I was disappointed to see so little of the Seanchan in ToM, though the snippet we did see was hugely significant. It makes that weird, grim future Aviendha saw chillingly plausible.

I do wonder, though - how will the WT avoid being simply destroyed sometime early in the next book? We don't know exactly how many damane the Empress can command, but I'm willing to bet it's more than enough to reduce the Tower to rubble many times over. The Seanchan hold every advantage - a superbly efficient military, the best battle-channelers, the element of surprise, and the fact that Aes Sedai are still hobbled by their Oath against violence. The sisters captured in the raid can be forced to tell their new masters exactly where and when the White Tower will be most vulnerable. The Aes Sedai have circles, and angreal, but if they're half as disorganised as they were during the raid, it still won't be enough.

The Tower is, bluntly, screwed, barring some miracle.

How do you defend against a much stronger enemy who can appear behind any fortification or ward you throw up? You can keep moving around, but the Aes Sedai won't leave their Tower, so that's out. You can make it impossible to Travel - that Dreamspike that seems to be lurking around the Black Tower would come in handy, if anyone born this side of the Breaking can figure out how to make it work.

Of course, perhaps they don't succeed in defending themselves, and will all taken captive or killed, prompting Rand to finally get around to 'binding the nine moons to serve him'. Perhaps he does so before the attack is even launched, at that scene was just drama. But the Seanchan learning of Travelling completely changes the nature of their conquest, and I don't know how BS is going to find time to address that in the short time we have left before the Last Battle.

I was also a little puzzled by the characterisation of Fortuona. We've seen her be many things, but never ostentatious. What was with the ridiculous clothes and jewellery? And neither is she stupid. The White Tower might be a threat, but it's a small one compared to the Last Battle, which wasn't mentioned once in her POV. I just hope BS isn't trying to reduce them back to the two-dimensional villains we met in tGH.