OK, as we all know from The Great Hunt, the heroes that are called back by the Horn of Valere ride horses that can walk on water. We also know from The Shadow Rising that the heroes who are bound to the Horn hang out in Tel'aran'rhiod waiting to be reborn (spun out) or respond to the Horn. In the same book we learn that domesticated animals aren't present in Tel'aran'rhiod and horses are specifically mentioned. Anyone see a problem here?

When the heroes are called by the Horn their horses come with them, but where the heck do these water-walking horses come from? We know that they can't hang out with their riders in Tel'aran'rhiod because it's been specifically mentioned to be a no-horsie area. And it's a fair supposition that walking on water is a pretty unusual thing for a horse to be doing, regardless of how special and heroic its rider may be.

In fact, the only horse we have ever seen in Tel'aran'rhiod is Bela, the shaggy mare and it is assumed that Egwene "constructed" her because she needed a horse while she was physically travelling through Tel'aran'rhiod. Now I don't really want to get into the whole Bela thing - that's a can of worms I WILL NOT open. Let's assume for the moment that the horse Egwene rode wasn't really Bela, but just her altering the world of dreams to suit her needs like clothes and mirrors and other handy things. If we can make that assumption for now, let's get on with it...

Horses used by heroes (or anyone else for that matter) are domesticated animals and, therefore, not represented in Tel'aran'rhiod. They can't go there, they can't live there, and they don't walk on water there or anywhere else. So we have to logically conclude that the horses ridden by the heroes summoned by the Horn of Valere were, like Bela, constructs of the will of their riders. And this is where it starts to get wierd.

The heroes who are bound to the Horn can create things in the real world (like horsies that walk on water for example) to help them accomplish the goals of the Hornblower (or Hornsounder if you prefer) and/or the Dragon Reborn. Or at the very least they can create these things in Tel'aran'rhiod and then keep them as they do their thing in the real world. So we can conclude that it is possible to create something in Tel'aran'rhiod and bring it out into the real world and have it continue to exist for a time.

Other examples of this might be the physical damage (that sister's hair that was burned during the nightmare in the dream-version of the White Tower) one takes with them from Tel'aran'rhiod when they are harmed there. The Forkroot tea effects on Moggy lead us to another note - that ANYONE (even Nynaeve, who is neither bound to the Horn nor a Dreamwalker) can accomplish this feat. The implications of this are very disturbing.

Now we know that Dreamwalking is very rare and that it has nothing to do with the One Power. Perrin can do it through his wolfbrotherhoodness, others fleetingly by mere chance. The only groups with any real time or depth of exposure to the dream world are the Aiel Wise Ones and the Forsaken. The fact that none of them regularly practice this "making and taking" may indicate some sort of deep-seated taboo on the practice or merely that they don't realize that it is possible. Or it could be like one of those "tricks" that the wilders pick up and guard jealously. Maybe the real reason that we don't know anything about this Talent is that the very few people who are capable of it don't want to share the knowledge so they warn people off about "dangers" and so forth.

So this is like another one of those lost Talents that everyone keeps groaning about having lost - the ability to use Tel'aran'rhiod like Felix the Cat's bag of tricks. Just physically reach into the dreamworld (even while awake since Dreamwalkers can do that) and pull out a rubber mallet or whatever you need. Notice that the WoT series is one of the very few fantasy works where there is no such thing as conjuring? One of the very staples of magic is the ability to produce things out of thin air, but noone in Jordan's world, even the Forsaken, seem to be able to do this.

Could it be that "making and taking" was one of those things that was supressed like Balefire was during the Age of Legends? But since noone during the Age of Legends seemed to do it, maybe it was supressed in a previous age, like the age when the portal stones and the treaties with the Finns were made. You know, legend fades to myth and even myth is forgotten etc. This would indicate that, like Balefire, there is a reason why its use has fallen into disfavor. I would posit that the Bag of Tricks Talent does exactly the opposite thing to the weave that Balefire does.

Where Balefire rips a thread out of the Pattern, "making and taking" actually weaves a new thread into it like embroidery - possibly with equally unpredictable and unpleasant results. Now this next part is getting a trifle thin, but remember that we still have like a gazillion books left in the series (feels that way sometimes, don't it?) Weaving a new thread into the pattern is, as I said before, like embroidery. So who is it that is constantly embroidering things? And what will she teach Rand and the Asha'man that they won't like learning? Verin is a Brown sister from Far Madding where that power-dampening field exists and she was in possession of the twisted stone ring Ter'angreal that let's you access Tel'aran'rhiod without touching the One Power - a handy thing to have if you live in Far Madding and need access to the world of dreams for research. And we know that Cadsuane has been through Far Madding in the past where she caused some sort of ruckus. Both sisters seem to have hidden agendas as far as Rand is concerned and both refer to having made mysterious "mistakes" in the past.

Cadsuane and Verin both possess this Talent and their agenda is to get Rand to use this "Pattern Embroidery" to repair the Bore instead of sealing it up. Remember that the Bore is a hole in the Pattern and the seal that Lews Therin placed over it is just a patch of sorts. This newly discovered (or rediscovered) Talent is what Rand and his crew (note that Elayne has pretty much started mass-producing copies of the stone ring Ter'angreal - all part of the plan) need to learn in order to finally defeat the Dark One by reweaving the Pattern around him. And having Cadsuane for a teacher is enough reason for anyone to not like learning something, but there is probably a horrible price attached to using this Talent that we don't know about yet.

Choke on that, you fiends! That one goes out especially to anyone who has ever posted anything about Taim really being Demandred.