It's a huge surprise when they get where they're going, or at least it was for me! And it just made me want to ask more questions about certain other characters...but read on, and let us know what you think! :)
I hope you'll share your thoughts with us about the books, whether in established threads or in new posts of your own. :) It's always such fun to read and share in others' enjoyment of the story!
Glad you enjoyed the book!
Regarding Lanfear, I suspect she was probably employing a bit of compulsion channeling to sort of enchant them, but I'd need to go back and check whether there are any tells that she is using saidar at any point. I find it hard to imagine Loial thinking of any human...
I had never noticed the color wheel opposition thing before! That's really neat, and now it has me pondering other possibilities... For instance, there's no Orange Ajah, but brown could be considered at least orange-adjacent, so what might that say about Blue and Browns in terms of view or...
The sword definitely had its own presence, for lack of a better word, a realness to it that mass-produced stuff does not have. I think most truly excellent blades are like that: There's something of the smith's spirit in them. (But I will squirrel off on a tangent about swords here if I don't...
Definitely a "magic weapon" in the D&D sense! And then there's the very age of it, as you mention. I had the good fortune once to handle a sword from the late Heian period (which ended in 1185 AD), but never something quite this old, and certainly nothing for-real enchanted like this. I can only...