The people and places described in this puzzle are all from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. (The Encyclopaedia WOT is a handy resource for verifying the facts used here.) After sorting through who's who, the following paths can be determined--the "letter" for each is the result of tracing the path on a map. The text, colored by character, is:
The gold lily enjoys the sun palace before floating on the river to the place where the horn blower stayed in the stables of the Good Queen, while Wormwood oozes out of the shadow at the palace of the female ruler who became a slave and a dancer, and the man whose empty palace would house a school visits the cross dresser's home. Slayer creeps along from the north harbor to the other tip of the island. Likewise, the spider scuttles through the city of the black hawk and the bull with roses around its neck charges down the silver road to the city of tanneries as the one whose brother promised to guard her life was visiting the city of the ruler with three gold keys. Far away, the circus owner takes his menagerie to a great library near the sea. Later, the one who proposed to the woman orphaned at age fourteen (though she did not accept the proposal) traveled to the wolf's falcon's nest. Paying no attention to anyone else, the brother of the mother of the one who does right no matter what goes to the tower while the crown and the tree admires the lion throne; at the same time, the one who practices swearing like a stableman makes her way from the north to the south harbor. The one who lost a bet with the person who had been threatened with being made to mourn forever runs to the place where the servants-to-all learn. Worse than that, the one who made that threat crept along the trail of the stolen dagger to the topless towers. The acorn made its way to the grove, keeping an eye out for the former traveling salesman; but he was swaggering to the circle of the male ruler, not caring that the one who was berated by the fisherwoman he may be in love with was just then following the coastal road that would take him to the stone. Taking the Spray from the city where the juggler might have died, the one who built his house on the stonemasons' orchard traveled all the way to the ocean. Finally, the one who was thrown out of town because of the destruction of an inn made it to the childhood home of the uncrowned king, but only after the one who both lived and died (yet still is) returned to the tower. The one who blended with the shade that lingers lurked along to the really, really wonderful circle, but only after the one who was wounded by the blacksmith in a dream escaped the island along the northeast road. The tightrope walker made it to the sun palace for tea.
| Character | Map | Path | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barthanes Damodred | The Westlands | Baelon to Caemlyn, then from Whitebridge down the river Arinelle (which joins the Manetherendrelle) to Illian. | T |
| Elayne Trakand | The Westlands | Cairhein down the river Alguenya to Aringill, west to Caemlyn, to Tar Valon, back to Cairhein. | O |
| Gareth Bryne | The Westlands | From Lugard down the Silver Road to Illian, then along the coast to Tear. | L |
| Luc Mantear | Tar Valon | North Harbor to South Harbor to White Tower to Ogier Grove, back to the tower, then out the road that goes past Luagde. | K |
| Moghedien | The Westlands | Fal Dara across the country to Cairhein. | I |
| Padan Fain | Tanchico | Panarch's Palace to King's Circle to the Great Circle. | E |
| Valan Luca | The Westlands | Bandar Eban to Maradon to Tar Valon to Fal Moran. | N |
Sorting the characters alphabetically gives their origin: TOLKIEN.