A Memory of Light

The fourteenth and final volume of The Wheel of Time, this novel concludes the epic fantasy series begun by Robert Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson. The story follows Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, a prophesied figure destined to confront the Dark One, an ancient evil straining to break free from its prison and destroy reality. As the Last Battle begins, humanity fights on multiple fronts against Trollocs and Myrddraal, monstrous Shadowspawn created by the Dark One; Dreadlords, human channelers serving the Shadow; and the Forsaken, powerful ancient channelers bound to the Dark One.

The novel opens with the world in visible decay: Metal goes soft, food spoils, and the land seems to be dying. In Caemlyn, the capital of Andor, Talmanes, Mat Cauthon's second-in-command in the Band of the Red Hand, leads a desperate nighttime battle to rescue the dragons, bronze cannon-like weapons invented by Aludra, an inventor working with the Band of the Red Hand, from Trollocs that have invaded through a Waygate, an ancient portal. Despite a wound from a cursed blade, fatal without magical Healing, Talmanes blasts through the city wall with the dragons, saving soldiers and refugees.

At the Field of Merrilor, Rand convenes a meeting of rulers. He presents the Dragon's Peace, a treaty forbidding warfare between nations, and insists on breaking the seals on the Dark One's prison. Egwene al'Vere, the Amyrlin Seat and leader of the Aes Sedai, an order of women who channel the One Power, opposes breaking the seals prematurely. Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai long thought dead, returns and quotes prophecy to convince Egwene to accept stewardship of the seals and break them at the right moment. Aviendha, an Aiel woman and one of Rand's companions, demands the Aiel, a desert warrior people, be included in the treaty, and Perrin Aybara, Rand's childhood friend, suggests the Aiel serve as enforcers. The rulers sign, and Queen Elayne Trakand of Andor is appointed commander of the armies of Light.

The war divides across four battlefronts, each led by one of the great captains, legendary military commanders: Agelmar at Tarwin's Gap alongside Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned king of fallen Malkier; Bryne with Egwene in Kandor; Bashere with Elayne in Andor; and Ituralde at Thakan'dar, the valley beneath Shayol Ghul, the Dark One's mountainous stronghold in the Blight, a corrupted wasteland.

At the Black Tower, headquarters of the Asha'man, male channelers who serve the Dragon Reborn, Mazrim Taim, recently elevated to the rank of Forsaken under the name M'Hael, has been forcibly converting channelers to the Shadow. Androl Genhald, a weak Asha'man with an extraordinary Talent for opening gateways, leads the resistance alongside Pevara Tazanovni, an Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah, the faction focused on male channelers. After rescuing the captive Logain Ablar, the Tower's rightful leader, Androl uses his gateway Talent to redirect enemy attacks, and Taim flees.

Mat Cauthon, Rand's other childhood friend and a gambler with ancient battle memories, travels to the Seanchan Empire, a foreign power that enslaves women who can channel as weapons called damane. Having married the Seanchan Empress Fortuona, Mat negotiates alongside Rand to bring the Seanchan into the alliance and is elevated to Prince of the Ravens with military command authority.

The Forsaken Graendal uses Compulsion, a weave that controls minds, on all four great captains, subtly warping their decisions toward disaster. The corruption is uncovered from multiple directions: Tam al'Thor, Rand's father, notices absent scouting in Elayne's army; Lan discovers critical defensive gaps; and Perrin, a wolfbrother—a person with a mystical bond to wolves—hunting the assassin Slayer in Tel'aran'rhiod, the World of Dreams, discovers Graendal invading the captains' dreams. The captains are relieved after heavy losses. The crisis deepens when an entire Sharan army, led by the Forsaken Demandred wielding a sa'angreal, a powerful amplifying device, called Sakarnen, arrives through a gateway behind Egwene's forces.

Mat assumes overall command, keeping his plans only in his head where no spy can access them. He orders all forces to converge on Merrilor for a final stand and stages a public argument with Fortuona so the Seanchan appear to withdraw, holding them in reserve for the decisive moment.

Rand enters the Pit of Doom at Shayol Ghul with Nynaeve al'Meara, a skilled Aes Sedai Healer, and Moiraine in a channeling circle. Inside, he duels Moridin, the Dark One's chief lieutenant, while confronting the Dark One through competing visions of possible futures. Rand discovers that a world without evil is as terrible as one consumed by it: Without the capacity to choose, people lose free will. Nynaeve keeps the Aes Sedai Alanna alive long enough for her to release Rand's involuntary bond before dying, preventing the severing from incapacitating him.

Three champions challenge Demandred in succession. Gawyn Trakand, Egwene's Warder—a magically bonded guardian—and Elayne's brother, fights with life-draining rings that grant supernatural speed but is outmatched and killed. Galad Damodred, Elayne's half-brother, also duels Demandred and loses his right arm. Finally, Lan rides alone through the Trolloc army, guided by flaming arrows from Tam and the Two Rivers archers, and kills Demandred by deliberately taking a mortal wound to drive his own blade through the Forsaken's throat.

Olver, a young orphan traveling with the Band, blows the Horn of Valere, a legendary artifact that summons dead heroes to battle, after Faile Bashere, Perrin's wife, entrusts it to him while drawing Trollocs away as a decoy. The heroes materialize on the battlefield, turning the tide alongside the returning Seanchan.

Egwene confronts M'Hael, who wields Sakarnen and unleashes balefire, a forbidden weave that burns threads backward in time, creating cracks in the Pattern, the fabric of reality. She discovers balefire's opposite, a weave she names the Flame of Tar Valon, and destroys M'Hael. She then channels far beyond safe limits to seal the spreading cracks, sacrificing her life.

Mat kills Padan Fain, a Darkfriend—a human servant of the Shadow—who has evolved into a sentient cloud of deadly mist, exploiting his own immunity to the corruption. Perrin overcomes the Forsaken Lanfear's Compulsion through his love for Faile and kills her, then defeats Slayer, the assassin he has hunted throughout Tel'aran'rhiod, the wolf dream.

Inside the Bore, the hole in the Dark One's prison, Rand's plan with Callandor, a crystal sword sa'angreal, reaches its climax. Moridin seizes Callandor, not realizing it amplifies the True Power, the Dark One's own essence. Nynaeve and Moiraine exploit a deliberate flaw that allows women to control any man wielding the sword. Through the forced link, Rand channels all three Powers simultaneously, seizes the Dark One, and weaves a new seal to forge the prison anew. Logain, following Egwene's final command relayed through her Warder Leilwin Shipless, breaks the old seals at the critical moment. The Bore closes.

Rand carries Moridin's body from the collapsing cavern and appears to die. Tam lights a funeral pyre, but Rand's consciousness has transferred into Moridin's body through their long-established link. He awakens healed and discovers he can reshape reality through thought alone. Rand's three loves, Min Farshaw, Elayne, and Aviendha, sense through their bonds that he lives but keep the secret.

Among the survivors, Perrin finds Faile buried alive on the battlefield. Logain chooses to save refugee children rather than seize Demandred's sa'angreal, transforming his vision for the Black Tower. Moghedien, one of the surviving Forsaken, is captured by a Seanchan sul'dam, or damane handler, and collared. The Aes Sedai declare their intention to raise Cadsuane Melaidhrin, a formidable senior Aes Sedai, as the new Amyrlin Seat. Mat reunites with Fortuona, who reveals she is carrying his child. And Rand, no longer the Dragon Reborn but simply a man, lights his pipe with a thought and rides south toward freedom.