

Tam stood dully for ahis axe Nearby, Dannil and Jori hacked at a stued as well, and were now men well into theirawful, his face pale, his skin having broken out in some kind of sores

Jori’s axe bit deep into the bitter earth, and a black flood seeped fro at the base of the stump The blade had pierced their lair

The insects swarmed out and sped up the handle to cover Jori He screa at them, but his open , a deathswarht He raised a hand toward Jori, but the man slumped to the side, dead as quickly as a man could draw breath

Ta Rand spun as his father crashed into a thicket of brush nearby, trying to flee the deathswar whip, and wrapped around Ta him to a halt

"No!" Rand said It wasn’t real He still couldn’t watch his father die He seized the Source, punching through the sickly darkness of the taint It see tirasp it, only a trickle ca a ribbon of flarabbed his father Ta

Tam didn’t move His eyes stared upward, dead

"No!" Rand turned on the deathswarm He destroyed it with a weave of Fire Only seconds had passed, but all that remained of Jori was bones

The insects popped as he burned the nearby, eyes wide as he looked at Rand Others of the woodsmen had fled into the wilderness Rand heard several screa The taintit was so awful, so putrid He could not hold to the Source any longer

"Corabbed Rand’s ar up "You don’t recognizeRand toward the fortress

"I’ shone in Dannil’s eyes

"What has he done to you?" Rand whispered