Crossroads of Twilight recap

In the aftermath of the cleansing of saidin, the world adjusts and the pieces shift toward the Last Battle. Perrin Aybara, still hunting the Shaido who hold his wife, Faile, makes a hard bargain and forges an uneasy alliance with the invading Seanchan, agreeing to join forces against the Shaido in exchange for help freeing his people. Mat Cauthon travels north hidden among a menagerie show, evading Seanchan hunters while slowly, warily courting Tuon, the Daughter of the Nine Moons he carried away. Elayne fights to secure Andor's throne in Caemlyn against rival claimants and hidden enemies. Egwene al'Vere presses her siege of Tar Valon, strangling the White Tower's harbors by turning their defenses to unbreakable cuendillar. But when she slips out with a small band to finish the work herself, she is betrayed and seized by the Tower's Aes Sedai. The rebels' young Amyrlin becomes a prisoner inside the very Tower she meant to conquer.

Rand al'Thor, a young man from the Two Rivers, was revealed as the Dragon Reborn, the champion prophesied to fight the Dark One at the Last Battle and to break the world again. With his ta'veren friends Mat and Perrin and the women of their village, he was pulled by the Aes Sedai Moiraine into a world of channelers and war. He claimed the sword Callandor in Tear, was accepted by the Aiel as their foretold leader, conquered Cairhien and Illian, killed several of the Forsaken, and founded the Black Tower to train men who can channel despite the madness the tainted male Power brings. The Aes Sedai split in two: the White Tower under Elaida, and rebels who raised the young Egwene as a rival Amyrlin, now besieging Tar Valon. The invading Seanchan seized coastal cities and enslaved women who can channel. In more recent events, Perrin's wife, Faile, was captured by the renegade Shaido Aiel, and Perrin began a desperate hunt to free her; Mat, trapped in Seanchan-held Ebou Dar, escaped the city carrying off Tuon, the Daughter of the Nine Moons, whom prophecy says he must marry; and Rand achieved the impossible, using the great sa'angreal Choedan Kal to cleanse the male half of the One Power of the Dark One's taint, driving off the Forsaken who tried to stop him so that men may channel without going mad.

Crossroads of Twilight closes with the pieces set for the confrontations to come. Perrin Aybara seals a truce with the Seanchan to break the Shaido and reclaim Faile, setting aside his hatred of them for her sake. Mat Cauthon remains on the run with Tuon, their guarded courtship deepening even as Seanchan assassins close in. Elayne holds her ground in the contest for Andor. The book's decisive turn belongs to Egwene: having throttled Tar Valon by sealing its harbors with cuendillar, she leaves the safety of her camp to strike at the Tower directly and is captured by Elaida's sisters. The rebels' young Amyrlin is carried inside the White Tower as a prisoner, to be treated as a runaway novice, an apparent disaster that places her at the very heart of the enemy she has been trying to defeat.