Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Think of it as...ah, as what is autonomic, nervous-system really, autonomic nerve reflexes. You still breathe, you still move, but I would not...I would not ask him to play the flute.

Language skills?

Ehm...no.

Absolutely nothing at all?

Absolutely nothing. Unless it's done in the form of a Gray Man. Which is a voluntary ahh...rejection of your own soul. In that case, there are other skills, higher function. That's a matter of making a deal with the Dark One, and there are other prices to be paid from that.

(Yup, that was me again. Olver-Cain suddenly begins to look dim to me. Kudos to Rando for not being swayed on this point. I always thought it a likely possibility that Cain's soul would be reborn naturally, but that in the last instance the Pattern gave him a yank to make him be reborn in an older body. Rando however pointed out that Olver had a lot of skills, while a newly reborn soul should be as a blank slate. I argued that the body of Olver could very well have retained the language skills from the previous soul, which could then quickly be acquired by Cain...That doesn't hold though, so I'm going to have to find a different explanation. How possible is that a one-year old soul, given input on and above the level of that of a 9-11 year old boy would rise to the challenge and acquire knowledge and skills fast enough to stay alive and become experienced enough to be this 9-11 year old boy? Actually, I think that's very possible. And it would explain why Olver now is developing so rapidly. He has 'learned' to mature far faster than normal people...There, my belief in the theory is saved.)

No. I didn't really think that this would last as long as it has. The timing is wrong. He has another reason for being there besides being a red herring, though.

He's too old.

Yes. Time in Tel'aran'rhiod and the real world run at different rates, but it never runs backwards. You may spend an hour in Tel'aran'rhiod, and a day has passed when you get back, or you may spend a day, and an hour has passed when you get back, but you'll never go in on Tuesday and come back on Monday.

Is the difference in time constant?

No. It's fairly random. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes the same as real time.

It's different for different people, then?

Yes. Unless they're together in Tel'aran'rhiod. Then the same amount of time passes for them obviously.