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| %%(display:block; text-align:center;) [{Image src='Chapter Icons/dragon_bw.gif' align='center' link='Wiki.jsp?page=Dragon Chapter Icon'}] ''[TGS|The Gathering Storm]: Veins of Gold'' %% 
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! __Rand__ POV

[Rand|Rand alThor] sits on the top of [Dragonmount] with the [access key|Control Statues]. It is now midday. He remembers [Asmodean] trying to teach him the weave that he uses for breathing the thin air. He is angry at the world, the [Pattern|Wheel of Time] and the [Creator] for using him. Everything began to go wrong with [Moiraine|Moiraine Damodred]'s death. Before that he still had hope. He had not been put in a box. [Rand|Rand alThor] thinks his fight is meaningless. [Moridin] is right that they are better off destroyed instead of living meaningless, painful lives over and over. 

He draws %%ot [saidin|Said]%%, even more than when he cleansed the taint.[1] He remembers being [Healed|Weaves] to find [Ilyena|Ilyena Therin Moerelle] dead by his own hand. Why must he live over and over? [Lews Therin|Lews Therin Telamon] sounds completely sane when he answers that we live again so we can have a second chance. [Rand|Rand alThor] remembers [Tam|Tam alThor] telling him he can choose ''why'' he does his duty. If he lives again then he gets to love again. He wants to do it right this time. He remembers all the lives he lived before. He drives the [One Power] back through the [access key|Control Statues] to the male [Choedan Kal] and it explodes. The [One Power] winks out. [Rand|Rand alThor] opens his eyes for the first time in a long while. He knows he will never hear [Lews Therin|Lews Therin Telamon] again for they are not two men and never were. The clouds overhead break and he can see the sun.[2] He smiles and laughs for the first time in far too long.[3]
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More [Rand POV]
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! Notes (Possible Spoilers)

[#1] Surely attracting attention of [Taim|Mazrim Taim], [Moridin] and the rest of the male [Forsaken], not to mention all the [Asha'man]. However, this turns out to be of little consequence. ([ToM,Ch13])
\\[#2] Reiterating the ever stronger connection between [Rand|Rand alThor] and the land. Is this break very temporary or will there be a longer respite from the clouds?
\\[#3] [Rand|Rand alThor] has had his epiphany. What will he be like when we see him again? Is [Lews Therin|Lews Therin Telamon] really permanently gone? Does [Rand|Rand alThor] really have full memories of all his previous lives, something like [Birgitte|Birgitte Trahelion]? If so, will they last? And most importantly, will full access to [Lews Therin|Lews Therin Telamon]'s memories tell him how to defeat the [Dark One|ShaiTan] and win the [Last Battle|Creator]?
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