My first big insight

[Caelan Arendor]

My first insight into the nature of the Wheel of Time, and a first vague conception of the millennia-long cycles that endlessly repeat, came from Moiraine’s own mouth at the very beginning of the first book:

 

“As the Wheel of Time turns,” Moiraine said, half to herself and with a distant look in her eyes, “places wear many names. Men wear many names, many faces. Different faces, but always the same man. Yet no one knows the Pattern the Great Wheel weaves, or even the Pattern of an Age. We can only watch, and study, and hope.”

 

These words could send a shiver down one’s spine at the cold and merciless way in which the Wheel of Time plays with the fate of its puppets. At least it did so with me....