I'm sad that she died too, though this does make me wonder... We know book 4 is going to focus on Venli, with Eshonai as the flashback character. Brandon has said that he has no problem with doing flashbacks for dead characters, but I wonder what the story would gain by having Eshonai flashbacks? First three books' flashbacks all contributed to and complemented the arc of the character in question. So why not just make Venli the flashback then? I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm pretty sure Eshonai really is dead, but I also have a feeling her story's not over.