Towers of Midnight

The thirteenth book in Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time, this novel follows multiple characters preparing for the Last Battle, the prophesied final confrontation with the Dark One, an imprisoned evil entity straining to break free. Events overlap chronologically with the previous book, The Gathering Storm, before moving forward.

The prologue establishes the world's dire state. Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned king of fallen Malkier, a Borderland nation, rides east toward the Blight, a corrupted wasteland bordering the Dark One's domain, intending to die fighting. A man of Malkieri descent named Bulen joins him, invoking an oath Lan's wife Nynaeve al'Meara extracted: that Lan would accept any who wished to ride with him. Galad Damodred, Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks (a militant order formally called the Children of the Light), surrenders to the rival High Inquisitor Asunawa to prevent civil war. The Lords Captain who had sided with Asunawa ultimately turn against him, kill him, and restore Galad to command. Graendal, one of the Forsaken (powerful channelers serving the Dark One), escapes destruction by Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn and prophesied savior. She fakes her death and receives orders from Moridin, the Forsaken's leader, to kill Rand's friend Perrin Aybara. Moridin gives her a dreamspike, a device that blocks Traveling (the creation of magical portals) across a wide area. On the Kandori border, a garrison prepares to face an overwhelming horde of Trollocs, massive Shadowspawn (dark creatures in the service of the Dark One).

Rand, having undergone a transformative crisis atop Dragonmount, descends the mountain changed. Where he walks, dying orchards bloom. He visits the White Tower, seat of the Aes Sedai (women who channel the One Power, the world's magical force), and tells Egwene al'Vere, the Amyrlin Seat (the Aes Sedai's leader), that he intends to break the remaining seals on the Dark One's prison before resealing it. Egwene is horrified and begins gathering monarchs and armies to oppose him. In the Stone of Tear, Rand reunites with his father Tam, pardons the Aes Sedai Cadsuane from exile, and reveals a new ability to identify Darkfriends (secret servants of the Dark One) by sight.

Perrin Aybara leads an enormous force through Ghealdan, struggling to accept leadership. Rumors persist about an alleged affair between him and Berelain, the First of Mayene (the nation's ruler), until Perrin's wife Faile confronts Berelain and the two agree to quash the rumors. When the Whitecloaks block Perrin's path, Morgase Trakand, the former Queen of Andor who has been traveling in disguise in Perrin's camp, is recognized by her stepson Galad. Morgase agrees to judge a trial for Perrin's killing of two Whitecloaks years earlier, applying a lenient classification, and Galad defers sentencing until after the Last Battle.

In Tel'aran'rhiod (the World of Dreams, a parallel dreamscape shaped by willpower and belief), Perrin trains with the wolf Hopper to master his abilities as a wolfbrother, someone who can communicate with wolves and enter the dream world. He discovers the dreamspike blocking gateways around his camp and battles Slayer, a deadly assassin who hunts in the dream world. Slayer kills several wolves, including Hopper, whose death in Tel'aran'rhiod is permanent. Perrin seizes and destroys the dreamspike, restoring gateways. Embracing leadership, he forges a Power-wrought war hammer called Mah'alleinir with help from channelers and orders the wolfhead banner raised. Sensing a trap, he positions his army above the Whitecloak camp just as a massive Trolloc force emerges from a hidden Portal Stone, a device capable of transporting beings over great distances. The two armies fight together, and Galad sets Perrin's punishment as a fine and service in the Last Battle.

Mat Cauthon, one of Rand's childhood friends, arrives in Caemlyn and negotiates with Queen Elayne Trakand to produce dragons developed by Aludra, a former member of the Guild of Illuminators (makers of fireworks and explosives) traveling with his forces—powerful new weapons (essentially cannons) that fire explosive projectiles. He loans Elayne his foxhead medallion, a ter'angreal (magical artifact) that deflects channeling, so she can create imperfect copies. Mat then destroys a gholam, a nearly indestructible assassin stalking him, by pushing it through a gateway into an infinite void.

Mat, the gleeman (wandering performer) Thom Merrilin, and Noal Charin, an older man in Mat's company, enter the Tower of Ghenjei, a portal to the realm of the Aelfinn (snake-like beings who answer questions truthfully) and the Eelfinn (fox-like beings who grant requests for a price). They seek to rescue Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai captured while fighting the Forsaken Lanfear years earlier. Using his supernatural luck to navigate shifting corridors, Mat finds Moiraine drained of most of her channeling ability. As the price for her freedom, an Eelfinn tears out Mat's left eye. Noal stays behind to hold off attackers, revealing himself as the legendary explorer Jain Farstrider. Mat uses his ashandarei, a bladed spear given by the Eelfinn on a prior visit, to cut an escape portal, and the three survive. Outside, Moiraine asks Thom to marry her.

Egwene consolidates power in the White Tower, outmaneuvering the Hall of the Tower (the ruling council, whose elected members are called Sitters) when they attempt to limit her authority. She traps the Forsaken Mesaana, who has been hiding among the Aes Sedai, using a decoy meeting in Tel'aran'rhiod. In the ensuing battle, Egwene confronts Mesaana, who tries to enslave her with an a'dam (a device used to control channelers). Egwene recognizes that belief shapes reality in Tel'aran'rhiod and breaks Mesaana's mind. Meanwhile, Gawyn Trakand, Elayne's brother and Egwene's would-be protector, discovers that the Tower murders are the work of Bloodknives, elite assassins left behind by the Seanchan, a foreign empire, after a previous attack. He fights three Bloodknives in Egwene's bedroom and is gravely wounded; Egwene bonds him as her Warder (magically bonded protector) to save his life.

Nynaeve undergoes a brutal Aes Sedai testing, repeatedly breaking rules by channeling early and using balefire, an especially destructive forbidden weave, to save a vision of Lan. She passes by a single vote and immediately claims Lan's Warder bond from another Aes Sedai, finally feeling her husband's presence through their connection.

Elayne claims the Sun Throne of Cairhien by offering Cairhienin nobles estates seized from disgraced Andoran lords. Aviendha, one of Rand's lovers, travels to Rhuidean in the Aiel Waste and triggers new visions in the glass columns, seeing not the Aiel past but their future: a generations-long war against the Seanchan that destroys the Aiel as a people. She resolves to change this future.

As forces converge at the Field of Merrilor, Rand sends Cadsuane to locate the missing King Alsalam of Arad Doman. He destroys a Trolloc army at Maradon through devastating channeling and passes a prophesied test before the Borderland monarchs. At the Black Tower, the training ground for male channelers, Androl Genhald, a Dedicated (a rank below the Asha'man, the Black Tower's highest grade of trained channeler) of limited channeling strength, discovers that gateways no longer function within its grounds. Men loyal to the absent leader Logain are being mysteriously altered, and the faction of Mazrim Taim, the Black Tower's presiding commander, grows dangerous. Androl seeks an alliance with trapped Red Ajah sisters, members of an Aes Sedai faction.

The novel ends with multiple cliffhangers. Olver, a boy in Mat's camp, opens a sealed letter from the Aes Sedai Verin Mathwin and discovers her warning: A Trolloc army approaches Caemlyn through the Ways, dangerous magical pathways. Mat's lieutenant Talmanes sees the city already burning and rallies the Band of the Red Hand, Mat's army, to fight. The Seanchan Empress Fortuona plans a full assault on the White Tower. Lan raises the Golden Crane, the banner of Malkier, and charges 12,000 riders against a vast Shadowspawn horde at Tarwin's Gap. At the Field of Merrilor, the clouds break as Rand arrives, and the assembled armies prepare for what comes next. The story continues in A Memory of Light, the fourteenth and final volume.