I'm definitely enjoying this discussion! :D
Didn't they leave much later though? I don't recall hearing anything about it in book 4 when, sans spoilers, we hear more about the Two Rivers. And that was years later (wasn't it? The weather freaking out makes the timeline hard to follow :lol)
That...
^ This times 1000.
No, they certainly should have left that night, but they spent a lot of time in Baerlon & Caemlyn, plus they wandered all around the countryside to avoid notice. A single rider could easily have caught up to them, even leaving a week or two later.
Abel had a fairly young...
It's possibly true that she needed to approach it the way sh did, but I can completely understand Rand rebelling against her and all Aes Sedai because of it. If it were me, I don't care how much you felt it was important or how well qualified you were to find the correct path, I am an adult and...
I'm not super far yet, just leaving the farm on Winternight. But I'd forgotten that more than our Terrific Trio saw the black rider before all the excitement began. So far I still think Tam is the most mature person in the WoT universe. :p And Thom's well on his way to being my favorite char...