Darkfriend woman Rand kills

[Caedn of the Taardad]

Also werent the forsaken messing up his sleep with nightmares that everyone was having? With Calandor and Balzalmon crap?

 

There's a bit more of a thought, he wasn't exactly getting a good night's sleep, and what little he was getting was in Tel'aran'rhiode, so not really sleep at all.  He was exhausted and paranoid, probably hyped up on adrenaline and perhaps already going a bit mad...  Talk about clouded judgment.  Besides, as I mention earlier, it was a rather suspicious group that stopped in his camp in the middle of the night. 

 

i always get the impression that she isnt actually a darkfriend

 

There is little doubt that she was in my mind, not many people travel in the company of greyman, though I suppose it could have simply used her as an unwitting distraction to aproach Rand...

[Matrim DeLaneous]

i always get the impression that she isnt actually a darkfriend

 

Understandable, especially with the reference to the 11th / grey man.  However, after a few re-reads, I started to think that Rand was sympathetic to the grey man and was thoroughly conviced the Merch and her "guards" were Darkfriends.  Moreover, as indicated in TDR: Chapter 36 overview / footnotes in the Encyclopedia, RJ confirmed that the merchant was a Darkfriend. 

 

It may be the grey man imbibed him with a sense of Evil?

 

 

[DocBean]

I always pictured that scene hinting that Rand could sense Women Channelers.

He said she was the most dangerous of them all, so in my mind that meant she was a channeler, and he knew it.

 

I assumed they were all darkfriends, but never made the gray man connection.

[iceBLUEeyes]

From tPoD:

"All there was. Liah, of the Cosaida Chareen, a name written in fire. Moiraine Damodred, another name that seared to the soul rather than merely burning. A nameless Darkfriend, represented only by a face, who had died by his sword near . . . ."

 

is this the same lady merchant darkfriend?

[DarkOne]

Rand thinks "She was the most dangerous" in italics which are generally reserved for Lew's Therin's thoughts.  A friend of mine theorized that Lew's therin sensed the ability to channel in her and that with his experience warned him of the danger without him knowing it.

 

My problem with it being the Grey man tipping him off is that he didn't notice him until after they were dead and they generally avoid detection / being sensed.  I think the Grey man was more of a subtle plot tool to show the readers that they were in fact dark friends.  I have to admit I've found this part of the chapter to be really confusing.

 

Since he had just met Perrin in 'the dream' and realized it really was him and thus him saying "it really was Perrin, I have to be more careful", it could be implied that he had other dreams, possibly of the merchant having a dark friend meeting in the dream that were "between the lines" so to speak of the dreams that are mentioned.

 

It's hard to say exactly what RJ's intention was with the 11th man being a gray man, it's especially confusing because Rand makes a point of mentioning he hadn't noticed him (the only clue he's a grey man), but then Rand says to the man (somewhat sympathetically I might add) "you chose the wrong company friend", which implies the grey man got killed by including himself with that party...meaning he would have killed them all regardless of the Grey Man.

[Sabio]

I always thought that also since it seems clear he never knew the grey man was there until after.  I took it to show that rand did indeed kill DF's and not murder some innocent folks.  His killing them had a lot to do with these merchants being out so late in the middle of nowhere.  Lack of sleep and paranoia from dreams played some part.  But I think it was a lot of why would these merchants be traveling way out here at night.  

Edited December 20, 2019 by Sabio

[DarkOne]

Part of it is him going mad, but him going mad is what brings Lews Therin.  I think it's an early example of Lews Therin helping Rand without him realizing it at the time.  This is the sort of subtle hint or foreshadowing in WoT that you can only really appreciate on re-reads.

[wotfan4472]

I have always felt the woman that Rand killed in Murandy is the same one that tried to stab Rand when he got the worst bout of channeling sickness after he escaped Four Kings in Book One.

Remember her? Mat let her go immediately afterwards when he got her by the throat with his dagger. 

Rand could have recognized her from that situation, since they both had a talk about the situation afterwards. She seemed to recognize him, as if she saw him before, and he definitively recognized her. That woman is the only one that makes sense, since she actually was a Darkfriend, and Rand would have remembered that situation.

 

[Sabio]

It was Mili Skane (Lady Shiaine)  who tried to kill Rand and Mat in the barn,  Mat spotted her in Ebou Dar later meeting with Carridin.

[mistborn82]

That whole plotline in tDR is weird and also we never find out who the woman is.