Towers of Midnight recap

With Rand transformed and the Last Battle set, the champions ready themselves. Perrin Aybara, hunted by the Children of the Light for old killings, finally faces trial, but in the world of dreams he masters his wolf-given gifts, forges a mighty hammer, and slays his shadowy hunter, Slayer; his forces and the Whitecloaks under Galad become allies. Mat Cauthon, with Thom Merrilin and the old traveler Noal, braves the Tower of Ghenjei and the treacherous folk within to rescue Moiraine Damodred, the Aes Sedai lost since Cairhien years before; they free her, but Mat pays with one of his eyes and Noal dies to save them. Egwene, now Amyrlin of a reunited Tower, hunts the Black Ajah with a dead sister's list and destroys the Forsaken Mesaana in the dream world. Elayne extends Andor's power toward Cairhien. Rand walks the land radiating calm strength, announces that he means to break the ancient seals and meet the Dark One at Shayol Ghul, and summons the rulers to the Field of Merrilor, while Lan gathers an army riding for the Blight.

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, drawn out of hiding by the Aes Sedai Moiraine, he claimed Callandor, was accepted by the Aiel, conquered nations, killed several of the Forsaken, founded the Black Tower, and did the impossible by cleansing the male One Power of its taint. Along the way he lost his left hand to a Forsaken's ambush. Meanwhile Perrin freed his captive wife, Faile; Mat was wed by Seanchan custom to Tuon, the Daughter of the Nine Moons, who left to claim her throne; Elayne won the crown of Andor; and the Aes Sedai, long split between Elaida's White Tower and the rebels, were reunited when Egwene, captured and imprisoned in the Tower, broke Elaida's rule from within and was raised as the true Amyrlin Seat. As the Last Battle looms, the Dragon Reborn, once hardened nearly to madness, has come back from the brink transformed, calm and certain, ready to prepare the world for the end. The seals on the Dark One's prison are breaking, and a dying sister named Verin left behind a full list of the Shadow's hidden servants within the Tower.

Towers of Midnight ends on the threshold of the Last Battle. Moiraine Damodred, believed dead since she vanished into the twisted Tower of Ghenjei, is rescued by Mat, Thom, and Noal, at the cost of Mat's eye and Noal's life; her return restores a guide Rand has long needed. Perrin Aybara has embraced his bond with the wolves, killed the assassin Slayer in the dream, forged a weapon worthy of the Last Battle, and joined his army to the Whitecloaks under Galad. Egwene has broken the Forsaken Mesaana and pressed her hunt for the Shadow's servants. Rand, serene and sure at last, has declared his intent to shatter the remaining seals on the Dark One's prison and confront him directly, and has called every ruler to the Field of Merrilor to decide how the world will fight, and be governed, in the days to come. With Lan's borderland army riding for Tarwin's Gap and the nations converging, everything is in place for Tarmon Gai'don to begin.