The Gathering Storm (zion Diaries, #1)

The twelfth installment of Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time takes place as the prophesied Last Battle approaches. The Dark One, an entity of pure evil imprisoned since the Age of Legends, a long-vanished era of advanced civilization and magic, strains against his bonds. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, a young man fated to confront the Dark One, struggles to unite fractious nations while battling madness and despair. Meanwhile, the White Tower, the ancient seat of the Aes Sedai, a sisterhood of women who channel the One Power, is split between loyalists under Elaida, the Amyrlin Seat (the elected leader of the Aes Sedai), and rebels who have raised Egwene al'Vere as their own Amyrlin.

Rand operates from a remote manor house in war-torn Arad Doman, having recently lost his left hand to the Forsaken Semirhage, one of the Dark One's most powerful servants. He hears the voice of Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon's previous incarnation, in his mind and suppresses all emotion. He sends Aiel warriors and Saldaean cavalry to restore order, dispatches envoys to seek peace with the Seanchan (an empire of invaders from across the ocean), and hunts for the Forsaken Graendal, whom he suspects of manipulating the country's collapse. He recruits Rodel Ituralde, a brilliant Domani general, to guard the Borderlands against Trollocs, monstrous soldiers of the Dark One.

Cadsuane Melaidhrin, Rand's Aes Sedai advisor, breaks Semirhage by spanking her before witnesses, destroying the Forsaken's cultivated aura of terror. The victory is short-lived. The Dark One's avatar frees Semirhage and gives her the Domination Band, a ter'angreal (magical artifact) that enslaves male channelers. With help from Elza Penfell, a Black Ajah member (an Aes Sedai secretly serving the Dark One), Semirhage collars Rand and compels his hand to strangle Min Farshaw, his lover. In desperation, Rand reaches for the True Power, drawn from the Dark One himself, and annihilates Semirhage and Elza with balefire, a forbidden weave that erases its targets from existence. The act saves Min but devastates Rand, who shuts down emotionally and exiles Cadsuane.

Inside the White Tower, Egwene wages a quieter but equally vital campaign. Captured and demoted to novice, she endures daily beatings without complaint, and each punishment undermines Elaida's authority. During visits to sisters of the Tower's various Ajahs (internal factions), she works to heal rifts and earns the respect of Sitters (senior members of the governing council known as the Hall). She discovers Sitters using the Oath Rod, an artifact that binds magical oaths, to hunt Black Ajah and illegally bind rebel spies. Egwene confronts them, arguing that Elaida's raising was tainted by Black Ajah involvement.

When Elaida summons Egwene to serve at a dinner with Sitters, intending to parade her captive rival, Egwene turns the event against her. She exposes Elaida's plan for a mandatory oath of obedience and demolishes her arguments using prophecy and logic. Elaida loses control and attacks Egwene with the One Power, beating her bloody before the horrified Sitters. Egwene stands and bears it calmly. The Hall formally censures Elaida, and Silviana Brehon, the Mistress of Novices, publicly denounces her, demanding Egwene's release. For this defiance, Elaida sentences Silviana to be stilled (permanently severed from the One Power) and executed, fracturing Red Ajah loyalty.

Rand's darkness deepens in Bandar Eban, Arad Doman's capital. He carries the access key to the Choedan Kal, one of the most powerful sa'angreal (objects that greatly amplify channeling) ever created. When Nynaeve al'Meara, an Aes Sedai from Rand's home village, uncovers evidence that a poisoner was planted by Graendal, Rand has Nynaeve strip Graendal's Compulsion (mind control imposed through the One Power) from the boy's mind, destroying his personality. The dying boy whispers the name of Graendal's hiding place: Natrin's Barrow. Rand uses the Choedan Kal to obliterate the entire fortress with balefire, killing hundreds of Graendal's mind-controlled servants along with the Forsaken. Nynaeve is horrified. Rand feels nothing.

Mat Cauthon leads his Band of the Red Hand, his personal army, northward. In Hinderstap, he discovers a curse of the Dark One's touch: Every night the inhabitants transform into mindless killers, then wake restored with no memory. Later, Verin Mathwin, a Brown Ajah Aes Sedai, offers to transport Mat's army to Caemlyn in exchange for a sealed letter he must either open after 10 days and obey or hold unopened for 30 days. Mat agrees to wait.

Verin then appears in Egwene's quarters in the Tower. She tells a deliberate lie, something impossible for an Aes Sedai bound by the Three Oaths, the binding vows every sister must swear. She reveals she is Black Ajah. Verin joined the Black decades ago to study them from within and has poisoned herself to exploit a loophole permitting betrayal only in the hour of death. She gives Egwene two books containing the names of over 200 Black sisters, along with a warning that a Forsaken, Mesaana, hides within the Tower. Verin dies peacefully.

That night, the Seanchan attack the White Tower with to'raken, flying war-beasts carrying channelers and soldiers. Egwene, weakened by forkroot (an herb that suppresses channeling), teaches novices to link with her, retrieves a powerful sa'angreal, and mounts a devastating defense from a gap in the Tower wall. Elaida is captured and collared during the raid. Siuan Sanche, the former Amyrlin, bonds Gareth Bryne, the rebel army's general, as her Warder (a magically bonded guardian). With Gawyn Trakand, an Andoran prince devoted to Egwene, they infiltrate the Tower and carry Egwene back to the rebel camp against her orders.

Furious at being removed, Egwene acts decisively. She convenes the rebel Hall, uses the Oath Rod to prove herself no Darkfriend, and exposes Sheriam, her own Keeper of the Chronicles (the Amyrlin's chief deputy), among others, as Black Ajah. Over 50 Black sisters are captured, stilled, and executed. As Bryne's army prepares to assault Tar Valon, a delegation of Tower Sitters crosses the bridge and announces that the Hall has raised Egwene as Amyrlin, Elaida having been lost to the Seanchan. Egwene accepts and names Silviana as her Keeper, signaling reconciliation.

Rand descends further. His meeting with Tuon, the Seanchan leader, fails when she refuses his terms. Cadsuane arranges for Tam al'Thor, Rand's adoptive father, to visit, but when Rand discovers Cadsuane orchestrated the meeting, he nearly kills Tam with balefire, stopping only when he sees the terror in his father's eyes. Wandering through Ebou Dar, Rand considers annihilating the Seanchan with the Choedan Kal but cannot bring himself to slaughter the civilians around him. He flees to the peak of Dragonmount, the mountain formed by Lews Therin's suicide 3,000 years earlier.

There, holding more of the One Power than perhaps any person has ever held, Rand rages at the Pattern, the Wheel's woven design of reality and destiny, demanding to know why any of it matters. Lews Therin's voice, suddenly lucid, answers: They live again so they can have a second chance, to love again. Rand turns the immense power upon the access key, destroying the distant Choedan Kal. The storm breaks, sunlight falls on the peak, and Rand laughs freely for the first time in months. Lews Therin's voice is gone. Rand understands at last that they were never two men, but one.

In the epilogue, Egwene stands in the damaged Hall and sees the clouds break around Dragonmount for the first time in weeks, sunlight illuminating the distant peak. She orders the date marked, sensing that something momentous has occurred.