She believes that Rand must formally serve the Empire/her, that's for sure. She's looking for a commitment, not for any ritual (the way to swear oaths to the Seanchan isn't all that formal, and we've seen that Tuon cares even less about this than the average Seanchan). You can even swear the oaths to the Empress to the least of her soldier, and once you swear, the Seanchan expect you to hold to your word.

Tuon fears Rand too. She doesn't really know how to consider him. She knows he could be mad, she knows he might have to be leashed (the discovery of the domination band was providential - she no doubt saw that as a good omen for the Return...). She doesn't seem quite sure if Rand is a saviour that should inspire awe, or some wild animal she'll have to carefully control.

But she's sure he has to serve her Empire in the last battle, one way or another. of course, according to the Seanchan view, it's totally impossible for anyone alive to stand equal or above the Empress.

It seems to tell us the verse about him serving the Empire is somewhat vague.

We don't know the exact wording, so it's very hard to know what it's truly about. If those prophecies are corrupted, then they won't be fulfilled. If it's just the result of ending up with two very different meanings because the Seanchan translate the OT one way and the Westlands another, both prophecies may be true in unexpected ways, and it may even be the Seanchan who have it right. It could well be that the Westlands make no mention of the Crystal Throne, because the words for that are not clear to anyone who has no idea what the crystal throne is. It has happened before... Vandene thought a word had to be translated as watchers, while Adeleas insisted the correct translation was a capitalized The Watchers and referred to the Watchers over the Waves. The Seanchan may have gotten a crystal throne out of something, because they have hindsight of what it means, while Westlands translators don't get the reference and translate this verse quite differently.



Hopefully, concepts like "pledging yourself to Rand" will come to an end now that Rand has changed (he even realized that the Seanchan are much better rulers than he could ever be). The world has to fight at his side for TG is more like it.

The Seanchan will no doubt end up fighting with the Light at TG, but considering that we've come fairly close in the timeline to the event that kicks off TG (we're just a few chapters away for Rand and for Egwene, and probably for Tuon as well), it's somewhat unlikely that Rand and Tuon will fight together at the first battle, and it's more and more uncertain that even Egwene and Rand will have allied formally before that event.

Personally, I expect that the event that starts TG will be a massive battle at Caemlyn.

I expect many things will happen at once:

Logain and Egwene will have allied and will come to strike together against Taim and the BA.

"The Shadow" will strike at Caemlyn as part of the initial phase of TG.

Perrin and Faile will arrive with the Bordermen in the nick of time. I think Nynaeve and Cadsuane's circle will be the ones providing Travelling. Perrin could actually go fight with Lan, holding off an dpushing back the initial onslaught from the Blight, before returning to Caemlyn for the reunion, in the aftermath of the battle. I tend to think he'll fight in the south too, but we'll see.

I think Rand will be in Caemlyn on private matters, and on his own, when the battle begins. He will be there to see Elayne after being told by Min about the babies, with Min herself, and Aviendha returning from Rhuidean. I think for Rand marrying the three women before TG, and spend some time with them, will have become important now. He knows it may be his last chance to see them, and he will want to now. I think in ToM Rand will spend more time setting things right in his life than getting involved with plans and all. He will take the time for his three women, and for his father, and I think he will come to terms with Cadsuane, and set things right with Nynaeve. But the Shadow won't wait on Rand's new found "laughters and tears".

And Tuon.. I think that after spending a while figuring out how to use Travelling in battle, Tuon will order a strike at Rand's powerbase of the BT. Initially, the Seanchan will strike at everyone: Logain and Egwene, Taim... which will give the edge to the Shadow while the Light fight each other. During the battle where the Seanchan, Logain/Egwene are outmatched (just wait for Taim to start using the sort of mass destruction weaves Rand used against Shadowspawn on humans...) Tuon will realize her troops can't retreat because they don't know the ground, and unless she allies with Egwene and Logain, the Shadow will wipe everybody out.

I think Mat will arrive at the darkest hour to take over leadership of the battle, and turn the tide and force the Shadow to retreat. I think he won't be there before because he's on the return journey from Ghenjei. When he arrives, only the inner city might still stand against the Shadow. It will be dark, anyway.

As for Rand, I think it's in this battle he fakes his death, or more likely he gets harmed and is apparently dead for real (I still think the "boat" is actually the boat Egwene uses as her Skimming platform. I think it's her who gets Rand and his three women away in the aftermath of this battle.)

In any case, I'm not convinced Tuon will ever admit, or accept, that her version of the prophecies is corrupted. I think she will have a choice between forgetting about prophecies and do what she must, or let the Light, Seanchan included, be wiped out. I think Jordan intended to keep the discrepancies in prophecies remain a tension between the Light through TG itself.

I don't think the relationships between Egwene, Tuon and Rand will ever be very smooth. I think they will have no choice to all work together, and Mat will get caught between the channellers and Tuon - holding all together - but I think the "alliance" will remain quite tense through all of TG. If there's to be a treaty, it will be negotiated after the LB. At best for TG it will be a truce.

It seems like Tuon might negotiate leaving the Westlands after a few years, in exchange for peace. Based on comments by Brandon (when asked if Elaida would ever realise her interpretations were all wrong, he muttered something about "maybe if the outriggers get written", it sounds like Elaida might remain a damane even after TG. This suggests Egwene and Tuon having at best a truce to defeat the Shadow, and never an alliance. It sounds like the captured damane/sul'dam and deserters might stay in the Westlands, and the captured WO and AS will remain captive.