Plot Submission for The Path of Plots
As the book begins, Rand is visiting the Black Tower. He has decided to move it to Illian, where he will give them the King's Palace. As he is explaining this, the Red Ajah Strike Force arrives on the scene. Mass carnage ensues, and in the end forty-eight of the Red Ajah are dead, the other two stilled. However, their surprise attack results in twenty-three dead Ashaman, with eight others severed. The attack causes Rand to go over the edge. He orders the Ashaman to bury the dead and prepare for battle. He Travels back to Cairhien and gets his Access Ter'Angreal. After returning to the Black Tower, he organizes five hundred Ashaman into five companies, and they Travel to Tar Valon, each into different areas. One company secures the city itself, allowing nobody into or out of it. Another secures the Tower grounds, with orders to kill any Aes Sedai. The remaining three companies Travel into the Tower itself; one, led by Gedwyn, takes the ground floor and works up. Taim's company Travels into the middle of the Tower, branching both ways. Rand's company Travels into the top of the Tower and works downward. Rand encounters Elaida and severs her very slowly. He then opens a Skimming gateway and drops her into the vast blackness. The attack is brutally efficient. No Aes Sedai were seen escaping. Alviarin is strangely absent, but several hundred Aes Sedai are dead or severed. The survivors are taken by gateway to Cairhien, where Rand severs the Tower Aes Sedai from Dumai's Wells. He then has a public execution of one hundred and fifty-eight Aes Sedai. Min can't stand it and runs off.
Afterward, Rand moves the Ashaman into the White Tower. Most of the Ashaman begin showing signs of madness. A group of Ashaman decide that the Salidar Aes Sedai need to die as well, but refrain from acting. When Rand finds out, he decides to go to the Salidar Aes Sedai to warn them. He brings his Access Ter'Angreal along. When he gets there, a group of sisters go frantic and try to shield them. Rand gets really pissed off and severs them. Then a group of Ashaman show up and start laying about with their destructive channeling. Rand blows them away with as much balefire as he can draw through the Sa'Sa'Angreal, which means a bar as thick as Caemlyn. Everything those Ashaman had done in the last month goes poof, which has serious repercussions on the attack on the Tower. A few Ashaman escaped and go back to the White Tower and tell the other Ashaman that Rand has gone off the deep end and killed a bunch of Ashaman. Taim jumps on the opportunity and recenters the Ashaman around himself. Rand opens a gateway to Caemlyn and steps through, but before he closes it hears somebody address him as Lews Therin. He turns around and sees Halima, feeling her draw a massive quantity of Saidin. He raises his hand to Balefire her, but before he can is severed. The gateway closes, slicing off his outstretched hand. The pain of being severed drives him even deeper into madness, and he falls unconscious. When he awakens he starts going really nuts and runs out of the city.
Perrin locates Masema's group of Dragonsworn, but Masema is too nuts by now to listen to reason. The next day they are embroiled by the battle between the Dragonsworn and the Whitecloaks. Perrin decides to make a hasty retreat to Jehannah, after taking out a few Dragonsworn. Unfortunately, that his the extent of Perrin's involvement in PoD.
Seanchan soldiers come across Mat in the rubble of Ebou Dar. They notice his signet ring and spear, and decide to take him to their superiors. When Mat comes to, his brains are slightly addled by the wall's collapse onto him. He can only speak and understand the Old Tongue. The Seanchan are intrigued by this and take him to the one in charge, who is High Lady Suroth. Upon seeing him, Ishamael's orders to her are subconsciously brought forward, and she makes him property of the Crystal Throne.
For some reason, Jordan fails to make clear the meaning of the title. The epilogue involves Rand going to a village outside Caemlyn and begging. Halima is summoned to Shayol Ghul, where the Dark One utterly destroys her soul for severing Rand.