The World of Robert Jordan's the Wheel of Time - The Strike at Shayol Ghul Read Online Free PDF

resulting
    strain would, instead of sealing up the Bore, rip it open, freeing the Dark One
    completely.
    Another plan at the time centered around two huge sa'angreal, one attuned to
    saidin and one to saidar, both so powerful that using them required special
    ter'angreal, like miniature versions of the great sa'angreal, constructed
    especially for the purpose of accessing the sa'angreal. This project had its
    detractors, too, for the sa'angreal were planned to be so powerful that either
    one might well provide enough of the One Power to destroy the world, while both
    together certainly would. Some doubted that so much of the One Power could be
    handled safely under the circumstances. Against that was the certainty,
    according to the plan's supporters, that used together they would provide
    sufficient Power to drive the Shadow's forces back, to defeat them completely
    and erect a barrier around Shayol Ghul until a safe method of dealing with the
    Bore was assured.
    Detractors pointed out that the Bore had enlarged since it was first drilled,
    and behind the barricade erected by the sa'angreal it would continue to grow, so
    that eventually the Dark One might free himself within the barrier. The barrier
    might well contain the Dark One when all he could do was reach through the
    relatively small Bore, but could it hold back the Dark One let loose?
    The hall of the Servants quickly divided into two camps, and those who favored
    one plan derided the other.
    Support for the use of the great sa'angreal and opposition to attempting to
    implant the seals centered around a woman named Latra Posae Decume. Apparently a
    speaker of considerable force and persuasion, she gathered a large bloc around
    her, but what assured her victory was an agreement she reached with every female
    Aes Sedai of significant strength on the side of the Light. (In the manuscript,
    this agreement is called "the Fateful Concord," though it was doubtful that this
    was the name it was generally known.) Lews Therin's plan was too rash, too
    dangerous, and no woman who agreed to the Concord would take part in it. As
    precise placement of the seals was widely thought to require a circle, that
    apparently killed the plan, since men cannot create a circle, but can only be
    brought into one created by women. Work on the sa'angreal, in the form of two
    huge statues, was rushed forward. (1)
    Just as the paired sa'angreal were completed, disaster struck. The access
    ter'angreal were being made at a place far removed from the sa'angreal
    (apparently because of a danger of "uncontrolled resonances during the final
    stages," whatever that means), and that region was overrun by forces under
    Sammael. The only good point in it was that the ter'angreal themselves had been
    hidden and the place where they were made destroyed (its very existence had been
    a secret at the highest levels all along) so that neither Sammael nor anyone
    else for the Shadow knew that any of these things were now within their grasp.
    The side of the Light still had the sa'angreal, but no safe way to access them;
    without the ter'angreal it was certain that even the strongest Aes Sedai would
    be burned out instantly by the huge flow of the One Power.
    Lews Therin argued again for his plan, acknowledging the risks but saying that
    was now the only chance, yet Posae maintained her opposition. Belief in the
    danger of misplacing the seals had spread, and many more female Aes Sedai had
    pledged to the "Fateful Concord," including a great number who were nowhere near
    strong enough to qualify for the raiding party circle. Tempers and passions
    rose, and an apparently unprecedented division along male-female lines began to
    develop among the Aes Sedai in general, if not within the Hall itself. Finally
    the Hall decided to continue with Latra Posae's plan, and her people began
    working to smuggle the access ter'angreal out of Shadow-controlled territory.
    (2)
    Almost immediately on the heels of Sammael's advance,