This is a summary from when Robert Jordan read the first part of the A Crown of Swords Prologue as then (June 95) stood at the fantasy convent East of the Sun, Stockholm, Sweden, 16-18 of June 1995. It comes entirely from Elaida's point of view. The later parts (around two to three times as much) we do not know anything about. The time is twelve days after Elaida's embassy left the city of Cairhien, ie it overlaps with the ending of LoC, which Robert Jordan himself pointed out after finishing reading.
The summary is written by Karl-Johan Norén, with comments and help from Bo Lindbergh and Johan Klockars. Thanks to Patrick Alexander Scholz for the exact wording of the foretelling. Without their help, this would have been a much less conclusive summary. All errors made are mine and no one else's, especially not Robert Jordan's, who made an excellent reading.
Or you can take a look at the real thing [108k].
Attention: This text contains spoilers for book nine! (No, I'm not kidding...)
It begins with Elaida standing almost at the top of the White Tower, in her new chambers and study, moved up from their old location. She looks down at the workers building her new palace, meant to end up being higher than the White Tower itself, and thinks of her origin as the youngest daughter of a miner in Murandy. She thinks of the Ogier's refusal, polite but firm and without explanation, to participate in it's building, and how they confide themselves to their stedding.
To help with the masonry and building, Aes Sedai and Accepted undergoing penance are to assist in the building. This would provide the necessary amounts of channelers, since Elaida during her time in power had already given out more penances than Siuan Sanche did in ten years. The White Tower could not have been built without the help from the One Power, much less her palace.
She thinks for a short time about her goal of not having to wear seven stripes on her stole much longer. The Blue Ajah is to be finished, totally erased, but the Hall is very resistant and reluctant to do this. The Blue sisters who not are rebellion leaders, are to undergo severe treatment and tests before they are to be allowed into another Ajah. She also thinks of the rulers testing her resolve and power as Amyrlin. These thoughts come when her eyes fall on a clock, showing the Amyrlin and rulers crawling backwards on her whim, that has been collecting dust in the cellars since it was built 300 years ago. The original green clothing of the Amyrlin she let change to red when she brought it to her chambers.
She has her goal clear in mind: to be the most powerful Amyrlin of all time, and the saviour of mankind against the Shadow. Her plans for this has been brought a big step forward. The twelve days old report from Galina about the covert capture of Rand al'Thor, sent at the day of their departure from Cairhien assures this. Galina had been the only one she could have trusted that mission to, even though she still couldn't trust her completely she could trust her more than any other Aes Sedai.
The Keeper of the Chronicles, Alviarin enters with reports from the Ajah Eyes and Ears networks. She, like everyone else, is not allowed to sit in the Amyrlin's presence. During the report, Elaida shows several times despise in her thoughts for Alviarin, and is convinced that both the Ajahs and Alviarin are keeping back information from the Eyes and Ears networks, as well as that Alviarin does not always bring her orders about. But deposing her would require a Hall consensus and solid charges, and she has neither.
A butcher in Caemlyn, one of the few remaining Eyes and Ears there, of which none is in the Palace, reports that he has located the Black Tower, and makes the approximation that 400 men are present there. She thinks of the death of Morgase, uncertain who killed her, and the rumors of her being in Amadicia. Those last rumors she dismisses as impossible. She also thinks of that Galina had found a way to dispose of Gawyn and the Younglings, always troublesome and keen for their own initiative, using the Shaido. The Younglings still in Tar Valon has already been forced out from the city.
The reports continue with Tarna's report from Salidar, where Elaida thinks of the lier Logain, and how she are going to use Siuan and Leane as her chambermaids. Tarna reports their army size as 2-3,000, with 300+ Aes Sedai of which 100 are ready to change allegiance to Elaida.
She thinks for a while about how the rebels are to be treated and punished. Only one calling herself the Amyrlin Seat must be stilled, even though it is a possible punishment for all rebel leaders. The minimal punishment for rebellion was penance for one year and one day, but it could be spread out, one day here, one week there. Elaida intended to let the leader's punishment be spread out for 20 years, as a reminder for them and every other sister on the futileness of rebellion.
Another thought came to mind. Let every Aes Sedai swear a fourth Oath: Absolute obedience to the Amyrlin Seat. The Hall would certainly resist this, but Elaida intended to have her way. Let the rebel leaders and the former Blue sisters be the first to swear that Oath.
Reports that Elayne and Nynaeve, posing as full Aes Sedai, together with two more unidentified Aes Sedai are in Ebou Dar prompts her to order Teslyn to capture them and bring them to the White Tower. She continues to think about the significance of Elayne, and that she is going to be made to understand that Elaida had placed the rose crown on her head. The deposal of Gawyn would also serve to place Elayne more securely in her command.
Only six sitters are fully behind Elaida, and especially the Yellow and Green Ajah are grumbling. Alviarin also seems to control as many sitters as her. Sitters has been set on penance, scrubbing floors, but the Green and Yellow has seen this as an attack on their Ajah, not as punishment. The Yellow Ajah are also angry about the revealing and punishment of Ronde Macura, one of their eyes-and-ears, who failed to contain Elayne and Nynaeve after capturing them. She thinks about the anti-channeling effects of forkroot tea, aimed almost directly against Aes Sedai, and if it has the same effect on men. Had Galina had access to forkroot tea, and it had worked on men, it would certainly have made her task easier, even though she still managed to fulfill it.
Elaida gives orders that 50 Aes Sedai together with 200 of the guards are to be sent to crush the Black Tower. She estimates that there are at most two or three men capable of channeling there, even if so many as 400 are present. The reports that Mazrim Taim is the leader she dismisses, and she is determined to let no record of Mazrim Taim, the False Dragon, show up in the Tower annals. 400 male channelers she deems as an impossibility, as only two or three male channelers have been found in the last six years, and 24 in the last twenty. Of these, only 16 are present in the Tower records. In command of this expedition a Red sister [her name sounds something like Torveen Gazuu, in pseudo-phonetic spelling], exiled for 16 years from the White Tower and recently reinstalled are to be placed. All men present at the Black Tower were to be hanged, as a warning for any man daring to touch the True Source.
With the release of ACoS, the Red sister's name was revealed to be Toveine Gazal.
Elaida makes the statement "I AM TOWER LAW!".
When Alviarin tells about the raising of Egwene as Amyrlin, Elaida laughs out loud, making the assumption that she will be sacrificed by the "Hall" in Salidar to facilitate their kneeling to Elaida. She reasons that if the rebels are serious they would have chosen Sheriam and Romanda as their Amyrlin, and that they instead know that they are doomed. She thinks on the earlier rebellions in the White Tower, although less severe, and how the information about them had been suppressed and contained. Only the Amyrlin, the Keeper, the sitters and the few librarians tending them had access to parts of the Tower records.
Eyes and Ears reports of 20,000 men in the now marching Salidar Aes Sedai army she dismisses in favor of Tarna's report, but she anyway orders the Tower Guard's to be six-doubled in strength to 20,000 men, which Alviarin convinces her to increase even further to 50,000 men. Alviarin warns Elaida that with Gareth Bryne in command, the rebel's army will gain more and more soldiers in every village passed. Elaida is instead convinced that when they see Tar Valon, their army will wither away and die, leaving only the rebels and their Warders.
Elaida is convinced that no Forsaken are loose.
Not all rebels are rebels. When Elaida first heard of the gathering, she ordered sisters to join the rebels, to subterfuge the rebels' determination. These do know that other like them are present, but not who, and their role is not to spy but to act as morale-lowerers, supporters for joining the Tower again etc. She says Alviarin will be surprised by who will step forward and lead the splitting of the rebels.
She thinks again of how the future will deem her as the greatest Amyrlin of all time and as the saviour of mankind. She then has a foretelling: "She would be willing to step blindly off a cliff about that certainty: The White Tower will be whole again, except for remnants cast out and scorned, who cover in fear and hide their faces from the world. Rand al'Thor will face the Amyrlin Seat and know her anger. The Black Tower will be rent in blood and fire, and sisters will walk its grounds. This I foretell!"
Karl-Johan Norén,
kjnoren@hem3.passagen.se