TSR: I find curious that Lanfear did not browse the Rhuidean plaza to try to find the female access key

[Khosann]

I find curious that Lanfear did not browse the Rhuidean plaza to try to find the female access key. Especially after seeing the male access key there in Rand's hands... What do you think?

[Elgee]

She did. That's what all that "smoothing of skirts whilst her eyes are darting around" was all about.

[Khosann]

Just a cursory glance? How careless of her. I mean... C'mon! She is Lanfear :).

[David Selig]

I find it more curious that Rand saw the access keys on his first visit to Rhuidean yet left them there instead of hiding them or taking them with him, and then had to race Asmodean to stop him from taking them. I guess the Rule of Cool applies - he final battle for control of the access key was cool enough to justify this.

[fikkie77]

Just a cursory glance? How careless of her. I mean... C'mon! She is Lanfear :).

Lanfear is very selfish: the other female Forsaken might not even know Rand had the female access key and she rather had it with Rand than with another Forsaken. If she and Rand were to work together (as was her goal), then she would get it anyway. She wouldn't have to rush for it before Rand found it: if Rand found it, see above. If Asmo found it, she probably wouldn't have a hard time to get it from him. If neither found it, she would Travel there a short time later to search for herself.

[Khosann]

I find it more curious that Rand saw the access keys on his first visit to Rhuidean yet left them there instead of hiding them or taking them with him, and then had to race Asmodean to stop him from taking them. I guess the Rule of Cool applies - he final battle for control of the access key was cool enough to justify this.

 

Now I think of it... I believe I found a reason to explain why Rand did not take them at his first visit. During his first visit he and Mat were exhausted. Mad being strangled and Rand being tired of seeing the AOL visions. And it is good that Rand did not try to take the access keys then. You know, they were attacked by dust devils created by the bubble of evil.

[moratcorlm]

Lanfear is very selfish: the other female Forsaken might not even know Rand had the female access key and she rather had it with Rand than with another Forsaken. If she and Rand were to work together (as was her goal), then she would get it anyway.

This is a key aspect. She's making a pitch to Rand about a permanent partnership, as lovers and more, and while she may not, as Asmodean says, want him to be her equal, she is at her most helpful in this scene, as she's just gotten finished giving Rand Asmodean. Making an involved search would do nothing but demonstrate distrust; likewise, she doesn't take the female Choedan Kal from him even after she knows he has it in his possession, because she wants him to come to her willingly.

[Luckers]

I find it more curious that Rand saw the access keys on his first visit to Rhuidean yet left them there instead of hiding them or taking them with him, and then had to race Asmodean to stop him from taking them. I guess the Rule of Cool applies - he final battle for control of the access key was cool enough to justify this.

 

I don't believe he recognised them for what they were.

[capuga]

I find it more curious that Rand saw the access keys on his first visit to Rhuidean yet left them there instead of hiding them or taking them with him, and then had to race Asmodean to stop him from taking them. I guess the Rule of Cool applies - he final battle for control of the access key was cool enough to justify this.

 

I don't believe he recognised them for what they were.

 

I always thought he noticed that the access key looked like the giant sa'angreal he almost fried himself with and figured out what is was. Doesn't he think to himself something like "not yet"? I think at this point he was still freaked out about what he had done with the amount of power available through Callandor (trying to revive the dead girl) and didn't trust himself with as much power as he knew the giant sa'angreal would have. Like an alcoholic avoiding a bar because he knows he can't trust himself to be around a drink.

 

Also, he wasn't surprised by what Asmo was going for when he chased him to Rhuidean.

[moratcorlm]

He was ready to turn around and go back right then, but Rand continued on, barely looking at what lined his way. Once Rand paused, staring down at two figurines that hardly seemed to deserve a place with the other things. Two statuettes maybe a foot tall, a man and a woman, each holding a crystal sphere aloft in one hand. He half bent as if to touch them, but straightened so quickly it could almost have been Mat’s imagination.

The 'not now' remark is after he's recovered them, in Alcair Dal.

Adelin handed him his coat, still damp. He wrapped it around the two stone figures. Moiraine was considering those, too. He did not know if she even suspected what they were, but he intended to hide them as best he could from anyone. If he could not trust himself with Callandor’s power, how much less with the great sa’angreal? Not until he had learned more of how to control it, and himself.

Though there are other thoughts later.

[capuga]

He was ready to turn around and go back right then, but Rand continued on, barely looking at what lined his way. Once Rand paused, staring down at two figurines that hardly seemed to deserve a place with the other things. Two statuettes maybe a foot tall, a man and a woman, each holding a crystal sphere aloft in one hand. He half bent as if to touch them, but straightened so quickly it could almost have been Mat’s imagination.

 

The 'not now' remark is after he's recovered them, in Alcair Dal.

 

Adelin handed him his coat, still damp. He wrapped it around the two stone figures. Moiraine was considering those, too. He did not know if she even suspected what they were, but he intended to hide them as best he could from anyone. If he could not trust himself with Callandor’s power, how much less with the great sa’angreal? Not until he had learned more of how to control it, and himself.

 

Though there are other thoughts later.

 

Thanks for providing the quotes. I think that first quote clearly shows that he knew what the access keys were on his first trip through the city. I still think it likely that he didn't trust himself with the Power at this point. Although, it does seem a little careless to leave something that dangerous just lying around. He should have picked them up and found a hiding spot like he does later.

[asha man]

There really wasn't anything to say that there would be a female access key there either. Egwene found a broken female access key in the panarch's palace in TAR with no male key nearby. I think she did a quick check and probably decided to come back another time for a more thorough search when Rand wasn't around. (After all, with that many OP items around there's a good chance she'd at least get an angreal out of the deal).