The Gathering Storm/Chapter 2

Egwene leaves the chamber and walks the halls towards Elaida's room, however taking her time. Along the way she is given a dosage of forkroot by two Aes Sedai. She has a discussion with the two about the declining situation of the Tower. While one of the Aes Sedai scoffs at the notion, the other takes to heart on what Egwene has said. As she continues her walk, she notices a mural of an ancient Amrylin. For a moment she sees death and destruction on it, a ripple of the Dark One's work, and then it turns back to normal. She walks into Elaida's room only to be shocked by the presence of one of her spies, subservient to Elaida. She is enraged over Elaida's treatment to the other sisters and to the increasing outrageous demands set forth by Elaida. Egwene knows she has to keep her emotions in check, however in a lapse of judgement she drops a bowl of soup offered by Elaida. Eventually, Egwene is sent away with Elaida feeling confident about being in control of Egwene. Egwene goes to the kitchens to eat before her visit with the Mistress of Novices. Once with Silviana she has a revelation. The Tower did not need her help to depose Elaida, it was already leading that way. What she needed to do is to keep the Tower together. She begins to laugh as she is beaten, Silviana questions her as to why. Egwene calmly responds that it is foolish to beat her, the pain of it was insignificant to that of the pain of the Tower's situation. After the beating is over, she realizes there is a lot of work to do.