4 months lost

[trakand_01]

I've been reading up on Verin at encyclopaedia-wort.org and have come across the fact that when Rand channelled at the portal stone to take them all to Toman Head, 4 months were lost.

 

Do we know what happened to the rest of them in this 4 months? or did EVERYONE in the story effectively lose 4 months? What events happened elsewhere during that 4 months?

 

I wonder in my very cynical way whether Verin wanted Rand to channel, knew somehow that 4 months would be lost and wanted that to happen for him / them / someone to avoid a particular event, or else fast-forward to another event...

 

If they went back through the same portal stone, would they regain that time?

 

It seems quite a major amount of time to go 'missing' when the entire story only encompasses about 2.5 years... yet no-one mentions it again. If i lost 4 months of my life, i dont think i would stop at "4 months? Really? Wow. Anyway lets get on".

[RobertAlexWillis]

Its my personal opinion that the Pattern sort of forced events, to give everyone else time to get in place at Toman Head (Egwene, Nyaneve, Elayne, Min, Moiraine, the Whitecloaks, etc, etc).  The wonder girls spent those four months training in the Tower, but we don't get a play by play of their studies ... without those four months, they would basically have no time in the Tower at all.  The lost time is accounted for in TGH, ch 38 (the chapter immediately following the trip through the Portal Stone), when Egwene thinks that they have been in the Tower for 13 weeks.  Egwene mentions in that chapter that she had not Dreamed of Rand in months ... though she doesn't know it, it is because he is in transit via the Portal Stone.

 

Moiraine probably spent it travelling to and investigating events on Toman Head.  The Whitecloaks were doing their "good deeds" for Jaichim Carridin on Almoth Plain. 

 

On your other question: If they went back through the Portal Stone, I do not think that they would regain the time lost.  That's pure opinion ... but I think it only works one-way, and that Rand was lucky it didn't kill them.

[Leopoled Boothe]

On your other question: If they went back through the Portal Stone, I do not think that they would regain the time lost.  That's pure opinion ... but I think it only works one-way, and that Rand was lucky it didn't kill them.

 

Agreed.  I always assumed that portal stone works similarly to TAR in that while traveling by stone time passes at a differnt, non-fixed rate relative to the real world but never goes backward.

 

Also I think the four months amounts to nothing more than a plot deviced that allowed the wondergirls to get in some good training and solidify their friendship with Min prior to the events at Falme.

[Cocaloch]

Its not like nothing happened to Rand he spent thoese months living other versions of his life. Though unlike Paul ,from Dune, he seemed to have learned nothing from it.

[Zachary]

Yes. It's amazing how he can still have doubts after all of those lives, where each death a voice in his head tells him, "I have won again, Lews Therin."

 

It's also amazing how the only time it is referenced outside of tGH is when they go to Rhuidean. You'd think he'd have all those lives he lived in the back of his mind, especially the ones where he declares himself Dragon, so that he can learn from his mistakes. I suppose RJ didn't think to turn it into more than an interesting event, or perhaps discarded for reasons unknown.

[Tyrell]

I assuem it's just like the rings the aiel wise-women go through when they become apprentices and Moiraine went through - you get hit with alot of stuff, but it all fades, leaving you with just a few memories, not thousands from all your lives.