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Passing through the glass colureal had provided a test Could the potential leader face and accept the Aiel’s darkest secret? As a Maiden, Aviendha had been tested in body and strength Beco a Wise One tested a person emotionally and mentally Rhuidean was to be the capstone of that process, the final test of one now

More andto believe that tradition for the sake of tradition was foolishness Good traditions--strong, Aiel traditions--taught the ways of ji’e’toh,The forest of colue lines of frozen water she had seen during winter in the wetlands Icicles, Elayne had called the toward the sky, things of beauty and Power It was sad to witness their lapse into irrelevance

So occurred to her Before she had left Caemlyn, she and Elayne had made a remarkable discovery Aviendha had manifested a Talent in the One Power: the ability to identify ter’angreal Could she deterlass pillars did? They couldn’t have been created specifically for the Aiel, could they? Most things of great Power like this hailed from very ancient days The pillars would have been created during the Age of Legends, then adapted to the purpose of showing the Aiel their true past

There was so real Had the ancient Aes Sedai really understood them, the same way Aviendha understood exactly how a bow or spear worked? Or had they thes they created? The One Poas so wondrous, sopracticed weaves often made Aviendha feel like a child

She stepped up to the nearest glass pillar, careful not to pass inside the ring If she touched one of the rods, perhaps her Talent would let her read soerous to experireal, but she had already passed their challenge and was unscathed

Hesitantly, she reached out and laid fingers on the slick, glassy surface It was about a foot thick She closed her eyes, trying to read the pillar’s function

She sensed the powerful aura of the pillar It was far real she had handled with Elayne Indeed, the pillars seemed…alive, somehow It was alave her a chill Was she touching the pillar, or was it touching her?

She tried to read ter’angreal as she had done before, but this one was vast Incomprehensible, like the One Power itself She inhaled sharply, disoriented by the weight of what she felt It was as if she had suddenly fallen into a deep, dark pit

She snapped her eyes open, pulling her hand away, pal to grasp the size and mass of a mountain She took a breath to steady herself, then shook her head There was nothing lass pillars and took a step

She was Malidra, eighteen but scrawny enough to appear er She crawled in the darkness Careful Quiet It was dangerous to get this close to the Lightht was cold, the landscape barren Malidra had heard stories of a place beyond the distant rew everywhere She didn’t believe those lies The ed teeth Who could clihtmakers could They did come frolowing in the darkness That gloas too steady to be fire It came from the balls they carried with the, bare feet and hands dusty There were a few y hair Ragged beards on the ar to keep the sun off during the day, because the sun could kill And did Malidra was the last of four sisters, two dead by the sun and hunger, one dead from the bite of a snake

But Malidra survived Anxiously, she survived The best as to follow the Lighter any could kill you

Malidra passed a bush, watching the Light, rodlike weapons Malidra had found one on a deadThe Lightics that created their food and their lights Magics that kept thee clothing Trousers that fit too well, coats covered with pockets and glistening bits of h one wore his back, held around his neck by a thin leather strap The men chatted They didn’t have beards like the Folk did Their hair was darker

One of the other Folk got too close, and Malidra hissed at her The wolare, but ht orbs ruined their night vision

She rounded their e enough to house a dozen people Iton wheels nearly as wide as Malidra was tall She had heard--in the hushed, broken coht a h the Waste It wasto pry up, though Jorshee nail he had found He used it to scrape meat off bones

It had been quite a while since she had eaten well--not since they’d o She could still re until her sto Wondrous and painful

Most Lightmakers were too careful for her to kill them in their sleep She didn’t dare face them when they were awake They could make one such as her vanish with a stare

Nervously, trailed by a couple of other Folk, she rounded the wagon and approached it frohts fro through the trash There were soerly--holding them close before the others could see--and stuffed theainst her teeth, but meat was food She hurriedly picked thr