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1.2.2: What is the deal with Halima and Egwene's headaches?

[Pam Korda, Leigh Butler]

In ACOS, Egwene came down with a spate of nasty headaches. The only way she can manage to get rid of them is for the lovely Halima to give her a massage. Halima just happens to be one of the DO's recycled agents, Aran'gar. Coincidence? I think not.

It's one of the oldest tricks in the book-- cause problems so you can win somebody's confidence by fixing them.

The evidence: Eg's headaches started the day after Logain escaped, and the day Eg and Halima had their first conversation [ACOS: 12, A Morning of Victory, 249]. Aran'gar had been trying very hard to get rid of Logain, either to gentle him again, or to kill him. In [LOC: 52, Weaves of the Power, 651]. Egwene says, "They will gentle him, Siuan... That, or someone really will do what Delana has been hinting at. I won't allow murder!" Delana is by now only a pawn, voicing Halima's wishes. To Halima Logain is dangerous, being the only one around who can sense her ability to channel saidin, or rather, her actual channelling. As soon as Logain is gone, Halima's free to make her move on Egwene.

It's entirely possible that something more sinister than a Forsaken gaining Eg's confidence is going on. As Halima rubs Eg, Eg answers questions in her mind. Halima says, "Just put yourself in my hands." Eg's sleepy response to this is, "That will be nice." Granted, the first interpretation of this is Halima's offer of a full-body massage, and Eg thinking of "bringing Sheriam to heel." Even so, it's a rather ominous exchange, considering who the parties are. Could Halima be poking poor Eg with a bit of Compulsion?

When Egwene first appears in [TPOD: 15, Stronger Than Written Law, 308], she's waking from disturbing dreams that she can't recall, even though she's been trained to remember all her dreams. She also indicates this is a recent phenomenon - coinciding with her headaches, perchance? The dreams "left her wanting to run, to escape, never able to recall what from…" This sounds remarkably similar to Morgase's feelings while under Rahvin's spell: "[Morgase's] eyes closed, and she fell immediately into sleep, a sleep troubled by restless dreams of running from something she could not see" [TFOH: 1, Fanning the Sparks, 55].

There are hints that whatever Halima's doing, it may directly involve Eg's dreams. In [TPOD: 16, Unexpected Absences, 332], while Halima's busy lugging the corpse of one of Egwene's maids into the woods, she is "thinking idly of tonight's dreams." Hers, or Egwene's? There's also some support for this idea in WH, from a seemingly offhand comment Egwene makes to Elayne in T'A'R [26, Expectation, 500]: "Sleep well and have pleasant dreams, Elayne. Pleasant dreams are more valuable than people realize." Of course, this could simply refer to Egwene's prophetic dreams, which aren't usually what you'd call "pleasant", but taken in conjunction with the other two quotes it may hint at something more sinister than that. However, it could just be that whatever Halima is doing is messing up Egwene's dream-powers to prevent discovery, rather than manipulating her through dreams. Or that Eg is having bad dreams because of a subconscious reaction to Halima's manipulations.

If Halima is mucking around in Eg's head, it doesn't seem to involve much. In TPOD, Egwene certainly seemed to be in full control of her faculties. If Halima isn't doing any mind-control stuff on Egwene, then what is she up to? Elizabeth Cornwall points out, "given Halima's access to Egwene, I can't imagine that she wants Egwene to fail in her current plans. The proof of this being a negative one: that if Halima wanted to bring Egwene down, she certainly could have already done so in any number of ways. (Two possibilities: direct compulsion during the headache sessions to brainwash Egwene into seeing some other plan as better; having had Delana "reveal" to the SAS Hall that Egwene was Siuan's dupe and that the attack on Elaida was being pursued because of Siuan's influence)." John Novak adds, "Just killing her outright would have sufficed, too. I'm sure Halima could manage something that would leave no trace of foul play."

Since no serious ill has befallen Egwene since she's been open to Halima's influence, we must conclude that either Halima is woefully incompetent, or that (at least some of) Egwene's goals coincide with Halima's, at the moment. One such goal is the AS civil war. Continued conflict between the TAS and the SAS is definitely in the DO's best interest-- the two groups of AS are tied up fighting each other, instead of fighting the Shadow, or aiding the Dragon Reborn. So long as the conflict between the two factions continues, the DO's interest is served. Halima's methods may change if it starts to look like Egwene's plans for reuniting the Tower are coming to fruition.

Halima herself doesn't seem to have any worries about Egwene: "...[Aran'gar] laughed throatily. 'My own charge is...' She pressed a thumb down on the edge of the chair as if pinning something and laughed again." [WH: 13, Wonderful News, 314] This is conveniently vague, but it does serve to reinforce the idea that Halima is using some form of Compulsion on Egwene, and successfully.

What's more, we finally see in WH some rather disturbing changes in Egwene's policy, most notably her 180 on the matter of the Oath Rod. Elayne and Nynaeve are certainly startled and dismayed by it, understandably so, but Egwene seems dead set on the idea.

So we must wonder, if this is Halima's doing, why the Oaths particularly? Perhaps because the White Tower bound by the Oaths is a less formidable opponent than the Tower without, since the Oaths forbid making weapons or attacking anything not Shadowspawn. It's doubtful that the DO's army at TG will be made up only of Trollocs and Fades. Plus, Moridin knows that if all the Aes Sedai are released from the Oath Rod, then his Black Ajah will be released from whatever Oaths they swore to the Shadow, as well [John Novak].

Also worth noting is Egwene's increasing skittishness about Rand. Elayne is amazed that Egwene actually considers that Rand might "chain Aes Sedai like damane" [WH: 26, Expectation, 500]. Considering Egwene's violent aversion to the whole concept of damane, if Halima's putting that kind of idea in her head Egwene might be very angry indeed by the time Rand "faces the Amyrlin Seat." Although, Egwene hardly needs Halima to put that idea in her head; Rand's treatment of the AS prisoners would be enough to make her doubt his goodwill towards AS.

So the signs that Halima is Compelling Egwene are present, but none of it is conclusive. Egwene's policy changes in WH, while odd, are not damning evidence that anyone's mucking with her mind. An alternate idea, suggested by Pam, is that Egwene is not being Compelled by Halima/Aran'gar, and that the "charge" Aran'gar refers to in WH is actually Sheriam (see section 1.5.4).

One last tidbit from WH which has nothing directly to do with Eg's headaches but is still of interest is in Chapter 35, With The Choedan Kal. Beldeine, one of Rand's newly sworn AS, was in the circle (with Daigian and Eben Hopwil) that confronted Halima/Aran'gar.

Gabriel Wright theorizes: "This would be Beldeine who Egwene saw as her Keeper back when she was doing her Accepted test. And who now knows what the viper next to Egwene's bosom looks like. Cue Beldeine to un-mask Halima (Aran'gar) in the not too distant future. I'm guessing Sheriam will get taken out at the same time, leaving the post of Keeper to be taken by Beldeine." This has a possible tie-in to Pam's thoughts about Sheriam being the one under Halima's thumb, rather than Egwene.

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