The Taint

Actually, the Prophecies say if the seals break, then he breaks free. That is one reason that I think the Bore has been "widening" underneath the seals ... it is not in the same condition as it was 3000 years ago.

I believe that the Pattern will heal itself. Rand will have to use the One Power to keep the Dark One's influence out of the Bore long enough for the Pattern to do that. In order to do that, he will have to immerse himself so deeply that it will kill him, in the same way that the men who channeled through the taint were able to make the Eye of the World clean, by immersing themselves so deep in the Power that it killed them. BUT it allowed them to channel the One Power, even tainted by the Dark One, cleanly. He MAY even have to enter the Prison in some way ... that's more speculative, but the point is to remove the Dark One's influence from the Bore itself, which will then allow the Pattern to heal naturally. Probably in an instant.

I agree with you totally about Herid Fel. And clearing away an imperfect seal created by the Power would be necessary to allow the Bore to heal itself as well ... the seal would block the Bore open as much as the Dark One's influence.

By the way, the unfounded gender assumption is not one. As I posted somewhere earlier, "Though neither male nor female by known standards, Shai'tan is usually referred to as male. He has no true physical form, being something outside and beyond this universe, but has the ability to affect the physical world." (BWB, p.48) The use of the male pronoun "he" is not a gender assumption, but a convention of convenience. It would be rather cumbersome to have to say something like "he/she/it" every time.