(no subject)

In the wake of battle she had returned to Milliways-- there to be met by aid unexpected from her own world.

The Wheel weaves.

In light of what had come to pass, she had chosen to delay her return in order to observe, to study, to learn, and to guide where needed. Over the course of a month's time, as a slight headache slowly developed into constant, near-blinding pain, Moiraine had learned more than she had expected.

The question to ask... is what you believed you were stabilizing the Pattern with.

All things are part of the Pattern.

Including herself-- more so now than ever before.

The morning after her wedding anniversary, Moiraine had gone to the secluded valley in the Dreaming. There, she closed her eyes and embraced saidar, reaching back to her world through Tel'aran'rhiod, that from this place she might take a single step through the Gateway and so find herself there.

It is something that she had done before, but this time the world had seemed almost to shift and double around her.

When Moiraine opens her eyes, she is standing at the edge of an out-of-the-way room in the palace at Caemlyn-- a room still marked with the fading marks of saidar and signs of battle. She almost fails to notice the lack of headache -- almost -- as she delicately tests the edge of a single residue, attempting to determine its age.

Her eyes widen in shock at the answer.

Four days. Here, it has been only four days-- not a month.

She is not fool enough to open the door and trigger whatever traps Vandene may have left. Quickly, Moiraine opens another Gateway and leaves this room for another, more remote one.

Soon after, "Syrenne" passes unremarked down a distant corridor, moving back into the heart of the palace.

Four days.

(no subject)

A night and a day have passed in her world since she returned to it, and sunset is once more painting the sky outside. Moiraine watches from a high window in a securely isolated palace tower as the light fades, one finger tapping the sill in idle thought.

Four days here, in exchange for one month at Milliways. It is something that has not happened to her before; previously, time had moved in synchronous fashion in both locations for the Aes Sedai, although she is well aware that such has not been the case for others.

Another day now has passed; how long has it been at the end of worlds?

"It is worth the risk to discover, I think," she murmurs aloud.

Word becomes deed, and a flicker of silver light flashes against the darkening sky outside the window, just for an instant, as Moiraine vanishes through the portal.