I'd be fine with this, except Jason seemed to imply that the long overdue talk is the start of the book, not the set up for the talk (he didn't say "getting ready to talk", for example). I'm perfectly willing, even hoping, to be wrong on this, though.


I see one way for a detailed discussion to be placed in the first chapter. This is my logic chain:

1) Rand and Egwene both have "in-house" mess clearing to do. Rand's followers are in a deep panic, and have a tough time believing he'll be a good leader. Rand also has his failures and mishandling of leadership issues from the last book to deal with. There is Arad Doman, Ituralde and most importantly, the Borderlanders and of course the Seanchan. Egwene has the Aes Sedai, severely weakened by the Seanchan attack and the BA reveal. She has Mesaana to bug her, the possibility that the Seanchan have Traveling, and the AS missing in the BT to deal with.
2) Both have had very recent revelations about themselves closely related to them being among Tinkers or seeing something related to them. Rand's revelation in DM might include some realization about the Tinkers.
3) Both decide that it is now up to them to collect their friends and forces, and soon ready for a push to TG, and also deal with the Seanchan.
4) Rand decides to seek Rhuidean, where a lot of Tinkers are gathered. He will meet Avi there, of course, but that's beside the point.
5) Egwene will focus on the AS and Mesaana.
6) They decide that once they're on a stable footing, Egwene will help Elayne in Andor, along with Mat, to collect her armies.
7) Rand will deal with the Tinkers, find Perrin and "Masema's men", then come to Caemlyn to be with Egwene, and the plan will be to lead a massive assault against the Seanchan.
This really fits the issue of leadership, since its been made very clear these two are going to be the real "leaders" of the Light. While Rand has lead Perrin and Mat, Egwene has led Nynaeve and Elayne. But that old male-female division has to change, hence this new decision to work together.
9) They part ways, and we're left with a tantalizing idea that a huge Seanchan face off is to come.

Now we go through the other storylines imagining that we'll see a convergence focused on the Seanchan.

But the whole BT issue and Mat's rescue of Moiraine will intervene. Egwene will face pressure to do something about the sisters in the BT, and Logain will come with a plan for attacking it. Learning of Taim, Egwene will genuinely fear having an enemy at her back, so she'll agree for a BT push.

Meanwhile, the BT Darkfriends, the Black Ajah, Foresaken and huge hordes of Trollocs will attack Caemlyn, just when Mat is gone. Rand will arrive in the confusion of the attack, and be severely wounded. Egwene and Logain will come just in time to avert complete disaster, but Caemlyn will be razed, Andor's armies almost destroyed, the Black Tower completely in Darkfriend hands.

Meanwhile, Perrin and Galad will be forced to confront a newly belligerent Seanchan. They'll make a push northward soon, and Perrin with his huge refugee train and wolf issues will be the only one available to stop their advance. We'll see lots of action there, and probably one very major engagement. By this time (near the end of the book), I expect Nynaeve to have moved from Tear either to go help Perrin or to go to Lan. The Senahchan will now have Traveling, and Perrin will be severely defeated, barely managing to collect a few refugees and a small remnant of his army to retreat to the "safety" of Caemlyn, only to find it razed to the ground. Mat too will arrive with Moiraine at the same time. These three may well be the major climax scenes Jason reported happen back to back.

ToM will then end with our expectations upset. The first major leadership decision of the Egwene-Rand duo will not even lift off the ground. Caemlyn will be destroyed, the Black Tower a center of operations for Dreadlords, and the Seanchan an even more menacing threat to the South. Plus, Rand wounded, and possibly "dead", with Alivia and Egwene likely the only one's in the know about the truth that he lives (I think Egwene meeting a dying Rand in Caemlyn is almost certain. Her test in the Ring, while not of the future, seemed strongly prophetic to me).

In this kind of a scenario, an Egwene-Rand meeting in the beginning could work. It would raise the suspense, and add a lot of surprise to the ending.

What say?