The Gathering Storm recap

As the Last Battle nears, two storms break. Rand al'Thor, hardened by loss and the weight of prophecy, grows ever colder and more ruthless, trusting no one and reaching for powers that could unmake the world. When the captured Forsaken Semirhage seizes control of him through a forbidden device and nearly makes him kill Min, he tears free and destroys her, but the act pushes him to the brink of despair. Believing himself a destroyer, he takes an immense sa'angreal to the peak of Dragonmount meaning to end all things, and there, at the last moment, he remembers why life is worth living and is spiritually reborn, choosing hope. Meanwhile Egwene al'Vere, still a prisoner, breaks the White Tower's usurper from within. When the Seanchan raid the Tower and carry off sisters as slaves, Egwene fights openly and brilliantly; in the aftermath the discredited Elaida is gone, and the sisters raise Egwene as the true Amyrlin Seat, reuniting the Aes Sedai at last under her leadership.

Rand al'Thor of the Two Rivers was revealed as the Dragon Reborn, prophesied to fight the Dark One at the Last Battle and to break the world again. With his ta'veren friends Mat and Perrin, guided out of hiding by the Aes Sedai Moiraine, he claimed the sword Callandor, was accepted by the Aiel, conquered nations, killed several of the Forsaken, and founded the Black Tower for men who can channel. The Aes Sedai split between Elaida's White Tower and the rebels who raised Egwene as a rival Amyrlin, and the invading Seanchan enslaved women who can channel. Rand then did the impossible, cleansing the male One Power of the Dark One's taint. In the events just past, Perrin fought free his captive wife, Faile, at Malden; Mat was wed by Seanchan custom to Tuon, the Daughter of the Nine Moons, who left to claim her throne; and Elayne won the crown of Andor. Egwene, captured while besieging Tar Valon, works as a prisoner inside the White Tower to undermine Elaida. Most gravely, Rand's attempt to make peace with the Seanchan was ambushed by the Forsaken Semirhage, costing him his left hand, and his allies discovered that a seal on the Dark One's prison has begun to break. The Last Battle is close, and the Dragon Reborn grows harder and darker under the strain.

The Gathering Storm ends with two victories that turn the tide. On Dragonmount, at the brink of destroying the world with the male Choedan Kal, Rand al'Thor finds his way back from despair: he grasps why he has been reborn to fight, chooses life and hope over annihilation, and laughs as the storm clouds part. The near-mad Dragon is remade into a calmer, surer man ready to face the Dark One. In Tar Valon, Egwene al'Vere completes her quiet conquest of the White Tower. Her courage during a devastating Seanchan raid, set against the usurper Elaida's failures, wins the sisters over; with Elaida carried off into Seanchan captivity, the Aes Sedai raise Egwene as the true Amyrlin Seat and the Tower is whole again. In a final stroke, the sister Verin reveals to Mat Cauthon that she has secretly been Black Ajah for decades, spying on the enemy from within; she leaves behind a full record of the Shadow's agents and takes poison to escape her oaths, dying to hand the Light a priceless weapon.