Slayer, hunting Fain, but what was Fain doing that was this important? Spying on Perrin on his way to reconnect with Pedron Niall looking for a new patron: king Roedran, or the Seanchan? It does not matter. Jordan devoted 7-8 pages to the Darkhound tracks Perrin found in south Ghealdan. The ifs, buts and maybes have been left out in the interest of readability: Not much solid evidence here, but the puzzle looks much better if we turn one piece upside down.
The answer proved more important than the question.
Fain needed help, so I went looking for his patron. Imagine if he had shown up at the mansion with 100,000 Trollocs only to find that Rand left yesterday. Time, too, to take control over this massive army, his powers had always been short range. He could perhaps find Rand's location by sensing the direction from several Waygates and triangulating, but that seems far too intellectual for Fain and it would take time, even through the Ways. The discussion had me convinced that Fain was necessary but not sufficient to move the estimated 100,000 Trollocs through the Ways to attack Rand's rest home in Tear. This began as a comment to Fain: Shadowspawn Thief.
